Happy New Year!

For New Years we just stayed at the house.  Everyone but me wanted a junk food fest - I don't understand why everything has to revolve around food!  Seriously.  So, I acquiesced and for the most part they got what they wanted.  They had pizza, candy, cheese & crackers and cookies.  I did make some homemade hummus, and a fruit tray so we had something healthy at least!

 Bristol went to bed at her normal 7pm, no need to have a grumpy baby by keeping her up!

 The kids and my parents made all kinds of New Years signs to post around the house.

 This is Bristol's "I want my momma!' sign

Snuggles with my two big babies before I headed to bed at 10pm!  I normally stay up for New Years, but not this year.  Not when I know I don't get to sleep in if I want to...Bristol doesn't believe in sleeping in!

Good bye 2013 - we had a good year.  May 2014 be even better!

10 Months!

This baby is 10 months old!  She is into EVERYTHING, goes EVERYWHERE, loves her brother and sister, has 6 teeth, love to eat, and LOVES her mama!  We love her so much!!

Christmas!

Everyone but me was feeling much better Christmas morning.  I felt better, but still just not really great.  But, nothing can stop Christmas morning!  The kids were so excited!

By the afternoon I was feeling a lot better.  My mom and I decided to give Christmas dinner a go.  We cooked and baked all afternoon.  It was good to finally have a little bit of an appetite again!

This little one was happy to eat!

 

 We are so blessed - what a wonderful (mostly) day!

Christmas Eve

Well, this Christmas Eve was not fun!  Bristol had gotten sick Saturday and was throwing up.  I have never been puked on like that before - it was really gross.  I was laying on the couch holding her, she lifted her head up and I just saw all this green stuff spewing from her mouth.  I turned my head just in time so it didn't get on my face, but it was all over the side of my neck, down my back, in my hair - it was disgusting!!  Poor baby.  Then she just kept throwing up after that every hour or so.  She was fine by later that night.  I stayed home from church with her on Sunday, and she was fine all day.  I figured it was all gone by Monday...wrong!  Tj and Brena started saying they didn't feel well Monday night.  I had gone to the store to grab a few things and TJ called me and said I had to get home RIGHT NOW!  He was throwing up, Brena was throwing up and Bristol was crying.  UGH!  I didn't even get any shopping done at all!  So, I rushed home.  I also had to drive to Roanoke to pick up my parents who were flying in at 10 Monday night.  Tyler was going to go with me, then I found him in the bathroom throwing up too!  Good grief - will it never end?!  Little did I know how bad it was about to get!  I left to go get my parents and called them on the way with the bad news.  They weren't too thrilled to hear about what was happening here! We got home late and went to bed.  Tuesday morning most everyone was feeling a little bit better.  Then, my stomach started feeling weird.  Yep - my turn!  I was so sick - it was miserable!  I haven't felt that sick in a loooong time.  So, Christmas Eve was not much fun around here!

The kids did manage to unwrap their one gift that night though.

Bummer

Tj left Thursday evening to head to the gym.  Normally he just walks over since it's so close.  But, it was a little cold, so he drove.  He had just gotten out of our neighborhood when he called me to say he was rear ended.  About an hour later he came home.  The poor car is totaled.  I am still so angry!  Why can't people pay attention?  The girl that hit him didn't even slow down!  Now we are out a good car that we had no plans on getting rid of for a very long time.  And, I HATE going through the process of buying/finding a new car.  Except for whiplash, thank goodness TJ is ok!

Bristol Pictures

I used to take the other two kids to mommy & me classes regularly when they were younger.  I also did story time at the library with them.  Bristol is a little different - she goes to the gym with me everyday.  I didn't work out on Friday, and I saw there was a story time at the library for infants.  So, we went to story time.  Bristol was only interested in crawling around and pulling the other babies' hair!  She was such a stinker!  She wasn't interested in her books at all.  But, at the end they had a bubble machine.  She loved that!

She has been getting into everything lately.  I turned my back for an instant the other day, turned back around and this is what I saw!  Little monkey!

Gymnastics

Brena's been doing gymnastics for about 15 months or so.  I made her do ballet for about 4 years.  I just think since we are so tall, ballet makes more sense.  But, she begged and begged to do gymnastics.  She loves it, she never loved ballet {sigh}.  She has made a lot of progress, and it's amazing to see what she can get her body to do!  She sure is flexible.  Tonight there was a ribbon ceremony.  Brena earned her red ribbon.  One more ribbon to finish up this level, then on to the next!

Here she is practicing more of her back bend kick overs.  She is so good at them now, she practiced and practiced these to get them just right.  She even got to ring the bell when she learned it, since it was above her level.

And earning her red ribbon in Leaping Lizards 2!

Back bend Kickover!

Brenalee has been working so hard on her back bend kickover.  It's crazy to me how flexible she is!  She doesn't even need help anymore to do it.

She also earned her red ribbon tonight.

Tree Decorating

Brena wouldn't leave us alone about putting the Christmas tree up - that kid sure knows how to be a squeaky wheel!  She loves decorating for holidays.  We got Bristol a babysitter and then the rest of us went and saw Frozen.  I really liked it - especially the music.  It was really good.  A few cheesy parts - but mostly good.  Then we got home and decorated the tree.  I love Christmas, I love everything about it.  The decorating, the baking, the spirit of goodwill that is everywhere, and the cold (kind-of) because I like to bundle up in sweaters, boots and scarves!

Trying to get all the Christmas stuff out!

 They love each other so much ;)

 She loves to decorate!

 Bristol was sleeping, so it was just the 4 of us for this picture.