2013...its a wrap

so....here i am wanting to post something lovely about our christmas festivities and saying "good-bye" to 2013

but all i have are a handful of random shots that really don't feel all that magical

and i'm wanting to kick myself for taking so few pictures of my kids

but that leaves me kicking myself for already breaking my new year's resolution to give myself some grace for all the things i'm not doing

which leads me to kicking myself for what I AM doing....

it's a vicious cycle

so instead of all that, i'm just poppin' in with not a lot to say and a few pictures to prove that we actually celebrated the holidays in 2013 and had some fun while we were at it.

we started the month with our annual north pole party

i decided to scale it back a bit this year and just invite the neighbor kids

the littles drank milk and ate cookies until the christmas police had to put an end to their sugar intake...

we made our yearly gigantic mess while mixing up reindeer food and j read the "night before Christmas"...flashlight style

...then finished off the night with kazoo lips and santa beards

now, if that doesn't put the merry in your Christmas, i just don't know what will

we had our fill of coloring and a few other Christmas crafts

it started out lovely

with lights and christmas music in the background

hot cocoa on the stove and everyone feeling festive

 Tulip's first round of "jingle bells" was sweet

the second round, even sweeter

the third time around the block, i was still smilin'

...and then we reached round 56...

at which point the Christmas police made another appearance, asking miss T if there were any other holiday tunes she knew

you guessed it - nope...just an entire month of that one song

geesh - i should have recorded it.  i know some day i'll want to hear her little voice belting out about a one horse open sleigh, but if i'm really honest with myself, i'm absolutely fine with the fact that christmas music is 11 long months away

you know who got to help out at a co-workers holiday get together by playing the part of old saint nick....

it was too funny not to snap a picture

santa....i know him!

the remainder of the month was spent with grandpas and grandmas and aunts and uncles and little cousins and little sleep

Grandma T must have been a good girl because she got a visit from twinkle's friend, henry, the day before Christmas!

my children opened a gaggle of presents, ate mountains of cookies and stayed up waaaaay too late

at the end of it all, j and i are thinking that we need a vacation from christmas vacation :)

i truly wish i had the energy and the time to sit and reflect on all the goodness of 2013

i'd love to post all my best pictures from the year and ponder all the memories....

but the reality is that i've still got 4 stacks of tests that i need to correct by thursday morning for my 8th graders.

so.....

with that in mind i'll wrap it up by saying this:

2013 was a blessed year

for many reasons

but far and away

this was the best thing that happened to us this year:

and if you know her even one little smidge then i don't need to tell you why

just when i thought life was really getting good

this one snuck in and brought the joy meter up another hundred notches

i'm a little rounder, a little sleepier and a little more forgetful thanks to her

but this year will go down as one of our best simply because it was the year we met sparkle
the year we became 5
the year we found out that three girls is infinitely awesome 

2013....it's a wrap

i caved

i caved.

i let my kids open their presents 10 days early.

but i have good reason....

let me explain

peach and i had wrapped ourselves silly earlier this week and everything was carefully placed under the tree

i was really diggin' how festive it looked, but i seriously could not wait for the girls to open their gifts

and then i started thinking about how we would do the whole Santa thing next weekend

and then after that we'd have Christmas with my parents, my grandparents, J's parents, and his extended family

and all of that was SURE to be gift overload...so why not let them open our gifts early so they could have a WHOLE week to play with them before leaving to see family?

made perfect sense to me

i made my pitch to J, who just smiled and said..."it's not the kids i have to worry about...it's you!"

and i just smiled back....because, when you're guilty, well, what can you say?  but a smile gets you miles in this house (just ask our middle child how that works) and after i pointed out that they were wearing their matching Christmas jammies, which would be PERFECT for pictures, he consented

i don't know what comes over me at Christmas-time

for goodness sakes - i have gone 10 MONTHS with each of my babies, waiting until the very last minute to know the gender and not choosing their names until i met them and had time to get to know them

i savored the waiting, thinking it was soooooo wonderful

so, how is it that i can't wait 10 DAYS at Christmas?!

there's just something about giving a good gift - one that i KNOW is going to send the joy-meter through the roof...i get all crazy with anticipation

anywhoos....

the winning gift was a piano (kate, i hope you're reading!) which will probably drive me crazy by tuesday, but for now it's fun

peach also loved a check up center for her pets

and j spent the morning building homes for squinkies with the huge set of lincoln logs that i got for $3 at a garage sale this summer

i must have been good this year because i got this sweet hand warmer mug that i've had my eye on for quite some time

and the fact that i get to use it an extra week is more justification for why i was oh so right to declare an early Christmas in this house

for all of you out there who have heaps more self-discipline than I....my hat goes off to you

i'll be sippin' coffee and listening to my littles perform concerts this week while you savor the waiting.

i think it's a win.win situation either way

Merry Christmas!

oh christmas tree

i was sad to miss the christmas tree chopping this year

partly because i like the tradition

but mostly because i love seeing my husband turn into a lumberjack :)

this time the littles needed naps and we had too much going on during the weekends with peach's birthday and thanksgiving

i wasn't willing to wait until mid-december to get the tree

so, something had to give

j and his buddy took these rascals out to hunt down the perfect tree

they came home with one that fit like a glove in our cozy little living room....

i had forgotten about these pictures until now.

the tree is beautifully decorated and i like it so much that i think i might just leave it up past christmas this year ;)

frosty

okay...so, i've been beating myself up over the lack of pictures these days

until i decided to give myself some much needed grace and let go....that it really wasn't that big of a deal

i mean...who am i kidding?  i have a job, a house, a marriage, three kids and a dog.....most days the camera is the last thing that i think of

but today was a slow, picture takin' kind of day

it is frosty around here and we've been spending lots of time indoors

as you can see, our elf has been up to some shenanigans and we've been content to sprint from the car to the house and stay there as much as possible.

but today the thermometer crept up just a bit and the fluffy white snow NEEDED some littles to scamper through

so we headed out to the sledding hill by our house

the dog chased the sleds down the hill and we laughed until our lungs froze....for real

then headed back inside to warm up

hot cocoa made by momma

 and chocolate covered pretzels that had been delivered the night before by a dear friend

arrrrgh, matey!

they're into being pirates these days

whatever

 sparkle girl is seriously DAYS away from figuring out this crawling business

while the littlest littles napped i let my bigger little help me with supper prep

it's always an adventure for her and an exercise in patience for me ;)

we FINALLY got our letter written to Santa - Twinkle the elf is taking it to the North Pole with her tonight per Peach's very SPECIFIC instructions

and last but not least, i should note that Baxter made his way into our hearts and has claimed a "forever" status in our home.

it was touch and go for a while there, but his snuggles won me over

and on that note, J just informed me that he's in a gift-wrappin' kind of mood....

what??!?!

8 years of marriage and i don't think this man has EVER wrapped a gift

i've got to strike when the iron is hot, people!

over and out!