Snow Day??!!!

Today we woke up to a really fun surprise- snow!! There hasn't been snow on the ground in south Texas since I was a little kid. I know to my family in the north it doesn't seem exciting at all but this is the first time our kids have gotten to play in the snow. It was all pretty much melted by noon but the kids enojyed it while it lasted!

Warming up by the fire

Allison's First Month

It's hard to believe that Allison is already 6 weeks old. Where does the time go? I have really been enjoying both the girls together. As evident by the pics, Emily loves to be near her sister. Every time I try to catch some pics of Allison, Emily starts posing too. She is very afraid of being left out! She loves her sister but she's not loving sharing her mama.

I am counting down the days until Michael gets to come home for 2 weeks- I'm exhausted! He will be home on Feb. 15th and I am ready for some help. Things were going well at first but then Allie got RSV, luckily it could be controlled at home, but it's totally screwed up our nights. She still has a little cough that wakes her up at night and keeps her stuck in the house as much as possible. Remembering back to the last time we had a toddler and a newborn, Michael was able to help a lot with Rachel so that I could give Em what she needed. It's more challenging to balance everything by myself this time around even though Em is far easier to care for than Rachel was. There's a reason that newborns have 2 parents! I have been able to get help from our parents and I can't say thanks enough!

Sleepless nights and all, I am very thankful for Allison. She has brought a lot of joy back in the house and it feels a little more normal having 2 again. It still feels like one is missing and I know it always will, but it warms my heart to hear Emily telling everyone that Allie is her sister and her baby. She is so excited to have another kid in the house and we are looking forward to watching their relationship grow with them.

Emily's Haircut

Emily hasn't had a trim since she was about 9 months old. I don't know why but she was definitely scared the minute she saw the chair. The pictures need no captions about how it went! Penny and I had to take turns holding her still enough so that the lady could cut it.

Rachel's Quilts

Rachel had a lot of clothing that I couldn't pass on to Emily or Callie so we decided to have quilts made with them. We were able to have a quilt made for each of her aunts and grandmas. We also are getting quilts for our girls but they're not ready yet. These are the quilts that were made for each of them. They all picked which picture they wanted on them. They turned out great thanks so much to Mary Cambiano for making them.

More Christmas Pics

Christmas day was spent at our house with Michael's family. As you can see in the pics, we had Michael on the TV skyping with us. Emily showed him every single present she opened. He really enjoyed being part of it.

Santa thought Em needed a car to drive around

Talking to Michael on the TV

Presents from Santa

Krug Christmas

We celebrated Christmas Eve at my parents' house. It gets pretty chaotic with the kids. I'm starting to understand why we always had to spend Christmas in the basement with our cousins growing up- it gets very noisy and messy with all the kids! The kids got way too many presents but had fun playing with each other's toys. Mom even got them all stockings and filled them up. Next year I think we're going to have to draw names because each of the kids got around 10 presents! Michael was able to join us for each of the Christmas get-togethers via skype. We mailed his presents to him so he opened them with us and got to watch Em open hers. She loved showing him everything she got.

Showing daddy her present

Hanging in their Christmas PJs. Emily loves her "froty"

pjs and wants to wear them every night!

Bryson was confused that it wasn't his dad on the laptop!

Uncle Shane likes to hold the new baby at Christmas- it's become a tradition!

These 2 like to fight over Allie. Emily always tells Callie that it's her baby.

The sheep that didn't make it to the manger

This year mom thought it would be fun for the kids to be in the Christmas pageant at church. They were all going to be sheep. They did pretty good in practice. Emily thought it was fun crawling down the aisle with a bell on. But on Christmas she didn't think it was so much fun in front of all those people! She didn't make it down the aisle but her cousins did. I'm told she made quite a production with her loud dramatic cry and had to miss most of church.

Nate's always trying to keep the kids in-line.

Poor Nate, doesn't look like it's going well!