Friday

**My mind is spinning with the news of the shooting at the Elementary school in Connecticut. How can this happen? What can be done to stop this in the future? How those parents must be feeling, I cannot imagine. Prayer is all I am left with and all I can do.**

This week was a good one. We're figuring out little by little how to go about our days with two kiddos and a crazy dog. This is the last week that we had meals delivered by our church friends (amazing, so appreciated). Next week will be me cooking, or at least attempting to, with an 18 month old running around my feet. Thankfully, I figured out that if we let her "help" she's not so whiny and difficult. It's actually pretty fun to talk her through what I'm doing and letting her help with little things.

I had my first (well, technically second since I did have one years ago when I was teaching while in school) piano recital and it went so well. I was nervous about it of course, but my students did awesome and my house is now super clean. I made a bunch of holiday cookies (my baking for the year) and have eaten way too many of them, but it got that itch to bake out of my system and I was happy to share them with these families that I am growing to love. That's one of the best parts of giving lessons - the relationships I get to build with both the students and their parents.

Today I am renewing my driver's license (oh so fun), getting a haircut, getting some holiday Starbucks, and bringing the kids to see Santa at the mall. We're waiting til Hubby is home so he can join us, but I have low expectations. We haven't talked about Santa at all so the only way Jo's been exposed to it is by other people. I'm not against Santa, but it's not a big deal to me like it is to others. I really want her to get that it's about Jesus, so she plays with her nativity scene and walks around pointing out Jesus everywhere. I'm loving that. But yes, we'll do the whole "sit on Santa's lap" thing and try our hardest to get a picture. Let it be noted, though, that we'd TOTALLY sit on Jesus' lap first if we could.

I just gave Jo a haircut. Myself. She just need the back trimmed, and it curls up so much I figured I could just trim it myself and it would hide the uneven cutting that I did. So far, I don't hate it. We'll see though how long that lasts before I'm dragging her in to my hairstylist.

I have some more photos of Audrey for you! I didn't post enough photos of Jo when she was so little and changing so much every day. Here you go.

Love this little half smile.

We've been getting more and more wake time with this girl! It's fun to watch her zone in on our faces now that her eyes are focusing more.

I can't just forget about Jo though. This is what I got from her when I took the camera away from her. She was not impressed.

We rocked matching socks the other day. Yep, I've become that mom. I'm okay with it.

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