I'm a little late...

Oh, dear.
My sweet baby boy is 6 months old {6 months and 1 week, to be exact} and I still haven't taken "the" 6 month picture of him.  I've thought about it many times, but it's usually when he's already dressed and I don't want to undress him to put the other onesie on just to take a picture, so I think 'I'll do it the next time I change his diaper'...and then I forget.  But, we did have some professional {and I use that term very loosely} photos taken and I happen to really like a few of them, so I'll just post those instead.  But we'll get to that later...

First...let's get caught up on the who, what, where and everything in-between from the last month that we've been absent.

We started our December in sort of a disarray...we sold our beloved home and are currently renting another lovely home not far from our old house.  We actually really like the new place {alot!} but it just doesn't feel like home...and I don't know if it ever will since it isn't ours.  It's kind of an odd feeling going from being a homeowner to renting again.  Anyway, the house is about 350 square feet bigger and has a 4th bedroom which is soo nice since Matt works from home and now has an office space of his own, instead of shacking up in Ben's room.  The house is on 2 acres with an empty 2 acre lot between us and the road; the yard is huge; it has a nice fenced garden space in the back with raised beds and sprinklers; and it has most of the comforts of our old home, including a heat pump which I don't know that I could live without in the summer since I've been used to one for the past 5 years!  It also has a ton of storage space, which is great because our old house did too and we seemed to have accumulated quite a bit of crap to fill it up. {Did I mention I hate moving??}  The kids' bedrooms are really good sized and we just feel really good here.  Oh, and our rent is significantly less than what our mortgage payment was...go figure. So, we're pretty much settled now and just waiting to sign our final closing papers.  It's going to be a sad day, but I'm honestly just looking forward to getting it over with so we can move on.

After we moved most of our stuff, and before half of it was even unpacked, we drove the 1/10 of a mile down our country road to the tree farm where I've been going since I was a kid and cut down our Christmas tree! The tree farm is literally across the street from our house...we could've walked if we wanted to drag our tree all the way home, which we didn't.

Here's a little tree that Taylor reeeally wanted to take home for her room. Maybe next year...

This is the one!

 3 of my faves :)

Decorating the tree was so much fun this year!

It might not look like it, but I honestly really enjoyed myself. :)

 These two are best buddies. ♥

Taylor was really into decorating this year and wanted to do everything herself.  I convinced her to let me help too and then tried so hard not to move her ornaments after she put them on the tree.  Later, when everyone else had gone to bed, I was sitting on the couch enjoying the quiet and the coziness of the Christmas lights and the tree.  As I stared at it more and more it was like a little part of my brain started to twitch...I tried to tell myself to "leave her ornaments where they are...it's cute that they're all in once big spot on the front of the tree, right?  I mean, she's 5 and she's so proud of herself and all the decorating that she did by herself and..."...twitch,.twitch...I couldn't help myself.  I got up and moved almost every ornament she put on the tree.  Ugh.  The guilt still riddles me...









 

And then there's my sweet little Ben.  This kid has stolen my heart like I didn't know he could.  He is pure sweetness {to his mama!} and wants to be with me all the time. Every once in awhile I wish that I could leave him for more than two hours at a time and not worry that he'll be screaming the whole time until I'm in his sights again, but most of the time I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing than nuzzling that sweet baby skin anyway.  So, if he only wants his mama, well that's ok with me. :)

 I mean, how could anyone resist that toothless grin?!

I KNOW!!!

 Just to keep it real, this is what he looks like when you take away his sweet potatoes. Ha!

Matt's mom came from Wisconsin to visit and had a great time with her grandkiddies!  She got to know Ben, and Taylor adored having another Grandma to boss around play with. :)  She even got to watch Taylor's Pre-K Christmas program while she was here!

Here's Tay with a few of her best buddies from school, Addie and Isabella.

 Going over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house!

 Super excited to introduce her friends to her TWO grandmas that were there, her Papa and her baby brother!

 

And...to wrap up this long over-due post that is really lacking any kind of substance but will have to do for now because it's 11pm and I have to go cut up fruit for the first of four parties in four days starting tomorrow...I give you our family photos.

 

 

 

WAIT!!!  I almost forgot...it snowed!!!

 

 I'm posting this one to show you our new back yard!  I had my zoom lens on and this is as close as I could get to Taylor.  It's pretty big...and awesome!  Can you tell Lambeau hates it?! :)

 

 

Ok, I'm really going now. :)