Home for Christmas

We spent Christmas morning at home without any family. My mom and dad are in N. Carolina & Micah's parents are in California. It was a bit strange, but relaxing also.

We went to see Santa at the mall last Saturday. She was afraid of Santa, like last year, so I sat with her. It was a quick encounter, but at least she can't say we didn't try to hook her up.


Addie standing in front of the Christmas tree at church. She's wearing the Christmas outfit my mother got her. Doesn't she look darling!!! She got so many compliments. Too bad she wouldn't stand still so that I could get a shot of her face too!

We baked a cake for Jesus's birthday on Monday and ate it on Christmas Eve. Addie put all three eggs in the batter. She was so happy to help.


Sampling the batter

Please Note: All of our photos are blurry. Don't know why, don't like it. Guess we should have gotten a new camera for Christmas. Sorry.


Opening her stocking with daddy.





Showing off her presents and feeding her new baby...all at the same time.


In addition to eating their bones, the dogs played with their new toy.

Addie got to be really good at opening presents. She didn't want anyone else to open theirs---even Kaylee and Lucas!


We will be seeing Gigi and Papa tomorrow to celebrate with them and I guess we'll get with Memaw and Epa sometime after the new year.

Hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas and found time to reflect on the real reason we celebrate!

Flying through the holidays

We went to a graduation celebration for our friend Amber who just completed her MBA. Her husband is a pilot so they had the party at the Lee's Summit Airport. Addie got to check out the planes up close.


"Hat Broke!"
She also got to hit the pinata a couple times.


She was quite the life of the party and she just soaked up the attention.


"Egg All gone!"
Memaw and Epa came up to visit so that we could do our annual Christmas baking. Addie got to help this year with mixing the ingredients this year.



On Sunday, we went to the Wilsons to see some family that came in town. Rowan, Sydney, and Addie were so fun to watch play.



"My present!"
They opened presents. As you can see, Addie has the hang of unwrapping this year. Taking turns should be quite a challenge, but I'm sure the same will be true of many households on Christmas morning.





"Fall Down"
The girls played 'Ring around the Rosie' and chased each other 'til they bonked heads.



They also made a gingerbread house. Sydney and Rowan were really good decorators. They kept putting pieces of candy on the roof.




Addie....not so much. But, she was a really good candy eater. She kept taking off what Sydney put on and sampling all the types of candy. Luckily, she didn't put them back.


It was so fun to watch all three of them. Thanks Debbie for getting the Gingerbread House! It was fun!

Branson...here we come!

We went to Branson with my parents over the weekend to see the Christmas Lights at Silver Dollar City. It was beautiful! We really enjoyed ourselves, although it was incredibly cold. Some of the pictures have mist on the lens, but if you can see through the spots, you might be able to pick out who's who.


By the end of the night, Addie was done with the celebrating.

Addie copied her daddy and walked around with her hands in her pocket.


Addie was enthralled with the parade. There were floats with tons of pretty lights on them.

Here's one of Jack and Jill:




Not quite tall enough to go on rides yet. You have to be 36" and Addie has a good 4-5 left to grow.



The whole clan at the end of the night.

new email

Okay, since we canceled our Comcast service, I suddenly lost my email account. I didn't think that through very well, did I?

You can reach me at my new email: bethellenhunt@gmail.com

It's the same as my old one, only now it has a new domain. I hope I won't lose touch with many of you now that I no longer have anyone's email address. I promise I'm not being snobby if I don't ever write you back...I'm just unorganized!

If you have time, it would be really great if you could shoot me an email at my new address so that I can build up my address book again.

Thanks everyone, in advance, for helping me out!

Computer down

Our Internet is no longer in service. Long story, but basically, the Comcast guy came and tried to figure out why our service was slow and ended up saying it must be something wrong with our computer. The funny thing is that it was working when he came (although slow) and not working when he left...how is that the computer malfunctioning? We are going to switch to At& T...even though I'm sure they're not any better. We'll see. Right now, I'm using Micah's laptop and we're tapping into someone else's wireless modem. Lovely, huh?

We don't have many pictures that we're able to post, b/c it's a pain to transfer them from our desktop to a flash drive and then upload them using this laptop, so instead you get to see Sunday's attempt to take family photos for our Christmas card. I don't really want to use any of the pics we got, but I don't want to try to sit down for another session even more. YOu don't realize how hard it to get a toddler and TWO dogs to look at the flashing light!!!




o

See what I mean? I thing the top one is the best we're going to get.

We're doing well here. Addie and I got over a round of Strep throat and now we both seem to be hanging on to some kind of cough. Addie does a great job of covering her mouth and saying, "Bless you" when someone sneezes. She's also determined to blow her nose and initiates booger evacuations on her own. She completes each wiping with a "Yuck" or "Eeww" sound.



Addie playing dress up this morning:

Things I'm Thankful for...

• yummy cooking by my wonderful mother...she is so good to all of us and makes sure we're well fed.
• the 4 mile race my dad and I ran together today. I'm pretty sure Dad placed in the top three of his age group (if not first) but we didn't stick around to find out. He's such a better runner than he leads on.
• the good sleep Addie has been getting.
• my husband (even though I am a little peeved that he wouldn't agree with me and get a new microwave at Best Buy this weekend). Overall, I have nothing to complain about.
• my parents (no explanation if you know them)
• hearing Addie laugh.
• Cuddling with my doggies and looking into their sweet innocent eyes
• my job...I really, really like it.
• my sister (she's always a good sounding board and talks me through things)
• my few, but important friends
• health
• the fact that I sleep better than I did a year and a half ago
• digital cameras (how did I ever take photos without seeing my picture immediately?)
• good music
• talents I've received and the chance to improve them
  
• The only reason I have hope and gratitude is b/c of Jesus, my best friend and savior, that's something to be thankful for!

This time last year, my little girl was barely nine months old and was walking around everywhere!


This year, my little girl is walking everywhere and TALKING!!!! so cute!


Hope you all found many things to be thankful for and counted your blessings.

Addie is finally getting back to acting like herself. We missed our little talkative, dramatic, dancing queen.

Some cute Addisims:

• She says "hold you" when she wants to be held.
• She can point to several colors, but when you ask her what color it is she hardly ever says the right one, except purple. She definitely knows purple.
• She's good putting together one puzzle pretty quickly. She gets better each time she tries...naturally.
  
• She says "R" when we read the book Russell the Sheep--- we think she recognizes the r sound...but who really knows what's going on in her noggin.
• Addie loves to have lotion put in her hands.
• When I explain something to her and say, "okay?"... she says, "kay".
• Addie loves to point and say the names for everything around her.
• Little Miss has a major jealous streak when it comes to Mommy holding another child or baby (good thing she doesn't know what my day job is)!
  

Addie was really tired after lunch so I decided to let her take a nap. We already went to the gym and to a playdate with PAT. It's hard to miss the cues that she's ready, don't ya think?

Our Little Stinker

Addie was a skunk this year for Halloween. The only way we got her into her costume was to assure her she would get some chocolate. She did a good job of saying, "Treat" (or something like it), "please", "Thank you", & "bye-bye". After we finished "Trunk or treating", Addie helped herself to the fruits of her labor.


Addie with Aunt Debbie and Aaron. We went to "trunk or treat" with them.


Addie on a mission



Our church had a fall festival on Sunday evening. It was a lot of fun! She really liked the pony rides. That was the only way we got her costume on her that night was by distracting her with the pony rides.




Addie with her friend Zach from church.




Here is a picture of Addie sitting in time out. We were trying not to laugh because she sat so nicely and then decided to read some books (that's where we keep them). But Micah took them away and she was unhappy.


Addie has made her daddy a horsey!!!

Bad Computer

Our computer is being really bad. It won't let us get on the Web. We've tried a new Ethernet card, but that doesn't seem to be the answer....so until we can get the Geek Squad from Best Buy to take a look at it, we're OOL. I'm using Micah's laptop from work right now.

We were busy this past weekend with my parents, and my sister and her family. We had so much fun. We went to the Circus, a farm, and the zoo three days in a row. Toby was sick the entire time and now Addie and Caleb are feeling down in the dumps. A hasn't eaten a meal since Sunday and she's been really lethargic. I thought she was acting strange and really clingy after church when we met the Wilsons and the Morgans for lunch.

I don't know why the previous post only showed one picture, but I really don't want to go back and fix it with a messed up computer, so I don't know if I ever will.


family photo.


Ken and Micah walking back to the car after visiting Deanna Rose farm.


Addie enjoying the circus from Aunt Joyce's lap. She was very restless throughout the most of the show and I would have like to see more. We spent most of our time in the foyer or climbing stairs.

Caleb is wearing a funny hat a the circus...he loved the show and paid attention the entire time!


A. liked climbing in the dog kennel at M & D's house.

Had to get a picture of Toby in here too. He's too cute for words. Both my nephews are!


Please pray for Addie...she's miserable and getting skinnier by the minute. I could see her ribs today. I'm worried about her.