Santa

Ok, so I obviously failed at catching up on the blog last week. Oh well, life goes on. I will do my best this week. Here are our pictures from when we took the kids to see Santa. Addie got to go see Santa last year and didn't like or dislike it. This year, that was Levi. Addie definitely disliked Santa this year. But, he seemed to get over it quickly because Addie got plenty of presents!

Here is our little Santa:
Just Levi with Santa:

Not being brave for her little brother:

Santa held on tight and this is the best pic we got of the 2 kids with him:

After the traumatic experience with Santa, we weren't sure if Addie would want to ride the train in the mall or not, but she got right on-all by herself:

Riding:

Christmas #1...Mills River, NC

We have had a busy last week and a half, so I'm going to try to get caught up on here this week before more stuff happens that I will post about. So for today, I'll post pictures from Christmas #1. Since we knew we would be gone for Christmas and would not have enough room in our car for some bigger presents for our kids, we decided to have a Christmas celebration at home last Monday morning (it helped that Bob was off work also). Once the kids were up, fed, and dressed, we took them into the living room where we had rearranged the furniture and put out some wrapped presents for each of the kids. We had no idea how Addie would do with opening presents-last time she had a present to open, she didn't open it. But, apprently she learned about presents since then because she was all about ripping into them. We didn't even get a "before" picture of Addie with her unopened gifts:
Levi was very patient and waited for Addie to finish before he started the unwrapping process:

And here he is with his new stuff:

And Addie with her newly opened toys:

Addie also liked what Levi got:

We attempted a picture of the 2 kids together under the tree, but this picture was way better:

For those of you who haven't heard of a plasma car, it is awesome-fun for all ages. We thought Addie would take a little while to figure out the concept since it's not like any other toy she has riden, but she caught on the same day she got it (you can't tell in this picture, though). The child (or adult-Bob and I have both gone for a ride on it) puts their feet up on the car and uses his/her hand on the steering wheel and turns it back and forth quickly to make the car go. It's a lot of fun!

We braved the cold to take a ride in the wagon (notice the remains of our snowman in the background):

I'll try to update soon with pictures of going to see Santa as well as Christmas #2.

Snow!

The snow is here! We have been living in Asheville for the past 9 months or so and have wondered what winter would be like here. Last year, Asheville apparently got more snow than usual, so we didn't know what to expect. And, though winter has not officially begun yet, I think it is going to be another snowy winter here. We have already had 2 snows and it is only mid-December. The snow unexpectedly came during the night Saturday night and church was cancelled everywhere. So, we headed out to play in the snow. Addie loved it, but had some trouble with her winter gloves...we were not prepared for her to play with snow apparently. We're working on it, though, since it looks like we are going to have lots of it over the next few months-we have 2 chances for it before this coming Sunday! Here are some pics I got from our fun:
Levi was a trooper. I kept having to bend down to help Addie get up out of the snow, or to put her soaking wet gloves back on, but he didn't whine at all.

Loving every minute of it:

Building a snowman with the neighbors:

I'm sure there will be many more snowy pictures!

Talking

Addie's latest thing is definitely talking. I'm sure that will continue for a long, long time...hopefully using our language, English, more than her own little Addie language that she often likes to use these days. Recently, she has been waiting at the door for Daddy to get home in the late afternoon, and as soon as he opens the door, she starts telling him all about her day. It's awesome-Daddy can't even get a word in because she talks so much. Not that he even knows what she is saying, but that is okay. On another note, Pops and Dottie came down for a visit last weekend, which was fun, though Daddy was sick while they were here (thankfully the rest of us have not had the stomach bug he had). So, here are more recent pics. And, as a sidenote for anyone interested, you can order 50 free prints with free shipping at Snapfish.com today using the coupon code HPINK50 at checkout. So, that is 50 pictures totally free-I just did it!

Here is Addie modeling a Christmas hat she is borrowing from her cousin Michaela. And yes, she is sitting in Levi's Bumbo seat-one of her favorite places to sit right now. It is amazing how appealing Levi's baby stuff is to her now that she is 20 months old:
Dottie with Levi:

Levi with Pops:

The kiddos with Mommy:

Addie catching up on the news:

Levi enjoying his Bumbo seat (thanks, Emily!):

All bundled up. When we got inside, I asked Addie if she wanted to take off her coat, hat, and she shoes. She replied "no." So, she stayed bundled for a while as she played indoors.

Matching siblings:

This video somewhat shows Addie's new love of talking...to her brother. Maybe she thinks he can understand her better that we can since he make similar noises as her sometimes. At least Levi seemed interested and entertained by what she had to say-I have a feeling she will be talking to him a lot in the years to come (most likely telling him what to do if Addie is anything like her mommy was with Uncle Nate).

Recent pics

I know it has been a few weeks now since I last posted on the blog. Sorry about that. Just to update, the 4 of us went down to Atlanta the weekend before Thanksgiving for Logan's 1st birthday party (Addie and Levi's cousin). I then stayed in Atlanta until the following Friday with the kids while Bob came back up to Asheville to work Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. It was a fun week, but also tiring (of course) and we were glad to be back at home on black Friday. I would post pictures from Logan's party and Thanksgiving, but I somehow didn't take hardly any-it was a busy week! So, here are some random pictures of the kids from the past few weeks.

Addie likes to read books to Levi lots of times:

Just hanging out together:

Our happy, growing boy:

Happy birthday Logan!

"Helping" decorate the Christmas tree:

Happy with Daddy...Levi definitely seems to be a Daddy's boy:

Showing off in his exersaucer...something we pulled out last week and are glad we did because he loves it!

Siblings:

And we also pulled out the walker:

Trying on Daddy's hat: