Monday, December 26, 2011

Nerf Guns

After acting out the nativity on Christmas Eve, Hazel dressed up like Santa and passed out the presents! Several of the girls dressed up like elves to help her.


Waldo bought all of the kids (except Addie, of course) nerf guns for Christmas. They had a BLAST! Even Addie got in on the action, by sporting a nerf bullet on her forehead!


She's wearing her cool new bib, too. Thanks, Lili!

Christmas Eve Cow

Wil's family reenacts the nativity every Christmas Eve. There are beautiful homemade costumes, a script, songs and lots of laughing as the now adult children tease each other while their own children get into the acting out the parts.


It's a cool tradition - but I enjoyed it so much more this year. Probably because I saw it through the eyes of a mom wanting to teach her child about the true meaning of Christmas.

Our little family - Addie was a cow, Wil was a wise man and I was a shepherd.

The older girls get super excited when it's their turn to be Mary. While we were taking our costumes off and putting them away, even Junior asked if he could be Mary next year. :-)

The Family Mechanic

I should preface this post by saying that one of the things I LOVE about Wil is how handy he is. He knows how to fix stuff...and I like that a lot!

His car has been leaking power steering fluid for a while, and it finally got bad enough that he decided it was time to change out the power steering fluid hose something or other (yes, I'm pretty sure that IS the technical term, thank you for asking.)

He had Friday off work for the holiday and it seemed like the perfect time to fix the car. Fast forward several hours into fixing the car and he was frustrated that he couldn't get a tiny screw in a tiny hole in a difficult to reach and hard to see part of the car. Addie was taking a nap, and I was in an excessively good mood, so I willingly went to help him. I had the very important job of holding the flashlight and supervising the work of getting the aforementioned tiny screw into the tiny hole.

Fast forward 20 minutes or so to Wil being even more frustrated and me being in an even more obnoxiously good mood.

"Let me try...my fingers are smaller...maybe I can get it!"

So, down I went, under the car with my tiny screw.

Where's Jessica? A view from the top of the car.

I've never been under a car before...it's an entirely different world lying on your back under a car and having to trust the plastic ramp thingamabobs that are holding the car up don't break (I think I asked Wil if he was sure they wouldn't break about five times!).


For the record...my fingers are smaller and I FIXED the car! Okay, so there were lots of other things Wil had to do before the car was completely fixed, but I would like to take credit for my impressive mechanic skills!

Laundry Helper

Addie makes a great laundry helper!

My Little Pony

Christmas time is so much more fun when you have a baby to take to Christmas-y events!

My grandma's church had a Christmas party a few weeks ago. It was great! They had a hay ride, sledding, karaoke, pictures with Santa, bouncy castles and...pony rides!


Yes, Addie might be a little young for a pony ride, but Wil and I were too excited to wait until next year! She seemed to like it...and I think it was totally worth it, if only for the picture!

***A picture of her on Santa's lap will be coming as soon as I figure out how to work our scanner.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Splish, Splash, I Was Taking a Bath

We tried the bathtub again today. Addie was tentative at first, but then seemed to be having a great time...until she tried to lick the soapy water - that was the end of bathtime!

Rub-a-dub-dub!

Rubber ducky, you're the one!

Splash! Did you know you water does this?!?!

My One Minute

"You work hard, try to provide for the family, and then, for one minute, everything's good. Everyone's well. Everyone's happy. In that one minute, you have peace."

Name that movie!

You know those times in life that you wish you could freeze and always remember because they're so great you never want to forget them? I think I can count mine on one hand...one was last night!

Wil saw an ad for the Electric Light Parade in downtown Phoenix and thought it would be a fun Saturday night activity. So we bundled ourselves up, packed a few chairs and blankets and headed downtown.

It was a cold night for Phoenix, so we dressed Addie extra warm - the bottom half of her had tights, jeans, sweatpants and socks and the top half of her was covered by a long sleeve onesie, sweatshirt and jacket (and socks on her hands because we didn't have any mittens).

We got to the parade a little more than an hour early so we could get good seats and spread out our chairs (we saved spots for Wil's family) right in the front row at 7th Street and Camelback. Addie and I hung out in the chairs while Wil went to move the car closer (we got a little impatient parking and ended up too far away the first time).

Addie and I waiting for the parade...it's a bit dark, but I LOVE the smile on her face, she was having SO much fun!

It started to sprinkle while Wil was moving the car, so I covered Addie up with his jacket and waited for him to come back. Addie likes being outside and was in a particularly good mood last night, so she was super happy when the rain stopped and she could jump up and down and play in my lap. I had the hood on my jacket up because it was COLD - which blocked my peripheral vision so I could only see her in front of me. We giggled and played and laughed some more while we waited for Wil's family to arrive and the parade to start. That was my minute - everyone was happy and healthy, I wasn't worried about anything and I was having a BLAST with my baby girl. It was perfect!

Still waiting for the parade to start - you can see us a lot better in this one. Unfortunately, this is where the camera battery died, so we didn't get any pictures of the floats or Wil's family after they joined us.

The parade started and we had lots of fun watching it until rain and tiny ice chunks started falling pouring down from the sky. Wil didn't see the snow...but I did and it was definitely snowing in Phoenix!

I covered Addie's head with the blanket so she wouldn't get wet and she promptly fell right to sleep. I sat, laughing and holding her while I watched everyone around me scurry to fold up chairs, gather blankets and hot chocolate mugs, and run for their cars.

Wil cleaned up our things while I kept Addie dry and then we made a mad dash for the car - laughing and giggling the entire way! Wil and I were SOAKED. Every part of our whole selves was wet...but Addie slept the entire way to the car and every last inch of her was perfectly dry and warm when we got there.

It was the perfect evening! I loved everything about it! The time to giggle with Addie, Junior shouting "MIRA!" or "TROCA!" each time a new float came by because he was so excited and thought the lights were so cool, the snow, the mad dash to the car and the soaking wet ride home...I cannot imagine a better way to have spent my Saturday!