New videos

Jason was trying to catch Addie in the act, and as always she decided not to do what Jason intended to catch. Instead, when Addie saw the camera she started saying "Cheese!" a new thing that we taught as we were trying to take family pictures earlier this month.

This is what Jason was trying to take a video of. Addie loves to put on and take off her winter hats. She loves how she looks so much that she does a little dance in front of the reflection in the window.

Happy Anniversary

Today makes three wonderful years of marriage. What have we done in those three years? Actually quite a lot - here's a rundown:

1. Lived in Rexburg, Idaho for WAY longer than anyone ever should (and loved almost every minute of it).

2. Visited Germany, the Czech Republic, and Mexico.

3. Welcomed Adelaide to our family

4. Got Jason through undergrad and the whole Dental School Application process.

5. Moved to Iowa and bought our first home by ourselves.

6. Survived most of another pregnancy (quite an accomplishment with a combination of hormones and dental school).

7. Survived 1st semester at Dental School (and Jason did very well, too).

I love having our anniversary so near to Christmas. What a good time of the year! And usually brings good memories to mind. This will be our first Christmas as a married couple spent as just our little family. We will miss being with all of our family very much and hope that they have a wonderful time even without us there. But, we are actually really looking forward to starting our own traditions and having a quiet Christmas at home.

Ok, so maybe this isn't our first Christmas by ourselves. Our very first Christmas after we were married was spent on our honeymoon in St. George. That was a good Christmas too:

Is that a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, or what? I don't think it was even technically a tree. But we were so snug with each other and the fire. What a wonderful first Christmas!

OK, so maybe this was our first Christmas together being married, but it definitely wasn't our first Christmas with each other. I was going through boxes getting organized for the baby and found these pictures in a scrapbook I made in Young Womens. This is Christmas 1993 at the Dexter house in Centreville, Virginia (where it all began). I thought these were fun.
I'm not sure who the wisemen or shepherds on the floor are, but Kimberly (Jason's sister) is Mary and Michael (Jodie's brother) is Joseph and Jason is someone with a weird hat (his head is in the corner).

Christmas Eve dinner at the kids table. On the left (back to front) Jason, Kim, Paige, Jeff. On the right (back to front) Emily, Jodie, Kevin.

So there you have it: the random workings of a pregnant ladie's mind on her third anniversary right before Christmas. Hope you enjoy making sense of my train of thought and that you have a wonderful Christmas as well!

Blizzard!

Here is how we survived the "blizzard" that came our way this week:

We, of course, had to have some yummy treats. We did a lot of relaxing. Addie loves to cuddle with her dad - this is before we found out he has pneumonia. Hopefully nobody else gets sick!
Addie had to get out and play in the snow, so we got all bundled up to investigate what was going on with all that white stuff. This is as far as Addie got. She walked out of the garage and then turned right around to come inside. The snow might have looked cool, but the wind and the cold made it not so appealing.

Crazy Day

From past pictures, stories, or just knowing her heritage it's obvious that Addie has quite a personality. We love her funny little faces and all the goofy stuff that she does. Today, though was an all-time-low for her attention span. She wasn't bad or more misbehaved than usual, just very distracted and hyper and all over the place. We've been trying to expand her vocabulary and sounding words out so that she can get the hang of them. She and I have been working on 'please' for a long time and today seemed like an all-day session of attempting please. To no avail. She just wasn't into it; didn't even really want to try. Of course, Jason came home and called her 'loco' and within a minute she was making the 'L' sound (something she's never done before) and getting pretty close to saying loco. Anyway, so she ran around crazy all day and even with the very short and late nap that she had, time to settle down was even humorous. Everynight Jason will either read her a book or look at flashcards before she goes to bed. Tonight I couldn't help but laugh as I listened to him try to get a normal response out of her while going through the flashcards and most of what I heard was a high pitched squeal that is her excited/singing voice.

I feel so lucky to have such a happy and fun little girl. It definitely makes life interesting and more enjoyable. The forecast is blizzard weather for the next two days, so we might just both be crazy by the time we leave the house again!