Sunday, March 10, 2013

Snow Trip

We had so much fun playing in the snow last year, we decided to make it an annual trip. We packed up Addie, her toys and our warmest clothes and drove up to Flagstaff for a snow weekend in January.

It was snowing when we got to Flagstaff and too late to play in the snow, so we headed straight for the hotel. Addie thought the hotel was great fun and spent the night playing with her toys (notice I did NOT mention sleeping).


Wil and I both fell asleep long before Addie did, but she just kept playing away. She even managed to set off the radio alarm clock once...which was quickly remedied by turning down the volume all the way. In my half asleep state, I couldn't figure out how to turn it off.

She finally fell asleep after 1 a.m. At least, that's the last time we remember hearing her. She pulled her blanket down off the bed, covered herself and zonked out. I tried really hard not to be grossed out that she was sleeping on the floor, because there was NO WAY we were going to move her and risk waking her up!


The next morning, we headed for the same snow hill we played at last year (we even remembered to bring our sled).


This was Addie's first and last time on the sled this trip. It had snowed all night long, so the snow was quite powdery. She ended up with a face full of snow and wouldn't even get back in the sled to sit while we were playing or to be pulled around!


As we moved from the snow hill to a flatter, play area, Addie kept looking down and saying, "oh no, shoes!" Then she would bend over and brush the snow off the top of my shoes for me and we would keep walking. She must have dusted off my shoes at least three or four times. :-)


Addie absolutely LOVED playing in the snow! She liked holding it and feeling it and making it into balls.


Then she would shake her hands to get the extra snow off, but it was so cold and powdery, it was stuck to her mittens really well.



She would walk and then fall down and laugh and play and stand up again. You could see on her face that she was miserably cold, but was having so much fun it didn't matter.



Finally, she realized just how cold she was and our playtime was over! There was no consoling her until we got to the car and changed her into clean, warm clothes.

We came up with a couple ideas we're going to use on our next trip to keep her warmer. First, I'm going to find her plastic-y snow gloves instead of mittens, they got cold and wet way TOO fast! The other problem was that while her boots kept her feet warm, snow kept falling down inside of them. I think we're going to be totally white trash and duct tape her snow pants to the outside of her snow boots so there won't be a gap for snow to get in. The rest of her stayed pretty warm, it's just her feet and her hands that were FREEZING!

Gingerbread Houses

My extended family tries to have a get together close to Christmas every year. Lately, we've adopted a tradition of having a gingerbread house competition. Each family gets their own house to decorate and each person in the family has to contribute in some way. 

We frosted our house, put on a couple of the decorations and then let Addie go to town. She loved decorating her house!   


We even won first place in this year's decorating contest (although I think Addie may have been flirting with the judge hoping to win)! 


Tree Skirt

When I was a little girl, my mom made the cutest tree skirt. She patched together different Christmas fabrics with lace around the middle. As long as I can remember, I have LOVED our tree skirt. My friends' families all had boring red ones they bought at the store, but ours was special. 

When I got married, the tree skirt got to move to my house which made me extremely happy. This year, I pulled out the tree skirt, but didn't put it on right away because our tree was having some issues with falling over that we had to fix first. 

Addie confiscated the skirt and drug it all over the house with her. Wil put her to bed that night (I think I was with the youth at church), and when I went to get her the next morning, the skirt was in her crib. She had adopted it as her blanket!

I let her take it to bed with her a couple nights, but then it was time to put it on the tree. I told her the tree was cold and needed a blanket and she "helped" me put it around the bottom of the tree and put some presents on it. 

That night at bedtime, she pulled and pulled on the tree skirt. She's stronger than she looks; the presents were bouncing up and down on top of it. She cried all the way to bed that she couldn't have her blanket...but quickly forgot about it and settled down for the night. 

This is her when we were taking down the decorations. She was so excited to have her blanket back!


Christmas Morning

It was so exciting to go Christmas shopping for Addie this year! There were so many things I thought she would love, it was hard to settle on just a few presents.

When I was an older child, I remember my grandma waking me up because she was so excited for me to see what Santa had brought. I remember thinking "the presents will still be there in an hour when I wake up for real!" We were definitely so excited we woke Addie up to open her presents Christmas morning!

Her first present from Mommy & Daddy was a Fischer Price Zoo. I was excited about this present for months...she thought it was cool until later that morning when she got a Sesame Street toy from my Aunt and Uncle. Then all she wanted to do was play with her "Elmo Street." I tried hard not to be crushed...but I wanted to give her the favorite present!!!


Santa brought her lots of cool things in her stocking! Some books for church, a new toothbrush, socks and big girl undies and even some yogurt drops (since Mommy and Daddy told Santa she was too little for candy in her stocking). She ate almost the entire package of yogurt drops before we left the house for breakfast with my family!



Santa also brought her a new bike! She was scared of it at first, but she LOVES it now. We mostly ride it inside the house (she's not quite big enough to reach the pedals yet), and she frequently calls - "Mommy, bike, stuck!" when it gets trapped behind a chair or some toys!


When my cousin Andy was young, he would get so excited about presents Christmas morning, my Aunt & Uncle used to have to set a reasonable time when he was allowed to come out of his room and wake them up to open presents. I'm sure that some day in the near future it will be Addie waking us up, instead of the other way around.

Wil got nursing stuff for Christmas this year. A set of scrubs, a stethoscope, a blood pressure cuff and everything else he needs to start nursing school in style! He'll start the Spanish language nursing program in September!


Hats

Waldo had the coolest idea EVER and got all of his nieces and nephews hats (in birth order) for Christmas this year! 




Even the twins got hats - their's say Thing One and Thing Two.

My Little Angel

Addie was an angel in this year's Nativity at Wil's parents' house. Doesn't she look angelic with her tongue sticking out like that? 

Angels Addie & Clarisa 

 Addie & Xujey, who got to be Mary this year

 The shepherds, Junior, J.J and Lyzette

Our family...Wil was a wise man and Addie and I were both Angels.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Good Grief


Happy Halloween!


Dear Great Pumpkin,

I am looking forward to your arrival on Halloween night. I hope you will bring me lots of presents. 

You must get discouraged because more people believe in Santa Claus than in you. Well, let's face it; Santa Claus has had more publicity, but being #2, perhaps you try harder. 

Everyone tells me you are a fake, but I believe in you. 

P.S.: If you really are a fake, don't tell me. I don't wanna know.