christmas 2014

We had a small Christmas tree this year. Iris loved it, but her favorite thing to do was to throw the ornaments, so we had to keep her away from them.

Iris is almost as tall as our tree. 

Notice the Christmas bunny. 

Evan's parents came in for Christmas and in true Morgan fashion, they helped on home renovation. Our laundry room now has drywall and paint and a counter for folding and some shelving. I hope this helps with our laundry problem a bit -- it is a beautiful counter for folding clothes.

Christmas brought lots of snow, finally. Iris got to play in the snow, but she didn't love the cold. And she thought the slush on her boots was yucky.

On Christmas Eve, we took Iris to the children's service at the Unitarian church. She loved the spectacle, and especially loved the tree. She managed to stay tolerably quiet through most of the service, but at the end, finally, she had to go outside and run around.

Evan's dad brought his copy of The Night Before Christmas to read to Iris. It was fun to have Iris share in that tradition, although she wasn't ready to sit still through the whole thing.

Papa reads to Iris.

Reading on Christmas Eve and giving me a fake smile. 

We started to open presents on Christmas Eve but Iris was too tired to hack it so the adults opened their presents after bed time and Iris finished opening her presents on Christmas day. This year she was more interactive with actually opening her presents, though at one point she had to stop and check on her bunny light.

Opening presents with Daddy. 

The bunny night light. 

Evan's gifts had a hiking theme to them this year, in hopes that we would get outdoors much, much more in 2015. Iris took to the hiking backpack very well demonstrating the idea with her stuffed animals first. 

Christmas afternoon walk

texas trip

Evan's friend from high school was getting married in Austin. We packed up almost all of our earthly possessions and took a direct flight to Austin for a five-day vacation. We had to rent a portable oxygen concentrator for Iris so that she could fly. They don't allow oxygen tanks on airplanes.

Iris in sling, toting oxygen concentrator behind

Once we got to Texas we found that her oxygen saturation levels were super high since we were down at sea level. So we left her off oxygen for the duration of the trip. We both started wondering to ourselves whether we might have to move to sea level if Iris's lungs don't improve. We've both been disappointed that she's still on oxygen and I had been sure she'd be off by December. Maybe I've mentioned that. 

So we got spoiled in Texas letting Iris run around without a cord. 

Evan's parents drove in from Houston to babysit Iris for us while we went to the wedding. They had tons of fun reading books together.

The five of us went out to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center one day. It was really beautiful even though there were not many wildflowers to speak of. We did end up seeing some wildflowers on our drive to Houston later during the vacation.

Evan, Iris, and her bunny at the wildflower center

The wedding events themselves were a lot of fun, and for those interested I may cover them in more detail in a separate post. 

Here we are at the wedding

Iris did very well during all the driving. There was a bit of fussing, some of which I captured below.

Iris is mad

The vacation was sorely needed. In addition to reconnecting with some high school friends, Evan managed to work very little and truly take a break. Iris is on the cusp of becoming a walker. She is taking increasingly confident steps and has sprouted another tooth. On the top this time.