Christmas Party!

We decided at the last minute to host a Christmas party at our house this year. We had a going away/Christmas/birthday party in Denver before we moved and we really had fun. Having just moved here, we were a little hesitant (would anyone really come? we don't know that many people. it's really last minute. etc.) We decided 2 weeks ago to send out an evite to our neighbors and new friends from church.

We got the house cleaned, asked people to bring desserts and appetizers and set the time for 4-6 (after Addy's nap and before Addy's bedtime).

Little did we know that so many people would be able to come! We had 30 adults and 26 kids, lots of desserts and lots of chaos! Our new house isn't that big, and of those 26 kids, all but 1 were under 10! Oh boy. The kids found every toy Addy owns, every sweet treat available and made themselves right at home while their parents attempted conversation while keeping an eye on the sugar loaded kids.

A PhD student Brad has been meeting with weekly from Beijing named Daniel, was able to come and he likened the scene to the Beijing subway. Have you ever seen those UTube videos?! Well, he wasn't far off. It was hot, crowded and loud!

We we really did have a great time and it was nice to briefly connect to each person that came. What an answer to prayer that we already have made friends with so many neighbors and couples from church. Addy had a ball with all the 'big kids' and she did a great job sharing all her toys. Of course, it was so busy that I forgot to take pictures so use your imagination. . .

This was the living room before the party. Now fit 50+ people here, in our little kitchen and (luckily!) in our basement!

Most people stayed the whole time and when 6 rolled around, they all cleared out for other parties, concerts or dinner. Our house looked like a bomb of cake, brownies, sweets and treats had gone off! (thankfully most of the toys got picked up by the kids/parents!) Brad took Daniel home (and took Addy with him) and I got to work cleaning. After a good floor scrubbing, everything looked ship shape.

After putting Addy to bed, Brad and I sat down with hot chocolate and opened some Christmas presents. We opened all our gifts and realized that most of the presents weren't for us but for Addy Paddy. We saved those for her to open today.

Today after church, Addy got to open her presents. The first one she spent a long time playing with and after the 2nd or 3rd present she just started going back for more. It didn't take long for her to figure out there was something cool in each of those pretty packages. Hopefully she'll figure out that not every pretty package is for her. :) Thank you to all of you who sent gifts! Addy loves them!

Addy with her rainbow glockenspiel from Great Grandpa Hulsbos. She loves music and the instruments he sent were a big hit!

Addy opening her new puzzles. Thanks Aunt Bev & Uncle Tom!

Merry Christmas to everyone and thanks to those of you who came to our Christmas party! We'll be back at at it next year!

When we returned from Gunnison for Thanksgiving, we found our house quite covered in snow. Fortunately a neighbor used his snow blower on our driveway to clear a way to the garage, but it was a lot of snow. When we were gone SLC had record cold temperatures along with a few crazy snow storms.

The day after we arrived home, it snowed all day and night and these photos are from that storm. Addy did get to go out and play again but it was much colder and the snow was a bit wetter. She didn't last very long before she just looked cold and on the verge of miserable. Brad wondered if it was worth bundling up for 20 minutes to stay outside for 10. :)

20 week ultrasound. . . it's a

Baby! :) The Dr. assured Addy that it isn't a puppy. I think she was a bit disappointed. Baby Slease looked great on the ultrasound and is growing right on track with the expected due date (April 26). I've been feeling the baby move for over a month now (over a month earlier than with Addy) and Brad has also been able to feel our little gymnast lately too. This little one is quite a mover, just like Addy was. Addy likes 'baby in the tummy' and she really likes poking my bellybutton back in. It's really sticking out already. Strange. I did go back and look, though, and I'm about the same measurements with this baby as I was with Addy. I feel so much more comfortable with this pregnancy though. I think my stomach muscles aren't protesting the stretch quite as much. :)

I've been more sporadic doing postings because I'm busy chasing a toddler around these days. We've been battling colds since September (every time I take Addy to the Kids Club at 24HourFitness, she gets a cold and passes it to us) and so going outside has not really been an option. That's been annoying to say the least. I've learned my lesson though and I'm cancelling our Kids Club membership. I'm not paying $15 a month anymore to get colds.

Addy and her favorite past time.

Addy has changed quite a bit since Thanksgiving. When we got home, she started playing with her 2 teddy bears like they were babies. She puts them to bed, tucks them in with a little pink blanket she has and she rocks, hugs, cuddles and kisses them. It is so cute! She has also gotten a lot more outgoing and she waves to everyone and wants to explore anyplace she can get her feet on the ground. She loves books and wants to read them all the time, even during diaper changes. She also developed a fear recently. . . the printer! She freaks out when it prints something and even when we show it to her, she's really upset about it. Weired

Here is Addy with 'Colorado Bear.' Thanks Anneliese, she loves this bear!

Addy still doesn't really have any words yet, but she has mutated some signs for things like milk, please, all done, up, banana, water and food. We recognize what she's trying to tell us but they're Addy speak so no one else would. She doesn't seem to mind that they're not right because she knows we understand her. I guess she figures that's the point. :)

We did decorate for Christmas when we got home from Gunnison after Thanksgiving (although something got messed up with our photos!) and we're really enjoying the lights and decorations. So far Addy is doing really well with 'no touch, just look' at the Christmas tree and decorations. She has a few she can play with but mostly she just points to the angel on top and waves. :) I'm hoping she maintains her manners at Aunt Susu's house at Christmas time!

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and safe travels to where ever you are celebrating!

Thanksgiving Trip

Here's our slideshow of our Thanksgiving trip to Gunnison.

We left UT the Saturday before Thanksgiving (just as it was starting to storm) at 4am only to find out that in Addy's new snazzy forward facing carseat the oncoming traffic makes it nearly impossible for her to fall back asleep in the dark. As soon as it got light she did fall back asleep for a short nap. It was a long 8 hours. :)

Gunnison was beautiful but COLD! It was much colder (mostly negative temps!) than usual at this time of year and it snowed at least 3/4 of the time we were there so the sun wasn't out to help warm things up a bit. (We did, however miss a crazy cold snap in SLC and nearly a foot of snow!)

Our pictures show our time with family (Grandma & Grandpa Bursch, Auntie Jenny, Great Grandpa Hulsbos, Great, Great Aunt Evie, Great Uncle David & Great Aunt Mary, and cousins Danny & Kaitlin), a few glorious sunny days in Crested Butte and Gunni, and of course, Addy. You might also notice a herd of elk. We saw this 100+ herd just across the street from my parents' place.

Addy had fun playing with everyone and she learned to play the keyboard and guitar, to twirl and worked on her singing. She loves music and attention.

The drive home was more smooth as we rigged up a headlight shield for Addy between the front seats. Our car was so loaded up with stuff that Brad wouldn't have been able to see out the back window anyway. :) A much more enjoyable 8 hours.

We had a great time. Enjoy.

Catching up

Looking at our blog, I see it's been a while since I last updated. I thought I'd catch you up a bit. It seems like It's been a busy month but without looking at my calendar, I have no idea what we did except for last week.

Early in November, we had an overnight visitor. Our friends were having their 10 year anniversary and having recently moved to UT, they were really only able to pull off an overnight in Park City (funny how at this point, even one night away sounds great!). Their 4 year old, Morgan, spent the night with us and while we were really tired after her visit, it was really fun.

Brad did all sorts of cooking projects with Morgan, we went to the park to run around, and of course, Morgan played constantly with Addy. Morgan adores Addy and did a great job teaching her how to share and how to play WITH someone. It was so cute! It was daylight savings weekend so sleep (for Addy!) was a little weird but Morgan went with the flow and did really great even though Addy woke her up REALLY early Sunday morning.

Below is a short slideshow of the visit.

After Morgan's visit, Addy caught a cold at one of her childcare situations (gym, MOPS, Bible study, church) and decided to share with with all of us. Usually Brad doesn't get colds but so far this season it was all of our 2nd. Brad got it the worst and even had to work from home for 3 days! He never does that. He and Addy are still working on getting over the cough part of the cold and it stinks dealing with respiratory stuff when it's so cold out. We've been a bit cooped up! Ahh!

That's all I can really figure we did in November besides our fun Thanksgiving outing. More to come. . .

Halloween

In Utah, if a holiday (besides Christmas) falls on a Sunday, it is celebrated on Saturday. So, Halloween was Saturday night here and the streets were full of trick-or-treaters! Unlike past years where we turned off the lights on the house and went to bed early with no candy in the house, this year we were stocked with candy and a costume for Addy and we were ready for the masses. (We did get one batch of trick-or-treaters on Sunday night who criticized me for having my porch light on without any candy to give out but apparently they didn't read the newspaper that said Halloween was on SATURDAY!)

Anyway, some neighbors and their kids came by in costumes while we were eating dinner and Addy saw them in their costumes and went and got her costume and bucket out of the basket by the door and started grunting at me to put it on her. Hmm. Different than last year when she screamed bloody murder when we put the costume on her. I guess 6 weeks old was a little young. :)


Getting her into her costume turned out to be a little tricky because Addy has a long torso and short legs so her costume was a bit tight getting over her head. Forget zipping it up all the way. :)

She was ready to rock and roll even before we were!

She loved her giraffe costume and wanted to wear it all evening even when we were stalling because it started raining.

Finally, because it was getting late, we decided to brave the rain anyway. Addy doesn't mind rain and she was ready!

We stopped at the Clark's next door first and Addy scored a full size Snicker's bar! She thought that was so fun to put in and take out of her bucket. She didn't notice that it disappeared later either!

We visited a few other houses and Addy just loved all the treasures in her bucket. She had no idea they were edible. . . and she still doesn't.

She played around the house for a while in her costume, not wanting to take it off or go to bed. Wow. She loved her costume!

Sunday at church they had a fall fest thing where the different kids rooms were themes and the kids were supposed to dress up. Luckily the nursery was the zoo. Whew! Addy looked like the baby giraffe in the nursery and she wore the costume the whole church service and for another 45 minutes after while she hugged and played with everyone in the cafe. I think she liked everyone telling her how cute she looked.

Halloween was really fun this year. We enjoyed seeing Addy having so much fun with her costume. I guess it's always been about the kids and we're just starting to get to enjoy that.

Apple Butter!

Well, we did it again! We made our family apple butter last Saturday. This year we decided to scale down though and we only made 3 dozen instead of 6 dozen jars. :) It felt fairly manageable but it was still a crazy day trying to juggle Addy and apple butter.

Luckily part of the time we were making the apple butter, it was lunch time so Addy was confined to her high-chair and she could see all the activity in the kitchen. She seemed to like the front row seat.

Really, Brad does most of the work in the process. :) I get it ready, make sure all the parts are moving smoothly and he cooks, purees, stirs and fills jars. I just do the boiling water bath and peel all the apples ahead of time. This year it was great to only do 16lbs of apples.

Addy takes after her Daddy so all day long she wanted to go outside. She has really gotten into walks and just sitting on the sidewalk playing with leaves and sticks. Seriously, she can do this for a LONG time! During apple butter making, Addy pounded on the storm door, pointed to outside and played with her ball. She was a good sport and we made up for it by trick-or-treating with her Saturday night (more on that later).

Here's the end of our first batch. I actually forgot to take a picture of the finished project because Addy was napping and we ended up crashing on the couch as soon as the kitchen was clean!

Then it was time for the big Halloween event (after Brad got a wild hair to make chicken and dumplings from a cook's illustrated recipe. . . ).