Boys, Christmas lights, and a parade

December has been a busy month! George is gone almost every day at the hospital. He is doing his Pediatric Surgery rotation and it's been brutal: 14-hour work days with about one day off out of every 10 or 11. While he does a good job juggling these crazy hours with the kids, the wife, and trying to find time to exercise, we sure do miss him and can't wait for a better schedule in the new year.

Can I just tell you how much I'm enjoying this stage in the kids' lives? Cole is growing up way too fast and is quickly developing a sweet, silly personality.

He cracks me up!

The weather has been fairly warm, given it's December, and many days find us outside playing.

The leaves finally all fell off the big trees behind our apartment and one day I swept them all into a pile so the kids could play. Jude decided it would be more fun to jump off the table and soon all the kids were flying off into the leaves.

He jumped for probably close to an hour before it was time to come in and make dinner. I came out of the kitchen while dinner was cooking to find this:

Ha! Success!

We've started putting out our Christmas decorations! While it's a bit of a headache to find the decorations and put them up, I love the way the house feels after I'm done. There's just something magical about the lights, glitter, and nativity.

(As a side note, Cole has started standing, cruising, and has actually taken a couple steps on his own!)

The boys love having their own tiny tree in their room. Jude feel asleep staring at it the first night I put it up.


In an effort to find fun things to do while her husband was out of town interviewing for Residency positions, my good friend invited us to see the Charlottesville Christmas parade on the downtown mall one day.

These kids were so excited!

I think my favorite was the marching band that passed in the beginning. So many memories from my high school marching band days.

The kids liked meeting different characters (not quite sure what to make of the Gas guy) and they LOVED the candy that everyone was throwing out.

You can't tell from his face right here, but Jude really did have a good time.

The Kennel Club walking past with several dogs may have been Jude's favorite part.

Cole liked the lollipops.

The Glee Club! George was part of this UVa group for about 4 years, so I had to take a picture.

I finally let Cole get out of his chair which made him much happier.

Horses! He had a great time watching everything that went past.

The downtown mall has this awesome chalkboard wall that the kids thought was fantastic.

I think Jude was drawing a rocket ship.

No, Cole. The chalk is not food.

It was a great way to spend a lonely morning while Lance was in school and George at work.