Christmas Season

Christmas Season 2015 will go down as the year our tree tipped over, WHOOPS!

Luckily there was minor damage and no children were near.  In fact we were chatting in our kitchen with good friends that stopped by to visit.  When we heard the crash, they immediately thought their son was a part of it.  He wasn't.  We only lost one or two main ornaments, a few other were basic color ornaments you can buy from Target and 2 more had "perfect breaks" so we were able to repair and place back on the tree, PHEW!

The only bummer is, it happened St. Nicholas Eve so the girls had to put their shoes under our little decorative tree in our family room, they didn't seem to mind, but I didn't get my picture...maybe I'll stage a fake one ;)

For fear of it happening again, we're still unsure of the cause.  We have a free weight tied to a string, tied to the tree, to hold it back, I'll keep you posted!

Sally had last Monday off as part of her Thanksgiving break.  Miss Queen Procrastinator loved that she was allowed to float through her whole day and was never required to get dressed.

Snowing! [VIDEO]

Story time, school and house was played by all.  Love catching these moments. "Sal, can you read me a story?"

Speaking of stories, is anyone else a hot mess at the end of this book?  It gets me every single time. Not just tears, but like crying crying.  This year Sally joined me...she's got my contagious crying gene

This girl...she learned how to pull her pants off and flush toilets.  We also decided it was time to transition to one nap.  It's been 4 days and so far so good, I'll update next post maybe, I don't want to jinx it

 Makin' my dreams come true!  I've been dreaming about this scene since I was pregnant with Sally.  We finally have a real mantel and real christmas stockings (thanks Nana and Gramps for the early Christmas present!) I can't tell you how much joy this brings me.  Still in awe that we have 3 little girls!

This gave me a little chuckle, thought I'd share

"Hey Mom, LOOK! Jesus made a cross for us in the sky! Take a picture!" -Libby

Sweet Middle Sister waiting to watch Big Sister's Advent program

 Love that she still wants to find us and wave at us!  Proud of our firstie, she sang her little heart out! We're excited that she gets to be in the Children's Choir for our Christmas Eve Mass. "Mom, it's probably going to make you cry happy tears." -Sally  Yes, sweet girl, it probably will, you know me well!

She has a few practices after school and today was her first one.  I got a little pit in my stomach.  It was weird to me that she was old enough to go to an after school activity without me needing to be there to bring her there.  I didn't like seeing her bus go through the neighborhood and she wasn't bouncing off ready to tell me about her day.  Why do they have to grow up so fast?

Happy to report she LOVED it and can't wait to go again, at least only one of us has a hard time with new transitions.

 Emma was entertained by a third grader behind us.  The student must have been a big sister because Emma was loving her! Clapping, Peek-a-boo, waving, blowing kisses, big smiles and giggles!

 When did she get so old?!

 Picture perfect! The one that made me a wife and the one that made me a mama! And boy oh boy are they one in the same!

 Libby had her first day of dance class on Friday.  She did great and had so much fun, she can't wait to go back.

 The teacher has the parents sit out in the hall during the class.  It allows the kids to listen and focus better.  Took the pressure off me to keep Emma entertained and quiet.  She enjoyed opening and closing my coffee cup for quite some time!

 Tippy Toes

 Sally celebrated Grinch Day last Friday.

Libby's Watermelon for Ww week

 Being one of the reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh!

Can you believe this weather? I'm not really a fan.  I actually like winter, especially the snow.  I really hope we have a white Christmas!

Emma wanted to show you that she has mittens on, she's not quite sure what to do with them.  Libby wants to show you her sucker she got from dance class

 Now what do I do? I have mittens on!

 The sunshine sure feels good!

 Our annual "bringing home the Christmas Tree" picture.  This was Emma's first day with only one nap, this day she only gave me 45 minutes, she was ready for bed at this point.

 A few weekends ago our realtor/aunt/good friend came over to see the house.  She hadn't been back since we added furniture and put things in it's place.  We explained our last main piece of furniture we're looking for is a bench.  She thought an old church pew would go perfect in that spot and perfect for our family.  We LOVED the idea.  My mom did too, so she said to search for one and She and George would give it to us for our Christmas present.  A few days later I found this bench on Craigslist and they delivered it to us.  How perfect is this?  Father Don, you need to come back and bless our bench :)

It's 70 years old and is from a Catholic Church in South Saint Paul that closed and joined with another parish.  We just love it!

"Now we can sit on it and pray in our HOUSE whenever we want, how cool is that?!"- Sally

Thank you Mom and George, we can't wait for you to see it!

 Decorating the Christmas Tree

 Thank you Sheila for our awesome new ornaments!! We love them! A cardinal and a nativity scene, can you spot them?

 Victoria had a little Christmas celebration downtown this weekend.  Can I just say how much I love our little town?  So quaint and I love that we already recognize people when we go to events like this.  Makes me think and hope how proud the girls will be some day when people ask them where they grew up.

This was a quick little story and song during the festivities.

 They also had a horse and buggy ride.  Whoops, we didn't realize there were two flashes.  Even though the ride was 1 minute total, it was still pretty cool :)

Mama knew the first photo didn't work so we quick did a selfie :)

Then we headed in to City Hall to meet Santa!

Emma taking a good look.  Sally being cautious for her baby sister.  Libby always ready for the camera!

 Checking him twice

 Not a fan, but a classic picture :)

 This is why you have more than one kid...so you can enjoy your meal and they can feed the baby the yogurt.  Both thought it was the greatest thing!

 [VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

Saint Nicholas Morning

We loved being able to go to 8:30am Mass since Emma didn't need her morning nap.  Allowed for a productive/relaxed morning.

Our three little angels, loving their Church Pew!

Happy Eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception!