Two weeks in one.

Here's what we've been doing for the past 2 weeks. 

Cuddling by the Christmas tree. 

Tylen and Carmen live in Nebraska and they stopped by to visit for a few hours as they were in KC for a wedding reception. We loved having family in our home! 

I love these post baby stretches after nursing. 

The kids helped me make my favorite Christmas treat - dipped pretzels. 

We've been participating in light the world and serving each day in the month of December. We decorated Judy's door with notes letting her know we were thinking of her. 

I love staring at my babies while they sleep. So do my other kids! 

Our neighbors and friends from church have been so kind to deliver meals. We've had 3-4 meals each WEEK for a month now. I'm so grateful and want to do better about just showing up to serve others. Paul and Nanette, our neighbors, dropped off these cute Christmas cookies. When my parents were here, my mom made us several freezer meals. I snapped a picture one evening of a meal she made and texted her to say, "Thanks for providing dinner tonight. :)" 

My friend Meghan gave me this adorable Christmas sleeper that I love so much. Babies and Christmas are two of my favorite things!!

Since Aaron was still home for paternity leave, I scheduled us a time to go and see Santa at Bass Pro Shop. It was our first family outing. We went at 4:00 p.m. so it wasn't crowded. The Bass Pro here is huge!!

Visiting Santa - he was behind a plastic wall and wearing a mask, but the kids were still excited to tell him hi. 

December 11 was my birthday! Cheers to being 37! Austin bought me this little spider. We laughed as the spider rolled around the ground. 

We had waffles for breakfast that Aaron made and then the boys ran to school. I loved having Aaron home all day. It was his final day of paternity leave! As we were running some errands together, we backed out of the garage and Aaron noticed this BYU sticker on his Honda. We laughed for days and found two more stickers - on our mailbox and basketball hoop. We still don't know who was behind this funny prank! 

My birthday request was a peppermint milk shake from Chick-fil-a. My favorite!! We also went on a walk. Adelaide was so cute dressed up like a baby bear. 

I recently discovered a "Nothing Bunt Cakes" close to our home! My birthday request was 5 mini bunt cakes that we could all share. It was perfect! We had pizza and then watched our virtual Ward Christmas party on YouTube. Grammy and Grandpa Volk came also to enjoy the birthday festivities! I heard from lots of family members and friends. It was a happy birthday indeed! Angela and I dreamed up plans of celebrating our 40 birthday somewhere fun together. 

And more baby cuddles!

The boys have been asking me for weeks when I would go back to church with them. Austin was excited on Sunday morning when I put on my church dress. We have church for 1 hour and everyone wears a mask. I fed Adelaide right before church started and then we ran over to the church building. We only live 2 minutes away so we got there right as sacrament meeting started. Although we miss all of our regular Sunday meetings in person, it's really nice having a newborn and being able to run into church for an hour. 

Adelaide's first Sunday attending church in person!

I was extra tired after church so I took a long nap. I woke up to dinner prepared by Aaron and Grammy and Grandpa Volk here to decorate gingerbread houses! We used left over Halloween Candy and everyone was thrilled.

Here are the final projects - Austin's, Eli's and then Eleanor's.

She adores her little sister! Eleanor has picked up Adelaide a few times without me noticing. It's given me a heart attack. I love that Eleanor is so helpful, but we're trying to teach her that she needs to sit down and have help when picking up her baby sister. 

Austin's teacher gave him a book! Here are all the kids lined up. 

Eleanor helped me dip some pretzel rods for a cookie exchange my friend planned. Her job was to cover them in candy. 

The sunshine has been beautiful and warm the past several days. We get outside as much as we possible can. 

I can't believe Christmas is next week! 

Baby Blessing

My parents arrived the evening we got home from the hospital! It was stressful figuring out if my parents should even come - more people have gotten covid and I was worried about my parents coming from out of state as we brought home a newborn. Everything worked out in the end, although all of us felt confused at times about what was best. 

I did love having my parents here - my kids did too! We had a nice, simple Thanksgiving together. 

Austin snapped this picture of us! 

Aaron's birthday was on Nov. 24 and we loved celebrating him with a carrot cake! 

Aaron is now 33! 

Papa cuddles. Aaron got a smoker and smoked the Thanksgiving turkey. It was so tasty. 

With my parents visiting and Aaron's parents living close, we decided to bless our baby at home! We got permission from our bishop to share the blessing over zoom. It was a special memory to share Adelaide's baby blessing with so much extended family! 

It was a special day! We love our baby Adelaide Leona!

I'm grateful that Aaron felt the impression a year ago that there was one more baby to join our family. 

After the blessing, we had Thanksgiving dinner! I didn't do anything but set the table the night before. I was grateful everyone stepped in to make a delicious lunch! Per tradition, during our meal, we went around the table and shared what we were grateful for. I cried as I shared the gratitude I felt for this year - we've had family visit. Eli was home from school starting in March and our kids got to spend more time together. We loved swimming all summer. I felt like as a family we got to make up the time we were apart so much when Aaron was gone. I was grateful we moved last summer to KC instead of during the pandemic. I was grateful that Aaron got to work from home so much. I was grateful that Aaron's parents moved here. I was grateful that my parents could visit when Adelaide was born. What a blessed year indeed!

 After lunch, I took a nap and then we enjoyed some pie together. 

Cutest baby sister! After Thanksgiving, everyone cleaned and prepared to get our Christmas decorations up. I was having some recovery pain so I rested for days. 

Eli, Austin and Eleanor are so helpful with Adelaide. (Eleanor's a little too helpful at times!) 

My ministering sister dropped off a beautiful blanket for Adelaide and this headband for Eleanor as well as this lovely fruit basket.

Adelaide's first bath! My mom has the tradition to give all my babies their first bath! My mom had c-sections so I know she understands the recovery time. My mom played the piano and I'll forever be grateful for how she filled our home growing up with music. My parents gave us this Nativity for Christmas! 

The kids love checking on our baby in her bassinet. 

As I snuggle and nurse Adelaide, the kids love to be close to us too! 

We love enjoying all the Christmas specials online this year. 

We went on a walk! Sunshine and fresh air are great for the soul.

This Christmas is already magical with a new baby in our home.