One more funny

This afternoon I was getting dressed (hey, it's a day off!) and I was putting my socks on. I was looking at my toenails and holding my big toe (really not sure why...) and Addie came up and said, "Oh no, Mommy! Do you have a piggy-ache?"

Just couldn't resist

Addie came up to me a few minutes ago, cradling her new Leo doll. She said, "Mommy, Leo is sick!" I said, "Oh no, baby, that's terrible! What's wrong with Leo?" She said, "He has a tummy-ache. He better go poo poo in the potty VERY soon."

Merry Christmas!

We have had a wonderful Christmas day today! We enjoyed Christmas at home this morning, then went to Mimi & PawPaw's, then to Gran & Pop's, and then to Nana & Papa's! We were exhausted by the time we got home, but we wouldn't change it for the world. We are so fortunate to be able to visit (almost!) all of our family in one day!

Here's a few pictures from today, as well as a couple from earlier this week. We hope everyone had a WONDERFUL Christmas with their families!

Ready for Mimi & PawPaw's Christmas Party on Sunday

Addie & Holland opening their gifts from each other


Addie enjoying the rolls at our annual Logan's Christmas Eve lunch :)


Christmas morning!
(Thanks, Nana & Papa, for the great jammies & slippers!)


Addie checking out her new camera


Santa brought Addie a set for her baby dolls which as a highchair, swing, stroller & pack 'n play - she is in LOVE!


At Mimi & PawPaw's with her new Leo & June dolls
(and still in her jammies :))


Mimi reading Einsteins to Addie!


Kiddie table at Gran & Pop's


Deep in thought...


Checking out her new jewelry box and wearing a new hoodie
(Think she's wearing enough patterns?)


Getting a photography lesson from a professional (Uncle Nate!)






June helped drive us from Gran & Pop's to Nana & Papa's house
(Addie was NOT excited about this and reminded us that "June's too little to drive!")


To go with the giraffe from last year :)


Addie in yet another shirt and eating what was probably her 50th piece of candy for the day.

Merry Christmas! Thank you SO much to all our family for the wonderful gifts, and more importantly, for the time we got to spend with you. We are sad to have not gotten to see everyone, but hope to see you soon if we missed you today! We love you!!!!

No pics, but...

I had to post a couple of Addie's funny sayings from this week before I forgot...

Daddy: "Great job going potty, Addie! Do you want a marshmallow?"
Addie: "Actually, Daddy, I want a cookie."

(Who knew you could bargain with bribery? And the word "actually" cracks me up every time!)

Yesterday, John Michael was trying to get Addie ready for a nap, so he started moving her stuffed animals to the edges of her (big girl!) bed. She started jumping on the bed and said, "Look Daddy! Everyone's watching me!"

A little drop of milk from the top of the carton got on the countertop, so Addie said, "Oh no, Daddy! You made a big ol' mess!"

John Michael was taking toast out of the oven and ever-safety-conscious Addie said, "Whoa - be careful, Daddy! Those are very hot!"

There's plenty more, most of which are potty-related, but in the interest of hoping my daughter will want to speak to me at SOME point during her teenage years, I'll leave those off the blog. Hehe.

I LOVE HAVING A TODDLER! Tantrums and all. I just can't explain how happy it makes me to have little conversations with her. She is so cute and so smart! I'm so happy she's my baby girl.

Our newest "nephew"

We are so excited to announce that our very dear friends, Lynn and Kris, are now the proud parents of two beautiful boys!

Kristofer "Quinn" D'Amico arrived at 8:20ish a.m. on December 16, 2008. Quinn weighed 8 pounds, 8 ounces at birth and is just a CUTIE!! He has a head full of dark hair just like Holland did! We are so excited to watch him grow and thrilled that our newest babies will grow up together, too! When I held him on his birthday, Landon went crazy kicking. Lynn and I decided that Landon was saying, "I'll be out in a little while, buddy! Can't wait to play!" :)

Congratulations, guys! We love you!

Baby Quinn (about 5 hours old)

Pretty mama, pretty baby!

Baby Boy

We've decided on a name (although don't go getting out your embroidery needles just yet :))!

Baby Boy will likely be named...

Landon Matthews Corn

Matthews was John Michael's grandmother's maiden name, and Landon...well, we just like it :)

Addie "reading"

Seriously? Three posts in one day!


Yep, she's totally on the potty. How much is she going to hate us when she's a teenager?! Eh, it's worth it!

First snow and getting ready for Christmas!

We were SO excited to get our first snow on Thursday night! I (along with the weather men, apparently) had no idea it was coming. My boss called from downtown Nashville and told us to keep an eye on the roads because it was really coming down. My co-worker and I went outside to see it, and sure enough, it was gorgeous! I didn't think anything of it though and decided I'd head up to class. After all, the weather reports insisted there would be NO accumulation. I called my mom who was at our house with Addie and asked her to turn on the news to keep me posted as to whether school was closed - no report. I stopped for a gourmet Taco Bell dinner (hehe), and on my way back to the car through the parking lot, I noticed it was sticking to the streets, so I decided I did NOT feel comfortable driving to school. So I called my mom and told her I'd be home in about 45 minutes (figuring that a drive that normally takes me 20 minutes would take about that long due to rush hour and the weather). I'll skip all the terrible details and just say that it took me THREE HOURS to get home. The roads were just HORRIBLE and there were at least two accidents that I was aware of. Cars were slipping and sliding all over the place (including mine!) and although there was the normal amount of people just not knowing how to handle the weather, a lot of it I don't think could really be helped. It was a mess. BUT, I made it home safe and sound. The funniest part? The whole time I was in traffic, the weather reports were still saying there wouldn't be any accumulation. Hilarious. But, apparently there wasn't much in Nashville - they never did cancel classes so I had to take an absence. BOO. All said, I think Franklin got nearly 3 inches, and we had almost 2 in Spring Hill.

On a very bright side, Addie's school was delayed by 3 1/2 hours Friday morning, so we had a nice relaxing morning as a family. It was SO NICE! We went out for breakfast and took it easy until 10. Ahhhh...I'm already looking forward to the next snow day, but hope I'm already at home when it hits. Phew! We didn't go out and play this go-around - we need to stock up on some snow clothes first!

We've also been getting ready for Christmas here and I CANNOT believe it is in less than two weeks. True to form, we still have nearly all of our shopping left to do. I have my case in moot court next weekend, so I've been working on that. Okay, who am I kidding - I do this every year, and this year's no exception! We're hoping to start our shopping tomorrow - that'll be ten days til Christmas Eve. Look at us go!

Hehe - a tantrum (I don't remember what it was about). I just thought her hair was TOO CUTE!



John Michael and me at my parents' house before his company Christmas party. We had so much fun! Thanks Mimi & PawPaw for keeping Addie!!


Addie & Holland watching Little Einsteins in their monkey jammies!



Showing off the monkey jammies in front of the (bare) tree


I'm not saying I'll be disappointed if they don't get married, it's just...



Addie swiped Mimi's reading glasses and Daddy couldn't resist taking a picture



Our side yard & fence in the snow Friday morning


View from the patio (I think - JM took these :))


Sweet Hops in the snow



Addie adding an ornament to the tree
(how great is her outfit?! HA!)

Santa, Take Three

This year's Santa visit went a little better than last year's, thank goodness! Of course, I must admit we cheated just a little bit. Santa suggested that I sit in a chair in front of him with Addie on my lap and then they'd zoom in so it looked like she was sitting on his lap. Genius! It was almost like he'd dealt with screaming kids before or something ;) She did great, and even told him she wanted "baby dolls" for Christmas. I was glad to hear she'd at least temporarily gotten away from her obsession with wanting a kitty cat. Hehehe...

No smile, but we'll take it :)

Thanks, Lynn, for the PhotoShop boost! (Addie's bow had fallen down, and you could see my pink sweater - Lynn fixed these things for us - woohoo! Perfect photo!)



Last year's:

And her first visit:

So it looks like we were somewhere in the middle this year - hooray! I can't wait til next year, when Baby Boy and Addie are there together! YAY!

Here's a few pictures of us before & after our Santa visit:

Do the boots make the outfit or what?!? :)


Mommy looking a little rough, but Addie looking like a DOLL BABY!



"I LOVE MY TEDDY BEAR!"

I got tagged!

Okay, I have like 5 things to post about, but in the meantime, I got tagged by Amber so I thought I'd do this right now instead :)


Okay, here are the rules:


1. Choose the 5th picture folder on your computer.

2. Choose the 5th picture in that folder.

3. Tell us what's going on in the picture.

4. Tag 5 people to do the same.

Okay, I'm not sure exactly what is going on here - but it was from the "Addie August 2007" folder, so Addie was 15 months old. I miss my little paci baby!!!!

I'll tag anyone else who wants to play!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! It has been nice and relaxing, but we've gotten a lot done. We started out Thursday by heading up to Gran & Pop's house in Millersville. It sure was good to see everyone, and most everyone was there. Addie officially sat at the kiddie table instead of in my lap or John Michael's. I think it surprised everyone that she's gotten that big! :)

Afterwards, we stopped off at Mimi & Pawpaw's to swipe some of their leftovers (hehe) and visit with them and Cici. Addie was quite full of herself and she and PawPaw had fun reading Curious George. She gets so into her books - it is so funny! She loves to ask PawPaw, "What's George doing on this page?"

Friday morning, we started looking online to see if there were any Black Friday deals we couldn't do without :) We weren't overly moved, but did decide to look into getting a new tv since we've been talking about it ever since flat screens came out. We've always talked ourselves out of it, but thought we'd go hit the Circuit City in our house (which is closing, so everything is on sale) to see what we could find. We finally gave in! We're super excited. It will be installed tomorrow!!! I'm looking forward to getting our huge tv cabinet out of the living room and hopefully feeling a little less claustrophobic (since we know the toys aren't going anywhere anytime soon ;)). So that was our Christmas present (and birthdays/anniversary/etc. for the next few years - ha!) to each other.

We started decorating for Christmas yesterday and I'm SO EXCITED! It just makes me so happy. Decorating did turn into about 2 hours of yard work yesterday, because we realized we needed to trim our bushes to even make it worthwhile to put lights up outside. I have to preface this by saying that I do NOT do much yard work. Generally speaking, the inside is mine, the outside is JM's ("decorating"-wise, that is). But I got out there and cut down and pulled dead flowers for the afternoon and decided that that is my new job each year. It was quite therapeutic! Plus, our beds look SO much better! I wonder if we'll get a reverse-nasty-gram from our homeowner's association, since they're so quick to point out when something looks bad. Maybe they'll compliment us?! HA HA HA!

Anyway, I think today we're going to get some more decorations and also head to Home Depot to pick out swatches for Baby Boy's room. HOORAY!

Oh - one last thing. And I'll probably jinx us for putting this in "print," but I'm pretty sure Addie is nearly potty trained. She's been in panties with no accidents for a little over a week now. HOWEVER - we're still having issues with poopies. It seems like she's holding it until we sit with her and have to coax her into not being afraid to go in the potty. ANY SUGGESTIONS?????

Hehe.
(I know, we're mean)


Ready for Turkey Day!


Seriously, guys, LET'S GO!


Rare opportunity that she'll be still enough to have her picture taken with me.


Kiddie table!


Goodbye hug and kiss for Cousin Emme
(Emme calls all her dolls Addie - CUTE!)


"What's George doing on this page, Paw Paw?"

And this is the bedding we bought for the baby (gotta LOVE Target clearance!!!!!!):

Catch-up

So it's been a couple of weeks, and we're getting so excited for the holidays already. We've been busy and been having lots of fun (and also I've been studying a lot for a midterm, which wasn't so fun...). We celebrated Addie turning 2 1/2 a few weeks ago by having Lynn, Kris & Holland over for dinner and a half-cake. I can't believe that TWO AND A HALF years have passed since our sweet baby came into our lives. She is just the light of our lives and our little stinker. She is saying and doing the funniest things. She is also very caring and generous (only at meal times - not with her toys :)). I love having conversations with her and am amazed at how much she is comprehending!

Last weekend, we enjoyed a day with Nana and Papa and also got to see Uncle Nate! Nana & Papa travelled to China for two weeks and we sure did miss them. Addie enjoyed catching up with them for sure! And of course, seeing Uncle Camera-Head is always fun. We can't wait to see him (and Aunt Rissa!) again soon at Christmas.

This past weekend, we had a fun visit from my friend Marci on Friday! It was so good to catch up, even if it was a short visit. Addie had fun playing with her new microphone and JM and I got to add another friend to our "We Can't Wait Til You Have Kids and We Get to Pay You Back With All the Noisemaking Toys In the World" list. Hehehe...

On Saturday, we celebrated the upcoming arrival of Baby Quinn (Holland's baby brother) by having a "sprinkle" for Lynn. The theme was "stock the freezer" and I think we all had a great time! Lynn & Kris will hopefully not have to worry too much about meals once the new baby is here. Plus, it is always fun to get together with good friends - which we carried over into Saturday night by having our good friends over for JM's ribs! Mmmm...

Another fun thing is that yesterday, John Michael and I celebrated our TWELFTH anniversary. Yep, we have been together for twelve years! I can't believe that the cute boy who sat in front of me in European History turned into the love of my life! I am SO very blessed to have him as my husband and best friend, and have realized that even more lately. I find it so hard to comprehend that I have someone being so supportive of me as a wife and mom, always encouraging me and keeping me calm when I think things are getting to be too much for me. I sure can't imagine making it through school without his support and that of our families. I've had a few very emotional times this year so far (let's blame it on the hormones, shall we? :)) and he always knows exactly the right thing to say. I won't even get started about how great of a father he is. We'll save that one for Father's Day in June. :) ANYWAY, I'm getting teary writing this (again, hormones) so I'll just sum it up by saying that I LOVE YOU, John Michael.


Picture time!

It may not have been the most beautiful, but it sure was YUMMY!


Mommy, Addie & two-and-a-half candles!


First try with her new Chinese outfit - maybe not so much!


Helping Papa feed the birds


Serious business, this bird feeding...


A little better. We'll keep trying :)


(Not the best of Addie, but it was cute of Marci :))