Holiday gathering and fun times

The Christmas season is always really busy in our household. There is something so awesome about the holiday season and getting together with friends and family. Though it's tiring and seems never ending, I love to indulge in those awesome moments. Then comes January and all I want to do is sleep for days :). Our holidays were super busy with baby appointment and multiple gatherings but we sure closed 2015 with a bang :).

The day after Christmas is called Boxing day in England and it is really big over there. Apparently they spend the day feasting and watching lots of soccer ;). Hubby's parents invited my whole family over for some feasting, they made a traditional English roast dinner and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Chilling in the living room

 Then dinner was served, my brother J was on it :)

 Bean and his father are always hanging out together

 Dinner time with the family

 The kids weren't really interested in eating when we did, but they were there :)

 Bean fell asleep on his father as usual. These two are two peas in a pod

A few days later we met up with some of our friends as we do every Christmas. People have moved away but it's nice to be able to catch up during the holidays. What I love about these gatherings is that we keep growing in number thanks to all the babies :). It's also a great excuse to catch up on life and let our kids play together.

HJ was the life of the party, taking selfies here with the kiddos

 The house was full for sure with kids running around everywhere

 I love this pic of Jbird playing with his autie HJ, the smile on his face is just priceless

Everyone joined the table when they realized there was lots of fun happening here :)

 I tried to take a pic of the 5-year olds

 Then the 3-year olds

 Then the 1 year olds

Then play doh came out and they were entertained for a while

I just love that I am pregnant with my BFF HJ. She was one of the last one in the group to get married when she had that awesome wedding last July. Here we are carrying our 4th and 1st babies, I am due in July and she is due in May.

We attempted to get a picture of all the girls with their kiddos and we got this gem :). 9 kids between the 4 of us with 2 more on the way. Next Christmas is going to be insane :).

Our Holiday season was busy and you know we wouldn't have it any other way. I just love hanging out with my peeps. Hope you had a great holiday season too.

IT'S A GIRL!!!!

To say that we are overjoyed is an understatement. It is still so surreal to us and we cannot believe that we get to complete our family with a little lady. In all my prayers, I asked for a healthy baby girl and God answered the desires of my heart. My heart is so happy and full right now. After 3 amazing and beautiful boys, the good Lord saw fit to complete our family with a little girl, AHHHHHHHHHHHH. Thanks be to God.

You know I turn every event into a photoshoot so I had to look around the house for everything pink that we had, got some balloon from the store and used the self timer to get this gem :). We are thrilled that our family will be seeing pink everywhere in a few months.

I got all pinked up myself from head to toe to celebrate the good news

We did the fetal cell DNA test which is why we found out so early. I am happy to report that the results were good and the baby is doing well in that department.

We also got to see our little lady during our NT scan and she is doing amazing and growing on target. God is good. She was so active and even waved at us :). Look at that awesome profile

Waving with both hands, how cute is she

Oh and by the way, the month we got pregnant, hubby sent me this text, apparently I was telling him about all the signs that I saw indicating that baby #4 was going to be a girl. Low and behold he had a dream about it. God works in mysterious but beautiful ways

We have been grinning from ear to ear since we found out the sex of baby #4. The gender of a baby is not the most important factor but being able to raise both genders is a total dream come true. I always thought I wanted 2 boys and 2 girls but seriously, God's plan is way more amazing than any dream I ever had. I am going to be a mom of three boys and a girl and I am loving the sound of that. I don't want to wish the days away but come on July, I am ready to meet my daughter :).

Christmas 2015

Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year you guys. No matter what happens, I go all out for this celebration. Our kids make it even more special because seeing the excitement in their eyes makes all the effort worthwhile. This year was a really nice Christmas because not only did Tman and Jbird know what was going on, they wanted to take part in all of the festivities.

The night before Christmas we planned to make a gingerbread house but I forgot to get it so we were left with making a gingerbread cookie tree. The boys didn't know any different and enjoyed the experience nonetheless :).

In the kitchen, working hard mixing everything together :). Tman and Jbird are serious about their mixing :).

My brother J came around and had fun running around with the boys while the cookie was in the oven

Then we decorated the cookie

I had to give them a hand of course

 The final result was absolutely beautiful, it was devoured within minutes :).

Tman made sure we saved some for Santa with some milk

 Santa came, I just love this sight the night before Christmas

 The boys were super excited about presents when they woke up in the morning

Tman went straight for the cookie and was so happy to see that Santa ate some of his cookie ;)

Then the boys watched a Christmas cartoon while I started cooking breakfast.

Normally we would be taking endless pictures in our pajamas at this point but my poor hubby woke up with the stomach bug that the boys had been passing around and he was puking all morning. When he first told me that he was sick, I thought he was pretending so that he didn't have to wear our pajamas so I didn't believe him (I know, how evil of me).

After breakfast, we decided to open at least one gift while we waited for hubby to feel better. We got the boys power wheels and they were in heaven. They started riding around the house until we suggested to go outside.

The weather was so beautiful that it was perfect riding weather. They enjoyed their bikes for a good half hour before we came back inside. Don't you just love that my mom is always around?

Poor hubby was still not feeling well, so we took a few pictures without him. I just love this picture of my mom with the boys :). Bean was crying but it is still an adorable picture

Then we opened a few more presents. I love that they are all working together

Tman loved that this present had his name on it

Then it was time to get things started for dinner. My mom and the big boys came to rescue. Since it was really warm for a Christmas day, we decided that grilling was definitely in order.

In between prepping food, we also skyped with our family overseas. My grandma is always so shocked when she can see someone that lives in another country on the phone :)

Bean chilling with grandad

Thanks to Zofran, hubby stopped puking and before we could actually get ready for dinner he was feeling a lot better. he willingly put on his Christmas pajama and joined us for our annual family picture :).

I present to you our 2015 family Christmas pajama :). I love my little growing family

By the time we did the pictures, my niece was already there and she really wanted to be part of our picture so we let her ;), she was so happy

My mom and grandma wanted to join in on the matching fun this year so I indulged them of course. We got this awesome 4 generations picture, my new favorite. I am so excited to add baby#4 to this mix next year

We also did a picture with hubby's parents, family is everything in my book

 And another with my brother to complete our 4 generations with all the grandchildren

After the photoshooot, it was time to serve dinner. My mom chilling with my brothers and my niece

Dinner was served shortly thereafter, yum yum

 Christmas dinner with the family

After dinner, there was a lot of chit chatting action and games. My brothers and sisters hanging out

 Me with hubby's mom and Bean, check out that awesome smile on my baby

Then it was time to open more presents

 This is by far my favorite thing, seeing my whole family together celebrating.

 Me and my mommy in our matching dresses :)

 Hubby did feel much better by the end of the day

We did our annual family photo by the Christmas tree. My stepfather was missing from this photo and that made me sad but I will forever cherish the amazing memories that we made over the last 20 years that we spent together.

That was our Christmas 2015 in a nutshell, another amazing time spent with our family and loved ones. I hope you had a great time celebrating this year too.