This was one busy, action-packed, and awesome week! Our schedules were full of so many fun activities beginning with Griffin’s first ever preschool Christmas program on Wednesday. It is amazing to see so many young kids get up on the stage! We sat right along an aisle and saw Griffin walk in (all kids parade down the center aisle) but after he got on stage he was as far away as possible! There was literally standing room only this year – it was packed.  So a bit past halfway through I got up and got a closer view of Griffin and I’m happy I did as we could only really see him through the heads of parents! Afterwards we enjoyed some cake prior to heading to lunch with the Bethune’s and Mom and Dad at First Watch.  

Earlier in the morning (8 am actually!) before Griffin’s preschool program we had our 18 week detailed anatomy ultrasound at Riverside with Dr Retzke, the specialist. They look at all of the developing organs including the heart (and the chambers of the heart), the brain and the regions of the brain, stomach, spine, arms, legs, hands, feet, nose, mouth, lips, pretty much everything possible. We are very thankful that everything looked great. They told us the baby weighed 9 ounces (which is right where it should be) and looked really good. What a relief. They were also able to tell us the gender – it’s a BOY! Thanks to all of you for your continued prayers and check ins – we are grateful. 

I should have taken some pics of our wrapping party with the finished results, but I forgot! But I did capture one of my big helper, Griffin.  His favorite part this year was putting on the “stickers” aka gift tags. He was a great helper picking out the wrapping paper for each gift and then putting on the sticker 🙂

Thanks to Kevin we’ve broken out the “pregnancy pillow” from storage and given it a good washing. It is like a ginormous snake and Griffin loves to snuggle in it.
To kick off the weekend we attended the Howard’s annual Christmas Dinner Party with the Koehler’s, Assaf’s, Ackerman’s, and Yarbrough’s. It is always an evening full of laughter and sarcasm and of course the famous White Elephant gift exchange where the prized possession is the Christmas sweater. Unfortunately, we weren’t the winners this year as it went to none other than Chris Howard. The kids also do a white elephant exchange and this year Finn came home with a purple batman! Prior to the Howard’s party Kevin got home from a day of shopping and said we needed to “chat”. I thought something seemed up as he took his shoes off in the loft, where I was wrapping, and Lily was turning them upside down sniffing them. I asked him where he’d been and he just gave me a sort of sideways look and said that’s what we need to talk about. He went on to say that he had been out visiting breeders and picking out a puppy!!  What?!?!?!  This was the first I’d heard of it! We had talked about getting another dog someday since both Hailey and Cameron were gone but we never really put a time to it. About a week ago I texted Kevin the video of Finn asking for a puppy for Christmas and he took that to heart apparently! I was pretty ecstatic, honestly.  Griffin was down for a nap so Kevin went on to tell me that the reason he brought it up (rather than making it a total surprise for both Finn and me) is that he went out looking for a chocolate female. When he visited one breeder they had 4 pups left from a litter of 10, one male and three female “chocolates” which were actually silver in color. He had seen pictures of them on the AKC website and the breeder had emailed him some and he thought the picture quality just wasn’t that great. However, when he arrived, the pups were actually silver/gray in color similar to a weimaraner. As it turns out the AKC only recognizes three colors (yellow, black, chocolate) so they are registered as chocolate but are silver in color. Kevin was on a mission for a girl and was playing and meeting the three girls, but he was continually drawn to the male pup who would play with him for a bit and then wonder off and just sit and look at him from afar. There was just something about him that Kevin really liked. Kevin also met the mom (who was about 60#) and the dad (a large 120 pound guy!) and loved the temperament of the dad. Upon talking with the breeder and sharing with her that we currently have a female white lab and used to have chocolate and black females too she suggested that if he was considering switching to a male dog that he may want to ask me and find out why I’d never had a male before.  Hence the reason Kevin brought up that he was getting a puppy!  He wanted to know if there was a reason why or what I thought about getting a boy.  I was so excited I literally couldn’t help him choose – I’ve never had a boy dog (so how would I know if I wanted one or what it’s like instead of a girl) and I hadn’t met the pups nor the mom and dad so I didn’t feel like I had much insight to offer in regards to choosing a boy or girl.  At that point he was upset that he’d even mentioned it to me and wished he hadn’t so it could be an all-around surprise.  We compromised and I told him the surprise could be whether he chose a boy or girl.

The plan was that early the next morning, Christmas Eve, the pup would be delivered to our house between 7:45 and 8 am. That hour came early as we had been up until about 1 am the night before. It all worked out that Griffin was still sleeping when the breeder arrived with the pup. Kevin and Lily went out to meet her in the driveway and so Lily could greet the puppy.  After a few minutes they headed inside and I went down to meet the pup and find out if it was a boy or girl – and it was a boy! A really cute boy who is gonna be huge! He has the biggest paws and forearms! For probably the first 10 minutes I just kept telling Kevin how big he is going to be!  After a few minutes we wanted to go wake Finn up with the puppy. We were so excited! The puppy hadn’t ever done stairs before so I carried him up and into Griffin’s room and right to his bed where he sniffed and then licked Griffin’s face to wake him up. It was super cute and he was excited once he understood what was happening. 

Within an hour of our new pup arriving we read the last verse for our Advent Calendar, Griffin put Baby Jesus up, and we loaded the car and headed to Mansfield for our annual Christmas Eve shopping, wrapping, and church services. Lily and the pup (still unnamed) spooned with each other on the way up. He slept the entire car ride and did great!  The kiddos helped Grandma and Grandpa make strata on Christmas Eve in preparation for Christmas morning breakfast. They love being kitchen helpers!

It had been a very long day with no nap for Griffin (an not a regular night sleep the night prior) so he was beat by the time we arrived at church. Even though it was a 7 pm service, since it was candle-light part of the time Griffin actually fell asleep on my lap! He was out for a good 20 minutes and woke up for the candle-lighting at the end.
Here is our annual 2016 family photo courtesy of my sister. Check out our new addition, who has been named Brutus! And here we are Christmas morning once everyone was awake and the kiddos are amping up getting ready to go and see if Santa has come.  Griffin discovered his gifts from Santa: a real glove, a real wood baseball bat, real balls, a catcher’s mask, bases, and a pogo stick. Whew, his sleigh was full I’m sure!  Brutus was really calm the entire morning and basically slept at Kevin’s feet for long periods of time! Rowan was super excited about the sloth that Grandma and Grandpa gave him! We gave Rowan the OSU helmut and jersey/pants and Grandma and Grandpa gave Griffin an OSU helmut/jersey/pants – so they were twinsies! Here they are all sporting their new OSU gear.  Since it was a rather “warm” Christmas Day all the kiddos, young and old, headed outside for a game of street hockey using the Bethune’s new hockey goal from Grandma and Grandpa! 

And here are some pictures that Dad took – he captured everyone’s personalities and the chaos of the morning quite well 🙂 And after all of that gift opening, breakfast eating, and exercising the fellas were beat! We headed back home late afternoon on Christmas evening to go the Chad’s for Christie’s birthday dinner. Griffin fell asleep in the car on the way home, which was perfect timing, so he could regroup before the next social gathering. We quickly unpacked our car, brought up the dog crate from the basement, put it together, put Brutus in it – and left for the dinner party. Whew, on the go. It was a delicious dinner and Griffin enjoyed passing out all of the gifts for the kiddos. And that’s a wrap for Christmas Day 2016! Yet another late night bedtime!