Christmas Break

Well, the year is drawing to a close and so is our Christmas break... it has been a great and an eventful couple of weeks, especially for one member of our family. Evelyn is frequently the perpetrator of acts of mischief but this week she took initiative not to commit daring deeds, but to potty train herself. She just decided one day to voluntarily go pee on the potty and the rest is history. I haven't had to change a diaper in almost a week now! There have been a couple little slip ups, but so far, this has been my easiest potty train yet!

One of our friends had done this cute little thing with her daughter last year at Christmas to give up her bottles (or soothers, I can't remember which...), and we had planned on doing the same this year, although with both bottles AND soothers. The plan was for Evelyn to go cold turkey... wrap up her bottles and pacifiers and put them out for Santa so that he could take them to a new little baby who needed them. In exchange, Santa would leave her an extra present. We talked about it with her in the weeks leading up to Christmas and she agreed to it. I was a little bit scared that we would have some sleepless nights until she got used to it, but Evelyn has been amazing! She has asked once or twice for her "ooshies" (soothers) but we stayed strong and she has all but forgotten about them now. I am relieved and sad at the same time. So proud of her for being such a big girl, but so emotional about my last baby growing up!

So! Some stuff we have done over the break...

Breakfast with Santa at a local berry farm... Evie and Mylie waiting to see Santa pull up:

Eating our pancakes with stewed blueberries on top!

Laina, Mylie and I went ice skating with friends to a winter wonderland theme thing...

There are a lot of things about this picture that I want to make excuses for.... the way Mylie has let the headband fall down over her bangs, the fact that they are wearing white tights under their skirts but with knee socks over... the way Mylie is pushing her tummy out and squinting... but Adam took this picture of them while I have having a Mommy time-out (ie. the kids were pissing me off, so I had to go to my room and take deep breaths until I was back in control) These were their Christmas outfits from Gap:

Christmas Morning!! Matching Carter's jammies

Evie with the thing she asked Santa for... a Winnie the Pooh stuffy

Love the look on Evie's face here... she was just so excited opening all her presents this year!

Laina got a Karoke machine from my mom... that should drive me crazy...

Sitting down to dinner... is it tradition for everybody else to wear the stupid paper crowns from the Christmas crackers?

This is Gigi... grandma to 10, great-grandma to 14! This was her first Christmas without my Grandad and we were all missing him...

My niece Jazzy enjoying her Christmas dinner

AAAAAANNNNND... if you made it this far, here is my first Valentine's project, haha, yep! I already am moving on to the next holiday!! This is a shirt, and yes, Evelyn is pants-less here... it looks like a short dress but isn't. I will probably make some leggings to go under this or maybe just put on some skinny jeans.