New Year

Party hardy at the Gibson's!  As usual, the evening was filled with food, fun, games, and TV games.  And as seems to be the usual the last few times, we couldn't find the ball drop.  This year the cable box wasn't working right.  So, we just counted down ourselves and had some fun.  Grandma and Grandpa had some big confetti poppers which were a lot of fun for the kids to pop.

The big hit this year was Just Dance and other games similar to it.  Everyone had a chance to play, and it was a lot of fun to watch.

December Days

December passed by in a blur.  Life consisted of me trying to get back into the swing of things, which I feel didn't go completely miserably, but definitely wasn't as smooth of a transition than perhaps it has been with other babies.  I tried to live in the moment as much as I could.  Enjoying the beautiful things, and trying to ignore all that I felt I needed to do, but just couldn't find the time for.  

Austin is just such a fun boy, doing unexpected things that are just so cute.  One day I found him playing this way:  too small winter hat on his head, snorkel fins on his feet, and snow gloves he was intending to wear as well.  

Ashlyn got more loving from her aunts and uncles this month  Here she is with Aunt Nancy.

I love this letter to Santa from Jayden.  He asks for an iPod touch because at one point we thought it might be okay... bummer for him is that in the end we decided we weren't ready for that kind of change in our house.  He wants Santa to bring me an iPod charger (to replace the one that he accidentally broke while using).  He knows how much Dylan loves football and wants Santa to bring him one, and apparently at the moment he knows that all of Devon's pants have holes in them.  How thoughtful of him to ask Santa to bring some more.  Haha!

I can't help but keep on taking more and more pictures of Ashlyn. She is such a sweetheart, and we love having her in our family.  This is how most my babies sleep for the first few months of life.  It seems to be the best way to keep them asleep, which gives me some much needed sleep!  Eventually I wean them to the crib around 4 months or so.

Ashlyn has a light patch in her hair on the side of her head.  I'm curious if it will stay that way, or later in life manifest itself again.

Lauren loves limes.  It must come from how I started craving them while I was pregnant with her.  Nothing like a Cafe Rio salad  with just lime juice as the dressing.  Yum!!

I've started on my quest to catching a good picture of Ashlyn's smiles now that she is smiling.  Its always tricky for a while.

I couldn't help myself and take a selfie to record how Ashyln and I spent most nights while she was a newborn.  She slept wonderfully this way, and for the most part, so did I.  I just love snuggling with my newborns, and it makes nighttime feedings so much easier.  For probably the first two or three months or so, if Ashlyn was having a hard time sleeping, all it took was me snuggling with her to get her to go to sleep. Those are beautiful days.  It never lasts forever.

For all my other babies, the swing was a staple of getting my kids to sleep when they were newborns.  Ashlyn did not follow suit.  I still used it occasionally, but Ashlyn never had the same appreciation and love of the swing.  I love seeing my babies sleep and relax in the swing though.  They are just so cute.  I guess new babies doing anything is cute, though.

I LOVE snuggling with my newborns.  Having them sleep this way on you is heaven! (Another selfie by the way.  I never seem to have very many pictures of me with my kids, since I'm usually the one with the camera.)

Grandma and Uncle Ben came to help make sugar cookies with us.  It was perfect.  I'm not quite sure if we would have gotten this tradition done without their help.  Grandma held Ashlyn, and Ben helped me with getting the cookies rolled out and cut.  Ashlyn seriously loves to be held all day, which is making it so hard to do  just about anything.  Its hard to be too bothered by it, because I will be sad when I don't get to hold her all day as a sleeping newborn.  Of course, looking around at my messy house drives me crazy.  The days I do get it cleaned up are wonderful!

Christmas Day

What a wonderful Christmas Day!  Now, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we managed to make it through a Christmas with no throwing up kids!  It seems that just about every single year one of the kids are throwing up, whether from eating too much junk in their stocking, or from truly being sick.  Most often its the junk food that gets Dylan. 

I love to watch the kids come down the stairs. We have them all gather in one room and wait to come down together, youngest to oldest.

Austin wanted Santa to bring him some play milk.  That was his only request. He got this little wooden milk carton, and then a slightly larger plastic one that came with some other play food.

Austin and Lauren, and really all the kids, wanted to show Ashlyn everything Santa brought her.

Austin and Lauren also had matching Mr. and Mrs. Claus pajamas.  Lauren got some Minnie Mouse slippers from Ethan.

Dylan wanted to make as many presents for the family as he could.  He used some wood from a kit he had to make Austin this airplane.  He also added some personal modifications, like a propeller.  He gave Jayden a catapult he made.

The kids were beyond lucky and got an XBox 360.  They must have been really, really, good this year.  We will see if Mom is happy with Santa for this present.

All three older boys asked for video games for Christmas.  Jayden got Skylanders, Ethan got Disney Infinity, and Dylan got Madden 25,  all for the XBox.

Lauren got a doll house, and she absolutely loved it.  She just played and played and played all day with that thing.  I think all the boys played with it as well with her.

Dylan doing his traditional Chrismtas Day Lego building.  This year its Star Wars things.

Christmas morning after the presents was filled with lots of video gaming, building of Legos, building with the Lincoln Logs Austin got, playing with the doll house, and everything else the kids wanted to do.

Then up to Grandma and Grandpa Kirk's we went.  One of the best gifts was the "vitamins" that Jon gave my dad.  Just a few weeks before all the men went to a movie together.  My dad brought in some vitamins that he claimed he needed to take.  Inside were chocolate covered almonds that he shared with everyone.  Jon was adding to Dad's stockpile of "vitamins."  Also of notable presents were the ones Steve gave Ben for Christmas.  I can't remember them all and didn't get a picture, but they were really funny and gave everyone a laugh, especially when he gave Ben his own pair of shorts and Ben said something about having some just like them.

If you notice Devon in the above picture, he is FaceTime-ing Rachel and David so they can be a part of Christmas from Oregon.  I wish they would move back already!

After presents everyone had fun playing together.  At the Kirk house, playing board games is probably the number one way to spend time together.  

I was trying to get pictures of Ethan and Megan playing with Grandpa.  Megan is a crack up!  She did not want to cooperate and smile for the camera, so she pulled these awesome faces instead.

We are so glad to have Uncle Ben back home with us.  Sure he has been home for six months, but we still are just loving having him around.  The kids all flock to him and love the attention he gives them.

Later in the day we headed to the Gibson's.  These pictures are of everyone watching Russ' robot that he made.  The Gibson's love to gather together and visit and share special things together like seeing things people have made, or listening to the cousins play their instruments.