A Few Christmas Pics

Here are just a few pics of the kiddos on Christmas morning. They got quite a few dress up things because they love to role play and use their imaginations.

Opening their stockings.

Good morning!

Loving the new pirate hat.

Our resident bat and bald eagle.

And a few pics of the kiddos because I just can't resist! (And for the benefit of all the aunts/uncles/grandparents/etc.)

This one just makes me laugh!

Our Newest Addition

We added a new member to our family right before Christmas. December 7 was the day little Riley decided to join our family. I had been scheduled to be induced because I was overdue and my fluids were getting low. I had never had to be induced before and I didn't want to be. I prayed and prayed that I would go into labor on my own. Dec. 7 came and no labor, so we made the early morning trek to the hospital for my schedule induction. Thankfully my parents had arrived the night before so they were able to stay with Callie and Josh. When we got to the hospital the nurse hooked me up to the monitors to start getting all my vitals. Low and behold, I started having contractions! The doc came up to see me and decided not to do anything and to see if I would just progress on my own. Jamey and I took many laps around the floor. We were in the company of a few other women who were also walking laps to progress their labor! It was pretty funny. We would all just smile at each other as we passed. Thankfully my contractions never got really strong until a little after one o'clock. My platelets were super low, so I wasn't going to be able to get an epidural. Shortly after 2, little Riley came into this world. After thinking we would never have another baby, it was such a joy to have a little one again. Be warned, there are a lot of pics in this post. What can I say, I'm a proud mom!

A few days before Riley was born.

Just hanging out.

As soon as she was born the nurse plopped her up on my chest. This is the first time that has happened instead of them just taking the baby to do whatever it is they do. She was so tiny, and so gray! She actually had the umbilical cord wrapped extremely tight around her neck. The doc had to do some quick work to cut it off before she was all the way out. It took her awhile to even get a finger under the cord to be able to cut it. And I swear it was 100 degrees in there! My awesome nurse kept a cool washcloth on my forehead to help cool me off.

Not very happy about things at this moment. She liked it better where she came from! She wasn't crying really loud, so they ended up having to take her to the NICU for a bit, but she started doing just fine as soon as they got there. They kept her to do all her vitals and her bath. Jamey was there taking pics the whole time.

Getting to hold her one more time before going to the NICU.

Such a tiny foot compared to daddy's finger.

Not at all happy about this whole situation. And why isn't anyone cleaning me up!

Breaking my heart.

Finally getting a bath.

All clean.

Warm and snug.

Happy to have my baby girl.

A proud grandma (and big sister and brother!). I'm so glad my parents were able to be there.

Grandpa getting his turn to hold her.

Our new family.

Getting dressed to go home. Callie thinks she now has a live baby doll to play with. She won't hardly leave Riley alone. She's such a little mom.

This just makes me laugh. She's so little!

Again she isn't happy with her situation!

Finally home and all snug in bed.

North Pole Breakfast

I am having to play catch-up because I was having issues with uploading pics here. So let me back up to right after Thanksgiving.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving is when we decorate for Christmas. This year I decided to jump on the "Elf on the Shelf" bandwagon because I knew the kids would have a blast with it. We started the day off with a North Pole Breakfast, which was all set up for when the kids woke up. They loved it. They even had a present to open!

The table set-up

Rudolph Donuts

So excited!

Daddy introducing them to their elf, whom they named Rocky.

Soy milk is always better if you drink it through a fun straw!

The favorite item on the menu!

After breakfast we got cleaned up and headed up to a tree farm that was about an hour north of us. Jamey and I had both grown up cutting our own trees for Christmas and we haven't been able to do that with our kids because of where we were living. When we moved to Colorado I knew there had to be a place to cut your own tree, so I looked online and found a few. We decided to try out this one, but we will try a different one next year because there was such a slim selection. Here are a few pics from the farm.

When we got home it was time to pull out all the decorations. The kiddos enjoyed helping me decorate the tree, though I secretly moved a few they had hung so the tree wouldn't be too loaded around the bottom front!

All lit up at night and so pretty!