Playtime...in the Garage!

We are so fortunate to have a 3 car garage. I honestly do not know what we'd do without it. We plenty of junk for a garage before we had Addie, but when you add 4 strollers (yes, we had 4 at one time, it's now only 3 b/c the baby stroller has been put in the attic), a wagon, a car, buckets, shovels, sidwalk chalk, bubbles, big bubble wands and pans, balls, golf clubs (kid golf clubs that is, adult golf clubs have long been in our garage!), tricycle, baby doll buggy, etc.... I just don't know where we'd put it. I guess we'd have to get a storage building, because I refuse to park in the driveway!

Anyway, the garage also serves as a great play area when it's too dark, cold, or windy to play outside otherwise. Addie and I had a great time playing in the garage the other day, while Daddy was cooking dinner. Tommy walked outside to see Addie pushing me on her tricycle, thus the pictures/camera that isn't usually present during a typical outside playtime. I put Addie on the tricycle to show her what to do (she's still too small), then I sat on it to show her what to do (and I'm definitely TOO BIG!!! I had to spread my knees so far out to keep my feet on the pedals that I was almost doing a split!), and she started pushing me, and pushing me fast! We went from one end of the garage to the other and she loved it!

She then wanted to bounce on the balls like she had done with Cody over Halloween. I did it with her, and it was all great and fun until she fell back and hit her head HARD on the concrete. I was terrified (and immediately put a bike helmet in my Amazon cart for Christmas!) and playtime ended immediately. She's pretty good at that - getting a solid, immediate end to something! Fortunately, she was just fine, just scared. Me too.

Here are some pictures - again poor quality, but I wanted to document this anyway!

Here's the only picture Tommy was able to get of Addie pushing me on the tricycle:
And us bouncing on the balls - she was having so much fun!:

And this picture doesn't show much of anything, but was right before she decided to bounce on that ball all on her own, and also when she fell!

Operation Christmas Child

I'd never participated in Operation Christmas Child before now, mostly because I never had a convenient location to drop off the boxes. This year though, St. Peter's was doing it and our family chose to make a box for each of certain members of our family, in lieu of gifts. I think this is far more important than giving someone a gift that they truly don't need. We are so very, very fortunate, I feel we really need to help those who aren't. This is just one very small way, but I figured we can do more each year to slowly change the way many of us feel about Christmas. Now, let me state here that we always, always do donations of many different sorts at Christmas and throughout the year, this was just the first year we have done this one.

Addie didn't help me put the boxes together too much, but she did enjoy putting them under the Christmas tree at church:

I love it - she's putting presents under a Christmas tree in a turkey dress!

While we were waiting on my dad to bring the car around (because we had SO many boxes to donate - yay!), Addie found it fun to try to push the button for the "alligator," known to the rest of the world as an "elevator!" Until she actually did push the button and the elevator started to move - then she freaked out!

Pushing the button for it...

then running from it - ha! My girl HATES loud noises of every single kind!

Happy Birthday Baby Grady!

Baby Grady (as Addie refers to him) turned one a few weeks ago. Addie enjoyed seeing and playing with some of her best friends again! Somehow I didn't get a picture of Grady, but he was just as cute as ever! Happy Birthday sweet boy!

Addie and Aiden playing with the Thomas train stuff (I know nothing about this stuff!)

Addie loved this laptop - I think Santa Mimi is getting her one for Christmas!

Break-N-Bake

When Addie and I were in Lexington last, we had dinner at my parents' house with Uncle Paul. After dinner, he and Addie made some cookies. I thought they were so cute "baking" together (our favorite kind of homemade cookies - the break apart and stick on the pan kind). And props go out to Uncle Paul who caught Addie from falling off of the counter, all while still holding the cookie pan in his hand! She gets all excited and starts wiggling, without realizing she's on a counter!

(Please excuse my picture quality - mine has been on the fritz and still takes great pictures, but sometimes it takes some finigiling to do so. Never fear, Mama bought herself a new big-girl camera the day after Thanksgiving! Merry Christmas to ME!!!!)

Do The Funky Turkey!

I had found a picture of a pink and green appliqued Christmas tree paired with a pair of pink and green pants, with the legs being different colors. I put mom on the task of making it for Addie, and when she had made the pants, I also snuck in having her make a pink and green turkey for double duty with the pants. The outfit was so cute and cozy! Thanks Mimi!

I love these pictures of her trying to see her turkey!

Kindermusik

Addie Kate has been taking Kindermusik since September. Because the parents are so involved in these classes, it is quite hard for me to take pictures. I didn't manage to snap a few the other day. We have stopped with Kindermusik for the holiday season and will resume in January. Addie absolutely loves it. She gets to sing and dance, two of her favorite things. She continues to sing the songs at home. We have the CD's that go with it, but I keep forgetting to pull them out. I definitely need to do that over the weeks we don't have Kindermusik so that she won't forget them.

Two funny/ sweet stories:

1 - I love this one. We do a lullaby of some sort and "rock" our children during the song. We do a lot of repetition so that the children can become familiar and learn the songs. The one we started with was "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean." This song is also on a CD that we listen to in the car. Well, I was rocking Addie during the song and couldn't see her face. The director came over to me and told me, "She's singing it, she's singing the song. That is the sweetest thing I have ever seen." I too am amazed at how quickly Addie catches on to a song and memorizes the words. (Just over the weekend she learned "Rudolph" and can sing almost every single word!)

2 - At our 2nd Kindermusik class, the director paused for a minute before moving on to the next song, which was one where she asked the kids how they wanted to sing it. Addie yells out (Let me note here that this class is for 18 mos. to 4 years, and Addie is the 2nd youngest, at that time being 23 mos. old.) "Ring Around the Rosie!" Sweet thing! It wasn't time for "Ring Around the Rosie" - we do that at the end - but the director promised her that we would do it!

Here are a few pictures of one of our days at Kindermusik. Pardon the quality - it was very hard for me to snap these few! (Oh, and on another day when I didn't have my camera, AK was doing something adorable and the director asked me where my camera was - ugh!)

Marching with the rhythm sticks

(Yes Mom, her outfit is that wrinkled. I apologize!)

Princess Castle

Addie's MawMaw, Granddaddy, and Aunt Christie gave her this princess castle for her birthday! She loves it! I can imagine being a little girl and liking something like this. I think the older she is, the more she'll like it - once she realizes it's a place to escape or play on her own. As for now, she just likes climbing in and out of it!

Addie doesn't have anything with the Disney princesses on it, but she is slowly starting to recognize them. She is so funny -she'll go around it and point out the "prinpress," but when she gets to Snow White (the only Disney movie that she's ever watched - and probably won't again for a while - that witch is mean!), she'll say, "That not a prinpress, that a Snow White!"

Like her outfit? To copy her style, sweat out a fever from Fifth's Disease during your nap, have your daddy get you up and change you into your Halloween pajama bottoms, and the shirt he got you from Singapore. Don't worry with the hair - it totally goes with the ensemble.

Oh, and the princess castle does not reside in our living room, but fits nicely in the playroom now!