December 10

Lily slept in her crib last night.

She only slept there for an hour, and it took Chris an hour to get her to sleep, but still. It was huge progress.

As I type this, Lily has been asleep in her crib for nearly two hours. I fought all afternoon to get her there, but it happened, and I am ecstatic. It's especially great because Chris was gone all evening, so he wasn't here to wear her in the Ergo all night. It was a hard-fought victory, but somehow I managed to make dinner, get the children to eat it, eat my own food while it was still hot, make cookies with the kids, bathe all three kids, get Caleb and Daisy to bed by 8:05, AND get Lily to sleep in her crib by 8:30 - all by myself.

In a few months, I'm sure this will be no big deal. But tonight? It's a huge victory.

But other things happened today, too. 

The best part?

Our annual Christmas Tree Hunt!

Work schedules meant that we had to go today - on a Tuesday - instead of the weekend. We missed out on seeing Santa, sampling yummy goodies, and riding the tractor. But we had the place to ourselves, and it was so much fun!

Do you remember that last year, we announced that we were pregnant with Lily on the Christmas Tree Hunt? No? I'll refresh your memory:

But that was last year. This year, sweet Lily went on her first Christmas tree hunt!

And here she is - the baby who was just a little twig last year is now two feet tall!

Daisy refused to have her picture taken, but Caleb cooperated: 

He was proud that he was as tall as Santa's thumb.

Jenny loses everything (she has one lone glove in her pocket - hasn't been able to find the other for years), but somehow she's managed to keep track of that hat I knitted her many years ago.

Daisy was a bit cold, so she stole all the snuggles she could find. I don't blame her - it was in the 20s when we went out!

Caleb with his Caleb-sized tree. Isn't he darling?

He wanted to haul it off all by himself. What a big boy he is!

OK, so the tree is a bit bigger than Lily. We cut it so that it was almost Lily-sized. 

I love the look on her face: "This is ridiculous! What are we doing?!?!"

It's called tradition, kid. Get used to it.

You can't really tell, but Caleb helped Chris cut down Lily's tree.

I'm pretty sure this is one of the cutest pictures ever of Chris and Daisy. It's right up there with this picture of them from 2012:

(See that blog post by clicking here.)

But back to now. 

Aren't we cute?

Aren't Emily and her boys cute?

Isn't our whole family cute?

(Don't mind Max. He tends to scowl at me when I attempt to photograph him. I wasn't even behind the camera and he was scowling!)

Grandma and Grandpa with all of their grandbabies!

(I have no explanation for Caleb's pout. Or for Lily's.)

Lily got lots of Grandpa snuggles.

Love it!

(This may make it on our Christmas card. We'll see.)

Lily and Jace happened to both be wearing bear suits. Aren't they darling?

All in all, a fun day. And now Lily's awake. But two hours in the crib is progress, and I'm happy with it!