Merry Christmas!

Okay, so pretend you're at your mailbox.....oooh a card envelope! Now open it... ta-da!

Okay, I know I'm a weirdo. I do want to wish all our friends, family and loved one a Merry Christmas though! All of you have added something to our lives this year and we're thankful for all of our friendships, whether they're personal or cyber-centric. Merry Christmas, friends!

Christmas checklist: Done

Well, since it's the Christmas season, we've been making sure that we get all of our Christmas-related activities checked off the list :) I'm now ready for the part where I just bake and relax until Christmas. I can't believe that it's only 9 days away! This year has flown by. December itself always goes by so fast to me.

Ogden Christmas Village: Check

 Definitely a success! Addie LOVED it, it was pretty warm outside for December, and we had some family join us to make it even more fun.

 She pulled me from house to house, looking in all the windows.

She liked this one where they were baking treats...hmm wonder why ;)

Standard family snapshot at the Christmas Village

 Showing Ashley and Ian all the things inside the house

Visit Santa: Check

 She was so quiet and shy with him, but she smiled for the picture (not at this camera) and finally told him she wanted a little Ariel. (it's the only little dress up princess she's lacking)

I was informed a few days later, she wants a Yoda instead.

Gingerbread Houses: Check

Due to my obsession/stalking of gingerbread marshmallows, we decided to make them out of gingerbread rice krispy treats. Delicious! I recommend adding twice the normal amount of cereal to the recipe, however, because ours all ended up collapsing.

 Frosting makes Addie very happy

 She did a good job of putting spice drops on the house and using her own little frosting bag

 Look how into it she is...such concentration. It was fun to watch her.

 Our little house, made mostly by Addie

Ash and Ian surprised Dawn for her birthday so they were in town and got to join in the fun too

 Their cute little house, complete with chocolate shingles on the roof....which later caved in

Tyson came up to visit and joined in the fun and helped Whit with her house

Temple Square: CHECK

My friend Amanda and I had this grand plan months ago to go see the lights at Temple Square with the kids, and ride the frontrunner downtown. You know, a whole Christmas adventure experience.

So off we went! Max and Addie were wild on the way down and we thought we may be in for it.

After we grabbed some dinner at gateway (which, btw gateway- get some decent places there to eat semi-quickly, okay?) we jumped back on the trax and went up to "see the lights".

Um, what we saw? A MILLION people....and some snow....and yes some lights on trees that the kids didn't really care about. We'd forgotten the whole aspect of going on a weeknight- Mutual.

It was still fun, but we had to rush because we didn't want to miss the 7:57 train back. 

 Baby Connor thought this whole scene was a bit too wild and decided to sleep through it.

He seriously was an angel the whole time! We gave him the gold star of the evening.

I always love to see the beautiful temple, even if it's surrounded by mayhem.

 quick self-snapshot of the family to prove we were there.

The cute VanOrden family

 note Connor is still asleep

Addie loved this part, as did I

 So pretty.

Then....we missed the train....literally watched it pulling away as our trax pulled up.

Uh....now what? Back onto the trax for a hot chocolate run!

We got back on the frontrunner with plenty of time to spare and tucked Addie into bed at 10pm.

So there you have it! Lots of fun Christmas fun, memories and  a few traditions in the making! I really do love Christmas time, especially now that we have a child (children soon). It makes it all that much more magical. I hope that you're all having a wonderful holiday season full of your own traditions.

December, really?

I'm still in awe that it's already December. I feel like it's still like I don't know, April? Technically the weather in April this year was similar to right now, so why not. Anyway, even though this year has flown by, we're ready for the holiday season and we did a lot of Christmasy and Wintery activities this week to ring in December. I still didn't have my camera, so sorry these are all just BB pictures.

Gingerbread cookie-baking

I've been meaning to make these every year for a long time and never have. They're so yummy and made our whole house smell like Christmas.

I gave Addie her own little bag of frosting so she could decorate her own cookie.

Um, she LOVED that idea....

 

 She used every. last. bit. of frosting. I like her....and no we don't always bake in jammies, but we did that day. (mostly due to the fact that it was 9am because I started our dough at 6:30 the night before and realized it had to sit in the fridge for 2 hours and she'd be asleep by then)

 Addie's masterpiece. Don't you love the bite taken out of the top of its head?

 Don't they look almost too happy to eat? Don't worry, I got over that quickly. Addie thought it was fun later to take some to her little friends in the neighborhood too.

So, um.....I had a bunch of Jed's warm clothes in the laundry that he wore while putting up Christmas lights....and silly me, I didn't check the pockets first.

 So that's what I found in my washing machine. See those broken ones? Any idea where the rest of the broken pieces of glass ended up? Yep, my washing machine....whoops. Still finding glass in there.

SNOW-playing!

 Addie has asked me almost every day to play in the snow, but until this week we didn't have any to play in. She was SO excited. She could have played out there all night if we had let her.

 She loves making "Addie angels"

She even convinced me to make a "mommy angel" which I did, because I was trying to be a cool mom.

Then I tried to get up....oh right, I'm pregnant and can't move now ;)

House-Decorating

Jed put lights up on our house, and they look really cute :)

I just don't have a good picture of them yet. Here's the part I did though.

 Targeted ultrasound/Baby boy face-peeking

 I'm 24 weeks along now (it's going by FAST)

We had our big ultrasound on Thursday. I love the big one because I got to see every bit of him and see that all his organs are there, that he's healthy and growing and right on track.

Oh and a couple 3-D pictures too, which is so cool!

Good job, baby boy.

Friday night out with friends

 Addie and Lucy were excited to bowl!

We've never taken Addie bowling, and it was funny to explain it to her beforehand.

She was convinced we needed to bring all the balls in our house haha.

Why didn't they have those cool ball slide things when I was little?

 Or, heck, I'd use it now if it was socially acceptable

Addie loved it! She was cheering for us all too

We're not pro bowlers, but Laura and I could pretend to be pro bowling ball thieves :)

 actually, I think my belly is bigger than that bowling ball.....

note to self: baggy sweaters make me look even more huge.

Gingerbread Marshmallow Hunt 2010

 I kind of became a stalker of these babies when I saw a recipe online for Rice Krispy Treats made with gingerbread marshmallows. I finally found some on Saturday and I was so excited!

I know, it doesn't take much to excite me. They really are delicious treats though.

Like a RKT, but with a little hint of Christmas.

Oh and I also made these this week. I described them as eating Christmas in a cupcake wrapper.

I love this time of year because we always see lots of friends and family. Well, and the baking aspects of course. Addie and I had a fun play date on Friday with some friends and then tonight we had dinner at a friend's house and got to eat good food, talk and play. We have a lot of other get-togethers and parties planned for this month- bring on the Christmas season!

love good deals, love holiday cards :)

I don't often post about online deals and such, but this time I decided it was well worth it.

I really love Shutterfly.com. I've printed a few books through their site before and they've all turned out to be fabulous. I did books one year for Jed's parents and my parents for Christmas, and they all loved them. You can even print a book from you blog there. It's a super easy site to use too. They've got some seriously cute Christmas cards right now and they're doing an awesome promotion right now to get cards printed for free-woot!

Check out their cards here: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

Don't you love them? I sure do. SO if you're wanting to get some of these for the holidays, do what I did. Click this link http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/. If you're a blogger, you're in. I'm all about


I think that now that so much is done online, there are very few opportunities to get anything exciting in the mail :) I LOVE this time of year because I love seeing festive holiday cards in my mailbox. Makes me happy.
 
Happy Holidays Friends!

Kind of boring, but hey we've been bored

So I've decided that November is the longest month ever. That may have something to do with the fact that Jed works 12-18 hour days during this time between his "normal" job and then Plutonium stuff, mostly putting up Christmas lights. Addie and I have had some looong days at home together and been kind of bored, you know since it's been freezing outside and all. Thankfully we have family close by we've been able to visit and we've had a couple of play dates to keep us (well ME) sane. Other than that, things have been pretty low-key around here.

Cousin Tristan was over the other day and I was in the middle of baking for a boutique and asked Addie to give him a bite of his lunch so I could take cupcakes out of the oven really quick. Next thing I know, she had taken the task of feeding Tristan upon herself and proceeded to do it all by herself. It was very cute and she did a good job! Yay for practicing to be a big sister/big mommy-helper!

 

 I was told my last post didn't include pictures of food. Is this possible? It would seem there's a first for everything. Although, technically I mentioned my salted caramel hot chocolate. Ha.

I don't have Thanksgiving pictures yet, because I left my camera at my mom's house. (and you all know what my "Thanksgiving pictures" mean. Yeah, not me and my family being all cute. It's pies people. Don't act surprised.)

 So this is all the Turkey I have to show. I made these little oreo turkeys and thought they were pretty cute. I should mention this Thanksgiving season that I'm thankful my blackberry has a good camera....since I use it all. the. time.  :)

Playing with princesses/changing all of their outfits frequently

 I sent this picture to Ashley, because she can't handle that Addie allows the princesses to "share" dresses with each other. I agree, there's something not right about it. Gotta entertain her somehow though, right?

PS- Cinderella is bigger boned and you can't velcro Aurora and Snow White's dresses shut on her.

Okay, I am aware none of this is that interesting. Jed was able to play with me and Addie for most of the day on Saturday and it was so nice to have him back home. We went to lunch then had our Smith and Edwards snow boot buying adventure. That place was NUTS. Makes for a fun time with daddy though.

Sunday morning we put up our Christmas Tree and decorations.

Look what daddy found.....

 While getting the Christmas Decor out, Jed came across his light saber. She LOVES it. Totally plays with it and acts like Luke Skywalker, you know if Luke wore cutesy Christmas jammies.

 Addie has her own little pink tree for her room. I plugged it in downstairs and she put all of Jed's Star Wars ornaments on it then set the light saber next to it and said. "See? Yoda is holding it!"

We followed Christmas decorating with a nice little tea party with Dopey. He got the Snow White plate, so appropriate. Daddy's plate is the yellow one, but he was making dinner so had to be fashionably late.

I love that Addie is starting to pretend more and more and has such a fun imagination.

So, other than that- I'm just getting bigger and the baby boy is kicking me more. Maybe it's from all the food I've been forcing him to share space with lol. 

The Addie-Mommy-Grammy date

Last weekend my mom and I took Addie to see Disney on Ice. I'm not sure which one of the three of us was more excited about it! Addie didn't really know what it even was, but she was excited to go. My mom and I just couldn't wait to watch her watch the show :)

 Started by taking the Frontrunner down to Salt Lake. Addie LOVES riding the train.

 Happy to be there together :) bad lighting sorry

 SO excited for the show to start!

 Awe....it's Ariel and Prince Eric dancing.....she's so funny

Then Ursula came....

She wasn't quite sure about that part ;)

Grammy took her out to get her an Ariel that she'd seen and then she decided she was done.

Meh, there were only like 10 minutes left and we beat the leaving crowds.

As you can see, she was SO happy about her "tiny Ariel" that should couldn't even open her eyes from smiling so big. She carried her down the street like a baby, it was so cute. She loves spending time with her Grammy Rees! Perhaps because she gets spoiled?

After we left, we grabbed some quick dinner at the Gateway and then a Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate from Starbucks (YUM). At that point, Addie was so tired and cold that she made me carry her back to the Trax station.

I forgot how heavy 32lbs feels when you carry that 32lbs 2 blocks.....on top of your baby bump.

We had a very fun girls night out! Thanks for playing with us, Mom!

some updates

The past few weeks have been pretty chill (sans Halloween). Addie and I both got colds and stayed in quite a bit. Mine decided to last for 2 weeks and counting. I'm hoping someday I'll stop coughing. Anyway, here's a recap of what we've all been doing.

Jed: Oh, what no pictures? That's because he's been very busy with work and the poor guy hasn't had much time for fun. Of course since last week was beautiful, he was stuck working in his office all day. He has the week off from work this week so he's putting up Christmas lights on houses for Plutonium. Yes, in this rain and freezing temperatures today. Tomorrow's looking sunny....I hope so! So proud of all he's doing and how hard he works for us.

Baby Boy: We had a doctor appointment last week and he's looking good and healthy and right on track. It's crazy to think that I'm now halfway there! Just over 20 weeks now. He's about 3/4 of a pound and moving around more and more...which I LOVE. He moves the most when I lay down on my back. Halloween night, when I got into bed he started going crazy....I think that even he was on a sugar high!

Me: Well, I've been getting my sewing on. If you know me well, you read that last sentence and said what the what?! I've really never sewed anything, unless you count the star shaped pillow from 8th grade. It started out with making some fabric flower bows for Addie to match skirts that Whit made her. I then decided to make some headbands and put some flowers I'd made on them for me and my sister in law. I think they turned out pretty cute. Go me.

Then! If you're not totally impressed with headbands, I decided that I was going to make Addie's bedding for her new room. (I SWEAR it wasn't some crazed pregnancy hormone that made me temporarily insane)

I'd never ever ever attempt a project like this on my own, but Dawn my mother in law happens to be an amazing seamstress and offered to help me :) I'm loving how it's turned out so far! I found some super fun fabrics that just screamed Addie to me. I did ALL the sewing on the front of the quilt and now the front is all done- yay!!

Here's a closer up picture that shows the fabrics a little better

don't look too close, I'm sure there are flaws :)

Now we're doing all the hand stitching on the quilt, which will probably take awhile. If you've never done this before, here's what's going to happen. See ever line and square on this baby? Well we're stitching around each of them by hand....yes, it's a process. Thanks SO much Dawn for your help!

I've also been cooking and baking...which isn't that new. I really have started enjoying cooking more and more, rather than only baking. I didn't allow myself to bake last week due to the amount of candy in the house....but I caved Saturday night and made cookies ;)

A couple weekends ago, I channeled my inner Alton Brown and attempted a cheese souffle.

 

I thought it looked kind of pretty....and it was delicious! Oh I also made apple cider donut holes that night. I didn't take a picture, they weren't that pretty and they were only okay. I wanted them to be better than they were. Jed's wassail was off the hook though, so that's good. 

 

Oh and of course, I've been entertaining this funny little girl too.

 

Addison: This girl keeps us on our toes and definitely keeps us laughing! She's been going back and forth for awhile on naps and last week I decided that it wasn't worth them anymore because it's too hard to get her to bed at night when she has them....well, now if I leave the house past 2pm this happens....

I didn't take into consideration the daylight savings issue when I made this decision. So now we may be napping again, because ummm 5:45am is EARLY. That makes the day very long to keep her happy AND awake till 7:30-8pm. Today she fell asleep in the car while my mom and I were shopping and even stayed asleep when I took her inside in the cart for a half hour. Go figure right?

Never a dull moment with her. She has genes from both Jed and I for memorizing songs and movie lines and I came across this sweet scene the other day and asked what she was doing. She'd gathered my comforter, laid her baby on it and covered her up. Naturally I assumed she was putting her baby doll to sleep....um, nope. Her response?

"I'm doing what Luke Skywalker does to Vader" she then proceeds to act as if she's removing a helmet from the baby doll and tells the baby "I don't want to leave you....come with me"

Yep, my sweet little girl is reinacting Darth Vader's death scene from Star Wars.

Seriously??? I told Jed I'd assumed he skips stuff like death and what not. Nope- he doesn't!

She isn't all Star Wars though....still very much into princesses and Hairspray. She quotes and sings from shows on a daily basis. She's started to do different dances of Hairspray even. When she watches it she tries to do the coreography. It's hilarious when she does Seaweed's dance. I'm still trying to get a good recording of it.

Friday, she asked me for an apple, and specified a red apple. I gave it to her and should have seen this one coming....

She took a bite, then fell to the floor and said she was Snow White.

She seriously keeps my laughing all day, which is very good because she can be quite the stinker sometimes. She's a defiant little thing and I'm a little scared for when she's sixteen. She knows what she wants and doesn't take no for an answer very well. I just hope and pray that she applies that in a positive way as she grows up.

She can also be very sweet. She's very aware of those around her and is always concerned if someone is upset or hurt. She's constantly asking if she can kiss owies of mine better and giving me loves when I don't feel well. She'll even be a little mommy to me and say, "Do you not feel very well? I'm so sorry, that's not fun. Maybe you need ____ to make you feel better". She even shares her Yoda bandaids with me.

She's going to be a very good big sister.

That about sums up what's up with our little family. We're all pretty happy and healthy. Despite a few pregnancy discomforts I'm grateful that we've got another little one on the way and for all that we're blessed with. I haven't been doing any "30 days of Thanksgiving" or anything- I'm being a little bit blog lazy, but I am thankful for many, many things every day.