Wonderful Weekend Away

The Jansens hit the road this weekend--best friends, a new baby and Santa were calling our names! It was craaaaaaazy foggy-yuck-August hated most of the trip-yuck-while Em was happy to serenade us the three hour drive-yay! 

My best friend had a beautiful baby girl about two weeks ago and it has been driving me nuts that I had not gotten to love on her yet. It's weird. I mean it was not thattttt long ago (about six months ago) that I had my own newborn. But I totally forgot how little and precious they are. Perfect everything. A miracle. I love taking in all of their little features--and Miss Orie sure looks like her Daddy! I also loved seeing my Pal do her thing as a new Momma. So happy for them!

Emery and I snatched her up pretty quickly. I think Emery thinks she is a baby pro now since she has one of her own. She would just come over and check on her. My hope is that these girls love each other as much as their Mommies do.

See...perfect everything. Little girls are the very best. (And so are little boys.) I noticed Orie's outfit right away....it was the same one I had picked out as her Christmas present ha. Great minds think alike I guess. At least I know Kaci likes it....and now Orie can rock the look for much longer!

We ate and played and napped (the kids did anyway) and it was fun just to enjoy being together. I wish I would have taken more pictures but I know my other friend did....I will have to steal some later! Here are my two at the end of the night. Matching jammies of course! Sidenote: Emery never wears footy-jammies anymore so when Doug put these on her she didn't know what to do. As in acted like she couldn't walk. I just had to laugh.

We spent the night at our friend's new house. All four of us slept in the same room and all I can say is...I am very glad we do not do that on a regular basis. Sure, we have a monitor in Auggie's room so we can hear him at home, but being in the same room was so different. So noisy! They both grunted and coughed and made weird noises and wiggled and wiggled and wiggled. I think Emery cried twice because one of the other three of us woke her up (she takes after me...). At one time I was even sleeping on the floor with only one of August's baby blankets because the sound of me crawling back into bed woke the boy up! Doug and I just had to laugh.

We took our time coming back home Sunday--Emery got her picture taken with Santa at Bass Pro when she was August's age so we thought it would be fun to do that again. But first we shopped. And the cuteness that was in my cart was about unbearable....

See what I mean?

And this one....don't even get me started on the cuteness in this one.

My little mother-hen loved taking care of her boy. August loved it just as much. I will remind them of their love for each other later on in life....because we all know they will not always think sharing a cart is so great. 

We got our tickets to see Santa and Emery Kayt was PUMPED. She knew what she was going to say to him and everything. The ticket never left her hand.

And August just tried to eat his. 

As we got closer and closer Emery announced that August had to go first. Okay, no problem. She was still excited. Then it was our turn and she finally saw the man in the red hat. And she tried to run the other way....... The girl had changed her mind!

As I held her, August smiled his biggest smile and loved every second. I think he even got a handful of Santa's beard.

Then it was Em's turn....

She was clinging to me. As I was trying to talk her into it, I was also trying to make up my mind on whether we were just not going to have an Emery picture this year....or if I was going to drop her on his lap and wait for the tears. Being the wonderful mother I am (ha!) I went with the second option....and surprisingly enough, no tears! She smiled right away and then even started talking to him. She told him she wanted "Shopkins" (these tiny little toys that we had just seen at a different store...this was a new one on her list right then) and "Panties." I knew she was going to say that one. For the last month if you ask her what she wants for Christmas the answer is panties.....Dora ones, Sophia ones and Spider-man ones. Yep...Spider-man panties. Not real sure where I am going to find those. The others I can handle. Maybe with all these new panties the girl will finally go on the potty!!!!

The past three years for Miss Em. I cried when I looked at this. Happy tears. Sad tears. Mommy tears. So many changes and so much fun and love. After we walked away from Santa, Emery was just in a smiley daze. She later panicked because she did not touch his "whiskers" and she also noted that he was cold because he had a coat on. The things a two year old thinks about.

We headed home after that but decided a yummy lunch in Champaign was needed. And yummy it was. See those nachos...this was after we ate about half of them. Em's face explains how Doug and I felt after the meal! 

I love traveling and doing things with the littles. They might not remember these fun things but I will. And as much as I love seeing friends and doing things, I also love being home. We unpacked and un-winded. It felt good to rock my baby in my chair and put Emery to bed in her room. Celebrating our Christmas with friends and seeing the excitement in my kids' eyes after they saw Santa has me very very ready for the end of this month. But there is still lots of fun to have before then too (and lots and lots to do.....)

Time to move onto Monday! Happy week everyone!