Christmas Program

Sunday afternoon after Gibs' nap time, we quickly headed to my Buursma family Christmas party.  We had Layla's church Christmas program that night, so we were only at the party for just over an hour.  We had just enough time to quick eat and have the kids open gifts.

The babies ate too:)...

 Gavin and Layla with their gifts from Grampy and Gigi...

 Layla excited about her new puzzles and Gibs opening his new cars...

 He's been a little sleepy lately.  He isn't going to bed at night good like normal, he has been waking up early (like 7:15--not fun when you've been up with a baby in the night too!) and hasn't been napping as long either (like 2 hours or less, when he used to always nap 2-3 hours).  Not sure why he suddenly in the past week isn't sleeping good!!

 I tell him to smile and this is what he does...

 The whole crew...

It seems so weird that we have a child old enough to participate in the Christmas program!!  She often does not like going up front in church for children's messages (which we have before she gets dismissed for Young Children's Worship--like Sunday School during the service), so we weren't sure how the program would go, but she did great!  She only sang some of the words and did some of the motions, but we were really proud of her!  The other week she cried walking up front and the lady giving the children's message put her on her lap while she led the message.  Yep, she is THAT kid:).  She loves teachers right now (and really loves the lady that was giving the message that day) so it'll be interesting to see how she does with school next year--she'll probably be the girl that loves hugging her teacher all the time:).

 We didn't get great seats since we didn't get there all that early and our camera isn't good, so this is as good as the pics get...

 Gibs didn't want to pose with the girls when we got home...

 This is what I get when I ask them to pose together, not sure why Layla is tipped over, normally she LOVES posing for pics...

 I told Gibs he'd get candy if he smiled and he did, but of course my camera didn't catch it:(...

 I feel like I don't have any nice pics of him smiling b/c he most of the time just runs away from the camera:(.  Here they are enjoying their candy:)...

Greta's First Pics

Welcome to the outside world Greta!

I was able to hold her right away which was nice (I was able to hold Gibs too, they just had to check him out first)...

Dad holding Greta for the first time...

Uncle Steve and Auntie Heidi came to the hospital to meet her that night a couple of hours after she was born...

They took our first pic together with her...

In the nursery...

The kids came Saturday morning to meet her.  Greta got them each Mr. Potatoe heads as a gift:).

They were both excited to meet her, but Layla was more excited than Gibs.  He right away held out his hands to hold her like he saw everyone else doing (like he thought he could just hold her standing up on his own like everyone else...I don't think so buddy:D).

I look exhausted and full of fluid, but this is the first pic of our family of five...

Me and my girls...

Grandma and Greta...

Grandpa and Gibs with Greta...

Auntie Rachael and Greta...

Gigi and Layla with Greta...

Gigi with Gibs, Layla and Greta...

Grampy and Greta...

I love their little backs of their heads...

Holding Mommy'd finger...

 Meeting cousin Harper!

 You can tell by the size of her cheeks that Greta was only born 2 weeks early and that Harper was born almost 6 weeks early:)...

 Proud big sister:)...

And a loving big brother (sometimes a little TOO loving!)...

 That night before Layla left to go sleep at Grampy and Gigi's she left "Dolly" with Greta.  She said she wanted her to sleep with Greta.  It made me a little sad to think of her giving up "Dolly", but once we were home she has reclaimed "Dolly".  I have to admit that I'm happy about that--I'm not ready for her to be that big yet that she no longer needs her lovie:).

 She borrowed a headband from Harper for her hospital picture...

 It was different for us to have our baby in the hospital room with us.  Honestly, I thought we'd be a little bored (but obviously happy to have a healthy full term baby that could stay with us!), but it was kind of nice to just relax in between visitors.

 Ready to go home!

 It was strange, but great, to be able to take our baby home when she was 2 days old!  Our other two have come home on a nice 3 hour schedule and understood the difference between night and day before coming home.  She, on the otherhand, did not understand that at 2 days old.  She was up quite a bit the first night, but thankfully has done better since then! 

 It was strange to come home to a quiet house.  The kids were still at Grampy and Gigi's when we got home.  We enjoyed the quietness while it lasted:).

 Layla right away wanted to hold her again.  She has been a GREAT big sister!