January

This is how Morgan talks on the phone....she thinks it goes on top of her head! Not sure where she saw this!

I watched my two nieces this past week while my sister worked, and the girls played so well together...in this picture, they are all sitting on a mat that Addyson put out and just played for about 20 minutes.

We have a Ham in the family....Ashlyn made this face as soon as she saw the camera! Too Funny!

January has been one COLD month. Last week, we were dealing with temperatures below zero as the high. Brrrr! We got stuck staying home during all of it because who wants to try wrapping up your kids to take them out in it? Not worth it to me. I was ready to get out by Saturday and thankfully, Tim let me get out of here....granted, it was to the YMCA but it felt good to work out after not being able to do it much that week. We have only gotten 9 inches of snow this month, which is such a relief after the 35 inches we got in December. The average around here is 50 inches so we are really close to that and with 3 months more of snow possibly hitting us, we will probably go over the average again....which may lead to another flood this Spring, but I keep telling myself to take this one month at a time. I am trying to get myself to live in the moment and not worry about the future too much since there is no way of knowing what will happen. It has gotten so hard with all the economy, housing market, and job loss reports on the news every day. It is hard to block it all out, that is for sure.

Morgan is walking more than crawling now! Finally! Although she won't be 14 months until next week so I really should give her a break. I am just glad that she will be able to walk around the Mexican resort instead of crawling or being carried the entire time. We leave soon and it isn't coming soon enough! Let's just hope that it doesn't snow or rain (since weather around here is so unpredictable anymore) when we are trying to get out of Chicago. We need this vacation more than anything. A break with no cooking and cleaning......sounds like heaven to me! Oh, and I get to drink cervezas and fruity drinks all day...NICE! Addyson talks about it all the time and told me yesterday that she can't wait to go to Mexico. She tries to help me pack everyday but I keep getting distracted so we haven't gotten very far with that! We can't wait and will definitely post pictures after it!

Addyson registered for 4K today. I can't believe that my little girl will be going to elementary school next year and riding a bus too! Wow! She cannot wait. She sees the bus in the afternoon and says, "when do I get to ride it?" She was thinking after Christmas, she was going to be in Kindergarten, but I had to explain that she has to go to preschool for one whole year and after summer is when she will start at the new school. When we got there, two older girls were leaving and I think it intimidated Addyson a little because she looked at me and said, "Mommy, I think I still need to grow some before I can go to school here." We go to an open house in February so that will be exciting for her.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and happy New Year.....we got to see family & friends during this time so that makes it wonderful for us. Our celebrations started the weekend before Christmas at Aunt Joy's and Uncle Daryl's for the Burchie Christmas. We got delayed a day because of bad weather throughout SE WI and most of IL. So we lost a day of visiting with the McClards, but we did still go on Saturday and had a safe trip down. The girls had a lot of fun and got some really nice clothes from Tim's aunts. Addyson was a big helper for Aunt Joy and talked about her for quite a while after that. While we were all downstairs playing the gift exchange game, she was helping her cook the meal for everyone and putting things away for her. It was so sweet...now if I can only get her to do that for me. :O) Morgan caused a stir that night and wouldn't sleep....so Tim, Addyson and I were up until about 2:30 AM and hoping that no one else heard her....but that wasn't the case. Tim's sister was up listening to her at the same time. Ugh! It was frustrating....almost like having a newborn again. I definitely don't miss that! We came home on Sunday in some nasty weather conditions....below zero temps and blowing snow....Tim says it wasn't that bad, but I have to give him credit because it looked pretty bad to me!

On Christmas Eve, after Addsyon left out cookies and sprinkled Reindeer Food on the sidewalk, we went to Spring Grove, IL to spend it with the Davis side of the family. The girls got to open a few gifts before church and Addyson got the neatest Dora and Pegasus....the horse actually walks! That was the hit of the day for her. She got some dress up stuff from the Thompsons....Snow White! She loved it and had to put it on immediately! She is a girl through and through! We all got some wonderful gifts and had an amazing meal of Prime Rib, yum! But of course it had to end too early and we were on our way through MORE bad road conditions....this time the snow that had come earlier on our way down had frozen and we encountered many icy roads, but after about 30 extra minutes on the road...we made it! It was important for us to get home so that Santa could come. (oh, by the way..I am SICK of snow and ice...and WINTER!)

I woke up before anyone on Christmas day (I think now my excitement has transferred to my seeing the kids' expressions once they realize Santa has come....) and just waited for Addyson to get up (of course, she slept in.) And yes, despite her being a monster for most of December, Santa found it in his heart to come! :O) Once she was up though, she could not wait for Morgan and started finding her gifts that had her name on them. Preschool has taught her that. No more fooling her about it not being for her. She got Barbies, Littlest Pet Shop stuff, My Little Ponies, and a LOT more Dress up clothes....Fancy Nancy, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. She was thrilled. Morgan got a Dora truck and a lot of bath toys. After breakfast, the Mooney side of the family came and the girls got a ton more presents from the Mooneys and Antholines. Addyson got MORE dress up stuff...this time an entire trunk of Fairy clothes...she should be set for awhile. (Audra - no more sexy clothes for the girls. You don't have to worry about Maggie showing so much skin. haha!) Tim and I also got more wonderful gifts from our family....I can't wait to wear my new Cubs shirt and running shoes. Plus, with all the books I got, I should be reading right now instead of doing this. Overall, it was once again a wonderful Christmas, but it all seems to go so fast.

Through all this, Morgan started taking steps. She is pretty stable but since she gets around so much faster with crawling, she refuses to do it unless you force her. She loves walking to Addyson though, so we try to get Addyson to work with her as much as possible. She finally has 4 teeth. The 2nd top one seemed to take forever to come in, and she looked like snaggletooth for so long! In some pictures she even looks like Sloth from the movie "The Goonies." Silly! Hopefully she will get more teeth soon, since she is already 13 months old. She says Dad-deeeee all the time and knows what a nose is...although she would rather pinch mine than touch her own when I ask where her nose is....now I need to teach her where hers is and let her know that it isn't on my face! She still hasn't really tried to climb stairs (thank god!) but certainly wants to be wherever everyone else is. She has been off the bottle since November and actually can drink from a straw really well, so at restaurants she wants a cup with straw like Addyson gets. I guess watching her big sister has grown her up quickly in some ways. She likes to color and play with all her musical instruments including the piano in the den....you always know where she is, because she is always pushing the keys.

Our New Year's Eve was spent with our good friends and neighbors, the Charlsons and Briggers...and of course, our first friends up here, Diana and Bob! Everyone came over here for a few hours before the kids had to go to bed. It was definitely an early night but it was nice to just get together and talk and let the kids play a little. I am thinking we probably won't have a late NYE for awhile, but sometimes waking up on New Year's Day without a hangover is a good thing! Especially when you can go work out and start off 2009 the right way.....Happy New Year to all and here's to hoping this is your best year yet!