Our Christmas Holiday 2018

Y'all I cannot even believe that Christmas has already come and gone.  We celebrated the best way we could this year and I just have to tell you that having Séamus here finally was the best gift ever!!

We usually spend Christmas Eve with Thomas's family and we did this year, just a couple days early since his little brother was heading out of town on Christmas Eve morning.  We had a fantastic time eating their traditional Prime Rib dinner and we switched it up this year with all of the families wearing matching pajamas.  We had a competition to see who had the best PJs, it came down to a tie between us and the parents.  We had to take it to FB to break the tie and I am so pleased to announce that our little Disney Family of Five are the First Annual PJ Champions!!!  The girls had fun playing with their cousins and it was so fun to see everyone open up their presents.

Ellie loved everything she opened.  Finnley was ecstatic the entire time for every one, she screamed and squealed with delight jumping up and down after each present was opened - seriously the cutest ever.  Séamus was a chill baby, fell asleep on the couch right before dinner (then shortly joined us at the table) and had absolutely no idea what was going on.

 The next day we woke up to a leak in our kitchen ceiling, so I suited up and ventured into the attic to check it out.  We were able to locate to potential culprit and did a temporary patch job. We then celebrated Christmas with Thomas's grandma at the Spaghetti Factory.  The girls loved seeing their cousins and Great Grandma couldn't stop staring at the baby boy.

On Actual Christmas Eve, we went to church with my dad and Thomas's parents.  The girls were obsessed with the candles as usual.  Then we came back to our house and had Pot Roast with all the sides and homemade popovers.  The girls got to open one more gift from Nanny and Papa.  Ellie got a Hatchimal and it was the wildest thing waiting for it to hatch.  Finnley got Merida and Pocahontas dolls and immediately began brushing Merida's curly hair 😒.  We placed out the Milk and "cookies" our Santa loves Rice Crispy Treats...set up Dada's phone so we could "Catch Santa" and then the girls were off to bed.

Christmas morning Séamus turned 5 months old!!

Ellie woke up and had to hang out in our room until Finnley woke up.  Once the whole house was awake we made our way to the Living Room and the girls were so excited!! We watched our video of Santa Hands, we caught him!! and then the girls started opening their stockings, then we opened ours and it was time to open gifts. As we were opening gifts I noticed that Ellie opened up her bottle of nail polish and I envisioned a giant mess.  Séamus was sitting in my lap and as I quickly leaned over to prevent the bottle from tipping over Séamus took a face plant right on the rug, he got a scratch up by his eye and was not very happy with me.  Finnley wanted me to open up her new toothbrush and then started brushing her hair with it!!! it was a morning for the books and I can't help but smile as I reflect back on it...this is what it's like with 3!!  It was so fun watching the girls open theirs and Thomas his! It just gets better and more magical every year. 

After presents we had homemade cinnamon rolls and just let the girls play and enjoy all of their toys.  I had to run to the store for some last minute ingredients for the dessert I was bringing for Christmas dinner with my family, then got that done and got ready to go.  We headed north to my brother's house and had a wonderfully chaotic time with all the boy cousins,  There was food and presents galore, the girls had a great time minus a couple of hair pulling incidents.

We arrived back home and the girls got to play for about 15 minutes as we brought everything into the house, then it was time for jams and bed,

It was a great holiday and I just love all the time we get to spend with our kids over the Winter Break!!

♥ Ashley

The Séamus Weekly - week 22

It is so hard to believe that Séamus my love is already 22 weeks old!! Man his first year is just flying by!  He is officially 5 months old (as of Christmas Day) and we so enjoyed celebrating his first Christmas. 

 Eats: little man is still on the boob and we're going strong.  He nurses on demand so we don't have much of a schedule in place.  He is nursing throughout the day and night.  He has been starting to get distracted a bit while nursing so that is probably why he is eating more frequently throughout the day.

Sleeps: we have been transitioning him to sleeping without a swaddle which has actually gone fairly well, additionally we are trying to get him to nap more in his crib so that we can transition him in there for nighttime sleep as well.  He does pretty good in his crib so hopefully it will go well.  He is still waking at night to nurse a few times and has been nursing to sleep lately.  I am thinking that once we are successful with the crib transition, the not nursing to sleep will be next!

 

Goes: little Séamus, Finnley and I made it to MOPs for our Christmas meeting and he loves to check out all the ladies! We also made it to Thomas's brother's house for Christmas Eve dinner (a few days early), to Christmas Eve Service (love the candle light service so much), and over to my brother's house for Christmas Day.  We also met up with Thomas's Grandma at the Spaghetti Factory and it was so nice to spend more time together, just like Séamus is the only grandson on Thomas's side, he is also the only Great-Grandson...so he is pretty special.

 my MOPs table

 in the car for Christmas Eve at Thomas's brother's

 at Thomas's brother's for Christmas Eve

at the Spaghetti Factory

 at the Candle Light Christmas Eve Service

Wears: sweet little Séamus is mostly in 3-6 month clothes, though some of the pants are a bit big on him so he still has some 0-3 that fit him.  He is pretty much growing out of size 1 diapers and I'm trying to squeeze him into the last package of them that we have before we need to order more.  I have already updated our Amazon subscription to send us size 2 next month.  I am just loving all the of clothes that we have in this size and it's so much fun dressing our little man!  We had the cousins over and got every one dressed up in warm clothes to play outside...the only hat I could find for little man was an old girly deer hat, so he rocked it!

 

Does: he is absolutely loving tummy time, his exersaucer, and the johnny jump up.  The girls are having a blast playing with him as well and there is no shortage of entertainment around these parts!!

 

Mama: I am just so so happy to have our family complete and all FIVE of us got to celebrate Christmas.  It's so weird to think about me being pregnant this time last year and all we could do was imagine what little bean was growing inside of me.  Now he is here, I am back into all of my pre-pregnancy clothes, and we are loving this stage.  I keep thinking about our infertility journey, all the pain and heartache we experienced, and how that affected my pregnancy.  I'm putting a post together all about it and hope to have it posted in the new year.  But let me just tell you that all of it, while it sucked, was so so good because Séamus is the absolute best!!  I love our family exactly the way that it is and my heart just grows and grows every day watching my THREE children.  

Sisters: good golly these girls love their brother. Thomas and I are constantly telling them to get off of him and "that's enough kisses!!" I mean perfectly fine problems to have!!  Ellie finished up her first part of the year in Kindergarten and is doing an awesome job.  She is super into arts and crafts and drawing and I am not sure if there is enough paper in the world to keep up with her!  She has the best imagination and is such a kind and gentle heart.  Finnley is a firecracker and we love her.  Her vocabulary is growing and I just love listening to her sweet voice.  When she isn't throwing an attitude she is simple the best girl.  She loves to help clean up, is pretty OCD about things, and loves Minnie Mouse so very much.  You can pretty much tell that she has grown up going to Disnleyland!!

We had to do separate sibling pictures this week because Ellie dipped out early to spend some special time with Nanny and Papa and I didn't get my act together.

previous weeks

Séamus week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4, week 5, week 6, week 7, week 8, week 9, week 10, week 11, week 12, 13 weeks, week 14, week 15, week 16, week 17, week 18, week 19, 20 weeks, week 21

Finnley at 22 weeks

Ellie at 22 weeks

♥ Ashley