Only Child...

I think every mom feels some guilt about the total change 

and craziness they inflict on their oldest when a baby is born. I

was definitely nervous about it. Russell was the only one for over 

4 years. I worried how he would do having to share with a baby sister.

We tried to make his last few days as an only child fun!

Maybe not so fun- but we had to go to my dentist

appointment haha. He takes lovely pictures.

We went to the mall after the dentist and went to all his

favorite stores and played in the kids area!

Our neighborhood had Santa come to the clubhouse! We

were happy he came before we had a baby. It was a chilly, windy and rainy

Texas winter day. We were glad we got there early before the line was long

and we'd have to wait outside forever.

There was a delay, because they had to take the reindeer through

the clubhouse into the pool/patio area so they could be in a covered

area out of the rain.

Russell makes a pretty cute reindeer too!

He was very brave and asked Santa for a candy cane and cars

That night we went to Texas Roadhouse as our last

visit to a restaurant for a while. Russell was so well behaved and 

colored like a champ. Then we went to the Nativity play put on

by a ward in our stake. Because of the rainy weather, it was inside. 

Not as cool, but it was nice to get that reminder of the reason we 

celebrate Christmas. Russell enjoyed playing with the hay in the haybale

he was sitting on...

The day I went to the hospital, we spent the morning at

the park playing with lots of friends. It was good for both of 

us to get in as much socializing as we could before we had

to be staying at home for a bit. Then we hit up our favorite frozen

yogurt place because Russell had finished his sticker chart. We were

glad the sun was out and we could enjoy the day!

Russell at his preschool Christmas party

(Technically he wasn't an only child, but he

hadn't met her yet)