Thursday, December 17, 2015

It's the Holiday Season (Turkey Day in Texas & Henry is 4 months!)

One of these days I'm going to get my act together and post at least every 2 weeks so that I don't have so much to catch up with at one time.  Per usual, we've been busy!

For Thanksgiving, we once again headed off to Texas to visit Andrew's side of the family. We got back and immediately started Christmas festivities and celebrated Henry's {GASP!} 4 month birthday.  The months with him are going both fast and slow.  Slow might be the wrong word, but sometimes, it just feels like he has been here forever, you know?

Our trip TX was amazing.  No one got sick, all planes were on time, and Andrew and I got to go out together almost every night.  We left from JFK to have a direct flight into San Antonio.  We fueled the girls up on Wendy's and boarded the plane.



Kimi took Andrew's first class upgrade, and Andrew and I managed our crazy crew!  The hardest part was the timing of the flight.  Evening flights aren't the best idea with little ones.  The girls were tired, but fell asleep on the way to the airport, so did NOT fall asleep easily on the plane.


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Andrew's dad was awesome and arranged a rental car for us and car seats pretty much ready to go.

Henry was obviously the star of the trip!

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One of my best friends recently moved to Austin and we were blessed with a visit from her family.  Nancy was excited to hold Henry too!



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The kids had their annual visit with Cowboy Kringle.


The next day, we headed off to the San Antonio River walk and had lunch at The Rainforest Cafe and then played at the park.


















That evening, Andrew and I headed off to the Spurs game and sat in his dad's court side seats!!  So fun!

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We really did go out every night, and my alcohol intake was quite substantial some evenings.  Pictured here, an inside-out vest.  ;)


We had more park play time with his mom the next day!












Our attempt at professional family pictures did not go so well...Eloise was NOT having it and I was pretty disappointed in our photographer.  I'm sure I have tough standards, so I am at least grateful for the memories!





I was MUCH happier with the ones I took.  And I set the settings up for Kimi and she took some great ones too!


















It was so wonderful having so many hands on deck with the kiddos!


I felt so rested, that I ran a pretty good 5K the morning of Thanksgiving.  And I was SO proud of Adalyn who ran her first too!

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I gave up on a sibling picture after just a few minutes (shirts from mother in law)....



We ate a lot that day, as we had our first Thanksgiving over at Andrew's dad's house.






The girls has so much fun playing with their cousins.












And then we headed back over to Andrew's mom's for some more stuffin! 

 It's so cool that the kids have so many sets of Great Grandparents!



Kimi enjoyed her first Thanksgiving as well.










It was a perfect trip.  We left on Friday morning and then were able to enjoy the weekend back at home with our church family.  That Saturday, we had cookies, donuts,  and hot cocoa with friends and then went and actually got to chop down our own Christmas tree this year!





I was bummed that it was rainy, because I really wanted to get some cute pictures of us all there, but Eloise was still in her anti-picture-taking mood anyway.









Once again, we picked one that was too big and it required a good amount of trimming.










And even though it's been SO warm here, we've been trying to sneak in Christmas activities to make it feel more like Christmas.  It really doesn't yet, and I think that definitely has to do with the mild temps we've had. I'm not complaining though!





Every once in a while, I get this feeling of sadness related to how quickly my babies seem to grow and how quickly time goes by.  Taking pictures definitely relieves that anxiety for me. I mean, how could I miss documenting Henry's ever-growing toes!!


And those delicious baby lips.

The jury is still out on your eye color, but I don't think that they will be blue.

They remind me of your sisters that have a blue/green/brown mix.


At 4 months, you are full of smiles and squish.  You are back to waking up 2x per night, and still half sleeping in your co-sleeper, half sleeping in our bed.  You are currently refusing bottles of any kind and it doesn't matter if it's freshly pumped breastmilk, frozen, or even formula.  You won't have it. I also tried to give you some cereal yesterday in hopes that you might eat something when I'm not around, but all you did was spit it out with your tongue.   You can roll both ways, but prefer to roll from back to belly. You are gripping and eating your toys, and I think will be on your way to sitting in no time.  





I think you are enjoying your first Christmas.  You got to go on your first train ride when we went with our church family on the "Polar Express".



I am having so much fun dressing you up!



You're definitely the cutest baby boy Santa I've ever seen!
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 And you can still fall asleep anywhere.
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 When we are out and about, you are usually being carried in my Tulla.
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 And you can self soothe yourself right to sleep with your fingers.
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 Henry, you are such an easy baby that we continue to be pretty brave with 3 kids under 5.  Just last Saturday, we were on our way to Costco as a family.  I know, crazy in itself, but it's like a fun activity for the girls and we did need to get a few things.  Andrew and I stopped to get some Starbucks coffee before, and then we were feeling super brave because it was 63 degrees outside.  I don't remember who said it, but one of us was like, "Hey, we should just do the city today because it's so warm".  And the next minute, I was checking my diaper bag, and we were off...with no coats, no stroller, and 3 diapers.  It was the most perfect day and one that I will always remember.

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We started off parking at Grand Central Station and then walked to Bryant Park so the girls could see Andrew's office building and watch the ice skaters.
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 We got a pretzel in the middle of Times Square, and made stop at Toys R Us before heading over to the tree.
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 At this point, it was around 4pm and the girls were getting hungry, so we found an awesome Chinese Food restaurant right by Rockefeller Center.
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 We wanted to meet up with my brother, but he was coming from Brooklyn and couldn't get there until later, so we went back to tree.  It was much more crowded after the sun went down.
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 Henry wanted dinner too.  :)
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 We check out the windows and watched the light show at Sacks.
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 And then we went back to Grand Central to meet my brother....and play with the new iPad Pros.
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 It was seriously such a fun, spontaneous day!  I need days like those to counter some of the mundane days at home.  Don't get me wrong, there is always drama around here with the girls, but some days can really feel like Groundhog days and I crave some excitement.
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 Still, I wouldn't change a thing about these precious days.
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 We're gearing up for Christmas here with a Santa Run this weekend, caroling with friends, and Andrew being home for 2 weeks!!!

Our little Christmas Pageant star....
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