Happy New Year's!

I can remember last year on New Year's Eve thinking, "Next year we'll have Addie!" I can honestly say it has been our best year yet! My heart is so happy! I wish you all a Happy New Year's! May 2010 be your best year yet! :-)

~Michelle :-)

The BEST Christmas EVER!!!!

Our Christmas was extra special this year because of our precious little sweetie. We just love her so much and had such a blast with her. She's so much fun! On Christmas Eve, we had Nana, Aunt Lindsey and Papa over for dinner. It was a blast! Addie received so many wonderful, fun gifts this year. I like Amanda's idea to put some of them up and have Christmas again in a few months! ;-) We had planned to go to Kansas on Christmas day, but had to make a difficult decision to cancel our trip because of a really bad snow storm between here and there. We would have had to travel through Oklahoma, which had most major highways completely shut down. We were blessed to have the Colins call and invite us to their Christmas dinner that night. We had a wonderful time! The food was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S and the company was so fun. In all of the years that Carol and I have been friends, and we have never seen each other on Christmas Day! It was a special time full of lots of wonderful memories! Thank you sweet Colin family!

Our Christmas Eve bedtime tradition started with a reading of Grandma and Grandpa's Night Before Christmas Book. She is starting to ham it up for the camera...can you tell?

Then, "Addie" wrote a letter to Santa...can you see the seriousness in her face (or maybe sleepiness??)Then she had to resist eating Santa's cookies and milk before bed....Then it was Christmas morning before we knew it! We woke her up and she opened her presents! After she opened her Santa gifts, we talked to all of her grandparents on the phone and wished them all a Merry Christmas. She opened gifts from Cece and Grandpa on speaker phone.

Here are some pictures from our Christmas Eve Celebration..
Addie 'N' Papa...

Nana made Addie this sweet ornament...

Christmas Day at the Colins...playing with Mike and his singing Santa...she was amazed!

Our backyard on Christmas morning...wow! Addie's first Christmas was a white Christmas!

I had to throw this one in...this is my most FAVORITE gift of all this year! Brandon had this cross made for me...in the middle is Addie's foot print...with wings on the sides to make it look like an angel. Then he even had the lady paint the rest of the cross to go with our living room. It is so special! On the back it says, "Merry Christmas Mommy 2009" I will always treasure this sweet little gem!

Carol and Michelle's first Christmas Day together...

Our blessed little family on our first Christmas all together. Thank you God for the gift of Your Son!

~Michelle :-)

Santa in Our Home

I have seen lots of blog post lately about Santa or no Santa. In our home, we love Santa. I don't have some prophetic reason why we do, we just do. Santa is a very happy part of my childhood. I love the tradition, the wonder, the innocence of a child. Our goal is to teach Addie about Jesus all year long, but for our children, we desire for Santa at Christmastime to be a magical fictional character, like....maybe.... Mother Goose.... I loved this article I found online this morning. You can click here to read the article. It is on the Babywise Mom Blog (which is one of my all time favorite blogs) but the article she references is by Gary Ezzo, author of the Babywise and Growing Kids God's Way series. I just love what he has to say, especially this line:

What you tell your children about Santa Claus is up to you. But whatever you decide, remember that Christ is the King— both of Christmas and every day. That is the most important message you can get across to them.

As for me and MY house, we will be baking cookies this afternoon to leave for Santa Claus tonight with a tall glass of milk....Then we will say our prayers and praise God for the best gift He's ever given us.......... as we lay her down to sleep.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night!

~Michelle :-)

Auntie M's Visit!

We had so much fun this week! Auntie M (Carol) came to stay with us for 2 days! It was such a blast! One of Mommy and Auntie M's favorite things to do is play with her fancy camera and take pictures of our sweet little Addie. These are some of the highlights from her visit...

My Aunt Kristie sent Addie an adorable outfit, and this hat goes with it. Love it!!

This one requires a little explanation....I read that it's a good idea to do sippy cup training in the bathtub because the water will dribble all down the front of them. So, every night we have sippy cup time in the tub. Addie likes to grip the cup with her teeth and hold it straight up in the air, all the while, water is dribbling down her chest!

Grandma Cece and Grandpa sent her these cute snowman pajama's...I think she looks so snuggly cute in them!
Here is my baby doing the SPLITS!! (And notice the shirt...it says, Daddy's Favorite Present.) Thanks for that too, Cece!

Grandma Cece and Grandpa called and had Addie open one gift that night before she went to bed. Notice they are in the picture too, on speaker phone on the table....they bought her the neatest book! It's Clement C. Moore's Twas the Night Before Christmas, but with the turn of each page you hear Grandma and Grandpa's voices reading the story. At the end it says, "Merry Christmas to Addie and to all a good night!" So special! We have decided to make this book a part of our Christmas Eve family tradition. It's so special!

We also celebrated Carol's birthday with a yummy steak dinner and chocolate molten lava cakes for dessert! We love you Carol!!!

Auntie M brought fun gifts for Miss Addie, including a sweet Christmas tree charm for her charm bracelet, and this adorable outfit with leggings!! We had to try it on for a fashion show!

I love this shirt...it says "Mommy's Cute Cookie" with a gingerbread baby on it.

Last year, my friend Stacie gave Addie this adorable stocking! We squeezed her into it for a photo op, of course! Isn't she the cutest? It was a tight fit! What a fun visit we had! Can't wait to do it again next year! :-)

~Michelle :-)

Addie's Message from Santa

Look what Santa sent to Addie! Click HERE to see his special message for our special girl!


~Michelle :-)

Hardin/Harmon Family Christmas

Every year we get together with my Dad, Julie, Thomas and Ryan for our annual family Christmas a few weeks before Christmas day. This year we hosted at our home and were blessed to have Ryan's girlfriend, Lauren join us. We all enjoyed Addie this year...she adds so much joy to the festivities!

Uncle Thomas, Uncle Ryan, and Addison

Bubbie and AddieUncle Ryan and Lauren Addie thinks Ryan is so much fun! He entertains her for hours! All the "kids" playing...
Love this picture!

Holy Cow!!!!!

Addie enjoyed trying to eat the wrapping paper....

Bubbie and Poppee got Addie the most adorable "rocking lamb!" It is so soft and sweet....she was so cute when we put her up on top of it! Ignore the terrible picture of me (I had been cooking and cleaning all day....tried to freshen up....but after looking back at the pics I see I wasn't so successful! I should have started all over!)

Such fun memories! We still have a few more "Christmases" to celebrate....can't wait!

~Michelle :-)

Party Time!

I have been wanting to make this post for a week now! We had a wonderful time at my staff Christmas party a week ago. This picture shows the babies that were there. (Some couldn't attend) It's really fun to see these little ones interact with eachother. We all talk about them so much at work!

These are two of Addie's biggest fans in the whole wide world....Tonya and Chani....

Addie, Ben, and Rylee (and their mommys too!)

It was fun to see Rylee and Addie play together. They haven't seen eachother in a long time! They were trying to get eachother's bows. So funny!

For some reason, Addie loves to chew the table at Joesephine's. Maybe it tastes like garlic???

~Michelle :-)

It's a Boy!

We have exciting news to share! Our dear friends Hillary and Brad (Hillary is known to Addie as Auntie Hillie) are having a baby boy!! Today they found out the exciting news! He is healthy, and growing strong, and will be arriving in April. Praise God! There was so much anticipation waiting for this day! She is almost 21 weeks and has waited so patiently to find out what the gender is. Addie and I gave her two gifts on Wednesday night. One was super pink and one was super blue. We told her to open the right one today when she found out. We had fun picking out things for the baby. :-) Congratulations to Hillary and Brad! We are so excited for you and can't wait to meet your precious little man in just a few months!

~Michelle :-)

Family Photos

A few weeks ago we had family pictures taken for our Christmas card photo, by the sweetest photographer/graphic designer, Adrien Maroney. If you would like to check out her website, click here. Thank you to Adrien, we have captured some precious moments in time with our sweet little girl. Here are a few of our favorites....

(There is one more at the wayyyy bottom of the blog)
~Michelle :-)