A Very Merry Christmas!

We all had a great Christmas with our families. The girls were spoiled with Christmas gifts...needless to say we are working on sharing all our toys:) Gift highlights were the following: Addison- aBarbie car; Ella - a toss-up...either a spatula (special kid version b/c she loves to bake - she wanted to bake on Christmas Day even) or her Packer helmet; Lauren - all the wrapping paper!

Snow Days are SNOW much Fun!

Addison helping Ella up the deep snowy hill while sledding

"My parents tell me not to eat snow but I'll just do it quick while nobody is looking!"

"MMMMmmm...so good!"

Five days before Christmas we all had a snow day! We had lots of fun and were quite productive as well! 

Countdown to Christmas!

We have been to the holiday parade, visited Santa (two times), toured parks filled with Christmas lights, and visited with reindeer among other fun holiday activities the past few weeks. This week Addison has her Sunday school program (where she's excited to sing) and both of the girls have their  holiday program at daycare (more singing) and then Christmas will be here! The girls are counting down their Christmas paper rings and our "Elf on the Shelf" (who the girls named Elf #3) is reporting nightly back and forth to Santa:)

SMILE!

We had Lauren's six month pictures taken last weekend. It took all of 5 minutes to take lots of pictures because she was so smiley and happy! It was very hard to choose which pictures were our favorites!

On the other hand, she isn't quite as perky this week. The girls started daycare (Addison and Ella really like it) while Lauren seems to do fine except she is refusing to take a bottle or baby food from her teachers:( Good thing Larry is there to "save" the day...he is able to run down to her room and feed her (she is a little spoiled I guess:). He said she quickly settles out, reaches out to him and has the biggest smile and takes her bottle or food! She just probably needs a bit more time to transition into a new routine and all will be okay. Her world has been rocked a bit:( She does seem to like it though too-just not a big fan of eating with others I guess!?!

As you can see in the pictures, she is sitting up (all the time now on her own) and "talking" a ton. She is growing up fast!

Loveable Lauren at 5 months!

Gotta love that drool!

Addi & Ella LOVE helping with Lauren's bath...(Even though she is getting too big for this tub and water everywhere....we're trying to keep her "our little baby"for as long as possible....)

She's getting really good at sitting up!

October 2012

Jumping in the leaf piles was fun

Lauren loves her Exersaucer

5 months old

Trick Or Treating Fun

Grandma Mauk helped us with Trick or Treating (Daddy was traveling for the week).  She was a BIG help!

Our Little Kitten

We made the most of every day in October as well most every day of my maternity leave. My maternity leave was very busy and fun-filled. It will be sad not spending time with the girls every day but I was very lucky to have the past five months with them!

I go back to school on November 12th and then Daddy daycare starts! In mid-December the girls will start at their new daycare, Fox Valley Tech (where Larry works) which will be so nice! And another new chapter will begin...

An Awesome Autumn

Story time

Camping over Labor Day - well, crashing The Schunks camping actually...the girls really want to camp now!

This fall, there have been two different days we saw double rainbows!!!

Playdate time!

Addison and her friend Eden, at a Fancy Nancy party at the library. They got their hair and nails done!

Here they are fighting over who gets to take the laundry out first....pretty funny!

Lots of love for Lauren and the Packers too!

Ella LOVES High Cliff

She's SO happy!

Still so proud to hold her little sister

Yummy! The BEST part of baking!

Not too bad...Addison took this one!

It has been a great fall! We are loving every minute of this great, warm weather so we are enjoying the parks and nature centers in the area a few times each week. The girls just love it! We love meeting up with our friends for playdates and fun. Addison started a little pre-school class two days a week for just two hours which she loves and then I love getting a little extra time with Ella and Lauren. She is taking ballet and tap class again.

Now that it's cooler outside, we have been baking a ton. Pinterest has so many fun recipes and Addison and Ella really get a kick out of baking (and licking the spoons etc...) so they are good helpers. We bake 3 times a week lately-I haven't baked this much in my entire life! The extra time sure is nice.

Lauren is a busy body and can scoot her body from one end of the crib to another...watch out world, she'll just be 4 months old! (She lifts her bottom up while laying on her back and kicks her legs enough to move her entire body!!!) She loves her older sisters "reading" stories to her (see above picture) and pulling her sisters hair!  (I can't believe that started already:)

We are making the most of each day of my leave from work. Hard to believe in a month I will have to go back. I brought the girls into my school last week for a bit. It was great seeing my students and co-workers...I will be excited to go back but will sure miss the fun times here.