The Day After...

We had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed the day of just hanging out and playing with all the new toys. Hallie woke up at 6:30 and came layed in bed with Tyler and me until Annie woke up. I don't think she realized that Santa had come cause she never asked to go downstairs or to go wake up Annie. At 7:10 Annie finally woke up and we all headed down stairs (well, minus the little guy, he was sound asleep). They were thrilled when they saw that Santa had come and that he had brought the toys that they wanted.
Hallie had no problem opening all her presents but we had to coach Annie to keep going. She was more excited about watching Hallie open hers. Tyler and I loved just sitting and watching the girls open and giggle. Christmas really is so much more fun when you have kids to be around.
We all got spoiled this year and want to thank all the Grandma's and Grandpa's that sent the great gifts. We loved each and everyone. Also, thanks to everyone else that spoiled us. Tyler even made us a Turkey dinner. It was awesome. He is really getting the cooking thing down. Oh, by the way, Tyler has a two week break right now and it has been awesome having him home with us. It gives me a good excuse to lay around and do nothing!Annie got the baby she wanted with the pink bow. She has really been into playing house lately and loves finally having her own baby to care for. She kept coming up to me and telling me all the stuff that her baby was doing and asking if mine was doing them to.

Barry finally woke up and found that his Sisters had opened all his presents already, I don't think he minded to much though. He has been trying to smile lately. He did it the other day for each of the girls and they couldn't stop laughing. It was so cute. I love this stage and can't wait for the giggling to start.Hallie got the Princess Island Barbie last year for Christmas but somehow it got broken and lost so she asked Santa for it again this year. It has been singing non stop since she opened it. She opened her dress and quickly stripped her pj's and changed into the dress. She really loves her dresses and skirts and can't wait til it is summer again and can wear them outside.
This is the only picture I got of the Puppet Theater that I made. I will try and get a better picture but for now this will do. It was so much fun making it and seeing them play with it.They got a tent and jumped up and down all day with it. This was a great picture of Annie! Here are a few more pictures of the day. Hope you enjoy them and Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Although it was a blast talking to all of our families on the web cam,We miss you all and hope that the day soon comes that we get to be with you again. I love technology.

Barry loves his Dad and seems to think that only Dad can put him to sleep. Just wait til Tyler goes back to school and I have all day long to do my brainwashing again! Mom always wins!

Merry Friggin' Christmas.

First and foremost, I never posted on Bree's birthday. She is 30. Everyone make up for my slothfulness and tell her how much you really care. And no (tastless) old jokes.


So here are the pictures of things mentioned and things not. Our tree hunt and decorations, the Missouriable weather and our little man. Ahem:

None of the trees were really impressive, but Hallie endorsed this one unflinchingly.

This is post-decoration. Of course it fell over once we got it in the stand, but i rigged it up to not do that anymore, then was told how to fix the stand, so now it really won't do it anymore.

Of course here are the real attention getters though. The girls think that Barry came just so they could touch, hold, kiss and goo over. The close-up picture is from today, so you've got the most up to date look at him. Here are a bunch of 'em. He us doing really pretty good. He has been fussier at times, then others he just sits and stares at everything. He is also doing pretty good about the day/night thing and pretty much goes right back to sleep after eating at night. Yesterday morning Bree was changing his diaper at about 6, she pulled off the old one off, and was working on putting on the new one, when the fire hose went off. She was recovering from that watery attack when #2 fired off all over her and the bed. We did some damage control for that one, and picked little man up and he spewed all over Bree. I think he has a sense of humor, or at least irony and great timing.











Some of the interesting things that have been happening out here involve the sky. I know most places have big dips and swoops in temperature and stuff, but this is really much. Sunday the 14th we were at about 60 degrees. Some rain, but really pretty nice. The next day we were hovering around mid 20's with about 4 inches of snow. Later in the week we had our very first ice storm, pictured here. This is when it warms back up enough to rain, but then immediately freezes again. This one left us about 1 inch of ice. This fell the night before a huge test in school, while they had closed just about everything else in town. (i chipped out this path so's I could take my family out of town).

Now those are the only paths that I keep clear cause we keep having storms that build on the original ice that fell. In fact Chris and Carrie came over before they left and Chris fell and slid down the whole driveway, and after another little skiff fell over the ice, a delivery guy did the same thing. Salt, shovels and hammers don't do a thing against it, in case you are asking yourself why I don't do more to fix it. Is hard. (look real close at the picture of the sign and you can see the rain frozen right to the face of it.) So now a little is coming off the roof and we have big ice sickles. Fun huh?

We stayed here in Missouri for Christmas and are having a wonderful time. So Merry Christmas to all and a post will come later about the day itself.

I Give Up...

I have been waiting to post until I can find my battery charger for my camera but no such luck. So you are getting a pictureless post. Sorry ahead of time for the boring post. Let me just start out saying that being a mother of 3 is a big adjustment. I don't know if it has to do with the fact that it is freezing cold outside and we are stuck in doors going crazy or if I just am having a hard time adjusting. I am going to go with the crazyness!
Barry is getting bigger and starting to get more of a routine with his sleeping. He really his a good baby but has a hard time at night. He cries a lot but then he is great during the day. The girls absolutely adore him and can't seem to give him enough kisses. We have to keep a close eye on him because both girls have picked him up and tried to bring him to me. It wouldn't be so bad if they knew how to hold him in a different position other than around the neck.
We cut down our very first Christmas tree and had a blast doing it. We went to a tree farm and got to pick any tree that we wanted. Hallie was on the hunt for the perfect tree and ended up finding it. We tried to direct her to a different tree cause the one she picked was mostly dead on the inside but she always walked back to the "Perfect" tree. She was so excited to put one the lights and decorations and was a big help doing it. Now both girls ask everyday when Santa is coming... It is going to be a long Christmas Season.
We are staying here for the Holidays and are excited. It will be our first Christmas alone. We are going to miss our families but it will be fun to start some of our own traditions. Anyone have fun traditions they want to share. Especially ones for kids!
I'll post more when we get our camera back up and going. Merry Christmas Everyone!