Updates coming soon...

Since we have had grandparents here we have been really busy. My parents are leaving on Monday so I will be posting updates this upcoming week as well as posting new pictures to snapfish. We have had fun with Grammy and Papa and have loved having them here. It will be quiet around here the first few days after they have left so that will give us the time to rest up - which will also give me some time to get this blog caught up. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and have fun plans for the New Year.

18 Month Well Baby

Addison had her 18 month well baby check up today. And she checked out great! Her head is in the 75th percentile - Charlie always says her head looks big for her little body... Height and weight in the 50th percentile. The weight is the one I was surprised by as she has always been lower on the charts. Finally, she is starting to catch up! Have to go in on Monday for two shots and since daddy is off, I am going to send him to take care of that while I am at the dentist! It's his turn anyway!

Thanks Dr. "Bones" for taking care of our girl. I know it isn't your job - but we are greatful you will take care of her when her clinic won't! You are awesome!

Military ID...

left in hubby's truck. EXCELLENT! Not much I can do today without it. I can't really leave base because I won't be able to get back home. Which means I can't run out and pick up the pictures I ordered at Walgreens or get wrapping paper to wrap Christmas presents. Can't purchase a hat on base at the BX for Addison to play outside in. Need stamps, but have no id to go to the post office on base. Boy, you don't really realize how dependent you are on that sucker until you don't have it! So right now I sit either waiting for Charlie to take a lunch break and bring it to me or for my parents to use their visitors pass to get me over to Charlie's truck to get my id. Urgh! Double urgh!

In the meantime, I will blog - and probably blog about nothing in particular or of importance...

Addison and I have such a busy week this week. Here goes.

Today - if we get this id thing figured out - we are going out to Pier Park to help Grammy finish up her Christmas shopping. Maybe have some yummy lunch at Red Robin or Panera Bread - yum! I also have a few errands I would like to run while we are out. Tonight Addie and I are spending the night down at the beach house.

I have a dentist appointment tomorrow. (Ewww!) And while I am there, Addie will be with Grammy and Papa at the beach. After that, I get to FIGHT Lily and get her into the vet for a shot and a mani/pedi. (I wish I was so lucky to be going for a mani/pedi tomorrow.) I haven't decided yet, but we may stay down at the beach on Tuesday night as well so Grammy and Papa can see Addie on Wednesday morning.

Wednesday afternoon we have a Christmas get-together with our Mops table. It will be fun - a book exchange and yummy treats. So far we have missed every single table get-together we have had due to one thing or another. It will be fun for us to meet all of my new friends' kids as I have not been able to do that yet.

Thursday this week is a Mops day so our morning will be consumed with that. And hopefully a walk on the beach with Grammy and Papa that afternoon as the weather is supposed to warm up towards the end of the week. It has been pretty cold since they have been here and we haven't had much time to play with them on the beach.

I am hoping we can have a quiet, restful day on Friday. After this busy, busy week, we are going to need it. And after Charlie gets off work on Friday, he starts his leave.

Charlie isn't able to take the week of Christmas off, but he is taking all of next week off. The following week - the week of Christmas - is a short week. As is the week of New Year. So really, the bulk of his working is over for the year. I know he is really anxious for a break. As per usual, he is working long, hard hours. He usually does this and than reaches a point where he gets really close to burning himself out. We have some fun things planned while he is off, but I think the majority of our time will be spent relaxing - hopefully down at the beach house!

We had a major disapointment with our Christmas tree yesterday. We noticed earlier in the week that the tree was very dry but that it wasn't taking any of the water that was in the stand. We thought we would try and drill some holes in the trunk to see if we could force getting water into it. However, after we took it out of the stand we could not get that thing to stand straight in the stand. It kept tipping over. And because it was so dry, every time it would tip over it would lose a ton of needles. So after an hour of fighting the tree, we ended up un-decorating it and taking it down. SAD! Luckily, we had purchased a small tree for Addie's room and moved that one downstairs. It is tiny but does the job. I have not been interested in having a fake tree until this year. So the day after Christmas when they are on sale, I am going to break down and buy a fake tree. I know I will miss the smell - but isn't that what candles are for? (I know I won't miss the mess!)

In other news, Addie went tinkle in the big girl potty again this morning. That is only the second time, but I feel like we are moving in that direction. Which is good because I am tired of diapers. I am so proud of her and she was just as proud of herself.

More pics from the Christmas party

Here are some more pictures from the children's Christmas party yesterday.

Base Kids Christmas Party

Yesterday was the kids Christmas party on base. We didn't take Addie last year because she was so little, but we decided to take her this year. Mainly we thought it would be our chance to get her to see Santa so we wouldn't have to take her to the mall to see him. Anyway, Grammy wanted to go with us too and Addie loved that! It was a big to-do - there were craft tables, lots of food, games, and FIVE blow up jumpy house-thingys. (Which Addie LOVES!) We wouldn't let her go down the big blow up slide because it was huge, but she did do a little bouncing in a couple of the houses and she did two little crafts. Grammy helped her make a Santa with a cotton ball beard and daddy helped her make a reindeer using her hands and paint to make the antlers. Both are very cute and I am excited to have some original baby Christmas art to add to our holiday decoration surplus. In fact, I think I am going to frame the reindeer because it is so cute! Addison looked adorable in the outfit Grammy bought her - red velvet dress, black velvet jacket, cream tights and black velvet shoes. ADORABLE - so much so I could just eat her up. Totally over-dressed but gorgeous just the same. And of course, Santa arrived in the back seat of an F-15, which is always neat to see! We decided while we were there not to have her sit on Santa's lap. There were so many kids and they were calling up kids alphabetically by their last name. Had we waited, we would have been there until Christmas! So she didn't get to see Santa, but overall she had a great time. (No need to worry, we are taking her to see Santa when Uncle Jake and Aunt Brandi are here in a few weeks.)

Star Fish and Sand Dollar

While we were out on the beach we came across a live star fish and two really cool sand dollars. I have to post them because they were so cool.

Walk on the Beach

Friday morning, Addie and I got up and went for a walk on the beach with Grammy and Papa. Because the surf had been so rough from the crazy weather we had been having there were lots and lots of shells on the beach. Addie looked so cute carrying the big bucket up and down the beach looking for shells. She got the hang of it too because by the time we were done, she was picking up every shell she could find out there - even broken, ugly ones. I was worried about taking her out there because she loves the water and I thought for sure she would make a bee-line right to the water. Luckily she only did it once and stopped when I told her no. I think she just got so involved in picking up shells and watching daddy's airplanes fly over that she forgot the water was there!

Grammy and Papa are here...

My parents and Newly made it here from their long road trip across the country on Wednesday evening. They had spent the last two days at Jake an Brandi's in Beaumont but were still tired and ready to be done with driving for a while. The weather had been terrible most of their trip and was really bad the whole day here while Addie and I waited for them down at the beach house. (Wednesday morning we woke up at 5:45 in the morning to the base sirens going off. We were under a tornado warning and had another one that same morning at around 10. Scary!!!) They got to the beach house about 5:30 that evening where we had dinner waiting for them. We didn't stay long there because they were tired and Addie hadn't napped at all that day.

On Thursday we took them to run some errands to help get them set up in the beach house - groceries and such. Addie and I went home for nap time and than went back down to the beach to spend the night with them. After all, the Civil War was on...

Most of you probably watched the game - it was nationally televised on ESPN. It was a great game - typical Civil War - back and forth, back and forth. It was intense - more so than in years passed... the Rose Bowl was at stake for the winner. The Beavs lead most of the game, but did end up losing in the end. Needless to say, this was not the ending we had hoped for. We were all hoping for a trip to Southern California from Santa this year on New Year's Day. Now we are waiting to find out which Bowl Game we are going to. I am hoping it is a good one and maybe my parents can catch it on their way back to WA.

Save a Horse...

Ride a black dog...

Christmas Tree

I always decorate for Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving. This year was no exception. And usually we wait a few weeks to put the tree up. But I was so excited to see Addie's response to the tree that I asked Chuck if we could go get our tree and put it up early. On Friday evening, we went out and got our tree. (Addie was a big help getting the tree in the stand!) We let it sit over night to "drop it's branches" and than decorated it Saturday evening. Addison was curious for a little bit - she "ooohed and aaahed" over the ornaments. She would even take them over to the tree and hold them up to the tree. She couldn't quite figure out how they stayed on the tree so I tried to show her. That didn't really work, so she would just bring me the ornaments and would just show us where she wanted them. Obviously being that she is 18 months old, the tree is very interesting and I think to date, I have all ready re-decorated the bottom of the tree about a dozen times. I am finding ornaments all over the house - but luckily we were smart and put the breakable and valuable ornaments out of arms reach.

Christmas shopping... DONE!

I can say that as of yesterday, our Christmas shopping is done! I have never been done this early - and now the problem is just stopping! The house is decorated, the cards are almost in the mail. Now I have to wrap - YUCK!!! And I have two little craft projects I want to attempt. (Well, one is a craft, the other is simply downloading videos of Addie onto DVD's.)

I could seriously buy forever and ever for little Missy! It is ridiculous how many cool things are out there for the little ones. And everything I see for her I think "Oh, she would have sooo much fun with that." Did they have all this cool stuff when we were kids and if so, how did our parents ever stop? Christmas morning around here is going to be STUPID - the amount of stuff she is getting - just from us. And I know in the future, when she understands Christmas we really need to tone it down as it is important to us that she learns the real meaning of the holiday. But in the meantime, we are having FUN!!!

Addie and I started our little baking tradition yesterday. I have very fond memories of my mom baking for the holidays while I was growing up and I really want Addison to have the same memories. Since we don't have family here to bake for, I am baking and Chuck is taking into the squadron for his co-workers to enjoy. Yesterday we made snowballs and oatmeal/chocolate bars. Both were very tasty!

Grammy and Papa get here tomorrow night. They are at Jake and Brandi's in Texas right now. I have a few errands I need to run today to help them get all settled and I need to get somethings lined up to take down to the beach house for Addison since I am sure she will be spending A LOT of time there over the next month or so! I think Addison, for as much as she understands, is looking forward to having them here. And I know for certain they are excited to be here with her!

Thursday night - and I don't know why it is Thursday night - is the all important CIVIL WAR. Oregon State - my alma mater - takes on our arch enemy the Oregon Ducks. It is a big game as usual, but this year there is A LOT at stake. Whichever team wins is going to the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day. The Beavs haven't been there since sometime in the 1960's - I believe. I am sure it will be a good game and we may have to start drinking early in the day to get through it because I am SURE there will be tense moments. We hate the Ducks with a passion but those bastards always manage to make our heart stop time and time again during the Civil War. Many years, I have been on my knees praying during the game. No joke! Last year, Chuck couldn't even watch it with me I was so bad. Now that is saying something!!!

Saturday is the base Kids' Christmas party. Santa will be arriving in an F15. We are dressing Addie up really cute and taking Grammy and Papa with us. This is the only time we are planning on taking her to see Santa this year, so hopefully we get some good pics like we did last year! I will post what I get!

I think I can officially say now that it is December - HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!