December Pictures

Harper had a good December.  She got to do lots of Christmas things and enjoy tons of holiday surprises.  It is such a magical time for kids, but I was definitely ready for it to be over at the end.  It's also kind of exhausting!  She had a birthday party for her dance class friend, Evelyn and she had a blast.  We love the girls we go to dance with, they are sweet and fun and I really enjoy spending time with their moms.  We also picked and sold our last batch of pecans.  Man, that was definitely a learning curve.  We also lost all the pecans from our tree by the pond.  Not sure if animals took off with them or people came and poached them, but they were there one day and gone the next.  Sad, we missed out on about 50 more pounds.  We will have to figure it out for next year.  

Harper is such a big kid.  She talks so well now and uses words that I know I didn't teach her.  She has also used a few words I wish she wouldn't...  We talk about how they aren't appropriate, but I'm more to blame for those than she is.  She likes to know exactly what is going on.  She dislikes it when Cody and I argue, she tells us we have to talk nice.  She is a little more opinionated these days than is really appropriate but she is learning.  The threes are definitely hard.  

Before Christmas, Harper got to open a few small things from other friends.  Kara came up a few weeks before and she got a mermaid for the bath which was awesome because she has been fighting the bath for awhile now.  Ironically, she loves the bath, she just won't stop what she is doing to go get in it.  So she fights it every night.  But the mermaid is a good incentive.  She also got mail, which she was so excited about.  She got a christmas card with stickers in it from Aunt Stacy.  She was super excited because stickers are big with her right now.  Cody also had to take some pictures to send to the sisters to show him using his awesome new mug.  It seriously is hilarious - just his face on a coffee mug.  

After Christmas, Harper had a blast playing with all her new toys.  For days, she just played in her playroom and needed nothing from us.  She loved all the things she got.  She walked around with her Doc mobile and Frozen microphone.  We finally spent some time explaining all the extra things they did around day 4.  And she loves to play Magna-Tiles with Cody.  They build as big of a tower as they can and use every piece.  

One day, we came home to find a possum stuck up the tree in our backyard.  I'm not sure why it came to our backyard, but Dixie was not going to let it down.  So we tried for a few days to get it down but it wouldn't budge.  Cody even tried shooting it with a bebe gun to scare it off, but it was definitely more scared of Dixie.  Finally, one night the dogs must have been sleeping in their house because it left in the middle of the night.  That would have been the day that we killed it too, because after a few days of not eating or sleeping, I would have been extremely scared for that possum to come down nicely.  

Piersall Christmas

After my dad left, my mom came over for Piersall family Christmas.  Maya and her daughter, Ally, came also.  They missed the morning with my dad because Ally wasn't feeling well that morning, but she was better and they headed over.  Grandma Ruth and Ron also came over and Harper was excited to see her.  She may have confused her with my sweet Grandma Klusman, who passed away this year, because she asked her why she wasn't in heaven.  Yikes; kids are seriously funny though.  She got a singing Clover doll from Sofia from Grandma Ruth and she loved it.  She gave her a big hug and told her thanks and it just melted Grandma's heart.  I love it when they just take you by surprise with their sweet hearts.  Harper also got her new bike from KK and Mark and she didn't really know how to ride it at first.  Cody will have to help her this winter.  Reese also got a new bike from Santa and she rode around the house, saying "Help please" because she couldn't really ride it all that well either.  You could tell that all the kids were a little tired.  Harper and Grayson didn't nap and were fading, but Reese napped for a short time and it made her a bit grumpy.  Grayson spent a long time that evening casting his new fishing reel (with a cork of course) and he was so excited to have a real one.  It's so precious to see how excited the little kids got about all their stuff.  It was awesome.  We had a good dinner and then sat around and talked while the kids got ready for bed.  We headed home exhausted, but happy that it was such a great day.  

McCool Baby #3

While all of the family was there for Christmas, Kristen and Brian decided to find out what gender their sweet baby McCool #3 would be.  She had to take a blood test at 12 weeks and it also tells gender, so she got a secret envelope from her doctor the day before Christmas.  She bought a boy and a girl outfit and had our cousin Lynne mark which present to open so Kristen wouldn't know.  Reese didn't seem to care if it was a boy or girl, but Grayson seriously wanted a brother.  They opened the package it's going to be another little girl!  Grayson wasn't too sad, but he was a little disappointed.  And Reese missed opening the gift so she went ahead and opened the other one anyways.  Now our baby girl and theirs will be so close!  The whole thing was precious and we are so excited for them!

Klusman Christmas

Christmas Day we spent in Frisco at Kristen's house.  My dad was the first family and they came over for lunch and presents.  It was nice that the whole family was together and we just sat and relaxed together for awhile.  Dane was running late but it just allowed all of us time to talk and hang out.  We had lunch and sat and talked about all the places we worked in high school and college (or got fired from).  We laughed a lot and it is always funny to see what the other siblings remember.  We opened presents afterwards and it was funny to see all the fun stuff everyone got.  My dad got some new waders and he actually put them on and tried them out in their swimming pool.  It had to have been cold, but it was funny to see the kids faces when he got out and wasn't wet.  Cody got an "Office" mug with his face on it from the sisters.  Eric got Robin (from Batman) socks with capes attached.  Harper got her favorite gifts - a Frozen singing microphone and a Doc McStuffin's mobile.  She loved both and walked around for an hour just singing and pulling her wagon.  Eric may have gotten a little tired of hearing a 30 second mix of Let It Go, but I've been living with it for over a year, so I didn't feel bad.  The cousins were so cute giving and opening presents from each other.  They were so honestly happy that it melted my heart.  We took family pictures and it is so crazy to think there will be at least 2 more next year.  Our family is getting big!