Friday, December 27, 2013

Christmas

 Here are a few highlights from the last week as we celebrated Christmas together!

Ethan's excited to be practicing sitting up by himself.  He's getting better every day but still not quite ready to get rid of the pile of pillows around him. :)

Christmas Eve morning with Grandma and Grandpa Gafford.  Please pay special attention to Ethan's amazing hair.  It was unbelievably big that morning.

 Addison got a fun glowing bouncy ball in her stocking!

 Addison and Grandpa playing with her new doll house.  So much fun to be had!  Grandpa has gotten really good at playing princesses over the years (Addison is the 4th granddaughter).

 You know it's an amazing doll house when you need a step stool to reach the top floor.

 Right after the Christmas Eve service

 Ethan practicing his Superman impression.

 Ethan celebrated his 6 month birthday today by graduating to his 12 month wardrobe.

 We've enjoyed having Grandma and Grandpa Liddick visiting this week!


Monday, December 16, 2013

The Graduate

 We were thrilled to celebrate with David on Saturday as he graduated from Wesley Seminary with his Masters in Church Leadership.  What a relief to have this completed.  We're so proud of you, David!

 At the Seminary hooding ceremony.

 Addison congratulating Daddy

 David with some of his fellow seminary graduates along with some faculty

 We opted to leave Ethan behind with Aunt Gayla, but we're really missing him in this family photo!

 (And in this one too!)

 Yeah, David!!

 Future graduate, Addison

And future graduate, Ethan (with Aunt Gayla)

Friday, December 06, 2013

Christmas Baking

Addison and I have had fun doing some Christmas baking over the past week or so.  We started with Snickerdoodles last week, baked and froze sugar cookies and gingerbread men on Sunday, and frosted both cookies on Thursday.  I've heard the sentence, "I just LOVE baking cookies wis my mommy!" several times this week.  It warms my heart.  Here are a few pictures from our escapades in the kitchen!









Saturday, November 30, 2013

November Highlights

 Aside from Addison having a cold for 2+ weeks then sharing it with Ethan and myself, we've had a pretty good month here in the Gafford house.  Ethan learned how to roll over a couple of weeks ago and that's really helped improve his night time sleep habits.  It used to be that he'd wake up several times a night needing re-swaddled or repositioned.  But now he's pretty consistently sleeping from 8 pm until at least 6 am, if not later.  I'm certainly appreciating complete sleep cycles again.  He's growing like a weed.  He just turned 5 months old a few days ago and he's pushing 19 pounds and on the verge of changing his wardrobe over to 12 month clothes.
 He likes to hold his own bottle now.  Although his aim isn't always that great when he yanks it out of his mouth and has to put it back in.  So we usually still have to help him hold it.

 His big sister still adores him.  And he adores her right back. 

He could practically spend his entire day in his jumparoo.  This kid is going to have incredibly strong legs because he jumps the entire time he's in there.  And when I say jump, I mean jump.

 Except for when he wears himself out and needs to take a quick nap...

We can't forget Addison.  She had a burst of creative energy one day (right after she started feeling better after being sick for a couple of weeks) and designed and built her own airplane.  She even asked me to draw a clock on the dash so she would know what time it was. 

 These guys are all ready for Christmas.  Only 25 more days to go!

 Five month pictures

We spent Thanksgiving Day up at Grandma and Grandpa Gafford's house.  Grandpa's such a good sport playing princesses with Addison.





Friday, November 01, 2013

Happy Halloween!

 Last night (the REAL Halloween) like much of the midwest, we were experiencing pretty significant rain so our town moved trick-or-treating to tonight instead.  So we decided to drive up to Grandma and Grandpa Gafford's house and do some surprise trick-or-treating!  We also got to do indoor trunk-or-treating at Aunt Gayla's church (Westview Wesleyan).  That was a pleasant surprise that we didn't even know was going on when we decided to head north.
 This evening we got to do the real deal.  Ethan rode in his stroller so he of course slept through most of it, but Addison had a fun time.  Except for the house that had the spooky creature that talked to her when she walked by it.  It "frighteled" her, as she would say.  How nice to have a "Halloween" with mild enough temperatures that we could actually see the kids' costumes rather than burying them under winter coats!

 Halloween 2013
Toy Story: Jessie and Woody

 The girls' pumpkin

The boys' pumpkin

Monday, October 14, 2013

An Addisonism for Daddy's birthday

D: who has the next birthday in our family?
A: is it me?
D: yes, how old will you be?
A: 4! And that's when I get to burn stuff!
D: what kind of stuff?
A: like biscuits.... And breakfast.... And food..... And after four I'll turn 5. And after 5 I'll turn 6 (and so on and so on...) and after 9 I'll turn 10 and that's when I'll be YOUR age, Daddy!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Apple Orchard

Today Grandma and Grandpa Gafford took us to Tuttle Apple Orchards.  It was a BEAUTIFUL fall day and a great day for some adorable pictures of the kids.  Enjoy!



 The sun was too bright for Addison.... so we had to change the angle.

 That's much better!



 Ethan really wanted a chance to drive the tractor!


 Ethan's gotten really good at standing up nice and tall all by himself ;-)