Surviving all the CRAZY!

The holiday's are officially over and we are now getting ready to tackle the big move to Laguna Niguel. But I will get to the move details later:) First Christmas!!!!

Christmas in Tucson

We spent Christmas in Tucson this year and had such a wonderful time! Our Bury family has gotten quite large. Mandy has 3 kids (Abby, Brandon and Ryan), Jordan and Sommer have 2 kids (Silas and Jewel), and then there are of course our 2 (Ellsie and Nixon). This is a picture of all the kids in their Christmas best:) Ellsie is finally at an age where she is really interacting with her cousins. She had so much fun because there was always someone around to entertain her and steal food from:) 

Tucson had incredible weather while we were out there. It has been a pretty cold winter in Socal so far and we have had lots of rain. But over Christmas Tucson gave us some great sunny 70 degree days. Which was so nice because  with 7 kids in the house we could just toss them all outside to run around and play. And as always, we took a lot of walks. Ellsie was just set on walking Mickey and Minnie everyday in this doll stroller. The boys would ride their striders and Ellsie would push her stroller. 

Christmas morning was so much fun! The first present Ellsie opened was her new Abby doll. Well, she loved it so much that she wouldn't open any other gifts!!! We were literally trying to show her other things and I think she thought that if she opened another gift Abby would go away because she wanted nothing to do with anything else. After about an hour she noticed all the other kids opening gifts and she finally got into it herself. Nixon of course was just entertained by all the chaos going on. Somewhere in the middle of the chaos, Ellsie got her hands on a candy cane. We have been reading a ton of Christmas books and every-time she points out the candy canes. She was very excited to get one in her stocking:) 

While being in Tucson was so much fun, the drive there was not so much. However, we did SURVIVE! On the way out we decided to leave in the evening and drive through the night. Hoping that the kids would sleep because it was their bedtime. The first hour wasn't so bad and then Nixon fell asleep for good but Ellsie was just WIDE AWAKE. She was not going to sleep!!! I thought surely she will give in and eventually fall asleep. Well, this is one determined little girl because by midnight she was still up. And for the rest of the trip she maybe took two 20 minute naps. I had to basically try and calm her down and entertain her for the entire 8 hours!!! Makes me wish I would have been on driving duty. Nixon did great on the way out there. He fell asleep and NEVER woke up. Thank God, because not sure how I would have handled 2 fussy kids for 8 hours. The way home was about the same. Only we decided to leave in the afternoon. Neither kid slept well but we made it home and looking back it wasn't so awful. Like I said, we SURVIVED and ended up having such a wonderful time in Tucson. 

Ellsie and Nixon

Ellsie and Nixon continue to bring us more joy than we could have ever imagined. At first Ellsie took a little time to fully understand her little brother and why he was ALWAYS with me. She had a hard time when I would nurse him and would always ask me to put him down. But just a few month into his life and she has fully accepted him as part of our family. She is so sweet with Nixon and includes him on everything we do. Ellsie loves to make him laugh, give him kisses and take him on "walks". She often will stop in the middle of playing and just head towards Nixon to give him a hug or a kiss. Nixon just adores Ellsie. I have a hard time nursing him when she is around because all he wants to do is watch her. The other day, Ellsie was dancing and making Nixon laugh and it hit me... my kids are going to be great friends. They are so young and have already formed such a bond.

Nixon is now 4 months old and he weighs 18lbs 3oz!!! How on earth can this be? I guess just cuz he has small parents doesn't mean he has to be small:) Unfortunately, this big baby comes with a BIG appetite. I am still getting up 2 times in the night to feed him. I am looking forward to getting settled in the new house and getting Nixon to sleep through the night. Most days the lack of sleep doesn't effect me too much and most of the time I can SURVIVE on little sleep.But I am still counting down until Nixon sleeps through the night:) Other than that, Nixon is such an easy baby. He is very laid back and enjoys being around people.

Laguna Niguel

It looks like we will soon be calling Laguna Niguel our new home town. We bought a house and closed last week. We are going to do a few maintenance things before we move in but hope to be in within the next few weeks:) The process of buying a house here in S. California was so different from our experience in Colorado. We moved to California in May thinking we would be in a place within 3 months. Flash forward 8 months and we are just getting the house. Talk about a crazy ride we have been on. We had put about 6 different offers on houses and then this house was such a pain to finally get, I am just so happy this is OVER. I have absolutely NO desire to ever go through a short sale process ever again!!! But, we SURVIVED it and now we will be in our own place in a few weeks. My dad and Chris have been hard at work getting the house ready. It will be so nice to see the house once it has had a little love:)

Life as a family of 4!

We are now into month 3 as a family of 4. I have to admit that the first 6 weeks I seriously wondered how I was going to make it through! Nixon being the HUGE baby that he is, ate every 2 HOURS and only wanted to sleep in my arms!! I am happy to report his feedings have tapered off and he is sleeping on his own more as well:) So far Nixon is a very happy baby and obviously got his fathers appetite. At 9 weeks he weighed in at 14.4lbs! Ellsie was 3 months before she even weighed 12lbs. Ellsie continues to try and figure out her little brother. So far she loves laying her head on his lap and and loading her toys on top of him. I love getting to watch the brief moments when they get to interact with each other. Heading into month 2, Nixon started to respond to our affection and every once in a while he flashes us a little smile:) Nothing excites me more right now. It makes all those 

chaotic days and sleepless nights worth it:)

A few weeks after Nixon was born we took his newborn/family photos:) These are just a few. I am saving the others for our Christmas card. I have to say getting all 4 of us to look semi decent at the same time is a rather tricky thing. Our friend Tiffany had to work extra hard to get Ellsie to smile on cue while she was 8 months pregnant. Poor thing. But she did and we got some really cute pictures.

Notes from a CRAZY mom :

So I guess you could say that life as I knew it has changed DRAMATICALLY! With Ellsie I had so much time to agonize over her every move and read every book or article on what she was going through at that current time. I knew my time with Nixon would be less but I didn't expect it to be so hard on me. I kind of enjoyed agonizing over Ellsie's every move and wish I had a little more time to do that with Nixon. Everyone with I know with 2 kids gave me plenty of warning that splitting your attention between 2 kids wasn't always easy but of course kids survive. And obviously Nixon will survive too.

My latest realization on motherhood, is that with each kid comes fewer and fewer brain cells! The amount of ridiculous things I do in a day has just gotten out of control. Keys, cell phone,  and shoes are ALWAYS misplaced and I can never remember what I am suppose to pick up at the store (even if I have a list). I also forgot what is was like to be peed, pooped, and puked on, all in the same day. When Ellsie was born I remember Chris came home one day and I was sitting on the couch. He bent over to kiss me and said "you smell like puke." He has yet to comment on my latest baby scent which makes me think he has become use to the smell. 

Nixon and I get a lot of special time together (like at 3am). He truly is my little snuggler. If he is asleep in my arms I am convinced that he would sleep through the night. However, I do try and give him some crib time. But he is just perfectly content in bed with me. With each day that passes I begin to see Nixon looking more and more like Ellsie. I am still having a hard time placing all his features but he for sure has the Bury eyes:)