Beaver (yep there is a town here with that name)

Our good friends moved to Beaver Utah a few years ago. It is a little town south of Provo. We hate that they used to live 2 minutes away from our house and now they are 2 hours away. We have so much fun together and we have kids the same age. They just built a house and we really wanted to go see it but it seemed like every time we planned it there was snow, the holidays, a kid sick, or just a prior commitment. So it took us 2 months to get down there and see them. First we met them for lunch at a little Mexican restaurant and then over to the squeaky cheese place to actually get ice cream. Then over to their new house. It was so beautiful!.



Our kids had a blast playing together. They have 2 little boys. One is 5 and a half and the other is a week younger than Addy. They are boy boys and Addy is definitely a girlie girl. Wes and I were laughing on the way home because they're little boy is into showing his muscles and doing karate kicks and Addy is into baby dolls, bracelets, and kissing everything. But they had a great time together. Addy since then has run around the house doing karate kicks. At one point the kiddies were having a milk chugging contest. We didn't know it at the time but I caught on my camera. The little love birds kissed each other too. We
were sad that we didn't spend the night so we could spend more time with them but we had a big day planned for Sunday and driving 2 hours wasn't part of that plan.










The next day we went up to Wes's parents house and Addy found something new she likes to do there. She takes everything out of the cabinet and gets inside. She does it every time we are there now.
Later that week we made fruit loop necklaces at moms group and Addy loved haveing snacks around her neck.

I love to dress Addy up! She loves it too.

Silly Addy!

Addy's 1st Hair Cut!

Addy got her first hair cut in the middle of January. It was looking shaggy and full on mullet like so we went and did it. I was scared because I didn't know if she would sit there long enough to have a good cut and not have it look all lop sided. Oma and I took Addy to a place called Cookie Cutters designed for kids. It was so cute there and Addy had a blast. She got up in the little car and pretended to drive (At one poit even put her feet up) and got to watch Elmo. The girl that cut her hair was really good with Addy and she was very comfortable and had fun. She even did Addy's hair in an updoo afterwards. Of course I was taking a million pictures. She even got a balloon with a real cookie cutter at the end. She got about 3 inches taken off. Seems like a lot but Addy still has lots of hair. On the way home Addy fell asleep from all the excitement she had.

January

In January Addy decided that she loves to put things on her head, jump on the bed, count, unload anything that can be unloaded, say no, give dirty looks and get teeth. She was sick the last week of December until the middle of January. It was tough on all of us but we made it through. Here are some silly pictures of Addy and the things that she has been doing.




Wes has been really busy with school and he started an internship in SLC at the Attorney General's office. He works on Monday and Wednesdays and then has a very crazy school week the rest of the time. He is also in charge of the traveling Moot court teams and has been arranging times for the teams to travel to different schools and beat them. He has a trip planned for his team to go to Florida in March.
Addy and I don't get to see him too much. Addy knows exactly when he comes home and either looks out the window until she sees him or she knocks on the door until it opens. She gets so excited! Sometimes he can only be home for a minute and has to leave again and Addy lets me have it. If he can stay home Addy won't let him out of her reach and will make him hold her all night. She loves her Daddy.

Christmases.

We had not one but four Christmases, and it was awesome! Addy loved having our house decorated. She loved the tree! She loved to look at it, point to it, poke the ornaments and she really loved to kiss the ornaments. She all of the sudden started to kiss everything but one day after we came home with a free balloon from the market, I was unloading things and Addy was in the family room with the tree and balloon and she was very quiet. That as you know is always bad news. Well I caught her standing on one of the packages holding the balloon and kissing a glittery ornament. It was really cute but by the time I got the camera it was too late.







Wes and I had presents wrapped and waiting under our tree for what seemed like forever. Well one night Wes said "So do you want to open presents now, or what?" SO I said sure, why not? So we opened our presents and loved what we got each other. Addy of course had the best time. She loved to rip off the paper and she really loved the BIG stuffed bear she got.
We let Addy go out into the snow and play for the first time. She thought she was going to like it until I made her touch some snow and then she got mad!


Christmas Eve we spent at Wes's parents house and we had a great time. We had good food, fun, read the Christmas story in Matthew and even a concert put on by Wes's brother. Addy had fun ripping open everyone gifts before we even started to open them. Then she was on a sensory overload and then it was time for bed. The next day, Christmas, we flew to Ohio for a Gaston Christmas. In the morning on the way to the airport we traveled through a blizzard. It was bad up until we got to Salt Lake and it was completely clear there. Our plane was on time, we got to Chicago, our plane was 2 hours late and then once we got to Columbus they lost our stroller that we put at the end of the Jetway in Chicago. It was craziness! We finally arrived, ate and then opened more presents. Addy was so happy to have been off the plane and she was just wild that first night.

We got fun hair wraps, Wes is wearing Addy's, My sister was rockin hers.

Grandma and Addy

Grandpa and Addy before Croquet

So Christmas in Grove City, Ohio means we go outside and play Snow-quet. What is snow-quet, you ask? Well my friends it is Croquet in the snow and modified just a bit. This Christmas though, there wasn't any snow so maybe this year it was called Cold-quet. Anyway you play with the regular mallets, and you have to have bigger wickets no matter when you play, if it is as big of a course that my dad sets up, and then you play with small bouncy balls. We tried to teach Addy but she is still a little young for the competitiveness of the game. You have never played croquet until you have played it with the Gastons. Watch OUT!!

Momma teaching Addy Croquet

Addy collecting all the Croquet balls. (no serious about the game yet)

We also had Christmas at my Aunts new home in Buckeye Lake, Ohio, but unfortunately I did not take pictures.
The next week we went to the Columbus Zoo to see the Christmas lights and my hands were too frozen to take pictures but we had fun.

December

After my sister left we had another visitor come from Nebraska to visit her family but she stayed with us. She has a little girl a few months older than Addy. They loved each other. Every morning of the 2 that they were here, Addy got so excited to wake up and see her friend. We had a lot of fun, we played, shopped, ate and even visited Santa. When they left Addy woke up that next morning and ran to the basement steps and yelled "Adie!!!". (her name is sadie but Addy called her the last part of her name.) It was sad to see them go.
Here are Addy's first picture with the real Santa. I think she liked it!
Later that week for moms and tots we went to the South Towne Expo Center for the Festival of trees. It is put on by the childrens hospital here in Utah. What happens is that people donate a decorated tree and gifts to the show and people bid on them and then all the proceeds go to the hospital. They also had activities, dancers, singers and yummy treats. We had a great time there. Addy got her face painted (wash off tatoo), made a santa face with cotton balls and made a Rudolf out of a spoon, pipe cleaners and a red fuzzy ball for the nose. The tree was made from all glass.

In December we spent a lot of time up at Wes's parents house in Lehi. I don't remember going to our own ward at all that whole month. So the next few pictures are from time spent with Oma and Opa. We had our family picture taken, some cute shots of Addy and really good pictures of Oma and Addy.

We celebrated Aidan's 6th birthday with some delicious homemade Rainbow cake. Yum!

The next day I went and visited my friend Kristin and her boy Roman. Addy and Roman had fun together playing on the counter top.