Settling back in...

I knew that going back home was going to be tough...I hadn't been home since I lost Cactus. No matter where we have lived or how long we have lived there I can honestly look back and see how faithful God has been in providing such good friends to me.

My sweet friend Nicki stayed with me the first couple days we were home...she picked me and Riley up from the airport and we came home to a warm house, a fridge with food in it, and someone to help get us all settled back in....and she had her sweet baby boy Will with her so that made it even better!

We came home to lots of rain...so we pulled out our rainboots!

Riley loved having Will at our house...I think it was a good buffer from all the attention she got in Atlanta and Little Rock...at least we didn't come straight home to a house with just the two of us!

Nicki with the kids!

Riley wanted to take a pic of us...she sort of cut us off!

Much better!

I had not been getting enough sleep the entire time we were out of town so I was looking forward to getting some good rest. Having a friend spend the night is not the way to catch up on sleep though! The first night home we stayed up way too late just talking and sorting through all my mail! The second night we had a few girls over to watch Sex and the City 1...let's just say I lasted through maybe the first half hour before passing out...what a great host I am!

In addition to me being so exhausted Riley had a rough first week and a half when we got home in terms of sleeping. The first couple nights consisted of night terrors and then those went away and she was on a consistent routine of waking up 4+ times a night...talk about a tired Mama! Every time she woke up it was a different reason...her legs hurt, she was scared, she was sad, or her blanket fell off. I had no idea what the problem was but after a good pep talk from Bubba about staying in her bed all night long things got progressively better...thank the Lord!

It took me almost 5 days to get us all unpacked but eventually I did and then it was time to start the Christmas baking and decorating!

We made a full batch of Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls and oh holy goodness...you must make them!

Riley was a great helper in the kitchen although I think she washed her hands about 564,389 times because she kept wanting to lick her fingers...can't even count how many times I said "we don't lick our fingers when we are making food for our friends"

Can't blame the girl though!

She makes me so happy!

Riley had fun decorating her pink tree again this year...we added a skirt to it this year and a few new ornaments!

This was our first year to decorate in this house and I was looking forward to it. I got lots of new decorations and had fun getting the house all set up!

I put up two trees this year...my traditional one with all of the super special ornaments that my mom has made over the years...

and a more modern tree in our living room...I just love how they both turned out!

I had fun getting wrapping paper to match my tree...I'm crazy like that!

I had even more fun wrapping all the presents while watching Elf and drinking hot chocolate...I love to wrap...no bags in this house...everything goes in a box!