20 weekers with the twinkers

How Far Along:  20 weeks.  Halfway.  Although surely we will be taking these babes before 40 weeks! 37 weeks is my goal.  I can do this.  

19 weeks

Maternity Clothes:   Oh yes.  I found some amaze maternity jeans (thank you Jes.sica Simps.on).  When I get tired of wearing leggings (HA!) then at least I have a pair of jeans that look nice.  I also brought up my bag of maternity clothes that I had with Blakely.  It is mostly tank tops and a few pairs of shorts but I got them all washed and ready for spring.  Come on SPRING!  I can't wait to be able to just wear dresses with or without leggings instead of all these dang layers.  

Sleep:  Sleeping hard.  Blakely is sleeping better too so yay!

Best Moment of the Week:  seeing these precious ones on our ultrasound.  They looked perfect and cooperated great so we could see everything that needed to be seen.  So thankful for that.  I will have growth ultrasounds now every 4 weeks and have appointments every 2 weeks.  

Movement:   yes.  I feel them pretty often and it is getting stronger and stronger.  I feel baby boy the most because he is low.  I do feel baby girl up high but just not as strong yet.  I love it so much and I can't wait for Lonnie and B to feel them.  I have been able to feel some kicks a couple of times from the outside so it is just a matter of time.  On the ultrasound today she was trying to get some pictures of baby girl but baby boy kept kicking her so it was making her jump even thought it wasn't her doing the actual moving.  I foresee a lot more of that!  

Symptoms:    still the same as last time although I think my "super fun pain" is a little better.  Or maybe I am learning when I need to rest and not overdo it.  And the girls have started leaking.  I expected it as this is about when they did that with Blakely.  Real fun.  

Food Cravings/Aversions:  Can I just let y'all know that I wake up with the appetite of 10 men.  I act like I haven't eaten in days...all day...until about 4:00 and then I'm not so hungry anymore.  I want all the pasta that was ever made in the world too.  Should be good for the poundage.  

What I Miss:  nothing right now!

What I'm Looking Forward to:  getting things together with the house.  It is so hard to find coordinating boy/girl crib bedding.  I know what I want but finding it has proved to be a little difficult.  Although yesterday I think I found a lady on E.tsy who can do it for me for a reasonable price.  I just purchased each babe a quilt and I can't wait for them to get here.  I hope to sell our bedroom furniture this week or next so then I will have a baby room to play in.  Fun!  

Also, naming these babies!  We have about 5 girls names that we would both love to use.  Boy names?  So much harder.  Seriously.  I don't like ANY of them.  Or I like them but it just isn't his name, ya know?  We have a family name for him that we always thought we would use but now it is super common so we are kind of backing off on it.  But it just seems like nothing will live up to it.  We will see.  We have time!  

Milestones:  reaching the "halfway" mark and just getting one week closer to meeting these babies!  

Blakely's take:  Blakely talks about the babies a lot so I thought I would add this in to these little updates.  Right now she tells me that she has babies in her tummy too.  Which is pretty funny because she raises up her shirt and pokes her little belly out.  My mom sent me this the other day...

When I am making her pick up her toys before bed she tells me that she can't bend down because of the babies in her tummy.  Smart girl really. 

We were sitting together at the window waiting for Lonnie to get home 2 days ago and she reached over, rubbed my belly and said, "I can't wait for the babies to come out".  Sweet girl.  Although I am pretty sure she is going to want them to go right back in once they do come out.  

Someone asked her if she was excited about becoming a big sister in a few months.  She said I ALREADY AM A BIG SISTER!  

She wants to feel them move so bad.  She comes over and puts her hand on my belly for a minute and then says that they must be sleeping and we should be quiet.  

Yay for another week in the books!!

The house

There are about eleventy billion things that need to be done in our house to get ready for the twins.  I made a list the other day of all the things that need to be sold, bought, organized and rearranged and it was 12 pages long.  Lordy. 

I want to document here the progress that we make because I am sure not all of the things I want to get done will actually get done.  I know you are dying to hear ALLLLLL about it....

Here is the thing.  We haven't really "finished" our house since we moved in 8 years ago.  Granted this house was move in ready and there weren't any big projects to finish but I mean like finishing decorating each room and stuff like that.  Want to know why?  Infertility.  I can blame a lot of things on it but this is a big one.  I feel like our life has ben on hold for the past 6-7 years.  I didn't want to turn our bar into a big fun adult pool table/ping pong room because I had hopes that it would be a playroom for children.  And then that didn't happen in the time frame that I was expecting so everything just got put on hold.  I didn't want to make one of the bedrooms downstairs into a super nice guest room because I want to make it a nursery!  So basically we did nothing.  We had our master upstairs and then some furniture in a room downstairs and called it a guest room.  Then of course when B came along we made her a nursery.  But other that that we have quite a few rooms that were/are not being used to their full potential.  

So that brings me to now.  We have to make room for 2 babies!  Let me give you a little rundown of the way our house is laid out.  

The upstairs is the main floor, the floor you walk in on and the floor where we spend most of our time.  This is where the master is (as well as the living room, dining room, kitchen, and laundry room).  We always lived in this room until we had B and then we moved down to the guest room beside her room which is where we live now.  

The downstairs has three bedrooms and then a large (bonus?) room that has a nice bar and lots of space.  We have used this as a bar/storage room.  Grrr.  One of the bedrooms is smaller and is my husband's office right now.  It has no windows and tile floors.  We call it the dungeon room.  It is a nice room but the others are more spacious and have windows and doors that look out to the lake.  

Anyway.  Basically we are rearranging our entire house before the babies come.  Or at least it feels like it.  Here is small(!) list of the big things that we have to do before babies.  

1.  The twin's nursery is going to be the room we live in now downstairs.  So we have to sell the bedroom set that is in there to make room for baby furniture.  Then we have to move back to the master upstairs.

2.  Move all of the furniture in Blakely's room (crib, dresser, chest of drawers, queen bed and glider) to the baby room.  Buy B all new furniture.  She's getting a new white bed and dresser and a room makeover.  No paint (her room is green) but lots of other new stuff.  

3.  Make the office into a guest bedroom.  There is already a queen bed in there so mainly this will be a bunch of organizing books (L is a book hoarder...have I mentioned that?).  We are going to sell the desk and desktop computers that are in there so it is less office-y and more comfortable for guests.  Ya know, since it has no windows :/

4.  The bar/storage room is being turned into a family room/playroom.  I think this space will need its own post.  It is crazy right now but I have big plans for it in the future.  One day it will be just a playroom but for the immediate future I see it as a family room and a playroom.  It is huge so that will work for now.  

So how am I going to get all of this done?  Well the first thing is I am having garage sale.  I have never had one before and I may never again but I feel it is the best way to get rid of all of the junk we have.  (Side note...where does all the crap come from?)  I am in the biggest purging mode right now.  I want to throw away EVERYTHING.  Ugh.  It is driving me crazy.  I think once we purge a bunch of our stuff then we can start to get the rooms to come together.  The problem is that I can't physically do all of these things.  I have a few good hours on my feet a day and the rest of the day is spent sitting down or laying down with some spurts of "getting shit done" in between.  

So I hired someone.  She organizes for people for a living.  I may or may not be in love with her.  She has been here one day for 6 hours and we completely went through the bar and organized it.  I sat the entire time.  She would bring me a box or something and ask what I wanted to do with it and that was it.  She doesn't get tired or distracted.  And she is totally OCD.  I am so thankful I found her!  She is going to help me get everything together for the garage sale and then work the sale with me also.  I feel like once we can get all this excess crap out of here I will be able to breathe and feel better about bringing a ton of baby stuff into the house!  

We plan to have this garage/yard sale in about 8 weeks....so late March.  For right now she set up the bar downstairs as a garage sale and we are pricing things as we go.  So now when we clean out the craft closet, for example, we (she!) can just take things into the bar to the home decor section or the kids section she has set up and toss it in a box with a price.  I think it will make going through the rest of my house much easier.  Then we just have to bring all of it upstairs right before the sale.  Yikes.  My list of things to clean out/organize with her are:
-bar (done)
-craft closet (it is mostly organized just a few months worth of stuff that I didn't put back in place and threw on the floor.  Ha!  lots of purging will happen here)
-the baby's closet (this has a bunch of sports equipment, puzzles, luggage, large baby items, etc in it)
-Blakely's closet (I have done most of this but still some left to do)
-help get Blakely's toy situation under control.  (pregnant mom + 3rd birthday + Christmas has sent the toy sitch into overdrive)
-laundry room (my god the laundry room)
-office (have to have Lonnie around for this)
-garage (have to have Lonnie around for this)
-our closet upstairs (all of our clothes and shoes)
-pantry (not for the garage sale but just for my sanity)

She is going to organize as we clean out too.  So the laundry room will be a completely usable space unlike the 25% that is usable right now.  

Once we sell the bedroom set in the twin's room (have a few people interested already) we can move all of B's baby furniture in there and order her a new set.  Then we we will actually have a space to put baby stuff and I can begin to go through some of the clothes that I saved from when Blakely was a baby, get the swing out of the attic, etc.

I am thrilled to get started on this huge project and I am so happy that she said she would help me.  To me it seems like a ton to do but she says it will move quickly now that we've gotten started. She's not overwhelmed like I am!  I didn't really start doing a thing for Blakely's nursery until about 28 weeks but I needed to start sooner because we have a lot more to do and because I could end up on bed rest or something too.  Not to even mention if the babies come early (please stay in there!).  I don't have the energy to do all of it and Lonnie works too much.  It would take us a year!  And yes, I will probably pay her as much if not more than I will make in the garage sale but I don't care a bit!  Totally worth it.  

Oh, you want to see pictures?  Okay....  I will take some before and afters for sure.  We organized the bar but since it is the storage place for all the garage sale items it is still pretty hectic.  I want to wait to post before/during/afters of that until the playroom/family room is set up.

Eeeek!  I know you are all as excited as me!  

tag along

I had an OB appointment the other day and I usually schedule them on the two days I know Blakely will be in MDO.  Well I have kept her out of MDO this week (and probably next) because the flu is so rampant here and I am stressed about us getting it.  SO she got to tag along to the appointment with me.  

I told her in the morning all about it and that she was a big girl to get to go and meet Dr. Jaime.  She had all kinds of questions about him.  I explained that he took care of babies while they were in tummies and that he took care of her when she was in my tummy.  She thought that was cool and then asked about a million other questions.  

Since we haven't left the house much lately I tried to make it somewhat of a date for the two of us.  We left the house early so we could drive thru chi.ck-fil-a then we drove to the hospital.  We parked and I let her get in the front seat with me.  We ate our food while listening to the Fr.ozen soundtrack.  

This was just a quick checkup so I thought it would be a breeze taking her.  She was very interested in the fact that I had to pee in a cup.  She wanted to do it too.  Took me 5 minutes to explain that she could not.  She was really cute during the appointment.  She sat in the chair and let me talk to the nurse and then the doctor.  About halfway through she got up, came over to me and asked if she could give me a hug.  I said yes of course.  Then she went back and sat in her chair.  

Turns out he wanted to check me again (because of the vagina pain...fun).  So I strategically placed Blakely at the head of my bed and gave her my phone.  She was totally engrossed in the phone so I don't think she even realized I got half naked!  

Everything was fine.  Which makes me feel (and him) feel better.  I am really hoping to avoid being checked next time.  I go back in 2 weeks for the big ultrasound.  Once I got dressed and we walked out into the hall he asked Blakely if she wanted to see the babies.  She of course said yes not understanding what that meant.  The sonographer wasn't busy so we got a sneak peek at the babes and Blakely thought it was pretty cool.  She kept saying "that's baby sister on top and baby brother is on the bottom".  

She did great with me and I am glad that I got to take her AND that she got to see the babies.  She keeps asking to feel the babies move but she can't feel them yet so I think seeing them move around in there was fun for her.  For a few minutes and then she was back to digging in my purse and pulling things out.  :)

When we were on our way home I was telling her that she was such a big girl and maybe she could go with me again.  I said, "I really love it when you go to the doctor with me" and she responded with, "I really love it when you go by yourself and I get to spend the day with Daddy".  Ha!  So there may not be a next time but I am glad there was a first time!  ;)

Vegas

Lonnie had some time off at the beginning of December and we wanted to plan a little getaway for just the three of us.  I really just let him plan the thing because I didn't care where we went.  I preferred a direct flight or a short drive somewhere but that was about it.  

He decided on Vegas.  Ha!  

If I am being totally honest I wasn't that thrilled with the idea of taking a 3 year old to Vegas.  But once I started doing some searching around I realized there were quite a few things we could do with Blakely and quite a few Christmas-y things we could do as well.  So I didn't complain as we were only going to be there for 3 full days ;)  

Blakely was great on the flight out there.  She slept most of the way.  We stayed at the Palaz.zo for the first time and really liked it.  We had a suite and it was FANTASTIC.  I wish I would have taken pictures of it.  It was split level with the king bed and a large sitting area up top and then down three steps was the "living" area with a huge sectional and the fold out that B slept on.  Blakely would have been happy just to play with her babies in our room the entire time.  I worried about her sleeping in the same "room" with us but she did fine.  Went to sleep great each night and even took great naps with me everyday.  She was really a dream on this trip and I was so relieved because she had been quite naughty the weeks leading up to the trip.  

The first full day was spent walking around and letting Blakely take in the lights of Vegas.  We bought a new umbrella stroller (J.eep brand and hello love it) because our other one pretty much died on our last trip.  When we went to Denver in March I swore I wasn't taking B to walk around a city without a stroller again anytime soon.  I could just picture her getting lost in Vegas and I knew a stroller would save my sanity.  It did.  She still walked quite a bit but the stroller was so very helpful because even when she was walking she wanted to be pushing her baby in the stroller.  

We took a gondola ride at The Ven.etian and she thought that was fun.  Our driver sang songs to her and I think she wanted to go again.  

I had read that the Cosmopolitan turned their swimming area into an ice skating rink and I knew B would love trying that so the next day we took her there.  Obviously I couldn't ice skate (darn) so Lonnie had to be the one to skate with her.   He hasn't skated in a million years so I let him get his bearings before sending her out there.  

Basically she looks adorable...

She thought it was fun and the girls there tried to teach her the best way to stay on her feet. She did okay but Lonnie had to keep her upright.  She didn't want to stop but after about 20-30 minutes I could tell this was not going well for Lonnie.  The position he was in, slightly bent over at the waist and holding all of her weight most of the time, was not looking good for his already injured back (see this post).  I tried to get him to stop and let the girls who worked there take B out but they were just holding her hand and not really giving a shit if she cracked her head or her arm so we weren't okay with that.  He pushed on.

When we were done we went and had dinner and then came back out there to the fire pits they had set up.  They had Christmas music playing and you could get hot chocolate at the bar and stuff for s'mores.  We roasted about 20 (Mommy LOVES them) and sipped hot chocolate by the fire.  

The best part was that it wasn't actually cold...ha!  Then they made it snow and B was fired up about that.  She ran around and jumped up and down trying to catch it yelling, "Snow!  Mommy, it's SNOW!"  

The next day we took her to the indoor theme park at Ci.rcus Circ.us.  She has never ridden any rides before.  I know!  I can't believe it either.  We have meant to take her to the fair each year but something has always come up.  I was so looking forward to Disney in March because I knew she would love to ride rides (and, well, princesses).  Since that is cancelled  I was excited to see how she liked this little theme park.  For an indoor theme park it was pretty great.  They even have some big rides.  They had about 8 rides that she could ride and that was really plenty.  Lonnie or I rode many of them with her first and then tested out one by herself.  

She was so excited and picked out her airplane with care.  About halfway through the ride I could tell the change on her face.  She was getting a little scared and made eye contact with me.  I told her she was doing great! and wasn't it fun! and it was almost over!  I think she got a little freaked out because she wasn't sure when it would stop.  I was so proud of her because she didn't cry and I could tell she was trying so hard to be brave.  It was just one of those mommy moments for me and I could have cried I was so proud of her.  Or maybe I am just pregnant and overly emotional.  

We stayed for a few hours and then went back to the hotel to crash.  And I am talking a 3 hour nap.  Glory.  

On our last day we went to old downtown Vegas.  It was fun and Lonnie and I had never checked that out before.  It is more of the old timey major lights and flashiness that you think of when you think of Vegas.  We had fun walking around and and then had dinner.  Blakely did so well at our dinners in Vegas.  I was worried about it because she is in a stage where she doesn't want to listen to anything we say.  But really she did well and I was impressed.  We even did a couple of fancier places and didn't have to leave early.  By the end of dinner I was ready to go lay down.  I was hurting and worn out and knew I was going to have to travel the next day with Blakely by myself.  So we went to bed at like 730.  Wild Vegas nights I tell ya.  

Blakely and I came home together and Lonnie stayed for a few extra days.  She did well traveling with me although she didn't sleep on the way home.  3+ hour flight with a sleepy toddler who wants to get up and pee every 15 minutes.  Exhausting.  She didn't whine though so I can't complain much.  

On the way home I asked her her favorite part of the trip.  She said the taxi rides.  LOL!  We didn't take a car seat this time since we didn't rent a car.  Also I knew we wouldn't use taxis much...mainly to and from the airport which was quite close to our hotel.  She thought she was so big to not have a car seat.  Lonnie and I stressed the entire ride.  What do y'all do? I didn't want to take a car seat because then what would we do with it once we got to our destination?  The only place we went was the Cosmo and we couldn't lug it around the entire time.  But I really wanted to take it.  It was just weird.  She only had about 4 rides without a seat but still.  Stressful.  Interested to see what everyone else does in this situation.  

She looks scared to death here but she really was thrilled.  

All in all I am glad we made the trip.  We were able to have some fun family time together and since we can't go to Disney this was our last big trip as a family of three!  Eeeeek!  

18 weeks

Well obviously I am not going to be able to keep up with the weekly updates! 

Today I am 18 weeks pregnant with the twinks!  I feel like I have a lot to update on because a lot has been going on the last 6 weeks.

How Far Along: 18 weeks  I can not believe I am 18 weeks.  The first 10 weeks went by soooo slowly but since then things are flying.  

12 weeks 4 days  (this dress accentuated the belly!)

14 weeks

15 weeks 2 days

17 weeks

I seriously love doing the comparisons.  I always loved seeing everyone else's bump comparisons too!

Maternity Clothes:   Yes to the pants and some shirts.  Most of my larger sweaters will fit for a while.  Thank goodness for the sweater and leggings trend!  My mom got me four long sleeve maternity shirts and they are perfect.  I think they will last until the OMG huge stage.  I really need to get some more pants.  I literally have one pair that fits.  I got a couple of gift cards for Christmas so this weekend I am going to do some online shopping.  Any recs for maternity jeans that are LONG?  I am almost five ten!  

Sleep:  Sleep is good.  I sleep really hard and wake up about 2 times a night to pee but go right back to sleep.  I have started taking a bath every night and it really gets me ready for sleep.  Baths are awesome!  

Best Moment of the Week:  There have been a lot of great moments the past few weeks.  I had my friend at the hospital scan me the other day and she looked really good at the babies.  Until now we have just done quick checks but nothing thorough.  She checked all of their organs and everything looked good.  We were able to tell that baby boy is on the bottom and baby girl is on the top...so he will be the first one to come out.  

baby girl skelton face :)

baby boy profile.  

My tummy is popping out now and I definitely look pregnant.  Blakely likes to rub my belly...basically waited my whole life for that.  She talks about the babies a lot and how she will hold them when they cry and pat their backs so they will go to sleep.  She also talks about the babies coming when the weather gets warmer in May.  If you ask her what their names are she says one of two things.  Mickey and Minnie or Mickey and Clarabelle.  Oy.  I have mentioned a few of our top names to her and she gives a disgusted look.  Ha!  One night after I put her to bed she called me back down there a few minutes later crying saying that she forgot to give the babies a goodnight kiss.  holy sweet.  

Movement:  Yes!  I felt the very first flutters at 14 weeks but then nothing for a few days.  Around 16 and a half weeks I started feeling more actual kicks.  I can sometimes tell which baby it is but only because I know that baby girl is up high and baby boy is low.  I love feeling them and it gets stronger every single day.   

Symptoms:    Well...I feel quite pregnant.  At this same time with Blakely I don't think I felt pregnant at all.  By the end of each day I am completely worn out and I go to bed right after Blakely does...about 830.  During the day I have to rest multiple times and I am moving a little slower than normal.  All of this is fine I just wasn't expecting it this early.  As long as I take it easy when I feel like I need to I am fine.  

And now for something that is WAY too much info for you all!  Ha!  At about 15 weeks I started having quite the pain in my lady parts.  Pain/heaviness/fullness?  Difficult to explain.  Mainly when I've been standing for a little while. It doesn't feel like "pressure" but I can't stand for very long without being very uncomfortable "down there".  :)   I remember feeling that with Blakely but much much later...like 32 weeks.  But with her it felt like her head was hanging out...this just feels all external.  It really freaked me out.  I was really worried that I wasn't holding these babies in there.  At my 16 week appointment I mentioned it to him.  He checked me and said my cervix was super hard and completely closed...perfect.  He said my "lower uterine segment" wasn't hanging down or anything which would worry him if it was.  Everything was fine.  When my friend scanned me my cervix looked great.  So I guess I am just going to have this discomfort which is totally fine as long as everything is okay.  I just want to keep these babies in there as long as possible. All this to say I can't stand for very long before needing to sit or lay down.  He told me to just listen to my body and when I felt that way I need to rest.  I can't compare pregnancies because every one is different.  Plus there are 2 in there!  But seriously...I can't imagine working my job like I did with when pregnant with Blakely..on my feet all day?  No way.  

Food Cravings/Aversions:  yes please to all things sour.  No aversions really.  I have finally been able to start cooking again.  My family is happy about that!  I don't cook as often as I used to but at least I can cook without puking.  Soups are my go to because I can cook them in the morning when I have energy and well, it is soup weather!  


What I Miss:  nothing really at the moment although a bloody mary on New Year's sounded awesome.  ;)

What I'm Looking Forward to:  my official ultrasound in 2 weeks and reaching viability at 24 weeks!  I can't wait for Blakely to feel the babies move and for us to give them some names.  The name situation is basically going no where.  Coming up with 4 names is hard!  I am also looking forward to getting started on the nursery.  We have oh so much to do. 

Milestones:  At 15 weeks I graduated from the Denver clinic.  I was able to stop all meds and my nurse told me I was just a normal pregnant girl.  I bawled like a baby on the phone and told her how much I appreciated her.  Seriously sometimes I can't even believe that we are here right now.  One year ago is when I made our first consult with Dr. S and now I am almost halfway through a twin pregnancy.  It is really a miracle and I am so so grateful.  I am not sure how we got so lucky but I thank my lucky stars every single day.  

Christmas!

Happy New Year blog friends!  I know you want to read another Christmas post today, right?  Well I am just the person to treat you to it.  ;)

This was obviously the best Christmas yet.  Blakely definitely "got it" this year although she was a little nervous about the idea of Santa coming into our house in the middle of the night.  I had to reassure her that he wouldn't come downstairs about 20 times.  

I didn't do the Christmas Countdown this year like I have in the past.  We were gone to Alabama and then a few days after getting home from there we left for Vegas...more on that later.  I knew we couldn't smash it all in and I wanted to try and have a relaxed holiday.  Plus I am pregnant and tired.  So yeah.  The poor child didn't even get a picture with Santa this year.  That's okay, right??  It's just going to have to be because she totally didn't care.  

We did do a few Christmas activities like paint ornaments for each family member and bake and decorate cookies.  I let her open her Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve and we did have an elf this year.  He was super lazy but she liked finding him each morning and she named hime Gio.  No idea where she came up with that.  Painting the ornaments was definitely her favorite.  When we were leaving the house to go to my Grand's house on Christmas Eve she suddenly said, "Mom!  We have to take the ornaments so everyone can put them on their tree tonight!".  Well that was a good idea so we did.  She was very proud of them and handed out each one with care.  

We spent Christmas Eve with my family and Lonnie's mom came as well.  We have dinner and just spend time together with no presents.  Well, I say no presents but every single one of them got Blakely something.  She is the only child in the family so they spoil the heck out of her.  We came home with three bags full of stuff.  My cousin Jan took Blakely outside to try and find Rudolph just like she did with me and my brother when we were kids.  It was a great night.  

Christmas morning is spent with just the three of us.  Blakely dug into her Santa stuff and then had ZERO interest in opening presents from me and Lonnie.  I didn't want to force her because she was playing and having so much fun with her new stuff.  But we were on a time crunch because we had to get to my mom's to open with her before the whole family got there at 1130.  I decided to scrap opening our presents until later that night.  I've decided that next year my mom will just spend the night with us and that will cut out us being rushed to her house to open.  We can just do it here!  

Is this all for me??

Anyway.  We didn't really get Blakely one big item this year like in year's past.  I thought about getting her a bike but we really don't have a place to ride it and Lonnie just wasn't on board.  The only this she kept asking for was babies and diapers.  So that was pretty easy.  Santa brought a new Elsa dress (the other one was disgusting and in shreds basically), an Anna dress, a super hero cape, a train set, some makeup, a jewelry box, a damn unicorn (thank you Santa Jenni!), and a new baby and diapers, of course.  He also threw some new panties and socks in her stocking.  

She loves all of it and has hardly taken the Elsa dress off.  This is totally off the subject but let me just tell you about dress up clothes for a minute.  There is a HUGE difference in a "dress up dress" and a "princess costume".  This is important!  First of all a dedicated dress up dress is more expensive.  BUT OMG WORTH IT.  They are machine washable, not itchy and don't shred the first time you accidentally step on Elsa's train.  We have a couple of both and the costumes are gross.  You can't just throw them in the washing machine.  You are expected to spot clean them...well ha!  This mama is not a "spot cleaner".  They are made to be worn one singular time and if you have a princess obsessed daughter like me well that is a total joke.  She eats in them, takes a nap in them and occasionally wears them to the store when I am feeling super generous.  All of this to say that Santa brought Blakely an Elsa dress up dress to replace her Elsa costume.  The Anna dress is a costume and the top has already ripped from the skirt and I sewed it back up.  I knew I should have bitten the bullet and bought the Anna dress too but I wasn't thinking.  Just a word to the wise.  Now, if you can convince your child to be careful while in her dresses and to not wear them while eating, jumping on the trampoline, doing cartwheels, and wrestling with Daddy on the floor well then go for the costumes.  (We have these and these and both are great)

Okay...back on track.  After letting her play for a while we headed over to my mom's.  She got Blakely a bunch of fun stuff.  A few new games, some kinetic sand, babies and accessories and all of the PA.W Patrol pups with their vehicles and the tower.  She was so happy to just play by herself while we opened our presents.  

Then everyone else showed up and we had brunch and then opened presents.  We draw names every year which I like but I get everyone a couple of things from Blakely (a picture and a calendar with lots of pictures of her).  It was a great day after that of being lazy, snacking and playing with Blakely's new toys.  By the time we ate I was completely worn out.  I didn't get much sleep due to playing Santa and finishing up the wrapping.  Then I had to load up all of our presents to take to mom's and make sausage balls for the brunch.  I have about zero stamina these days so I was ready for some rest!  (Lonnie would normally help me do these things but he has severely injured his back, again, and has been out of commission.  More on that later!)  

We came home late that afternoon and Blakely passed out in the car before we even left my mom's driveway!  

I let her sleep in the car for a little bit and then we came in and opened our presents together just the three of us.  We mainly got Blakely some craft sets but my Dad got her Ma.gna T.iles and they are a huge hit.  She has played with them almost non stop.  We all got wonderful gifts and are so so lucky to have such great family.  Christmas was wonderful and I look forward to next year with two more littles in the mix!