Christmas And Such

I can't believe that Christmas has already come and gone. December is always such a crazy, busy month. I figured the best way to show you what we've been up to is to just narrate a few of the bazillion pictures we took.

Eli the Elf made her first appearance at our house. She was very loved and quite a few tears were shed when she went back to the North Pole for the year. I think that she might make a few surprise appearances through this next year, just to check on the kiddos.

This little boy keeps growing and has become such a joy to have in our home! The first couple months of his life were pretty rough. Full of a lot of crying and a lot of lost sleep. He was pretty colicky so it made for some fun times. :) I am happy to say that we have survived and we love having him around! He is smiling like crazy and loves to talk and giggle at you. I can't get enough!
The girls had their Christmas Dance Recital. It was Em's first recital ever and both of the girls were awesome! They are such cute little performers. It was fun to see Banana perform her whole dance without any help and to see the talent she has! Em was just adorable!
We also rocked it out at the Voice Male concert! The girls loved singing along and Baby L was such a trooper and didn't make a peep throughout the whole concert.
We saw Santa and the girls proceeded to add a few things to their list.
Banana somehow convinced me to throw a Christmas party. She invited her entire Kinder class plus a few extra. I am so happy that only 13 showed up! We held it at Running Man's office because there was no way I could handle that many little kids running around our apartment. The second pic is of Banana and her bestie/boyfriend Brody. Apparently they hold hands when they walk to the computer lab and gym at school...it's too cute to get too concerned about it yet!
We had a Christmas Eve pajama party with some of our cousins!
And Christmas morning went way too quickly.
We love this time of year and are sad that it is over, but I am excited to get back to a normal routine!

Oh, I Have A Blog?

Do you ever feel like you are behind on life...I'm pretty sure I am.
So here's what we've been up to.

Little man was blessed last month. We are so grateful for everyone who came to be with us!

Four generations of Terry boys.

We celebrated Halloween Disney style. I knew that I would not have the ambition or time to make costumes this year so thanks to Grandma Terry and Rewards points we went the easy route! I did make Banana's wig...

and I am just grateful that it held together. I may or may not have hot glued some of the pieces while it was attached to her head...

We are going a little crazy because Little Man cries. A lot. Like when he's left alone. Or being held. Or eating. Or when he's supposed to be sleeping.
I'm tired.

Despite all of the crying I am still head over heels in love with the boy. He has the perfect little pouty lip when he cries. And the biggest smiles when he is happy, and the cutest double chin I've ever seen. His sisters love on him constantly, and he is definitely worth what it took to get him here.

Then There Were Five

Worth the Wait

Baby L is finally here!
8 lbs
20.5 inches
We are all in love.

Out With A Bang

Yes, we're still here. (barely). It looks like this baby will be here next week whether we're ready for not. And instead of being motivated to get things done around the house, the opposite is happening. I think I'm shutting down. I'm tired, sore and just plain worn out. And knowing that there are millions of other women that have been in my shoes just makes me tired for all of us. ;)
Despite this we have been busy enjoying the last little bit of summer. Even though Banana started school a month ago we haven't stopped cramming as much summer "vacation" in as we can. After spending every day at the pool these little girlies learned to swim! They were so excited and have turned into little fish. I love it!

We (finally) used some of our free summer bowling passes. Well, they bowled and I cheered from the sidelines. Bending over is considered a luxury right now! (oh, and so is removing red eye from my photos. Pardon my laziness).

Banana started her first soccer season and is doing great. She's not afraid to get in the middle and risk bodily injury in order to get to the ball. Plus she's fast. I mean really fast. Definitely doesn't get it from me.

We made some chicka chicka boom boom trees a few weeks ago. I love all of these fun ideas Banana brings home from school.

And after a year long hiatus we are back in dancing class! That makes my heart happy!

And Miss Em started dancing for the first time. She's in l.o.v.e. So Am I!

So there's our end of summer wrap up. Hopefully my next post brings some exciting news!

Letting Go

Life is never going to be the same...Banana started Kindergarten and I'm not so sure how well I'm coping! It has been an adjustment for all of us, most of all for sweet little Em. She doesn't know what to do without her sister. I think there are moments where she loves the one on one time she gets with me and Running Man, but most of the time I think she's just lonely. Her and banana are the best of friends!
Banana is LOVING everything about school. She has an amazing teacher and has informed us she already has a boyfriend. She doesn't know his name though so I can't be too worried. :)

The first order of business in our prep for school was to get her ears pierced. She started asking us the first of the summer if she could do it, so we told her as soon as she was ready she could pierce them. It took until the week before school started for her to build up her courage. She was a trooper! Not a single tear. She loves having her big girl earrings and can't wait until she can start putting others in!

The morning school started we made a special breakfast of watermelon pancakes. They were super easy and really fun to make (and eat)!

Our traditional first day of school pic. I'm still blown away at how grown up she looks.

Waiting patiently for the teacher to come out and get them. I may or may not have been bawling at this point.

Waiting not so patiently for the teacher. :) Two seconds after I took this pic she had disappeared into the building. It was weird for me to hear a bunch of moms cheering in relief as their kids left. I can't imagine myself ever getting to the point where I am happy about one of my children leaving. I'm sure I'll probably eat my words someday, but as for now I miss her every second that she's gone.

What better way to celebrate her first day than with free lunch at IKEA?! Apparently everyone else in the city had the same idea because that place was insane!

I think we are finally getting into a routine and adjusting to our new schedule. Now we can focus on getting this baby boy here and keeping me from falling apart. :) This pregnancy is giving me a run for my money. I think we can almost start an official countdown!

What Really Matters

I've been in a funk lately. The stresses of this particular pregnancy combined with starting a new business and trying to get it off the ground have taken its toll. When I do have free time all I want to do is cuddle up with my girls and my hard-working hubby and just breathe. So if I have been lax in answering phone calls, emails or texts I really am sorry! The summer is flying by and I can hardly believe that my Banana starts Kindergarten next week. Next week! When did she turn into this not-so-little girl anymore.

Sometimes I look at her and just want to freeze time. Life comes at you so fast that I find it hard to figure out just where the time went.
I am grateful for times like this past weekend where we were able to escape "real" life for a bit and enjoy some time together as a family. We headed to Price for a family reunion and to see our California family. I don't think the girls stopped playing for one second.

The cousins played so well together and we are super sad that we only get to see them a few times a year. My girls are smitten with The Boy, and Em and The Girl are two peas in a pod. Their temperaments and personalities are so similar that all I loved hearing them interact with each other.

Every year for..well my whole life, we have gathered at my Grandma's N.'s house on the 24th of July for their annual parade and park festivities. This year the parade had a family theme and we found out last minute that my Grandma REALLY wanted to do something for it. (We were hosting her family reunion this year so it worked out perfectly). So my amazing mother threw this float together in two days and made my Grandma's dream come true. She told us she couldn't sleep the two nights before the parade because she felt like it was Christmas!
If you look in the background you can see my uncle pushing my sweet, sweet Grandma.
(We found out the night before that it was on my nephew's bucket list to be in a parade this summer so we were happy they could come join this side of the family and be in the parade)!


The weekend was finished out perfectly with fireworks and quality family time. Moments like these need to come around more often!