Happy New Year!!!  Hope yours got off to as crazy and fun of a start as ours!  

  

 

What an awesome Christmas present!  Love you, baby Brevin!

On December 26th, one of my BFFs, Jaalisa, had her 4th baby boy, Brevin!  She waited to find out the gender until the birth and then had to be put to sleep for an emergency C-section, so she was the last one to find out in her family that it was a baby boy; Bless her heart!  This was Brevin’s first day in the NICU, but he is home with his family now, safe and sound.  I can’t wait to get my hands on him!  Jaalisa sends me a picture of him every day, and each day,  I can’t wait for it!  So happy for you guys!  What an awesome addition to your Bundle of Banks!!! 

  

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Nothing beats watching grateful happy kids experience freedom and joy on Christmas morning!  My prayer is that every child would feel as loved and comforted in the world.  We are so blessed, and I don’t take a single day with my angel babies for granted.  They are my Christmas gifts from the love of my life!  Aww…

A Christmas morning PondFam5 tradition!

 

Noelle literally dive bombed her couch, lol!

 

Noelle doesn’t get to wear make-up as often as she would like, but on Christmas day, she got to have at it (see beautiful pics below)!!!  Anna Kate was loving her new house shoes, wedding veil, Nemo doll, and “sparkly purple bike with training wheels.”  Yay!

  

“I GOT BUZZZZZZZ!!!!”  “NEEEEMMMMOOOO!!!”

 

 

The Monster Mash!  You will be seeing much more of these guys this year! 

 

Love the girls’ new monogram stockings from Santa!  One of my favorite finds this year were some vintage toys from Fisher Price for the girls!  I don’t know how I got lucky enough to happen upon them, but they are in perfect condition, and I remember ones like them so fondly from my childhood!  I plan on keeping these around forever!  (On the hearth behind Rose is the scrolling London Bridge and Row, Row, Row your Boat TV thingy, remember those?  If you don’t, come check it out!)

 

Lite Brite with Daddy and cuddles with Rara and Jax!  Love your new house shoes, Cutie Kate!  Rara, you are my hero, and you know all of the reasons why.  XOXO

 

Full speed ahead!  Our third girl asserts herself SO well and knows exactly what she wants!  Tell us all about it, baby Rose!

 

 

With much hesitation, Noelle decided to give her bike a try.  She was NOT a fan!  That girls rocks it out with trying new foods and tarantulas but has such a fear of falling.  Hopefully she’ll want to ride her bike, because Noelle can do whatever she puts her mind to doing!

I just remembered I bought helmets for the girls, but I have no clue where they are!  How did that happen!?!  Oops!

 

And off they go!

  

Next up was Christmas dinner and fun at Kay Kay and Grandpapa’s!

 

Anna Kate had bronchitis, but she was still so cute!  Noelle did an awesome job with her coloring/shading before dinner!  Kay Kay even had little appetizers for the girls; so sweet!

  

Love a spunky red-nosed reindeer in front of the tree on Christmas night!  Ta-da!

 

Thank you KK and GPP!  Anna Kate was beyond thrilled about her cash register!  She plays store ALL the time, so much so that her old cash register broke!  She was super excited, as you can see by her precious smile and dancing eyes! 

 

After opening lots of wonderful books, stuffed animals and a mouse house for Rose, Noelle got something she has been dreaming about for a long time: a new Fashion Portfolio from Justice.  These design books keep her busy for hours and hours, and the outfits she creates truly are amazing (I couldn’t think them up, for real)!  If you ever want to see some raw talent, come check out her books.  They are all filled up with beautiful designs!!!  So, he was fresh out of models and materials, and Kay Kay new exactly what to pick out for Noelle.  So cool!  And I love Anna Kate’s little hands showing off her new cash register in the picture on the right.  Rose was off playing with her mouse house.  (I’m giddy about how this Christmas post just ended with that sentence; so perfect!)

Thank you to all of our family and friends for making this Christmas so special!  We’ll hold all of it in our hearts! (and next year I’ll get a picture with me in it too, no matter what)

Let the celebrating begin!

Noelle (7), Anna Kate (4) and Rose (2)

Everyone loves when our puppy, Jax, comes for a visit!  He is such a good puppy!  (He’s really my parents puppy, but the girls don’t know the difference!)

Peppermints and Poppa

Noelle gave Rose a bouncy ball with streamers!  She knows her like no other.  This gift was so thoughtful and perfect for our 2 year old!

Scenes from Christmas Eve

Noelle gave Anna Kate a purple bracelet and ring that she bought her sissy with her chore money.  She picked them out all by herself at her school’s Penguin Patch!

Noelle drew pictures for Poppa and Rara the day of Poppa’s surgery, and they were from the heart!  On the back of the fold, they said, “Good will.”  She’s been saying that throughout this holiday season.  So sweet!  I’m not sure where she got it, but it fits.

Noelle gave me a beaded bracelet that spelled out “MOM” on it and a high heel shoe ornament.  She gave Mikey a magnetic picture frame to put out on our grill that says, “My Dad, King of the Grill!”  and a little pin in the shape of a blue hand with a finger sticking up that says, “#1 Dad!”  She worked so hard earning chore money ever since we’ve been home from Disney saving up for her family!

We asked Rose was she was doing with the Ariel placemats, and she said, “Ice skating!!!”  Where does she come up with this stuff!?!

On to pizza making, a PondFam5 tradition!

After opening wonderful presents from Poppa and Rara, it was Anna Kate’s turn to pass out her gifts.  Noelle taught Anna Kate all about the spirit of giving this season!  It was totally precious, and the most adorable memory.  Noelle told Anna Kate she would help wrap her presents if Anna Kate would go around the house and pick out what she wanted to give everyone.  I got a sweet picture of a tree, Noelle got her fashion portfolio from last year and Mike got a neon pink crayon holder.  His present was wrapped using 3 pieces of notebook paper, carefully taped together with a bow on top.  These were from the heart, and although some of the adults (uh hum) got really tickled as she revealed her re-gifted presents to us, it couldn’t have been more precious! She’s learning, and next year, she’ll get to shop at the Penguin Patch too!  If I had known she was doing all of this for us, I would’ve taken her shopping, but it’s truly more special the way it all worked out.

Next came gifts from my siblings.  The Banks family gave them Monters Inc. (which is right up our alley, check out Rose’s Santa presents below), and the Ebert family gave the girls gifts from their travels all over the world this year.  We have such sweet aunt, uncles and cousins (and great aunts too)!

Poppa gave Rara a cool life jacket for her new exciting lake contraption (pics to come this summer of that), and Rara gave Poppa a permit fish necklace from Belize.  Here are the girls in their African dresses/necklaces from the Ebert fam.  I can tell in this picture Anna Kate was not well, and her cough turned into bronchitis, but hopefully she is on the mend now that we’ve got medicine and the nebulizer going.  Bless her baby heart!  This picture is so sweet but makes me yearn for her to have felt better.

A picture is worth a thousand words… or a few pictures…

The Pond Princesses, Africa style!

Sprinkling reindeer food! (oatmeal, sparkles, and sprinkles)

Someone got her second wind when Poppa and Rara told her that she could spend the night with them at the hotel!!!

Thanks Aunt Sharon for the sugar cookies and ingredients to decorate them!  So thoughtful!  I don’t think cookie decorating would have happened this year without your help! 

Thanks for Rose’s sugar high, Poppa!  This is Noelle’s Christmas tree cookie made with love for Santa.  She said she likes sprinkles, so she wanted him to have some too!  As I tucked her in tonight, she made sure, her words “Santa Chuck Lee” was going to come help me with the presents.  Thankfully, I had just the answer I’ve always been searching for… Santa Chuck is our friend, and he will always be here for us when we need him!  Pretty wonderful.

Here’s Rose’s sticky hand and what’s left of her bell cookie!  I’m not going to lie, I’ve been pretty sick this December.  I can usually fake it till I make it… as in, you’d never know from the outside looking in… but I’ve almost killed myself trying to get well this year.  I could barely get out of bed Christmas Eve and again on Christmas day, which is not a norm.  But, I had my light-up Rudolph shirt on, and it was all about the fam bam!  A huge gigantic thanks to Mike, Rara, and Kay Kay for taking care of everything this year!

Santa was so random and fun this year!  I have to say, there is a little bit of everything mixed in, but we pulled it off!  Noelle’s couch is on the left, Rose’s chair is on the right.

Here’s Cutie Kate’s couch o’ goodies! 

 

Bikes, bikes and more bikes were the big gifts to the girls this year.  Noelle is deathly afraid of riding a bike, so we figured a diva pink fancy bike would help her over come her fear!  Anna Kate’s is purple (her favorite color) with training wheels and Rose’s is actually Noelle’s trike she got for Christmas when she was 2 (shhh…).  Having 3 girls has it’s pay-offs here and there.  After Santa and I finished up in the living room, I found this scene in my bedroom.  Rose had pulled Jax’s bed next to her pack n play (where she sleeps when she has bad dreams), and they were both out.  Best friends, conked out, side by side.  What a night!  Can’t wait for Christmas day!

Until I have time to post lots of super fun Christmas pics, I wanted to share this one of the girls being silly (themselves) and having fun!  The dresses are from Africa from the Ebert family!  I think this is one of my very favorite Christmas pictures of all time.  It’s just so us and so special getting to enjoy heart-felt gifts from around the world!  XOXO

 

   

Hope everyone has an awesome Christmas filled with lots of xoxos!