Journey with the Jeffers: Christmas

In keeping with my "new blog form" I am updating special events during each month instead of tying to post about the entire month...

This month was an obvious one, Dallas turned 7 months old on December 14th and we celebrated his first Christmas! And we received a wonderful surprise on December 22nd!!!

Each month I try to snap some sweet pictures of our little monkey for a few reasons. One is this blog...I may not update in real time, or even close to it for that matter, but I at least like to save my pictures in order and post them eventually in order by date. One of my resolutions is actually to blog more, keeping all of you (ok so I don't have very many followers, but hope that changes soon!) updated as Dallas grows. I also intend to turn this more into a Dallas/family/crafting blog, not so much just about Dallas since I've found one of my new hobbies is making things by hand!

Another reason is because I have a cute frame (thanks to his Grandma Michelle down in OK) to put monthly pictures of Dallas in and I also have his first year calendar (thanks to my friend, Shannon) to update with pictures and accomplishments:) So much to do, I sure hope I have this much time and energy with the next few kids to do the same. I already look forward to comparing Dallas's milestones with the next baby, and the next, and the next. That's a little extreme, I know, but I'd love to have a big family. Michael on the other hand would be fine with just one more:( We'll see how that goes...I may change my mind, but I'm guessing he'll be more likely to come around..someday!

So, since I think Dallas looks great in stripes, honestly he looks great in ANYthing, but my favorite is stripes. I put him in this striped onesie and some comfy pants and started snapping...(another resolution: get a new, better camera and learn more about photography. But that costs money and I'm a bit of a tight wad these days, which is easy to do when you really want to be a stay-at-home-mom!) Of course I have added my signature photo quotes, sayings, comments, blurbs, whatever you like to call them.

So big!

Look ma, it's my tongue...surprise, surprise!

He must be watching those silly puppies.

His signature holding his breathe pose...see how he did it here too in his Christmas card photo shoot

My favorite because you can actually see that he has a neck!!

And again with the tongue...hey, it's cute!

So in between Dallas's 7 month "birthday" and Christmas, we got some great news.

Here's a little background for those of you who don't know the story: Mid-October Michael saw a post on General Electric's website for a "winder" position that was available. He decided to send in his application to see if he would qualify for the job (most of the larger companies prefer that you have two years of experience under your belt when joining them). However, Michael was only at ReGENco for about 1.5 years. We didn't really realize that his 4 years in the Navy was considered experience out in the field until after someone pointed that out to us, he wasn't giving himself enough credit. Then in the beginning of November Michael flew out to New Jersey for an interview with GE. He had a phone interview prior to that, which he felt went great and when got the request for the face-to-face interview, we both became pretty confident. So the interview in New Jersey went really well just as the phone interview had. But, our hopes were fading fast near Mid-December when he still hadn't gotten a call. Then, December 22nd he got an offer via email from the company. He was so excited, but obviously we had a lot of talking to do about the offer and what worked best for our family. In the end we decided that this offer was worth the risk.

Side note: In the line of work that Michael is in, traveling is what makes it possible for me to stay home with Dallas. ReGENco said when he was hired that he would travel 80% of the year (basically the same months of the school year). This is referred to as the outage season for the power plants, which is where he works on the generators. So far the 80% of travel hasn't happened so why not take the leap and try with a new company, one that is more established that his current one? We thought it can't get any worse, right?

So on January 10th he will be flying to Orlando to attend the first part of the training process with General Electric. What a great Christmas present and a positive way to start our 2011!! We are hoping this job is all it's "cracked up" to be. If it is, we intend to put our house on the market, the actual market, not just a sign in our yard, and hope to sell. If that actually happens we would move further south, closer to more of our family, live there for a while until we get some items paid off and then move on to a different state. We have always wanted to stay on the move until Dallas is in school, then settle down somewhere.

We are positive and intend to stay positive, that GE will help us to achieve this goal.

Now on to the Christmas photos, I sure have a lot that I would love to post, but I'm going to hold back a bit...this is getting to be a long post anyway. And you must be half asleep by now!

Dallas getting in to the Christmas spirit with his (actually it's Michael's) Santa hat and new snowflake PJ's

Opening his name plate from Grandma and Grandpa Jeffers in Oklahoma (I decorated it later, maybe I'll post those pictures in a future entry!)

Opening a gift from Meme and Papa in Oklahoma (Meme and Papa are Michael's step-mom's parents)

All the gifts from our family in Oklahoma, how sweet are they to send

so many gifts all the way to Wisconsin!!

Watching the monkey roll around, this was from Dallas's Uncle Wyatt and Uncle Waylon:)

Ella and Dallas wearing their Christmas outfits from Grandma Mary...Dallas sporting his new kicks from Grandma and Grandpa Jeffers!

Cousin Heather and Dallas on Christmas Day at our house

Cousin Tyler

Ella opening a gift

Myself helping Ella open another gift!

Ready for shopping...I'd have to say Katie and I have trained her right already!!

Sock monkey from Auntie Katie, he LOVES that thing!!

Ella and Cousin Heidi, Christmas Day at our house

Dallas and Auntie Kris

Jonny and the babies, celebrating Christmas at my dad's house

Little Jonny opening his football pillow from my dad and Robin.

(He was at his mom's house for the Christmas weekend, so he got to open gifts when he returned to Katie and Jonny's after the holiday!)

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, we know we did and we are already excited for next year when Dallas will be walking and talking!!

On November 20th, Dallas met Santa for the first time!!

Dallas got dressed up (with help from mama and daddy) in his new Christmas pants, which were part of his full Christmas outfit, purchased by Grandma (thanks!!) and we headed out.

We went to our local mall here in Appleton and thought we would be waiting in line forever once we saw the parking lot since this was the first day Santa was appearing and we got there right as he was getting back from a break
.

Alyssa dropped Michael off at the door to check how long the wait was and much to our surprise, it wasn't long at all and since they only allow 2-3 minutes per person, we figured it would move pretty quick.

So we went in.

As we were waiting in line, Alyssa started to worry about a couple things (thanks to her OCD!) She was worried that you would have to decide right there on the spot if you would be purchasing any pictures, she thought Dallas would be scared of Santa, she thought the pictures wouldn't turn out, she worried the Little Man's outfit would clash with Santa's outfit (okay, maybe not the last one, but you get the idea)
She sucked it up and continued to wait to see what Santa and his Elves had in store for us!

We approached Santa and thankfully Dallas wasn't scared at all. In fact he smiled at the big guy, sat nicely on his lap, and looked right at the camera! Say Cheese!

We DID in fact have to decide right away if we would buy any pictures because they can't move on to the next family until you complete a purchase or decide to pass...needless to say we didn't buy any, since we were able to take our own and at 20 bucks a pop for a 5x7, we figured we'd skip it!

Here are the couple we got with our own camera:

(I know what you're thinking, Michael looks THRILLED to be doing this..he loves cheesy family activities!)

Then, the next day (November 21st, if you weren't paying attention above) we dressed Dallas up in yet another handsome outfit to take our own pictures for the Christmas card! Why not use a Santa picture? Well Alyssa made sure to tell Michael that we needed a "horizontal" picture for the card and then as she took the pictures with Santa and Dallas, forgot (in true Alyssa forgetful fashion) and took them the opposite way!! Oops, oh well, you all know how I love my photo shoots by now, so what's adding one more to the list?? No biggie!

So, here are some of the pictures we snapped in the comfort of our home, with Dallas sitting next to his very own tree, which we have in his room. And a couple with the doggies:)