*Sighhh*

It seems my wee little baby girl that was born oh so long ago is no longer a baby. 

She had her first little Christmas program at her school.... and I'd be lying if I said I didn't shed 1 wee little tear as I saw my 6 lb. 1 oz. ---breech, therefore causing me to have a c-section--- baby girl walk out on the stage.... How on earth did this happen????

I know the video is long...... but you can just watch a clippet and see how cute she was. ;)

I was a little nervous because every time we practiced her songs at home she YELLED the songs, at the top of her little lungs. I talked to her a few times about toning it down a bit but in her defense.... "Mrs. Stephanie told me to sing REALLY loud" After she told me that I couldn't bear to tell her to tone it down.

I could tell she was a little off and confused as to why she was walking out on stage in front of ALL these people. therefore causing her to act a little goofy...

playing with her friends

picking her nose...

picking her nose...

and picking her nose. 

She was pretty darn cute and we were pretty smitten with her.

.... Actually, truth be known were pretty smitten with ALL of them. :)

A slightly FUN day.

Yesterday was not only the day that my closest baby sister was born (HAPPY BDAY LIZ!!)....

but it was also the day that we were able to to go on a really cool trip.. one that I wanted to do last year, but we were never able to make it..... and when Nat's sister asked if we wanted to go with them I was really excited!! 

There's a place in Carlsbad, (NM, not TX ;) called Christmas on the Pecos and you get on a boat on the Pecos river and ride down and look at all the houses. Kinda like the light show on the Concho in Angelo, but in a boat instead of a car. 

Its pretty neat... and pretty cold. 

When we first got there, it wasn't that cold.... and we were early to go to the little shops so I didn't put the kids hugenormous jackets on them, and planned on letting them wear their lighter jackets till we got on the boat.... and I didn't even think twice about it!! 

Horrible, horrible mom. 

The kids were just running around like crazy enjoying all the Christmas lights and decor and then Payton completely LOST it when she realized how cold she was. I felt like a pile of mush for letting her get to that point.... and basically, she did not stop crying/whining the whole rest of the time. We were dumb and didn't grab her buhlie before we got on the boat... and I know that would have made the world a better place for her. 

A lot of the time its overwhelming to go in public with all 3 kids... add ginourmous poofy jackets on each kid to the point where they cant walk and you've officially got a Disaster on your hands. At one point I was just like --oh my word... WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!?! I usually try to deter myself from thinking that as I want to enjoy time out with my kids and want to do as much as we can with them for the short amount of time they are in our home.

Payton whining. Stetson trying with all his might to run and climb and flee. and Madelynn overwhelmed by EVERYTHING....... they proceed to tell us the kids have to wear life jackets.

I wanted to cry.

But I didn't, and about 10 minutes into the ride and us probably driving everyone bonkers with the crying and question asking (yay for 3 year olds who ask questions ever 2.4 seconds) we finally got everyone settled and satisfied and we ENJOYED the light show. 

Madelynn loved looking and recognizing Santa and his reindeer, frosty and Santa's work shop. On our way back we got pretty chilly and were glad to be headed to the warm truck!!

We debated on even going on this trip cuz of Aussie. We knew she would be due to give birth any time after the 8th... and we knew it was gonna happen soon... but we decided to just pray over her and go. 

When we got home we went in to check on her and we heard little tiny baby sounds coming from the bathroom (where her whelping box is, and where we've been leaving her when we leave the house) and my heart melted... she was in full blown labor and had already delivered 2 puppies. I was completely relieved that she did it all on her own.

** POTENTIALLY GROSS, LABOR, BLOODY PHOTOS.

 This was #3 being born which I was sooo excited to be able to witness her do all the nasty junk, and do it perfectly. 

Proud Daddy... (Axel... not Nat)

 Long story short. She was in labor from about 10 PM to 4 AM... She stopped at 7 (puppies) and I thought she was done so I finally went to bed around 3... then I was awakened again by the distinct sound of the chomping and licking of a new puppy ran in there to see that she had delivered another... 

and another.

and another.

and another.

and she stopped at 11 pups at 4 AM.... and we were both pretty tired at that point.

We've had a great day with them and she is an amazing mama!!! 

The girls are really enjoying the new life in our house and wanna go in and hold them all the time.

We have 4 White. 2 brown and 5 black.

7 little girls and 4 little boys.

see the black one up on her neck?? That one is almost always hanging out up there when I check in on them. :)

So seriously... seriously... SERIOUSLY pray about it think about it. Dream about it and sign up for a puppy. We will deliver to Angelo.. ;) 

They'll be ready to go around Feb. 4th-ish.

and guess what.... They're FREE!!! 

Woo hoo!!

(Lord help me for the next 6 to 8 weeks.... holy cow like I have the time and energy for all this!!!)

'Tis the season

Aren't y'all just in love with this time of year?? I sure am. I just love the winter time. I love the cold. The Christmas lights. The twinkle of the Christmas tree. 

Ok, so I might post about how much I love Christmas time from now till Christmas, so hopefully you get the point. 

We've been doin Christmas-ey type stuff lately.

We had our little mini Christmas tree from last year and Madelynn wanted to put it up in their room so we had fun decorating it.... as Stetson took 3/4 of the ornaments and broke them. (Yay for disastrous little brothers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

 and daddy put up some Christmas lights outside!! I am a sucker for Christmas lights (shocker, right??) so.... even though we live quite a ways off the highway, and our closest neighber is half a mile away.... I'm thankful that my darling love agreed with putting lights on the house... even if were the only ones to see it... It brightens my day... (or night)

The wonderful Fed-Ex guy came and dropped off a few packages.... and I wasn't home, and Nat was. Like that NEVER happens, and he just so happened to be dropping off part of Nat's Christmas present so happy early Christmas to my husband. We've kinda been living in our back room lately. Its just soooo cozy. We've been making fires in the fire place and we got it all organized and moved 1 of our laptops back there on the computer desk so I've loved going back there and hanging out when I'm using the computer. We've talked about getting a TV back there  so we can get all cozy by the fire and watch movies. So now, thanks to Mr Fed-Ex guy, we no longer have to wait for the watch movies part.

 .....and guess what. It SNOWED and for almost 3 days now, we still have plenty of snow on the ground. Its beautiful, I just love looking out the window at the white ground, but lets face it... Thank God we don't live in the North!!!!!! I just couldn't imagine living like this all winter long. Maybe with no kids it might be fun... but the bundling up like Eskimos to walk out the door is not fun with 3 little pretty much helpless babes.

but of course, we had to venture out and play in it!!

The kids all had fun. I didn't think bubba would like it cuz he can hardly even walk in his big jacket, much less gloves, a hat AND boots but he just had a blast! He kept falling and falling but he would get back up and keep on truckin. The girls so badly wanted to build a snowman (cuz were kinda obsessed with Frosty right now) but it was the wrong kind of snow so they were kinda bummed about that. 

After everyone was frozen to death and had eaten there weight in snow, we went in, started a fire and drank hot cocoa!! We had a fun day....

Not to mention, Nat was off for 4 days... then we had the weekend which he tries to stay home for, and luckily, he didn't get called out... THEN it snowed and he's been home for the 2 days its been cold/icy/and snowing. So hes been here for like EVER... we've thoroughly enjoyed all this quality time with him..... but I know its coming.... I'm trying to prepare myself for this....

 Hes gonna.... 

have..... 

to....

 go... 

back.... 

to.... 

WORK in the coming days

 (most likely tomorrow.... but I'm p-u-s-h-i-n-g my luck.

It is the hardest thing to adjust after hes been off for a few days... much less longer than a week. We have all totally vegged out the past couple days. Jammies all day. Watching Christmas movies all day. Hot cocoa, fires in the fireplace non stop and being completely L-A-Z-Y!! 

Sometimes you just gotta do that!!