TERRI'S TRAVELS: December Phone Dump

We had some ridiculous sunsets in December. I couldn't help but snap some pics on my way home from work to capture these. They don't even look real!

Willow has perfected the "big sad-eyed puppy dog stare." She gets whatever she wants when she does this:

I have been going down to run on my brother's treadmill here and there...which means more time with Hadley and Hudson. She was just too cute this night when I offered to read her a book...but she decided it was better as a hat. She kept saying, "Do you like my book hat!?" I died...

I've decided the best way to remember the things I want to do out of my Travel & Leisure magazine is to just take pictures of the pages. I'm not sure it's a good process, but hopefully I'll eventually add the places here on my blog under the places I want to go (see tabs above) and will have them all in one spot!

While Jason and Kelli went out to celebrate their birthdays, my mom and I were in charge of the kids. It all started out good enough... Hadley taking a bath, me handling the baby:

But that lasted all of two minutes. Blood-curdling screams...and nothing was stopping him.

Well, nothing except Gram and bath time, I guess.

Every time I go through my closet and pull stuff out to take to Good Will (see FOUR GIANT BAGS below), I wonder how those items made the cut the last time I went through there...which was just a few months ago. ?? Oh, and clearly I have a major scarf problem. For real.

During the clean out process, I came across my favorite long underwear...which come up to about my bra line if I pull on them. So attractive, I know. Definitely time to get them out for the cold weather!

Jason's birthday was celebrated with ice cream cake, of course. I'm not sure if that was more for him or for Hadley though? She was clearly the one waaaay more excited.

I tried really hard to get a picture of Hadley and I and our matching hair-dos,

but she is like a little tornado, so this was the best I could do.

It's much easier to get cute pictures of Hudson, instead (who recently found his hands).

My friend in San Fran was complaining about how brutally cold it was there...so I sent her this:

I watched Hunter one Saturday afternoon, and I just thought he was adorable taking a nap in my big bed...

When he got up, my mom and I got distracted, and then realized we didn't know where he was. There were aactually a few minutes where we were freaking out and couldn't find him...and then I saw these little feet sticking out from behind the couch. He was hiding!

Just another dog picture...because they're cute :)

We went to the Christmas program at Church of the Resurrection...which was prefaced with dinner at Wil Jenny's, our usual spot.

Flash or no flash? Neither one turned out great.

The Kansas clouds one sunny Saturday afternoon. I just thought they looked so cool!

I'm such a sucker for glitter nail polish. I bought all of these for Allie as part of her Christmas present...but am secretly hoping she'll share with me. :)

Another incredible Kansas sunset. December did not disappoint in that department!

I had just received a text from my friend that said she remembered she forgot to seal all of her Christmas cards...and when I got home, sure enough, my Christmas card was there, un-sealed. I had to send a pic to her to confirm. :)

I "adopted" a girl through the local CASA program for Christmas. Hooked her up with some new outfits, hair stuff, and a toy laptop, per her Christmas list. :)

Another trip to Vegas is on the books for January, and I was pretty excited when the line up for the new club there, Hakkasan, came out. Calvin Harris's birthday party the weekend we are there! Should be quite a night. :)

My Cristo Rey girls after a hard fought win! So proud of them...even though I almost had a heart attack and lost my voice from that nail biter.

My wrapping job on Matt's present was less than stellar. I ran out of paper...and didn't think he would notice, haha!

I finally got to meet my good friends new baby, little miss Stella! Seriously, isn't she the cutest!? I forget how tiny they are when they're that young!

So happy she woke up for me so I could see those sparkly little eyes!

Of course Christa made her an adorable hat!

I got an email that my Operation Christmas Child shoe box was delivered to Mexico!

I found these "jeggings" in the toddler boys section at H&M and thought they would be perfect on Hunter, so I snapped the pic and sent it to Christa. I immediately got a text back saying, "F NO. Thank God I saw this before Christa did." Hahaha...clearly from my brother! But the pants were a no. I'm still determined to find him some cute skinny jeans that he can fit in comfortably!

GIANT gingerbread man cookies that Allie and Brody made. Seriously - how could you ever eat one of those!?

Take note that Brody's has some sort of cyclops thing going
on with one giant marshmallow in the middle of the forehead. :)

Friday night bon-fire! Unfortunately it didn't last long because it was too cold, but it was fun for a few mnutes!

Allie is learning how to play the violin! Her first song: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, of course.

I went and looked at Christmas lights with Tony, Christa, and the kids one Friday night in December. We started down south by their house in Olathe in some old Victorian neighborhood, stopped at Deanna Rose for a spectacular light display, went through "Christmas Village" in an Overland Park neighborhood, stopped for another break in Leawood at Town Center for some gelato, and then drove all the way down to the Plaza, which was a huge hit. We even saw Mr. and Mrs. Claus riding around in a convertible! Here are just a few (seriously) of the highlights.

Gelato at Paciugo in Town Center

(Hunter's favorite part was definitely the horses on the Plaza!)

Saturday morning basketball practices with the Cristo Rey high school girls are one of my favorite things about winter time! 8am every Saturday morning...2 hours of scrimmaging. It's fun AND a really good workout!

I got Hadley a subscription to Kiwi Crate and her first activity box came in December. They're really for ages 4 and up, and she just turned 3, but she's pretty advanced for her age so we'll see how it goes...

My mom and I decided to venture out for some excitement...in the middle of a snow storm. I just had to have this one certain bottle of mulled wine for a gift. We went to three liquor stores and eventually ended up in Martin City...about 35 minutes away from home and 10 o'clock at night. Probably not our best decision, but it was fun!