Weeeeee.....

As I'm updating our blog I look over to see this
Brooke is reading to Addi while spinning her in the desk chair(we just moved it into the family room). The funny thing is that every time Brooke would stop spinning, Addi would start whining.
Oh the things that make kids happy!

Aspirations of a little girl

We just got back from a quick trip to McDonald's to get a coffee and 2 chocolate milks. We are waiting for our new bed and mattresses to be delivered so I didn't have a lot of time to venture around the grocery store to get the essentials that we need..........so, McDonald's would just have to do. As we were pulling away Brooke said:

"Mommy, when I get older, can I be a McDonald's girl?"

Holding back my laughter coupled with complete horror, I replied:

"Well honey, I would like for you to have a little bit more aspiration in life for when you are older"
(not that my 4 year old even knows what aspiration is of course!)

Brooke then replied with:
"Well, when I get older and you go to McDonald's maybe I'll be there to give you your chocolate milk"

LOL! I of course immediately called Jeff to tell him about our conversation and give him a little chuckle for the day.

Brooke's room changes again

Jeff bought a new flat screen TV on black Friday for our bedroom, then he wanted to get a king size bed, then I wanted to redecorate our entire room to go with the new tv and new bed. With all of this we had to move out the desk(which now resides in the family room) and the armoire. We didn't have a good place for the armoire so we decided to move it into Brooke's room. We were going to sell our queen bed, but I decided that wouldn't be a good idea since we were keeping the rest of the set in our room. I came up with the idea of moving it into Brooke's room and moving her furniture into Addi's room so she would have a set when she outgrows the crib next year. Now Brooke has a queen bed(complete with new quilt and 1200 thread count sheets thanks to Nana), armoire, and her new Barbie Doll House that Santa left. It looks like such a big girl room now. The only down side is that I bought her other furniture probably 5 months ago(see older post), but it will all be great in the long run because Addi now has furniture and Brooke's room will be the official guest room when we have company visiting. Now all we have to sell is the full size mattress set that currently resides in the garage and comes in when we have over night guests. Can't wait to not have to set up all of that EVERY time someone comes to stay with us!

Addi sits.....we witness!

As Addi's 1st birthday approaches ever so quickly we have been trying our best to work with her on crawling and sitting up on her own. Over the past week she has started her "Army Crawl" and uses it more than her rolling technique(well at least on the carpet anyway) and today while we were in the kitchen putting stuff away Addi had rolled and claimed her spot under my feet at the sink. Jeff came in and told her to sit up and after much encouragement of "come on, you can do it!" with all her might she sure enough went from lying down to sitting up. It looks as though she's going to do some hard core stomach crunches because she goes from directly lying flat on her back to lifting herself up at the waist until she's sitting up. We couldn't have been prouder! I bet we will have a lot to report at her 1 year check-up.

Merry Christmas

This Christmas was focused on family and counting our blessings! It was such a peaceful and family oriented Christmas where we decided to do things slightly differently. In keeping with tradition, we did celebrate Christmas Eve at Moe's house like we have for the past several years. It was so nice being with family and enjoying a nice meal as the kids(Kayt, Lyce, Brooke, Austin, & Addison) opened presents from their Aunts & Uncles and their traditional Christmas Eve pj's from Granni & Grandpi.

The girls......we missed Chey-Chey!

The girls in their Pj's and new stuffed animals

Austin sporting his new Pj's as Spiderman with his moose

Addi in her new Pj's. She got a new pig, but we missed the photo-op

Nana arrived Christmas Eve after the kids were in bed. We were so happy to have her spend the holiday with us, especially since Papa wouldn't be around. Santa sure was good to the kids this year!

The LOOT! Brooke got her Barbie doll house, Austin got Buzz Lightyear and a Batman car, and Addi got a Laugh 'n Learn table and a Fisher-Price musical globe. Stockings were full too.

I made a hashbrown casserole for breakfast......Nana's favor ite! She sat in the kitchen Christmas Eve and watched how I made it and was so excited to have the recipe!

Santa did a good job eating the milk & cookies!

Brooke drawing on her new Princess table

"To Infinity and Beyond!" thanks Aunt Kimby & Uncle Bill

Blowing out the candles after we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. This was the 1st year we made a cake since we were able to stay at home and it will now be a tradition every year to come!

Addi's 1st Christmas (Brooke & Austin both wore this hat too)

The kids with Nana

Jeff & I

Granni & Grandpi traveled around this year as opposed to us all going over to their house for Christmas dinner. They brought Mimi with them too. It was actually very nice to be able to stay home and allow the kids to enjoy all of their gifts without having to leave. We grilled steaks for dinner and had baked potatoes, salad, green beans, deviled eggs, and rolls. It was a great meal! It was such a relaxing Christmas and it was so nice to spend it in our home with loved ones. Next year we have already decided to focus more on family during the holidays and plan to spend Christmas in the mountains in a snow covered cabin where the only gifts will be those that Santa brings. I am looking so forward to it!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Visit With Santa

We took the kids to the mall tonight to see Santa. He was on break when we arrived, so we had dinner at Chick-Fil-A and then waited in line. We had our fears that Addi wasn't going to cooperate because on one of our previous visits to the mall we walked by Santa and he came over to give the kids their Elf Ears and Addi wasn't thrilled. She turned away and started to cry. Jeff had to bribe Brooke and Austin with a trip up and down the Belk escalator if they were good. Our turn came and all 3 kids did great. We couldn't have asked for a better photo, especially since it was Addi's 1st Christmas!

Extreme Makeover........Extreme Exhaustion

I have spent the past week (5 shifts) working on the Extreme Makeover Build. It has been such a wonderful and rewarding experience, although it kind of did ruin "watching" the show for me after seeing the production side of things. Tracy Wingate, who is in my MOPS group, and who we have known since Brooke started pre-school was one of the lead volunteer coordinators for the build and therefore, we were able to get first dibs on signing up for volunteer shifts. I was shocked to find out that I actually knew the family who was chosen, Tobin & Jill Wagstaff and their kids. Jill had spoken to our MOPS group my 1st year and we had a fieldtrip at their Studio Percussion. This personal connection made the experience that much more exciting.

The door knock was Monday, the 7th, and I was fortunate enough to be a part of the "Braveheart March" Even though it took 4 takes, it was so much fun to be a part of. My next shift was on Wednesday, the 9th, and I got to be with my girlfriend, Kathy all night. We were told to arrive to our shifts early......so like the good girls we are, we did! Being early winded us up with the shift at the check-in site....the old Ford dealership. It was kind of a mass of chaos and we kept VERY busy! This was where ALL of the volunteers, VIP's, caterers, and spectators checked in. Basically.....if you wanted to go on site....you saw us! When things slowed down we were able to go on site for about an hour to check things out. The foundation had been laid, and the framing was just starting to go up and there wasn't much else going on. We returned to our post and ate some cake....LOL! On that note I must tell you how good the food was!

I returned to site on Saturday, the 11th, at 6am where I got to be with my friend Julie Peine from MOPS. It was kind of a yucky drizzling day :( At first there wasn't much to do, so we picked up trash, but then we got to get our hands dirty by digging a ditch for the plumbing to run from the house to the ditch. That was a HARD job and I have the blisters on my hand to prove it! Funny thing was there were so many guys standing around just watching us girls dig this ditch and they waited FOREVER before asking if we wanted their help. Um duh! Of course we need your help......I know we gave it a good effort, but those guys could dig much faster than any of us women. We relinquished our shovels and headed to the catering tent for breakfast. The rest of my shift consisted of me standing inside the house guarding the back door to the patio and kicking out anyone with a camera or not wearing a hard hat. NOT SO MUCH FUN......but I did get to see a lot going on. I returned the next day at 6pm and got to pal around with my friend, Rebecca Tillmann. We had a great time, cleaning out the break trailer for the cast/crew (Pauly was sitting in it when we arrived....although didn't speak a word to us). We cleaned, put away groceries(it was definitely taco night) and left. We joked that it was the perfect job for 2 Moms. When we got back to the house, Rebecca somehow got hooked up with an inside job putting stuff away while I became the "Key Holder" Not the job it sounds like.....basically I wore a hat with a big "K" on it and had all of the keys to the golf carts around my neck that I had to check in and out as people took and returned them. After about 2 hours of this oh so glamorous.....AND boring job, I was rescued by Shandon who took me inside with her. We got to put "unneeded" objects in the garage and then got to frame the photos Shandon had taken of the family on "Door Knock" day. Oh, I also got to put games away too :) So, after a long night, I went home for 4 hours of sleep and returned at 6am the next morning......REVEAL DAY! Such an exhausting day it turned out to be. I was with Alison Walker, my girlfriend from MOPS, who is also in Addi's NFRMC playgroup with her son, Erik. She is pregnant with twins, so I tried to make sure she took it easy. We got to take waste out of the back yard, scuff tar off the sidewalks(silly job!), and then thanks to Tracy got to be inside for the rest of the day. We were part of the team who went around and covered ALL of the windows with visqueen(sp?) Alison and I had a great time together! We got to see everything up close and personal, sweated....A LOT, but also laughed A LOT! When we were done we went outside and waited for the reveal to happen. We were exhausted AND starving and thanks to the Brill women, we were fed Wendy's. So thoughtful......so appreciated! Love those Brill girls!!!!

Anywho, the Reveal took FOREVER....that's Hollywood for you! Several takes later and the family came home. We got to be on their front lawn so had great seats for their reaction.....oh I forgot to mention that Alison and I took about an hour break on a golf cart in the neighbor's driveway so she could get off her feet....I didn't mind the break at all. Well, after it was all said and done, it was 5:00(our shift ended at 1:00) and they still hadn't let the Wagstaff's inside to see the house, so we left. Come to find out, they didn't finish filming that night until after 9pm.....geesh! I would have passed out for sure! As I said earlier, being a part of the process and being remdined that at the end of the day it is all still a Reality TV show, did kind of make me think a little different about the show, but I am happy to report that the reaction you see on TV of the family when they see the house for the 1st time, is 100% authentic! Because I worked so much, I never got a chance to document the process through pictures (didn't thin to pull out the cell phone until reveal day). Here are some of the pics I got during the reveal.....not too bad for my chincy little cell phone :)

The Builder, Ricky Strickland, with Military

Completed house

Alison & I (SO TIRED!)

Ty, getting us ready for "Move That Bus"

Didi, thanking all of the volunteers

Wagstaff's arriving in the limo

"Move That Bus!"

Family's reaction upon seeing the house

Walking up to the front door

CUT! You can't go in yet, we were just gettin' started :)

We found another pearly white

Tonight while feeding Addi her dinner she opened just wide enough(and kept open long enough) for me to see that tooth #7 had broken through. It will be her 3rd on the bottom. After finding it I thought to myself....."this sure does explain the crankiness and fussiness this week!" I'm sure #8 won't be far behind. Thanks for the pleasant surprise #7!

My 1st Missed Milestone

Today I was fortunate enough to be a part of the Braveheart March that kicked off the Gainesville edition of Extreme Makeover Home Edition(more on this in a future blog after the build is done!) Jeff also had hi fist day hosting his very own radio show. My Mom came over while he was at the station to watch the kids for 2 hours. When I called her on my way home to ask how they were not only did she say they were "great!"........yes, that's what she said, but she also told me that when she went in to get Addi out of her crib she was SITTING UP playing with her toys. My sweet baby girls sat up for the first time on her own and I didn't get to experience the jubilation of finding her like that. I actually teared up while my Mom told me! Now I will wait and see how long it takes for her to show Mommy her new trick :0)

On another note, she permanently started taking baths in the big girl tub last week and absolutely LOVES them! Brooke and Austin get so excited when I tell them that they can take one with her too all by themselves and they take turns washing her. My babies are all growing up (((tear))) but I love how they play together. What a family we have created for ourselves!