Thanks, Grandpa!!

These past couple of weeks have been busy ones for us. The holiday hustle and bustle has definitely set in, but we are having a great time! I am writing this post on a Tuesday, which is possibly the most exciting news of all. What news and why, you ask? This means that I am DONE with clinicals at Jewell for the semester! It is so nice to have things wrapped up. Now I am working on getting my Assessment course up and running--it's my "bread and butter" of all my work at Jewell, so I am excited about that starting up in early January.

We've had some additional (and probably more significant) exciting news in our family--we found out a couple weeks ago that Brandon is the recipient of DST's Gould Award for his division of the company. This is an award given to an associate who models innovation and creates money-saving processes or ideas for the company. Brandon built a self-service website from the ground up that has saved him and his co-workers a great deal of time and hassle, thereby saving money and resources. It will be a great resume builder for him as he continues his career at DST. Congratulations, Brandon!!

Grandpa Carlson flew out last weekend to spend some quality time with the grandkids while Mommy and Daddy went out to celebrate their 7th wedding anniversary. Connor and Kylee had a great time playing with "Pa-Pa", and Connor even got new bunk-beds assembled while Grandpa was here to help Daddy with the project. We enjoyed an evening away with a nice dinner out and an overnight stay at the Hyatt down by Crown Center (if you haven't ever tried priceline.com to get reduced hotel rates, we'd highly recommend it!). It's hard to believe that it's been 7 years already--we feel so blessed to have shared our lives with each other. We both got pretty emotional watching our wedding footage--both because of our commitment to each other and because of all of the support we've received from our friends and family. God has been so good to us and we look forward to celebrating 100 more together! :)

I took Kylee to storytime at the library yesterday. This is our special time together while Connor is at school. She loves to pick out books and do the craft, but is generally uninterested in participating in any of the other storytime activities. We sing songs, shake a parachute, dance, and play musical instruments, during which Kylee stays firmly glued to my lap. The interesting part is that as soon as we get home, she begins belting out whatever tune she refused to sing at the library. Amazing. I'm going to keep trying in the hopes that someday, she'll jump in. Here's a picture of the reindeer that she made yesterday.

We had a great time last night hosting the Chase/Blakemore/Carlson Christmas at our house. We all gathered together and ate, laughed, and watched the kiddos tear into their packages. Connor was thrilled with new swim trunks and flip-flops (if you recall the Elmo flip-flops that Connor wore until his feet literally hung off the back of them a good couple inches, but still had a meltdown when we told him they were too small, you know how exciting this was for him to get a new pair) from the Chases and a new Batman from the Blakemores. Kylee received a My Little Pony from the Blakemores, and a new Ariel swimsuit and sandals from the Chases. The Blakemores also gave us "Ants in Your Pants", a fun new game. We are so thankful to have such wonderful friends!!

We will be preparing for our big trip to North Carolina over the next week. We are excited to see Justin, Mary, Drew, Amy, and Beth!! This will be the first time we meet our nieces/cousins in person. We will spend a few days out there catching up and eating way too much before coming back to Kansas City to celebrate the holidays with the Haneke and McKinney families.

As you may have noticed, there are several pictures of Kylee on this post and not many of Connor. Connor has entered that lovely "I don't want my picture taken" phase of life again. Hopefully he'll snap out of it soon.

We hope this finds you all doing well and enjoying your holiday season. More to come....