It's A Boy!

It's taken me awhile to get back to posting, and this news is definitely overdue! We are expecting a baby boy in May! After three girls, we are entering completely new territory here and will have to dilute some of the profusion of pink in the house with some boy gear, but we are excited! Mark is especially excited to add some more testosterone to the mix.

The girls are excited about the news, too. At first, they were all wanting another sister, but after announcing it to them with some blue balloons, and blue cupcakes, they were more than ready to be excited at the prospect of a baby brother.

February

We've just been rearranging/redecorating the upstairs bedrooms and Millie was thrilled to be moving into her own room. Jane was thrilled to be moving into a big girl bed and sharing a room with Abby. Abby loves being the big sister in the room for a change. Overall, it's been a winning situation! It's been so fun for me to walk past Millie's room and see her cuddled in her bed reading in the light of her reading lamp. It brings back vivid memories of me doing the same thing as a child. I had to take this picture of Millie reading to Jane. It was a sweet moment and I have a picture of me reading to my sister Emily in much the same way.

It's rodeo season in Houston and while we haven't made it to any of the rodeos, Abby had a great cowboy day at preschool where they saw the trail riders pass by on their way to the Houston rodeo.

On President's Day we decided to make an impromptu trip to the San Marcos outlets (an enormous and fabulous outlet complex just outside of Austin). At the last minute, we called Melba (one of my dearest friends -- we've been friends since we were four, our parents were in each others' weddings, we go way back) to see if she wanted to meet up with us. She was willing to drop what she was doing that day and drive 45 minutes to meet us and introduce us to Brad, her scrumptious little boy. It was so fun to meet him and hold him and to get caught up! What a lucky little guy to have such great parents.

Enjoying dinner at Johnny Rockets.

Jane had so much fun at a ward playgroup at the children's museum -- she loved feeling big at shopping at the kid-sized grocery store.

In the weeks before Valentine's Day it seemed that the bickering levels in our house had risen significantly so I made a deal with the girls. If they could be more loving to each other, then I would plan a special Valentine's playdate for each of them. They did a great job (and when they slipped up, all I had to say was "playdate" and they shaped right up -- disciplining has never been so easy!) and we had a great time with their friends decorating sugar cookies, making lovebug headbands, dancing around, and playing. Here is Millie with her friends.

Abby having fun decorating sugar cookies.

Abby with her lovebugs.

I hosted Jane's playgroup that week where we learned about the letter "V" and had fun with a lot of Valentine's games and activities. Such a cute group of kids!

Jane sampling some of the cookies

January

Jane can be such a ham! This is her sporting a smoothie mustache one morning at breakfast.

Go Navy! At the last minute we decided to take in the Texas Bowl on New Year's Eve. We had so much fun and a nice lady gave the girls each a big foam hand to wave.

Jane's first haircut ever (it was getting a little shaggy). She doesn't look excited in the picture, but in reality, she was thrilled, sat still the entire time and preened in front of the mirror afterwards.

One Sunday Abby wanted to have hair like Kirsten, the American Girl doll and posed gracefully for me to take her picture.

Jane was so excited to become a Sunbeam in Primary! She is consumed with the idea of being "bigger" because there are so many things she is told she can do once she's bigger. She saw this as a definite step in that direction and loved it. She especially loves singing time.

Jane and Abby on Jane's first day as a Sunbeam in Primary

We enjoyed a visit from Jennifer and her kids from Dallas.

Christmas!

First shot of Christmas morning. Millie and Abby actually awakened first at 3:30 and came in to our room excitedly tugging on us to come and see what Santa had brought. Thankfully, we were able to coax them back to sleep until 8:00.

Abby loved her new dress-up -- a gift from Santa to Jane, but which accidentally got into Abby's pile. What can one do when Abby opens it and says, "Oh, it's my favorite!" They are now sharing it, but I have yet to see Jane wear it and Abby loves it even though it is a little on the small side :).

A mother of one of Millie's school friends called a week before Christmas offering to give us this horse as her youngest had outgrown it. It makes sounds, moves its head, swishes its tale, and the girls love it.

Jane loved her pink plastic Barbie car with zebra-print upholstery.

Jane was obviously thrilled with her Barbie house. She played with it nonstop all day long and really got after Millie when Millie relocated the furniture to upstairs to Millie's room.

Jane taking a ride on the pony.

Millie was desperately hoping to get the American Girl doll, Kirsten (1846 Swedish immigrant), this year as it is being discontinued. Needless to say, she was thrilled and the doll has barely left her arms since! She loves laying out her clothes the night before and gets her dressed every morning first thing.

Abby with her Kit Kittredge doll (1936). She takes such tender care of her dolls! She, too, has hardly let her out of her sight and loves dressing her.

The girls enjoying our Christmas Eve dinner in their Christmas pajamas from Mrs. Claus that were mysteriously left on our doorstep by some stealthy elves.

Visiting Santa on Christmas Eve (Jane was a little nervous and we couldn't coax a smile). The Santa was great -- the beard was actually his own!

We had such a fun time with our friends Jason and Verity Cushing who were in town visiting family and were nice enough to come for dinner and to spend time with us. It was so great to get caught up!

The girls had a magnificent time with the Cuching's kids, Rhiannon and Wade. It was hard to tear them away from them when it was time for them to leave.

The Monday before Christmas the older two girls and I went to see Houston Ballet's version of The Nutcracker. They felt so pretty in their sparkly gold dresses and we had a great time! It took about 15 minutes of answering questions like: Does this have any words? Is this a movie? Why aren't they talking? before they settled down to watch. After intermission, Millie leaned over and whispered, "This is a lot funner than I thought it was going to be!" They both loved the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Russian Dancer (only one in this version). Millie thought the Snow Queen and Snowflake dancers were "so beautiful" and Abby liked when the Christmas tree grew. They did a great job and we had fun meeting up with Daddy and Jane for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory afterward.

Posing with a toy soldier.

Posing with one of the mean mice after the performance.

Jane wanted to get in on some of the pre-Nutcracker photo action.

We visited some of Mark's friends from work for cookies and hot chocolate and the girls loved meeting their new dog, Crumpet.

Millie with her 2nd Grade teacher, Mrs. Sosebee, at her class Christmas party. She and Abby made treat bags of chocolate covered pretzels for their classmates.

Abby singing in her school Christmas program -- she was sooo excited!

It was so special for Abby that Grandma and Grandpa McLaughlin could be in town for both her preschool program and ballet Christmas performance. All of the girls loved having them around so much, and they were a great help to me while I was down with the flu (again, humph!).

Let it Snow!

A few weeks ago, we were surprised by a glorious snowfall! This may not seem like much for those in the east suffering from the effects of a giant nor'easter, but around here, this apparently only happens every 10-15 years! School got out early, we dug our snow clothes out of hibernation, had a ball playing in the snow, and enjoyed coming home for a cozy cup of hot cocoa! It made it feel like it really is Christmas time!

Thanksgiving Fun

We had such a fun getting away to Dallas for Thanksgiving this year. Jennifer, Matt, Mark, and I had a great time making Thanksgiving dinner together on Thursday morning and we all had a wonderful feast in the afternoon.

Then Jennifer convinced me to try shopping Black Friday for the first time ever! We got to Wal-Mart at 4:15 a.m., but fortunately for us, we weren't interested in any of the big-ticket items because we learned that many had been there all night waiting in line -- apparently there is a science to Black Friday. What an experience! It was fun, though, and we hit several stores and scored a few deals before ending up meeting some of Jennifer's friends for breakfast at about 7:00.

On Saturday we went to the famous and fabulous Gaylord Texan Hotel and Convention Center. They have a huge and amazing atrium which they deck to the hilt for Christmas. The kids loved all of the toy trains circling through little villages and the life-size gingerbread house and gingerbread people. We then went through the ICE exhibit of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas where everything was carved out of ice -- it was amazing! The highlight for the girls was going down the ice slides at the end of the exhibit.