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 :))

For Kristin...

...who is currently in Germany and probably won't see this for a while anyway :)






These were taken last Sunday at 22 weeks along. I need to look for a comparison picture of when I was pregnant with Addie at this time, because Baby Boy is lying SO MUCH LOWER than she was, which is causing me to kind of waddle already! It's crazy. I guess the old wives' tales are true ;) We are doing well and he's still a nighttime mover! He's been getting the hiccups a lot lately and it always makes me giggle. His movement almost takes my breath away. It feels like that feeling you get when you're on a roller coaster and your stomach kind of goes weightless. I don't know if that's the best description, but regardless, it's weird...and very different from Addie's movements! I am admittedly surprised at how different the pregnancies are, although you guys will be happy to hear that the grapefruit craving is coming back with a vengeance. I am SO glad it's nearly citrus season!

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun day! We slept in and then got Addie ready for her Halloween parade at school and she was so excited to finally be a cat! She has been talking about this for a month, at least. Then, around lunch time, we went to JM's office for his company Halloween party. We had a great time and Addie was the life of the party! He works with such a fun group of people and they were all excited to see her. After that, we went home to "rest" for a few minutes (which mainly consisted of Addie running around the house like a little monster and me watching her) and then headed to my office Halloween party. Most everyone brought their kiddos and there were some cute little munchkins! Of course, Addie was the cutest ;) but she had some tough competition. THEN, we came home and started to get dinner ready for Mimi, PawPaw, and Cici and Nana and Papa to come over and help us greet trick-or-treaters! I made french onion soup (from scratch! Look at me go!) and JM made grilled ham and fancy-cheese sandwiches (ha!). We were excited that we had a pretty steady stream of trick-or-treaters, but I am wondering when it became okay for BIG KIDS (like 15- and 16-year-olds) to still go out on Halloween? Maybe I am getting old and fuddy-duddy ;) I gave them candy anyway. I will admit that they had all gone to trouble and had awesome costumes, so I figured that deserved some kind of reward. Hehe.

Quick like a cat!

(I washed the wall after I saw this picture, don't worry :) - but how does that happen??)

CHEESE! Er...wait a minute! :)


I let Addie hold the "whisker" paint for maybe ten seconds while I gathered my stuff to go into JM's office...and this is what I got for it.

And one of none of us looking at the right camera...nice

We were aiming for the tackiest costumes...I think we got there.


My boss Shauna, Addie, and Shauna's beautiful baby girl Claire (almost 4 months)

There was a pumpkin carving contest at work this year!


The Law Department pumpkin, carved by our awesome secretary, Melinda! We got 2nd place!

Ready for trick-or-treating (we never made it out of the driveway :))
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!