christmas in houston

 We pretty much had the best Christmas. The only problem was that it flew by way too fast!

We had Aria's BFF over to make cupcake ornaments. They turned out so cute and we really love having Mila over to visit.

 I did some crafting myself this year and loved having a fun and funky wreath this year.

 Aria got better and better and better at the monkeybars. She can pretty much do anything she wants to in this position. 

 Here she is showing me how she can go backwards. Jeff rode his tractor.... maybe we should have gotten a bigger one.... :)

 Our marriage was tested..... (and right before our anniversary, I might add) and I think we made it through.... maybe.....:) Remember the accident we had back in July? Well in December we received a notice saying that we hadn't paid the ticket for said accident and it was now 4-5x the cost that it should have been. I was mad. I was fuming. Nate told his colleagues at work. They couldn't believe that practically perfect Pettit could do such a thing. After the day was done. I was still mad. and I was still fuming. But I think about now, I've decided that I might be able to handle being married to a practically perfect person. I suppose that's what our savings are for. It was truly a rainy day at our house. Nate made a security breech paper at UT to try and make the situation a little lighter. He even used his vampire teeth picture.

 For the first time ever my kids got to go to Chuck E Cheese. I know, I'm strange... and I didn't even pay for it. We went to a birthday party. The kids loved it.

 We came home to this exciting creature one day. The kids loved it. I was a little freaked out, but I have to say it's probably not the first rodent I've seen around here.

 Ward party: zarahemla... Jeff liked it. :)

 At the children's museum we got to meet Santa!! Like in real life. Here Jeff is teaching him how to use the water squirters. :) Mostly he just stared while Santa sang this AWESOME rendition of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeers.

 Zoo time on Christmas Eve. The Tigers were awake!!! Yay!

 Jeff loves these photo ops.

 Santa came!!! So fun to have Santa at our house. The highlight was watching the kids sprinkle reindeer food out on the grass so that they would know we were here.

 Then Grandpa and Grandma came. Nate and Aria made a gingerbread house! It's pretty intense, if I do say so myself.

 We went to the weather and health museum. Jeff loves his 3D movies. This one was all about our skin.

 Disney Live! This little girl was in h.e.a.v.e.n. To be honest though, I think one of her most favorite parts was the cotton candy. She loved the Ariel part.

 Some of the things I loved about Christmas this year included our time at the park. Shopping. Puzzle-ing. And just talking with my in-laws. They are super fun and interesting people. I'm glad I get to call them family.

We took a trip up to see our long lost cousins!!!! They are so darling and it was so fun to spend time getting to know them better.

 

 We stopped by the Dallas temple on the way. It was overcast and chilly, but luckily we could get inside the gates and it was absolutely beautiful. Not very many of my husband and I, so it's nice to have one. :)

 Then we went to go meet our new cousins! I caught a stress relief cold the day after Christmas. I think I had it before then, but it just kicked in, full force. I was hacking, sneezing, blowing out of all sorts of lovely orifices and I felt bad about our visitors. On our way to meet our new cousins, Grandpa Trey started feeling awful. we thought it was my cold, but we found it mysterious that it was a week after I got it and a little more vicious symptoms (fever and such). He was sick for much of this little stay over, but we had a great time eating out, playing and swimming. It was so fun to get to see them and their cute family again.

 I think this was the best cousins picture I got. :)

On the way home we stopped at this gorgeous rest stop. I couldn't believe how nice it was. We took a little nature walk and played at the park. We loved spending this little time as a family.

It's kind of hard going back to work after such a nice break like this. I mean, who wouldn't want to fly airplanes 24/7?

 So we committed to not going back for a week when we all caught the terrible-ness that Trey caught. We stayed on the couch for a week. If I had been born in Downton Abbey times, I would have died right along with Lavinia. I'm grateful for modern medicine. And I'm glad we didn't have to send Nate back right away. Or Aria, for that matter. I just love them. :)