Nana Jewel and Callen's Blessing

. . . and I was spoiled again.  I'm sitting here wondering if there is anyone else I can sucker into flying out here to do my dishes, laundry and cleaning?!  But we had a blast.  I feel a lot better than a few weeks ago and we got to get out of the house for fun reasons this visit!  I asked Julie for a cooking week when she came and boy did she deliver with the some great food and new recipes for me to try!  Brynlee always loves it when a grandma comes!  Once again I feel eternally indebted to Julie for the sacrifice and service she gave this week.  Thank you!

 We went to the Homestead Christmas Parade again.  It was so fun!  Every year they pass out so much candy that the kids don't care at the end and there is candy all over the streets.  There are multiple highschool bands and cheer squads.  Blocks and blocks of sirens, cool old cars, mini semi trucks, Elmo and Santa!  We always watch it with our sweet neighbor Mary Lou who happens to know just about everybody in the parade!

We went to the coolest 30th birthday party!  It was a requirement to dress as decades older with wrinkles and white hair.  There were 2 ice scupltures, an amazing fondant cake, minute to win it games, dancing, and a delicious dinner.  We had a ball.  You would think Brynlee's favorite part was the marshmellos and chocolate fountain - but no.  Her favorite part was dancing with dad!

And we also decided to bless Callen while Julie was here.  Dev did a great job and the day was so fun even though we would have loved to have more family and friends from home there.  Callen was silent during the prayer and gave me the courage to stay for all 3 hours of church.  And for some reason all of my nursery kids decided to show up high on something that day.  We had about 10 kids.  Good thing Julie was there to help me.  I took Callen to his 1 month apt on Monday and he weighed in almost 11 lbs.  That is 3.5 lbs in a month!  Wowser.  But he still measured 37th percentile for weight and average for heighth (22 inches).  He really is a great baby.  I rarely hear him cry  grunt and his fussy time (11pm to 1 am) is very  manageable because he is sleeping great.  He eats about every 3 hours during the day and then cluster feeds during his fussy time till he sleeps 2-3 4 hour stretches.  (This info is for my knowledge for the next child:) )  He likes being swaddeled and falls asleep basically anywhere.  He has bad acne and his ears are crusting from a reaction to my clothes. He has had blocked tear ducts his whole life too and wakes up to crusted shut eyes every morning.  That would be so annoying!  But these are all minor things.  I have a happy and healthy baby - something that I felt selfish for praying for for the last 10 months.  I feel very blessed.

(Brynlee's mouth full of food!)

I feel like brynlee is doing so much better.  Cross my fingers!  And I just can't wait for all the Holiday parties and traditions to start.  We are having a blast doing Elf on the Shelf and reading our christmas stories at night.  Merry Christmas!