All good things must come to an end

I can't believe it, I have less than 2 weeks left until I go back to work.  These past 10 weeks have gone by too fast.  It is going to be so hard to leave my little cuddle bug.  On a happy note...Mackenzie is all smiles these days and such a mama's girl (which I love!!)  Of course it probably has more to do with me being the food supply lady than anything else.  I'll take it while I can though!  We went to Mackenzie's 2 month check up last week and she was 11 lbs 2.5 oz and 22 inches...50th percentile for both.  Just a couple of feeding issues we've had to work through, but all in all she's a very good baby.  We've discovered that Mackenzie has a milk protein intolerance which is the same thing Sophia had (yeah, seriously...must be something in the genes).  Luckily it seems to have been milder than Sophia's and I caught on to it a lot sooner, so the good news is I have been able continue breastfeeding by cutting all dairy and soy out of my diet.  The bad news is I had no idea how many things have milk in them!  On the positive side it's forcing me to eat more fruits and veggies :) 

We had a very busy Christmas this year.  Grandma and Grandpa Herbst made a big move back to Wisconsin just before Christmas, so we stayed in town and celebrated Christmas Eve with the Herbst family.  This was the first year we actually woke up Christmas morning in our own house.  We put out cookies and egg nog (or as Sophie and Andy call it "Santa Milk") out for Santa and sprinkled reindeer food out again this year.  The reindeer left Sophia another jingle bell  this year.  We started a tradition to take the jingle bells the reindeer leave us and add them as ornaments on our tree.  Christmas morning was fun...Sophia got to open her presents, Mackenzie's presents, mommy's presents, and daddy's presents...needless to say she was a happy camper.  After presents we finished packing up our car, got the girls ready (Andy and I had the pleasure of a 6 am wake up call to make sure we were ready for the day) and headed to Peoria for Christmas with my family where we celebrated at my grandma's and then my mom's with the Christmas celebration culminating in our annual Christmas game night competition.  I am happy to announce that Kiki and I reclaimed our title this year....it was a nail biter folks.  It was a whirlwind couple of days but we couldn't have been happier with our first Christmas with our 2 girls. 

Here are pictures from the last several weeks.

 First Snowman of the year...Andy and Sophia got a little creative with my frosting color sprays :)

 Making Christmas cookies...

 Christmas Eve with the Herbsts...

The family just keeps growing...celebrating 2 first Christmas's in the Herbst clan...here with Steve, Andrea, Roman and Gianna.

 

 

 Daddy and Sophie putting out food for Santa's reindeer...

 Going out to get the jingle bell that the reindeer left on Christmas morning...

Mackenzie hanging out in her new giraffe chair.  I think she likes it :)

Sophia was SO excited to get her own camera...she loves taking pictures. 

 Being silly with Mackenzie's headband...

 

 Mackenzie: "Waaaaaa"; Noelle: "Hey kid quiet down you're ruining my shot here"; Sophia: "Oh man is this my life now?  I miss the good ole days"

 

 

"But mom I thought I was your baby.  Why did you have to bring this other creature here?  I really don't understand this...she is seriously cutting into my cuddle time." (Backstory:  This is Bailey.  She is a sweetheart and loves to cuddle, but is especially attached to me.  I seriously think this cat believes I gave birth to her.)

 Having fun at New Year's

 

Here's to an awesome 2013!

This is what happens when you ask and almost 4 year old to keep an eye on her sister for a few minutes while mommy and daddy get dinner ready...

  

I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised when this is the babysitter...

 

 Good night!