The Rest of the Weekend

The rest of the weekend was a lot of fun. Friday morning we woke up and started decorating the house for Christmas. When Addison went down for her morning nap we put up the tree and fluffed it all up. When she woke up we put all the ornaments on. Lauren and Mark did a great job decorating the tree as Addison and I got all the ornaments ready.

This was the look on Addison's face when she woke up from her nap and saw the tree all lit up. She just looked around the house and went "OHHHH." It was so sweet to watch her look at all the new things in the house.

Here Mommy. I can help you put up all the decorations. Shortly after this happened Mark took the girls downstairs and I got the rest of the living room decorated.

My favorite way of decorating the mantel yet. Each year I can never remember what I put where the year before, so I took a picture this year so maybe I will remember next Christmas!

Saturday Morning at the Mall

Saturday morning we headed out to the mall to see Santa and buy the girls their Christmas ornaments for the year. Lauren said she did not want to sit on Santa's lap but she would talk to him and tell him what she wanted. Well, she ended up being shy and burying her head into my shoulder as Addison screamed when I tried to sit her on Santa's lap. So no Santa pictures this year. Instead we got our ornaments, another Aerial for Lauren and a teddy bear for Addison. Then the girls hit the play area to burn off some energy. They played in the bus for the longest time.

Sunday Afternoon

It was time to make the gingerbread house. More of a project for Lauren and I, but Addison insisted on being a part of the fun. Mark tried to entertain her for a while, but she really wanted to get down and messy with us. This was our second year of making the gingerbread house, and it turned out better than last year. They are harder to do then it looks, but Lauren and I had a lot of fun.

Thanksgiving 2009

We had a great day in Lawrence today with my Mom's side of the family. We had 45 people at our Thanksgiving feast. It was wonderful. Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, broccoli rice casserole...so much food and lots of yummy desserts! I love this picture of Addison and I. She did awesome today. She let everyone hold her and never cried!

Luke is Lauren's favorite. Martin is Luke's buddy. So Lauren had to share Luke this year. These 3 ran and ran all day and had so much fun together. I did not get a lot of pictures of Lauren because she was no where to be found most of the day. She was having fun with Luke and Martin.

Lauren tried so hard to keep up with the boys all day. I think she did a pretty good job.

More cute pictures of our little Addison. She looked so cute today in her dress, tights, and boots. She was much easier to get pictures of than Lauren.

Lauren and Addison get along so well right now. They just love each other so much!

This is the first year both of my girls participated in the passing of the family quilt. Addison slept through all of Thanksgiving last year. The family quilt was made by about 10 of us back in 2000 or 2001. We gave it to my grandparents the first year. Each year it is passed on to another female family member. Caren received the quilt this year, after Lora had it the past year. It was so sweet to see the girls in the circle with all of us and to watch Lauren pass the quilt to Addison. I am so glad I had little girls who will be able to carry on this tradition.

Thanksgiving was a wonderful day. This was one of the funniest ones I can remember. Tons of family, tons of great food, very laid back and great memories. A special thank you to my Aunt Renee and Uncle Lee for hosting Thanksgiving this year.

The Things We are Thankful For...

Sunday afternoon we made our Thankful Tree. You might not be able to see all the pictures so I will fill you in on what our family is thankful for this year. Mark and I are thankful for our girls. Addison is thankful for Lauren and Ms. Kellie Addison's teacher. Lauren is thankful for Daddy (and Addison is too of course) and I am too. We are thankful for blessings...too numerous to put into words...

We are thankful for God and Church. Addison we just adore and Landen and Killian are two boys Lauren can't live without.

Mark and I are so thankful to have such great jobs in this economy. Lauren and Addison are thankful for Gramps and Nana. Lauren is thankful for dance class and playing outside.

We are thankful for Mommy and Family, Ms. Jamie (Lauren's teacher), the Zoo, and pictures. I love pictures and take so many of the girls. I just don't want to miss a single memory of these two. Pictures tell so many stories and there are so many things I do not want to forget.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It is always spent with my Mom's side of the family. I have not missed one Thanksgiving dinner EVER! I have tons of Aunts and Uncles, cousins and seconds cousins. Lauren loves playing with Luke and I just love seeing everybody.

Take some time to think about all the things you are Thankful for this year. Our family just did and it was really neat...

December 9th

December 9th is the day Addison will get ear tubes placed for chronic ear infections. We have been fighting them since she was ~ 3 months old. She has had 7 ear infections in 11 months so this past Wednesday we went to the ENT Dr. to got looked at. Her current ear infection has cleared up, but every time she gets a cold she gets an ear infection, which means antibiotics for 10 days, then check to see if the ear infection is gone. It usually is not so that means another antibiotic for 10 more days. Antibiotics=diarrhea=horrible diaper rash. Poor little girl. Her little bottom is so red, and today it is even bleeding a little bit.

So I am very excited for her to get this done. Chronic ear infection can lead to hearing loss and speech delays. Her hearing was checked at the ENT appt. and her hearing is fine! So that is good news knowing that she should not have any speech delays from the ear infections.

So I a little nervous for my little Addison, but with my knowledge as a pediatric nurse I know she will do fine in surgery. It will be done at Children's Mercy South with Dr's and anesthesiologist that I know so that makes me feel good. I know they will take great care of her.

I can't have a post without a good picture. I had no idea they had taken so much out of the pantry when I was right there in the kitchen cooking dinner. They were playing so well together and staying out of my way I really did not care what they were up to! Oh what a mess...

Christmas pictures done, Christmas shopping done!

Well the shopping for our girls are done at least. Just have to get the nieces gifts, family, and all the teachers at school gift certificates, and gifts for each other....so I guess we still have a lot of shopping to do! The weekend was busy and fun, and we got some great pictures of the girls, even though little Addison did not want to sit still for anything!



Lauren did awesome at pictures. She is really turning into a little lady. She was so well behaved and even tried to get Addison to sit still and smile for the pictures. We are so proud of her these days. She is listening so well, following directions, helping out around the house, and really just being a great kid!

One of the many attempts at the great escape...Pictures were very challenging...

So sweet and innocent...I think we get this pose every Christmas...but we just love it!

She could not move very fast in this dress...and at this point she was so tired of taking pictures..

This is one of our favorites...

And I love this one too!

That is a smile...she is happy in this picture!

So happy and actually smiling for this picture. Look at those teeth...she still only has 4 teeth!

Oh and she is fighting another ear infection. She is on antibiotic #2, Omnicef, a very strong antibiotic. Might really have to go and see ENT now. She just has the hardest time kicking those ear infections.

Enjoy the Christmas pictures. We just love having new pictures up in the house.

The Zoo in November?

Saturday was a perfect day for the Zoo, and with the girls both up at 6 it was easy to get there by 9:30. Addison took her morning nap and then we headed out for the day. It was awesome. I took the girls to the zoo this summer when Mark was out of town for the weekend, but Mark had never been. We saw sea lions, monkeys, gorillas, leopards, cheetahs, birds, tigers, turtles, elephants, and much, much more.

Even with Mark's help I still could not get them both to look and smile at the same time.

Just hanging out in the stroller checking things out. I forgot to strap her in after I took off her coat and well she kind of fell out of the stroller and then I kind of rolled over her (well just her foot.) She fell down the front and her feet and bottom were hanging out touching the ground, her upper body still half way in the stroller. (I know that might be hard to picture in your head.) Man I felt terrible...but she was fine...I think I was more freaked out than she was. What kind of Mommy forgets to strap their kid in the stroller???

Lauren and Daddy checking out the gorillas...well there was only one. Lauren liked talking to him though.

The sea lion show was the first thing we did after we arrived to the Zoo. When I took the girls over the summer the sea lions were Lauren's favorite. She enjoyed watching them do all their special tricks with the show.

It was a great day and we had a lot of fun. We stayed too long and Lauren was asking to go home and take a nap. So glad we got to enjoy the day outside.

Halloween Fun

We had a great Halloween weekend. The fun started out Friday at school where the girls had parties for Halloween. They loved their matching shirts.

Addison was a kitty cat. This was such a great costume to keep her nice and warm.

Lauren our Sleeping Beauty. She looked so pretty in this dress.

Saturday morning we headed out to downtown Lee's Summit to trick or treat around the stores. Addison just hung out in the stroller checking everything out. We met up with my sister and parents, however did not get to see them too much. Lauren was very scared of all the "scary" costumes. She was crying and real tears were coming out and it was very hard to get her calmed down and convinced that Mommy and Daddy were there to protect her and that none of the scary people would bother her. Lauren was so scared she even said she wanted to go home, so we headed that way. Then I decided to take her away from the crowd and took a back way to some of the shops that were giving out candy. She was able to get calmed down and ended up having fun trick or treating at the stores.

The best picture I could get of the two of them together. Lauren was having fun at this point.

Lauren's cousin Claire. This was the only picture I got of the two of them. We attempted to get all three girls but that was impossible!

Gramps, Nana B, Claire, Steve, and Jen. Meeting up with us at the end.

Saturday afternoon after naps we had to carve the pumpkin. This usually means Mark does all the work while the girls stand around and watch. It was so beautiful outside that we played while Mark carved the pumpkin.

Lauren was showing Mark how to draw the face on the pumpkin.

Mark doing all the work, Lauren jumping on his back!

Addison almost stuck her hand in the pumpkin. Lauren jumping on my back!

Time for trick or treating. Addison got a few pieces of candy from the neighbors and she was looking in her bag for more!

Killian and his sister Charley joined us Halloween night. Those two had so much fun trick or treating together. They ran, laughed, screamed, fell down, held hands, went up to scary houses together, and got TONS of candy.

Lauren and Killian are a clone of each other. They are both very sensitive, shy, slow to warm up to new people and new places, timid and usually scared of "scary" things at Halloween and very smart. Together they bring out the best and they are so great together. At one point Lauren said to Killian "Look Killian, let's go to that scary house." Without Killian with her she would have never gone to the scary house where Jason was handing out candy. It even scared me a little.

When they got to the houses they did not knock on the door or ring the door bell, they just yelled (or screamed) "trick or treat." It was so cute.

Addison hung out in the stroller, Charley took a nap, and Mark and I enjoyed visiting with Jessica and Garrett (Killian's parents.)

It was a great Halloween weekend and even better with Killian and Lauren together!