Christmas Part 3...Christmas Morning

...the joy of Christmas morning as seen through the eyes of children. Nothing better than seeing the lit up faces of little ones when they realize Santa finally came to visit. From Santa's visit to Jesus' birthday, it is a magical day, and I love how much more we get to enjoy it now that we have kids to watch experience it.

Kate really figured out the whole Santa Claus thing this year, so she had been talking for weeks and weeks about what she thought Santa would bring. The only specific thing she kept asking Santa for was the "cozy Cinderella" doll in the first picture above. She wanted Cinderella to go with her cozy Belle; and Santa delivered--not only a cozy Cinderella but also a cozy Ariel.



Likewise, Santa had Kate figured out this year. Old school Disney princesses, a cheerleader uniform ("huniform"), a dance outfit, some horse things, and a fishing pole. She's so much fun...and well-rounded.



How cute is our little Jude??? Seriously, when he is smiling he just melts people. Everywhere we go there are people lining up to take him home with them. Jude seems like a Winnie the Pooh and Tigger kind of guy, or so Santa thought.



It's the little things with Kate that make a big difference. This little horse has gone everywhere with us since Christmas. It is the only Christmas present that gets played with every day. This is also why we have an overpopulated stuffed animal ecosystem in our house. The only natural predator to this poly-filled herd is Stanley who routinely picks a stray animal off from the rest of the pack. It's a veritable circle of life in the Harrington household.



The Jude and I. He loved Christmas, and he was just old enough to get into the package ripping. Most of the paper he tried to put in his mouth, but still, he had fun tearing it off the gifts. He is a very focused boy, and likes to sit by himself in the floor for long periods of time playing with his toys. He can make himself happy...that is until you try to encourage him to soothe himself to sleep. He's more of a cuddler when it comes to nap time.



My two favorite girls busy putting together toys. Don't you wish everyday could be Christmas morning?



Kate outside playing with Papa.



Kate met another family member this Christmas that she could not get enough of. Morgan, Uncle Brad's sweet Jack Russell Terrier. Kate loved on Morgan all day, and Morgan alternated between loving on Kate and avoiding her.



It was a great Christmas. We have so much to be thankful for.

Fun Times with "The Guys"

...a visit from Kate's favorite "guys," Kason and Krece. She loves the guys, especially Kason. She and Krece are close enough in age that they sometimes have trouble deciding if they like each other or not. But Kason, oh she loves Kason. I have to say, I am impressed with the kid. He's 10 and starting to want to be "cool." However, any time Kate asked to hold his hand at the zoo he obliged. It was so sweet. Granny brought them up for the day during Christmas break and we had a great time. We look forward to this kind of thing since it's not so hard to make it happen now that we are in Oklahoma.

These are in reverse order...sorry. Kate and Krece finished the day watching Wild Kratts (until Krece realized Kate was next to him)


See, boys love play kitchens too.


This is how Kason spent the day...bored



Have you ever seen a giraffe run? It's amazing.


Krece was fascinated by the size of this hog's man parts! It was so funny.

Christmas Part 2

Really, we are still bloggers. However, it's been so busy around here that once the kids go to bed we are out. I apologize. I don't want our Christmas pictures to be neglected because we had such a great one. I can't begin to express how blessed we are and this Christmas reflected those blessings. If you haven't experienced Christmas as a parent then you are missing out. It's so much fun to watch the wonder in your child's eyes.

See, even Jude had "wonder" in his eyes over the formula Ginny put in his stocking. The other kids got hot chocolate.


Please do not call CPS because we allowed Kate to play on the deer in only her dance costume on Christmas Eve. It was only like 30 degrees. I promise she is hot natured, but this takes the cake


Do not stare directly at the cuteness. Jude caught on to presents pretty quickly.



Lord help us. She's in to fashion big time.


If I don't say so myself, those are some fine looking kids. Kason, age 10; Krece, age 5; Kate, age 3; Jude, age 7 months. If you'll notice all but one of the kids' names starts with a K. Therefore, my dad calls Jude K-Jude.



Really, could he be cuter?


For the first time ever we got to have our own little Christmas in OUR house. We really enjoyed the opportunity to start some new family traditions. As you can see Kate was pretty excited about her new dance costume and the kitchen she and her brother got from us.

Christmas Part 1

...a weekend of early Christmas celebrations. Now that we live closer I guess our families could finally schedule Christmas celebrations at more convenient times for everyone else. It was really nice because for the first time we were able to spread out our extended family Christmases and spend more time with everybody. It also provided a welcome break from unpacking moving boxes.

Christmas has always been an important part of mine and Amanda's relationship. We start celebrating the day after Amanda's birthday (November 3rd), so we can make sure to have enough time to enjoy it. It definitely rubbed off on Kate. What do you think...does she look excited?



Jude wasn't old enough to quite understand what was going on beforehand. I have no doubt he will be joining in the festivities in a couple of years.



Usually we are traveling and staying with family for the holidays so we never really get a chance to have much of a Christmas with just our little family. We definitely haven't had Christmas in our own house before, so living close finally gave us a chance to spend some great time just relaxing and being in our house together during the holiday.



Everybody is happy about the new house. Jude and the dogs love laying together in the floor soaking up the sunlight.



We got to add a new stocking to our lineup this year. We are so blessed to have Jude in our family.



We made a herculean effort just to get the tree up this year with the move and all. The only reason we did it was because Kate was so insistent on having a tree. We only put part of our ornaments out, and Kate kept asking when we were going to finish the tree. I guess it did look a little sparse.



Kate playing with her cousin Jace. While we were at GG Debbies, Jace and Kate were in the backyard playing in leaves. At one point Jace started playing with a bat and baseball (of the nerf variety). My Dad asked Jace, "Jace, will you let a girl play ball with you?" Jace: "Um, yes." Kate: "No thanks, I'm just looking pretty." My Dad: "Did she just say that???" Me: "You have no idea."



Jude started to figure out that there were fun things under the wrapping paper. Here he is with his puppy dog eyes trying to convince his momma that he should get to open one more.


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Home for the Holidays

...a busy several weeks, to say the least. I promise there are tons of great holiday pics to come, but I thought we would start with a few pictures of us finally enjoying our neighborhood. There are 4 ponds and 2 playgrounds in our neighborhood. One playground has the typical climbing structure, but the one we spend most of the time in is basically swings, trees, and a basketball court. I can see us exploring the creek this summer and swinging until the kids fall asleep in the swings. To say we love our neighborhood would be an understatement. We are excited for people to come see us so feel free to make your reservations at the Harrington House. I hear it's rated pretty high with our most frequent guests (Brandy and TT).

Leaving Lubbock

...whew...it's been so busy I don't even know what's going on. Nevertheless, we need to blog. I have not yet blogged about saying goodbye to our dear friends the Hill family. Shortly before our departure Logan and Kristi came to Kate's Special Friend's Brunch at school. As you can see Kate and Logan are the best of friends. She's even pouring his coffee. We will truly miss the Hill family. We just all got along so well and genuinely care for one another. They welcomed us in to their family and gave us a sense of tradition in a place where we had none. I will especially miss my friend Kristi because she was my first "mom friend." I learned so much from her about how to be a patient mother (although these last few days have not reflected what I learned from her). She is the kindest, most patient person I know. I am really going to miss her.




We've had tons going on with the move too. My parents came down for Thanksgiving to help us pack up and get out of the house. Michael started his job the following Monday and Mom and I left Lubbock on Tuesday. I don't think I've ever been so tired in my life! I can't imagine what it would have been like without my parents. I'm pretty sure it would not have gotten done.

Now I am in the holding pattern. Michael is already in Tulsa and I at my parent's house with the kids and dogs. Yikes! On Friday we will all be under the same roof again and not a moment too soon. We are super excited about our new house in Bixby!

I have posted a bunch of random pictures. I'm pretty sure you can guess what's going on in each of them! Kate finally got to have a bath with Jude. She's been asking for it for quite some time. It's how they said goodbye to their Lubbock bath tub.