December 8 = Yearbook Day

First here's a picture of Malia in her comfy state:

And here's a picture of us in the Naval Academy yearbook- they came out today... this is from last Halloween when we went trick-or-treating in Bancroft Hall.

December 7 = Ultrasound Day

Here's another baby bump picture:

Here's a picture of the little one!

And here's a picture of my other two little ones- holding hands- they love each other so much!!

December 5 = Chickfila Day

Malia and I went to Chick-fil-a for breakfast this morning because, why not?

December 4 = Plum Day

Baby's the size of a plum!  And that's all I have to share with you because I've been really bad about taking pictures!

December 1 = Wreck Day

I took a nap this morning.  I woke up from my nap and looked at my phone and had 3 missed calls from my husband as well as some texts and a voicemail.  The texts said: "I got in a bad wreck.  Please call me.  I'm stranded out here."  Sheesh.  He actually was fine and texted that to freak me out.  His car, however, not so fine:

November 29 = Dentist Day

I had got to take the kids to dentist today by myself.  Note to self: don't ever do that again.  I only got two pictures because it was a nightmare.  Malia enjoyed playing with this... whatever animal this is, and its toothbrush and that was the highlight of the trip.

I was rewarded for my rough morning by getting to go to a Moms' Night Out with my MOPS group tonight- we went to Muse Paint Bar.  Part of the evening is getting to drink wine while you paint but since that isn't an option for me, my complimentary drink was a sprite- pretty good!

Here's the progression of my painting:

No clue what I'm going to do with it but I like it!

November 25 = Pout Day

I can't remember what this was about but look at this pouty face!!

Also, look at these skills:

One of my Christmas presents that was delivered today was a Bocce Ball set.  I used to play this game with my family at my grandparents' house all the time.  It's meant to be played outside but it's cold so Zachary and I played several rounds- like played for hours- in our living room after the kids went to bed.  It was a blast!!

November 24 = Zachary's Birthday and Early Christmas

Grandma and Dops came up to visit us this weekend for Zachary's birthday so we decided to go ahead and do Christmas gifts since we won't be traveling to NC and they have to be close to home for Christmas eve service and Christmas day since it's on a Sunday this year.

Here's a hat Zachary got but that Malia promptly took as her own:

Malia's a big fan of the tree.

Here's her dress-up stuff from Grandma and Dops- she tried to see just how many pieces she could wear at once:

She wouldn't stay still long enough for me to get a picture of her in her pretty Thanksgiving dress- this is as good as it got:

And here's Liam and Zachary in their matching Christmas presents:

November 23 = Christmas Decorating Day

Well this little baby keeps growing...

Zachary has decided our new family tradition is going to be decorating for Christmas the day before Thanksgiving.  I for one am a fan of celebrating Thanksgiving by itself- giving it its proper time- but I'll let go on this one.  So here's Liam checking out our tree:

And here it is put up:

Here's Malia helping me with the nativity scene:

And now it's time to put lights on the tree- Zachary made me help just once so we could say I did help... 

but Malia was the real star here:

Yay!  It's all done and the lights work!

Here's Liam and Dops doing their own thing:

Malia found the Rudolph nose- she's a fan!

November 21 = Monkey Hat Day

Nothing to really say about today but...

November 18 = Picture Day

I had this ingenious idea for Matthew and Grace to start a photography business together.  They've thought about it before but I had an idea to help them to get started.  I asked if I could "give away" a mini session at my MOPS meeting and then they could create a sign-up sheet to see if anyone wanted to pay for one.  They got five paying customers in addition to the one give-away winner.  They used my kids to test the lighting and setup and I got them to take a picture of me in my new "mama bear" shirt to put on our Christmas card!

November 14 = Sleepy Day

Malia fell asleep on the way home from the gym:

Also, these:

November 13 = Biden Memes Day

I have a new favorite thing.  Biden Memes.

My kids also have a new favorite thing:

It's called "shove as many toys as we can out of the tiny crack in the door we can make with the lock on the top just to make a big mess."

Also, my other favorite thing is Malia saying "where are you?"  I tried to get her to say it on this video but she wouldn't but there's some other good stuff on this video:

November 12 = Lazy Saturday

Daddy's watching football so we're together in our opposition but too tired to do anything about it:

November 11 = Play the Drums Day

Liam created this setup all by himself:

November 9 = Cat Day

And for some levity- here's two cats fighting over a heating pad.  A not plugged in heating pad.

November 8 = Election Day

I was so motivated this morning.  I got up early, unloaded the dishwasher, made the kids' breakfast, got them up, dressed and both in the car ready to take Liam to the bus and then Malia and I were going to leave from there to go to the grocery store.  We are in dire need of a grocery store trip.  I get to the bus stop, get Liam out of the car and we stand on our little spot.  And I notice no one's outside at the other bus stop.  And I think... does he have school today?  The answer is no.  He did not have school today.  So I broke my rule of NEVER EVER going to the grocery store by myself with both kids because as I said, we were in dire need.  And it actually wasn't that bad.  I took this picture of the kids in the little car to remind myself that they did a pretty good job.

The day started off just peachy.  I was excited that we were probably going to elect our first female president... I sent this to my family group text all emotional...

And then read this and realized I wasn't alone:

And then I just casually went about my day... saved some FB pictures...

And eventually we settled in to watch history happen. 

Excuse the language but this is exactly how I felt:

The results were not coming in as I would have liked but Facebook was telling me to remain calm...

And then it got a little scarier...

But Zachary wasn't worried...

Love both Matt Nathanson's and Jen Hatmaker's comments here: 
 

Yeah...

Then it got even scarier...

A little humor...
 

And then this...

Thankfully my brother was up and sharing the election day jitters with me since my husband was passed out.  

So it didn't go my way.  And as a military wife I'm scared.  I get that people don't like Hillary- they think she's a liar and a stereotypical career politician.  This whole scandal with her emails really did her in.  I don't think everyone quite understands what classified emails are- she wasn't forwarding the nuclear codes to anyone- but I get it, I get it.  What bothers me is I feel that President-elect Trump ran on a message of hate.  Of shutting people out, turning people away, condoning violence against people who don't agree with you.  I didn't hear a lot of policy from him- I heard lots of vague promises and lots of inflammatory language.  I'm not saying everyone that voted for him support his message of hate.  I get that some people vote for specific issues and will pick the candidate whose views align with theirs the most on those issues.  I was super impressed with his victory speech and maybe, just maybe, he said and did all of these things because he knew he could win with it and now he'll get serious and everything will be fine.  But his temperament scares me.  So hopefully it was all an act and he's calm, cool and collected and he won't declare war over something silly.  Let us pray.