Monday, January 30, 2017

Emilia's first snow and first meal

Our baby girl is growing and reaching so many awesome milestone. After she turned 6 months, we had our first real snow of the season. The boys were loving all the snow and loved introducing their sister to all the fun that comes with it. Tman requested that I put her on the floor so that she could make her first snow angel :). After the first snow, we introduced Emilia to her first meal and it was a great success.

Baby girl making her first snow angel. She was only on the ground for a few seconds and I bundled her up like she was staying outside for hours :)
Baby girl surrounded by her big brothers
The boys had so much throwing snow at each other while baby girl and I watched from the sidelines
They boys had so much fun with the snow

Bean can hold his own

We had such a fun snow day. I am usually not a fan of snow but I must say seeing how much the kids enjoyed playing in it, I might become a new fan. Tman told his teachers the next week that Winter was his favorite season because he gets to play in the snow.

Emilia's first snow day was followed by her first meal. I always wait until the baby turns 6 months then I make a big production out of their first meal. We always feed them avocado as a first meal because it's the one thing I always wanted to eat when I was pregnant. I know, I am silly like that.

Emilia was not sure about this first meal business
After each bite, she made the weirdest face
After a few bites she was holding the spoon herself. That's my girl
She is still not sure about the avocado
Daddy got in on the action too

Good job Emilia
The look on her face was priceless after that last bite, I don't think she loved that avocado at all :)
I had to take a picture feeding my baby of course
Our baby girl after her first taste at some real food. Loving her shirt and her happy smile
Our baby girl is growing like a weed and reaching so many awesome milestones. Her first snow and first meal are now behind us. She just watched the boys play in the snow and somewhat enjoyed her first meal. We are so proud of our baby girl and loving that she is growing strong and healthy everyday. We are so loving all these firsts and totally look forward to many more.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Happy New Year 2017

Happy New Year 2017. We are almost 1 month into the new year and that is just insane to me. I hope that you had an amazing start to this new year. The holiday season was super busy for us so we decided to have a super low key New Year celebration.

2016 was a pretty amazing year for our family, we welcomed our fourth and final member who also happens to be our first daughter. She was definitely the highlight of 2016. We spent the first half of the year waiting for her and the rest of the year enjoying her.

We stayed at home all day on New Year's day and we rung in the new year (an hour early because the boys were so ready for bed) with our kids. I set up the timer an got this awesome gem
Since this was Emilia's first New Year, I got her this awesome shirt. My baby girl is such a happy baby and she looks so much like her big brothers at this age in this picture
I decided to put a bow on her to make her more girly :). Jbird joined in on the fun
My sweet happy girl closing in on her first New Year on this earth with a smile
My boys were chilling during the day and watching movies. I was actually impressed because they were quiet and just enjoying each other's company (almost never happens)
 We let the boys stay up so that we could toast the new year but around 11ish, I noticed that they were getting sleepy so we decided to do the toast before they all passed out. I set up the timer on the camera and gave it a little try. I love this shot of my mom and I with the kids holding up their glasses
The boys were so happy that they got to drink in real glasses
It was just some orange juice but the boys felt like they were all grown up
Are you loving my mom and Emilia in their matching bows :).
Jbird was into taking pictures all night and would jump in every picture
Love this picture of my mom with 3 of my 4 kids. The boys were not giving me the time of day but they are still so cute :)
Jbird was just loving his orange juice in a real glass
My boys and their drinks
We really enjoyed our low key celebration. It was nice not having anything planned and just chilling at home with the kids and my mom. I hope you had a great time ringing in the new year. Happy New Year 2017, I am so excited for what this year has in store for our family.

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Emilia is 6 months

Our baby girl is 6 months you guys and I can't even believe it. How has it been a half a year already since she joined our family. I still remember daydreaming about her and now she is here. This time last year we found out she was going to be a girl and I completely lost my mind. A baby girl after 3 awesome boys was a total dream come true.

She is just a happy and content baby this girl I tell you. She is totally following up in her big brother's Bean's footsteps. She only cries when she needs something otherwise she is just happy and content. She is such an amazing baby. We definitely lucked out in the baby department.

I made this video of her for her half birthday, she is so fun to watch I tell you
Baby girl has mastered the art of sitting up and now she wants to start exploring the house. She is now trying to move and always pulls forward when she is sitting down. She is so adorable you guys, I can't even deal
She is healthy as can be weighing 17lbs 8oz and 26in. She has rolls for days and I just love them. She is also constantly giggling. I just love her sweet happy smile and her chubby cheeks
Are you looking at me
I just love her big brown eyes and chubby cheeks, my little mini
She is still a great feeder but I think she is done nursing. I tried everything I could during the holiday to get her back on the boob but she wanted none of it. I think she is really done nursing now. She hasn't really nursed in almost 2 months. I am so bummed that it ended so suddenly, I was so not ready. I am so sad that this nursing relationship ended so quickly but I am happy that I still make plenty of milk to sustain her by just pumping. 
I hate pumping so much but I will keep it up for as long as I can to continue to feed this beautiful girl some breast milk. The silver lining of the whole thing is that when I am ready to be done it's going to be an easy process, no baby to wean.
She is worth every bit of stress for sure
She is still sleeping like a champion. We are two months into this great sleep business and I am so thankful for that. Now that I am back at work, I really cherish the good sleep. She usually goes down for the night around 11pm and doesn't wake up until 6am. That's a 7-hour stretch which is amazing at this stage of the game.

My little model
My beautiful little poser
This girl is just so amazing and I am so happy that she is ours to keep
Emilia is so curious about the world around her. She is always looking to see what she can get into and checking things around her.
What is this dress I have on :)

Her bottom two teeth popped through on 2 January and now you can really see those bottom teeth. I had to tickle her to get her to show those teeth :)
The arrival of teeth messed up her sleep for about a week but she is back to normal now so we can't complain.

Happy 6 months to our sweet baby girl. We are so blessed to call you ours and are totally enjoying every minute of your first year of life. We celebrate every milestone and we love seeing you grow strong and healthy everyday. We love you to the moon and back sweet baby.

Sunday, January 8, 2017

Christmas celebrations 2016

We had so much fun celebrating Christmas with our family this year. Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year and I always try to go all out for this celebration. This year was extra special because it was our baby girl's first Christmas.

6 years ago, we were celebrating our first child's first Christmas. 6 years later and we just celebrated our last child's first Christmas. We've come full circle and this definitely marks the end of an era.

My big boys were super excited about the celebrations. It was so neat to watch them get excited about making cookies for Santa and going to bed early so that Santa could pay them a visit. Tman's squeal in the morning when he found the presents under the tree. You guys, it was all so beautiful and endearing.

I compiled a short video of the boys opening a few presents in the morning. It's hard to film and take pictures at the same time. I need more hands. They were so cute though :)
Tman and Jbird putting their puzzle together, they did this a gazzillion times
Tman and Jbird playing with one of their favorite toys
Santa came, I just love this sight the night before Christmas
And of course the Christmas cards with the tree in the background
I snapped a picture of my mom with the kids in the morning
The boys couldn't wait to open presents so I use their excitement to convince them to take a few pictures with us. I present to you our 2016 family Christmas pajamas :)

I love this family of mine, our six pack :)

My mom joined in on the fun too. Don't laugh, I meant to order the "grandma bear" pajama but I ordered the "papa bear" one by accident. Mommy brain in full effect. My mom still looked cute in it.

3 generations :) :) :)
Our four perfect little pumpkins, I love my munchkins
And of course a picture of all of us, hello self timer
We then started to open presents like it was going out of style. The boys were loving every minute of it and kept getting excited for more presents

Look at my baby girl sitting over there like a big girl
We then moved to the playroom to show them their big present, they were ecstatic

Grandma and her granddaughter
Tman really wanted this game called "let's go fishing" and of course Santa delivered :). The boys trying their hand at the new game.

It was actually a pretty fun game
I love this picture that my mom capture of our clan so much.
After playing let's go fishing, we sat back down and opened a few more presents

Oh hi Emilia, enjoying her first Christmas

I always try and take a picture of me and my main squeeze of course
After opening a few presents, we made breakfast while the boys told us how excited they were about all of their toys. My brother who lives about 4 hours away that we rarely see decided to surprise us with a visit on Christmas day. What a great surprise it was
After they left, we opened even more presents

I love this picture so much, baby girl and I are looking at each other with so much adoration
We finally finished opening our presents then it was time to get ready for the celebration with the rest of the family

This being baby girl's first Christmas, I went all out with the matching. We got matching dresses and matching bows. Best part is that my mom told me a month before that she loved the matching and would love to be part of the group (music to my ear).

I present to you our 3 generations of girls, my heart is so full right now

I got us matching bracelets too, I know, I can't even help myself
This baby girl of mine is a total dream. I still can't believe we have a girl :). Matching with my mini me. Doesn't she look so grown?
Our family all dressed up for the Christmas festivities, love our six pack
My brother and his family, I love that the girls are coordinated too
We had a yummy dinner

I took even more picture with the rest of the family

Girls, girls and more girls :)
We opened even more presents with the rest of the group


My brother J loved his present
Christmas is definitely my favorite, family time is the best time
These two, I seriously can't even get over their cuteness right now

We did our annual family photo by the Christmas tree. Hubby's parents are missing because they were in England celebrating with his sister and her new baby boy.
That was our Christmas 2016 in a nutshell, another amazing time spent with our family and loved ones. This was our 7th annual Christmas and I love the fact that next year we will be adding another member to our group.  I hope you had a great time celebrating this year too.