Thankful...A Little Early

It's 9:15, and I'm already in bed, so I'll say it a little early...Happy New Year! 

What a wonderful year it's been for us! A new house, a new baby, and so many incredible, thankful moments in between. Steve and I look at our little family and just marvel at this life that God has given us. These little humans can drive us crazy, but they are beautiful, hilarious, loving little creatures!

 

 

New Year's Eve

Not sure we've ever had a "glamorous" New Year's Eve, but it definitely wasn't this year!

Had a "family bonding" moment in the back bedroom while I was feeding Henry this afternoon.

Seriously, not even five minutes later, this is how everyone looked. Bella was still barely hanging on, so I finished feeding Henry, and we left Steve and Evelyn asleep on the bed. 

(P.S. To be honest, this was my "I love my life" moment of today. I looked at this picture as I was uploading it to Instagram and just thought, "Yep. We have an amazing life.")

If we had been at home, our New Year's Eve tradition (since kids came along) would have been to order Chinese take-out and watch a movie in bed. This year, there weren't any ball drops or fireworks, and at least two of us were sick, but we were surrounded by family, and we made some great memories!

Henry Is Two Months Old

Time flies when you're having fun! Henry is two months old! His official "new stuff" includes smiling and cooing (just a little so far). He has really gained weight in the last month - I love it when babies reach this stage and start to get chunky. He is tipping the scales at 13 lbs. 10 oz. Oh! And his receding hairline has filled in! (Lucky kid.) People say that he looks even more like Steve as he gets older. 

The reflux medicine did its job and Henry doesn't seem to struggle with it much at all anymore. He does most of his naps during the day in the vibrating bouncer, but sleeps at night in his bassinet. Once we get home from Ohio, we'll start transitioning him to his crib. Hopefully, that will go smoothly!

He still eats every two hours, but will go three hours if he's asleep in the car. I'm dreaming for the time that he'll go four hours at nighttime! 

Christmas In Ohio

We're in Ohio this week to see Steve's family, so New Year's Day will actually be our Christmas #2. Even though he's still sick, Steve and I were able to do some quick errands this morning and then we all headed to the assisted living facility where both of Steve's grandmas live to take our large, family picture. There are 20 of us this year!

We had our big "Christmas" dinner this afternoon, which was delicious. I was basically waiting the entire time just to eat apple pie. (Can you still have cravings, even when you're not pregnant?) This afternoon has mostly been spent shuffling between feeding Henry or holding Bella, since she's still running a fever.

A few glimpses of our week...

Bella lasted about four minutes in my lap before she looked like this. 

Thankfully, we have a whole lot of extra grown-ups this week to grab a baby when needed! 

Once dinner started, everyone perked up a little except for Bella. She slept a LOT today, so I'm hoping the fever breaks tomorrow for Christmas!

 

We only get to see the whole Wires gang a few times a year, and it's always such a great time with our nieces, nephews, and the Grandmas!

Playing Farkle with the grandmas, Stacey, Maddie, and Kaylie.

Our nieces and nephews are a genuine blast to be around, and I'm always thankful when we get to spend time with them! They are full-blown teenagers now and it's hard to believe that some of they were toddlers when I joined this family!

 

Steve brought along his guns this week, so we could get some practice in. Whenever we practice shooing, I've stopped trying to line up the sites perfectly and all of that; I figure I have to be a good shot at whatever the length of our hallway is, so I usually pick the gun up and try to see how accurate I can be when I'm firing as quickly as possible. I'm definitely not a natural, but I think I could defend our home if the need arose!

 

 

And there's just something smokin' hot about a man and a shotgun.

(I think I may need to go to therapy.)

 

 

Okay, moving on...

 

Here we are in our annual family photo! Bella was so sick in this picture; I felt so bad for her! Usually I'm scolding her during pictures to just smile like normal, but on this day, I was just telling her over and over that we'd be done soon!

 

 We postponed taking any pictures of just our family since Bella was so sick, and since we had already taken pictures for our Christmas card, the pressure was off to be perfect!

 

Good times!

We've had a wonderful time with out Ohio family this week, and I'm so thankful we get to be with them for the holidays!

 

Christmas At Home

We celebrated Christmas Day in our new house this year! I loved having the kids in our own house as we enjoyed our traditions and fun! Especially with Henry. There are a ton of pictures in this post - Christmas Eve, presents, and fun with Papa and Mimi.

 

First off was our Christmas Eve service...or, I guess, pictures of us in all of our fancy clothes before the Christmas Eve service.

 

 

 

The service was beautiful, and Bella and Evelyn got to go onstage to enjoy a story from Denise. It was fun to hear Evelyn's voice in the crowd of kids, saying, " I can't see!"

 

After we got home, we wrote our letter to Santa and picked out a snack for him. This was the first year that both girls were "all in" in their belief in Santa. We haven't made a big deal of Santa in the past, but I think with the girls in school, they heard all of their friends talking about him, and Santa became very real this year! It was so  much fun!

 

 

 

They each took turns saying something to Santa in the letter, and then each of them got to choose a snack for him - Evelyn chose chocolate chip cookies and Bella chose lemon drop cookies. In our house, grape juice is "Daddy's juice" in case Steve's blood sugar goes low, so the girls aren't allowed to drink it. They decided Santa should have the special juice this year!

 

We got to play our Christmas Eve game, too! This is a fun tradition that we got from the Wires' side of the family, and it also lets the girls open a present early.

 

 

They loved the Doc McStuffin's version of Operation!

 

The adults watched Scrooge's A Christmas Carol, and then headed to bed. In our house, "big people" get excited about Christmas and presents, too! Christmas morning started with stockings. When we were growing up, we always opened stockings, sitting on my mom and dad's bed, so when we're in our own home, we try to keep that going!

 

 

I found superhero masks at Walmart and put them in everyone's stockings, so we had a little fun with those.

 

The stockings were a success! Now, we're on to presents and cooking!

 

 

All the ladies in the family, getting ready to start the roast and baking cakes! We put the roast in the oven and started attacking the presents!

 

 

Christmas Day was just what Steve and I were hoping for! We loved the time with family, the fun of opening presents, and the girls had an amazing day, too!

 

The rest of the week, we just hung out and spent time with family. We went to dinner at Mel's apartment, got a babysitter, so the "grown-ups" could go to Maggiano's, and the girls got some extra time with Papa, Mimi, and Rachel.

 

Dinner at Mel's apartment was awesome!

 

 

And having a special night out at Maggiano's was a perfect date night after being snuggled in the house for two days.

 

 

Our last "event" of the week was an early celebration of Dad's 60th birthday! We sent him out to a gun range with Steve for about an hour, and got busy, decorating with streamers and making his favorite dessert.

 

 

My dad loves baseball and is pretty committed to making sure Henry becomes a die-hard New York Yankees fan, so I got a baseball and put Henry's handprint on it. So cute!

 

A few last pictures of fun from the week, and then I'm done!