Happy 1st Birthday Brooke!

My baby is a year old.  It has been an amazing year as we have adjusted to life as a family of 5 and as we learned all about this special new family member.  It hasn't always been an easy year, but it has been a year full of blessings.

Happy Birthday sweet baby Brooke! We love you so much!

It's Tough Being 364 Days Old

Things I learned (or re-learned) in 2010 - by Marc

1. My wife is so smart. (among other things, she knew that mele kalikimaka was Hawaiian, and that Hawaiian really is a language)
2. My wife is way underpaid. When I go back to work on Mondays, sometimes it feels like vacation. She doesn't get those.
3. Sometimes little girls just need to be held.
4. Even if our family had 4 vomiters in 5 days, we are still blessed to be so healthy. Hearing about the Greggs vomit battles (from a distance) over the past month has made me think that we didn't have it so bad.
5.The corn farmers who lobbied for ethanol in our gas are in cohoots with the weedwacker people. Little 2-cycle weedwacker engines don't run well with 10% ethanol in the gas and everything gets all clogged up. So this year I bought a new weedwacker. I'm not buying a new one next year. I'll go to Mexico to buy real gas instead.
6. Sometimes the best friends are those who you continually run into at Moe's and Chick-Fil-A.
7. Even babies can projectile little peas out of their mouths.
8. I visited Disney World for the first time. It won't be my last.
9. Toddlers and carpet do not go well together. No carpet in next house.
10. Ethics in the workplace are everything.
11. Self-imposed dissertation deadlines are way overrated.
12. Fried chicken really is the best breakfast.
13. We are blessed to have three healthy, most-of-the-time happy little girls.
14. My problems are so small, and my God is so big.
15. Camping in the backyard tent with Kayla and Macy is much more fun when it's not freezing outside (and when the WiFi signal is nice and strong).
16. Over the past 5 1/2 years, I've watched Kayla grow from a wee baby to a kindergartner that can read her own books now. The development of her little brain is amazing. Not bad for evolving from pond scum (joke).
17. I survived all of 2010 without an iPhone, iPad, iPod, or iAnything.
18. My 3-yr-old thinks that I'm a skunk because I have a streak of white (not gray) hair.
19. I need to learn how to use my camera better.
20. Having 11 kids in a wedding (on a bridge) makes for a fun weekend.

Finishing Out Christmas

Christmas celebrations lasted a few more days as we house hopped to grandparents houses.  The girls were so cute in their shirts, but none of the pictures turned out that great.  We'll have to try again soon.

Macy really took her time opening presents.  Well, she took her time finding more presents to open.  She'd tear into the wrapping paper and then want us to immediately open the box.  We learned 2 years ago to be careful about small pieces of toys because a little baby from Kayla's dollhouse got thrown out in the trash.  She was quite excited to open her moon dough present.

Brooke enjoyed tearing into wrapping paper.  She was more interested in that than the present that was inside.

Kayla really wanted this crayon maker.  If it has anything to do with arts and crafts then it is right up her alley.

And of course it was chaos when all 7 cousins started opening presents.  Good chaos, of course.  Somehow this is the best picture we have from Grammie and Grampie's house.  Just when you'd get focused for a good picture and snap the button someone would run in front of the camera.  Oh well.  I think this picture sums it up pretty well.

White Christmas

We all had our first White Christmas this year, and I think I read that the last time Georgia had a White Christmas was 1882. It threw a kink in our Christmas plans, but it was a wonderful kink.  The girls had a great time playing in the snow and it made for a wonderful afternoon. 

Brooke and I went outside for a bit, but then we enjoyed some quiet time inside while Marc played with Kayla and Macy outside.  They came in freezing and soaking wet, but it was a highlight of their day.  Brooke isn't even a year old and this is her 3rd "substantial" snow. 

Making snow angels.

Our snowman wasn't too big because sneaky little Kayla would grab snow off of it to make an igloo.  When Macy turned around she said, "oh no! My snowman is melting!" Kayla didn't bother to explain.

I just love this picture of our neighborhood that Marc took. Everything looks so peaceful and undisturbed.

More Christmas Pictures

My baby is almost one year old!!

All Macy has been talking about for weeks is a Barbie pool with a dog.  When asked by an employee at Lowe's  if she was going to help her daddy build a house she said she just wanted a pool and a dog.  Kayla made great note of this and decided that she was going to get it for Macy for Christmas.  She was so excited to open it and said, "this is all I wanted for Christmas!"

Alice in Wonderland.  I promise she was excited about it. 

Christmas Morning

We have had such a wonderful day, but I am completely exhausted. We had originally planned to spend the morning at our house and then head to Marc's parent's house after lunch.  Well much to everyone's surprise and excitement we had a white Christmas.  After the icing that we had a couple of weeks ago we opted to stay safe and stay home.  The girls had a great day playing with their toys, and we were able to get the house cleaned up a little bit this evening. 

The girls had toe socks in their stockings.  They thought it was the funniest thing.

Our living room was a mess by the time 3 little girls tore into their presents. 

We had an amazing day celebrating our Savior's birth.  The girls went to bed hours ago, exhausted.  Brooke is fighting sleep tonight so Marc is trying to get her to stay down, and I am about to head upstairs and collapse into bed.  Oh wait.  There is clean laundry all over the bed. My evening just got a little bit longer...

More Christmas Fun

We took the girls to see Santa last week.  We have chosen not to do the Santa thing and focus on Jesus and family during this time of year, but I still had to get a picture of Brooke in Santa's lap.  It was interesting trying to explain to Kayla and Macy that Santa isn't really going to deliver your presents, but he will probably ask you what he should bring.  Kayla really does understand, but when people ask her about Santa she just freezes up.  Macy doesn't really think about it one way or another, although when we were waiting to see Santa one of his helpers asked the girls what Santa always says.  Macy thought for a minute and replied. "Happy Thanksgiving!" Anyway, the first time we tried to see Santa we went on a day when school was cancelled.  Bad idea.  I wasn't about to wait an hour with 3 little girls just for a photo-op.  We tried again the next morning and only waited about 10 minutes. I'm so glad we did because I love this picture of Brooke.  Classic.

One COLD night we went to see Lights of Life.  Of course we parked next to the pony rides and of course Kayla had to ride one.  She is really loving horses these days.  She had a great time.

They fed the animals.

Macy decided right before we left that she wanted to ride a pony too.  She enjoyed it for a minute or two, but then decided she wanted OFF.

After we finally warmed up in the car we stopped for the usual "Hot To Go" Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  

 

 

 We had our second annual Christmas Eve brunch at our house this year.  Last year most everyone couldn't come due to work or sickness so it was a small crowd.  This year we had a house full and we were so glad that the Andersons were able to join our family gathering. Of course I forgot to take any pictures, but Marc did snap a few of me and the girls making some homemade cinnamon rolls.

Jack left his sunglasses over here and Kayla put them on Brooke.  She knew she was cute.