Twelth Night

Its 12th Night and I'm reflecting on 2014 and this holiday season. This past year went by so quickly. I have so little free time it is amazing. One child is a big commitment, but two children and two dissertations is beyond what I could have ever imagined.

We have accomplished so much this year, but it feels like so little and at 31 years old I wonder if I will ever have a time in my life that is even close to this busy again (I hope and pray it slows down a little). The number of jobs I am applying for, and Greg has applied for perplexes me. We are both constantly on call, stopping only for two hours or so for sleep right now.

 Sorry this is so short, but I'm so out of energy. Trying to make it to the next step.

Christmas in Columbia

We went to Texas for Christmas this year, but before we left we celebrated in Columbia. Evangeline's school participated in Living Windows in downtown Columbia, and St. Nicholas visited her school. 

 Her Christmas has been full of Christmas crafts and carols with friends at school, church and around town. I even made it to two Christmas celebrations, which just so happened to be held on the same night. Reminded me of the multiparty days of Washington, DC.

Cookies with Mom at Panera Bread.

Miss Margery in her bear suit.

Sweet girl.

 We loved dressing our baby girl up for Christmas as a reindeer and in "My First Christmas" garb.

Our little Reindeer.

Dancing.

Margery seemed to like St. Nicholas better than Evangeline did. Margery is enamored with the Christmas Tree and finds whatever time she can to hang out under it.
We made Christmas cookies to give away to teachers and Yoga teachers (as well as snack on).

Baking cookies.

My little baker.

Trip to Kansas City with Aunt Edge.

We had a little time to celebrate with Edge before leaving for Texas and took a trip to Kansas City. Edge treated us to dinner and cheesecake.

Hanging with Aunt Edge.

Lunch with Friends at Cafe Berlin.

Margery loves to put her feet together.

Our gift from Evangeline that she made in school.

Margery watching the Christmas Tree.

Recent Family Photos

Here are some shots from our recent family photo session with Lollipop Photography.

Christmas Week

I have a good excuse for not updating although we've been out of school for two weeks. My computer hard drive crashed two days before my final papers were due and I was scrambling like a mad woman to get them finished in two days. With that out of the way I took some well deserved R and R time.

We made a trip to St. Louis for some last minute shopping and we got to see our friends the McCommis family. Evangeline loves eating fired rice at PF Chang's and exchanging gifts with her best friend James. Greg and I then did some last minute shopping for each other and grabbed a piece of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory to take home.

James and Evangeline.

Hanging out with my girl, with a new hair do. I think she has a cookie in her mouth.

I got a chance to get my hair done and I love it. I have auburn low lights in it now. We also got to make cookies with our neighbors. Evangeline had a blast hanging out with Arlen and eating the icing off of cookies while decorating them. That's not the first gross thing she has done this holiday.

Evangeline and Arlen having snack.

For Christmas Greg's dad and his wife, Rachel (Grandpa and G'ma) visited us.  We had more time making and decorating cookies and attempting to make a gingerbread house.

Gingerbread house and cookie dough.

Evangeline and her G'ma.

The Rentchler Twins and Evangeline.

On Christmas Eve we were all feeling a little under the weather because of the sudden temperature change. It went from 50 degrees to 4 degrees overnight. We got to see some of our friends on Christmas Eve at the Children's Service. Evangeline loved the music and getting to see baby Jesus and the  in the Nativity play. We even took some photos with our twin friends who are sadly moving to St. Louis in January.

Evangeline had a great Christmas and loved opening presents from all of her grandparents and her aunts and uncle. Below are some of my favorites from Christmas Morning.

Opening a gift from G'ma and Grandpa.

Her train table from Nana and a book from our Pen Pals Melissa and Madelyn.

Opening her cutting fruit from Grandma Carri and Grandpa Will.

Greg opening gifts with Wylie cuddled close by.

Evangeline and I in our matching aprons from our Pen pals.

Evangeline in her Supergirl costume, and opening a gift from Nana.

She had a great time with her grandparents and Greg and I even got to continue our Christmas Day tradition of seeing a Hobbit movie on Christmas. They were great with her and gave her so many great gifts. I'll have to post some more photos of her playing with them later. They were here for five days and left Friday morning to head back to Mississippi and then Florida. We really enjoyed having them around.

Saying goodbye to Grandpa and G'ma

Thanksgiving and Beyond

It has been a while since I posted because we in the last month I have not had a lot of free time. (I can honestly say there is not a place in the house that is not a mess right now).

But to catch up, we had a lovely Thanksgiving with my sister in law Edgerly who came up from Alabama for a few days. We just saw her at Evangeline's birthday so it was a real treat to see her again so soon after. She misses Aunt Edge a lot and whenever Greg leaves the house she asks if Aunt Edge is coming back.

At the Turkey Trot with Daddy and Aunt Edge

She had a blast playing with Evangeline and helped us out. We also supported Greg as he ran the Turkey Trot, enjoyed the Macy's parade, made a full Thanksgiving dinner,  did some black Friday shopping and took Evangeline to see Disney's Frozen. She loved the movie (in 3D) and the glasses she got to take home. Her favorite character was Olaf the Snowman.

We had one week between finals and Thanksgiving break so we have been pretty busy getting school work done. Greg and I are in finals week. I've got two papers due this week and a lot of grading as does he. We are also trying to use the extra time we have to finally clean house and catch up on some research projects we have not had time for the entire semester.

Traditional Thanksgiving Pancake Breakfast.

She loved this part of the Macy's Parade.

Wearing her Turkey Shirt and clip.

Wearing one of my old dresses to Church the first Sunday in Advent.

Our trip to see the Nutcracker

Evangeline and I went to see the Nutcracker Ballet on Tuesday night. She loved it and sat still for almost a hour and a half. At about 9 p.m. she was really tired so we decided to go home. She loved the dancers and the stuff they were selling outside of the theater, including a large teddy bear.

We are in Advent season here at the Perreault home. Evangeline is enjoying her advent calendar made of little boxes from my Facebook Mom's Group exchange and all the little craft projects at school, church and all the other places we have gone recently. We gave her a little Nativity Scene to play with and she's loving putting the different animals on top of the manger scene and kissing the baby Jesus figure. She is really into baby dolls right now and anything that is a baby is super cool, and needs to be kissed.   

Playing with her Nativity Scene.

Our Family at Living Windows.

Friday Evangeline's school sang at Living Windows, where the downtown shops decorate their front windows with actors dressed up in a particular theme. We walked around in the cold after Evangeline sang with Joy. We also got to see Joy's husband's youth group do a Living Nativity at the Missouri United Methodist Church. Evangeline was obsessed with the baby Jesus and asked if she could kiss him. She kind of chickened out though. Perhaps because it was really cold outside. Later when we got home she insisted on kissing the baby Jesus in he Little People Nativity Scene.

On Saturday I took Evangeline to Rock Bridge High School of Breakfast with Santa. She was not really excited about Santa at all but loved Mrs. Claus who was reading Christmas books to kids in a corner as they waited for Santa. She loved hanging out with her friend Ben and his Mom Anja and she also made friends with another bear.

As close as she would get to Santa Claus.

Sunday we got our first snow as well as got our living room rearranged for a Christmas tree, and purchased a tree. Evangeline also got her own little tree to decorate. I can't wait to see what she puts on it. Temperatures have been in the teens and 20s most of the week.

All bundled up for the snow.

We are all looking forward to a little more time off.

One more thing, I love that Evangeline now tells people she loves them. She's started telling me she loves me, misses me and asks me to wait for her. This makes me happy although she is a little more clingy than normal. It's nice since she really doesn't even look like a baby anymore to know she still needs me.

Christmas in Texas

We returned last week from a great Christmas in Texas. We spent a good amount of time at my parent's house in Boerne and got to see several friends and family.

Family Christmas Eve Photo

 Our first weekend there, my parents hosted an engagement party for my sister Catelyn and her fiance Daniel. We met up with my aunt cousin and her family on Sunday. Then we celebrated Christmas with a Christmas Eve Church Service and gift exchange on Christmas day. I also got a chance to go to the Spa with my sisters. I also got a chance to meet all my sister Catelyn's bridesmaids at a dinner in honor of her on her birthday.  We had a great time. Below are some photos from our time in Texas.

On the Church Playground

Hanging with Grandpa Will at Church

Working on Trees for the Engagement Party

Evangeline meeting Grace W at the Party

Party goers and Evangeline Dancing to the Music at the Engagement Party

Mom and baby listening to music at the party

Bride and Groom to be

Playing at the Church playground again

Three ladies shopping on Christmas Eve

Evangeline and Grandpa Will