Visits With Family

Visits with family are always a bright spot in our day, week, or month.  Over Thanksgiving weekend we were able to enjoy a few visits with family (with very few pictures), and we are now getting excited to spend time with family for Christmas.

We first spent time with some of my family down in Virginia Beach on Thanksgiving day.  The weather was pretty nice so we took a walk to a park nearby to try and find some pecans for a pregnant girl we know who has been craving nuts lately. ;D

Chris was good at encouraging the nuts to fall from the trees:

And Addie really wanted to join him:

After spending a couple of days in Virginia Beach we drove back up to the DC area and spent some time with Chris' sister Marne` and her family.  We took the kids to a farm where they enjoyed looking at all the animals, investigating the farm equipment, and playing at the park.

It was great to see and spend time with family, we sure do love them all!!

Share a Laugh

The last little while has been a little difficult, for a multitude of reasons.  We've been blessed in the midst of seemingly great trial, but on days when those blessings aren't so obvious (or in my face) I've been thankful for moments like these, which I thought I'd share:

Addie walking around "blowing her nose" into the wipes she sneakily acquired:

(FYI, she is an "expert" nose-blower, but she sometimes does it unnecessarily, as was the case this day)

Addie deciding she wanted to try on a few shirts:

Playing in the tub of blocks:

Hiding under blankets:

These pictures were taken on different days (look for her clothing), some days she'll sit on the floor and cover herself in the blanket and then just sit covered up, and other days she'll cover up and then walk around, which is simply hilarious to watch.

Hiding on the shelving unit in our closet:

Can you see what she did?

How 'bout now?

Obviously, this isn't really a safe habit, but I had to keep from laughing when I found her.  I'd removed a load from the dryer and then went to get a load of dirty clothes to put in the washer and didn't know where Addie had disappeared to until I heard a little noise and peered into the dryer--she crawled into it by herself!!

When I...

• Almost start crying at the tire shop after seeing an On-Star commercial
• Want to eat hot dogs for at least one meal a day every day (after cringing at the thought of them literally all my life)
• Get mad at my husband when he goes to serve me green beans and tell him, "I can serve myself, I'm not a child," and then we both laugh uncontrollably
• Go from vacuuming a few times a day to once every few days (or weeks)
• Start looking forward to my toddler's naps so I can nap too
• Don't want to think about preparing or even eating food
• Spend a little time almost every day "worshipping" the "porcelain god"
• Begin to consider buying stock in Canada Dry Ginger Ale
• Spend a lot of time looking at my toddler's baby pictures to remind myself that it's all worth it
• Eat a lot of refried beans and cheese (sometimes on a tostada or tortilla, sometimes not)

I just might be...

Ok, let's rephrase that...






I AM pregnant.






(Yes, you've just been informed.  Oh, and we're 12 weeks along.)

Halloween!

I've been rather excited for Halloween this year.  It's probably mostly due to the fact that I have a toddler that I can dress up, but that's still fun in my book!

Our ward held a Halloween carnival on Friday, the 30th, complete with potluck soup dinner, various "booths" and trunk-or-treat in the parking lot.  We were pretty busy the whole time since we are on the activities committee and were responsible for the eat-the-donut-on-a-string booth, but we had a lot of fun with it.  Unfortunately, we were so busy we don't have any pictures of it.  Maybe next year?

As we were going to bed Thursday night I had the epiphany that we should dress up as a senior missionary couple.  Obviously, there's not much room for a third in that kind of costume, but if we end up with any experiences like we had while in Almaty, a bat could very well be the perfect third to our trio. (If you've forgotten why, here's your reminder.  And a side-note:  We later determined it had to have been a bat after seeing them fly at a nearby canal.)

Here's our little trio of fun at the Ward Carnival:

And a few more of that bat (when you ask her if she wants to go outside she quickly heads to, and up, the stairs!):

We had fun going around our block trick-or-treating Saturday night.  My mom came up to attend the temple and managed to stay (later than planned) and go with us when we ventured out.  It was a lot of fun watching Addie as we went to the doors.  She was much quieter than usual, but she knew what to do when homeowners offered their bowl of treats.  =D

About Hair

We occasionally have conversations about Addie's hair.

In case you hadn't previously noticed, we haven't done much to it in the past.  Apparently we were both rather bald babies, and Addie has followed suit.  I've been hesitant to cut her hair, because the poor thing doesn't have much of it!

At dinner today Chris somehow managed to bring up the subject of her hair again, and as has often been the case, words like "shaggy," "awful," and "mullet" were in the mix.  (Ok, I can't remember if they were in the mix this conversation, but they have been in the past...)  After dinner, Chris left to his LSAT prep course, and I decided to give Addie a bath and a haircut afterward.

I couldn't find the camera before, so here's the best "back" picture I could find, it's from September sometime.

I'll be honest, I was afraid of cutting her hair short because of a general fear of how it would turn out and a specific fear that it would make her look like a boy.  When you consider that I am only "experienced" in cutting Chris' hair--with a clipper set--you may better understand these fears of mine.

So, I tried to do a little "layering" action in the back that I've observed professionals do (I didn't want her to have a blunt cut after all), and this is how it all turned out:

I would like to thank my sister, Tori, my bff, Kara, and my bud, Bonnie, for all the haircuts and hair discussions I've had with them in the years they've each acted as my stylist and friend.  And I would especially like to thank my mother-in-law, Lisa, for teaching me that when you make a mistake you just hum: "Hmm...hm..hmmm."  It's much less distracting to a "client" than a gasp! =D

Costumes

I keep thinking about costumes for Addie's first real Halloween (I figure our being in Kazakhstan last year with no trick or treating, and Addie only being 4 months old doesn't count...).

I found this giveaway that is practically making me drool.

 http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2009/10/queen-of-hearts-and-alice-in-wonderland.html

The costumes are amazing and there would even be an amazing costume for Addie to grow into!!  You are all invited to link back to the original in a post on your blog on behalf of Addie. ;D  No seriously.

A Visit With Friends

A few weeks ago we were able to host the three children of my good friend Gladys while she and her husband went to the Washington DC Temple.  We were so glad they took us seriously when we told them we'd love to babysit their kids so they could go!  Chris and I had a blast and so did Addie!

Isabel, Danten, and Sam were very well behaved, so we had no trouble going from one child to four!

We went to a little walking area and played on some of the playground equipment.

 

Like usual, the kids really enjoyed the slide.

It was a lot of fun watching Addie observing the "big" kids and then trying new things because of it.  For instance, those bars that Danten and Sammy climbed on...

 

One of my favorite things was watching the way Isabel, Danten, and Sammy interacted.  They were usually very sweet to one another.  I didn't get the best pictures, but my favorite example of this was when Sammy got tired on the walk back and Isabel gave him a piggy back ride!  (The best part being that Sammy's not that much smaller than her.)

We were glad to be able to help Gladys and Daniel, and it was a lot of fun visiting with them before they got on the road to Virginia Beach.

If you come to the DC area, let us know...