Give a three-year-old a camera...

...

And she will take some really incredible holiday pictures...

Who knew, right?!

Oh Christmas Tree!

...

It took the kids approximately 3 minutes to pick out our tree, name him "Furry Murray" and dance around him laughing hysterically. I mean, how can you explain to them about bare spots after that?

So. Furry Murray was welcomed home. He sports some naked spots. We knew he would fit right in. 

I am so very thankful that in most cases, parents are given ample amounts of time to gear up to certain phases of kids. Let me tell you, there is no way the "Mom of two toddlers" previous version of myself could have handled the intensity and JOY of decorating the tree this year. Thank goodness, I had some a slow and steady ramp up. Did I mention the intensity?

Ornaments in your face...

moving soooooo fast...

can't even focus on your body sorts of decorating.

I kid, I kid. 

They did slow down for a few minutes here and there...

Every year we rotate who gets to hang the star on top of our beloved tree. This year was Lucy's first year to have a go at it. I can't even begin to convey how excited she was.

I mean, she sang "Away in the Manger" to it...

She wore it around like a hat...

She gave it a good snuggle...

WE. WERE. TERRIFIED.

She was so excited that she didn't even need a ladder. She just climbed Kelly like a feral cat. Intensity and a good bit o' fear. Our relationship with Lucy in a nutshell. 

Wouldn't you know... that kid was the BEST star hanger we have ever had.

SERIOUSLY...THE BEST.

Sure one of our animals knocked over the front-loaded tree the very next day...

 But, shhhh... THE BEST.

Holiday Love

...

Sending you HEAPS of holiday love

*Kelly, Julie, Molly, Gabriel, Lucy and Annabel May*

Fastest. Four. Months. Ever.

...

I always say around Halloween that in a few days we will blink and it will be New Years. Gosh, this year felt no different.

Our sweet, Annie. FOUR MONTHS OLD!

Weight: 11 lb 9 oz. - 3%

Height: 22.5 inches - 1%

Head: 39.9 - 28%

This little peanut has had quite a fun month of holiday travel, play dates with friends, and LOTS and LOTS of tummy time. There has been a lot of effort to build up that upper body pre-surgery, round out the flat spots of her head and work on some key milestones.

Like rolling! Check. Annie now rolls front to back always and a few times from back to front. Lucy sure likes to help out and flip her over when I'm not looking. If only Lucy knew the amount of pestering that will be handed back to her in the years to come. 

Tummy time has become a group event.

 Still the ever snuzzler...

and ultimate lover of bath time.

Annie even weathered her first true polar vortex this month... right on the weekend we were supposed to be camping. Eek! We will save that milestone for the spring!

Such a growing girl. This month, Annie continues to stretch her sleeping longer in the night. A couple 7 hr stretches. Whoohoo. She now has a really consistent three naps a day schedule and continues to be able to sleep absolutely anywhere! The ever fan of the boob, she continues to give Kelly a run for his money on the nights I work. She screams her opinions on bottles and then eventually gives in to it. She'll get the hang of it one day! Secretly, I love that she still loves to snuggle me most at bedtime. 

Annie's surgery date is scheduled for February 2nd. We have pre-op the week before and will know all the details then. We know for certain we will be one to two nights in the hospital while they monitor her swelling and pain levels with the spica cast. After that we should be cleared to go home. For right now, I am reading up and trying to prepare for everything we will need. I have a bunch more to learn in the month and a half to come. 

Here's a little video to show you what we are in for with those diaper changes...

Savoring every little day with those free and kicking tootsies.

We will be travelling to Dallas again for Annie's first Christmas. I pretty confident Santa will be stopping by Nonnie's house for our sweet girl. She is hopeful for some new toys, a mobile and her very own pillow pet! Santa has her list for sure!

Such an exciting month to come!

Thankful.

...
We traveled to Dallas for Thanksgiving, and I took only two pictures the entire week. So often, I am running house to house, wrangling kids and squeezing pictures in every extra chance I can. This time... I just decided to soak up the still moments.

Well. That. Annnnnnd Gabriel completely killed Kelly and my cell batteries almost everywhere we went playing Minecraft. Curse you, Minecraft and your addictive, addictive ways.

But just because it is only documented in a few pictures doesn't mean I'm not thankful. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't stop and think about all of life's blessings.

Like these people:

And this baby-loving, partner in crime.

And this wonderful job I get to have, where I work with amazing people all focused on helping the tiny people of Central Texas feel better. How many people get to have a job that rewarding?? 

 

 We are wrapped up in family on each trip to Dallas...

And then have some great adopted family to love on here at home...

In the words of a Gabriel... I am thankful times infinity.

Halloween of long ago.

...
Do you ever wonder what happens when my baby finally decides to gift me an almost three hour nap, post night-shift in the sharp onset of flu season?

THIS. This is what happens.

Holy cow. It is 9:43pm and I am NOT sitting comatose on my couch gradually welcoming sleep... or death... or a death-like sleep.

Nope. I'm here. Sipping on my deliciously gifted caramel praline gourmet hot chocolate ---which will in all likelihood keep me awake until tomorrow--- which juuuuuust might be okay. Have you see the blog lately? I left off before Halloween. And it is basically 2015 now.

Thanks for the sleep, Annie. Time to catch up.

Halloween. It happened.

This time last year, we had no little friends in this neighborhood and awkwardly trick or treated around this new hood slightly missing all our Milwood buddies. Not this year. When someone tells you that you need to see something through all seasons before you make a judgement on it, they mean it. (I have actually only ever heard this referenced to relationships but in this case it completely applies to neighbors too...).

We lovingly refer to this year as "Elsa's year". I'm not kidding when I told you that almost every girl we know and love wanted to be Elsa. In fact... both my May girls sought fervently to be Elsa. My suggestion was for them BOTH to be Elsa. We'll you would have thought that my suggestion was the equivalent of spoon feeding them poison.

So. Since it was an ongoing argument here in our ole' abode, I opted to BAN all things Elsa unless they could share the role. Otherwise, the girls had to think of something else. I have to admit, I was a little surprised and IN LOVE with their idea.

Batman and Robin... what a duo.

Throw in Cat and Kitty Woman...

And the Joker...

We sure had the makings of a theme. 

Almost...

Gabe just couldn't fathom the possibility of being anything except Dracula. We tried to convince him how fun it would be... but hello. Have you met my neurotic, son? There was no changing his mind. He made Dracula look pretty awesome... except for the few seconds when Dracula stopped to pee in a strangers yard mid trick-o-treat time. It would appear Dracula's social standards miiiight need some fine tuning.

We had a several other opportunities to party the week of Halloween and in efforts to promote less costume meltdowns on the actual holiday, we instead just raided the ole dress up box. The kids had a blast. Molly even won a little costume contest. Gabriel DID NOT win the costume contest and the entire neighborhood knew exactly how he felt about those judges. They just didn't recognize the greatness of Dracula. After all, it was Elsa's year, Gabe.

Randomly, I was gifted one beautiful little flashback. Anyone else get teary when you see your child where something their sibling did?  I swear it feels like Molly was Jasmine just last year.

No holiday would be complete without one little temper tantrum. This time... it was by me.

We were headed out trick or treating, excited to finally go further this year with bigger kids when Annie (at the time our resident 11-week-old) hit that beautiful, new baby fussy time. As silly as it is now... all those angry feelings I had about the surprise of Annie, coupled with the division of big kids and babies came up like a giant surge and took me to a really dark place. I am sure sleep exhaustion played a large part too.

You can bet your bunnies, I mumbled something to the effect of needing to go home... life being no fun... and stomped away to leave Kelly out trick or treating with the rest of the gang. Once I was home, and Annie was fed (and smiling again), I realized how silly I was being. This is my life. I have to find a way to balance both baby and big kids and still do things as a family. No, Annie won't have as strict as schedule as Molly did as a baby and but she will adjust. We all will. Once again returned to rational thinking, I did as all sane people do and opened the fridge, grabbed some beers and loaded the double BOB in efforts to rejoin the rest of my crew. Ever see cat woman, running down the neighborhood in the dark with beer and baby in tow? Definition of cool, no?

I rallied. And you know what? It was my favorite trick-or-treating to date. As a bonus... all that walking made for one nice and easy decline to bed.

We'll call it a win...even if it came packaged in a bit of rage.