A Last

Today was the first day after our Christmas "break" and we took relaxing seriously! 

Avey hung out in her new Frozen robe...

...while Lex snuggled up with her new Frozen pillow and blankey!  Actually, we spent a fair amount of our day fussing, whining, and sniffling.  Ava is cutting a molar and has a bit of a cold and Lex seems to have a bit of a runny nose, too.  I have a sore throat and a headache and I'm just wiped out.  I'm so thankful we made it through the holiday mostly healthy and now I'm hoping that we can get back to 100% quickly!  We don't have much on our calendar this week so that is delightful.  We all need to be able to just take it easy this week, I think!

We had a "last" tonight.  Ava Lynn took her very last bottle of breastmilk.  Wahhhh!!!!:(  I nursed her for the last time on Christmas night.  She was 13 months and 1 day old.  I am proud of myself for making it that long! 

We had a little bit of frozen milk to use up so we have been giving her bottles for the last couple of nights.  I am really going to miss that evening snuggle time, especially after she was done feeding.  She always snuggles up on my shoulder for a while before Bry takes her to bed. 

I'm hoping that she will continue doing that even though she won't be feeding beforehand.  I just love her in that little robe!:)

She's clearly not very happy about this being her last bottle.;)  Oh, I love that baby face!!!

Christmas 2014, Part 2

The rest of our Christmas photos...

Our beautiful tree after Santa came to visit!

So blurry, but a pic with my love!

I still can't get over those FOUR stockings hanging in our house!  We have been abundantly blessed.

Another picture of our little cookie monster!  She was thrilled that Santa left a cookie behind!

Playing with cousin Sarah at Geema and Geepa's house!

And a sweet pic with Geema and Geepa!

Uncle Paul and Aunt Carol helped Avey with present opening!:)

Avey got an awesome Iowa Hawkeyes hat from her birthday buddy Tim!

Our finished birthday cake for Jesus!

We lit a candle and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus...such a sweet time for us!

Lex with her birthday twin Sarah sharing some birthday cake!

Mama and Lex!

My Avey Lynn!

The whole fam!

The day after Christmas we went to Country Post for breakfast!  Ava and Grammy!

And with Sarah and Rachel!  She loved all of the attention!:)

And one random photo of all the cousins at Mom and Dad's!

Carol sent this cute pic of Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Drewes on their way home to Iowa!  We had such a fun time celebrating Christmas with our girls and our families!

Christmas 2014, Part 1

We had the best Christmas!  The girls were so excited and completely unassuming about their gifts and that made it that much sweeter.  No expectations, just pure joy! 

Our family of four!  I love my people with all of my heart!
 
Daddy and his girls!
 
Mama and the babies!
 
Lex tore into her big box!
 
And Ava went straight for some leftover cookies that Santa left behind!  Ha!
 
Lex got some new dress up stuff so she had to try on her new things.  This left her in a diaper for most of the rest of the present opening!:)
 
Ava got to try out some of the new dress up stuff!
 
Avey Lynn got a new bag for traveling!

The girls biggest present for the year was a new dollhouse!  They love playing with the one at the library so we knew they would love to have one at home, too.  "Santa" nearly had a heart attack when he was putting it together on Christmas Eve and one of the walls was built incorrectly.  Luckily, Santa is resourceful and figured out how to make it work for the time being!:)  Maybe next year he will listen to Mrs. Clause when she suggests to not wait until the last minute to put the toys together!;)
 
Opening some more gifts!
 
Playing with the new dollhouse.
 
Baby girl got a new big blankey for her bed! 
 
Lex also got a puppet theater and puppets!

She really got into opening the gifts!  It was nice that she had some practice not too long ago at her birthday!:)
 
We opened the girls' stockings and they were thrilled with their candies!
 
Ava just dug right into the package!:)
 
Getting a few more before we had to put them away!
 
We ate a yummy breakfast together before we headed over to Geepa and Geema's for the rest of the day!  We had the best Christmas morning!:)

Christmas Eve 2014

We spent Christmas Eve getting ready for all of the Christmas festivities!:)

Oh, the many things you can do with an empty wrapping paper tube!

Lex has been really into birthdays lately so she has been very excited to celebrate Jesus' birthday.  I asked her if she wanted to make him a birthday cake and she was very excited to do so!  She wanted a blue cake so Daddy got her a blue cake mix at the store!

Bry worked on frying up some bacon for our Christmas morning breakfast quiche!

Then we went to church for the Christmas Eve service!  A great family photo, huh?!:)

This picture is a bit dark, but I just love it.  Bry and his girls admiring the beautiful Christmas tree!

Baby girls all ready for bed the night before Christmas!:)

We had to put out cookies and milk for Santa before heading off to sleepytown!  Nothing but the best for Santa...store-bought Chips Ahoy!;)

All ready to go to sleep and listen for the reindeer!:)