Eric and Court: What a month!

Boy oh boy! I would say that the last month has been busy, but I am not so sure I can honestly say that. There has been alot going on, but I have had alot of resting time too. Have I rested? No, not really, BUT I have had alot of time in my schedule to relax! Let me begin with my 2 week winter break....AHHHHHHH! Now, the first part of winter break was very busy I must say! We got into Bettendorf late Friday night (but made great time, considering I worked for half a day), went to bed, and got up Saturday morning only to get on the road again! We got into Ames around 1:30 Saturday afternoon for Kelli's graduation from Iowa State. We were headed BACK to Bettendorf around 7:30 Saturday night and got in around 11...Whew! Before you all criticize us for not staying in Ames, you need to know that a 6 month old that was in the car for 12 hours on Friday, and then 6 more hours on Saturday NEEDED to get back on schedule ASAP! If we would have stayed in Ames, we wouldn't have been back on schedule until sometime Monday or Tuesday. As is, we got her all settled on Sunday! Ahhhhh...... :) Needless to say, Sunday, we didn't get out of our jammies all day and slept/laid around all day. We were exhausted!
The week after our whirlwind weekend of driving, we got to relax and spend some quality family time at home. Izzy was happy to have all sorts of attention from Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle AJ, and they were all happy to have their two grandbabies/neices with them. I would say they were happy to have Eric and I there too, but they may have been tired of us by day #2! :) Just kidding! Eloise and I got to visit my mom's work and meet all of my mom's co-workers that have heard so much about our little girl. We were even able to visit Eric's parents and Kelli once we got all settled in AND got to visit with Jenny and Cheri one night! My mom and AJ babysat so Eric and I had our 2nd night away from our girls since Eloise was born in June. Yes, only our 2nd time away together! We enjoyed our time away, as we did the first time. It helps to have great family and friends that offer to do that for us. We are very lucky!
Then the weekend came and we were busy, busy, busy again! We had Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day festivities with my Aunt and Uncle from St. Louis, and then Eloise's baptism on Sunday! I won't go into all of the details, but it was awesome! We are always so happy to have the family together and are so glad that Eloise has had the chance to spend time with not only all of her Grandmas and Grandpas, Aunt and Uncle, but even Great-Grandparents, and Great Aunts and Uncles! Her baptism was a great time to have everyone together and are so thankful to my parents who opened their home to celebrate Eloise's special day, for family that traveled from their homes to help us celebrate, AND last but not least, to my brother who so graciously took on the responsibility of being Eloise's godfather. We feel so blessed that he would take on such an important role in Eloise's life.
The week after that big weekend, we were able to recoup again for a week :) Gotta love having 2 weeks off... :) After a wild night of Farkle and Apples to Apples with my family for New Years and my mom's FAMOUS Baked Potato Soup on New Years Day, we headed back to Chattanooga on Sunday....Our trip was coming to a close. Eric and I had to be back to work on Monday, and my kiddos came back to school on Wednesday. We had three great days of school and then...the SNOW came...and we had an ENTIRE WEEK off school!!! We had around 8 inches of snow in Chattanooga and the city shut down!! Schools, buisnesses, restaurants, everything closed (except for Roadtec)!
So, after almost a month off of school at this point, I am heading back tomorrow! Hopefully we won't have many more days off because we have LOTS to do before TCAP testing in April! I will close with some pictures from the last month and see you again soon (well, soon is a relative term....) ;)