December (The Disappearing Month)

December is annually a blur. A month of our year that flies by and we're sitting in the middle of January trying to catch our breath...even more so as a family of six!

 Only a little bad news to report: Tim hit a deer.

And Miriam's heart murmur reappeared. She scared us a time or two saying her "heart hurt" and getting pretty winded at a birthday party.

But lately it doesn't seem to be slowing her down too terribly much.

St. Nicholas stopped by with gifts to celebrate his feast day on December 6th.

There was a touch of snow on the ground, so Felicity ran out to play in it.

Eventually we got a little more...and Miriam crafted herself a (little) snowfriend.

Miriam was the Star Student in first grade and got to make a poster all about herself.

We were a little surprised that her favorite place to visit is the library. We get it - the library is great. But we were expecting something like Aunt Shirley's lake or Great Wolf Lodge or any children's museum or the splash pad. Nope. The library. And we love that. She chose all the pictures on the poster which are all so such sweet memories.

Simon mastered smiling throughout the month. He preferred smiling for his sisters. Make sense...they are the goofiest people in the house.

As a Christmas gift, Tim's Aunt Sue helped us purchase stained glass windows to hang on our big empty kitchen wall! Mommy picked out some Amy Butler (a fabric designer) wallpaper when we were building the house, ordered a sample, loved it...and found out it is all gone. She even tried to get it from England. No luck. But we got the sample framed and flanked it with our new stained glass. Every time we hang something on the walls it just makes the space feel more complete, more ours.

See...goofiest people in the house.

The girls had the Christmas Program at school. Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Maria, Aunt Nichole, and Nana all came! The girls and their classmates were adorable, as usual. But Mommy was very distracted by Simon who was cooing and smiling through the older students' performances...Daddy even sushed her at one point.

We kept up on Felicity's theme weeks...including a week about Bears and Hibernation.

We had family Christmas parties...Simon met his fan club.

...and two of his great-grandmas!

 The girls learned to play the limbo thanks to Fun Aunt Lori (Grandma's sister).

We pause this blog post for more pictures of Simon with his extended family.

Aaaannnd we're back. 

Christmas Eve we were the Holy Family at the Children's Christmas Mass at our parish. The girls were adorable, Simon didn't cry, and Mommy and Daddy were mostly hot and uncomfortable being in front of the congregation in costume...but the girls thought the whole thing was really special so it was worth it.

Christmas Day! Santa came with too many presents. Like normal.

 Simon gave us more precious smiles.

 And Nana and Papa gave the girls their Journey Girl dolls that they're obsessed with.

So there's December. A month of frantic partying and trying to remember the real reason for the season: God humbling himself to save humanity.

November

Since we haven't posted in almost two months, it's time for some catch up and a WHOLE bunch of pictures. Nana spent many, many hours at our house playing with the girls during the month of November as we adjusted to life with Simon.

He loved to sleep during that first month...

anywhere, anytime.

But especially cuddled up on Mommy.

And his sisters loved to hold him.

We got to inspect every inch of our new guy. His very long toes are our favorite little quirk. If we put our fingers by his toes, Simon curls them around our fingers like a little monkey grabbing onto something.

Occasionally we got a peek at his blue eyes.

The girls also got to hang out with one of their favorite babysitters while Mommy and Daddy went on a Christmas shopping date (Simon tagged along and basically slept the whole time). They made these fun "Barbie" Christmas trees. She always brings along fun, crafty things to do. And crafty things are right up our alley!

Tim took the time to visit the girls at lunch at their school. This is such a treat for them. With a new baby in the house, our people aren't getting all the attention they're accustomed to, so a lunch with Daddy made them feel extra loved.

Mommy has worked hard to make sure Felicity still has activities to do during Simon's morning nap (or should we say first nap...since most of his day was sleeping...). We did Pumpkin Week. Here she's making pumpkin pies. Yum!

And a Gingerbread Week. She made a paper sack gingerbread house. Felicity loved this so much we should probably do it again just for the fun of it!

And all three girls discovered the funniness of mad libs. They laughed so hard at the first one we did that Miriam could hardly breathe!

Vivian lost another tooth...making Miriam pretty jealous. We've got a tooth wiggling rivalry happening every day now as they try to get their other baby teeth to fall out as fast as possible.

Simon also met most of his family during November...

Tim's cousin Celena at Thanksgiving

Aunt Bridget and baby Elijah (before we knew it was baby Elijah in there!)

Aunt Maria made a special trip home from college

Watching his first football game with Uncle Michael

Cuddling with Aunt Nichole

Teaching Uncle Ryan how to hold a baby before his own baby arrives...

Last but not least, Simon met Santa!!

We love to experience Fort Wayne's Light Night and Gingerbread Festival with Sarah's family. Aunt Annette, Uncle Tom, and Catherine were in town which made it all extra fun.

Seeing Catherine with an actual baby (Simon) made it clear to the girls that Catherine really isn't a baby anymore so they've stopped calling her "Baby Catherine". But they still love her SO much...maybe more than she can tolerate sometimes.

Simon also laid in the antique bassinet at Tim's parents' house that all the Speer babies have rested in. By one month old, he'd almost outgrown the bed!

And at four weeks we started to get a peek as his first smiles! This early smiling gave us a hint at what a social baby we have on our hands!

Looking back on November is such a good way to count all our blessings. Having a new baby and the busy-ness that comes with it made us miss some of these high points. Good thing the blog is here to make us reflect a little on how good we've got it and thank God once more for how spoiled we are!