Christmas Decorations

My mom was sad that we hadn't put our Christmas decorations up and weren't going to before she left from visiting down here.  So I thought I'd be nice and put some pictures up for her to see.

About 90% of the decor is in our family room.  But that's where we spend most of our time, so I like it being around. 

This year we got a bigger artificial tree. (7 1/2 feet tall) I also decided to try a new method of putting the lights on...and it took 9 strands of lights and about 2 hours.  I may go back to the old way next year. :)

Also, there's an angel on top of the tree, but I accidentally cut it off in the picture.

The mantle

All the family room shelves

And there we have it.  There are a couple little things in other places around the house, but I didn't feel like taking individual pictures of them. :)  We still have to decide if we're up to putting lights up outside.  With the freezing cold weather that came in, it seems less appealing to be out there setting lights up.  If it warms up, maybe we will.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday Addison

Addison turned 4 on November 30th. Who knew we'd survive this long?!  KIDDING (sort of...)

Addison is a very spunky, stubborn, sweet, silly, dramatic, happy child.  She keeps us on our toes at all times but we can't imagine life without her.

She had a nice little birthday party with her St. George cousins and my parents - who were down visiting to have Thanksgiving with Emily.

Anyway, here are pictures from her fun day!
A big thanks to my dad for taking a bunch of pictures before I finally got my camera out!

My parents took Addison shopping for her to choose her own present.

Posing in front of her presents

 The girls all together
(it was a joint party for her and Marty...thus the Superman and Birthday Boy bags)

Her giant cupcake cake that my mom made for her.
(I wasn't feeling the best and mentioned I'd probably order a cake.  So my mom offered to make this instead.  Addison LOVED it.)

Molly enjoyed trying to blow up the balloons.

The kids - minus one cousin, Kennedy, who was too busy eating to be bothered with being in the picture.

We laughed about this picture...she looks like a vampire.

Opening presents

She was so excited about what Claire got her that she jumped over and hugged her without anyone saying anything.  Too cute!

One of her new dress up dresses

The Jack-in-the-box she's been asking for forever.

Happy Birthday sweet Addison!  We sure love you!

Claire lost a tooth!

Well, it finally happened.  Claire lost her first tooth!

She's been anxiously waiting for this day, because being in 1st grade, most of her friends have already lost at least one tooth.

Lucky for her, she has the awesome dental genes from me . . . note the heavy sarcasm . . . and so the permanent tooth was growing in behind the baby one, LONG before the baby one was loose enough to come out.

She was so brave about it, always letting us pull and twist as much as we wanted.  She decided she wanted to do the floss on the door thing, and so we did.  She was so excited to get $2 from the tooth fairy (because of it being her first tooth) and a note as well.

She just informed me yesterday that the tooth next to it also is getting loose...and the permanent one is growing in behind it as well.  

I guess she's our little shark girl. :)

You can see the permanent tooth is practically grown in already.  Oh well...orthodontia here we come!

Writing a note to the tooth fairy.

So crazy to have our second child entering this phase now.  When did they get so grown up??

Pudding, part II

You'd think we would have learned our lesson about giving Molly pudding...but apparently not.

In our defense, she had started to get a little better about eating more cleanly (with all food)...and now she has decided playing with ALL her food is a joy.  

*Random thought* Molly has started eating cereal with milk, and doing really well.  But lately, she picks up the bowl, drinks all the milk out and then plays with the cereal when she's done.  A couple days ago she dumped the bowl of cereal over her head.  But then other days she eats dainty and clean, so we never know what to expect.  

THIS KID!!

Anyway, back to the point.  I guess we did learn one lesson from last time, we were smart enough to take her shirt off BEFORE she made a mess.

We let her play for a while, because she was having so much fun.  Then we did a little rock/paper/scissors to see who the poor soul was that had to clean her up.

I lost.

I think we'll take a break on the pudding for now.