The Daniels: December 2015

Since it's only a week until Christmas, I figured if I didn't do this blog post now I wouldn't do it at all. It was a pretty busy Thanksgiving for us! Sam's parents retired from being missionaries this year after 14 years of reaching the unreached in Kenya and Tanzania, Africa. With them finally home for the holidays, we headed up to Dallas/Arlington to spend Thanksgiving with Sandra's side of the family.

Baby pigtails are the cutest!!

It was a short trip. We left on Wednesday around 1:30pm when Sam got home after working a half-day. I've never really traveled for a holiday before because my family gatherings around the holidays were only an hour drive away. Man, did we hit some holiday traffic! It took us 5 hours to get up to Arlington. We stopped a couple times to walk around and use the bathroom. My midwife had advised me to get out and walk around as much as I could to avoid the possibility of blood clots. I also wore compression socks and moved my legs around or propped them up when I could in the car.

My little model

Jane did pretty well on the way up there. She only took a 45 min nap in the car which made things a little more difficult. I was hoping for her to sleep at least an hour and a half like she normally does. I think she was too excited to be going on a trip to sleep long! She made it 3 hours really well. (a trip she is used to, since we've visited Uncle Scott and Aunt Anna a few times in Austin) The last hour was kinda rough, but still not too bad and we made it!

Jane was cleaning the leaves out of the cinder blocks.

We arrived at Uncle Mike's house around 6:30pm to a wonderful lasagna dinner cooked by Sandra. We enjoyed chatting with family before heading to bed. Jane did so well sleeping in her pack & play. She is such a good traveler and will sleep through the night pretty much any where we go.

Jane loved all the fence art!

We had Thanksgiving dinner around 1pm and everyone brought something wonderful to eat and it was all homemade! Everyone in the Westbrook family can cook. Jane enjoyed the mac & cheese the most, I think I did too. ;) I didn't get a picture of all the food, I was too busy eating it.

Relaxing with dad.

Jane has always been really friendly and loves people, but I don't think she's ever been around so many people in that small a place before. She kept retreating to the rooms with no one in them. My little social butterfly might have a little introvert in her yet. It might have just been she was ready for a nap and couldn't find a quiet place.

Jane and Akuya

After visiting with family for a couple hours we packed up and headed back home. It was wonderful to get to see family we hadn't gotten to see in a couple years and I got to meet a few family members I never had before.

Jane meeting her great-grandpa for the first time.

Jane was definitely ready for a nap when we left she fell asleep about 5 minutes after we started home and didn't wake up again for 2 hours. It made the trip home really relaxing. We also didn't hit any traffic so we made it home in 4 hours. Here's a few more pictures of our trip.

Jane and Holden watching Finding Nemo together.

It was her first experience with an iPad.

Is it a phone?? Can I talk to Nemo?

All playing together!

The only thing about being in Dallas for Thanksgiving is that I missed Thanksgiving at my parents house for the first time. It made me a little sad, but don't get me wrong I'm glad we went to Dallas. I just wish I could have done both! I love family! I was able to get home in time to go to my grandparent's house for Thanksgiving on Friday, which made me very happy. :) They live just an hour away.

Will you let me pet you??

My grandparents have 3 Maltese and Jane loves dogs! She really enjoyed getting to be with Buttons, Beau and Bandit. I would love to get Jane a dog, but with a toddler, one on the way and working part time from home, I don't think I could handle training a puppy right now. One day!

Peekaboo!

I'm so glad I don't have stairs in my house. I know I would put up gates, but Jane would be asking to climb the stairs all day! She loves to climb. I'd rather take her to the park or to someone else's house with stairs. ;)

Whee!!

I love getting to watch Jane with the family that love her! It makes my heart happy. It also gives me a little break from playing and I just get to sit back and enjoy.

Tickles!

We enjoyed another yummy Thanksgiving meal. I love Thanksgiving food! Mac & Cheese was Jane's favorite yet again.

Love my girl. (and my boy you can't see yet)

After we finished eating, I asked if anyone would like to go for a walk to burn off a little bit of the delicious food we just ate. We got a pretty good group together to go. Jane loved watching the dogs walk in front of her.

I always enjoy a good walk.

We walked to the park not to far away and played for a little while before walking back.

There she goes!

One of my old favorites at the park

Jane loves just about everything at the park

Once we got back, I asked if anyone wanted to watch the ultrasound video that I brought of baby boy. My grandparents really enjoyed getting to see it. They hadn't gotten to see an ultrasound in 4D before. We visited for a while longer and headed home. Such a great few days with family. I loved it. Just a few more pictures of our Thanksgiving.