We finished up the year the same way we started it – BUSY.

Seriously, I think 2016 will go on record as one of the busiest years of our entire lives. Jon and I are both praying that 2017 holds a few more slow and boring days. 😉

After our Christmas with the O’Briens and our Christmas just us at home, it was time for the Mangum Family Christmas! We always take a picture like this every year and every year we laugh at how much the family is growing. So fun to see!!

The resident babies. These two are just too much. It was so fun to see Caleb, Nicole and Hudson!

Poor kid was kind of forced into some Auntie loving. 😉

Gammy made the boys the cutest little “melted snowman” hot chocolates and that’s basically all Parker wanted the rest of our time there. 😉

Making cookies with the aunties.

Gingerbread house contest time! We sent the little kids to bed, let Nathan stay up and had a contest as to who could make the best one. It was slightly unfair considering Gammy and Pops were the judges and their oldest grandson was in the competition. 😉

But he was SO cute and SO proud of his gingerbread house. He felt so big getting to stay up a little later with the adults. 🙂

Purple was the color of the day for this Little Miss. 😉

And then – Nama came in town!!! So we had Cayce, Caleb, Nicole, Hudson AND Nama all visiting at the same time!! My kids were in heaven.

Eisley was more than content to just sit in Hudson’s new toy and let him muscle her all over the living room. We were dying. So cute.

We absolutely LOVED seeing Auntie Cayce this trip!!

Loved it. 😉

This night was so quiet. Everyone else had left back to their homes and it was just us, Gammy and Pops and Nama on her last night. Such a sweet time. I love my grandmother.

We had the best Mangum Christmas!! So thankful for Gammy and Pops feeding us and hosting everyone and letting us all hang out there all day every day and spoiling us with so many gifts!

The next day was New Year’s Eve, so we went over to our dear Beechems’ house for some appetizers. 😉 We played until about 8, did the Netflix kids countdown thing and then the girls decided Eisley needed a girl group hug for the last day of the year. Love it so much! We loaded up three very tired kids, put all of them in bed when we got home and Jon and I both fought to stay awake until midnight. 😉

Happy end of 2016!! On to a new year!

 

Our first Christmas in our new home! It was such a wonderful time!

We spent Christmas Eve doing last minute wrapping, last minute baking and last minute prep for Christmas and by the time the evening came, we had three very hyper, very tired, very excited kids on our hands. 😉 We made our dinner of Christmas Tree French Toast (might end up being a new tradition – everyone loved it) and then they got to open their annual one present on Christmas Eve.

New Christmas jammies!! Oh how I love these little faces!!

Then it was time for our last Advent of the year. The kids (and me!) are always so sad to see it come to an end.

Dad reading the last Advent reading – the Christmas story – while the boys warmed up by the fire. Love this so much.

The boys got their cookies and milk all ready for Santa and we had to be sure to include carrots for the reindeer. And then it was off to bed!

Christmas Eve night is just always one of my most favorite nights – I love the quietness and anticipation of the next day! We moved the cookies because we were worried Kody might steal them from Santa. 😉

The kids were up early and got SO excited. The rest of the morning was a blur of present opening, cinnamon rolls, lots and lots of coffee and hot chocolate and jammied-kid snuggles.

Since Aunt Cayce was in town, we had them over for Christmas lunch and it was just so fun to host it in our own home! We loved seeing them for a couple of hours. They left soon after and it was just us again and we spent the rest of the day playing the new games the kids got for Christmas (Guess Who and Connect 4!), listening to the boys put on concerts for us on their new guitars and watching Christmas movies. And drinking more hot chocolate and coffee and I’m pretty sure we ate more cookies than Santa did. 😉

I know I think this every year, but this year was truly one of the best Christmases ever. Last year was such a blur since we didn’t get home from the hospital after delivering Eisley until Christmas Eve night and I felt like I missed out on so much of her first Christmas since I could barely move after the c-section. 😉 This year was perfect – we all went to bed saying that it had just been the best day ever. We laughed so much. Most of the gifts we gave were things we could do as a family, like the games and a dollhouse for Eisley that we all played with, and it just made the day so fun. The kids acted out the Christmas story with the Little Nativity, which was hilarious, and it was just the best, most relaxing day.

So thankful for such a wonderful day! God is so good to us.

We flew home from California just in time for Eisley’s birthday! We got home the 20th, spent the 21st doing laundry and last minute birthday stuff and baking birthday cupcakes and then, it was Eisley’s day.

Honestly, how is she this big? One year ago exactly, I had an appointment in the morning and while I was there, I was having pretty regular contractions, but very far apart. We did some errands, went home, put the kids down for naps and by dinnertime, I could barely talk through them, they were coming so hard and fast. I was 37 weeks and 1 day and I called my doctor and we met him at the hospital. I was so convinced that we were going to be sent home that I barely even told the boys goodbye. And then the doctor came in, looked at my contractions that were peaking way above the top line on the register and just grinned and told us we were going to meet our Eisley.

What a wonderful year it has been!!

We took everything off the mantle and hearth that was Christmas and put everything up that was birthday the night before. Ha! I know she does NOT care right now, but someday she will and it’s better to just do this from the beginning!

We started our day with birthday breakfast bread and it was a big hit with all of us. 😉

Little birthday love all cleaned up and ready to open presents!!

The boys were more than happy to help her rip them all open. Ha!

I love this!! Nonnie and Papa O gave her the stroller for Christmas and we gave her the baby for her birthday and she was SO excited. She held the baby and patted it’s little back and was so sweet to it. It was so so cute!

After she opened presents, we headed to the aquarium because apparently, this is just what we do when our kid turns one. 😉 Ha! I think we’ve been now for every child’s first birthday. And this time, it almost didn’t happen because I accidentally left my wallet in my other bag and that’s where my ID and membership card were. I was SO sad. Jon finally sweet-talked them into letting us still get to go, so we said a million thank yous and had the best time!

Little love was so fascinated by the fish and the other kids there. 😉

And of course we had to go get Chick-fil-a for lunch. It wasn’t even really a question.

After lunch and naps, Gabriel, Aunt Nicole, Uncle Bryant, Gammy and Pops came over for a birthday dinner and cupcakes. Eisley loves Gabriel. Gabriel is still deciding about Eisley. 😉 Ha!

I was laughing so hard at this. Tutu and her brand new purse while playing with the crazy boys. Such the picture of my little girl.

Birthday song!! She was so cute.

 

Sweet thing picked apart her cupcake in between yawns and eye-rubbing. It is hard work to turn one year old. 😉 Such a fun day celebrating our Eisley girl!!

We crammed as much into Christmas Eve Eve as humanly possible, while still leaving room for naps. 😉 Ha!

Look who showed up early and surprised us all?! I started crying, I was SO excited to see my sister! It has been way too long since she has been here!

We jumped right into baking day then – we didn’t even give the kids a chance to get changed into real clothes. 😉 Parker never minds this – he would choose to live in his jammies if he were allowed to. And Nathan, obviously, had to be a chef for this part.

They each got to pick out a few cookies to decorate! Nathan decided this was more of an elf’s job, so off came the chef outfit and on went the elf hat. 😉

They were SO serious about it – especially the ones that were for Santa. 😉 Ha! It was so cute how carefully they decorated them!

Little Miss was super content to just sit there quietly and eat a bunch of unfrosted cookies. She’s like Parker when it comes to icing – I think it’s just too sweet for them.

We hopped in the car that night and did our annual Christmas Light Night! We LOVE this night! We go through Starbucks, everyone (except Eisley – she’ll get her drink next year!) gets a drink and we drive to our favorite neighborhoods that always put up a ton of lights. We always have to stop and take a picture next to the craziest house ever. 😉

Three clean babies watching a few minutes of Rudolph before bed. Love this time of year and it’s magic. 🙂

Oh sweet, sweet girl!

Today you are one. ONE. I just cannot even believe it’s been an entire year and yet, in so many ways, it feels like you have been a part of our lives forever. I have trouble remembering what life was like without your sweet little self in it now!

You have completely changed us all, Little Miss. We were so entrenched in Boy World over here and then you came and completely rocked it. 😉 From the second you were born you have always been such a girl – I have never seen anyone who is so dainty and so tender and sweet and girly and yet at the same time, you can totally hold your own with your big brothers. You love bows and baby dolls and anything frilly or pink but you also love playing with the boys’ action figures and balls and cars.

I remember being up so many nights, feeling you kick and wiggle around inside me and wondering what you were going to be like, look like, act like. I worried about Nathan and Parker transitioning to another baby in the house and what our schedule would look like and how we would all adapt. And mostly, I wondered what it would be like to have a daughter. And oh, there are no words to tell you how wonderful it has been!

Eisley girl, you are just exactly the one we needed in our family. You are the perfect fit for us! The boys could not adore you more and I think anyone who is within a mile radius of me and your dad knows that we are completely taken with you. You are so beautiful and we love to tell you how pretty you are, but your sweet little heart is what shines out of you. You are so gentle and kind – I love seeing how worried you are when someone is hurt and how goofy you can be when you are trying to make us laugh and how you totally pick up on all kinds of social cues even at such a small age.

You love to be right smack in the middle of your brothers and snuggle me and Dad. You are the absolute happiest when you are surrounded by all of us! You are already saying so much and trying to do so much and it’s so cute to watch you try your hardest to keep up with the boys.

Eisley, you are loved. You are treasured. You are adored. You are the perfect Little Miss in this family and I just could not love you more. I love these years of sweet baby snuggles and tiny baby tutus and the future has me so excited too. I can’t believe how quickly you are growing and changing!

I love you so much, precious girl! Happy first birthday!

Mama

This year, Christmas was a bit different since we were really wanting to be home for Eisley’s first birthday. So, we left town the day Nathan and Jon’s break started and got there just in time for a lot of the Christmas festivities!! It worked out PERFECTLY and was just so wonderful. We had the best time and guys, NO ONE GOT SICK.

I swear, it was a Christmas miracle. I fully expect Hallmark to call any day to ask for the film rights to this. 😉 After our last trip to California, Jon and I were definitely weeping and hyperventilating in the corner for a few days leading up to the flight. And I think I packed every possible medication I could think of, along with about forty ziploc bags in case the worst happened on the flight.

Baby girl the night before we left. I love love love when they sleep like this. It’s just my favorite.

Our flight was SUPER delayed, but we made it on there and even made up enough time to make our connection! At one point, Jon had all three kids in the aisle with him and it was super tempting for me to just up and head to the back to fly in peace. 😉 But I was a good mom and Eisley hung out with me for most of the flight. Both flights were packed full, which just always makes for long rides when you have a wiggly lap baby who just wants to be set down.

We made it!! We got in super, super late to Nonnie and Papa O’s house and the kids were up super, super early to play. Their new house is in a beautiful area that has a big community center and they were putting on a little Christmas thing for the kids, so Greg drove all the kids except for Eisley over in the golf cart. It was hilarious.

And who should come but Santa?! Ha! I was so excited about this because we still hadn’t gotten Santa pictures yet and after this, I was glad we never paid for them. This was seriously the best we got. Ah, well. We tried!! (And by the way, in case you haven’t noticed, Nathan is the KING of taking pictures. If I tell him to smile, he can hold that smile through chaos like you wouldn’t believe. He’s my only kid who got this super power. He’s been like this since he was three months old. It’s amazing.)

Nonnie and Papa O and all their grandkids! Eisley was done by this point. 😉

We did very little sleeping on this trip. The kids were up late and up early every single day – we didn’t want to waste any of the time we had! And honestly, I got so few pictures!! We were so busy visiting extended family and playing that I barely remembered to do much else than make sure we still had three kids around the whole time. 😉

The whole family!! We did our traditional Christmas Eve mini pizzas and present exchange. Can’t wait until next year when there’s another little boy to snuggle on – Aunt Heather is going to have my sweet nephew in March!!

Crazy kids. 😉 It’s amazing how loud and obnoxious these five sweet little faces can get. 😉 Ha! The kids had the BEST time with their cousins and grandparents!!

The mood was very melancholy when we did our In-N-Out visit on the way to the airport. No one was ready to leave and there were at least three of us crying when we finally said goodbye at the airport. 🙁 Our visits always go way too fast! We are so thankful for our California family and the time we got to spend with them!

This made us laugh so hard. Nathan and Parker were so concerned about Freddy Frinkle and if he would be okay while we were gone. Uncle Bryant came over to check on the house while we were gone and put Freddy in the window and the kids were laughing about it the whole next day after we got home. Ha!

Such a wonderful trip! We can’t wait to see everyone again – hopefully soon!!!

We leave in just a few days for California, so we are attempting to get the last few things we need to do  before Christmas in since we get back just in time for Eisley’s birthday, baking day and Christmas Eve!

Three dressed up kids all ready for a fancy night out!

This is our most favorite advent event – the Melting Pot! We started this a few years ago and now it’s something we all look forward to all year!

The big boys. 🙂 Nathan LOVES this night and talks about it all the time!

Me and the Parker Bear. Eisley was way more interested in a banana than taking a picture. Ha!

At the beautiful Uptown tree! Love our special night!

Jon was taking the kids upstairs for baths on this night, rammed his elbow into the wall and yelled, “Ow!” Nathan, who was finishing up his dessert, says, “Ow…O-W…Hey! That’s a double letter phonogram!” Ha! We died.

Oh guys – I had like a little mini-spazz-out moment this day – Eisley girl’s first pigtails!! She has NO hair so that fact that I could barely get some in the band was sort of a miracle, but she looked so sweet!

Love these cold, winter nights with our three jammied babies around the Advent calendar – such a wonderful time of year!

 

Such a happy day celebrating our precious girl!!

Oh my goodness, I cannot believe this day came so quickly. I promise I was just walking into the hospital to deliver this little love! And now she’s here and beautiful and sweet and ONE.

Almost. 😉

I had so much fun decorating for a baby girl’s birthday! Most of what I used I already owned. 😉 My sister-in-law made the adorable cake and cupcake signs, I made the cake and cupcakes and sewed the little pennant banner out of the same material that my mother-in-law used to make Eisley’s blanket. And of course we had to have roses and sparkles and lots of pink and pearl necklaces – all of which I picked up at either the Dollar Store or the dollar section in Michael’s. 😉

This was my favorite part of the decorations – although, I did get extra teary hanging all those up – every month picture that we did with Eisley. She has just grown so fast!

Some of our sweet party guests who weren’t eating or brave enough to play outside in the cold. Thankfully, it was a warmer-ish day so most of the bigger boys went straight outside to throw the football around and play basketball with the dads.

Birthday girl during her song – love this shot of her.

Ha! She went right for it! She was really unsure about it and I think everyone’s reaction kind of freaked her out a little bit, but it was SO cute to watch her. She just kind of poked at the icing the rest of the time.

Sweet little baby girl!

Such a fun, wonderful day! We are so thankful for all the friends and family who came and celebrated Eisley with us. We had the best time!

We have spent the week getting ready for a certain little girl’s first birthday party tomorrow and confession time, I am a bawling mess over here.

HOW is she about to turn ONE?!

We are having her party about two weeks before her actual birthday because we are going to go see Jon’s family in California right before her birthday and this was the only weekend that really worked and didn’t interfere with holiday plans. Bless her heart. She is going to HATE her birthday someday. I told Jon we just need to set the precedent now that we will always have a non-Christmas themed party and we will always do ONLY birthday stuff and never Christmas stuff on her actual birthday. So, we are doing our very best to start that right from the beginning!

Checking out her birthday party cake in the oven. 🙂 Oh, how I love this tiny girl. She has just become my little shadow and tries to be such a “helper” lately. She wants to watch everything I do in the kitchen, everything I do in the laundry room and she will sit by the bathroom counter and just watch me put on makeup or curl my hair. It’s so cute. 🙂

While Eisley and I were working on her cake and getting the house ready, the boys were outside in the freezing cold constructing a beaver dam (because beavers are VERY common around these parts of the middle of the city, just so you know). 😉 Nathan came in and asked for a “trough of water” for the beaver and I definitely said no, because I could just imagine that scene, and he immediately says, “Well, then there is just going to be a DEAD BEAVER here tomorrow because beavers need water to SURVIVE.”

I guess this is my official apology to all the dead beavers out there. Sorry, guys. I chose dry children and a non-ice-skating-rink backyard over your lives. RIP.

On this particular weekend, I wasn’t feeling the best, so rather than trying to work during the kids’ rest time on Saturday like I normally do, I decided to just lay on the couch and watch a movie. Jon was doing an open house, so I told Nathan he could watch with me if he wanted to.

It’s Christmastime, so obviously I decided to watch a Christmas movie. And I figured it was time that Nathan was exposed to possibly the most iconic Christmas movie ever:

White Christmas!! He LOVED it. He was so into it, it wasn’t even funny.

Ha! Once the other two were up, they were super into it as well. It was so cute. We watched it like four more times in less than two days. 😉

I came in from eating breakfast and found them like this. They were elves helping Santa deliver presents, Eisley was in the sleigh. 😉 So funny.

Every year, Jon and his big helper put the lights up! This year was our first year with a two story house, so that added an interesting new dynamic to the installation. We had to borrow a big ladder but it ended up looking great!

We are smack in the middle of Advent season and we are loving it! On this night, we were supposed to get frozen yogurt, but we opted for snowcones instead. 😉 Such a fun night! I love this time of year. Advent has become such a special family thing!