Christmas Morning!

The girls are old enough now to be REALLY excited about Christmas morning. They came bounding down the stairs to find...

  

new bike accessories, a playhouse to color, a baby stroller, new books, a magnetic dollhouse, a new cash register and most importantly- Elsa and Anna dresses!

You know what they headed straight for..

and then explored their other new things...

We added one more stocking to the fireplace this year for Santa to fill...

Baby Luke didn't get quite the haul his sisters did, but I don't think he minded...

Dad made sure that he received some State gear under the tree...

We went through a haul of presents, then ate fancy bacon and orange cranberry muffins, and then the girls played with their new stuff while Brian and I got ready for our evening celebration. We were so excited that Dad and Heather were headed to town! They came over, along with Donna and Marty, to celebrate Christmas with some tasty appetizers and some cocktails. We stuffed ourselves on smoked salmon, cheese dip, shrimp cocktail and pie. A pretty merry way to end the day! 

Christmas Eve with the Forks

Yes, that glass of champagne was mine...my first drink in 9 months! What a way to kick off the Christmas celebrating! Donna and Marty hosted for Christmas Eve, and we had a wonderful dinner and a great time opening gifts.  

The girls were beyond thrilled with their new State cheerleading outfits and had to show off their moves...

It was special having Luke there to celebrate with for the first time...

although he preferred sleep through most of it!

Definitely the best gift of all..

I don't think we stopped moving on Christmas Eve between Addie's birthday, dinner at the Forks, getting ready for Santa, and taking care of Luke. It was an exhausting day, but we were celebrating Christmas as a family of five which made it pretty wonderful!

Addie Turns Three!

Addie finally made it official- she turned three! In my eyes, she had been acting like a three-year-old for awhile. She's physically gotten taller and heavier and outgrown that toddler body, she can sit still for long periods of time now to listen to books or watch a show with her sister, she can completely dress herself, and she can comprehend and conversate with the best of them. Addie has really grown up a lot in this last year, so it was nice to recognize that with a birthday!

In light of little Luke's arrival and the tricky timing of her birthday (Christmas Eve), we decided to not do an official party this year. Instead, we got tickets to see "Rudolph" the play on her birthday to be followed up with a family pizza party and cake. Addie was happy with that plan!

The girls loved the big "3" balloon I got to decorate with, and Collins immediately requested a "6" for her birthday coming up.

December 24th...Addie's birthday and Christmas Eve AND sadly the last day of the Advent calendar. The girls didn't really understand why it couldn't keep going on and on. :)

My morning began bright and early with some baking, some baby screaming, and lots of anxiety. Brian had taken the girls out to breakfast, and I was going to stay home with Luke and bake Addie's birthday cake. Sounds easy enough, right?

Wrong! Luke screamed his head off, the cake imploded, and I was in tears. I was a basket case by the time they got back. I mean LOOK AT THE CAKE!! Complete and utter disaster. Luckily, they talked me down off the cliff. Collins was sweet and said, "It's okay, Mom. We'll just call it a volcano cake!" :) So that is what we did and headed off to the play.

Addie had some anxiety about the Abominable snowman prior to getting to the theatre...

so it threw her to see one in the lobby as well as one on the stage. But she faced those fears, and after the show declared she was not afraid of the TWO bumbles!

This was Addie's first time seeing a play so I wasn't sure how she would do. Turns out, the colorful and fast-paced musical completely captured her attention for the full hour and a half. She loved it! The pink elves were her favorite.

We raced home to Luke (that was the other part of my anxiety that day- being away from him for such an extended period of time). But Donna said he did great and slept most of the time...what a relief! On to the pizza party!

Addie got a ton of fabulous birthday presents including a new ballerina outfit, some cool booties, a Princess Addie character for her dollhouse, a necklace from Collins, and some new Elsa heels! She was in heaven!

On the way home from the play, I made Brian stop at Whole Foods so I could buy Addie a decent birthday cake. Turns out she did not want it, she wanted the volcano cake. Which turned out to taste really good thank goodness!

Addie's birthday celebration was a bit chaotic (just as our life is these days), but the birthday girl had a huge smile on her face the whole time. She loved it! And we loved getting to celebrate our funny, sweet, joy-filled little girl who brings so much happiness to our family every single day. We couldn't love you more, Addie. Happy third birthday!

First Bath

Oh Luke...you poor third child. Your first bath at home sadly did not happen till ONE WEEK after your birth. Talk about dropping the ball! That is how busy things get with three. This bath kept getting pushed back and back and back...but when it finally did happen, Luke was not impressed. Luckily now (since he is a thrower-upper), he enjoys them!

 Of course, the girls had to get in on the action and make comments...

 I love a freshly bathed baby! They smell so good...

and they have sweet, fluffy hair.

 I'm going to bathe this cutie as often as he'll let me- I promise I will do better than his first week out!

Christmas with Mimi

How we were going to celebrate Christmas this year with my family had been stressing me out for awhile. Initially, I thought we could go to Hickory (since we didn't get to go for Thanksgiving) but I was assuming little man would come early. When he did not, the plan changed because it was just too much to travel with a newborn. So how were we going to celebrate the holidays with my family?

Turns out the way we celebrated with Mom was both impromptu and fun. The last night she was here with us, we decided to make a special Christmas dinner and open presents. Who cared that it was a couple weeks before Christmas? That only made it more of a treat!

The night started with a couple of meltdowns by all my children (not good), but then got better after some sugar cookie decorating. That will put anybody in a good mood. You have never seen so many sprinkles on a cookie. Then we had a delicious dinner and then the girls asked again and again, "Is it time?!?"

Yes, it was time to open the first presents of Christmas 2016, and I'm pretty sure they could not have waited one minute longer. 

Collins got a really beautiful gold bracelet with her birthstone on it from Baba, and a really cool Aqua Bead set from Mom. She loved them!

In perhaps the best-ever reaction to a gift, Addie received a ballerina doll from Baba and was literally jumping up and down and laughing hysterically. It was one of those special Christmas moments- the unabashed joy of a child opening up a present. So much fun to watch!

We tore through the presents and sugar cookies...

and even managed to get a decent Christmas picture with the whole family!

We definitely bucked tradition this year, but we still had a special night with Mom celebrating Christmas. We all are so grateful to her for spending a week with us- for keeping the house running smoothly, for keeping me sane (somewhat), and for spending some quality time with us all. Moms are truly the best!