Dicken's White Elephant

Paul's mom's family always gets together each year at Christmas for a White Elephant (i.e. dirty santa) gift exchange. This year...there were 3 additional third generation kids...Addie, Adeline, and Reese. This was in addition to: Grace, Sam, Leah, and Tori. All girls!!! So that made 3 grandparents and their spouses/father's of their children, 6 kids (5 of which have spouses or signifcant others), and the grandkids...bringing the grand total to 25!

I unfortunately (again, due to my lack of knowledge), had my camera set too dark...so I've had to edit the heck out of the pictures I took. But here are a few from the night...

Grandpa and Daddy

Grace, Cousin Jessie, and Reese

Aunt Linda, Cousin Jessica, and Reese

the 3 older girls: Grace, Leah, and Sam

Grandma, Albert, Cousin Russell

Addie is about 2 weeks older than her cousin (that'd be her 1st cousin once removed) Adeline. There was a huge difference in their size though (bc Addie's a little on the tall side). Adeline was very laid back and Addie was incredibly high strung! She was so excited to get to play with Adeline...a little too excited to the point that she ended up hitting Adeline as she waved her arms up and down!

what a look! & do you see who's hand is reaching in there to grab the toy?!?

Fortunately, Adeline could hold her own! Can you tell how excited Addie is here? We definitley have a leader not a follower on our hands...advantages and disadvantages I am sure!

Albert relaxing as the party winds down.
Adeline had the cutest little wave!

Abbey got to come downstairs and join the party at the end. She stuck pretty close to her Mommy and Daddy.

Addie looking at her Aunt Millie. Sweet smiles!

Christmas in Augusta: Part 1

I have a lot to learn about my new lens. I've had a blast playing with it...but I've missed a ton of great shots because of my lack of knowledge! It's frustrating to see a great pictures only to realize it's completely blurry! I guess that's what I get for wanting a lens that's main purpose is to blur the background of a picture!

I recently read some great advice about taking pictures: "shoot like there's no tomorrow." Fortunately I took that advice and out of the over 800 pictures I took, I have found a few I liked :)

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We had a great time in Augusta. Our 1st few nights/days there we spent with Addie's Grandpa (Mike). She's his 1st little girl, and I believe he's completely smitten with her! I can't wait for her cousin to be born in March, and we'll get to see him with two baby girls! He gets a kick out of me taking pictures, hoping that I will get the perfect one for him to show the women he works with the proof of what a handsome (and fabulous) Grandpa he is!

I love how Addie is looking at her crazy Uncle Jay here

Addie's Grandpa decided that he needed a camera! Of course, I jumped on that, found him one online, sent him the link; and by the next time we came to visit, he had one! Now the story has changed...that I made him spend money on a new camera. Hmmmm...well, as you can see from the picture below...it takes great pictures and he's constantly using it! Maybe he did buy this camera of his own volition after all! :)

Mommy, Uncle Jay, Aunt Millie, Daddy

We had Addie playing in the living room while dinner was being made. Before we knew it, she had crawled into the kitchen so she could be in the center of all the action.

Of course she found the stool and started to pull up. Her aunt Millie held onto the top of the stool so it wouldn't topple over, and Daddy spotted her from behind so she didn't topple over!

Playing with Christmas presents is so much fun...for everyone!

Addie ate lunch with us at the big table...carrots, turkey, dressing, potatoes, and cranberries...yummy! Oh...and juice :)

Addie definitely still looks like her Daddy, and although some have attempted to claim her eyes as theirs, her Daddy and I still maintain that they are mine!

...this is such a Mommy look

we brought Abbey along with us, especially after she (we) had such a rough week with Mollie

More Christmas pictures to come...from Paul's mom's, Atlanta, Christmas morning, and my dad's..that might get edited sometime in the next year!

Christmas All Around

I love, love Christmas time. I love the lights and the traditions and seeing family and listening to Christmas carols and...

I love setting up the nativity...

and decorating the mantle...

and putting out the ornaments that my mom made for me/us...

and decorating the tree
(minus the battle-of-the-lights but I do love them once they're on and minus when the tree falls!)
one of my favorite traditions is giving/getting ornaments! my mom was able to hand us a huge box full of ornaments when we got married that she/we had collected growing up-something we'll start now with Addie!

our "1st Christmas" ornament from my mom

my favorite angel ornament from my Maw Maw

Paul's ornaments: rock 'em sock 'em robots (they actually work!) and a Star War's Jedi

and then there's the presents...
it isn't that presents are a focus for us-don't get me wrong, we love giving (and getting) presents...it's just not our focus. however, I love, love wrapping and putting ribbon on presents...something my mom taught me to do years ago and let me do for years growing up! and oh do I love ribbon...

and my goal this year (one of many) was to use up as many of those spools of ribbon (and wrapping paper) with just a little left on them as I could....success!

A tradition we will be starting with Addie is to spend Christmas morning with just the three of us (and however many kiddos we add in years to come) eating breakfast casserole, enjoying Santa's visit, and who knows what else we'll add in the years to come! I hope to add making cookies, decorating gingerbread houses, and more as she/they gets older.

But most importantly, I want to share with her about the tiny little baby that was born 2000 years ago. The tiny baby that changed the world. I hope she will know Jesus as her Savior, putting her trust and hope in the only thing that can bring her true joy. And it starts now, playing with her little people nativity her Rie Rie gave her. Talking about baby Jesus and the angel and singing Away in a Manger. It all starts now.

In all the bustle and rush of Christmas, we hope your family is blessed by the one true reason for Christmas! No Happy Holidays...just Merry Christmas!!!

Moooooooooooore!

When I hear the word "more", it makes me think of the Disney movie Oliver that my brother and I watched as children (and I mean the 1968 version...not the new one. Hmmmm, I think I'm dating myself.). But you know...when Oliver Twist is in the orphanage and says, "Please sir, can I have some more?" With which the mean old man replies, "Mooooooooore?" and they break into song! Well, back to here and now...

It became quite apparent about 3 months ago that Addie was really starting to know what she wanted (and wanted now). The only way she knew how to communicate though was with screams, cries, or grunts. That got old real fast.

After watching my friend Allison use sign language with both her first (for early communication) and second (due to severe ear infections to bridge the gap), I decided that it made sense to use a combination of words and sign language with Addie starting as early as possible. I really believe that it will reduce frustration for Addie as well as Mommy and Daddy. :)

Most of what I read recommended starting anywhere from 6-8 months of age. We have been working with Addie since she was around 6 months old. I seriously wondered if she had any idea what I was having her do! But after 2-3 weeks of having her use the sign language symbol for "more" when she ate (or initially I fed her) cheerios, it clicked.

Do I have a genius on my hands? Well of course, she's my child and she's perfect! ;) Isn't yours? But all kidding aside, it's been amazing to watch her see what she wants and then tell us "more" for items other than cheerios. What's been funny is that when she wants my phone or keys (neither of which I regularly let her have), she does the symbol for "more." Hmmm...that creates another issue in and of itself. Not to worry...we don't give her everything she "mores!"

There is, of course with most baby and educational topics, controversy on the advantages and disadvantages of teaching sign language to babies. Results in higher IQ? Advances child development? Delays verbal language?

Since she's already a genius and developmentally far above her peers seemingly right on track, I'm not concerned about raising her IQ or advancing her development. Delaying verbal language? My argument #1: she's a girl! Argument #2: We were recently around a 21 month old who 1) speaks very little (barely mama and dada) and 2.) has never been taught sign language. Can't explain that language delay with sign language. That was enough for me!

Besides, who doesn't talk to their child as they teach sign language (unless a child is hearing impaired)? How can connecting a gesture with a word delay language development? We teach them "yes" and "no" and "hold me" without hesitation. Right?

As I've tried to do with cloth diapers (we've been in disposables all week because she's had an upset tummy with this fever virus. why wash out 6-7 diapers a day when I can usually get away with washing out maybe 1-2 each week!), homemade baby food (gerber on sale? great variety!), or toys containing pvc (more about that later)...moderation is the key. Do what you can when you can and don't worry about it the rest of the time! I figure the minute I start freaking out about stuff, not only will Addie be right behind me...so will her Daddy!

I have found this website that we've used frequently to learn the signs ourselves. There's an article here from an organization called Signing Time that I found interesting. And you can find an article from Parents Magazine here and an article from Time Magazine here.

So where will we go from here? We've already started working on the signs for: please, food, drink, milk, and thank you. We'll add Mommy and Daddy soon. But for now...we're focusing on please, food, and drink! Keep it simple!

More?!?!?
sometimes it starts here...

usually this is how she does it

...and sometimes it makes it to her mouth.

***these pictures were taken a month or so ago...my how she's changed!

Not Me! Monday

I did not take over 250 pictures with my new lens in less than 8 hours. I'd never be that totally obsessed with something! I didn't keep my camera right by my side all day to catch the best pictures of Addie and others. I didn't excitedly go to CVS with my father-in-law and his girlfriend to print off some of these pictures on our pseudo Christmas day. I'm not such a total dork. Nope...not me!

My mother did not buy my husband boys extra large undershirts instead of mens extra large undershirts. There's no way she'd overlook something that big, even if they were found in the same section! She'd also never inform me of this and in the same breath tell me it needed to go on my "Not Me!" Monday post...but it had to wait until next week! I'd never have my whole family trained to help me prepare my "Not Me!" posts! Nope...not me! :)

We did not load up baby gear, Christmas presents, the baby, us, and a dog to begin our five day tour de Christmas. I did not pack the presents so the bows would not get squished. I'd never be so concerned about bows! We did not have to return home to get some very important items like an ipod, lip balm, a dog brush...oh, and diaper rash cream and tylenol for emergencies. Our dog did not attempt to crawl into the front seat over the car seat. We will not be spending four nights in Augusta: two nights at Paul's dad's and two nights at his mom's house, 12 hours in Atlanta, and back to Montgomery to spend Christmas day with my mom and afternoon with my dad! We'd never have to go that many places in only 5 days! Nope...not us!

We did not go to Alltel and demand a new phone because my Treo was so dysfunctional! We did not spend 3 hours copying my addresses into the new phone only to realize the desktop program would transfer them for us then to only discover there was a file corrupted that kept freezing the transfer. Then...my computer savy husband certainly did not spend 30 minutes ghetto rigging the program to make it work. No normal average person could have figured it out! And...my phone did not completely and totally die the next morning. Nope...

I did not stay up until 2:30am Friday night in order to finish Addie's 9 month blog post. Nope...not me!

Now being the week before Christmas, I know there are things you've not done. So...tell all and you'll feel much better! Make sure to check out MckMama's blog as well!

Happy Monday!

New Camera Lens

I've been itching for a new lens for my camera and got it from my father-in-law today! I admittedly could not put my camera down. I totally dorked out...but had a blast! This is basically the difference between my new and old lens (although these were both taken with my new lens). I won't go into detail (i'm not sure i could explain it all anyway)...but you can see the difference here:

new and old

Here are some of my favorites from the day! I didn't do much editing on these...and i'm learning how to use the lens (as you can see by some of the ones at the bottom of the page). Some are too dark. Others are too fuzzy. But overall...I'm totally pumped about learning how to take pictures with this new lens!

my favorite!

a little too blurry...but I loved her eyelashes in this picture

sweet Abbey