Happy Merry Christmas!

Christmas preparations this year were more fun than ever! Addie loved talking about Santa and all his reindeer, baking cookies, and helping decorate, shop, and wrap. She also would wish everyone a "Happy Merry Christmas!" almost everyday! Here are some pictures of some of our holiday events from 2010...










We went twice to see "A Day in the Life of an Elf" - once before Christmas, and then after with all our friends. I have gone to see this 8th floor display every year of my life, and love to be able to share this tradition with Addie!











We spent Christmas Eve with the Corbett's and Christmas day with the Rodgers' at "Uncle David's"










Addie was so excited that Santa came and brought her the new sled she asked for!

Skating!

Today we took Addie skating for the first time. She was so excited and we all had a lot of fun! She did a great job and even insisted on trying it on her own. She was able to stand on her own pretty solidly, and take about 5 steps before falling... we're thinking she must be a natural!


Getting her skates laced up

Excited to get started!

Santa 2010

Visiting Santa was drastically different from last year. For those of you who don't remember, we made two different trips last year - both ending in tears and no picture.

This year, the second it was our turn, Addie made a mad dash for Santa, she first ran to pet the reindeer then hopped right up on his lap and chatted away with him for as long as we would let her. She was sure to tell him how good she has been, everything that she wants for Christmas, along with all the shoveling we have been doing at home this weekend! All of these Christmas traditions have been becoming more and more fun each year, and we are looking forward to adding to the fun with Corbettkid2 next year!

Snow Day!

This weekend we received over 17" of snow! Luckily, we were able to plan ahead and get our errands done before it all started so we were able to enjoy the show from inside. We spent our snow day watching movies, baking cookies, playing games, and taking a couple of naps :)

We had a fun day as a family, and found that we are very grateful for our AWD vehicles, and helpful neighbors. I hope everyone else enjoyed the snow day as much as we did!

Tree Time!

We went to the Rum River Tree Farm this weekend to get our Christmas tree. This is the second year we have cut down our own tree and it's a tradition we hope to continue each year. We were able to find a great tree, see Santa, and also visit with many different animals at their petting zoo.



















We decorated the tree a couple days later and Addie was so excited about it! I could hardly keep up with her... she would hang an ornament before I could even unwrap the next one! The best part was once we were done we looked over the tree and noticed that ALL the ornaments Addie put on the tree were on the bottom row of branches. It was so funny and she looked so proud, so of course we couldn't help but take a picture!

Good News!

Addie has finally conquered her fear of the stairs! We used her sticker chart as an incentive and walked down a few steps each day. The funny thing was that she wanted a "nigh-night dress" for her prize. Here she is in all her pride!

First Snow!

We had our first snowfall of this winter season last night. It was perfect timing for a fun Saturday playing in the snow. Addie was so excited when she woke up in the morning! She was glued to the windows and kept pointing out all the things that she saw covered in snow: our car, the sidewalk, the grass, Amy's house, the plants, the bushes, the trees...

Ultrasound!

Today we had our ultrasound for CorbettKid2. It was so much fun! The baby was squirming around the whole time and playing peek-a-boo with all of us. We decided not to find out the baby's gender, just like with Addie. That meant there were a few times that we had to turn away from the screen since the baby was being so "cooperative" with the ultrasound tech :) The baby is very healthy, and is even measuring 1 week ahead. I was hoping this would mean that we could expect him/her a week earlier, but we were informed that at this point in the game what that means is we can expect him/her to be bigger... yikes!

Scary Things (According to Addie)

Addie has been talking more and more lately of things she is scared of and things that make her feel sad. Some of you have been a part of these conversations or melt-downs (especially around the robot at the Science Museum). So I couldn't resist writing down this conversation we had while eating lunch at the mall today.

Addie: "I scared of that blue guy".
Me: "Really, why?"
Addie: "Just cause he like T-Rex, Monsters, and Robots, that's why I scared of him"
Me: "Oh, ok"... what else can you say to that?

Halloween 2010!

With Halloween on a Sunday this year we were able to spend the whole weekend preparing and celebrating. Friday, Addie had a Halloween party at daycare where they dressed in costume, exchanged treats and made cupcakes. Then on Saturday we went to our friends' the Wineberg's house for a Halloween party. Addie had a blast playing with all the kids and dancing with Cassie! Finally, we spent Sunday carving pumpkins, roasting pumpkin seeds, and preparing for trick-or-treating. We went trick-or-treating with Hazel and the two girls were so cute running to each house and saying "trick-or-treat!", and Addie was so good about saying "thank you" after house! We had a great time, and I can already tell that Halloween is going to be one of those times that will become more and more fun with time!

Leaves and Pumpkins!

Last weekend we took advantage of the beautiful weather and spent our days playing outside in the leaves and going to the pumpkin patch!

Addie could not wait to jump into the leaf pile! She liked getting buried, making it rain leaves, and walking through the pile in all directions to spread it all back out.









We made our annual trip out to Pine Tree to get apples and pumpkins. We had fun running through the corn maze and picking out the perfect pumpkins. And as always, we ended our trip with some apple cider and apple doughnuts - yum!

Owie

I wasn't sure if I was going to write about this, but have always felt that this blog serves as a type of journal for us, so in that case, I guess I can't leave it out...

A few weeks ago Addie fell down our entire flight of stairs from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor. She was pretty shaken up, but overall fairly calm. We decided to bring her in anyway just to get her checked out. Addie was complaining of shoulder pain, so they did an x-ray where they found that she had actually broken her collar bone. According to our doctor, this is a common injury (it even happened to her daughter) and a lucky one. Addie was given a sling that she wore for a week and has felt good ever since. The only residual pain comes whenever she gets ready to go down the stairs. She is still really scared and stops dead in her tracks at the top step and insists on one of us carrying her. This was definitely a scary thing for all of us, but it was also so amazing to see how brave and strong a 2 1/2 year old can be!

Uncle Ben and Auntie Na's Wedding

This weekend Brian's brother, Ben, got married. It was a busy but fun weekend with the Groom's dinner on Friday and the wedding festivities on Saturday. Addie was a GREAT flower girl! She smiled in all the pictures, made it all the way down the aisle (with only a short detour!), and danced until 10! The wedding was beautiful and held a lot of traditions and incorporated the values of family. It was a wonderful day that we will always remember.

Introducing Corbettkid #2!

That's right, we are changing from a family of 3 to a family of 4! Our due date is April 13th, 2011. So far this pregnancy has been very similar to my pregnancy with Addie. I was nauseous from weeks 5-8, and have otherwise been feeling pretty good outside of the normal pregnancy exhaustion. I can already tell that my energy is coming back now that I am entering trimester 2!

Addie is very excited to be a big sister, and I know she will be the best! She is already convinced that she is going to have a baby sister and is already talking about how the baby will sleep in her crib and how she will move into her new room upstairs... hopefully it will be done in time!

Fall Harvest and Apple Picking

One of my favorite things to plant in our garden each summer is squash and pumpkins. I think it's because we have to wait the longest for them to be ready and it's so fun to be harvesting fresh produce in October. This year we harvested a record number of squash in our garden with a total of 15! We also have 2 large pumpkins that will be perfect in time for Halloween!








We spent some time today picking apples at one of Brian's coworker's house. They have been planting apple trees gradually over the past 20 years and now have an orchard of about 100 trees in their backyard! It was such a beautiful and charming afternoon. We picked Honeycrisp, Jonathan, Red Delicious, and one other I can't remember the name of. We also picked out a pumpkin and a bunch of gourds.

The Littlest DMB Fan

Happy Birthday to My Mama!

Despite some sad family circumstances, we were still able to have a nice birthday weekend. We spent a quiet two days at the cabin, and ate lots of good food. We celebrated with cake on Monday night, and Addie was insistent on going and getting me a school bus birthday cake from Dairy Queen. We have no clue how she came up with this grand idea! Even though they were not able to find a school bus cake, we still had some Dairy Queen cupcakes and they were delicious!

The Great Minnesota Get Together

We all had a great time at the State Fair this year! We usually go on a weekday evening to avoid crowds, but have seemed to run out of time to do all the "kid" activities with Addie. So this year we went on a Sunday morning, and will definitely make this our new tradition. We ate, played, and even got to hang out with Grandma and Papa. Here are some of our favorites from the day:










Addie LOVED the Kidway. I'm certain she would have gone on every ride if we had let her!


Acting like a silly chicken with Grandma




Working on the farm. Addie had a great time, but Brian and I thought it was too bad Cargil runs the whole thing. She even had to feed corn to all the animals. Ugh.













Sweet Martha's cookies and the Giant slides. Two MN State Fair MUSTS!