Happy 5th Birthday, Abigail!

It's hard to believe, but our 1st "baby" turned 5 yesterday!!!  How fast these 5 years have gone by!!!

 

As always, Abigail's birthday falls right in the middle of the Christmas season.  We try our best to make it as special as we can for her!

 

Last Wednesday, Abigail celebrated her birthday at school.  She wanted to do it before she turned 5...not after she was already 5!  :)

 

Bringing her bday treat to school

Abigail filled out her birthday form by sounding out her words!  Her favorite food is chicken nuggets with ranch.  Her favorite colors are purple and pink.  Her favorite toy to play with is My Little Pony.  When she goes outside, she likes to play with her soccer ball.  Her favorite book is Madeline.  She is really good at tap dancing.

Celebrating at school

 

On Friday night, we had our annual Kiddie Festivus with our friends.  Auntie Nay Nay had a cake and present for her.

 

 

 

Saturday was her actual birthday.  We started the day off with birthday donuts.  She was very excited to celebrate her birthday with her family. 



A new "cool" Barbie that swims from Aunt Julie, Uncle Joe, and Lucy.

 

Abigail's cake she designed.

Sparkle boots!!!  She got tons of great gifts including lots of cute dresses, skirts, and leggings, clothes for her American girl, a new coat that matches her American Girl coat, new games including a Princess one that the girls love, and an MP3 player and docking station.  Oh, and a new guitar which was the big hit!

Happy Birthday to the big sister!!!!

 

Our 5 year old rockstar!!!!!

 

Happy 5th birthday, Abigail.  You are blossoming into a sweet, smart, caring, beautiful little girl.  You love books and have begun to read words and sound out your words when you write.  You love dancing and gymnastics, but are very excited to start soccer this spring.  You love to sing and dance.  Baby dolls and princesses are your 2 favorite things to play with.  Your favorite show right now is Good Luck, Charlie on the Disney Channel.  It's the first "not-cartoon" show you like to watch.  Caitlin is your "best friend"  You. guys love to play pretend where Caitlin is the brother and you are the baby sitter!  :)  You are an amazing big sister.  You are always giving Libby kisses and singing to her.  We love you so much!  You make us so proud to be your mom and dad!!!!!  Happy 5th Birthday, Babe!!!  Love, Mommy and Daddy

Making A List..and Checking It Twice

As a kid, you can not wait for Christmas to get here.  That is definitely the case in our house.  The girls have advent calendars, chain link countdowns, and as kids in 2012 would have, I PAD countdowns going!

 

However, as an adult, I wish the days would slow down. I absolutely love the magic of the Christmas season and wish we had more than 6 days left until we have to wait a whole 'nother year.

 

In the wake of the horrific ordeal at Sandy Hook last Friday, my Christmas priorities have quickly changed.  I had planned on Christmas shopping most of this weekend.  However, every time I was about to head out, one of the girls would ask me to watch a Christmas movie or do a Christmas activity with them...and that just seemed so much more important.  So we may have a few less gifts under the tree....but we have spent some great quality time together.  One night after dinner, Abigail asked if we could look at Christmas lights..so we all piled in the car and drove around the neighborhood looking at lights and singing Christmas songs in the car.  Another night we watched Christmas movies and ate popcorn. 

 

Sunday, we celebrated Christmas at the Glure Christmas party.  Fun was had by all...

 

Libby met Santa for the first time.  This picture melts my heart...and is being framed!

Abigail with Santa

Caitlin's reaction to Santa was mixed.  She was happy to "see" him...but the second he called her name to get her present, there was LOUD screaming.  She cuddled with Uncle B for a while and appreciated her present...but not Santa!

Patrick met Santa for the 1st time!!!!!

Every year, the number of kids gets bigger and bigger...3 "newbies" were added this year!!!  Libby is sleeping in Santa's arms!



And apparently a Christmas party wouldn't be complete without a little "Gangnam Style"...they said they were doing it for the kids, but I spy 5 adults...and 2 kids!  Abigail definitely got into it!!!!
 

 Thank you Glures for another GREAT Christmas party!!!!!!  We are very excited to celebrate Patrick and Libby's 1st Christmas together!

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On Friday, I had a Christmas luncheon at my work. Libby decided to come with..and looked as cute as every in her Christmas dress!

 

 

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The girls made Christmas cookies.  Caitlin used a whole thing of sprinkles on her first cookie...I apparently need to supervise a little better!  :)

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Making their gingerbread house.  They actually did a GREAT job...they did all the candy by themselves!  I love this picture!

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"not a creature was stirring...not even a mouse....."

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Last night, we decided to check out the living windows.  The Nutcracker was performed in the store windows in our local downtown area.  It was really cute..there were for girls dancing in the windows.  We decided to make it a girls' night...thank you Grandma and Nana for coming with us!  It was a fun night of dancing and hot chocolate...and I can't wait to go back next year!

 

Their "favorite" ballerina

Watching the magic of The Nutcracker

 

We are definitely in the Christmas spirit in our house.  In fact, Caitlin came downstairs this morning (with her reindeer from Build-A-Bear in her hand) and her first words out of her mouth, even before good morning, were "Do you know the Rudolph song?"  However, we are switching gears today because Abigail is celebrating her 5th birthday at school today.  Then tomorrow and Friday we are back to Christmas with both girl having a Christmas performance at school...and then Saturday back to birthday day with Abigail turning 5!!!!  We are definitely staying busy around here!

 

Birthday pictures to come!!!!

3 Year Old Updates

 

Well, I know Caitlin's been 3 for over a month...but she just had her 3 year appointment!

 

So here are some Caitlin Bug Updates:

 

*At 3, Miss Caitlin is a 26 lbs.  Even I was surprised...she doesn't seem so itty bitty, but she is!  :)  She's obviously not on the chart for weight!

 

*She's 3 feet, 1 inch tall...she's at the 45%.

 

*She LOVES preschool.  She is in love with her teachers, Mrs K. and Mrs. Kurtz.  She knows her colors and shapes.  She LOVES to write and color.  She's only in the 2 year old class, so she has 2 more years at her preschool (which makes me so happy because I get 2 more years to teach with her in the classroom next to me) but her teacher lets her do a lot of the older kid stuff.  She is writing her name as well as cute people (the proof is on her white dresser, where she drew people all over it with crayon.  I need to clean it, but it's just so darn cute...although don't tell her that, she got in big trouble).

 

*She goes to speech once a week at the local school.  Now that she's not at speech at our house, I don't really know what they are working on, so I'm not able to help her as much as before.  Hopefully this summer I'll be able to find a private speech therapist who can work with Caitlin (and me) so I can be part of her speech more.  However, she continues to make progress.  S and C are the 2 sounds we are working on...she asks for "taks" (snacks) and "toe" (snow) for Tismas (Christmas)....but with cues, she's able to self-correct!  :)

 

*She loves to dance.  She is starting her 1st ballet class in January.  Her and Abigail have to be in the same class because of their age...so I'm sure Caitlin will hang by Abigail.  But I can't wait to see her dance because she loves it.  She still loves to "Irish Dance" and we are hoping to sign her up for the summer and see how she does!

 

*She loves Abigail.  She repeats everything Abigail does.  She wants to dress like her, talk like her, play like her, etc.  Yet, she's very independent and can play for hours by herself.  She's very into baby dolls right now.  Babys and Playdough are her most requested activities.

 

*Caitlin is in a funny "no pants" stage right now.  As soon as she can get them off, she's happy!  She also is in a crazy stage where she strips out of her pajamas whenever she's sleeping.  Bizarre I know, but she's a character.

 

*She makes us laugh all day long!  She is the sweetest little girl, yet she has an uncanny ability to get us so frustrated.  She is very stubborn, and sometimes she'll cry for hours if she doesn't get her way.  It is amazing to me how long she will keep it up without giving in.  Yet, I know this stage too will pass!

 

*She is our Caitlin Bug and we love her so much!!!!!!

Reading her birthday card on her actual birthday.

Wow!  New Elmo Pajamas!

Birthday Party at school.

Notice her crowns.  She had to wear 2 all day!  :)

Singing Happy Birthday with her friends.

Happy Birthday to our sweet, sassy 3-year-old, Caitlin Elizabeth!!!!!  "We love you MOST" (Whenever I tell her Good night and I love you, she'll say, "I wuv you too mama" and I'll say "I love you more!" and she'll say "I wuv you MOST!")

12*12*12

 

12*12*12

Happy Due Date to our sweet Libby!

 

While 12*12*12 would have been a great due date, we are happy you decided to come when you were healthy and ready...and we got 2 1/2 extra weeks with you!!!!

 

Updates on Libby:

 

*At her 2 week appointment, Libby was up to 7lbs 1oz (was 6lbs 11oz at birth). She is around 15% for weight...our first baby to make the weight chart!  Our pediatrician (who has been our pediatrician since Abigail was born) was laughing at how she's the first Wennerstrom who is on the chart).

*Obviously from her weight, she's eating well.  She eats ALL THE TIME!  She is exclusively b.f. until I go back to work in a month..it's a lot of work but worth it. 

*Speaking of eating all the time..she really eats all the time at night.  Right now she sleeps A LOT during the day (eats about every 3 hours) but from 4pm-7pm she eats like every 30 minutes.  And then from like 11pm-4am, she eats every hour.  It definitely doesn't leave a lot of room for sleep or time to get errands done when Rob gets home from work...but this time will go so fast, so I'm still enjoying it!

*Libby's height is 20.3 inches (up .3 inches from her birth height) and is at the 45%...the same as Caitlin always is.  So I think she'll be the same as Caitlin, tall but not too tall.  I think Abigail will definitely be the tallest, but things can definitely change!

*Libby is still a chill, go-with-the-flow type of baby!  She gets dragged with for preschool drop-off and pick-up, errands, Xmas shopping, etc!

*She rarely cries, but when she does, it's CRAZY loud!  Insanely loud.  She's got quite a set of pipes!

*She doesn't have a lot of nicknames yet.  I just call her Libs.  Rob calls her Lib-a-saurus.  Abigail calls her Libby Frances.  She's very formal!  Caitlin calls her "it"...."It's crying!"

*She has fit into our family perfectly!  Life seems quiet and like something's missing when she's upstairs sleeping...we all miss her!  We can't wait to celebrate her 1st Christmas!

 

Libby often sleeps with one eye open!

 

Libby at 1 week old

Libby posing!  She definitely got the Muskovich shoulders!  I can tell she's got my arms...which I'll take because she's really all Rob other than that!

 

Happy Due Date, Libby Frances!  The past 2 1/2 weeks have been fairly smooth and full of joy!  There is not a better fit for our family than Libby...she is definitely our Joy of this holiday season!

Christmas Time

Christmas Time is here...and so much fun!!!  We have been really enjoying having this time at home to celebrate the Christmas season!!!

 

We went a few weeks ago to get our tree.  We "sold out" a little and got our tree at Costco instead of our usual Christmas Tree guy "Beaver" (yep, real name)...but hey, it's still a real tree!!!

 

All decorated!

 

Both girls had a chance to put the star on top!

 

Last week we brought our letters to Santa's mailbox.  Santa luckily has a mailbox in our town's park district building.  Any day the girls should be getting their responses from santa!  Here are there letters (since they sent them)...

Caitlin told me the words and I wrote it..although she did her name all by herself!!!!

Abigail sounded her letter out all by herself!  She's really doing great at hearing the sounds!

 

"Dear Santa

I love you

I want a dream light and a"

 

"stuffie please.

Dear santa,

I just want 2

things.  Love, Abigail

Wennerstrom"

 

Also, we got our Xmas cards out this week.  They are trumping our Birth Announcements...but we haven't had Libby's pictures taken for her birth announcement yet...so those won't be going out until January.  We took some pictures one night after bath time when the girls had their new Xmas pajamas on.  (Abigail was with me when we picked out their Xmas pajamas.  I had "footie" pajamas in my hand, but she saw ones with tu-tus on them and really wanted them!  So, tu-tu Xmas pajamas it is!)

A cute picture that didn't make the card!!!!  I loved that they happend to have the book "The Xmas Baby"..such a happy coincidence!!!!  Libby has her first tutu on too!!!!

 

So, Christmas is in full effect...and we love it!!!! Last weekend after we got the girls in their pajamas, we surprised them with taking them to see Xmas lights.  We had hot chocolate ready to go in the car too!  We went to this cool place called Mooseheart...you drive through like 2 miles of Xmas lights and decorations.  It was the perfect activity to do with Libby because she was cozy and warm in the car!  We probably won't be able to do the Zoo Lights this winter...so this was perfect for us!

 

Still to do on our agenda:

Gingerbread House

Xmas Cookies (my favorite day)

Finish shopping (although we are almost done)

Xmas party at the Glures

Xmas Kiddie Festivus with our friends (gonna be a crazy night)

Xmas/Newborn pictures

Xmas concert at school

 

(PS...I really dislike when people use Xmas instead of Christmas...but I'm to tired to type that word that many times!.)

 

Updates coming tomorrow on Libby's 2 week and Caitlin's 3 year doctor appointment!

 

THANK YOUS!!!!!

We have so many people to thank...but wanted to take the time to thank 3 special people who helped us out tremendously while we were in the hospital! 

When we took the girls to their big sister class at the hospital  (1 week before Libby arrived), they asked us who would be watching the kids...and we told them it would be a "game-time decision".  It really depended on the day, time, etc...

We are so grateful for everyone who watched the girls while we were in the hospital!!!

Grandma and Grandpa came over and stayed the 1st night at our house and kept the girls all of Saturday.

Nana and Papa who had the girls Saturday night and all of Sunday.

Aunt Julie (and Lucy) who came all the way out to our house to stay with the girls Sunday night and most of Monday!


Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!!! 

Plus a special thank you to Nana, Papa, Grandma, and Grandpa who watched the kids numerous, numerous times throughout my pregnancy for my ridiculous number of doctor appointments!!! 

We are so grateful to have family surrounding us!!!!  Thank you again everyone so much!!!!!

And of course, a picture because all posts need pictures!!!

Heading Home

I have so much to catch up on...and it has nothing to do with having a 3rd kid.  The transition from 2 to 3 has actually been fairly smooth (knock on wood).  The transition from 1 to 2 was much, much more difficult.  However, it's the Christmas season that is keeping us busy.  I was so sick and miserable the last few months that I felt like Abigial and Caitlin missed out on a lot, so I don't want them to miss out on anything for Christmas.  So we've been busy getting our tree, decorating our house, writing letters to Santa, getting gifts, etc.  Pictures to come, I promise!!!

 

But first...taking Libby home!

 

Actually, we'lll start with the name.  When she was about 12 hours old, we finally decided on her name.  She was down to 3:

Libby Frances

Frances Sylvia (would have called her Frannie or Francie)

Charlotte Frances  (would have called her Charley)

 

We ended up polling some family and friends through texts, and decided on Libby.  It was my favorite name too, so I was happy other people liked it!  

 

We really wanted to find a way to honor ourgrandmothers (we would have loved to honor all 4 grandmas, but Frances Sylvia Regina Matilda Wennerstrom would have been a rough name) but we decided to just use one name and it still honors ALL our grandmas who were very important to us....which is Frances, who we always felt had a little bit on "influence" on Libby coming to us.  It was one of the last things I told my grandma Frannie...and I think she sent us her!

 

We struggled because Libby is short for Elizabeth, and I LOVE full names and don't love nicknames...but we didn't want her to be Elizabeth because of confusion...so we just went with Libby, althought she sort of got her mommy's name, which is cool!  We already get "What's Libby short for"...but that's okay!  (Random funny story...the rumor going around my preschool is that Rob served in the military and we named her Liberty in honor of Rob's service...have no idea where that one came from).

 

(P.S. Abigail and Caitlin, if you are ever reading this and wonder what your names were almost:  Abigail, we were between Abigail and Lily for you..no middle name ever until you were born.  Caitlin, we were between Caitlin and Samantha, but always Elizabeth for your middle name...and we actually liked Libby for you but didn't want to use a nickname at that time, which we obvioulsy changed since then.)

 

Okay, a lot of nothing...but now, onto the last day of pictures.  Because Libby was born at 12:30 am, we were able to choose if we wanted to stay one more day or not, and I'm really glad we decided to stay because it gave me more time to recover, which was definitely more difficult with less platelets :)).  Here's our last night in the hospital...and taking Miss Libby home!!!

 

Libby with her giraffe from Nana and Papa.  I'm obsessed with giraffes for Libby!!!  You will see lots of them in pictures in the next year!

Our "board"

Libby's first football game..Notre Dame clinched the national championship!  I think it means she'll go to Notre Dame!!!

Libby's "crib"...nameless!  :)

She had a really rough 1st night...and slept like this on my bed the whole next day!  I slept like this too!

It's time to go home!!!!  So little in her carseat!

Ready for the ride home!!!

Pop the bubbly from Aunt Julie when we got home!  (And her giraffe sound machine from Auntie Mo Mo, Uncle B, and Patrick!

Even though she was only a few weeks early, we didn't get ANYTHING ready..we knew we'd have time once we got home.  It was great cause the girls helped Rob put it all together and felt like they were really part of the transition!

Swaddled in her new blanket from Aunt Julie, Uncle Joe, and Lucy (which is awesome).

Swinging Away! Thank goodness for Libby's Aunts (Lia, Nay, Katie)..not sure which one of the girls this swing came from, but we are so grateful!  Our carseat is Auntie Lia's too!!!!  And our bouncer!!!  We had gotten rid of everything, so we are so lucky for great friends and family to help us out! 

Our little angel

Checking out the new swing!  It's fancy!!!

Getting ready to go home from the hospital..it was the first time we saw her in real clothes and we couldn't get over how darn cute she was!!!!

Swaddled in her blanket from Aunt Katie and Vern...it's so adorable!!!!! 

 

So now we are up to her coming home!  Her first week at home was awesome.  Rob was off so we were able to tag team between Libby and the older girls!  Abigail and Caitlin seem to be doing great so far with the new transition.  Our schedules are off a little...but they like that I'm feeling better and able to be up and about again...so they are happy!

 

I will blog about Christmas soon!  This year we are really focusing on the meaning of Christmas!  I'm trying my best to take the "commericial" out of Christmas...and focus on the giving of Christmas and spending time with loved ones!  They each asked Santa for only 1 or 2 things and when they tried to ask for more, we talked about giving to others.  So they each picked a name off the local Christmas tree and are getting presents for others in need.  Our girls are by no way "spoiled" so I want Christmas to be super special to them and full of presents, but they also don't "want" for anything, so we want to teach them the meaning of quality, not quantity!  We'll see how that goes for us!  :)