I know I am biased…

but how cute is she??

Spidey-Harper!!!

Tubes, tubes, tubes…

The Monday after GWL, Hudson had surgery for the second time this year.  Back in October during Hudson's heart scare, he had an ear infection that was so bad it ended up rupturing over and over again.  Well, by the middle of November that ear still wasn’t completely healed.  Our wonderful ENT and I discussed it and decided to go ahead with a second set of tubes. 

Despite a very early morning, sweet boy was happy:

 

Post giggle juice he was really happy:

Hud usually has a very hard time coming out of anesthesia (think Incredible Hulk), but this time he woke up really easily.  The nurses were so wonderful and sweet (one whispered to me that he was her favorite patient and how lucky I was to have such a sweet boy. :))  After, four (four!) popsicles they discharged us and we headed home to sleep. Oh wait, I forgot my very energetic son does not sleep during the day – even after anesthesia!!!

Later that day, we went to pick up Harper and help Nana and Pop decorate for Christmas:
 

Mom let the kids decorate the tree completely on their own. I have to say – it is a pretty perfect and beautiful tree.

Great Wolf Lodge!

We promised to take both kids to GWL as soon as Harper learned to walk.  Well, just our luck she learned to walk right around summer.  So, we waited a few months (quite a few) for the prices to drop. 

A few weeks ago, we surprised them. I didn’t tell them where we were going – just loaded them up in the car after nap/rest time and headed over there.  They were super excited!

 

Trent got stuck in horrendous traffic coming from work. These two were chomping at the bit, so the three of us went down on our own.

I bought Hudson a new dinosaur robe because it is so cold walking back to the room.  He was in heaven roaring at people! (Sidenote: it is REALLY hard to find a robe for a 2 year old girl. Luckily, Harper already had a cute cover up. :))

After Day 1, we headed to dinner:

And who doesn’t love a treat after dinner:

They were raring to go the next morning!

During lunch in the lobby, we ran into these characters (shockingly Harper had zero interest in getting near them!):

 

Heading home Harper conked out!  Signs of a successful mini-vacay!

North Pole Breakfast!

(This post is totally out of order! which makes me kind of crazy, but oh well).

Our Elf, Chandey, returned to us the weekend after Thanksgiving. I managed to pull myself out of bed (from the worst.illness.ever.) to have our little North Pole breakfast.  I returned to bed almost immediately. All that to say, our little celebratory breakfast was a short, but sweet one.

Reindeer doughnuts:

 

A note from Santa:

There’s Chandey!

The kids have gotten a real kick out of finding him every morning.  Harper’s usual first words of the morning, where’s bubba? have been replaced by, where’s Chandey?

Hudson’s ornament…

One of our traditions is to buy the kids a new ornament every year. Typically, I pick out one based on something they loved that year, etc. Well, Hud was with me when I was buying an ornament (for my annual ornament exchange) and picked out one for himself. I love it! It is perfect for my soccer loving boy!

Prairie Lights!

After finally recovering from the worst.illness.ever., it was time to kick the holiday fun in gear!  We headed to Prairie Lights for the first time. It was very cool and the kids liked it, but I am very glad we did it when there were no crowds (and the discount didn’t hurt!). I think we will add this to our traditions!