Yet another year where I (Jenna) am writing this Christmas card from a different location than in years past. This year we are located south of San Francisco in the Palo Alto area of California. It took me approximately three days to declare that I love it here and want to stay forever. We are so grateful that TH not only has a great job, but one that allows us to live in such a beautiful place.

When 2012 started, we thought we had an idea how things would go. TH would graduate with an MBA from the University of Chicago, we’d move back to Dallas, T1 would continue learn and grow and amaze us with his interpretation of the world around him. The first and last have turned out as expected, but a new job offer for TH has taken us in a completely different direction than previously anticipated.

While I went back to school this Summer my parents generously offered to employ, house, feed, and entertain TH and T1 up in my hometown while I finished up at BYU. I was so grateful to have my mom, dad, and sister present as I walked across the graduation stage (I earned a Bachelor’s Degree in English), and three days later we were lucky enough to find ourselves in Poland enjoying the company of TH’s family while eating Krakow Cake in the backyard.

T1 has reached the language explosion stage, and conversations with him become more entertaining as each day passes. He loves preschool, talks all the time about “friends”, and comes home singing songs that I have to look up on YouTube so I can sing along. All those who spend time with him consistently describe him as a sweetheart, and he is developing into an earnest, determined, and meticulous little boy. He loves to whisper secrets to and hug the baby inside of Mama, and though we didn’t find out the sex of our second little one he will always predict that it’s a girl when asked what mommy is having. It’s going to be such a treat to watch him fill the role of big brother.

Our plans for 2013 include surviving with a determined/demanding preschooler and a newborn. We know many of you have done it, so it must be possible… right?

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!

That Husband started traveling this week and T1 and I are working on figuring out how to adjust to him not coming home at night. I was very careful to use new language when describing where TH is. Usually we talk about how he is “working hard”, but now we say he is “travelling” and I talk about the place where he has traveled to. I hope that over time T1 learns to distinguish between the days that I tell him TH is traveling (meaning he won’t be coming home that night) and the days TH is working hard (meaning he will get to have daddy put him to bed!). Although there are many ways it will be stressful, one positive benefit I’ve already identified is that I’ll get a little more “me time” (if T1 ever decides to go to bed, it’s 10:00 pm and he is refusing to do so as I type this). Usually I make dinner and clean up and then devote the rest of my night to spending time with my boys. Now that TH is gone 3 nights/week, that hour I spent with him can be some time I use for my own little projects.

Of course I’m not going to make any assumptions about what blogging will be like for the next few months, especially with the baby, but I did cross a item off my to-do list last week — I finished sorting and scanning in all of our receipts from the past year! I still need to go into Mint and categorize everything from April/May until the present, and then a bunch of Jenna Cole related tax stuff (which is extra annoying considering I haven’t even been working much!). If I finish that up before the baby comes then I’ll get to attack all of the blog posts that have been building up over the past few months. Hooray!

For now though, I wanted to share some photos from our post-Thanksgiving road trip down to Monterey. We originally planned on doing the 17-mile drive and then visiting the aquarium, but we left late and the weather was so nice that paying a bunch of money to stay inside didn’t sound appealing just yet. So we did the 17-mile drive and then went over to Capitola (and yes, we went to Gayle’s ) to check out the beach over there. It ended up being one of our favorite family-together-time weekends ever!

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I knew I needed an alternative costume for one of the Halloween celebrations we were attending (Mitt Zombie is a bit politically charged right now, and confusing because I won’t tell people whether it’s me advocating for him or having some fun with his name ) and I had planned to just send T1 out as a zombie. The day before Halloween I was in Costco and saw that they had fireman raincoats and boots (two things that T1 needs anyway). I stopped in to Goodwill and snagged a fireman hat for $1.50. Guess that’s one of the benefits of cliche costumes, secondhand stuff is easy to find. Will keep this in mind for the future.

T1 as a Fireman.

I like dressing up, but didn’t have any ideas until I spotted this red wig sitting next to the fireman hat. I thought I could probably still squeeze into this dress (just barely) and thus I went as Fire. Although the boy we went trick-or-treating said I looked like a clown. Should have looked for a red nose I guess?

Oh to be one of those women who just paints their belly and sticks it out of their shirt. Yeah, that’s not going to work for me. Read more →

We dressed up for trick-or-treating at T1′s second preschool (yes, he’s attending two different ones!) and so I’m able to post our costumes on the day of Halloween.

I’m Ann Romney, Circa 1970 (her kids were born in the 70s so she would have been pregnant then). I’m looking forward to taking this awesome dress in to a tailor and have the neckline made into a boatneck and the length shortened to my knees. I think it’ll be really great! For now I barely squeezed into it, haha.

T1 is Mitt Zombie.

Shoutout to my favorite show, 30 Rock! You are free to take this as an endorsement of Mitt or some fun with his name/political reputation. It’s up to you.

Growing up we never, ever had store-bought costumes and I think I’d like to do the same for our kids. We’ll likely have to explain the costumes to everyone we see, but Mitt Zombie has been a hit so far!

T1,

On your birthday we called your grandparents and they asked us what the schedule was for the day. “Um, I think we’re going to go to Costco?” It was a little bit confusing for them that we weren’t celebrating your birthday on the anniversary of your birth, or even the same weekend, but we’re a pragmatic sort of family (you’ll understand soon enough) and so we picked the best date in April and planned from there. Celebrating your birthday 16 days after your birth date meant that we were able to celebrate stress-free, instead of trying to cram everything around other events. It was a rare weekend where we spent the majority of our time together as a family and it was a beautiful. I don’t know how we’re going to make this work next year when dad is working so much, but I think with some early planning we can make it happen.

You actually started the day in the middle of the night. Your diaper was dirty (a rare nighttime occurrence these days) and after we teamed up to change you we decided to bring you into our bed and see if you’d like to sleep with us. You snuggled up in the middle of the bed and then… then you just stared at us for over two hours. Every time either of us would wake and look over at you, you’d be staring at the other parent. It was sweet. Your dad finally decided to put you to bed when he woke up to your little hand caressing his back so softly. Co-sleeping just isn’t your thing, though that doesn’t mean we won’t keep trying every so often.

After a night like that you slept all the way until 10:00 am. I was making lemon poppyseed pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream and while I finished up you watched some Disney cartoons in Polish. T1 Day means you get what you want when you want! (Within reason of course.)

This is a frequent stance for you. Frustrated face, finger pointing where you’d like me to go. You’re so bossy sometimes!

After breakfast we changed and went downstairs to swim with our best friends. You were in the pool by the time I got downstairs with your present and didn’t seem interested in getting out so your friends dove right in and opened it for you.

Water wings and a floaty! You didn’t like either and preferred to be in our arms or standing next to us on the stairs.
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