Christmas 2013

 For the last three Christmas's I've been pregnant or have had a child in the home where it was their 'First Christmas.'
This year Adalyn was able to have a good, fun time and open gifts and run around playing with her new dolls. She was beyond cute to watch. She would look at us and hold her hands out and shrug her shoulders and smile as if she were telling us "I don't know what this is or what's going on but it sure is fun!" I wish I could have captured it. I will have to see if my dad was able to. It was seriously too cute!
Hyrum had a blast as usual. He got a dune racer (that sissy also loves), a razor scooter, cow boy hat and some other little things. So far (at 5yrs old) Hyrum is extremely easy to please. He's just excited and thankful to be receiving what he's given that is new (or new to him). You can give him a box of shoes/clothes/new socks, and he'd smile from ear to ear and jump with excitement. Love my Big Boy!
Ezra.. This Christmas he is only 7wks old so he wont ever know what he got or that today was any different than any other day. A friend asked me on Christmas Eve if I was excited for Ezra's first Christmas. I responded with "umm, well.. this is my third child to have a first "baby" Christmas. I'm sure he will just sleep and eat and poop as usual and nothing will be any different." Next year will be more exciting for us with him. Although this year is exciting because we now have him as part of our family. Any way-- we gave him some paci's, paci clips, board books, and a blanket.

I'd say we had a nice Christmas. We were able to celebrate with family this year that we haven't celebrated with in five years. Plus MawMaw and PawPaw were able to get up and see little ones reactions to Christmas morning. (I KNOW they miss it after all the years of doing it with us kiddos.)  :)
Just about all of us were together this year (plus some) except for one brother (Tim) who was on a hunting trip.

p.s. the holiday food was awesome and yummy as usual!
 

 8:30am--going to see if Santa came during the night.



 

yep! he made it! dumped a dune racer full of gifts on the living room floor.

 

Ezra was smiling up at and talking to cousin Kelli. Was super cute!

 

Cute little miss Kelli Jane

 

Aeden getting up close and personal while PawPaw snaps shots of baby sis Kelli.

Mom got a quilting machine from us kiddos and dad.
..can't wait to put her to work :)

 

The Grandkids gave PawPaw a pair of boots he really wanted.  

 

Ricky-my husband, Mikey-Adrienne's Husband

You have to watch out for these two- always planning some trouble :)

 

Very first family photos our new family of FIVE!

Adalyn was just too cute in her new jammies and house shoes.. She was having fun wearing brothers vTech backpack case around. I just couldn't get over how cute she looked!

 

I hope you all had an amazing Christmas!!

Ch-Ch-Ch Changes!

 

I have been wanting to blog for weeks/months now. Lots has happened and changed with life since the last blog was posted. It's just super hard finding time (and energy) to do it. Night time when all of the children are sleeping is the most ideal blog time but each time I've sat down with the computer I've decided against it and went to bed instead.

If a mom wants sleep-she should sleep when her children sleep...Right?

Since I last blogged our family made a huge move. We packed up our little apartment into a moving truck and hit the road on Hyrum's 5th Birthday, September 6th. Our final destination--South East Houston Texas. HOME

 

I didn't take pictures of the actual move but I will tell you that the drive was long. It especially felt extra long for this extra pregnant girl here. The long periods of sitting made my legs and ankles swell like crazy. It was nice to finally be off the road and somewhere that I could stretch out for a couple of days to make the swelling go away.

 

Upon arrival to our new home we found out that Hyrum has a severe allergy to ants. Fire ants to be exact... It was almost a month before his foot looked completely normal again. Even after the blisters were gone the top of his foot continued to have a bruised look for a little while longer.

 

 

 

After recovering from the ant bites and Hyrum decided he could finally put shoes on his feet pain free-- He wasted no time jumping into the Texas culture. He wanted a pair of cowboy boots so one night he and I went out on a mommy son date to dinner then out to purchase his first pair of cowboy boots. (He's worn them every single day since unless we've asked him to put on his regular shoes- he even wears his boots to church.)

 

 

This whole move and mommy being pregnant with a new baby and having a new baby has been a huge change for Adalyn. It's been hard on her and it breaks my heart because I know she needs more attention from me but it's sometimes hard to find the time or to know what to do with her one on one to help her adjust. Apart from that--there were lots of new and exciting things here at mawmaw and pawpaw's house that we had to teach her about.

 

I think this picture below will give you a good idea as to the types of things we were/are dealing with. :)

(swimming in the dog water bowl?)

 

She's growing up too fast. Here she is being little miss independent and actually blow drying and brushing her hair. One of her favorite things to play with when she is allowed.

She is also starting to act out motherly rolls with here 'baby'. (she has a teddy bear I got her for valentines day and she hasn't let go of it since.. it's her "chew toy" and comforter.)

 

(she's changing her bears diaper)

 

...and I'm posting this pic just because it's cute!



 

Other things on the list of new happenings---

Hyrum started preK in Texas (that was a huge pain in the *** to get set up!)

I was given a pirate themed baby shower for our new (then soon to be) baby boy.

Halloween happened. Hyrum was a pirate and Adalyn was a lady bug.

Ricky finished up his jobs in WA and joined us in Texas for good.

We welcomed our third child into the world which I will dedicate a separate blog post to next. :)