I wish I didn't have to put that last word in the title, but unfortunately December was a month full of sickness for our family. Luckily I was still home on maternity leave so we could deal with it all, but man was it rough!
Basically since our trip to the Dells in November, one or many of us was sick. Matt even had Influenza A over his time off during Christmas. We took the girls to urgent care while in Wisconsin with my fam, and both Brinley and Becca had additional stops at the dr. The medical bills at year-end sure piled up! ;)
Thankfully though, we've enjoyed a much healthier January so far (it's Jan. 30 while I write this, but just trying to play catch-up!)
Amidst all of the sickness though, we did manage to have a lot of fun! Our Christmas decorations went up in early November but had a great time decorating the tree in December. We also got out and did a lot of fun holiday stuff, including the Hosanna Christmas concert.
And probably the best news, we got to help James pull off a great surprise on Mom and Dad the week before Chirstmas when he got home from Iraq. It's been so wonderful having him home!
We also got a bit overwhelmed by "stuff" this Christmas and Mommy (me!) went off the deep end a bit with American Girl stuff for Brinley (and me!). It's given us a chance though to step back and focus on what's really important in life, which is our family and time together.
We got through the craziness and are in a much better place now, which we are thankful for.
We are so so grateful for our marriage and our children and thank God every day for how much He's blessed us. May he give us many, many, many, many, many more years together as a family!
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| Special time with Brinley at the mall before Christmas! |
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| Snowman drink at the AG store |
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| My friend Lindsey and I took our "big girls" to go see the nutcracker. They did so well! |
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| Love my big girl! So special to have a sweet little princess to bring to the nutcracker. My dream come true! |
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| Our big girls! |
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| We had a tree decorating party in Mid-December and Becca looked so cute in her Christmas jammies and reindeer hat that I had to do an impromptu photo shoot. Isn't she the cutest??? |
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| Selfie with mama! |
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| I went through the Christmas season mostly just hot all the time! Ha! |
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| Brinny didn't want to take any photos with me so it was just Becca... |
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| But she did take a photo with her Daddy :) |
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| LOVE our house decorated for Christmas! So fun! |
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| Making faces with Becca. This sweet girl and I have been buddies these past 5 months. I can't get enough of her! |
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| There we go! Me and Brin Brin! |
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| Sleeping angel... |
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| The Becca bunny! We have been trying to give her the nickname of "bunny" but so far it hasn't stuck yet... |
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| We love all of the pictures from school. Brinley is 4 1/2 and oh so smart! She can read some words, write most of her letter and is just such an amazing kid! |
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| A cutting pro! |
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| Every Friday in December was jammie day at school. I think this should always be the case! |
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| Playing out in the snow with her friends! |
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| Ellie and I rockin our red lips at the Hosanna Christmas concert! |
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| Hosanna Christmas Concert crew. It was such an amazing night! So happy that my Aunt and Mama could join us from Wisconsin! |
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| Brinley also had her dance recital in December. She did decide to take a little break from dance this Spring but she did really well with all of her very technical ballet moves! She's very graceful and we are so proud of her! |
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| The whole dance school |
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| Our little ballerina! |
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| Brinley adores her sister! And mama adores those matching jammies!!! |
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| Christmas Jammies!!! |
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| Keepin it real! |
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| Out takes, is she stinky?? |
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| This girl loves to play outside in the snow! |
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| Music class! |
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| Tree at the mall of America |
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| Mom, can we have a tea party dinner tonight??? Sometimes you just have to say yes :) |
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| After many, many, many days home with sickies this mama was going crazy! :) |
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| But these sweet smiles make it all worth it! |
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| Brinny and her good friend Emery |
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| Never gets old! |
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| So after 6 or so years on the fire department we FINALLY made it to cupcakes with Santa! And the funny thing is this was the same Santa that we saw at Hosanna a couple of years ago with the bluish beard... |
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| Becca wasn't sure what to think of him... |
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| Brinley and Macyn, BFFs! |
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| We got my Granma's tea set from my mom this year and had a special "holiday" tea with some sweet friends of ours and their dolls. We all had a great time! |
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| The month of December I got involved with a non-profit called A Mother's Wish which gave AG dolls to little girls in need. I collected a bunch of dolls to send but that also meant that we had to go to the post-office a lot. Mama HATES the post office! But we survived ;) |
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| We met up with Uncle Wes when he was off Christmas week and hung out at the mall. Brinley loves all of the big rides now and her and Wes had a blast! |
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| A'int that the truth, Becks? ;) |
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| Meeting Uncle James for the first time!!!! |
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| It was SO fun to get to pull of this surprise for my parents and go and pick up Uncle James! |
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| After we picked up James from the airport we went over to his apartment to hang out until the dinner surprise. Brinley helped him unpack! |
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| We also got a chance to visit Aunt Ashley while we were in town for Christmas! |
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| Aunt Ashley always give the girls books and money for college. We really appreciate her! |
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| She met Becca for the first time too! |
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| The morning of our family Christmas we had to take the girls to urgent care as Becca had goop in her eyes and Brinners was still running a fever. No bueno! |
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| Still a happy baby though! Opening her Christmas presents! |
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| Boy did we miss Uncle James! |
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| Quiet Christmas at home with the sickies :) |
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| Christmas eve selfie! |
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| Santa came!!! |
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| Waiting to go see what Santa brought... |
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| American girl dolls!!!! |
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| Loving her presents from Grandpa Tom and Grandma Robbin as well |
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| Vikings baby! |
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| All the American Girl dolls :) |
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| Just hanging out :) |
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| Mommy even got a special doll this Christmas. Mary Ellen :) |
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| The mess from Christmas this year was incredible. I almost had a meltdown. Too. Much.Stuff. |
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| Laundry piles are epic these days. Trying to figure out how best to manage it all! |
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| A bit of a tantrum... |
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| Sister sister! |
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| Happy New Year! |
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| Our sad tree. Finally took all of the Christmas decorations down! |
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| When Daddy is sick and takes a bath and finds Brinley's bath crayons :) |
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| I love to style the dolls hair :) |
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| We ran in the New Year still with the sickies and everyone passed out on the couch! Although it was a rough December, we couldn't be more grateful for our family and our beautiful girls!!! |
