3 years ago this minute....

My baby girl was born. Addison has brought more joy and love to our lives than we ever thought possible. I love her with all my heart! We've been celebrating her birthday all week long and will continue to play today. I have lots of fun pictures to share from her friend Princess party :)

Here's a quick snapshot from her first day right after preschool. We celebrated her big-girl moment with a Jamba Juice. Love her and thank my Heavenly Father for her every day.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful girl!

Wait, when did this happen?

It's been brought to my attention in the past few weeks that I have an almost three year old! I'm seriously in awe that three years have gone by since she was the one in my belly. I think registering her in a preschool this week was the kicker. I constantly tell her that she's not big enough for school (meaning elementary) so she's a little confused now as to how she's big enough for preschool. I hear ya kid...I don't know how it's possible either! We took her to Target to pick out a backpack and she now wears it around the house. I think she's excited and I hope that she'll do well on Tuesday when I take her (heck, I hope that I'll do well) She isn't napping anymore, so I think it'll be a good 2-hour break in the day to fill in some boredom of winter. I obviously have mixed emotions about it. I think we both need it, but I also know that it means she's growing up even faster than I thought possible.....okay let's table this whole topic before I cry and get the cookie dough out of my fridge.

Here's what Addie has been up to

 She's still loving her letter/chalk board....notice her backpack on :)

She now has long hair to the middle of her back

 I still haven't ever cut it, other than her bangs....and I don't foresee me doing it anytime soon

Loves being silly

 She likes to take the Mr. Potato Head pieces and put them on herself instead of the potato. Weirdo. Usually it's the Vadar pieces. This time she was being a monkey with the ears and mouth.

Embraces technology

 I was shocked to see how quick she picked up on using an Ipad this week. She wants one now. For real. Um, sorry kid, if one of us gets one, it won't be you ;)

Could play outside all day- even when it's freezing cold!

 Making snow angels with Grammy

 "Ice skating" with daddy yesterday (holy seriously COLD!) 

 the area behind our house filled with rain water on Wednesday which then froze over. 

So it has become our own little ice rink. Sweet! I pulled the carrying a baby card and didn't participate.

Acting out scenes from movies while watching them

 This was Jed's proudest dad moment thus far. She picked up his/her light saber and did Luke's whole routine as he was fighting Vadar. It was pretty accurate and very funny. (sorry light saber fights are blurry)

Looking forward to being a big sister

 Baby Dalton at 28 weeks. 

Today we began celebrating her birthday, which is Saturday.

We had some cake and ice cream up at Grammy Dawn & Papa Steve's house

 She said she wanted the giant cupcake to be PINK

and she wore her cute tutu skirt that Grammy got her for Christmas

 poor girl had a tummy ache when we got there, 

but after some Ashy cuddles and a trip to the potty she was good to go :)

 She told us on the way up that we were having a party, but that it's not really her birthday. 

We opened some presents and visited with family. It was fun and simple.

I'm looking forward to/having anxiety about the upcoming week with Addie. Preschool, a princess friend party and more birthday fun to come!

Christmas 2010!

We had a fun-filled Christmas (well Christmas weekend!) We were able to spend a lot of time seeing family, which is really what makes Christmas awesome. Addie was spoiled by everyone (no surprise there) and she had a wonderful Christmas!

We always spend the evening of Christmas eve up at Jed's parents' house for their family party. We love it. Delicious food, some of our favorite people, and that fun magical Christmas atmosphere :)

 Our soon-to-be family of four

(yes, I look huge and yes I've already had the "you look like you're ready to pop, when are you due?" thing happen. Um, three more months.....)

Addie is in a refusing-to-take-normal pictures stage, so this is the best we got

 We had a very long night that night.....none of us got much sleep, but we were all excited to wake up and see what Santa brought. Well I should clarify....we only gave Santa credit for like one gift and kept the rest of the credit ourselves ;)

Christmas Morning!

Addie was SO excited about her new chalk and letter board she got!

 She probably would have just sat and drawn if we hadn't told her she had other presents....

 What little girl doesn't love getting a new Yoda for Christmas?

 She's giving him loves....and yep she sleeps with that huge Yoda

After she opened her other stuff we took her upstairs to show her her last big thing from mom and dad-

Her new room with a BIG girl bed!!

She LOVES it! When she walked in she said "it's the prettiest thing I've ever seen"

 She immediately tried out the new bed with her quilt and even said "this is what mommy sewed"

Thanks for giving me props, kid :)

She even had to get IN the bed to try it out.

 We had Jed's parents and my mom and Danny and my brother and girlfriend over for brunch. They were all quickly escorted up the stairs as they arrived. She wanted everyone to see her new room.

Grammy Dawn got her an American Girls doll that looks just like her!

 She tells me that it's not "an Addie doll" it's "just Addie"

After some made-to-order omelets for everyone, prepared by Chef Jed, and some baked goods I made we all wrapped up brunch.

Then we headed out to make the rounds of visiting, talking, playing,

present-opening, more eating, and other Christmas goodness. I took a bunch of pictures but they're mostly just chaos :) We went to my mom and Danny's and got to play with cousins and Addie ran wild with them all. She was SO tired, so she was pretty wired. We stopped at Jed's Gram and Gramp's house too. Then on our way north, Addie totally crashed in the car. She refused to wake up when we got to his grandma Margaret's to visit. She slept on Jed for a half hour. Um, that never happens.

 After some more visiting with Jed's parents we headed home.

This is pretty much how Addie spent the evening....

 She pulled her chalk board to her new bed so she could experience it all at once I guess.

She actually does this now almost every morning when she wakes up. It's funny and cute.

The next evening, we had my dad and Tammie and brother Jason and his family over for dinner.

 We were glad we got to spent time with Jason's family.

They live in California now so we haven't seen them since May.

 Addie and Taylor having some soup at the tea party table.

Then the kids opened some presents from their grandparents.

 It was fun to have family over and a great way to wrap up Christmas!

Hope you all enjoyed your Christmas holiday weekend.....we missed some of our family and friends who live far away. Good thing for blogging huh?!

Speaking of...quick side note: blogger hasn't been wanting to be my friend and let me upload photos this week very well. Hence a week late Christmas post. So I'm throwing these pictures in this post too, just in case it doesn't cooperate again.

Addie got some super cute, awesome baking and cooking sets from Jed's grandma and aunt Teri for Christmas. She kept asking to use them. So the other day I grabbed some graham crackers and some whipped ganache out of my fridge I happened to have and let her play :)

She'll be using this stuff a lot!

 She LOVES baking with me.

 I told her we can do some real baking this week....I was pretty burnt out on baking this week

(I know....I was surprised myself. Mostly I just didn't want the mess)

Don't worry, when we bake for real, we don't eat frosting right out of the piping bags- but hey this was play time...and who can blame her. It was chocolate ganache, so I sure can't!

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.