Happy Birthday Daddy!

December 20th was Tommy's big 30th birthday! He and I were in NYC to celebrate, so on the 19th, before he and I flew out, Addie Kate gave her daddy his birthday presents and helped him open them!

Yay! Daddy's 30!
Oooh! Tissue Paper! And Daddy's getting a gift from the Lilypad - one of my favorite stores! (Shows Mommy was in a hurry wrapping!)

Ooooh - Rock Band for the Wii! Can I play Daddy?

Tommy and I had a wonderful time in NY, even though we were away from our girl for three nights - the longest we've ever been away from her! It was COLD! We were about two hours delayed in leaving (But we were in first class, thankfully! There are perks to flying around the world and being away from your family!), and as we approached landing in Newark, I could certainly see why. White everywhere! Beautiful, fluffy snow. Inches and inches of it, and even feet of it in one big spot where the snowplows piled it all up! We stayed busy eating our way through the city [pizza (Original Rays and Patsy's - a little hole in the wall on Park Ave. across from Serendipty and the BEST pizza I've ever eaten! We just happened upon it!), Little Italy (can't remember the name of the restaurant!), more pizza, Serendipity (AMAZING! 2 hour wait and worth it!), Tavern on the Green (Absolutely gorgeous!), Stage Deli (a traditional favorite), etc.]. When we weren't eating we shopped a lot (got a little something special for our girl at American Girl Place - pics of T there to follow!), saw Phantom of the Opera on Broadway (Tommy's main reason for going) (and FYI - there were no tickets to Wicked at the TKTS booth and we didn't make it back down there to try on Saturday - ugh!!!), went to see the new (and old) Yankee Stadium, played in the snow (not really, but did have to slosh through it nonstop), and just enjoyed being there together! We didn't make it to Ellis Island, something we both wanted to do, due to the nasty, cold weather, but it's in the works for a summertime trip.

Tommy, Addie Kate and I love you so very much. We know how truly lucky we are to have you in our lives and we love you more than anything in the world!

Tee... Tee... Tee... Tee

Addie Kate LOVES our Christmas Tree! For a while, every afternoon, she'd come into the foyer and just walk around it and talk all about it! I was able to get a little bit of it on video, but not near enough of the cuteness!



Just FYI, we have garland draped along the bannisters on the stairs, and on the landing that looks over the foyer. She is so cute and gets confused (or educationally relates maybe?) with the garland and calls it a "tee" too!

Congratulations Uncle Paul and Aunt Sue!

On December 13th, Addie Kate's Uncle Paul (my brother) and Aunt Susan (I guess now that title's official!) got married! It was a beautiful weekend and a beautiful Christmas wedding. All of us Schreibers are so excited to officially welcome Susan to our family!

Tommy and I were both in the wedding, and chasing Addie Kate, so very few pictures were taken. I am in hopes the fabulous Mr. James got some great pics of us that I'll be able to share soon! Until then, this is what I was able to capture - they certainly do not do this day justice!

After the Rehearsal Dinner at a local bar. Poor Suan, people kept buying her drinks! I finally intervened and told the bartender, "No More!"

Seth, Chris, Paul, Tommy, Michael, Susan, Brett, Me, Sarah, Ben

At the Bridesmaid's Luncheon:

My girl and me

Addie Kate LOVES her Aunt Sue!

My Mom, Addie Kate (who was DONE taking pictures and ready for a nap!), Me, Susie

And Addie Kate getting dressed for the wedding. She takes after her mama and loves the freedom of no clothing!

Family Photo Shoot

Addie Kate's Gam and Pop had a friend of theirs come take pictures of the whole Sweatman family at their house on Sunday. Angelia, the photographer, did a fabulous job! (Which started my Christmas card stress all over again! Some people are just going to get two pictures!) I had to share them with all of you. I am so excited about how well they turned out!

Addie Kate was in a great mood! She had just woken up from her morning nap, which is her happiest time! However, she is still a one year old and direction-following isn't her strongest asset just yet. Sweet Tori was sleepy and ready for a nap. And, it was dreary outside. You can't even tell any of this from how great the pictures turned out! Here are some of my favorites (The pictures uploaded in the reverse order from which we took them. We had just the three of us taken first and whole family last.)

And here are some of the out-takes:

"Yay!" She was clapping for herself, and I was laughing!

I love this look on her little face. It's so her!

And, she's done. Then I had to jump up quick to catch her fast little self, from going into the pool!

Here, the photographer told her to say "cheese," and she did! Apparently her little mouth doesn't make a smile when she says it!

Blowing bubbles, of course!

Addie's Favorite Things

Addie Kate is 13 months old and I wanted to update what a few of her new favorites and tricks are.

• She is absolutely addicted to bananas. If she sees a banana on the counter she will pitch a fit to have it! She says "Na-na, Na-na, Na-na," nonstop!
• Puppies- by far her favorite animal. My mom and I were shopping last Friday and she found a puppy stuffed animal. Brought it over to Addie to see if she'd recognize it. She didn't at first so mom was about to take it away, when Addie proceeded to grab it, tuck it under her arm, say, "Puppy" and "Mine!" Mom looked at me and asked if she just bought a puppy. Addie Kate wouldn't even give it back to her for her to pay. The salesgirl (who had been completely entertained with Addie Kate since we had gotten in the store) looked at mom and said, "They are half price!"
• "Mine." Her newest word. Daddy and I are not happy. We think this is such an ugly way to act, but we do know that it's part of growing up. We know she learned it from the other children at her babysitter's and we know that the babysitter corrects them when they use it. We just hope it's a phase. We want to raise a sweet, mannerly, polite little girl!
• The Christmas Tree. She absolutely LOVES it! She walks up to it, or when we are coming down the stairs, points at it, and says "teeeeee!" The past few days she will just walk around the tree and talk and talk and talk. I have video of this I'll post soon. She'll mostly just point and touch it, but every now and then she'll pull an ornament off which of course, ends up with a reprimand. She has a beautiful little white tree with mostly pink and green ornaments on it in her room. It is so girly and cute! Tommy and I are not wild about white trees (we made fun of the one his dad had in his house one Christmas, so we are fully expecting the same in return!), but we both love how the white looks in her room!
• She can say Santa. It sounds mostly like "anta."
• If you tell her to go get the puppy, or China (the panda Tommy brought her back from China that she adores), or the baby, she will go to whatever room it is in and bring it back to you.
• The other night she took the dishtowel off the oven-bar and walked around the house with it for the longest time. If she's going to enjoy that, then I'm going to have to get her silky out and let her drag it, and not a dishtowel!
• She is still obsessed with books! Yay! She'll still read them in her own little language. It is absolutely adorable. The books with flaps are her favorite. She'll also bring us books now and back up to us to sit down for us to read them to us. Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb is probably her favorite overall. I think Tommy and I both have it memorized! This was also my favorite as a child!
• She still loves to rock, but only at night. She must have rocked with me for over 30 minutes last night and never did fall asleep.
• Lately, if we put her in her crib to nap or sleep, she does not cry! This makes it a lot easier for me!
• Still LOVES the "birds" on her crib! She even woke up with that scared, bad dream cry in the middle of the night not too long ago and by the time I had gotten in there, had turned her birds on! Too funny!
• She really likes her playroom and often goes in there on her own and will play for a long while!
• LOVES shoes! Was there any doubt? If I'm in her closet hanging her clothes or something, she'll go in there and sit on the floor and play with her shoes for as long as I'll let her! It helps that there are no less than 10 pairs for her!
• She can say Gorga, MiMi (not 100% sure if this is my mom or not), Pop (more like Popopopopopop!), and Christie. We are still working on the other grandparents/aunts/uncles/cousins names. She can also say "Doug" (my dad's name) which my mom loves and Dad hates!
• She is wearing her hairbows! YAY!!!! Now that her hair's getting a little longer, she needs to. I can't STAND to see hair hanging in a little girl's face. I'm SO excited. I've also got a new, bigger bow holder in the works for her. Hers is too small for the dozens of bows she has. And, the bigger the bow, the better!
• She can do the fish face. It started one day with me drinking out of a straw. She cracks me up!
• If I am chewing gum, she mimicks that too. Hilarious!
• She's about to start running. She's getting quicker and quicker!
• Any child, any age, is a baby. We were in Target and a mom pulled her cart up by us. She had a little girl Addie's age. Addie looked at her, pointed (of course), and said "baby?" The mom and I just laughed because they were the same age!
• If we even hear a dog barking, even in the distance, she will immediately say "puppy!" Smart girl!
• She knows when she wants to eat and/or drink. She will walk into the kitchen, to her chair, and yell "Eeeeeeat!" And she'll say "cup" if she wants something to drink! Such a smart girl!
• This weekend my mom was jumping her on the bed. She would count "1, 2, 3, Jump" and when my mom would start with 1, Addie could say 2, then 3, then jump! It was adorable!

Check back... I'm sure I'm forgetting things, and she changes daily!

Sleeping soundly?

Poor picture quality because I was in the hall taking the picture from around the corner in her room. When I went to get Addie Kate on Saturday morning, I peered around the corner and all I saw was two little feet sticking out of the rails on her crib. It was the cutest thing! I ran to get the camera and she had already moved one, but I was able to snap this picture!

St. Francis Festival of Trees and Holiday Village

St. Francis Health System sponsors many holiday events, all family oriented, throughout the holiday season here in Greenville. I wish we could have done all of them, but with so many fun things going on each and every weekend before Christmas (Paul's wedding, Tommy's birthday trip to NYC, etc.) this year, we are only able to squeeze in a few of the many, many things I wanted to do. We missed the Christmas Parade due to a Christmas party, but I'm not so sure Addie Kate would have enjoyed it this year anyway. I do, however, have a few more plans up my sleeve for next week [Nutcracker this weekend with Lawson and Heather. (Heather is getting seats by the exits!), Build-A-Bear reindeer-making with Aiden on their trip up here! (I think Addie Kate is finally old enough to enjoy this - and they get a free book! And an big YAY for Laurie and me to have that on our calendar over a month in advance so that we follow through!) Roper Mountain Science Center Holiday Lights and sleigh ride. Hopefully a carriage ride through Fountain Inn to see the historic homes decorated for Christmas! (I don't know anything about this - overheard some women talking about it at Hobby Lobby - sounds pretty though. Kristen, can you help me out with this???) And, I've heard of a home in the Weatherstone neighborhood near our house that has their Christmas lights in motion to the music playing on a local radio station - how fun is that? Lastly, I really want to take Addie Kate to Riverbanks Zoo's Lights Before Christmas. I don't think we'll be able to squeeze this in before Christmas, but I know they run through New Years. However, I'm not super wild about seeing Christmas lights after Christmas! We'll see! Jenny, if you are in town, do you want to take Carter and Harrison to do this? I'm sure Heather's already taken Lawson!] Whew, that's a lot including two out of town trips, one of those being far away, and Christmas is less than two weeks away! And, I absolutely WILL bake cookies and decorate them with Addie Kate this year! Next year I will start our tradition of making gingerbread houses (not this year because I don't have the pans yet!), complete with a day trip to the Grove Park Inn to see the Gingerbread Village. Tommy and I love to go go go though, so I'm sure we can get it done!

Moving on, last weekend, in between Christmas parties (Thank you mom and Margaret for babysitting for us!) we went with our friends Shannon, Will, and Cody to Mimi's for lunch and downtown for a little holiday cheer! This was the first time Addie had ever been to a Japanese restaurant. She enjoyed everything (Especially the rice- what a MESS! I should have taken a picture of the floor. Tommy gives good tips though, so that makes up for it... I guess!) except the fire, where she proceeded to all but jump out of the highchair!


After that we went to the Holiday Village at Piazza Bergamo. I understood this to be a little village that children could walk through, etc. It wasn't quite what I expected, but we still had a good time! They had snow machines making snow, which was actually really pretty! Shannon is from Canada, so she has had white Christmases before, but I don't think anyone in the Sweatman family ever has! (except for Tommy and me in NYC!) The children can make ornaments there, so Addie Kate and Cody hung out in the strollers while Shannon and I made one for them.

Look at the passy in my little Stinker's mouth. She's such a nut!

There was also a carousel. Since I took Addie on the one at the fair, Tommy rode with her on this one. Addie Kate is still a little unsure of these. I don't think we ever got a smile out of her, but I don't think she cried either. I view that as a success!

After the carousel, we let Addie walk around a little. She enjoyed the stairs the most. Bless her sweet little heart though, I've mentioned before that she finds something that she wants to sit on, then backs up to it. Well, she missed and landed flat on her tail on the concrete. It didn't stop her a bit, but it sure made us laugh!

Sweet outfit from Aunt Heather, sweater and hat - my old ones! I bought Addie Kate a beautiful white hate and mittens last year for this year, but the hat doesn't have a strap or anything to keep it on, and she REFUSES to wear it! I'm glad my mom saved this one - I can't find another white one!

My girl and me in front of the "Alps!"

Pants check by Mom.

The men left Shannon and me with the babies and we went to do a little downtown shopping. Here is Addie Kate at O.P. Taylors - a precious little (very little - as in, not stroller-friendly) toy store. They sell classic toys, probably all made in the USA! They also sell Madame Alexander dolls, which I collected as a little girl. I loved the nutcrackers out front. They reminded me of FAO Schwartz, so I had to take my girl's picture with them! As you can see, she didn't really care. Made me feel like a tourist though!


After that, Shannon took the kids and me on a tour of Greenville (just picking Shannon!), to Starbucks for a Peppermint Mocha (in the red cups!!!), to a very sketchy Kmart (so I could buy the cutest little pink and brown sock monkey for my girl for Christmas) and to Publix. It was definitely a fun day - a little off than the original plans - but fun! I think the kids enjoyed it too, as we had two sleeping babies in the backseat! That's always a success, right?