Three Months

My sweet baby bumpkin is three months old today!
For being the last baby, I've been blessed with such an easy going sweetheart.
At three months she has a beautiful smile that lights up when she sees me.
She is so easy to please.
When she gets excited she moves her arms and legs all around.
She's almost turning over.
We love you Maddie!

Merry Christmas

I wish you all could have come over for warm cinnamon rolls
Christmas morning!

We could have chatted over coffee and watched the kids play with their new toys.

It's so hard being far away from family.
Especially on the holidays.

Just know, I was thinking about you all.

And, wishing you were here.

It just wasn't the same without you!

I did have my number one son with us.
And, he made Christmas extra special!
Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Eve

The Penguin Who Wanted to Fly

My son, Sky, wrote this beautiful story. His teacher said it was so good it could be published!
Please don't copy or use this story for anything other than your personal enjoyment from reading it on this blog.

Once upon a time on the month of December there was a lonely penguin out in Central Park Zoo. The little penguin had one wish for Christmas and that was to fly.

When it was feeding time, the little penguin snuck out and started walking through the bird section of the zoo hoping that maybe he could learn to fly there.

He wobbled up to a few pigeon's and asked "dear pigeons would you please teach me how to fly?" "You couldn't fly . You're a penguin," said one of the pigeons. "I could if you would teach me," said the little penguin. "Go ask some other bird," "ya, we aint got time for you" said the pigeons as they were flapping their wings away.

So the disappointed little penguin wobbled over back to his home in the penguin area. The next day when it came to feeding time again, he snuck out and wobbled down to the bird section. Then he came upon the parakeet area.

"Oh dear parakeets would you please teach me how to fly?" "Why would you want to fly, you're a penguin," said the parakeets. "Because it's always been my dream Mr. Parakeet." "We aint gonna help you, go find some other bird."

So the little penguin wobbled away with rejection back to his home in the penguin area.

The next day was Christmas Eve and the little penguin still couldn't fly. When it came to feeding time the determined little penguin snuck out and wobbled to the bird section until he came upon some condors.

He asked one of the condors, "please dear condor would you please teach me how to fly?" "Why in the world would a penguin want to fly?" asked the condor. "Please, it's always been my dream to fly , sir" said the penguin. "No, why don't you ask some other bird instead of bothering me." So the little penguin wobbled back to his home in the penguin area.

The next day was Christmas and yet the penguin still couldn't fly. The whole day was horrible for the little penguin. He stayed in his home the whole morning and evening. But when it came to night time the penguin started to levitate. By the time he woke up the whole zoo was in sight. The little penguin was so happy he didn't know what to think. So he just flew around the zoo in circles. All the birds that had been mean to the little penguin had to watch in agony. By the time the penguin was tired, he just drifted down, back to his home in the penguin area.

Santa 2010

We saw the nicest Santa at Bass Pro. He even let me take my own camera out and take some pictures.

Love these pictures with Madelyn and Santa!

Lillian still has some Santa anxiety.

Sky is like, "why am I here"?

Although, I must say, Lillian's reaction to Santa is a little better than last year!

A Gingerbread House for Baby Jesus

Ahhh, I feel like I can breath a sigh of relief now that I'm done with my classes.
I don't know why I decided to take two classes and have a baby and try and manage Lillian all at the same time. It wasn't easy and I'm sure I made it hard on everyone when I got really stressed. But, I made it through and I got A's in both classes. Now, I have a little break until January when I start just one class, Biology.
I got some happy, happy news this week that Jonas is coming here for Christmas!
He'll be here for ten days and I just couldn't be more excited!
It's the best Christmas present a mother could ever want.
I 'll have all four of my children here together!
What a blessing.

In the spirit of Christmas I put a baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling blankets under the tree.
This was to try and help Lilly understand that this is Jesus's birthday and we celebrate by having Christmas. Well, whenever Lilly hears the word "birthday" it means birthday cake and she was ready to make a cake.

I had already planned for us to make a gingerbread house and she insisted that this was Jesus's birthday cake. She was pretty good about not eating any of the gingerbread. She loved helping decorate it and ate just a few pieces of candy in the process.

Of course, it wasn't until we were done and put the gingerbread house on display that she decided it was time to indulge.

See those little fingerprints in the frosting on the pathway to the house?
It just adds character.

We also made Christmas cookies this week.
See how beautiful they are on the cookie sheet?
But that's a whole different story...

Bitter Sweet Holiday

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving holiday.
We had a wonderful one with my mother coming to visit!
I had not seen her in two years and it was so nice to spend time with her.

My mother got all the elements of Missouri in her five day stay;
sun, rain, sleet, snow, and tornadoes.
Yes, one of the nights we had to run in buckets of rain to the tornado shelter as the sirens were going off.

Five days went by so fast.
I was so sad to take her back to the airport.
I'm looking forward to summer now when I plan on spending a whole month in California with my family!

Two Months

I can't believe my sweet baby is already two months old!
She is such a good baby, so easy going.
She put's up with all the noise around her and never whimpers about any of her big sissy's nonsense.
It looks like she may have red hair and possibly green eyes.
She takes good naps and her most awake time is at 10:00pm!

Here she is with her little scowl she loves to give.

It's so much fun having two girls!
Just as much fun as having my two boys!

So Sad

Yesterday our sweet toy poodle, Phoebe, was hit by a car and killed.
She was the best dog we ever had and our hearts are broken.
We miss you Phoebe.

Weekly Randomness

I was getting ready to cut this chicken up for soup when I turned my back for one minute and this is what I found!

She has such a sweet side!

Lily's tired of me taking pictures.

This is the tree in our front yard. I love it!

She's such a good baby, so calm.

Wings were a regular part of the attire this week.

One of Lily's favorite things to do is jump on the trampoline.

This is the outfit she wore to make cookies!