Easter

We had a great Easter celebration. Addie was blessed to have both sets of grandparents here to spoil her and love on her. For days after Easter she keep saying the Easter bunny brought her random things from around the house :) She had fun prepping for Easter making cupcakes, dying eggs, baking and decorating cookies, and loved finding her Easter basket. Easter wasn't all about candy, eggs, and baskets- she has been yelling "Jesus is alive" from her bed at night- precious!

Our creative genius

 

Addie is quite the creative girl. She loves doing anything arts & crafts related, loves dance & music, and loves cooking. She is typically quite neat but when glitter or flour is involved she goes wild... I'm crazy for letting her do it but sometimes you just have to let them get out their creative energy and get ready for some serious clean up afterwards. I had to capture the times when I let her do her thing without constant redirection, guidance, and structure.

Indy with the cousins

A few weeks ago we went to Indianapolis to visit one of my cousins and met up with Michael, Jill, & the kids there. We had a fun filled weekend of sledding and playing. Thanks to James and Lisa for graciously hosting all of us- we had six kids under one roof all under the age of 5... and it was much less chaotic than expected! We even managed to get all of the great grandkids on one couch for a picture- now that's an accomplishment!


All 6 grandkids


Snow Angels


Sledding Fun



Girl time

Daddy Daughter Dance Night

Our church had a daddy daughter dance night around Valentine's Day and Cor took Addie... she talked about it for weeks leading up to it and now for weeks later. They went out to dinner and then had a fun night of dancing, candy, stickers, and desserts! Addie keeps asking Cory to take her to another dance :)

 

Oh boy Oh boy!

"This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes." Psalm 118:23

We are thrilled to report that we are having a little boy! Hope he is ready to have dollie parties, play dress ups, and do crafts with his big sister! We are so thankful that we got a healthy report from the ultrasound. When we asked Addie whether she wanted a baby brother or baby sister she kept on saying baby sister... when we told her that she is going to have a little brother she said no girl! No girl! Good thing we have a few months to help her warm up to the idea :) She has already come around... She is really in tune to the fact that there is a baby in my belly. She tickles my belly and says she is getting the baby, hands things to my belly, and tells it to come out. We are confident she will be an awesome big sister. We're keeping the name a secret but if you have any input feel free to let us know! I have to start getting busy figuring out how to degirl the nursery and make it boy friendly! It will be fun to give the nursery a facelift. Our hearts are overjoyed that our little baby seems healthy and we are excited to figure out how to love on a BOY!

Here he is:

A Magical Journey... ha ha ha

Back in November we took Addie to Disney World. It was a special trip because it was our way of celebrating me being done with school and passing boards, and spending time together as a family. We met my parents and Bry down there for a long weekend and had a blast. Addie was not really familiar with anything Disney so I had her watch Mickey Mouse before we went and started telling her about princesses :) She caught on quickly... We went to Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Some of her faves from the weekend: swimming around in the pool, eating ice cream Uncle Bry style, the fireworks display, the Dumbo ride and the It's a Small World Ride, Minnie ears, her snow white princess, meeting the Disney characters, seeing the parades, getting an umbrella, seeing the castle where the princesses live, the monorail and tram, the warmth and sunshine, sporting her shades, carousel rides, dancing around, and being the center of attention. Cory and I aren't big Disney people but it was really fun to see the excitement and awe that Addie had when we were there.




Click below to check out some more pics from our trip...

A future makeup artist

If anyone is in need of a makeover Addie will be more than thrilled to do it! I was putting makeup on, and she wanted to do the same, so I let her use an older lipstick pallet. I decided to let her do her thing and this is the final result. She went wild!!!

Merry Christmas!

Gratitude...

We all have so much to be thankful for... Thanksgiving is a great time to reflect on all of the blessings we have. Our most exciting blessing we have to share is that I'm pregnant!!! My due date is June 3rd. Addie is very excited to be a big sister. She is very into the idea there will be a baby around (she is baby obsessed!). She told me the other day that she wants the baby to come out now so she can kiss it... I told her the baby had a lot of growing to do :) So that's my excuse for having been MIA from blogging and life in general the past few months :) I have much to update on and will get around it it one of these days...

Oxford, MS

Cor, Addie, & I did a roadtrip to Oxford, MS to go visit our dear friends Jim, Mitzi, & sweet Mia back in October. It was so much fun to go down there and visit and to get a dose of southern hospitality and Ole Miss football. If you have never experienced a football game in The Grove you're missing out! I have never seen anything like it. The girls were decked out in dresses and wearing 3in+ heels even though it was muddy and cold out- crazy to someone who's all about comfort! The tents were southern to the max- with chandeliers, Rebles decor, food on silver and ceramic platters, and some even had flat screen TVs. It was quite an experience... Addie loved the football game, but was a HUGE fan of the band. Perhaps we have a marching band girl in our future? We went to a pumpkin patch and the girls had a blast running around. Thanks so much to the Morrison's for hosting us for the weekend. It's always a blast to catch up and get together.

Halloween Fun

Addison was a strawberry for Halloween this year. She loved trick or treating despite the wind and cold. She loved carving pumpkins with Grammy last week (thanks for coming out Mom!) and loved to sport her strawberry costume in the days leading up to Halloween. She yelled that she wants to be spider man next year- we have an interesting little girl on our hands! She did see a few spider mans out this year so I hope her mini obsession fades quickly and by next year we can be something a little bit more fitting for Miss Addie.

Fun with pumpkins


Proud of her pumpkin creations


A Park Playdate in Costume


Our little strawberry


Trick or Treating


Out and about


Fun with Luke


Addie eating her Loot

Fun in the Windy City

Last weekend we had a blast taking Addison on the el and having fun downtown. She is obsessed with trains and was so excited to go back on the el. We went to the American Girl Place and she went crazy running all around and was mesmerized by all the dollies everywhere. She enjoyed the great Magnificant Mile street performers and kept yelling "more more" each time we tried to leave. We finished our night off at Portillos and she was a big fan of her hat. The next day my dad flew into town for business and came a day early to hang out. Addie is smitten for Pappy and Pappy is quite smitten with Addie as well!

Hallelujah for finger puppets!

I walked into the room and found Cor and Addie singing a song and having their finger puppets dance a jig! PRECIOUS!!!