It's a new year!

A crabby baby becomes a happy baby when she gets to watch Praise Baby on the laptop. 

For new year's eve we went to Brock and Jodi's for a fun evening with some other couples from church. 

I attempted to put Alison to bed, but she woke up about 10:30 and refused to go back to sleep, so all three kids saw midnight. 

I'm pretty sure all three were sleep before we backed out of the driveway.  :-)

Snuggles with daddy

I love how she pulls herself up, facing the door, waiting for me to come get her. 

Bridget got some "Frozen" books for Christmas, and pretty much has them memorized. She's enjoyed "reading" them to the other two. 

One crazy morning, I put Bridget in charge of feeding Alison her bottle. She was quite thrilled with the responsibility! 

Pfaffmann Christmas

We spent Christmas eve night and Christmas day with my family. We opted not to spend the night Christmas eve, but went for breakfast before church on Christmas morning. 

Bridget enjoyed relaxing by the fire with her apple.  :-) She commented "this is nice!"

Christmas day lunch of prime rib and lots of delicious sides! Mom does such an amazing job on the prime rib each year. All three kids napped during lunch, which made for a relaxing meal. 

Bridget and her pile of presents. She was so excited! 

Carter got a tool set! He was thrilled, despite the look on his face. 

Bridget was so excited about her doll! She originally named her Elizabeth, but has since changed the name to Amerida. 

Henry got a pack n play! 

Uncle Luke and Carter snuggling together. 

Last minute Christmas

Since our kids are still young, we don't really have any Christmas traditions yet. We've kind of just done it whenever and however it works. This year it was the night before Christmas Eve, about 6pm, when we realized that we had plans for the next 4 days and decided we should let the kids open their gifts that night. Except none of them were wrapped, so I quick wrapped them up and brought them out to be unwrapped immediately. :-)

Love these 3 so much! 

(And they're all looking!)

Bridget got the Frozen DVD

And Carter got a remote control vehicle. 

Alison didn't get anything from us (she didn't know the difference), she just had a great time with the wrapping paper. 

The kid's combined gift was a big bucket of legos, which they thought was so great! I have to admit, for the cost, I was a little disappointed with the amount of legos, but they haven't had trouble coming up with things to build. 

Knapp Christmas

My pictures from the Knapp Christmas are limited.  :-/ Luke and Carter weren't able to go because they were still fighting the flu. Alison was a grump the whole night, so I spent most of it dealing with her. We still had a nice time though, as we always do with family.  :-)

Bridget opening her gift from grandpa and grandma - frozen boots with Anna and Elsa on them! She was quite thrilled! 

I have no pictures of Alison with her gifts, but she got a book and a new lovey. Carter got to open his presents after we got home, and he a remote control truck. 

Noah's birthday was that Sunday, and Mark and Tammy gifted him with set of very festive boxers.  :-) 

The rest of the evening was followed with more gift opening and picture taking, along with singing Christmas carols and eating way to many Christmas cookies. 

7 months!

At 7 months, this little lady

- scoots all over on her tummy

- pulls herself up on everything

- loves sweet potatoes, bath time, and her siblings

- hates her car seat, bed time

December randoms

Bridget's MOPS class did a short program for all the moms. They sang Away in a Manger and Gospel Bells. 

I didn't get any pictures of Carter or Bridget at their Christmas program at church, because I couldn't see them! :-( From what I heard from others, they did a great job. :-)

This lady, always in a hurry to grow up, started trying to climb up the stairs! 

She also thought she was big stuff with her ability to pull herself up on things. 

The week before Christmas both Luke and Carter came down with the influenza A. They both tested positive, and Carter spent the 4 days, and Luke spent the next 2 weeks recovering! I have never seen Luke so sick before. At the worst of it, he didn't get out of bed for 3 days! 

The girls of the house somehow avoided the flu, and poor Bridget was going through major socialization withdraws. So one night us girls headed to Wal-Mart. Bridget was SO excited, and talked to every person we saw.  :-)

Halloween

I almost forgot about our pictures from Halloween, which would be sad because they're so cute! Bridget was Tinkerbell, and Carter was Spider-Man. Alison got to be a monkey because I already had it.  :-)

We just went a few houses down the road and back. Someday they'll realize they're totally getting shorted on the amount of candy they could get, but until then they're happy with the arrangement. :-) 

We spent the rest of the evening hanging out with friends and eating pizza. 

Alison loves to eat!

Right after Thanksgiving Alison went on another nursing strike, and I declared an end to breastfeeding. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find a formula that she would tolerate, and wouldn't spit up the whole bottle. So I started pumping, and nearly 4 months later we're just starting to transition to formula. She's thrilled with her bottles.  :-)

She went through this phase were she was obsessed with the floor registers, especially banging on them. Given her large, frequent amounts of spit up, I was always nervous she was going spit up down them.  :-/

She thinks she's big stuff sitting in the booster seat, where she can be part of all the action. 

Alison also went through a phase of doing headstands, which was cute, until she did it in a puddle of spit up. 

Peas are not her favorite food, and usually end up everywhere. The plastic toast, on the other hand, never disappoints.  :-D

Tammy's 50th

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we had Knapp Thanksgiving in the afternoon (no pictures), and that evening Mark had a surprise birthday party for Tammy. She was pretty sure something was up, but didn't have any idea what it was, so it was still a fun surprise. 

Everyone made a little 5x7 card with pictures, memories and notes to put in a book for her. These are Bridget and Carter's, along with their notes that I wrote down verbatim. :-)