A Year in Review

What a busy year we've had!

2010 brought more changes to our life than any other year. With our daughter being born on the coattails of 2009 the past year has been full of new experiences and firsts. First, adjusting to the life of being parents...the pressures, the joys, the ups the downs and the nights of very little sleep.

A couple of memorable moments of 2010.... In January we rung in the new year with a new baby girl in our arms. What a New Years spent changing diapers instead of out partying. JD and I also celebrated 4 years of marriage. February and March were quiet and spent loving our new baby but in April we made a huge life change...after trying to go back to work for 4 weeks I quit my full-time job as a photojournalist to be a full-time mother. BEST DECISION of 2010 I would have to say. Being able to be there for Adeline 24-hours-a-day without having to run back and forth between work and home is a such a blessing. Our summer was spent with visits from Minnesota family, Seattle family and Indiana family. We visited Missoula and Greybull numerous times. A road trip to Salt Lake, visits to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons. Addie's first camping trip, boat rides, hot springs, trips to the library and church play groups. The Fall was a blast with Adeline dressing up as a lobster in a pot for Halloween. November was met with her first word, "kitty" and her first airplane ride to Indiana for Thanksgiving. And December was just a whirlwind between Christmas and her FIRST BIRTHDAY. In the midst of it all JD's career path took a change. His last job took him away from home for weeks at a time and it was taking its toll. So now we find ourselves both without steady-paying jobs and on the cusp of 2011 deciding if we should stay in Helena or embark somewhere else. Another high note of 2010 is we found a church that we love. We've been attending Helena Alliance Church and have met many new friends. I feel challenged spiritually and welcomed by the fellowship.

As for New Year's resolutions...there are always the obvious ones, stay in a good shape, eat well, love my family and dedicate more time to studying the Bible, making more home-made baby food, save money, oh and love my family.

Favorite Things

Right now one of Adeline's favorite things is to explore under the dinning room table. She loves to crawl under the chairs and squeeze into small spaces. I just love in the video her saying "Hi" while playing. She mastered the "Hi" during back-to-back visits this last week from both sets of grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and friends. What a great time to start talking more!

Toys Toys and too many Toys

We decided to do a toy inventory.

So this evening I gathered all of Adeline's toys and dumped them in a pile. (Boy did she have fun climbing through the pile) We sorted out the infant toys, grouped her puppets, put away her books and just generally packed away a bunch. Between Christmas presents and Birthday presents we needed to make room for her new toys. I am so happy to say she was gifted a lot of books over the holidays.... 24 to be exact! What a lucky little reader she is.

Happy 1st Birthday Adeline

I can't believe it's been a whole year ....

Merry Christmas

Our family would love to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. And we would like to remember the true reason for this season...baby Jesus. JD and I are joyful because God sent his son to this earth, and we need not be afraid of this world for he has given us hope.

"An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord."

Luke 2:9-11

Lego Advent

This year, like many before, my mother bought JD and I a Lego advent calendar. (For those of you who have never seen one before, you get to build a small lego character or object each day of December.) For most of the month we built helicopters, drum sets, wagons, excavators, airplanes, things like that. But the closer we got to Christmas the more festive the little toys got. Today's picture is what we built the last couple days...Santa driving a train with a really awesome Christmas tree. Addie enjoyed watching us build our objects each day this month but her favorite part was playing with the Lego box.

The man in the red suit

Adeline didn't really know what to make of Santa...and yes she did cry...

All I want for Christmas ...

If Adeline could write Santa a Christmas list we think it would look like this:

another kitty
jars and jars of puffs
an ipad loaded with "Squeak"
Christmas lights hung year-round
the song pat-a-cake on repeat
her own little guitar
fluffy bunnies
bath toys
world peace

The photo was taken back in August when Grandma Cathy, Addie and I visited the Salk Lake City Mac store. That place was ... awesome

Mama drama

Mama drama...part 4: Yesterday Adeline's appetite was unstoppable at dinner. She usually eats 2 rice crackers, she ate 4! She usually eats 1 jar of baby food, she ate 3! And she usually eats a handful of those yummy puffs, she ate probably 4 handfuls! Our little girl is growing and it's hard to keep up with. Then in contrast for breakfast this morning...she ate about half of what she usually does...maybe she hid some puffs in her jammies and snacked in the middle of the night?

My little shutterbug

A couple days ago I took this photo of Adeline in her own little world playing with her camera. It was inevitable that my daughter would want to play with cameras. She sees me with a camera in my hands all the time so we decided earlier this summer to buy this pocket Olympus. It's shockproof and waterproof! So she can slobber all over it and drop it all she wants and it will still take pictures. It was a great purchase for sure. For the record, she also has a toy camera that's pink and lights up and makes silly noises...but she always prefers the real camera when given the choice.

Shopping with Grandma

Adeline and Grandma Cheryl cozy-up for a hug while Christmas shopping at the mall in Missoula earlier this month. I can't believe it's almost Christmas ! ! !

Indiana Thanksgiving, final part

Peek-a-boo baby. We joined Laura and Libby for school lunch one day.

And the food wasn't all that bad!

We also enjoyed a varsity girls basketball game while we watched Sam play in the pep band.

Hands-down Adeline's FAVORITE part of our Indiana trip was climbing up the stairs. Pictured here Libby and Laura cheer Addie on while grandma supervises. Addie would climb up to the top, get carried down and then go right back up. We don't have stairs at our house so this was serious fun that could not be passed up.

It's good to have cousins.

Giggles, fun, more giggles. Repeat.

Oooooooh

One of Adeline's favorite things....a warm fire at grandma and grandpa's house in Greybull. Pictured here she warms up in front of the fire in her diaper, too cute.

Birthday wishes

A very very Happy Birthday wish to Grandma Cathy today!

Indiana Thanksgiving, part 3

Thanksgiving Day...Addie's full tummy after dinner at left...and at right, the look on her face after taking a 2 1/2 hour nap after the meal!

Laura didn't waste any time in finding her Black Friday deals.

Uncle Tim and Grandpa John put the final touches on the turkey.

The best part of Thanksgiving....Family. From left, Grandma Cathy, cousins Maddie and Shana snuggle up with Addie before dinner.

I LOVE this photo of Laura and I cooking. Five-year-old Libby took this photo....and might I add a good job to Libby! Perfect composition for such a young photographer.

Oh big group family photos are the best! We took about 7 shots and Addie was looking at Grandpa John in all of them! Baby girl loves her grandpa.

Learning to walk

JD plays some mellow guitar as Adeline cruises along the couch.

Indiana Thanksgiving, part 2

JD's family lives outside of Leo (which is near Fort Wayne) and it is flat.
Flat flat flat. And it's farm country. Yes, we even saw Amish ladies driving their horse-drawn buggies.

Cutie McCuters Adeline loved the walks we took. The first day we were there it was 60 degrees...back in Montana on the same day it was -10.

Uncle Tim and Grandma Cathy push Addie back to the house.

The Anglin family raises chickens and boy did Addie love them. I however did not love peeling fresh chicken eggs to make my deviled eggs on Thanksgiving. Good thing Tim warned me and we bought a carton of store-bought eggs as backup.

Indiana Thanksgiving, part 1

Adeline looks for the latest issue of Sky Mall on our flight to Indiana for Thanksgiving. She just loved the extra room of the first row.

Grandma Cathy made for a wonderful travel partner...us three girls flew out early and were later joined by JD and John. Adeline's first airplane trip was very smooth. She loved to people watch, look out the window, sleep and play peek-a-boo with passengers behind us.

Addie tells the Denver airport how excited she is to see the family in Indiana.