Trip home

Long post and no photos to boot, haven't gotten around to uploading the few photos I took.
 
To sum up the trip back to KC: exhausting

It was good to see family again but it was just too close to our last visit.  I wasn't all that excited to go back like I was when we went back for Thanksgiving.

The first day we were there I was worthless because I felt sick.  I was achy and felt like I was getting strep throat.  I ended up going to bed super early, like 7pm and slept for 12 hours.  Except for the hour of 3am when Leland woke me up vomiting.  It was awesome.  But luckily there was a fresh bed waiting for us in the next room so we didn't have to deal with it too much that night.  And the next morning I felt like a new person.


We crammed in seeing multiple friends, three Christmases, grandparent visits, and an 80th birthday while we were there.
Side note: old people are funny.
We were at my Grandma's on her birthday and her phone rang while Leland was taking a nap in her bedroom. She decided not to answer it since company was over but the answering machine (yeah, she still has one of those) is in her room.  So she answered the phone only to hang up on the person so they couldn't leave a message. She then says," Well I don't know why they are calling today anyway." We all just stare at her, and then she realized they were calling because it is her birthday.

Leland also decided to stop eating solid food while on the trip.  Thankfully he is back to eating solids.  We made kale pesto with mushrooms and he scarfed it down.  Maybe he doesn't like eating crappy too?  He has refined taste buds for an almost 9 month old.

The trip ended with Leland become very clingy to me, I think the mass amounts of new people made stranger anxiety develop quickly.  He also started to teeth like crazy and go through a growth spurt.  The last night there and first night back in Denver he woke up more times then I can remember wanting to eat.  He also wanted to eat every 2 hours during the day, needless to say I am sore.

He started crying after being around people for extended periods of time, he was just ready to be back to our normal routine, and so was I.  If we were in a room with a few people and he was crying, as soon as I would leave the room and go some where quiet, he would be fine.

As I said before, we won't be doing two trips that close together again.  It is just too much.  But I wish the trip would have lasted one day longer because our new baby niece was born the day after we left!  If Laura had gone into labor a few hours earlier I would have stayed around, but we didn't know she was in labor until we arrived back in Denver.

So that was the trip.  Glad to be back home and in my own bed.  (And so is Leland, boy took three naps yesterday!)

Break

Like many other bloggers I have taken a break.  But I will be back next week. 

Got home last night after a week in KC.  It was good but exhausting.  We will never be doing Thanksgiving and Christmas in KC again.  It is too much for all of us. 

Leland kept getting tired of being around people, so he would rub his eyes.  I would take it as him being tired, so I would go to put him down for a nap and he would start laughing.  He also started being extra clingy to me.  But he was a great baby on all the flights.

Happy New Year.  I will post my resolutions next week, I think I have too many.

Christmas food

Delicious foods we made over Christmas.

Cookies:
Christmas Cookies
Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies- I used half chocolate chips, half white chocolate chips
Gingerbread cookies

Christmas Eve spread:
Filo dough with roasted veggies
Roasted chickpeas with cinnamon and honey, we added almonds
Truffle and Parmesan popcorn
Hummus
Fresh Bread
Jalapeno Corn Dip
Pizza Puffs - made it vegetarian by using yellow pepper and mushrooms
Mushroom Risotto Balls - made it vegetarian by using mushrooms instead of sausage
Trail Mix and Pomegranates

Christmas morning:
Cinnamon Rolls with cranberry and orange
Bacon

Apparently I am trying to gain some weight.

Redo

We finally got rid of the massive unused TV we had. Which allowed us to move the furniture around in the living room, something I have been dying to do lately. I just needed a remodel, the way we had it set up just didn't sit right with me.

The new do, feels much more homey and inviting. It also makes the computer/office area seem more separated.

The cats were a little upset by it at first, but are now okay. And Leland still has a nice play area.

Wordless Wednesay (mostly): Snow!

The week before Christmas we had a massive amount of snow one night. The drifts after shoveling were bigger than Leland! In the first photo he is waving at me, too cute.