Christmas 2018

Well, another Christmas has come and gone.  We're still reveling in the laziness of Christmas Break, the kids are just as enamored with all their new toys as they were on Christmas morning, and my heart still feels full enough that it could just burst at any moment.  Christmas might be over but life is still sweet.  It's like a bubble floating along in the air....Once New Years is over, the bubble pops and we all go back to real life.  But for now, we are Christmas sponges; soaking up every moment of this Holiday Season.

Sullivan learned about Santa this year enough to kind of comprehend that someone other than Mommy and Daddy brought him those big presents under the tree, but not enough to fully grasp exactly what all was going on- next year will be FUN when he understands it all and all 3 of my babies believe!

The girls, however, are still in those sweet years of FULL-ON believing. Lucy has been asking some questions for the first time about the logistics of it all... but every answer I give she readily accepts.  However, the questions were a new development this year and it scares me a little.  Piper came home from school one day last week SOBBING hard.  I flew to her and asked her what was wrong, thinking something terrible must have happened.  She said "Raegan told me a BIG LIE and it made me cry! She told me that Santa isn't real and that my parents give me my presents but she was LYING!"  If you've ever heard the term Mama Bear, then you know what happened next.  I was seething.  Of course Piper didn't believe it, but the seed of doubt had been planted in her mind and she is only in Kindergarten!!! I told her that Raegan might have made the "Naughty List" now that she had told Piper something so horrific, and that Santa would be sad to know that some of the kids in this world are going around saying such sad things.  The good news is, she came to me telling me Reagan lied to her, so she didn't believe it at all. But still.  I can't even tell you how angry I was! As a Mommy who lives and breathes everything Christmas and watches all the magic happen through her magic-believing-children, it upset me a LOT.  If someone ruins Christmas for my babies, they better watch out!  However, it didn't sway her and now I can say it was just a tiny blip in our month. 

Christmas really is perfect every year. I'm not kidding. This is not me putting a spin on it and covering up a bad situation to make people out there think we are perfect.  I try to keep things real.  And fortunately, for us, Christmas has been wonderful every single year since having kids.  I am so lucky! Christmas Eve/Day are my most favorite 48 hours of the entire year.  Christmas Eve used to be full of family and talent shows and so much food.... and sadly, we don't have that anymore.  But it still is full of love, happiness, magic, story-time, and memories/traditions we have created on our own.  It has been 5 years of just us on Christmas, but there is no lack of happiness (or loudness!) in the walls of our home!

The girls' carefully choose what cookies to leave out for Santa on their special Santa plate, they get their bells ready for Christmas morning (a childhood tradition I have carried on with my kids because I love it so much), we talk about where in the world we think Santa might be and what time he could be getting to our house, we make sure we have on our Christmas PJ's and put them to bed right at 8 so that we can all get a decent amount of sleep before the craziness of the next morning. They LIKE going to bed early- it means Christmas morning comes sooner :)  It might be the only night of the year that they readily welcome bedtime, haha!

Of course, Shawn and I have the tradition of watching "Christmas Vacation" while we set up Santa, and around midnight each year we finally get to go to bed.  It is so much fun.  

This year, we let Sully come out at the same time as the girls now that he is old enough to run to his gifts too.  We're mean parents who make them wait until 8am to wake us up, but usually we let him sleep in til about 8:30 and then get him after the girls have opened their stockings and Santa gifts. Now that he is almost 3 though, this time we let him go running out with them.  It was adorable and such a happy time! There were screams and squeals and bright eyes and laughter all at once!  Lucy has been asking for a monogrammed back-pack ("with either cotton candy, OR ice-cream cones on it") since the Summer.  The only hiccup was when she said "I don't think Santa made my backpack! I think he bought it at Gymboree because there is a Gymboree tag on it!" Oops.... I said that maybe there was an elf named Gymboree who made it.  She still looked skeptical, so then I said "or MAYBE there is a Gymboree factory up at the North Pole for all the kids who want the elves to make them things from Gymboree."  That satisfied her.  So now I need to remember that The North Pole has certain factories on it's campus, hahaha! She also got a Barbie Vet car.  Piper got the Bouncy Horse she's been asking for since last Spring and named him Spotty, and Sully got tools and a remote controlled Car from the movie Cars... but the thing he was most excited about was all the candy in his stocking.  That boy LOVES candy.  More than any kid I've ever met.  It's actually scary!

Anyway, the presents were all done and opened before 10am but they spent the rest of the day playing.  It was a nice warm day in the 60s so they took a lot of their gifts outside to play with.  There was happiness from start to finish.  No real meals- just snacking- and a day full of excitement! Santa brought me a sewing machine (just a cheap one- less than $100) because there are so many times I need to mend things and I need a machine for it. (Shawn's grandmother gave me her old one during our 2nd year of marriage and I made some blankets and a dress with it, but it bit the dust after only having it for a year.) I am not a seamstress by any means, but I can do very basic sewing and I have needed one for those types of things many times over the years!  Shawn got a new jacket from Santa and he loves it.  We both knew what we were getting because we needed to know specifics (try asking a guy about a Sewing machine, haha!), but it was still fun to unwrap our things. The best part, though, is watching the kids open everything and seeing all the paper and toys covering every inch of the family room.  Nothing beats that. And I still have years of that, so I'm one happy Mama.

Yes, Christmas was perfect.  And as I write this, all 3 kids are up in the girls' room with Taylor Swift blasting and I hear jumping and dancing and laughing.  So as I said- the week after Christmas is perfect as well.  There is a lightness in my soul and a permanent smile on my face.  I wish life could stay this blissful forever!

I do ALL the cooking, but I have to give Shawn some credit! He is in charge of keeping the kids out of the kitchen all day which is hard! He also, every year, makes a tuna dip, puts the toothpicks in the terriyaki strips and peels all the potatoes that we use for the Potato Casserole.  This year, Lucy asked for Mashed Potatoes as well (which she didn't touch, of course) so we had tons of potatoes for him to peel!  I also added Lemon Bars to the menu this time around to give us a little dessert and the kids all gagged when I made them try it.  I don't get it; it was so good! I made the crust myself and everything- all from scratch!  All that lemon zesting for nothing!

The Tooth Fairy AND Santa visited us on Christmas Eve! Lucy's tooth was almost ready to come out and she wanted to lose it on Christmas Eve SO badly so I yanked extra hard to get it out :)  She was beyond excited!

The truth is, I was lazy about wrapping the rainboots and umbrellas, so Santa brought them instead... which makes it look like they all got a little too much from Santa, but it is what it is... haha!

She is hugging her new horse :)

This boy and his candy...

 

And quickly, I'm adding some pictures of the days leading up to Christmas.  We had class parties, the girls had Polar Express Day at school (they get to wear PJ's), we baked Santa's cookies and went to look at lights around town one last time.

I want to remember this because I think it is so cute! This is Daniel, and Piper is his crush! His mom told me he is OBSESSED with her😂 They live around the corner from us and the other day he rode up and down our street on his scooter yelling “PIPER! WHERE DO YOU LIVE??!”😂😂😂😂!

This picture doesn't adequately show the amount of flour EVERYWHERE from this kid! Baking with a 2 year old is just crazy!

Until Next Year...... Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

The Pi Baby

S.i.x.

That's how many years it's been since our very first physical contact. That's how many years it's been since the first tears of joy I cried and your first big breath filled your lungs.  That's how many years it's been since I first laid eyes on you and couldn't look away. That's how long it's been since Daddy cut your cord and we did skin to skin and heart to heart on that cold December day.

My Pi Baby turned 6 today.

I can't even believe it....

She has been our sour patch baby, our silver-haired angel, our spit-fire, our "Chunks Jr.", our sweetie "pi", our comedian, our defender, our manipulator, our biggest cheerleader, our head-strong takes-no-prisoners-child, our clumsiest kid, our makes-you-laugh-out-loud-just-by-looking-at-her daughter, our devil and angel all at once... She is our Pi Baby.

I'm trying to accurately describe her, but it's hard.  She has so many sides to her personality.  Sometimes she's doing cartwheels around the living room and twirling and making up words to her own songs, and sometimes she's too shy to even look me in the eye.  Sometimes she runs up to people she doesn't even know and gives them big hugs, and other times she hides behind me so she won't be seen in public.  Sometimes she will talk your ear off, and other times she tells you to please be quiet because you're interrupting her thoughts.  "She's sun and rain.  She's fire and ice.  A little crazy but it's nice." :) I know that's not the first time I've referenced that Garth Brooks song when talking about Piper, but that's exactly how she is.

The good news is, her heart is big and pure and she's so lovable.  She's gorgeous and can be the world's sweetest little thing you ever did see.  Her nose crinkles up when she smiles.  She LOVES the color purple.  She is a horse fanatic!  Unicorns are her entire world these days.  She also begs us to let her watch Jurassic Park and roars like a dinosaur right along-side her brother.  She's obsessed with animals. She LOVES showers and baths and swimming (just being in water in general).  She is amazing at puzzles!  She is a HARD sleeper and sleeps through anything! She's a wonderful artist and adds such cute detail to her drawings.  She doesn't like cake, but loves ice-cream! Her eyelashes are still black and her hair is still blonde :)

Not only is she adorable, but she's also CRAZY smart.  Not just like she understands school and is doing well.  But like she tested higher than almost every single Kindergartener at her school (there's a couple hundred Kindergartners there- 9 Kindergarten classes to be exact- it's a big school!). And she most definitely is THE smartest girl in her class (her teacher has told me more than once that her class and state test scores are through the roof when compared to the others in the class.)  She does her homework all by herself.  She's learning 1st grade math and reading, she problem solves like a champ.  Her handwriting is better than most 3rd graders even and she just "gets it." School clicks with her. Making friends is easy for her; she's a social little butterfly! She's a very well-rounded little girl.  Yes, she has had her struggles because her anxiety has been absolutely crippling at times since she turned 2.  But you know, Shawn and I are her biggest advocates and we have taken her to doctors and therapists and together we are all making sure that Piper is the best version of herself!  She is thriving this year with all that we've started and it's been her best year yet.

I love this girl.  I hope I'm doing everything right.... I pray all the time that I will be a better Mother to her everyday and I hope she knows my heart is with her at all times.

Happy 6th birthday to my Pi Baby.

I love you more than all the leaves on all the trees.

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"I think she had a pretty good day. Her sweet, sweet teacher made her feel like a million bucks, I got to have breakfast, lunch AND dinner with her (I love eating with them at school), I pulled her out of school a bit early🤫, she got every single gift on her list (thanks family!) and we let the kids go crazy on a piñata after dinner🦄 (she didn’t get one at her party and they are her FAVORITE ever). She is super excited to be 🖐🏼☝🏼’cause “it’s 2 hands now!”😁 Love you my cute Pi Baby."

This "stable" has SO many parts to it! It has 4 corals inside for horses, hay for them to eat, carrots and apples, reins, saddles, brushes for the horses, etc.  It's super detailed and even though I think it was over-priced, it's great quality and super cute. Piper asked for this for her birthday way back in June! She has been wondering and waiting for it forever. She was SO excited to open it!  Nana and Pops, Shawn and I, and Ninny and Baba split it 3 ways so that she could get it and it was a total hit! Thank you everyone!

 

In between eating lunch with Piper and bringing cookies to her class at school, Lucy had an ADHD check-up across town.  It was a BUSY day! Anyway, she always love taking "photo-booth" pictures at the Doctor's office :)  And, she's doing GREAT! New meds, happy girl!

""From brand new, to a big 6 year old. I’ve loved her since before that very first yawn and every day in between.💚 Happy birthday my sweet Christmas baby."