The Lamb Family: November (barely) and December 2014

November was the month that disappeared. Somewhere between the excitement, nausea, gratitude, sleepless nights, normal life, excitement, secret-keeping, nausea, throwing up, excitement, weight gain, excitement, and and survival efforts - November came and went with almost no proof. Except there was this:

So that's a good reason to keep November in the title, cuz THIS HAPPENED! YEA!!!!! After another nearly two-year infertility bout (can I call it a bout? Why yes I just did, haha), we were blessed with another beautiful blobby little lamb-chop-on-the-way. We couldn't be happier. And believe it or not, we would be thrilled with another girl. TRUTH: no two human beings are alike. So four girls are still four unique experiences and people. We knew this before but now we KNOW this like our own name. We would love to have a boy too - just another unique person with all its parts is a HUGE blessing that we will be elated with! And in that spirit, we didn't find out the gender at our 20 week ultrasound, haha. What's the fun in that? The torture it inflicts on other people is just an added perk, haha. Boy or girl - June 8th will be a great day for us.

My birth announcement idea was an "epic fail", as they say. It was a great idea I was copying, but my lack of energy and get-with-it-ness combined with our busy day and mother nature's early sunset tanked it without a second thought. Here's the proof:

So close . . . but yet so far, ahahaha!

A major November highlight - Mitch surprised me for my bday with a trip to AZ for Time Out For Women with my family! It was a quick trip but was an absolute blast! And I managed to keep my pregnancy secret somehow even though I had been so so sick leading up to the trip. Love these ladies so much and wish I saw them all the time! I should have taken more pics but we were just having too much fun!

Here's a random Sunday walk-to-the-park day pic - best buddy Avery with June, Ruby, and Suz. We had a beautiful fall.

The rest of the month was a blur, except Thanksgiving. Here are a few highlights:

Susan as the cutest pilgrim.

These two getting ready for church on their own - BIG DAY!

Sharing our wonderful news with our offspring via a scavenger hunt. They were elated and some, we won't name names, teared up.

Telling our extended family via Instagram. Aren't we hip?

And onto the one and only December! Always a memorable month!

Picking out our first live tree was as neato-frito as you'd imagine it would be.

Also, I don't want to forget this, but my older girls wrote the funniest Christmas letters so I had to capture them. Arden asked for "Beats by Dre" - haha - which for those unfamiliar are some $200+ headphones - I have no idea why she wanted them or where she heard about them, but that made us laugh so hard. Susan's list changed a little, she added a Russian doll, haha, she's pretty random too;) But I loved how locket, so sweet.

Decorating Christmas sugar cookies with the Winders!

Arden and Susan's Christmas Choir concert was awesome! They did a beautiful job and knew every word and note.

Best buddies!

More best buddies!

The up-and-comers:)

And onto Juby's preschool program! It was so cute! They are such sweet little performers singing and dancing and smiling away. Love their excitement for school. They LOVE their class and teacher.

Darling reindeer checking each other out:)

The girls with their teacher and her helper.

Love this cute group!

Christmas was amazing this year! We had the Rigby cousins up for the week and that pretty much made our Christmas. We couldn't ask for a better gift than time with these funsters!

Christmas Eve started off with a bang when we surprised the kids with a trip to the Polar Express! They were super excited - we all were!

All Aboard!

We planned the trip with some of our best friends the Allen's and the Beckstead's - the kids had a blast together!

Arden and London

Everett and Susan

The Beckstead crew

Tess and Ruby

Chris, Liz, and cute Elise

Me and June bug

She's in awe

The kids talking to the Big Man

The aftermath . . .

The Elves (Edna and Marco) made a special delivery while we were gone!

The kids in their new jammies - thanks Elves! Minus June, she ended up with a 103 degree fever and started on a two-week virus and subsequent ear infection. Poor thing! She was a trooper though and joined us later in the evening.