Let it Snow!

We had our first real snow last Thursday and as soon as Addie saw it coming down early that morning, she immediately put on her new snow boots, mittens, and fleece hooded jacket and claimed that she was ready to go "snowing".....well before 8:00 a.m.

Rather than waiting until Chris got home from work that evening to venture out into the fluffy white stuff, we bundled up right after lunch and headed out to play. I'm not sure if the 20 minutes of getting ready was worth the 10 minutes we played, but it was fun (cold, but fun) and both girls napped very well that afternoon :)

All bundled up!

Making a snow angel: this was the first thing she did when she stepped foot in the snow ;)

Taste-testing the snowflakes

The snow stuck around (and is still here today) over the weekend so we decided to take the girls on an impromptu sledding adventure over at Chris's dad's house on Saturday. Bundling up was a little quicker this time since Daddy was here to help and we loaded into the van and headed over to check out the big hill! We all took turns on the purple sled and Chris and Addie occasionally went down on the toboggan together, racing Lydia and I. Although it was VERY cold (like 18 degrees cold), both the girls LOVED their time sledding.

Lydia's sledding debut video...and I know you can't tell by her facial expression here, but she had a blast and wanted to go again and again when we got back to the top of the hill!

Addie turned 3!!!

With our Little Bear having a birthday 2 days after Christmas, we try very hard to make it special for her. So.....on December 26th, the tree and all the Christmas decorations come down and get boxed up until next year. It's kind of funny because Addie acts very sad to see "her" Christmas tree get dragged out the back door, but I don't think she fully realizes that we do that to prepare ourselves for another big celebration!

This year was a bit different than other birthdays for her because her birthday fell on a Sunday and that just so happened to be the day when ALL of my mom's family (who ALL live out of town, other than Grandma and Grandpa) were in town getting together for Christmas. So we had to be a little creative in how we made this day special for Addie....and I'm pretty sure she had a fabulous day!

We started the day by letting her go to the Donut Bank with Daddy to pick out her own donut. Rather than packing all of us up to go eat AT the DB with the Sunday morning (and holiday) crowd, we decided we would all enjoy our donuts at home. After eating her donuts at the "Princess Table" (which was just the kitchen table decorated with all sorts of "princess-y" stuff), she got to open her presents from us. "Princess" was definitely the theme this year, as she received Cinderella figurines, a Princess Glitter Glue set, and a few books, including "Fancy Nancy" and "Pinkalicious" (which are her new favorites!).


At church, we got to sit with our ENTIRE Downing family (which I might say, filled up the first 3 pews on both sides of the church!!!). After church, we let Addie choose what she would like for lunch so we made our stop at McDonald's to pick up her Happy Meal :) When I asked her what kind of cake she wanted me to make for her birthday this year, she said, "Chocolate with strawberry icing".....and so, that's what she got. Although the combination was a bit interesting to Chris and I, she LOVED it which is all that mattered! Here is our princess, blowing out her THREE candles.


We all enjoyed a good nap after lunch and then we headed over to my parents' house to gather with the Downing family for a Christmas celebration. It was amazing to have ALMOST everyone there...just about everyone traveled in blizzards and harsh conditions to make it so we were SO excited to have everyone there safe and sound. The whole family helped Addie celebrate her special day by singing "Happy Birthday" to her before digging in to her Disney Princess cake! She was more than thrilled about that!


Here she is tearing into her present from Grandma Jan, Papaw Jerry, and Uncle Jake...a Fancy Nancy DOLL and some Fancy Nancy books :)

I think she is already a few steps ahead of Fancy Nancy when it comes to fashion...this girl LOVES to put crazy, ahem, I mean "fancy" outfits together! Now she is just making sure we eat with our pinky's up and call each other "darling" at the dinner table ;)


I think I'll say this EVERY year, but it's SO hard to grasp that she's been in our family for THREE WHOLE YEARS....and then there are days when I feel like she's been around forever (and I mean that in a good way, I promise!). Addie certainly adds "life" to our family with her funny, quirky ways and we feel so blessed to be called her Mommy and Daddy. She is such a wonderful big sister to Lydia, which I know our little tiny girl will always appreciate! I am so glad they have each other and even more, I am so thankful Chris and I were chosen to raise them for the glory of God!

A Very Merry Christmas

We had the most wonderful Christmas this year with the girls and all of our family! Chris and I spent a lot of time preparing Addie's little heart for the birth of Christ and I think she really got the idea of WHY we were celebrating, which just made our hearts smile :)

We celebrated Christmas with Chris's mom, "Granny," and his brother, "Uncle Mikey" on Christmas Eve after church. On Christmas morning, we got up and had Cinnamon Toast Cake for breakfast...and even put a candle in it and sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. After breakfast, we headed into the living room to open gifts. The girls were so thankful for all of their presents and had some time to enjoy playing with them before we headed to Papaw Mike's house for lunch. After opening gifts and eating lunch at Papaw's, we came home to take naps (and ALL of us took naps, which rarely happens!). Our celebrating continued that evening with Grandma Jan, Papaw Jerry, Uncle Jake, Grandma Jackie, and Papaw Bill.

Needless to say, we were all pooped by the end of the day, but we had a terrific time with our family remembering the REAL reason for Christmas. Enjoy the pictures!

Christmas Cookie Baking

I completely forgot to mention our Christmas cookie baking extravaganza in the last post, but I believe it's worth its own post anyway. A few weeks ago, my prayer group got together at one of our member's house to make and decorate cookies. Although one of our friends could not make it because her little girl was sick, the girls and I had a great time with Grandma (my mom) and two of Addie's Godmothers :)

Addie loves to help me in the kitchen, so she got a huge kick out of being a part of the cookie making. She got to sift the giant amount of flour...and said it looked like a "flour mountain" in the bowl.

Linda let her pick out what color she wanted to make the dough and the first color she picked was PINK, imagine that. She also got to pick the design for the first batch of spritz cookies and she chose a flower design.


Using the Spritz gun was a bit challenging at first, but she got the hang of it quickly. I love her face in this one, squeezing with all her might!


While the spritz cookies were baking, she got to decorate a gingerbread girl cookie with lots of icing and sprinkles. In this picture, she is deciding what color of sprinkles she should add next (as if it needs more).


Lydia took part in the decorating as well....her first task, UN-decorating a gingerbread man cookie! I decorated it and encouraged her to add more, but she had a better idea: to eat the M & M candies as I kept putting more on ;)


While big sister was focused on baking cookies, little sister practiced her dance moves on Dana's kitchen floor!


She had the time of her life running around and keeping me on my toes! I think her favorite part of the evening was when Dana's dog, Maggie kept making appearances in the kitchen...and she even got to pet her. Maggie was quite the talk of the evening once we got home!


Very special thanks to Dana, Linda, and Grandma (Ma) for making the girls feel so special! I was sure worn out by the night's end, but we all had a blast!

A Blogging Hiatus...well sort of

Wow, I haven't blogged on THIS blog forever! I HAVE been blogging, a lot however, on our school blog so if you'd like to see a little more of what we've been up to and more pictures and videos of the girls, visit Sharing Our Learning Adventure.

I will try to sum up the past two months by using some of my favorite pictures. Our little baby girl, who is just about to turn 14 months, is growing and changing SO fast! I just love this age when her personality is REALLY starting to shine (although she's been showing us her strong personality for quite a while now!). Lydia actually says more words at this age than her sister did...she says, "Mama," "Dadda," "Addie," "Joe," "Papaw," "Amen," "baby" (her favorite), "bird," "ball," "bear," "bowl," "snack," "Pot" (for potty), "bye-bye," "hi," and a few others I'm forgetting at the moment. She is walking like a pro and rarely lets anything get in her way! Our chunky little baby has thinned down to be a miniature replica of her big sister, skinny Minnie :) Here are a few of our favorite pics from her one year photo shoot (taken by our wonderful friend Leisa of Candid Xpressions):
This little sweetie pie has started becoming a Daddy's girl, just like her sister. She has always favored Mama until recently when Daddy started to become her favorite snuggle buddy. I could just EAT HER UP! She's so snuggly and loving, giving kisses and hugs frequently....SO much different than Addie ever has been.


The girls just love each other so much...and pretty much do everything together now. Bath time is their favorite playtime together, one a little wilder and more "splashy" than the other (if you know my girls, you can guess who the *wild* one is!). Everyone has been telling us lately that they are looking more and more alike....well these next two photos show their similarities and one big difference: their skin tone! Addie is fair like her Daddy and Lydia has an olive tone like me. You can't really tell just by looking at them with clothes on so here they are being silly in the bathtub :)

So sweet and innocent :)

Wild and Crazy Girls!

The tiny one had a bit of a run in with our coffee table a few weeks ago and managed to give herself a pretty awful looking black eye. It had cleared up a little by the time I took this picture, but you can still get the idea of *who* won this battle. The day I took this picture, we were at a friend's house baking Christmas cookies and I found Lydia in the spare bedroom ON TOP of a little kiddy table....hmmmmm, wonder how she gets hurt so often!?

Just wanted to show a picture of how you dress when you have a big sister who is into fashion...pajama shirt, brown leg warmers (or warm leggers as A calls them), and big sister's swim suit. And just to clarify, this was all Lydia's idea (well the leg warmers were my idea to keep her warm). She sees Addie going through numerous outfit changes daily and wants to be just like big sis! She will grab an article of clothing that Addie has recently thrown off and bring it to me and raise her leg wanting me to put it on her (yes, even if it's a shirt, she'll still raise her leg!).

We received a package from some very special friends of ours yesterday and among many WONDERFUL gifts, was Addie's birthday present from them: a Princess Book/Playset!!! She immediately got it open and set up at the table...and said, "Oh I love my Princess Bible!!" I guess she knows how important the Bible is and this Princess book/playset ranks right up there with it! She makes me laugh so hard! Oh, the helmet was an early Christmas gift from Gma and Papaw and it was worn the entire evening also.


Merry Christmas from our family to yours! We hope everyone enjoys the blessings of the season and the true meaning behind CHRISTmas! I suspect I will take lots of pictures of the girls over the next week, as we have a big birthday celebration coming up right after Christmas...and I won't make any promises, but I will try my best to post some of the favorites :)


I'll sign off with our tiny singer in the family...singing a song I sing all the time and Addie loves it, the "Amen song"

Loving her big sister to pieces!

Random Funnies

I think I'll start a little "series" of blogs and title them "Random Funnies." Addie has always had a funny personality, and we are happy to say that her little sister is following in her foot steps. Although Lydia can be shy and reserved at times (only around others), she is a HOOT around us and we have the pictures to prove it! We feel so blessed to have these adorable little beings in our lives who make us laugh DAILY! Enjoy :)

Addie has mastered the art of dressing herself: her outfit this particular day included her baby sister's swimsuit top (to be used as a baby sling for, not 1, but 2 animals) and her beach hat...and more than likely, she didn't have pants on...it's fall. Oh and she is mailing her "yucky nummy" (pacifier) to Alabama in this picture :)

We are extremely lucky to have a Butterfly Fairy Princess who comes to feed our little baby for us every day...just wish she'd do all the laundry and cleaning too ;)

Anyone interested in having a Tiny Baby Girl for dinner? She does this often and is very proud.

There is nothing more exciting than receiving a package in the mail...even if it is just used as a dancing/jumping stage!

I see this face MANY times a day and I LOVE IT!

Second borns must be more adventurous...she is ALWAYS climbing in/on something!

Several weeks ago, we did an Apple Unit for "school" and Addie became obsessive about making Apple Cider and Apple Juice....she tells about it here: (yep, she has on her sister's swimsuit top again)

Little Tiny is growing up SO fast! She is such a little talker, always repeating words we say. This video was taken when she was not feeling well last week, but she still manages to do some jabbering :)

Celebrating A Sweetie

We can hardly believe that a year ago today, we were meeting our sweet baby Lydia for the first time. She has absolutely been a blessing to our family since that day! We love her dearly and can't wait to spend MANY more years celebrating her birthday with her!

I'll let the pictures do the talking, but keep in mind she did not feel well at all so she didn't smile for too many pictures :( We'll start off with a smiling one though:

Maracas from Big Sister Addie

She LOVED her shape sorter, thanks to Grandma and Papaw and Uncle Jake

A special snuggly kitty from Uncle Mikey

King Size Cupcakes, Mmmmmmm!

Wondering what to do with the cupcake :)

Getting a little taste

Checking out the icing on her teeny fingers

Big Sister enjoying a chocolate cupcake!

Thanks for all the cards and gifts for our baby girl! We are truly appreciate to have so many wonderful people who love her as much as we do!