Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Christmas was great, as always. It was very hectic and exhausting but we made it through 5 Christmas' in 3 days and loved every minute of it!

#1 We started off by celebrating with John's fam on Christmas eve. Lorraine had to work on Christmas so we decided Christmas Eve was the best time for everyone to get together. We headed over there in the afternoon and opened presents and had a fabulous lunch/dinner.

lilly opening her first presents of Christmas 09

granny and myllah

looking so sweet in her curls

After the in-laws we headed to Christmas Eve service at our church. We went to the last service that started at 6:30pm...not knowing that they had NO nursery for the last service. So, most of my church service was spent out in the hallway letting lilly run around because she was very antsy and loud, haha.

Christmas dresses!

mamma and her babies

playing with her new cradle for her dolly from granny and boo...she loved it!

#2 Christmas day we woke up and had Christmas with just us 4!

Christmas jammies! I love lilly's expression in this picture

opening her stocking

a new baby carrier...and bracelets (when we left for my grandmas john carried myllah out to the car in her carrier and lilly followed behind with her baby in her carrier...it was too cute!)

and stroller

#3 then we headed to my grandmas house right after that (9am) for Christmas with the lefever side.

opening some of myllah's gifts for her

dress up clothes

papa, lilly and uncle justin

mimi, papa, and lilly (notice the baby and carrier had to go everywhere with her)

miss myllah

#4 After grandma's it was time to head to my parents house for Christmas with them

loved the dora placemat

dora toilet seat cover for the big girl potty

everyone opening presents

a bathtub for her baby ( i think this child has everything a little girl could ever possibly want for a doll)

along with the toilet seat cover my mom got her some big girl panties ( it think she is trying to give me a hint) and lilly tool them all out of the package this morning and this is where i found htem...in the trash. i guess she not ready yet :)

#5 and lastly, today we headed to my parents house again for my dad's side of the family Christmas

loving her puppy she got from amber and sarah

hello?

having fun with mommy

playing with her new dollhouse from mimi and papa

took a few family photos....

haha, i just laugh every time i look at this. Lilly is loving picking her nose right now. As john says "i'm sure she thinks it's such a relief to know that she can now get her boogers out!"

PHEW! Did you see enough pics?!? Because this isn't even a fraction of what i took :) And yes, they had matching outfits on all 3 days :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Christmas. May we all remember the real reason for CHRISTmas! Happy Birthday, Jesus!

First movie...

Tuesday night we headed to our first movie with lilly(the princess and the frog), along with his mom, cousins, brother in law and sister. Lilly was the only one that sat through the movie without a peep (except for one brief moment). It was so cute to watch her sit in her seat with her popcorn in hand and her feet not even dangling off the edge of the chair. She was such an angel!

(these may be blurry because they are from john's phone)

Myllah came with us too and wasn't the happiest thing during it. Either john or I were out in the hallway trying to get her to go to sleep. She wasn't having it. Here she is asleep right when we got there...this lasted for about 10 minutes

This can only make your day better...

These faces brighten up my day...everyday!

It's a winter wonderland!

Ok, so i know i have been writing on here alot, and i have even contemplated stopping the blog because there is really no security on this thing and anybody from anywhere can look at it...which freaks me out at times! BUT then a while back i made part of my blog into a book and i was looking back on it last night and it's such a great thing for your kids to have when they get older....so i guess i will keep doing it :)

We woke up to a "winter wonderland" this morning. Our first snow (well we had a little a few weeks back but just a light dusting) and lilly was so excited to go play in it. I had her all dressed and ready to go (we were going to a Christmas thing at the Chapel) and then i saw her little eyes light up and her say "side, side (outside)"...i just couldn't say no! So I ran up in the attic, pulled out her snowsuit, boots, gloves, and hat and flung it on her. John joined her outside and they had a blast! They built their very first snowman together and she loved eating the snow (i mean what kid doesn't... it's a great slushy).

what is this?

daddy wiping her hands off

haha, i told her to smile and she said "chhheeesseeebburrggeerr"...and this was the outcome...too cute

what a good daddy

starting to build the snowman

mmmm, this is good stuff

the finished product!

After playing in the snow it was time to head to the Chapel with mimi. They were having a Christmas thing for the kids. Lilly had so much fun...she got to decorate her own sugar cookies (which mimi let her eat 3!...which is probably why she has been laying in her bed for an hour now talking to herself, saying her alphabet, and counting), she got to see lots of animals (bunnies, miniature pigs, chicken, and even santa's reindeer!), and then she got to see santa again and sit on his lap! She did great again! Myllah got to do all of these things too...while sleeping :) The girls were in matching outfits again and looked so cute...and then myllah decided to have the biggest blowout she has ever had. It went all the way up to her head...there was barely any in her diaper...not sure how that happens! I hate the blowout stage...seriously how can one little 9 pound thing poop with so much force that it blows out her diaper and up to her head?!?! Mind boggling. So ya that was our morning...and did i mention that we did all of this and was home by 12:30? Ya, we have superpowers, haha.

eating the first of 3 cookies

petting the bunny

santa's reindeer

this bunny wanted to give her a kiss

little princess

trying to feed the animals

yesterday I went shopping with my friend lauren. We had planned on going shopping without any kids...but it just didn't work out. So we decided that we would go shopping with a 5 week old, 9 month old, almost 2 year old, and a 2 1/2 year old. HAHA, what were we thinking?!?! My morning started out ok..i think lauren had a little rough of a morning before we got there.

Here is what all went on in our shopping trip...we got there and got some breakfast for the 2 1/2 year old, headed to one store and then i needed to feed myllah. So, i took the older kids and myllah to the play area at the mall for them to play and i could feed myllah and lauren could shop a little. Now, i NEVER feed out in public but figured since i had my "hooter hider" i would be fine, and usually the play area is just mom's anyways...so they understand. All was going well until lilly decided she wanted to run out of the play area because a little girl was chasing her. Lauren (thank goodness) was back and could run after her because i still had a baby feeding and it would have been really awkward.... for everyone.... if i suddenly stood up with a boob hanging out running after a child in the mall. We soon got this resolved and it was time to leave the play area. lauren fixed ethan a bottle(a glass bottle might i add) and was giving it to him in the stroller when it suddenly fell on the floor and shattered everywhere! Glass, milk and a crying baby, yikes! There is no where to buy a bottle in the mall (which is crazy) so we used our brains and put it in a sippy and tried it that way. We had to go to starbucks and get water (hot and cold) and try to make a bottle in a sippy...no measuring or anything. PHEW..ok..that was taken care of...security was called to come and clean the milk and glass up on the floor and we were hoping this was the last of our craziness. OH NO...why stop there? So then lilly decides she wants to add in on the fun again....anytime lauren would leave my sight with aubrey lilly would cry and scream "AUBREY!" Oh man, really? She isn't that far from us...you can see her right there!!( she really likes her) Then aubrey wants in too...why leave her out, right? Aubrey is done taking paci's but decided she needed one on this day. Luckily i had an extra. Aubrey also wants everything in site...rings, hello kitty stuff, dora purse, etc....but lauren keeps insisting that we need to leave stuff for santa to get her:) Myllah pretty much slept the whole time...thank goodness...a crying baby added to this mix would have been bad. oh ya, one more thing...lilly decided to take the whole zip lock bag of goldfish and dump it in her stroller seat while crumbling them in her hands...ya, that caused for a mess!! I'm sure you all are thinking...wow, those kids are bad....really they aren't...It was just one of those days!!

WOW..after 4 hours of shopping and all of this madness (and probably more that i am forgetting) we DID get SOME shopping done. Needless to say we were all exhausted when we left:)

Thank you lauren for your company! Not many people would put up with all that mess, but we were determined and I had a great time and built some great memories! next time..lets go without kids, haha.

One last note...myllah is starting to smile (not just a gas smile). So precious and so innocent! Just melts my heart!!

Santa!

Yesterday we went to sit on Santa's lap at the mall. On Saturday i was there with the kids Christmas shopping and we stopped by to glance at Santa so i could see what the reaction of lilly would be. She stared at him and he waved at her...she quietly whispered under her breath "hi". It was so cute! She didn't even act scared so i figured we were ok to go see him.

As some of you remember last year she was petrified of him! Like, i thought she was traumatized for life! Here is a look back at last years :)

here she is crawling as fast as she can to mimi...but stopped right in the middle and took one glance at him........

......and was traumatized! p.s. look how little she was !!! :(

yep, still crying

And here is this years pic with Santa. It was great because they let you bring your own camera and take your own pics this year if you want and don't have to pay a dime!! So i just brought my point and shoot camera, didn't have to wait in line besides one person and didn't have to pay anything!

wasn't so sure at first

still didn't LOVE him but was ok with it

BUT we had no tears...except when we left, she cried and yelled "SANTA". I guess she really liked him, haha.

And here is some pictures of my loves...family time is the best!

lilly, myllah, and lilly's baby...so sweet

all 3 of my loves

and the newest addition...so precious

And lastly...any of you remember lilly's BANG?!? Ya, she was born with a TON of hair and soon lost all of it but the BANG. John and i were looking at some pics and were like "why didn't anyone tell us it was that bad?" haha. Well it was BAD, and i mean BAD. Here she is sporting the BANG on the carousel......

......which brings me to my next point. Myllah is having the opposite problem. She is losing (what little she had) the hair on the top of her head but keeping the long hair in the back. Sort of resulting in a peacock look...or a major mullet. both no no's for a daughter of a hairstylist :) My mother in law asked me the other day if i shaved the top of her head, haha. We laughed and i said " why in the world would i shave just the top of her head?!" Too funny. So ya, here is a pic of her bad hair (which a headband hides very well). This pic doesn't do it justice, but you can kind of get the gist of it.

Christmas stuff...

Friday night was GRB's (granite ridge builders) Christmas party. It was our first "date night", not what i would consider an ideal date night, but it was our first time out anywhere without any kids. My parents came over to our house and watched the kids while we were gone. It all went well, Myllah was a little fussy but everyone survived :) We had a good time at the party, talking with friends and hanging out. Here are a few pics from that night.

We almost finished up our Christmas shopping saturday. I feel like i am "catching up" on things. Christmas shopping almost done, all the gifts wrapped that i have except what i got this weekend, Lilly's birthday planned and invites going out tomorrow, and her b-day gifts wrapped. AHHHH i can breathe :) I went Christmas shopping twice with both girls to the mall in the past week. I had to break out the "bus" (aka double stroller). It went pretty well both times. The kids did great but i didn't get much accomplished. The first adventure out everything went great going into the mall...and then there is the leaving part...of course there was a guy that wanted my parking spot. I got the kids in the car just fine, (and fast because it was freezing and windy) , got the packages, blankets, sleepy wrap, diaper bag, paci's, fishy's, sippy cup, and everything else that 2 kids require :) in and then came the last thing....the bus. I could not remember for the life of me how to collapse it back together. It is a little bit of a pain to break down...you have to take the front seat off and turn it around, take myllah's "seat" (it's actually bars that hold her carseat on there) all the way off and then collapse it. Ya, i frantically tried and tried for a while and FINALLY figured it out. Needless to say the guy moved on to another spot :), haha. I will never forget how to collapse that thing again. I hate the feeling of being watched and rushed when something isn't going your way!!

I took a few Christmas photos of the girls. We aren't sending out a Christmas card this year because between announcements, thank you's, and b-day invites i was done with cards :) AND we never got a pic of our whole family. But here are a few (ok, alot) of the girls.

this one is kinda hard to see, but john is holding myllah

Christmas is right around the corner!

I love this time of year!!

oh and i will leave you with a few sleep deprived stories (atleast that is what i am blaming it on)

Saturday i was going to run errands by myself :) while john watched the kids. I couldn't find my phone anywhere so i had john call it from his phone. I soon found it and ran out to the car (because i didn't want to waste anymore of my alone time, haha...you only get so long). As i am driving away i glance at my phone and see that john called. So, i call him and said..."yes, you called me?" He was like..."i called you when you wanted me to find your phone"...haha..oh...i'm losing my mind.

In the same shopping trip i was going to old navy to try and find a Christmas gift. Well i drove around for 20 minutes trying to find a parking spot...and failed. Never found one, not even the last row by the road (because i was willing to walk that far with out kids). I finally gave up and decided to just go home and we could all go out later and john could just drop me off at the store so we didn't have to try and find a spot to park. As i arrived home i noticed i wore my slippers (not ugg slippers, or anything of the sort...SLIPPERS...ones you slip your foot in..ones that totally look like slippers)..ya, i am definitely losing my mind! I guess it was in God's plan for me not to find a parking spot and go home because i wore my house slippers out. :) (and sadly this is the second time i have done this since myllah was born)

She makes me laugh......

oh my, another video of lilly. She just cracks me up! Such a huge personality! Enjoy! Sorry about the shaking camera, i couldn't control the camera and laugh at the same time :)

Untitled from Ashley Sommer on Vimeo.