Taking a Break

Once upon a time I had a baby in my belly - 10 years ago actually!

W/ a scream, Finley arrived 5 weeks earlier than expected.

Everyone came bursting in to learn Baby was a BOY!

I was a mom!

And that made 3!

They were grandparents!

She was an auntie!

Fast forward a few years and there was another baby bump.

This time everyone rushed in to learn we had a GIRL! 

I was a mom again!

A mom of 2!

And we became 4 💗

They were grandparents again!

And he was a brother!

Fast forward 6 more years...now I'm a stay-at-home mom of 2 super-busy kids and I'm currently involved in/on 9 various committees in our community/church/school. And judging by the pictures below, I'm apparently too busy to comb my hair and wear hats each day 😉 But, those are also some of the reasons why I'm going to take a break from blogging...(keep going, there's a little more below)...

...It's very bittersweet - truthfully, the decision isn't sweet at all. But I haven't been finding the time to do this the way I want to anymore. I really like sharing stories, I really like writing, I really like looking through all of my pictures. I'm simply not keeping up w/ it and it's become a chore. And no one looks forward to doing chores. I'm OCD-enough, that even a simple post takes a few hours, throw in a holiday and I easily have 5-8+ hours involved (I know, that's crazy). So for my sanity, it needs to stop for now. Christmas 2017 & Winter Break (two posts) are posted below and that felt like a good (temporary?!) ending spot. And of course I will continue to over-share on Facebook and Instagram 😋 Thanks for hanging w/ me for 10 years on Blogger, maybe it'll be temporary and I'll come back w/ new energy for this again, we'll see 😊

Christmas 2017

Flashing back to my babies first Christmases.

This is too much, what a little bump.

Hadley-girl was a month older than Finley and a little more animated.

Spencer & Finley shared a First Christmas...

....so did Nolan & Hadley.

The day before winter break started, I enjoyed some quiet before the holiday-storm began.

Cookie prep for Santa!

One kid is WAY more like me than the other. 6 red, 6 green, even sprinkles... 

...I don't even know what this is. 

Chippy had a few more tricks up his sleeve. 

And his final goodbye was bringing out the Santa sacks. 

Christmas Eve Eve, the kids visited Grandma Kathleen.

Knowing how tired (crabby) we sometimes are by Christmas Day night and w/ Christmas Eve falling on a weekend (Patrick didn't have to work), we decided to open our presents at home on Eve. I love this picture, I'm sure the closeness was because they knew the sooner the picture was done, the sooner they could get started.

It was a good choice, the kids were happy and friendly to each other - sometimes that's a gift itself 😄

After Christmas Eve church, we went to Grandpa & Grandma's for dinner w/ family and friends. 

Fran & Hadley decorated cookies... 

...Carol joined us... 

...snuggles w/ Peter...

...and we had our Wii bowling tournament, Marcus kicked all of our butts - big time! 

Tracking Santa.... 

...feeding the reindeer and ringing Santa's bell to see if he was near. I fully know Santa is time-sensitive for Finley, so soaking in all of their magic.

They finally fell asleep and Santa came. 

Stockings are always first.

She just cracks me up. She was excited about everything - even plastic shoe laces 😂 

Time to dig into their Santa sacks, literally.

They are maturing in their gift-opening ways, taking turns w/o being told. But Finley, in true Auntie-style, will quietly count and make sure he has the last gift to open. They sat on the fireplace nearly the entire time.

Finley's BEST gift, the thing he wanted SO badly.... 

....a HOVER BOARD! 

Sadly, Santa sort of dropped the ball w/ Hadley 😒  She has wanted a gymnastics bar for the longest time (she received a balance beam last year, and she's been asking for a bar since then), so Santa bit the bullet, paid way too much, and got one. But two weeks before Christmas, all Hadley could talk about was wanting an iPod. As she went through her entire Santa bag, she kept talking about finding an iPod...knowing there was NO iPod, I cringed. Ugh, she was seriously disappointed when she opened the last gift and it wasn't an iPod...kicking myself. Thankfully Hadley is the easier-spirit of the two and got over it after a few days. 

Now she desperately wants a hover board, thankfully Finley has been pretty good about sharing his. 

And she happily swings around her bar (which did not permanently stay in our entry way). 

Back to Grandpa & Grandma's for Christmas Day w/ Auntie, Uncle Ryan, & our 3 favorite boys. 

Finley kicked off our meal by reading the Christmas Story. 

All 11 of us around 1 table.

Pre gifts obligatory photos. 

And the fun part. 

The kids ended our evening putting on a skit, they were sooo funny. They'd practiced downstairs and then performed a version of The Grinch. 

Thanks Grandpa & Grandma for a great Christmas.

And on December 26, it all went away 😉  Check out Finley vacuuming on his hover board.