Recent conversations

Addie was practicing her letters and Dave was asking her what words and names started with "D". Then she said "My name has a D."
Dave: "Yeah, your name has 2 Ds in it."
Addie (in a very offended voice): "My name doesn't have tooties in it!"

When Addie was potty training we really struggled with getting her to poop in the potty. Some kids will hold it forever and make themselves sick. Not Addie. She would just go in her panties. So whenever I would smell anything I would ask "Do you need to go poo poo or just gas." She would usually answer "just gas". So the other day Dave was explaining how the car works and he said it runs on gas and she literally laughed about it for 5 minutes.

Addie was coming down the stairs.
Addie: "Look, mom, I'm missing steps."
Mom: "Oh, yeah, you're skipping steps. That's pretty tricky."
Addie: "Pretty familiar, too."

Ben Weeks 1-3

Thank you so much, mom, for coming to help me! We all loved having you here and miss you!


Good Big Sister
She just gets a little distracted by the camera...
My skinny little boy


He still sleeps almost all of the time.

We love this new addition to our family! (Sorry about the random order and poor picture quality. Blogger won't let me move pictures and my camera's flash makes Ben close his eyes so if he's awake, I have to turn off the flash.)

Benjamin Peter Reese

Born January 6, 2009 4:06am.
5lbs 15 oz
We are loving every moment with this sweet little boy.

We Don't Get Out Much

Yesterday as I was getting Addison out of the car at Costco she said this to me:
"I'm just so excited to go to the store. Thanks, mom. Thanks for taking me to the store."
She said it in such a sweet voice, too.

Living in the "Big House"

As many of you know,we recently moved to a new house (new to us anyway). We bought a foreclosure home just 3-4 miles from our old house. During the process of buying Addison and I had to make frequent trips to the new house to meet different people who were checking or fixing things. I found it hard to explain to a 2 year old what this new place was so we started calling it the "Big House" because it is so much bigger than our old house. We moved in about 3 weeks ago and only then did it occur to me that "Big House" didn't sound right, but the name has stuck. Addie still refuses to call this our house. It's still the "Big House". And big it is, but we are hoping to grow into it someday.

Family Room

Family Room from Kitchen

Master Bedroom

Empty Formal Dining Room

Empty Formal Living Room (someday this room will have a loveseat and piano)

Empty Loft area

Another view of the loft

My favorite room of the house, the big empty bonus room or "game room" as we call it.

Did you see a trend there at the end? A lot of empty rooms. I'm sure it will be that way for a while. But we are enjoying our new house and neighborhood, but miss our old friends. But we're not far away...

I know I didn't post a picture of my kitchen, but it would have taken too much effort to get it straightened enough to take a picture. I decided I had put off posting about the house long enough and we'd have to do without a picture of my kitchen.

Encouragement

I overheard this conversation this morning between Addie and her favorite stuffed animal "white doggie" or "doggie".
"Moo, moo."
"Doggies don't say moo, doggie, doggies say woof."
"Say "moo" doggie. "Moo".
"Good job, doggie, good job."
Then she turned to her blanket.
"Say baa, blanket, say baa."
"Baa"
"Good job blanket. I'm so proud of you."
Not only does my child talk to her blanket, but she thinks it talks back to her and makes her very proud. What a funny girl.

Our Trip to Utah

We were lucky enough to be able to go to Utah for Christmas this year. My mom had a little party with all my sisters and I and our families the day after we arrived. We also had family pictures taken, but I haven't received them yet. I'll post some when I get them.

Here are Jessica, Mark, Frank and my dad anxiously awaiting the re-enactment of the Nativity.

The whole crew...Addie and Ladd decided not to particpate and my brother-in-law Doug begged to be Joseph, so the numbers worked out perfectly.

Then we sang some carols.

After a few days with my parents we drove down to Spanish Fork to see Dave's parents. Grandma and Grandpa took Addie to Build-A-Bear!

She had a blast playing in the snow. Thank goodness for older cousins who had warm snow clothes for her to borrow.

Who needs a hill when Grandpa will push us down the driveway?

Christmas Morning

All of Dave's siblings were somewhere else this year, so it was just us with his parents and Mimi. It was quiet, but really nice. Addison was spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa.

Dave and I are her parents, so she will have to learn to save and budget money. You can never learn too early. She got her first piggy bank.

Four Generations

Later Christmas Day we drove to my sister Rachel's house in Heber for some snowmobiling. It turned out to be a really stormy day and super cold, so no one wanted to even go outside. We ended up staying in and eating soup. The guys played Dance Dance Revolution and I'm proud to report that Dave's clogging lessons at Rick's College paid off. He had the high score. We also played Celestial Mates with all the couples, which was more fun than I expected. I'm so glad I got to see my family a little bit more before we had to go home. I apparently am too relaxed and busy talking when with my family because I took almost no pictures with them.

Addison playing the Wii (but not really). She had so much fun with Savannah. She kept talking about her for at least a week after we got back.

Grandma and Grandpa reading to Addie our last night in Utah.

So that was our trip. I threw in this last picture because I've been pretty impressed with how good Addison has been at playing by herself since we've been back. Maybe she's finally learning to play on her own a bit. I found her like this a few days ago. I think she was telling her animals stories, probably about our trip.

December at a Glance

Christmas has come and gone and there is a ton of stuff (mostly pictures) I never blogged about. It's been a bit of a crazy month and after today, it's over.

Fun with Friends

Loving the New Christmas Tree (thanks Mom and Dad)

Ward Christmas Party:

Dave dancing while wearing a sombrero with the rest of the bishopric.

Who is this guy??

I guess I can tolerate this, as long as there's candy involved.

Addie's Christmas Dress

Mom wanted a picture without the beloved blanket...





She finally got over it.

Roomies!!

Dave and I had our old roommates (who are now married) come for a visit. We were lucky enough that Eric had a 2 week conference here in town or I don't know if we would ever have gotten them here. Last time they came it was July...enough said. We had such a good time with them.

We took a day trip to the Grand Canyon, which turned out to be a really long day with lots of driving, but it was fun. Though I've seen it many times, it never ceases to amaze me. On the way we played name that tune/artist while the kids screamed in the back seat. Good times!

When we arrived we had a little picnic lunch and then went to the Grand Canyon Village to see some views.

This is our friends on the shuttle bus to the trailhead. Matthew was a little cold.

Good thing we have strong husbands to carry the kids! The kids did great on the hike.

We hiked down about 1.5 miles then stopped for a break before heading back up. Where is our child you ask when this photo was being taken?

Playing in the dirt of course. She couldn't be bothered with a good photo opportunity.

The next day was spent at the park and then in playing pinochle. Dave and I learned how to play this game when we went to Oregon with Eric and Jen last March. Jen and I were wary to play again because it wasn't a fun experience (we always play boys vs. girls in any game we play). But we decided our luck had to turn eventually. Just for the record, we won 2 games out of 3 this time! We are the champs. (And I have it recorded so there will be no mistake about it next time we get together.)

Eric had to leave for his conference the next day, but Jen stayed for another couple of days which we spent shopping and just spending time together. I love this girl, and her little boy. He couldn't get enough of this giant teddy bear. It was adorable.

Thanks so much for coming to visit! We had a great time. And thanks, Dave, for putting up with the girl time. We had a lot of catching up to do.