Live Nativity

I am thrilled that all 3 kids got to partake in the Live Nativity this year. What would make me more thrilled is if I actually got to see them in it, outside of the pics that were taken, but I guess that's the nature of my job. I really do enjoy watching all of the kids get into costume though and the excitement on their faces as they are about to head over to the stable area and then the elation on their faces as they return after their 15 minutes are over. Its a crazy 90 minutes for sure, on my end, but it flies by, I get to see so many people, and I am truly blessed to be a part of it every year.
The characters of choice this year were: Austin as Joesph, Brooke as an Angel, and Addi as an Angel. They were so cute in costume and Addison was super excited to be a part of it! The group of kids that were together with ours was also great as it was, Blythe and Shae Winston, Mikey & William Dietrich, Miles Kamp, and Brooke's friend Deanna, who just adores her! Having them all together in the pics is just priceless and we are so fortunate that Jeff Winston takes such incredible pics to document the event.

Perhaps we should market this new hair product?

So, tonight is the perfect example of how Addison acts when she hasn't had a nap....full monster mode as I like to refer to it. She was sitting at the dinner table and I looked over at her and her bangs were parted down the middle and one side was completely slicked down. Enough time had passed since her bath so I knew it wasn't just water. I asked her what exactly she was doing to her hair and her reply was "(giggle, giggle) the oranges." She then proceeded to dip her fingers in the peach juice on her plate and use it as a hair styling product. What can you do but laugh, and then blog about it?!?

A Date to the Nutcracker

Today, Austin and I, along with the rest of PKY's Kindergarten Village and several other schools, all gathered at the Phillip's Center for Performing Arts to watch a performance of the Nutcracker. Austin was so excited to get dressed up in his "fancy clothes" and I even let him decide which outfit I should wear. I was assigned to Austin and his good buddy, Adam. We were seated in the Mezzanine section of the theater and the seats were similar to where Brooke and I sat last year. The scene of the "battle" was highly anticipated by both boys....Adam being slightly scared of it, but we reassured him everything would be ok. After the performance we headed back to the school where the kids were treated to a special lunch outside, complete with reindeer sandwiches and each received a special Nutcracker from Mrs. Donnelly. It was such a great a morning and I couldn't have asked for a more handsome date!

Happy Birthday Jesus

Last night, Addison and the entire Stepping Stones preschool put on their Christmas performance of "Happy Birthday Jesus." The kids, teachers, and directors worked so hard over the past month and it certainly showed. Rachel, who works in the Stepping Stones office, was so sweet and reserved us seats in the 2nd row, so we had a great view of Addison who was front and center! The kids all paraded into the Worship Center and as they took the stage, and Jan, the Director, began her welcome speech, the aisles flooded with parents, grandparents, etc. who took on the roll of the Paparazzi.....it was crazy watching all of the flashbulbs go off as the volume of the crowd grew. I was sure the kids were all going to get stage fright after that frenzy, but alas, they all kept their composure and Jan got everyone to settle down so the program could begin. I have never been more proud of Addison! She sand every song, knew all of the movements, and did a fantastic job. I think we have a future actress in the family :)
After the performance, the families made their way to the staged reception areas to enjoy the over 800 cupcakes that were donated by the parents....yumm-o!! We then snapped a few photos and took our little Thespian home :)

She was so excited to go, but 1st we had to take a quick pic at home :)

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my most favorite Holiday....has been for quite some time. I just really love the sentiment of giving thanks for what you have been blessed with in life....the good, the bad, & the ugly, because without it all, you wouldn't be the person you are! I so love getting our family together and just enjoying spending time with one another, AND the food is an added bonus!! This year we went to Moe & Jason's house again, and once again, there was enough food to feed a small country! My contributions were coleslaw, deviled eggs(both are my typical staples!), sweet potatoes, and a pear stuffing(decided to try out a new recipe...it was a success!) Addison kept telling us that she wanted to say the blessing and practiced over and over again, but when it came time and all eyes were on her, she had performance anxiety :) Oh well....there's always next year, right?!? It was just such a nice day and the best part had to be....NO DRAMA!! I can only hope that this will be a tradition for years to come....family means everything!!

Mom made place settings for everyone

It's hard work eating all of that food!

Kindergarten Feast

Much like last year, the Kindergarten Village had their very own Thanksgiving feast for all of the families. The 3 classes went on field trips at the beginning of the month to Publix to purchase the food, and prepared it throughout the month. They began the celebration with a performance. It was so cute to see all of the kids dressed as Turkeys and sing their little hearts out. The only bad thing, was Austin's position amongst the class versus where we were sitting. One of the tallest girls in the class was positioned in the front row, directly in front of Austin, so this made picture taking a little difficult :( Brooke happened to be outside with her class when we arrived so she saw us and got to sneak away and join us for the festivities.
After the performance we all loaded our plates up with the delicious food the kids prepared and sat down to a nice meal. Austin was so proud and excited when we asked him about which food he had a hand in preparing. We shared our table with the Gleichowski family. It really is great having Ryan's(Jeff's former teammate) daughter, Brooke, in Austin's grade.






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Owls and Pigs and Green Lantern....oh my!

Happy Halloween!! We were very busy this year celebrating the Holiday! On Friday the 28th, we took the kids to Trunk n Treat at TUMC...it was the largest the event has ever been. We were able to spend the 1st hour together as a family enjoying everything the event had to offer and then I worked at the face painting table for 1 1/2 hours while Jeff took the kids home and got them ready for bed. For the 1st time in a long time, the night turned very cold, which was unexpected since we are so used to sweating our booties off on Halloween. On Saturday, we met Granni and Payton, who she had for the night, at the Alachua Pumpkin Patch for some fun and pictures. On Halloween itself, Addison had a parade at her school, followed by a party in her classroom, and then we went to a MOPS play date party. When Brooke and Austin got home from school, we carved our pumpkin....giving the messy job to Daddy & the girls, and then I tackled the actual carving of the face. You wouldn't think carving a pumpkin would be so challenging, but man....it kicked my booty! We joined Heidi & Jeff and their kids and walked around our neighborhood and Blues Creek....the kids got more than enough candy! It was the 1st time in the 4 years that we've lived at our house that we've really gone trick-or-treating. We had a blast and it is so nice to have such great neighbors to share the holidays with.

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE OWL...

Addi's Owl costume, complete with tail feathers was a labor of love created by scratch by Granni & I. I couldn't have asked for a better final product!!


I made Owl cookies for Addi's class party :)



Alachua Pumpkin Patch


Olivia the Pig, Owl, & Green Lantern


Addi at her class party eating the Owl cookies I made


Such a messy endeavor, but they loved it! Addi got the baby pumpkin free :)


Getting ready to go Trick-or-Treating


Home at last with our carved pumpkin

An Ear For Music

Addison LOVES to sing and it would surprise you the amount of songs she actually knows the words to that play on the Sirius stations that we listen to. I always find myself smiling as we drive along in the car and I'm singing to a particular song and then I hear her little voice in the backseat reciting the song(word for word!)

On the way to the gym this morning,Katy Perry's "E.T." came on the radio and Addi said "This is a good song...MOMMY' turn the radio up!!"

I have a slight feeling we may have a future music superstar in the making!

The Itsy Bitsy Spider!

This morning the University of Florida Department of Agriculture came to Stepping Stones with a spider exhibit. Addison was so excited about the prospect of seeing, AND holding spiders(who is this kid?!?) Most of the spiders that Mr. Edwards brought with him were dead and in a vile, but he had a few live ones. Addi and I were sitting right up front and when he would hold out a live specimen on his arm I would have visions of it dropping on my leg....EEK!! He showed the kids a scorpion and then pulled out the Mexican Red-Kneed Tarantula. Addison kept begging to have it crawl on her, and was excited when the kids were told that they would be able to pet it on their way out of the room. Addi was the 1st one in line and lit up when she got to pet the spider's back. I of course, kept my distance!

Our New Child from Malawi

We just got back from the Step Into Africa that Trinity has been hosting for the past week. I wasn't sure what to expect other than the things I had heard from friends and Trinity members, but I was overwhelmed with emotion! It was so moving and such an eye opening experience!! Something spoke to me even before we went through the experience, and by the end I knew what we were called to do. We sponsored a 7yo boy named Potidyera, who was born on the due date(mo/d/yr) of the 1st baby we miscarried *FATE*!! So grateful TUMC brought this experience to our community and we have somehow been able to fill a void in our lives with a blessing!!

Pumpkin choices

This morning Addison and I were enjoying a morning at home....I was cleaning and she was watching Dora on tv. The episode that was on was the one where the seasons were all mixed up. As I was cleaning the tv, I looked up and Dora had just found a pumpkin(which was talking as one would on a cartoon) out of place. It got me excited thinking that Halloween was just over a month away and prompted me to say "Addi.....a pumpkin! We will get to go very soon and pick out our own pumpkin for Halloween." Her reply was "Oh yeah....I like that talking kind!" I found myself chuckling and had to tell her that the pumpkins we would be picking from wouldn't be able to talk.

Shopping With a Toddler

Not that I like to document the embarrassing moments in my life, but this particular one was worth getting down in writing. This morning after dropping Brooke and Austin off at school, I needed to run a few errands before heading into work and bringing Addi to class. We stopped into CVS so that I could pick up a few items and while I was looking for a particular type of tape, Addi decided to put an economy pack of Depends into my shopping basket that was lying on the floor. When I noticed what she had done I was super embarrassed and grateful at the same time that no one had come down the aisle that we were in and seen the "product" in my basket. The best part was when I tried to remove them, Addi got all upset and started arguing with me, telling me that "I needed them!" HAHAHA
I sure hope that won't be the case any time soon dear Addi!

Addi's 1st Haircut

The baby locks are gone! Ok, ok, I am totally aware that she is 2 years, 8 months, and 6 days old and this was LONG overdue, but there is just something about a little girl getting her hair cut for the very first time. I remember when we took Brooke, although I can't exactly remember how old she was off the top of my head, but I assume she wasn't even 2 yet. We took her to a place in the mall by Belk and I totally didn't bring my A-game that day, because not one picture was taken....AND most importantly I FORGOT to get a lock of her hair!! By the time I realized it, I was in tears. Luckily we scoured her clothing and found enough to be sufficient :) Addi has the same type of hair that Brooke does...long, thin, and stringy(they were blessed with their Mom's hair genes!) I hadn't cut it up until now because at least with some length it gave the appearance that it was a bit thicker than it actually was. This morning I looked at her and said, "I'm going to cut your hair." What was I thinking?!?! I've done nothing more than a few bang trims, but I figured....hey, I've been going to Salon La Di Da for almost 10 years now and have watched 3 stylists work their magic...how hard can it be?? HAHAHA....seriously....this is what went through my head. Well, I got my good shears and went to work! I am proud of the results and now she looks like a little lady with a cute shoulder length haircut(AND most importantly....we saved $15!)