Nothing new

We don't have a whole lot going on at the Hunt household so I don't have much to report. I've done a lousy job of taking pictures of Doodlebug too, so I've included some, but not a lot.

Addie is such a two year old now. I thought that we had experienced temper tantrums before, but now I really know what they are...and so do the Wilson's. She threw a little ditty around them last week. Fun Fun!

I've been trying not to disturb the "ticking time bomb", but it's really hard to walk on egg shells all the time. We are going to go to Sydney's 2nd bday party tomorrow and I'm fully expecting to experience the embarrassment of a lifetime as Addie allows me the opportunity to display my parenting skills (or lack there of) to every other guest there.

I'm also going to visit my sister in North Carolina next week. I'm guessing I'll be able to tell you what exactly happens to mommy's and their traveling companions when they decide to scream
their heads off on the plane. Just kidding...I'm thinking positive thoughts.

Even though...
She threw a fit last Friday b/c I wouldn't let her eat a napkin. Yes, I wrote eat.
She threw a fit on Sunday night b/c Micah wiped her nose (all of our friends got to see that lovely tantrum).
She threw a fit on Monday b/c she didn't want to put her coat on and go to the gym.
She threw a fit on Tuesday b/c she didn't want her diaper on and preferred to run around naked (I actually let her for a while until she said she had to got poop...then I pinned her down and put one on as quick as I could.

BUT...things have been okay the last few days. I put her in the corner and tell her that she can come out when she's done crying and can be nice. I think I gave her too much attention the first couple times, b/c I really thought there was something wrong. I'd never seen her so angry.

I've also requested Love and Logic from the library so I can brush up on parenting skills. It's funny how I can give strategies to the families I serve with PAT, but when it's my own kid, I'm dumbstruck.


Addie likes to stand on her table and turn the kitchen light on and off...Addie likes to be assisted down and sent to timeout too. Did you notice she's eating a napkin too?


This is how I KNOW I love her....she's still adorable despite the silly screams and thrashing on the floor. In fact, it's sometimes downright hilarious and I have to try not to laugh (I don't want to be insensitive, ya know?) No matter how much maintenance she requires, I'm still really glad God decided to loan her to Micah and I for a while.


Addie and Isaac playing in her playroom.

Christmas with the Family

Micah brought home a box from work shortly after Christmas so we made her a little house. I think we had more fun making than she's had playing with it.

We've set it up downstairs in her playroom along with her slide and swing. She's hooked up for the winter...Lucas likes it too!

Both sets of Grandparents came out since Christmas to celebrate with us. Gigi and Papa came first and stayed with us for a week. We spent New Year's Eve with them and the Wilsons. We had a great time playing games, eating, and we watched the movie "Stardust".

We also played in the snow. Kaylee and Lucas were happy that someone actually came outside with them to play instead of telling them to go do their business.


Doesn't she look so cute in her snowsuit? She was licking the snow in this picture.

Gigi and Papa took her to Build a Bear for Christmas. Here she is making her bunny, Jenny.

I don't think she really got the whole experience, but she had fun anyway.

Memaw and Epa came the day that Gigi and Papa left.

They came bearing gifts too. So many, in fact, that Addie went on strike and refused to open anymore that day. She had to open a few more throughout the weekend. I think she's a bit spoiled, so we might have to have her give some of her older toys away to good will.
While they were here, we had time to go out and play b/c it was close to 70 degrees outside. Quite a stark difference from the week before. Here she is playing on her little car.


She likes riding her new tricycle, but her legs don't quite reach the pedals so she just moves it with her feet.


It was so wonderful to have both grandparents come and visit us for Christmas. She is adored by them and mentions them often when they are away.

On Monday, we passed the swing in the garage and she kept repeating "wing", "wing". So we went swinging.


Addie is talking in sentences a lot now and is doing a great job of naming colors and counting. One time she exclaimed, " I did it!"when she made a handprint while we were fingerpainting . She loves to have her hands traced too. She's growing up so fast, but the strange thing is that I love every stage even more than the one before. I'll probably think that each year (until she turns 13!). She's so much fun! It's hard for me to believe that she'll be turning two next month.


FYI: I'd like to update more often...but our computer uploads so slow it takes several minutes to get one picture up at a time. We're going to have to do something about our situation before I go berzerk with how slow it is.

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!!!