sudoku

Check out the new hobby that Addelyn has picked up! Sudoku puzzles!!!

It's a BOY!!!

Ultrasounds are amazing to me. What a beautiful, amazing moment to see this little human inside of you- moving around. Our little boy was moving around like crazy today. Flipping his body, moving his arms and legs all around. At one point, it looked like he was sitting Indian style with his hands over his "boy parts." I looked over at Mark (who had PROMISED he would be so excited for either a girl or boy) and could see the amazing joy on his face when he said,

"Wait, is that a penis!?" (not kidding, Mark spotted that thing before our ultrasound tech had a moment to say a word!)

We told Addelyn tonight by showing her the CD of pics from our ultrasound. She is very excited for a baby but was not impressed with the ultrasound pics or our boy announcement. As she looked at the pictures, she said, "Wait, where are the baby pictures? Where is the baby? This doesn't look like a baby! I want to see the baby!"

She thought he should be holding a rattle inside of my belly. I'm sure it does have to be very confusing. I'm wondering what she was imagining when we said we'd bring home pictures from the doctor's office of our baby. She must be processing though because tonight at dinner, she sat quietly for a bit, and then said, "Mommy, pretty soon it is going to be you, daddy, me, and a baby BROTHER!"

working toward the new years "goals"

I'm trying to follow through with my reading plan for 2011- which includes reading MORE these days. I'm trying to get through the pile of books that keeps stacking up!

So a few books I've just finished and would definitely suggest to you:

Faith Begins at Home by Mark Holmen

and

Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist

babies

This is the movie we watch OFTEN at our house these days. It is a story about four different babies around the world. Addelyn absolutely LOVES it. Whenever we have it on, she will continually say, "Watch this part, Mommy! Watch it! Watch it!" She is always making sure we are not missing anything. She is so interested in the birth, in their feeding, bathing, and more. My daughter LOVES babies. It will be interesting to see what is going to happen in the upcoming months when a new "real" baby enters our world.

dressing up on cold winter days

Addelyn and I had a great time today, playing dress up. She was a superhero, a baby, a woman getting married, a princess, and more. We had a special wedding - she wanted to marry her mommy.

Remember Mark's costume a few years ago?

Doing her princess dance!

This is her wedding dress for the big day. :)

things heard in our home

You know those moments where kids say things you never want to forget?.....

Addelyn and I were talking about falling on the ice. I said, "Sometimes people fall down if they aren't careful." She replied, "Yeah, that is what they say."

She is our fighter. After we put her to bed, some nights she will yell and cry forever. We have to laugh at the things she says some nights. Her newest phrase (remember this is YELLED at the top of her lungs, while crying and is said OVER and OVER and OVER)...."I NEED A KLEENEX, A BURP CLOTH, AND I DON'T LIKE THIS ROOM!"

A good night prayer these days can be hilarious. Addelyn will often go on and on. "Dear God. Thanks for my Mommy and Daddy. Thanks for Newman the dog (this is her friend's from the babysitters dog). Thanks for my toes. Thanks for my other toes." Toinght she listed off everything in sight (every toy, book, furniture item she could see).

I told her it was time for the girls to go inside (meaning the two of us) and she responded, "Mom, you aren't a girl. You are a lady. And a Mommy."

Addelyn ate a great dinner the other night which was a pleasant surprise as lately dinner time has been a bit of a battle. She looked over to Mark and said, "Pound it, Daddy!" and offered out her little fist.

"Mommy, I tooted! Wanna come and smell it?" she said the other night.

Mark sometimes goes into Addelyn's bed in the morning to wake her up and snuggle with her for a few minutes. This morning the first thing she did was reach over, rub her hands across his face, and say, "Daddy, you're the greatest."

bachelorette party time!

The first weekend in January we got together to celebrate my sister and her upcoming wedding with a little BACHELORETTE party! Fun times. We started out with lunch and a lingerie gift time with 5 of the 6 bridesmaids (one lives in North Carolina) and the moms.

After lunch, we headed in for pedicures and massages. LOVED that part of the day!

After the wondeful relaxation, the bridesmaids headed to our hotel to relax and get ready for the night out. We went out for dinner and then headed to the Blue Moon Piano bar. It was entertaining and lots of fun (even for a preggo). I think my sis had a great night and we had lots of fun celebrating her!

wedding day countdown

I'm getting excited, my sis is getting married in less than two months!

longing for summer days....

Don't these pictures just make you long for summer days? Sandals, tan skin, shorts, and sitting outside. Ahhhh......summer days.

This pic is of Wes and Staci (Mark and Wes work together). They are a great couple. They have babysat Addelyn a few times so that we can go on dates and she loves them (and their dog Gus!) These are pics from summer but I couldn't help but put them up as i sat here blogging in my Snuggie/sweats/cup of tea tonight, staying inside and out of the cold winter snow.

creative minds

Addelyn got an easal for Christmas and she LOVES it. It has a marker board, a chalk board, and a place to pull down paper and paint. She loves the painting, which takes a little more prep and of course, I need to watch her closely through the process. I love watching her creativity. Yesterday she painted a picture of my pregnant belly, a dog, the sun, and six birds!

Another favorite about the easal is watching Mark paint with her. Mark is what I'd call a "closet artist." He has so much talent and creativity but often doesn't allow himself the time or space to let it out. I love seeing him on the ground, enjoying his painting as much as his daughter!

christmas weekend at the hoskinsons

We headed to Perry for our Christmas weekend celebration. It was a wonderful time together with family. Matt, Nicole, and the kids also came for the weekend which was great. We don't often get to spend extended moments of time together. We went and saw Grandpa Dean which was awesome. Gotta love the pic of all the generations.

Addelyn and her cousin Trae

Addelyn got a fun "shaver" for Christmas and she loves "shaving" her legs (and face and arms and back!)

Uncle Matt & the kiddos opening presents

Addelyn and her Aunt Nicole dancing together

Always loving kisses from Nonnie Kathy

christmas lunch at kramer's

On Christmas Day we spent a few hours at my Dad and Lora's house. We ate lunch, hung out together, and opened some gifts. We are actually celebrating Christmas with the extended Kramer family this upcoming weekend but it was great at least seeing them on Christmas Day.

Addelyn helped Papa open his cashews. They are both cashew LOVERS!

Addelyn loved every gift she opened- EVEN pajamas!

Christmas Morning

We woke up on Christmas morning and Addelyn was excited about the big present sitting in our dining room. We let her open presents right away. She had fun with her stocking (filled with paints, a waterbottle, a toothbrush, etc). We are doing the "three king gift giving" tradition. To explain this in the short form- basically Addelyn gets three gifts each year from us. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh...well, not exactly. But each gift brought to Jesus by the three kings is represented by a gift for Addelyn- a fun gift, a gift that helps her grow, and a gift of something that "covers" her....clothing, shoes, etc. The stocking is a separate gift that "Santa" brought- although she isn't really into Santa. We haven't focused much on him and have told her that he is pretend. So when she got her stocking from Santa on Christmas morning, she said, "No, he wasn't here. Only you and Daddy were here." Well, that works!

Addelyn's gift to "cover her" was a new pair of tennis shoes. Her gift to help her grow was a daily preschool devotional. My favorite was when she opened up one of her gifts, she exclaimed, "This isn't frankincense!" We are still working on the concept of the three gift giving!

Her "fun gift" was a kitchen set. She loved it. She'll make you tea or eggs or noodles anytime you want! Of course, later when asked what she got from Mommy and Daddy for Christmas her reply was "A new toothbrush!" Ahh the little things in life!

Christmas Eve Traditions

I love the traditions we have started the past few years- it has been such a fun thing to create these moments and memories. Christmas Eve is a night for just our family. We go to the Christmas Eve service at Orchard, serve together by either passing out candles or in the nursery (this year was candles), hang out around church for awhile & eat Linda Bartlett's yummy food (she always has a room full of food for people serving that night), and then head home to settle in for the night. This year we started our new tradition of Addelyn opening up one gift (her new Christmas pjs) that she could wear to bed. I hope to get this tradition going every year- next year I'll have two sets of pjs to buy! Once we got home, we finished our Advent calendar that we had been doing all of December. It was fun to read through each day again and put the whole Christmas story together. We also read a book we have called the Christmas Story which takes the Bible story and puts it into kids words/pictures. Then we made up a bed on the floor, got our pjs on, and settled in for "movie night" with popcorn and M&Ms and the movie "Despicable Me." It was such a sweet, relaxing, wonderful night together with my family. I laid there on the floor next to Mark & Addelyn (before I passed out twenty minutes into the movie, probably part of the tradition too) and my heart felt full and thankful.

Notice the poking baby belly in our Christmas Eve pic. (I was about 16 weeks in this picture).

This is the unwinding after arriving home from Christmas Eve services. It took awhile to settle down for the night!

Finally she settled (in her new Christmas pjs) and the movie party started. After Addelyn headed off to bed, Mark and I stayed cuddled up for a movie of our own.

Yeah for Christmas Eve traditions & for celebrating what the season is all about!

christmas celebration #1

She got a Jesse doll from Toy Story! She loves her!

SO MANY PRESENTS!!!!

We celebrated Christmas with my mom, Tanner, Levi, and Jill at our house on Christmas Eve day. The roads were terrible but Mom braved it and made it over and we had a fun day together. Of course, I did a terrible job at getting pictures from the day. We relaxed, ate goodies and pizza, and opened gifts. Mark and Levi "cleaned the driveway" (played in the snow) in the morning and Addelyn joined to help too. We have a wonderful family and Addelyn was spoiled with many fun gifts. It was a great way to start our Christmas celebration.

birthday party

Yep, still catching up on the blog these days. Addelyn had two "parties" for her third birthday. Since we moved on her birthday weekend, I wasn't sure what was going to happen but we ended up being able to have a fun little party for her after getting somewhat "settled" in our house. The grandparents came over (minus Grandma Stewart who was sick with the flu), Jill and Levi, and our other "fam" the Hansens. We ate some pizza, opened some gifts, and had cake.

Her new monkey hat that she loves!

Ahhh Tinkerbell, one of our faves these days. Thanks to Great-Grandma Kramer for the blanket that she sleeps with every night!

Austin and Addelyn loved the table that Addelyn got from Grandma Stewart. She pulls out these Dora chairs every day for some reason or another.

We have learned Addelyn is not a big fan of being the center of attention for the "Happy Birthday" song. She threw a fit when we sang!

Her "Ringo" cake. Ringo is Randy and Marla's dog that Addelyn is in love with. She asked to have Ringo on her cake this year. I'd like to say I worked hard and made the cake but with everything happening around her birthday, I just couldn't pull it off. Addelyn loved it.

I think she had a fun and great third birthday. I mean seriously, what other three year old gets a new house for her birthday?

texas family

I have amazing relatives in Houston, TX and they came to visit us this December. It was great spending time together.

My aunt Maria moved back to Spain (that is where she grew up) and made the trip to see her kids in Texas and then up to Iowa to see us too. We just love her! Here we all are waiting for some great food at Sakura, the Hibachi grill in Cedar Falls.

My cousin Teresa, her son William, and husband Justin

Their daughter Sophia, what a sweetie. They are both great kids and Addelyn had so much fun playing with them.

Over by Eldora there are amazing sledding hills that we hit up one of the days together. Aunt Jiller was a trooper, taking the kiddos down the hill. I'm not sure who was having more fun, her or the kids!

Notice William, armed and ready with a snowball. He kept pelting Addelyn. It was fun to watch them play together in the snow.