Merry Christmas!

Hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas this year! We were very blessed this Christmas, and really enjoyed spending time with our family. We started celebrating on Thursday night when Jen, Chris, and the girls came over. My mom also flew down on Thursday, so we had a fun get together.

Addy has figured out what the big deal is about presents this year, and couldn't wait to open them! The kids exchanged gifts and were very pleased with what they unwrapped!

Addy got a microphone! Completely made her day! She was so excited about it, and hasn't stopped playing with it since! She also got a princess sweatshirt. Mackenzie and Katie both got drawing pads and some craft projects. I think the drawing pads were their favorites!






Friday was a relaxing day for us. Steven and I were both off work! We made cookies after breakfast, Addy played outside on the swing set, and Steven and I ran a couple errands. While we were gone, Grandma and Grandpa got Addy dressed, watched Addy and her singing bear do a lot of singing into the microphone, and played some more. Then when Addy went down for her nap, Grandma & Grandpa went to visit with my aunt and uncle, and then we ended the evening with a Christmas movie! It was great!







Gosh, we look kind of sad watching the movie, but it wasn't a sad movie! We were watching The Search for Santa Paws. A cute Disney Christmas movie!

Saturday, Christmas Eve, Steven had to work until 3:00 pm, and while he was doing that, the rest of us hung out around the house. Addy played and some Christmas presents got wrapped. Just another relaxing day! Once Steven got home from work, we snacked on some of our traditional Christmas Eve finger foods...meatballs, little smokies, sausage, cheese, and crackers, spinach dip, and ham wrapped pickles! Then is was off to church for our candle light Christmas Eve service!

After we got home from church, we took a few pictures and then opened presents!









Addy is really into the Disney princesses now and dressing up, so she was thrilled with her Cinderella and Snow White dresses! She also got some puppets, a new baby doll (that we were hoping would resemble a boy as much as possible!), ornaments, and high heels for playing dress up! She also helped the rest of us open all our presents. She loved it!

Christmas morning we lead her upstairs, Snow White dress on over her pajamas, to see what Santa brought! She was once again pleased with what she opened...princess figurines, finger puppets, a Memory game, a princess look and find book, princess shampoo, and new toothbrushes.






The puppets were a big hit! Addy wanted one on each finger. We love how she's using her imagination and making up conversations between the puppets!

Grandma & Grandpa go home tomorrow, Monday the 26th, and then we're excited because Grandma E. is coming to see us on Thursday this week!

Weekend Fun

Steven came home Friday night from his week away for work. Saturday was fun for us since we got to hang out during the day, and then met up with our friends to see some Christmas lights and activities at their church.

Addy was excited to see Santa again! She told him the same thing she told the last Santa, she wanted Christmas trees and princesses for Christmas.


There were a couple horse drawn carriages that we could've ridden, but the line was too long. So we just took a picture with one of the horses! Addy was quite excited about the horses and wanted to ride them. Maybe another time!


The kids really enjoyed the inflatable slide. They would've spent the whole evening on it if we would've let them! They didn't mind one bit that their little fingers were frozen!



Then the moms took the kids on a hay "sleigh" ride.


After that, the dads, along with Rex's Mimi, took the kids on a little train ride.


The church had several stations set up for hot chocolate and apple cider. Addy liked the apple cider. Come to think of it, I don't think she tried the hot chocolate because I was drinking the apple cider and she was sharing with me!

We got a couple family pictures, and then it was time to go!



Another fun evening, thanks to our friends and their church!

On Sunday, Steven had to go back to work. Addy and I went to church and then picked up Grandpa L from the airport. Grandpa L came to spend the week with Addy since Ms. Wendy went on vacation. Grandpa got to see that Addy is indeed a normal 2, almost 3, year old! She immediately started to push her limits and test us to see what she could get away with and if we were going to be consistent! She learned very quickly that the rules didn't change because Grandpa was here! :)

She entertained Grandpa all week, I think! From the sounds of it, they both had a lot of fun.

4 Days On Our Own

Yup, Addy and I had 4 days/nights on our own while Steven was out of town for work last week. Let me just say, I am SO glad that is not normal for him! We missed him like crazy!

While we were on our own, I wanted to make sure Addy had some things to do that we don't really do all the time. And also wouldn't create a huge mess!

One night she decorated a gingerbread house. She loved it! We bought a kit that already had the house assembled, so all she had to do was decorate it. The kit came with the frosting and some hard candies, but I got out some chocolate chips, red hots, and fruit loops (per Addy's request) as well.





I think she ate as many chocolate chips as she put on the house! She did such a good job, though. The only thing I did was help her spread the frosting. Other than that, I gave her a couple ideas on where to put some candy, but she placed the candy on her own.

Of course, after eating and decorating the gingerbread house, she had a bit of a sugar high! She spent probably 45 minutes dancing and running around the living room. Then it occurred to me to get some of it on video! At the end of the second video, she was asking me to put music on for her.




This picture makes me laugh. I used to have a stool in our kitchen when I was a kid, and I often stood on it to watch t.v.!


The next night we made some cookies. They are some of Steven's favorites, and Grandpa L.'s, too. Grandpa L. was coming down on Sunday, so we wanted to have some for him, too.




Addy's job was to roll the dough for the first round of cookies (we put the peanut butter cups in those after they came out of the oven), and then she rolled the second batch in sugar. Don't worry, we washed hands A LOT while making these! I kept catching her eating the dough! Of course as we unwrapped the peanut butter cups and kisses, she kept asking if she could eat them! I let her eat one of each, and then we each ate a cookie when they were all done! In case it's not clear, Addy has a sweet tooth just like her mommy! :)

28 Weeks

We had another ultrasound yesterday, and everything is looking great! Baby Boy is still growing and keeping up in the normal range. He weighs 2 lbs 5 oz and is in the 16th percentile. His heartbeat was 135 beats/minute. They've "released" me and said that I won't need anymore follow up ultrasounds unless there is a different concern down the road. As much as I love seeing our little guy, that is really great news!

We were also able to schedule our delivery date. I'll be having a c-section, so we scheduled it for Friday, March 2, 2012! That is, unless Baby Boy has other plans! Next year is leap year, and I'm just hoping to avoid February 29. :)

Steven is out of town for work this week, so I asked Addy to take my 28 week belly picture. She did pretty well!


The "practice" pictures she took before this one included a close up of my rear end, a few angles of the kitchen, and the floor! She was so proud to be able to help with the picture this time!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Last weekend we started our Christmas decorating! It's so exciting this year for Addy, she LOVES looking at Christmas lights as we drive around and LOVES seeing Christmas trees all decorated! There's a small tree lot that we pass all the time and it has a tent set up with bulb lights around the lot. Every single time we pass it, Addy says, "It's the circus"! We try to tell her they're selling Christmas trees, but she doesn't believe us!

And Santa. Oh my. She doesn't really get that he brings presents on Christmas, she just sees him as a character and gets excited about that! She kind of thinks of him like she does Mickey and Minnie.

So, Friday night Steven got our tree out that we've had for 8 years, and plugged it in. And it looked like this:


The whole middle section of lights were out. Some of them were out last year, too, but not this many! Steven spent a lot of time replacing individual bulbs because this was supposed to be a "smart light" tree where one bulb wouldn't make the whole section go out. Well, we realized that we'd either have to add a strand of lights to the middle section, or replace the tree. So, we decided to go out and check a few, or 5, stores to see their selections and prices of trees. That was after researching a bunch of online options. And we ended up with a new tree from Hobby Lobby!

Saturday, Addy and I worked on putting the ornaments on the tree. And she loved every bit of it! She was so sweet and gentle with them. And so proud of how she was helping to decorate the tree!



Of course, she put everything at her eye level! When I asked her if she wanted some help putting some ornaments a little higher, she said, "sure". So, we did get some spread out over the whole tree! And melt my heart, when we pulled out ornaments that were given to her as a baby, I'd tell her who gave them to her. For example, "This one, Grandma E. gave you for your first Christmas". She'd reply, "Oh, thank you so much. I love it"!

After lunch I told her we could put her Christmas dress on and go get her picture taken with Santa. She said, "I'll look like a princess, and Santa will like my dress"! I asked her if she was going to twirl for him, and she smiled big and nodded that she would.

The line wasn't very long when we got there, maybe 6 or 7 families in front of us. Each time someone would go sit with Santa, she'd ask, "Is it our's turn yet"? She was so excited! She did really well waiting patiently:


Then it was finally her turn! She walked right up to Santa and told him her name. And then she twirled for him! It was so darn cute. She sat with him and told him she wanted Christmas trees and princesses for Christmas! Then it was time to take the picture. She's at the age right now where I can just tell her to smile big for Santa and look at the camera, and she will. Well. The photographer's assistant got it the way of that plan and kept going up to Addy with a stupid squeaky toy saying, "I'm gonna get you"! Addy just kind of looked at her like, "what are you doing"? I interrupted her and said, "It's okay, you don't need to do that. She'll just smile if we ask her to". Well, too late. I think Addy was too distracted to give us a nice, normal smile! They snapped 2 pictures, and this was the best of the 2:


It's fine, I just wish the assistant would've saved her squeaky toy for the kids who DON'T want to sit with Santa and need a distraction!

After we got our picture, Addy helped me pick out our family ornament for this year. Then it was time to go home for a nap!

Saturday evening Mackenzie and Katie came over to hang out with us while Chris and Jen went to a Christmas party. The 3 girls decorated our tree in the bonus room all on their own! And they did great!




Just as they finished decorating the tree, Ms. Wendy called and asked if she could bring us some dessert from their Christmas party! She brought us 2 plates of cakes and cookies!



On Sunday morning I got Addy dressed for church and I just thought she looked so grown up! I looked at her and thought, "She's just stunning"! I'm a little biased, I know, but look at her!


Sunday night, I realized that I really wanted to get a picture of Addy in front of our Christmas tree for our Christmas card this year. We got some really cute pictures, but here are some of the outtakes that I love!