Birthday Party Fun!

Addison Kate all smiles for her 4th birthday party.  Unbelievable, 4th birthday, my baby?  Impossible.  

Sweet Addison.  Another thing we love about Mississippi...having a birthday party outdoors in January!

Addison's four year old buddies.  James held his own in a world of pink.  

Silly Addison.

Birthday lunch :)

Look at this sweet girl while her friends sang Happy Birthday.  We love you SO much Addison!  

100th Day of School!

Luke's class had to bring 100 items to school to celebrate the 100th day of school.  Thankfully, Luke is much more creative than me because I said, "Um, okay how about 100 fruit loops?" when he showed me the assignment.  He humored me for about 2 minutes and then told me he had a better idea...he then created this! A+++  

Every day is a beach day

It might be January but Addison will play at the beach every day.  Conveniently, our backyard is a beach.  I love this picture for multiple reasons.  One: every single thing Addison is wearing from the hat to the shoes to the shades-were once Amelia's.  That is probably why I call her Amelia twenty thousand times a day.  Secondly, I think it was about 50 degrees that day so the hat might have been overkill.  Granted, that is chilly for the coast but still.  

Sadie, Addison's loving companion.  Always willing to play at the beach, play mommy and baby, play mommy doggy and baby doggy...you get the idea.  All she asks in return is free reign to kiss Addison on the face all day long.

I love this of little sissy holding on to big sis.  

Down and Out

After a three week Christmas break, most moms (including this one) are more than ready for the kids to go back to school.  Well, little Addison decided to get a rip roaring virus the day before back to school and was home a whole extra week.  And when you quarantine your baby, it also means you quarantine yourself.  Addison and I were both more than ready to get out of the house.  

This weekend was the first time Addison was able to function outside of the house at all.  We went for a nice bike ride after church and then had some good old play time on the beach.  

You never know who you are going to meet on the beach.  Luke met Daisy the parrot, who has her own stroller for beach walks.  

Never hurts to get a little exercise in so we did some beach races, cart wheel practice, and beach yoga.  By the way, Stephen totally sucks at yoga.  But we love him anyway.

These are actually pictures from Saturday, Luke and Addison in Packer green and gold but it did not give us any luck in the game.  Better luck next year Packers :(  

Amelia showing off her duct tape purse she made:)

Amelia had a 10 and under tennis tournament on Saturday so she played doubles with her friends from the club.  Love my little tennis star.  

New year, new hair

Addison's sassy new cut for 2013!

Ringing in the New Year...

We rang in 2013 with some tennis friends and it went from this:

to this, real quick.  

We had a really great time and it was the first time in years and years that we were actually awake to ring in the New Year...and to sing a rousing rendition of Auld Sang Lyne.  The kids were kind enough to let us sleep until 7:30 on the first day of 2013 but clearly that wasn't enough as we kind of muddled through the day.  Happy New Year...I think I will start this year on January 2 when my headache goes away.  

Christmas continues...

My parents do a drive by stop in Mississippi each year on their way from Wisconsin to Florida.  It is a fun stop because the kids get to have one more Christmas celebration a few days after Christmas and they get to hang with Grandma and Grandpa.  Grandma and Grandpa got Addison an American Girl doll :)

This is a handprint that I made when I was 4 years old so we were matching up Addison's hand...who just happened to have a mouth full of M&M's at the time.  Gross!

Out of order...whoops.  This is right before we opened up the presents.  Thank goodness they got here when they did because Luke couldn't wait one more minute to open up the "big" present under the family tree.  (It was a guitar).  I can't blame my parents because we told them to buy it for him.  But wow, Luke is convinced he is picking up the guitar really quickly and can play anything he hears.  He pretty much just strums the same chord continuously while singing said song at the top of his lungs.  And then says, "Did you hear me?  Did you hear me?"  I am thinking drums actually may have been a step up.  It was a short but sweet visit...Merry Christmas for the last time until next year:)