Bring It On!

Our newest venture with Addison is Cheer and it's been a great experience for her (and us) thus far. It's a lot of tumbling, good exercise, four good friends from our ward and really close to our house. We were a little fearful that she had inherited my super uncoordinated body, but she's worked hard and things are coming along. She can't hardly walk without doing a cartwheel or round off, she finally mastered a back bend and is working on her back walkovers.

(Turns out it was really hard to get a picture of all four girls looking and smiling.)

I really thought we had made a good move with Cheer until I went to our first Cheerleading Competition. The movie, Bring It On, seems to be a pretty accurate description of what we got ourselves into. Luckily we were 3rd to perform, took some pictures and headed to IHOP with 3 of the 4 families from our ward. 6 adults and 2 babies at one table and 7 extra hyper kids at their own table eating chocolate pancakes with bowls of extra chocolate chips, whipped cream and syrup . . . but we did draw the line at soda for breakfast. It was definitely one way to the end the morning . . . I don't know if I'd say it was a great way to end the morning, but there was a lot of laughing none the less.

Here's to several more competitions coming over the next few months (and maybe Mimi's next time).

Christmas Come and Gone!

Christmas was great! It just gets better and better watching the kids-especially since there's 3 of them now. Plus Ryan and Kendall were here from Ohio.

We still have Christmas at my Mom's so we headed over for Christmas Eve fondue dinner, sugar cookies, games, the nativity and fun . . .

My mom has collected quite the set of costumes now . . .

Santa came with a fun little project that looked like it took some time to put together. I'm guessing it was a really fun project for him and his helper late at night, tired and impatient . . . just a guess though. It was the best purchase ever from last year's HUGE amazon deals. I kind of forgot about it in the abyss of the basement until we finally finished the carpet. So that was fun and quite the surprise.

Addison got the Webkins Kitten she wanted (originally she wanted a real kitty) . . .

Olivia got the Strawberry Shortcake doll she was dying for . . .

Drew was the cutest, playing with my camera string, shrieking and watching.

Lots and lots of new dress up gear (a girl can NEVER have too much) . . .
And new clothes-Olivia thought this was a dress not a shirt . . .
The girls got down to business opening presents and then playing ALL day until midnight with no naps (the next day was a dream for the girl drama). All in all it was a great year and I could not have done it without Amazon free 2 day shipping. I was sitting thinking about how impressed I was with myself for actually being fairly ready for Christmas and then I realized that I did 95% of my shopping online. I find the kid less shopping where I just step out onto my doorstep once or twice a day to be the chosen way to happiness.

Merry Christmas!

We delivered some gifts the other night that we left on the doorstep and I had to run back to the car . . .

Addison: Wow, I didn't think that was going to work because I didn't know if Mom could run!

Upon a little further discussion, she did mean in the snow and ice.

The Big Bum and The Little Bum

When you have a new baby, all of the sudden, your previous baby has a big bum, since the new bum is so tiny.

Olivia is completely potty trained (including nights) but still wears a diaper to bed. It's a little extra unnecessary expense I like to throw into the budget. Addison still wears some "protective bottoms" because she is an EXTREMELY heavy sleeper, so Olivia is dead set that she still needs to wear a diaper too. It makes sense since she's 3 and Addie is 6. She re-uses hers and we are for sure on our LAST box on Size 5 for her.

Let's Go {PLEASE}!

This is why we can never get out the door.

Olivia, can you go get your coat and shoes and get ready to go. And . . . .

She's READY . . .

Ready for what, I'm not sure.

10 minutes later . . .

FINALLY!

Fun and Freezing

Friday night we went to Lisa's boyfriend's choir concert, dinner,

Temple Square where we froze our butts off (not really, but it would have been nice)

except for Drew who stayed pretty toasty (and so cute),

and I really had no problem wearing this "ear band" around the whole night in an effort to stay warm.

and then we randomly ran into Ansen's cousin Maury, Virgina and the kids up from AZ. It was such a surprise, so great to see them and fun to catch up.

And then for hot chocolate at Crown Burgers (yeah, they sell hot chocolate). We waited for 15 minutes while someone in the back opened little packets and mixed up each individual cup for only $1.50 per cup. They were all varying degrees of temperatures when we finally got them.

and DRUMMMMMMM ROLL PLEASE . . .

For the FIRST TIME EVER in Olivia's life, she fell asleep in the thick of the "action" right in the middle of the restaurant. Seriously, NEVER happened.

It was short lived since as soon as we got in the car she was asking for a movie and thought it was a joke ("Is that a joke Mom?") that she fell asleep.

"When Chris comes over . . . "

Olivia's new line is, "When Chris comes over . . . " Poor thing has no idea about the concept that Chris lives in D.C. and it was a miracle to see him twice in 3 months.

We had fun with Chris again of course and we made it to In and Out before he left and 72 grams of fat later we left. We enjoyed the food and then read the Nutritional Guide and then I decided I probably should be done with In and Out (and to be fair, all fast food).

Drew: 6 Months

So Drew . . . now we're thinking he won't have red hair afterall and he is still a dreamboat of a baby-such a good sleeper, so mellow and so giggly. He's my little bitty baby though. The girls were both always in the 90th percentile or off the charts in weight and height, but he's just our little cuddly guy.

This picture was right at 6 months in his cute little blessing outfit my mom made him. I waited until both the girls were sitting for theirs so I decided to wait on him too.

Weight: 17 # 4.5 oz (48%)

Height: 27 1/2" (76%)

Accomplishments: Sits but still really tippy, recognizes his Mom, plays with toys, can roll but never does, he eats food, can now throw his body around for the things he wants, he plays peek-a-boo with the blanket (he's laughing while he struggles to get the blanket pulled off)

Why We Love Him Right Now: He finally enjoys Olivia's company, he has cute fuzzy hair that sticks out, his ears still poke out, he breaths through his nose really loud when he's feeling emotion (excited, sad, hungry), he giggles until it sounds like he's gargling, he has grabby hands that somehow get everything, he likes to snuggle into my hair, he is a definite binky baby, he shrieks the cutest shriek and he is SO content all the time or sleeping.

His Nicknames: Shnookie, DrewB, Buster, Bubbsie, Little Man and Captain Spit Up

Halloween is Over?

Addison got this little cutie at the ward Halloween Party

and these beauties from school with her tickets

(yes, she turned in her earned tickets for pink vampire teeth).

I didn't know it, but she's been wearing the witch finger and teeth at school, during class for the last several weeks. She just likes to "slip them on for a little while during the day." I only learned of this the morning she couldn't find her teeth to put in her backpack (she wears them around the house too) and then when her real finger started peeling and cracking from sweating inside the plastic witch finger.

I think that I remember wetting down paper towels and making a mask to wear the rest of the afternoon because my face was hot from running at recess. There were about 5 or 6 of us that did it so I wasn't the only weirdo.

Kids?!