New Year's Day...yeah, I am still behind

We enjoyed a relaxing, long weekend for New Year's. I took off on Thursday because Addie's daycare was closed. We watched "The Princess and the Frog", played and relaxed. We hardly even got out of our pjs! It was awesome after the busy Christmas weekend.

Last picture of the tree before it came down. I was playing with my new camera. I can't wait to really learn how to use it!

Can you tell they love each other? So sweet!

On New Year's Day we went over to Jeremy's aunt's house with his extended family (it's big...well, much bigger than mine). The kids all played well together and the adults watched football and played cards. It was a fun time!

Showing off her bunny backpack. Too cute! Sure wish she was this sweet all the time! :)

Kissing cousins playing dress up!

She was in heaven playing dress up with all of the princess stuff at Vicki's house!

Babies everywhere! Jeremy's cousin, Jen, had a baby, Tyson, a couple of days before Christmas.

Showing Papaw her baby. Such a girl!

Josie (another cousin's daughter) with Abigail

Sweet Abigail! We compared pictures recently and Addison and Abigail have some similar features.

Kylie (yet another cousin's daughter...I told you his family is big) is so proud holding baby Tyson!

More kiddos...

Christmas Day

I know I am behind on posts...oh well...

On Christmas evening my entire family got together at David and Carrie's house. They are insane! Their stuff arrived from Florida the week of Thanksgiving and they hosted about 18 people for dinner on Christmas. My aunt and uncle came in from Northern WV along with my cousin and his fiancee. They normally come to Louisville in mid-December. This was the first time that my entire family had been together on Christmas day in years! It was wonderful!

Trying to get a pose with the great grandkids with my grandmother that night. Addie was NOT cooperating. Too much holiday and not enough of a nap=meltdowns!

Bill came in from Pittsburgh with his fiancee, Lauren. They are so much fun and we hate only seeing them once a year.

One of her favorite gifts..."a princess pooter" (computer). She doesn't know how to play, but just pushes buttons.

Dylan trying on his new snow boots...he didn't have any while in Florida. :)

David opening their mirror from Jeremy

Uncle Jer and Dawson

Dawson jamming on his new guitar

Grandpa getting a turn...

Addie's turn. She'll kill me one day for this one!

Our Christmas fairy!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning

I don't have any Christmas Eve pictures (for now). I couldn't find my camera anywhere on Christmas Eve morning. I was really bummed about it. It all ended up being a part of Jeremy's scheme for my Christmas present...see below. I need to get the pics from Jenny's camera from Christmas Eve. We went over to Leigh's mom's house for an open house and then headed to church. Addie sang at the beginning of the service. I absolutely LOVE singing "Silent Night" by candlelight. It makes the amazement and glory of Christmas so real. It is always my favorite moment of the season. Addie's favorite book this month played "Silent Night" so she was really excited to sing along "for baby Jesus!". She kept trying to blow out the candles. It was pretty cute! We left the service with snow falling and it was beautiful! It doesn't get much better than that. We then headed to Jeremy's aunt and uncle's house for dinner and dessert. Addie was singing "Jingle Bells" over and over on the way to their house. I think she sensed the excitement. Santa (aka Anthony) came for a visit and handed out presents to all the kids and naughty gifts for some of the aunts, uncles and cousins. Some were pretty hilarious! My parents arrived late on Christmas Eve night.

Christmas morning was wonderful! Addie was so excited to see what Santa had brought her. Kids make the season even better! We were able to capture some of her excitement on video with our video camera, but I still didn't have my camera so I don't have many pictures from the morning. Soon after Jeremy "found" my camera in Addie's play kitchen. We opened presents and I saved the best for last. There was just a card under the tree for me from Jeremy. I opened it up and it told me to grab the camera and it would lead the way to my present (he had taken the pictures on Christmas Eve and he didn't want me to see them so that is why he hid the camera). He sent me on a scavenger hunt across the house using pictures with the camera. It eventually led to the shelf above his closet that had a Canon DSLR T1i camera!!! I was so spoiled! I did not know I was getting this and was completely floored because we don't usually spend a lot of money on each other for Christmas. I have wanted a nice camera for a long time, but could never justify it (if you know me I HATE to spend money). He bought it at a local camera shop and it comes with a free class. I hope to attend the class soon. I may even take some life-long learning classes at UofL on photography to learn even more about it. I was so excited and it was a Christmas morning I will always remember.

Enjoy the few pictures below. I'll post more from that afternoon. Sorry for the lengthy post...it is more for me to remember/document.


Opening presents Christmas morning

The only thing she asked for was "The Princess and the Frog" and "presents". She was super excited!

Jeremy made my mom & dad and David & Carrie both mirrors out of cherry for Christmas. My mom's checking it out.

Hooray for my new camera! I can't wait to learn how to use it! I love photography!

Christmas #1 and #2

We celebrated Christmas with Jeremy's side of the family the weekend before Christmas. Great times!

Christmas #1 at Papaw John and Mamaw's house

Kameryn holding Abigail

The 5 grandkids before opening presents. Are they excited or what?

Papaw reading "The Night Before Christmas"

Her first Barbie...do you think she liked it?

"Painting"

Layton loved his tractor and gator!

Along with Jenny and Anthony, we got Kameryn the Michael Jackson Wii game. It was a BIG hit for all!

Addie loving on Abigail

Dancing to Michael Jackson

Christmas #2 at Honey and Papaw Randy's House

Honey brought out all of the Barbie stuff now that she knew Addie liked Barbies. Addie's favorite thing to do is play with Barbie's hair.

Addie got a Princess Castle from Honey and Papaw Randy. Our house is getting taken over by Disney Princess stuff and we did NOT introduce her to all of them! The things kids just pick up!

We did a Dirty Santa/White Elephant gift exchange with all of the adults. There were some GREAT gifts! Here is Justin opening up his gift...a certificate for the Jelly of the Month Club along with 12 jars of jelly. "It's the gift that keeps on giving, Clark!" :)

Jeremy got this HOT pair of Superman underwear! :)

It was a great weekend with family with lots of laughs!

Jingle Bells

In mid-December Addie's daycare had a Christmas party. The kids sang a few songs and I posted one below. They have a Spanish teacher at her daycare and she has learned a lot from her. The kids learned Jingle Bells in English and Spanish. Some days it is hard being away from her (although I know I could never stay home 5 days a week!), but it is nice to know she is at a place where she learns, loves to play and has wonderful teachers and friends!

Jingle Bells in English and Spanish from all of the kids. Addie clearly likes to dance while she sings! :)


Here's Addie singing it in Spanish.

When did she get to be so old???

Mid-December festivities

In mid-December Addie and I met Jenny and Layton at Breakfast with Santa in The Summit. Addie did really well when Santa came around to every table when he first arrived. When it was time to sit on his lap she FREAKED! I have two awesome photos from our attempt of sitting on his lap that I will have to scan and post on here. Hilarious!

Eating breakfast and making her list...

Evidence that she did great initially...

Making ornaments before sitting on Santa's lap

Sitting on Santa's sleigh in The Summit

We are loving having David and Carrie and the boys in town! It is great to spend random nights with them. Addie adores her cousins. That night David and Carrie watched her why we went to a Tacky Christmas party.

The Tacky Christmas party was at Blake and Tracy's house. Jeremy's shirt says "What happens under the mistletoe stays under the mistletoe" and he rigged up a mistletoe over his head. I love how creative he can be!

Catie was Cindy Lou Whoo and her hair was awesome!

All of the girls...with Derek (who was kinda like a Pat that night). Ha!

All of the guys. We all looked so hot!