All in all, it’s been fairly mild this winter so the kids have still been able to be outside a lot. SO happy about that! But, I feel like at least one of us has been sick since October. We just keep passing stuff around. Blegh.

This little sugar could sit here on the barstool next to me and color all day long. I asked him what his favorite part of being three was and he said, “Definitely coloring. And fake crying.” Um, okay. Ha!!

At this point, I don’t think the backyard will ever be done. Ugh. The boys asked what they could do to help and Jon told them to dig up one of the dead trees in the yard, so they came to the door like this and told me they had on their “hard worker faces”.

We’re back to our normal school days! In a lot of ways, I was really excited to get back to school. Not for Jon to leave, but ready for a routine again. Nathan has been doing amazing – he’s set to finish two years of school this year, which is crazy! He has worked so hard!

On this particular day, all of the kids were just in a super weird, funny mood. I turned to give Nathan his reading book and he was laying on his back on the couch with his feet and hands up in the air pretending to be a dead possum so he didn’t have to read. I couldn’t stop laughing the rest of the day.

We made homemade ice cream that night and Parker just kept giving us a play by play of the entire thing. “It’s turning! It’s turning more! It’s freezing! It’s freezing more!”

And finally, I was rocking Eisley to sleep and she wanted to sing a song so she started with, “Mary, did you know? Your baby boy go to the potty.”

Kids. They do keep you on your toes. 😉

Not sure how, but JANUARY is here.

My birthday is in January but honestly, other than that, I really don’t like January. It’s usually freezing cold here and we rarely have snow. Which means we are all just grouchy because we’re stuck inside and often sick.

I had to get a picture of Eisley and her “Cornbread Man” before we packed him away. I got this guy on an after Christmas sale last year for like $3 and he was her favorite thing ever in the world. She would always open the blinds every morning so she could see him on the porch and say, “Hi Cornbread Man!” and then she always had to tell him goodnight every night. It was so cute and we’ll never call a Gingerbread Man by the same name again. 😉

Eisley’s original birthday party got rescheduled because of the birthday girl being sick, so we had a low-key New Years breakfast for her instead! Honestly, it was so much fun and I took basically zero pictures because we were having so much fun. With her birthday three days before Christmas, it’s just hard to find a good time to have a party.

Two AGAIN! Ha!

She looks so old to me. She’s just my favorite little miss. Her personality is shining through and I’m just so excited to see what God has planned for her because she is FUNNY.

Christmas, family in town, birthday parties, New Years…it was just too much for a certain three year old. 😉 Poor kid just fell right asleep when he was upstairs one afternoon. Ha!

2018 – how is this possible?

We ended the year with this little miss who felt the need for a “ba-yer-ina” day. 😉 I can’t believe how much she grew this year! Two is my most and least favorite age, I think. With her, I feel like I’m a lot more chill about the random tantrums and I can laugh a little more at the “NO I DO IT” stage. Now that we’ve done this twice already, I’m more just soaking in this age of baby and big girl and all the ways they mix together. I hope she starts growing slower.

Nathan’s top front tooth had been loose FOREVER and he finally decided he was going to pull it out on New Years Eve. I love Parker here. Ha! Nathan worked on it and worked on it and the tooth was just not coming out, so he paused to have a snack with the other two and said something to me and I was like, “Um, Nathan? Where’s your tooth?”

Gone by Graham Cracker. 😉 Sounds like the title of a kid’s book. He looks so different!!

Eisley could NOT stop staring and saying, “Naynen, where your toof go?” Ha! We were cracking up the rest of the day.

At bedtime, he came to us with this to put under his pillow. DYING. He had a little help on the spelling – still working on our “ed” and “ea” phonograms. 😉

Last family picture of 2017!! We watched an Inspector Gadget kids countdown on Netflix right at their bedtime, kissed everyone like 87 times by the time everything was done and sent the kids to bed. Love these kinds of New Years Eves.

Happy 2018 everyone!

So, every year, I’m convinced that Christmas with my family gets more and more crazy. Probably because every other year so far, someone has added a spouse or babies (or, in the case of 2015, THREE babies).

Look at all those people!! Love them ALL.

Caleb and Nicole were in town, Nama was in town up until Christmas Eve and it was just FUN.

All the great-grandchildren with their great-grandma. Love it!!

With how nuts everything was the rest of her trip, we really tried to soak her in this day. Love my grandmother.

This was the first time we’d been able to meet Nora!! Baby Nora was just precious. Eisley was in HEAVEN with Nora AND Sammy around.

A New Mexico Christmas Eve tradition is luminarias! This year, Gammy got the supplies and the grandkids all got to fill them and put the candles inside. It was SO cute watching them as they lit the candles.

Apparently Nathan was old enough to do it by himself. I tried to not watch because my heart can only take so much when it’s already pumping on sugar cookie fuel.

So pretty!!

These guys were so proud of how good it looked!! I kept seeing them looking out the windows to check and make sure they still were lit. So cute.

We did our annual gingerbread house contest and let Nathan stay up late and make one. He always feels so big when he gets to do something the others don’t.

Hanging with Baby Nora after the Christmas morning chaos. Love her little fuzz head. She’s the sweetest, chillest baby ever.

I forgot Eisley’s pajamas at home one night, so while Jon drove back to our house to get them, Gammy kept Eisley warm after her bath and just read to her. So sweet.

All the Christmas jammied babies!

How are they so old? I just love these three!! It feels like yesterday that we were taking their first sibling picture on Christmas when Eisley was just three days old.

Soaking up time with the littlest miss the night before they were leaving. Christmas is always so crazy and chaotic and full of kids and crumbs and everything else, but I absolutely LOVE seeing all the family together! Can’t wait for the next reunion.

Christmas is my favorite. Jon and I always set our alarms so we can make sure we’re up and moving before the kids and I think I wake up before my alarm every year. After all the planning and everything that goes into it, I always just get so excited to see their faces.

We always make them wait in our room until everyone is up so they can all come down and see what Santa brought together. Love all three of these blurs running into the room. Ha!

Baby girl! She was SO happy on this day!

Parker’s my kid who almost loves watching everyone else open than opening himself. He was SO happy!

Nathan was OVERJOYED that there was a cowboy hat with his stocking! I don’t think he took it off the rest of the week.

We always do stockings and then stop and have breakfast. Usually because by that time, Mom and Dad really need more coffee. 😉 A little trick I picked up from my parents. Ha! Plus, it gives us a chance to organize all the stuff into boxes so it’s not everywhere when we start opening presents. Stockings are usually smaller gifts because I never want Santa to get the credit for stuff I’m excited to give them. Ha!

Every year, I try to stick to 3-4 presents per kid and every year when it’s all wrapped, I’m like “HOLY COW, there are SO many presents!!” Then I remember that there are three of them now, so that’s a lot. This year, our neighbors also gave the kids gifts, so between them, Nonnie and Papa O and the other O’Brien side grandparents, we had presents coming out of our ears. The kids were SO excited!!

This one always has the best expressions. Ha!

He’s so cute. Every present, he was like, “WHAT?! NATHAN! LOOK AT THIS!”

Eisley would open a present and immediately put it on. Ha!

I found her like this later that morning and I was laughing so hard.

 

Working on their new Lego sets. Christmas morning is always so chaotic and crazy and fun. I love how we’ve gotten into the habit of doing a really slow, relaxed afternoon afterward. We always drink a lot more coffee, eat a lot more sugar cookies and just play with the new toys or watch some of the new movies. It’s the BEST.

Merry early Christmas!!

 

With everything going on and family coming into town the next day, it just seemed like the best thing to do was to have our Christmas Eve on Eisley’s birthday night so we could do our little family Christmas the next day before everyone got here.

If I ever decide this is a good idea ever again, please, someone slap me hard and tell me to just figure out a different solution. It was SO much in one day! Our kids were absolutely exhausted by the time the evening came (not to mention their mom and dad!).

We had our birthday pizza dinner, got all three kids bathed and clean and opened our traditional one present on Christmas Eve.

New jammies for all!! Nathan looks gigantic to me in this picture.

Love this group hug. These three are often bickering or fighting about something but they ADORE each other. It’s been such a sweet blessing to watch my kids grow into each other’s best friends.

Stockings are filled, Christmas 1.0 is coming! Time for this tired Mom and Dad to finally get to bed. 😉

Oh my goodness, we packed so much into this day!!

Eisley woke up to a Minnie Mouse birthday bash! I LOVE decorating the table and having balloons and everything transformed for their big day. I love seeing their face when they come downstairs and it’s their birthday!

Eisley Girl loves herself a cinnamon roll, so we had cinnamon rolls and eggs with sausage, just like she likes them. 😉 Then it was time to get dressed so we could get the birthday going!!

My beautiful girl! Gosh, I love her so much. I just kept looking at her all day like HOW is she this big? The doctors had just handed me this tiny, newborn girl only about seven weeks ago.

Present time!! Little Miss LOVED her new bracelets. I love how she’s acting so big.

She totally ate up all her new accessories. 😉 So much fun!!

The boys were pretty fond of her presents too. 😉

Next up, we hit the mall and headed for Build-A-Bear. Nathan had made one YEARS ago when his friend Hayley moved, but Parker and Eisley had never been. They thought it was so much fun!

The boys each made a little teddy bear too!

Next up, was Mac and Cheese at Olive Garden with the whole family! She got a free sundae and was about the happiest girl in the world.

Turning two is exhausting. 😉

She loved her cake!! So much fun!

Officially two. I can’t believe it. Happy birthday, lovely girl!

Sweet girl,

Today, you are two years old!! I just can’t even believe it. The years are flying past and I feel like you were just born a few minutes ago, and here you are! Running everywhere, little miss independent, feisty as ever! You have added so much joy and laughter to our home and we can not imagine our life without you.

This was a HUGE year for you! I feel like the year between turning one and two is an entire lifetime. You were barely walking when you started this year and now, you never stop playing, jumping, dancing or trying to do whatever your brothers are doing. You love love love, more than anything else, to be right next to me, doing exactly what I’m doing.

I can’t believe how little tiny you were just a year ago! You have grown and changed so much. You have always been so smiley and so funny. It’s so cute to watch your little (HUGE) personality shine this year!

You love to be included in anything and everything that we are doing and you hate feeling left out. If there’s even the idea of you not getting to participate in something, even if it’s an activity you don’t like, you still freak out. Ha! You love to feel big.

You love to make us laugh!! I love how mischievous you can look, with your little nose all wrinkled up, the funniest little gleam in your eyes. You thrive on it! It’s hilarious watching you with your brothers. You also love to be the boss. Any time I tell the boys to do something, you’re right there next to me, echoing whatever I say.

In so many ways, you went from being a baby to a little girl this year. You started talking so much! Your vocabulary went through the roof. You started playing pretend with the boys instead of just wrecking whatever they were doing. But, you’re still my baby and I tell you that often. You need to stay little. 😉

You adore all things GIRL. You love baby dolls and strollers and getting your hair fixed and PINK. You also love playing trucks and digging in the dirt and being a football player in the play room and everything the boys love to do. You are just this incredible, perfect mix of girly girl and tomboy and I love seeing how you meld it all together!

You had a HUGE adventure this year and went with me to London! We had the best girl time together and I’ll remember those sweet days with you forever. You just bring so much sunshine wherever you go.

You are brave. You are smart. You are funny. You are just my precious Eisley girl and we love you so much!

Happy 2nd birthday, baby girl!!

Love always,

Mama

I can’t even believe it.

We did Eisley’s family birthday a few days early since the Christmas chaos was starting right after her big day! She was SO excited and basically told everyone that it was her “bur-day.” And she’d randomly bust out into “Happy bur-day to ME!” Ha!

She was WAY too excited to stand in one place for a picture, but she looked ADORABLE for her party!

I love this picture! She was so enthralled by the ballerina nutcracker! Gammy did such a fantastic job on the decorations – it was SO Eisley.

My sweet girl and Nama. LOVE this.

My baby girl. How is she already two? Time needs to stop or at least slow down.

Little Miss had been up for maybe twenty minutes the next morning before she was fully decked out with all her new birthday presents. Ha! Such a sweet day for our girl!

This year just feels so SO packed full. I always hope to have the time to breathe and be still, but Christmas is always up and gone before we even know it. With the break starting so early, it felt even more like that for some reason. But, we also have had such sweet times! And it was really easy for Jon and I to get back into a pre-kid routine of late night movies and taking turns sleeping in. 😉

He walked past me like this while I was eating breakfast and casually told me see you later, because he has turned into a plane. Ha!

Cookie decorating day!! Otherwise known as How Many Sprinkles Can We Fit Onto One Cookie day. 😉

Someone was a huge fan of this afternoon. 😉 Jammies and all!

Christmas Light Night is a close second to the Melting Pot. We always get Starbucks and drive to the same neighborhoods every year! This year, Nathan made a thank you note for the owners of our favorite house. It was really sweet – such a kind heart to come up with that!

Look who is in town!! My amazing grandma came in town for a few days before Christmas this year! We all piled on all the warm clothes we could find and headed to the River of Lights. So much fun!

Love this of Auntie Cayce and Eisley. She was so in awe of the little train with the lights on it.

Little Miss has been in HEAVEN with so much time with baby Samuel and Nama and Hudson and Nora are on their way here now too! We can’t wait to have the whole family together!!