Merry Christmas Santa came…

First of all Merry Christmas to all!!  

Well, we had a very excited 2 year old over here as SANTA arrived last night!  She couldn't figure out how he would get her motorcycle to the house but low and behold he did!  Her list had many checks on it, motorcycle, scooter, and baby stuff!! All things she managed to receive for Christmas this year.  Here are some fun pics of our Christmas day excitement.

 SANTA came…look at all the goodies for the kiddos! 

 Since we sleep on the other side of the house we had to sneak H past the loot…to the others! 

 Checking out all her goodies! 

 G got this awesome train from Santa…so H hitched a ride!  This is how they spent the rest of our trip.

 Dad and sweet baby M just watching it all as the screaming and joy went on! 

 She loves her ergo….and now she has her own! 

 Our sweet family all in our jammies..

Nursing her baby….my sweet sister got her this adorable hooter hider just like mine! 

My sweet niece didn't give an actually gift this year!  Instead she gave us all a family experience and man was it fun.  She bought supplies for us all to do a little family painting project.  I love how her sweet heart is.  The babies loved this like not other, but lets be honest everyone in the family did.  Not only was it fun but I think we will now make a new family tradition for Christmas day! 

She put snowflakes on the canvases before the event and everyone just painted away!  They turned out pretty good if you ask me! 

 everyone is getting the info on what to do! 

 let the painting begin, and yes being naked was a must in this project

 Here they are after drying and the tape was removed.

Happy Holidays

So yeah I got a little behind…but now I am back trying to catch up on life!  Story of our life over here! The holidays are always so busy and we don't get a break till after Miss H's birthday in Jan!  Oh gosh and now we are adding Tiger in Feb!  Looks like we will be busy for a while :-)

Hope everyone had a wonderful end to their 2014 we sure did.  As always we took off to good old A-town for our Christmas break!  We love going there and being surrounded by family and friends.  Plus my mom and dad have been working really hard on the remodel of my grandparents house.  They stopped sending my sister and I pictures about 4 months ago so we were dying to see the progress!  They are almost done!!!  It looks amazing and I love that soon we will be staying in my grandparents house when we visit from now on.  I mean my grandpa built that house and we have such memories there!!  Of course my sister and I are thrilled to share and begin memories for our kiddos there!!

The day we arrived it was snowing a bit! Miss H was excited about that.  The past 3 Christmas' have been white ones…this year it was not but we did get a little before and a little after.  Enough to say it did it but not enough to play so all the kiddos were a bit sad!  Our typical Christmas trip went as planned for the most part!  We arrived the day before Christmas eve and just hung out.

Nothing says welcome to Atown like a huge DUST storm

Christmas Eve we were up early for our annual Santa picture!  Yes, every year for my ENTIRE life I have been taking this Santa pictures.  My mom forced my sister and I to do it…even through our teen age and college years when we  protested!!  My grandma always loved this pictures so it was on tradition that never stopped! Now that we have kiddos we continue it on, even thought my sweet niece is at the family Santa pic isn't cool phase!  Don't worry I showed her all the pics I took when I thought it wasn't cool to prove it wasn't a choice lol.  But it was funny to see my sister and I at 15 and 20 on Santa's lap :-)

We followed Santa up with traditional Christmas cookie making!!!  This year it was extra fun because all the babies (minus baby M who is 4 months) were actually big enough to cut and decorate on their own.  Dad was the roller (normally my job, but he enjoyed doing it for the kids) and I supervised cutting out..you know making sure your cutter was on the dough and the edge so we could get the most out of it!  The kiddos were our cutters!!  I can honestly say I think this is the first year I have not been stuck decorating majority of the cookies on my own!  My sister used to always sneak out on that part somehow and leave me to do it…not bitter here at all :-)  The cookies turned out great and we had the perfect ones to leave for Santa of course!!

We ended our evening with a yummy Turkey dinner feast!  This is our little Thanksgiving fun since we all do Thanksgiving else where.  After dinner the kiddos of course had to get ready for bed and Santa.  Cookies were picked, carrots were thrown out for the reindeer, and then sung in the bed they all went!  Miss H was so cute this year asking questions about Santa.  She was very concerned about how he would come and go and put everything.  She is finally getting to the fun Santa age I think next year will be a blast.  Who knows we may even get to see an elf on the shelf since she understands it more!!

 Cookies for Santa and the Night Before Christmas being read! 

Sweet baby M watching over the gifts as the bigs throw carrots out!

Mom and Miss H dropping carrots….

She sat with him!!!

This year I was determined to get Miss H to sit with Santa on her own…and happy!  Mostly because I didn't want my fat prego self stuck in all these Santa pics :-)  Well our first attempt was pretty good.  Yes, I am a crazy momma and we do drive bys for Santa starting on Black Friday!  We always go see Santa while in MN because he honestly is the best Santa in the world! I am just sad he is our first one because I would love a pic of her with him…but at that point she isn't ready.  Santa there is so cool and hip I mean he wears crocs for goodness sake.  He is very friend and always starts our Santa month off great.  After him every single time we are at the mall NO MATTER what…I tell Miss H we will go talk with Santa.  

She always walks up with great intent to sit but then ends up just standing beside him.  No problem there at least she is close to him.  Our goal is to get him on her lap by the time Santa comes to Chris' work!  Chris' company is amazing and host a kids Christmas party every year.  Santa comes and brings the kiddos a gift!  This Santa is wonderful too and we love him.  So after about 2 1/2 weeks of drive bys and chatting about Santa and how sweet he is and siting on his lap is okay we are ready for the party! 

December 9th marked the best day ever!!  Christmas could be over as far as I am concerned because we got a picture with Miss H and Santa!  Yes she was on Mrs. Clause's lap but she was there and happy!! She was so proud of her self for sitting with them.  She was also super excited about the Little People airplane he brought her!  

After that successful Santa picture we had one more event with Santa.  Of course this time I was unsure if Mrs. Clause would be there so I warned her she would have to sit with Santa!!  Our sweet friends always invite us to this wonderful charity even for NICU kiddos!!  We had another successful Santa pic there too…Now the unsuccessful part was getting 3 2 year old's on Santa's lap!  But man did we get some classic Santa DISLIKE pics! 

well they were all on his lap…kind of and then!!!!

Regardless of the Santa picture issues there the kids had a blast.  They get to decorate cookies, dance their hearts out, and see Prancer.  Miss H loved it and would have stayed all day if we let her.  

Baby Tiger 25 Weeks!

I am 25 weeks!!

Pregnancy Highlights: 

Size of Baby: Tiger is the size of a turnip, 9 inches and about 1.7 lbs

Total weight gain/loss: well I have managed to gain about 20lbs via my last visit! (which means I have gained back the 18lbs I lost in the first 8 weeks…but less gain than with Miss H) My goal was to be less than when I had Miss H…thanks to Tiger hating food I am sticking to that 

Maternity clothes: Yes!! I even busted out my jeans that I never wore with Miss H because of our cold weather and trip to MN soon. 

Gender: Surprise!!! I really have no clue, Miss H wants a brother but we will see in Feb. 

Movement: Tiger is moving, but not as much as I remember with Miss H.  Also it likes to hang out very low where as H was living in my right rib cage.  I am a little thankful for that minus the need to potty more because of the low kicks.   

Sleep: I seem to sleep pretty great, minus the one or 2 potty breaks at night!

Cravings: I love lemon line chips!  Tiger did allow me to enjoy some ice cream this week which was nice. 

Food: Tiger is a food HATER!! I pretty much live off of sandwiches and chicken.  I am looking forward to Thanksgiving meal though with hopes that Tiger loves that. Otherwise I will be very sad because I love all things Thanksgiving.

Symptoms: This week my back has been hurting a bit more..I of course blame that on the extra large girls up top (thanks but no thanks Tiger).  Other than that bending over is getting rough, but feeling great. I really can't complain.

Favorite moment of the week: We pulled out Christmas and decorated this past weekend.  I love that Miss H was so excited and can't wait to have Tiger here next year to share that joy.  She kept saying and we will get Tiger a tree too and a stocking…act!  She loves you so much Tiger you have no idea!

Next week we are off to the wonderful warm MN for Thanksgiving it will be Tiger's first trip there!  I am thankful to be pregnant because it does help keep me a little warmer in those freezing cold temps.  I am also thankful that I am a month less along than when we went when I was prego with Miss H because my coat still zips up! It's the small things in life right?

Pumpkins and Pancakes at the Zoo!!

BRRRR…of course it would become freezing cold the week we have Pumpkins and Pancakes at our zoo.  No worries though the weather did not keep us from having a blast.  I love our zoo for many reasons but this one is our favorite.  We love this event and are happy we stumbled upon it last year!  This event is for zoo members only which makes it so calm and fun.  Basically you get to go to the zoo from 8 am to 10 am and enjoy breakfast with the animals.

The zoo provides a nice warm pancake breakfast for everyone, while the animals get to enjoy pumpkin treats in their habitats.  Also each animal is let out at a certain times and zoo keeper are there to chat about the animals.  Miss H's favorite part of this event is actually not the elephants!!  They don't go crazy over the pumpkins like the lions and tigers do.  She loves to watch the lions get released into their area and find their pumpkins.  Last year it was 2 female lions and they played with their pumpkins like a ball before eating it.  This year it was the 3 year old male who came out.  He was pretty funny to watch going from pumpkin to pumpkin trying to eat them all at once (typical male right).

The tigers were even more excited than the lions…as one of them was a little unsure of the pumpkin and the other almost lost his in the water!  Thankfully they have cat like reflexes as he grabbed it with his paws just before it fell in.

Nothing makes your day better than fun at the zoo with family and friends.  The girls even took full advantage of the free carousel and train rides.  Mommy was just super excited I didn't have to help with the carousel ride…daddy got to enjoy it!   (Baby Tiger is not a fan..imagine that!! This carousel is even longer than most)