It's a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

This year, Addysen was old enough to watch the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special...and she was VERY excited to get to watch a "movie!" We got the girls in their comfy pj's and I made popcorn and we watched the show together as a family. Such a special time...love my family and sweet time together getting ready for the holidays!

Discovery!

I had to share my new discovery in case it could help someone else! Maybe I'm the last to learn this, but did you know that cereal box liners (the inner bag) work like wax paper?? I was out of wax paper and needed it to make something this morning...so I did what I always do...google what to use in place of wax paper and found this awesome solution!! Can't believe how well it worked! I'll be saving those liners from now on and not paying extra for wax paper!

Bath Time!

Blue Ridge Parkway

The Blue Ridge Parkway is an over 450 mile drive from North Carolina to Virginia going through mountains, trees and just beautiful scenery. Two weekends ago, we went on a small portion of the drive. Although some of the leaves had already fallen, it was still incredibly beautiful and there were still so many colors!

We stopped at a lodge along the way so I could feed Haven and we could get out and walk around a bit. Inside they had some Lincoln Logs which kept Addysen occupied for a while!

It was a beautiful place to walk around outside...lots of trees, a lake, etc.

This was my attempt at a picture with Addysen...nearly impossible anymore!

I think it was at this point that I stopped taking pictures and let Addysen know she was getting a bit too close to the water! :-)

So thankful for God's creation and thankful for the time to take that drive in the fall while the colors were so beautiful!

Rolling - In Action!

I'm quite delayed in getting a video of this on the blog, but better late than never! Less than a week after Haven learned to roll from back to tummy, she learned to also roll from tummy to back so she's quite the little mover now! Here's our little roly poly...in action!

Jeff's Birthday

We got to celebrate Jeff's birthday at the beginning of the month. Although Jeff had to work on his birthday, but we had a really nice evening, just enjoying time together! Addysen helped me put up some decorations during the day...but then she pulled a bunch of them down about 2 minutes after Jeff got home that night! :-)

All Jeff wanted for his birthday this year was time with his girls...such a great Daddy...

I made dinner and then we had french silk pie for his birthday desert (despite this being my favorite desert, I promise it was his choice! Not that I complained...ha!)

Addysen was very excited that Daddy let her help blow out the candles!

Addysen was so funny eating her pie. She got so excited we put whipped cream on top that all she ate was the whipped cream...she would spoon it off and ask for more cream.

This is Addysen's pie after she was done...about the same as when we gave it to her...minus the whipped cream! Ha! This girl sure loves whipped cream!

We love you so much, Jeff! I'm so blessed to have a husband like you and our girls are so blessed to have such a wonderful Daddy! Thanks for all your love to all 3 of us!

Day after Halloween

The day after Halloween, Addysen decided she wanted to wear her tu-tu that her Auntie Em made her...so we extended Halloween by a day and she got to dress up again...this time as a ballerina! :-) Here's our ballerina eating her 1 candy she picked out for the day...smarties!

More Addysen"isms"

A few funny things Addysen is saying right now...

Addysen calls the remote the "Tamote"

Addysen calls Pluto on Mickey Mouse clubhouse "Pludog" (appropriate considering he's a dog :-) )

Addysen loves to spell her name all the time. She spells it minus one "d" and will say "A-d-y-s-e-n, Addysen!" However, she now thinks that's how everyone spells their name so she will say "A-d-y-s-e-n, Cassandra!" or "A-d-y-s-e-n, Mommy!"

Last weekend Jeff took Addysen to McDonalds for breakfast. When they got home I asked Addysen where they went to which she responded "Old McDonalds!" Wonder if they had a farm there? :-)

Addysen is very concerned about what Jeff wants to drink for dinner. When I ask what he wants to drink, she'll run up to him and ask "Do you want a Coke, Daddy?" or "Do you want some water, Daddy?"

Any time I say "Ow!" (which happens a decent amount around here!), Addysen will always right away come to where I am and ask in her sweet, very concerned voice "Are you ok Mommy?" and then wants to kiss whatever I hurt.

Last Sunday at church, the girls and I were outside waiting for Jeff. Addysen was playing by some trees and bushes on this little hill right beside an area set up with tables, etc. for people to fellowship after church. Addysen went to the top of the hill, turns and looks at me and says (quite loudly I might add) "Mommy. Come here right now!" Nice. :-)

Yesterday, Addysen was helping me with some things around the house. She stops at one point and says "I'm proud of you, Mommy!"

5 Months

Our sweet Haven turned 5 months old last week...hard to believe! I was in a nursing Mom's room at church today and there was an 11 day old baby in there...I looked at him and was baffled at how much Haven's grown in such a short period of time!

A few fun things about Haven at 5 months...

Oh, the noises! Haven makes so many noises! She does so much squeaking and squawking, it's great! Though she does laugh some, her main sound of excitement is either a high pitched scream or squeal! She has the sweetest noises...can't help but smile when you hear her noises!

Haven is quite the roly poly! She now rolls both ways so watch out...she loves to practice this new skill every time she's on the ground! It's fun to see her determination come out when from time to time, she'll struggle to get over that arm and works hard until she gets it!

Haven has started anticipating things she thinks are funny. Prime example is I love to kiss her belly...and I'll tell her "Mommy's going to kiss your belly!" and her arms and legs will both go up towards me and she'll squeal in anticipation...so cute!

Haven has the most beautiful smiles...and is at the stage where she gives the hugest smiles every time she sees Jeff or me.

Love, love, love our sweet 5 month old...our precious Haven doll...

(Couldn't decide on which pic I liked the most so just posted them all...LOVE those beautiful blue eyes!!)

Durabond...GONE!

I'm almost a month behind on posting this, but had to document how long it took for Addysen's durabond to FINALLY come completely off her wound by her eye. They told us in the ER that it would come off in 5-7 days...just over 6 WEEKS later it finally came off!! Ugh! She does have a red line from the where the gash was, but we're hoping that will fade with time and she will hopefully have no lingering scar.

Mommy

There's nothing better than being these 2 precious little girls' Mommy...nothing!

Sweats

Having another girl and now having our things from the POD where Addysen's baby clothes were, I get to dress Haven in some of the clothes that Addysen wore as a baby! They grow so fast in the first year that it seems like you only get to see an outfit a couple times and they've grown out if it...so it's fun to get to use them again!

These were a couple of my favorite sweats on Addysen...and they're now a couple of my favorites on Haven! Comfy and cute!

Beaters

"Cleaning" the beaters is definitely the best part of baking!! :-)

Such a Daddy's Girl!

It's Official...

...all our "stuff" is now in ONE state!! :-) After the crazy year we've had, we've had things all over this country, but a couple weeks ago, Jeff went down to Atlanta to pick up the remaining things we had left in Colorado. My Uncle, who lives in Atlanta, had driven a large truck with other things back from Colorado and was kind enough to let us put our things on there as well so Jeff could just drive a truck from Atlanta (about 7 hours) instead of Colorado (about 26 hours)!

Hopefully this is the last moving truck we'll see at least for a little while!!! Addysen was pretty excited about the "big truck" Daddy was driving...and even more excited when she saw the ramp come down...looked like a slide to a 2 year old! :-)

Haven hanging out in her carseat in the driveway while we unloaded...

This was the box Addysen was most excited about...the remaining toys and stuffed animals we had left in Colorado that we didn't have room to bring back. I ended up turning the box over and letting her have at it while I opened other boxes...she had a ball!

It was so funny...probably the thing Addysen was most excited about after we got things out was that we had 2 play mats now. She couldn't wait to get the one we had in Colorado out and put right next to the one that had come in the POD...one for her and one for Haven. Ha! :-)