A Christmas, a birthday, a new year

Our Christmas was wonderful. We had 4 separate Christmases. I am pretty sure Eden thinks the gifts are never going to stop. She's officially a pro at opening them. She opened hers, Charlotte's, mine, and Corey's. She couldn't get enough. She got totally spoiled and had a blast. Corey's sister and her family spent the night with us Christmas Eve, so the kiddos were all together Christmas morning. It's the second year we've done that, and it's so fun!

Eden got several new things...bristle blocks, dress up clothes, books, clothes...but her favorite is her new kitchen. She "cooks" daily and has a total blast with that thing. We got her a tea set, which she also loves. Her auntie made her pretend tea bags to go with it, which is perfect. So funny the way she already mimics me and my tea making and drinking! And yes, she actually does love to drink tea! I'm excited for all our future mommy/daughter tea parties!

Corey and I didn't do real big gifts for each other this year. We wanted to spend more on others, so we just did a few small things. Plus, his main gift is new clothes for his new job (more on that momentarily).

I used some Christmas money I received to by myself a new kitchen knife. A Wüsthof Classic 6" chefs knife to be exact. And I'm in love. We've had a cheapy set of faberware kitchen knives that I picked up at Ross when we first got married. And they've done just fine for the last 4 1/2 years, but they're starting to rust a little. And I'm getting a lot more into cooking these days. And I just realized how beneficial and fun it would be to have a nice knife. So yes, I spent $100 on a knife. But it was so worth it. It's amazing!! I plan to get the matching paring knife with my birthday money. And that's really all I need. I have a decent bread knife already, and outside those three knives, you just don't really need anything else. Weird how excited I am over a knife.

Corey and I had not had a date night in several months (not since our anniversary in July!), so he took me out on the 29th for my birthday (my birthday is New Year's Eve, but it's hard to find a babysitter and do much to actually celebrate that day). Little did I know, he'd planned our night months ago! He took me to a fancy Thai restaurant downtown. When we followed the hostess to our table, my sister-in-law and her hubby and one of my best friends and her boyfriend were there holding a "happy birthday" sign and a birthday hat for me to wear. I was totally surprised. I rarely get to celebrate my birthday with anyone outside our family because its on a holiday. So having a surprise dinner without any kids at a fancy restaurant was totally awesome. And the food was delicious. Corey and I were supposed to go see Les Miserables afterward but dinner went long, and we didn't get to the theater early enough to get tickets before the show was sold out. So we're hoping to see it this next weekend (I should say that I am hoping to see it, and he is willing to tolerate it...haha). We ended up going to Target and checking out their Christmas clearance and I even got a couple new clothing items...so nice to look around and actually try something on without kids! We were gone about 6.5 hours total...and Charlotte refused a bottle (of breastmilk) the entire time we were gone. So she went roughly 7 hours without eating. And the moment I walked in the door and she heard my voice, she screamed like the world was coming to an end. And my MIL tried everything to get her to take it...different bottles, syringe feeding, and cup and spoon, etc. That child is STUBBORN with a capital "S"! It was a wonderful celebration though. And so nice to get some time alone with my man!!







It's also a good thing we celebrated early. We were up all night the night before my birthday with Eden, and I spent my birthday morning with her at the doctor's office. Poor girl developed an ear infection that was bad enough her actual ear bone was inflamed. She's on antibiotics now and hopefully on the mend. But it was a rough couple days. At least I got lots of snuggles from her for my birthday! Did I mention she got sick the week before Christmas and by Christmas all 4 of us had it? Oh well. Such is life with kids!

And now onto something exciting...Corey applied for and interviewed for a different position in his company way back in August, but there was a lot of back and forth with working out the details and everything...so we didn't know if it was a for-sure thing until just before Christmas. But it's official now. He's moving to an office job as an Estimator starting February 4th. He applied for a Consulting Engineer position, which is still the eventual goal. But they want him to work in Estimating for a few months to get some needed knowledge/experience that pertains to the engineering position. So by the end of the year he should be a Consulting Engineer (which is also an office job at the corporate headquarters). The Estimator position means zero travel. The engineer position will have some travel, but nothing like he's doing now...he might be gone a week a month. Which is so much better than our current situation! Right now, all his work is outside the state. So if he's working, he's gone. He has to finish up the project he's currently on (hence the Feb 4th start date), and by the time he's done with that, he'll have been away from home for 13 weeks in a row (except holidays and weekends). And he needs a new wardrobe for this job because its all business casual dress (slacks and button ups). Right now he wears a company button up or polo, Levi's, and steel-toe boots. So that's the reason for clothes being his Christmas present. Which he's excited about anyway. He enjoys fashion. I only dress as well as I do because of him! Haha!

Ok, well that's it for now. Charlotte is up and Eden should be awake any minute. Happy New Year, friends!