the birthday girl

As our little boy turns three months old, our big baby girl turned three years old! It kind of seems like yesterday she looked like this...

 

And now she looks like this!

 

 What a beautiful little birthday girl!

We started the day in a fun way. It was my last day before Christmas break, so since L had to go to school we wanted to make the morning special for her anyway. We covered the living room with balloons on the floor and told her our elf Walter did it. Of course he was looking very suspicious holding a few balloons himself...

We had such a fun birthday party for her. It was so low-key, but absolutely perfect. She got to be surrounded by her friends and family whom she loves like crazy! She was in love with all her fun presents, including a fun shopping cart, new golf clubs, high-heeled princess shoes, a microphone and a doll house, among many, many other fun things! We had a blast.

We ended the day looking through Laurelei's scrapbook. Instead of a baby book I kept a scrapbook of L's birth and first year. Each year on her birthday I plan to look through it with her, and we had a great time turning the pages together this year. She got such a kick out of all her baby pictures. She loves to say, "When I was little I..." and fill in the blank in hundreds of different ways. 

She is such a sweet heart. 

I love my little birthday girl. 100% a 'spirited' three year old girly girl, 100% mine. :)

three whole months...

My little Abbott is three whole months today. Three WHOLE months! How quickly time is passing. Abbott is such a joy every single day!

Here are some special things about our three month old little baby boy...

 

growing... I have a feeling Abbott is close to 12lbs now. He is coming to a close on his size one diapers, but I am trying to put it off as long as I possible can! He is starting to bust out of some of his 0-3months clothes as well. How is that happening?

new things...Abbott is still smiling all the time, but his coos are starting to escalate to close to a giggle! I cannot wait to figure out what makes him giggle for the first time. We have started sleeping through the night almost regularly, 10-6, mommy loves it! Abbott has also started to find his thumb, fingers, mostly his entire hand. He can be heard slurping in the backseat most of the time if he is awake. It's pretty hilarious. He doesn't seem to want to unroll those fists anytime soon though. His little fists are always clenched fairly tight. 

We still think we have about the happiest baby on the block. He smiles non stop and those precious smiles are oh so contagious. We love this sweet baby boy! Happy three months abby rabbit, you are really one of the two best gifts we've ever received.

Christmas Cards

We were soooo late getting our cards together this year. I had my design picked out and the pictures taken early, but actually ordering, addressing, and stamping all the cards seemed to take forever. It finally took the end of the school semester to get myself together and get my cards out. While they aren't my favorite cards of all time, I am really happy with the way they turned out! Our friend Jackie took these great family pictures and it was fun to show them all off on the card. I kind of hate that it wasn't a picture I took myself this year, but Jackie just did such a good job I couldn't resist her photos!

So, Merry Christmas from the Burlews!

 I always pick two because I just can't decide!

(sorry about the poor quality files, they are much better in person!)

Tell me it's okay...

That I am probably not baking Christmas cookies this year.

That I went out today in an old sweatshirt and sneakers, sans make-up.

That I am not going to get around to taking all those cute-pinterest inspired pictures I really want that I've seen on everyone else's blogs.

That the wrapping on my Christmas gifts is pretty much sub-par this year with just a twine bow.

That Abbott and Laurelei don't have a ton of cute Christmas outfits this and I haven't bothered dressing anyone up in much more than pj's and sleepers.

That we haven't opened any days on our store bought advent calendar. Nevermind anyway since Laurelei switched around all the verses before December 1st even came!

I need someone to tell me that it's okay that I intend to spend the majority of Christmas just soaking up the little smiles and many memories. Spending time with family and keeping up with only the most important traditions. All of the other stuff is just going to have to take a backseat. With all the rush in our life recently, I think my whole family needs this time just to exhale. To sit and play and be.

my miscellany

one. Today is the first day of sweet, sweet Christmas break. I am so excited to have two long and peaceful weeks at home with my babies! I am very thankful for a job where this kind of holiday vacation is built in.

 

two. Abbott is growing like a weed. A good weed, but an unruly, can't keep it small kind of weed none the less. We've watched one by one as all of Laurelei's friends and cousins have passed her in size. I am fairly certain this will happen with Abbott too. Would you guess there are three years between them looking at their size? It's ridiculous!

 three.  Laurelei is three! I cannot believe it. She deserves an entire post about her birthday, all to herself, so I won't spoil too much of the fun, but I still can't believe little bit is three whole years old!

four. I love this time of year. The past three weeks have been particularly perfect with sweet little Abbott in tow. I swear that two kids is just twice the joy. It is just ridiculous how happy I am! I watched White Christmas last night and just cried. I love this season, I love my family, I love Bing Crosby. It was great!

five. I have been on a definite dry blogging spell. Can't seem to work in the extra time at the end of the day, and that is okay. However, I know that I will be using this next couple of weeks to catch up on some memory collecting, so be warned. The amount of pictures of my family is about to get out of control, I'm fairly certain of that!

six. Merry Christmas week friends! yay!

{linking with Carissa at lowercase letters}

time

I don't really have a lot of time to post at the moment, but seeing as how this is the longest consecutive few moments I have to blog in what seems like weeks, I just wanted to reminisce on a few things.

Work and keeping up with life has been a little too much for me this week. I can't seem to figure out how to work everything in and still sit down at the end of the day before just completely collapsing into bed.

And today? Today Laurelei turned 3 years old. My sweet baby girl is 3 whole years old. Time is passing. Passing a little too quickly I might add.

 It's a funny thing, time. Some days can feel like an eternity in and of themselves, but just as you turn around, 3 years have gone in the blink of an eye.

Happy Birthday sweet Laurelei. You light up our lives with your sweet smile, spunky personality and every other little thing that is 100% just you. We love you baby girl.

Back to teaching and a thank you to Pinterest!!

 amen...

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Only one week back and I am feeling...like...what? I mean keeping up with two kids at home seemed like a lot, now I've got 20 more! I am having a great time, I really am, but when I saw this pin on Pinterest all I could think was...amen.

Here are some other pins that are making me smile again when I think about teaching...

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and my FAVORITE is...

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I just LOVE teaching clouds!

Thank you Pinterest and your education tab... :)

You can see the rest of my classroom pin board here. It is in need of even more inspiration. What are you favorite classroom ideas???