December was such a great month! I was on pediatric cardiology, which was a great rotation. I learned a ton and had amazing hours, so you can't beat that. Aaron was on Pulmonology, which had better than hours than usual as well. His rotation was at the hospital I work at, so, for once, we saw each other occasionally at work, which was really fun.
We also had so much fun celebrating as a family - Advent, Christmas, and Julia's third birthday! Makes for an exciting and busy month!
 |
| We got a Jesse Box for Julia to help us teach her more about the Bible in a fun, interactive way. We really enjoyed praying and playing our way through the Nativity story throughout the Advent and Christmas season! |
 |
| Julia was excited to have a little tree in her room again this year. Here she is one evening after falling asleep - so precious. |
 |
| Julia had so much fun at the engagement party of some good friends of ours thanks to some sweet girls who kept her entertained. Julia still talks about these girls quite often! |
 |
| Mary-Claire got in on the fun, too! |
 |
| Note the green nose. |
 |
| Went in to check on Julia one night and found her asleep in her Hello Kitty ski cap. |
 |
| We went to the library Christmas program to meet Santa again this year. |
 |
| Playing mass with her good friend, Blaise. Julia always has such fun with him. |
 |
| Blaise's grandmother made him this mass kit. Super cute! I especially love their little vestments she sewed. |
 |
| Mary-Claire's super adorable farm themed 1st birthday party! Meghan and I sure do love a good themed party ;-) |
 |
| Opening the gift we gave her. |
 |
| Julia "helped" Mary-Claire open a lot of her gifts... haha! |
 |
| Pig stye cake! |
 |
| I would often give Julia the option of picking up in the living area or dishes, and she almost always chose dishes. She does great with it, too! I fill the sink with soapy water and plastic/metal (i.e. non-breakable) dishes and she scrubs at them with a wash cloth, then rinses then over the other sink, before placing them in the dish drainer. She's actually a big help! And, it's fun for her to feel like she's contributing and she loves playing with the soap bubbles. Win-win. |
 |
| Cutest (and wettest) dish washer ever! |
 |
| I will admit that we often choose dinner based on what coupons we have. I think this was a buy one, get one free Whopper night. She's just pretending to be sad. |
 |
| Her true feelings revealed. |
 |
| Because eating here = play place |
 |
| Outside the country club where my residency had their annual Christmas party. |
 |
| While I was at work, Aaron and Julia put together a Christmas train. I laughed so hard when I saw these pictures later because Aaron let her put this together concoction of cookie, frosty, and candy in her carpeted bedroom! What?! Hahaha! |
 |
| So proud. I love it. |
