Christmas Eve 2013

Let's pretend it's not 2 weeks post Christmas and I am just now blogging about it, ok? ;)

This is the 1st year we have not traveled and instead celebrated Christmas with just our little family.  I can honestly say that I loved it and it didn't bother me one bit.  Adam lovingly refers to me as a recluse at comments like that, he was missing the hustle and bustle of our big family Christmas chaos.  I know this is probably the only year it will be like this and we had a pretty darn good reason to not be traveling this year ;).  We went to 4:00 Christmas mass at our church and underestimated the crowd.  Yowza, they were shuttling people from a parking lot down the street from church!  Needless to say we weren't early enough and were in a classroom watching it on a big screen…not exactly the same ambiance as church.

After church we went to Central Market to pick up dinner…actually I had to nurse Piper so Adam braved the store with both kids.  Not an easy job people.

 My sweet Christmas baby, she was 12 days old here.

 Our crazy Laney Faith who makes us laugh all.the.time!

 This handsome fella is growing up too fast, he looks so old here!

Love these kids!!!

 Selfie!  That is one of Laney's new words and I just adore how she says it, need to get it on video.  I was reading Christmas books to the kids (all of them!) before bed.

 Piper felt left out.

 The whole fam, even a bit of Lola's fur in the left hand corner.

 Going out to sprinkle the reindeer food he made at school.

 Feel the love!  Only in Texas do you go out with no coats and flip flops on Christmas Eve!

 We tracked Santa right before bed and 

 had a Christmas music dance party.

They were just a little bit excited ;).

The kids finally went to sleep and Mr. and Mrs. Claus and our tiny elf got to work.

This baby elf likes to be held a lot especially at night (more on that later :)).  Here we are making a french toast casserole together for Christmas morning.

It was a perfect Christmas Eve, my favorite day of the year (well, besides my birthday ;)).

Happy 1 week Piper Marie!

Actually these are pics taken on her 10th day of life, close enough.

The first 2 Sundays of her life she has spent watching her big brother play soccer.  Well, she slept thru the games, but she was there :).

Happy 1 week Piper, we are so happy to have you in our lives!  You are so loved!

At 1 week, she is sleeping really good.  We were getting 4-6 hour stretches of sleep :).  She is nursing every 2-3 hours, rarely makes it to 3 hours.  Loves to be cuddled and we happily oblige!

Piper's 1st real bath

Since Piper's umbilical cord fell off at 1 week, we were able to give her a real bath!

 The big kids were very into it and wanted to be right next to us.  Oh, that Laney Faith!

 Piper throwing up the peace sign!

Happy 1 week Piper!

 Oh, love those chubby cheeks!  Cooper is always saying, "I wanna squeeze those cheeks!"

Santa Claus 2013

We visited our neighborhood golf clubhouse to see Santa for the 3rd year in a row…can't believe it!  See last years visit here.  

Sweet Piper was just a week old at our visit and Santa was so happy that we brought her!

 Laney was all about "ho-ho"before we got there.  When our turn came, sister threw herself on the ground, went boneless and was.not. getting on Santa's lap.  No ifs, ands or buts about it.  So a family picture it was :).

 I can honestly say this is the first year he was excited to see Santa and was all about getting his time on Santa's lap!  He told Santa he only wanted one thing, a remote control car.  This is the first time he had mentioned this…I was at Toys R Us on Christmas Eve.

Santa had a little heart to heart with Cooper about that thumb sucking…in case you are wondering, it didn't work ;).  

It only took 9 days (and 184 takes) to get a picture with my 3 kids.  In case you are wondering, Cooper's shirt was made by a great local gal, you can look her up on Facebook, The Embroidery Boutique.  She also made the kids' Big Bro/Sis shirts they wore at the hospital when Piper was born.

Dad and Big Kid Bonding

Have I mentioned that Adam has been off of work for the last 3 weeks!?!?  It has been a dream and today is a sad day in the Jones' house as he goes back to the office tomorrow.  :(  I don't who is going to miss him more, the kids or me!  I am so, so, so super thankful he was able to (and did :)) take off work for so long to hang out at the house with us.  With the other 2 kids he just took a few days off of work so this was awesome!

While he has been off, he has taken the big kids to do some fun stuff, played lots of Superheros :) and got those kids outside a lot even in the cold weather.

They have had lots of fun together over the last few weeks!

 Our good friends, the Jensens, graciously handed down their Barbie Jeep to the kids and they love it!

 Lazy Lola skipped her walk and hopped on for a ride.

 One morning they went to a place full of bounce houses.

Dad became a mode of transportation up and down the stairs for these 2 kids.

We will miss you like crazy this week Dad!  

Sibling Love for Little Sister

Cooper and Laney have adjusted so well to Baby Piper.  They adore her and are so, so sweet!

This is one loved little sister!

 Cooper and Laney love her but Lola is definitely the most protective!  It took about a week before she would leave Piper's side.

 Secrets between sisters.

Piper and I had been out running errands, within minutes of us being home, I found her like this.  Cooper had covered her up with his most prized possession, his blanket and Laney had given her a doll to cuddle with.  

First Bath

At 6 days old, we decided Piper was probably in need of a bath :).  If not for anything else, to freshen up her hair that was oily from everyone putting their hands thru it.

 Her umbilical cord was still attached so a sponge bath it was.

 Brother and Sister were very intrigued and watched from afar.