Birthday Princess

Happy Birthday Addison Elizabeth! 

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

Addi was born on Dec 27, 2007 at 3:02pm, 

weighed 6 lbs, 9 oz and was 18 inches long. 

Addi had a yummy birthday. 

Nana took us to Chick-Fil-A for lunch (Addi's favorite) before treating us to strawberry cake at Celebrity Bakery. 

 Addi thought this balloon was hilarious! She would laugh and giggle every time we touched it. Her belly laughs are contagious and pretty soon she had everyone around us laughing with her. 

 There was plenty to choose from at the bakery, but we stuck with strawberry cake. Pink just seemed right for the occasion. 

Addi didn't hesitate to dig right in. 

That icing was gone before we knew it.

Christmas has gone to the kids

Christmas in the Harris family has become a BIG deal. With 10 people buying presents for 10 people, you can imagine the amount of presents, chaos & commotion that come with each holiday season. Counting Addi, we now have 4 grandkids running, crawling & climbing on basically everything. It's a blast. They get so excited about..well..  EVERYTHING (with the exception of new clothes). 

Here were some highlights:

Tristan's transformer: Chris and Ben worked to "transform" it for nearly 30 minutes. These are for kids right?

Addi's Radio Flyer wagon: Ripping off the paper was half the fun.

KK's & Tristan's microphones: Should we really enable the noise factor?Dad's new TV: Chris and Ben are still drooling. :)

Addi's wasn't sure what to think about her 1st Christmas present.

 So unwrapping the presents quickly became a group effort.

The box alone, provided plenty of entertainment.  

Obviously, she had it down by this point. 

She even got comfortable on Bubba's puppy.

Kenlee was better at sharing. 

Addi followed here around all day. So cute.

And to top it off, there were plenty of hugs and kisses to go around. We're so blessed!

And Nana won the bet. To our dismay, Chris, Tami, Kaylee, Tristan & Kenlee all showed up at 9:53. 7 minutes early. Very impressive. 

Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas everyone! We're in Colleyville this week with the Harris Family. We went to candlelight service last night before coming home to open 1 Christmas present each (a Harris tradition). We're up early this morning, enjoying hot chocolate & eyeing the presents with our name on it. The festivities will begin once Chris, Tami, Kaylee, Tristan & Kenlee get here. We've taken wagers on what time they'll arrive. Here are the bets:

Mom: 10am

Dad: 10:11

Tiff: 10:45

Ben: 10:56

Winner will be waited on hand & foot for the rest of the day. 

I'll let you know...

Washington D.C.

 Ben & I spent this past weekend in D.C. There's nothing like cold weather to get you into the Christmas spirit. On Thursday night, we headed to the White House lawn and listened to carolers around the National Christmas Tree (I didn't even know that we had a Natn'l. Christmas Tree) before meeting up with Niki, Brett & Dennis for dinner at Lauriol Plaza (Bill Clinton's favorite restaurant) for the best Mexican food in town. On Friday, Niki showed us around Old Town Alexandria. It is the cutest place I've ever seen! I now know why Niki loves living there so much. Mac & Julie took us to Mt. Vernon on Saturday. We toured "The General's" house, hung out with camels and payed our respects to George before calling it a day. Did I mention that we got in free? Julie is so sneaky :) We picked up cupcakes after dinner and met back up with Niki for a competitive night of CLUE (as in the board game). Niki and Julie had our number. The rest of us didn't stand a chance, even with our complicated strategies. We had a birthday brunch for Ben (Happy B-day Babe) on Sunday, before heading back home. It was a wonderful weekend. Thanks Niki, Mac & Julie for showing us a GREAT time! We love you guys.

 The National Christmas Tree. It's surrounded by 56 others 

(1 for each state & territory + the Dist. of Columbia)

Here's Niki and me in Old Town. 

This place looks like it's out of the movies.

 At Pasta Mia they make you wait outside (in the bitter cold) until they open at 6:30. The guys held our spot while we waited in Starbucks. Totally worth it.

Here's Ben trying to make his selection at Georgetown Cupcake. 

He got 2. 

It's SNOWING!

Can you believe it! It snowed in Houston! My camera couldn't capture the flakes and obviously it didn't stick to the ground, but I promise, it snowed! Just like a kid, I ran outside, Addi in tow, both of us all bundled up. I tried my best to capture Addi's expressions. The flakes stuck to her hair and to her nose as she tried to grab them. My neighbor was driving by and jumped out to take a picture of us. Notice both of our snow boots. Obviously, more of a fashion statement down here than a necessity. Or are they?! I'll have to keep em' closer to the door (as opposed to buried in our snow gear), just in case another blizzard blows in!

Jolly Old St. Nicholas

I was determined to get Addi's picture taken with Santa this year, with it being her first Christmas and all (by only 2 days, but still). We got to the mall and the line was surprisingly short. Addi was dressed in the cutest lil' thing and Ben was able to join us, so everything was working out to be picture perfect. That was of course, until Addi saw Santa. 

It never crossed our minds that she would be scared of him. She took one look at him and started crying. Poor thing. It broke my heart that we spooked her so bad. Santa told us that next year we should rent Santa Clause (the movie) and let her watch it a few times before bringing her back. We'll have to give it a try. 

So here are this year's pictures. 

Perfect or not, we're so proud of our little angel.

Black Friday

Black Friday is a big day for the Harris ladies. 

I used to think those women who would wake up at 5am & rush down to Macy's, just to fight the crowd and stand in line for hours were CRAZY! Just pay the extra $10 next week and save your sanity. Well, I've become one of them. My mom, Tami and I have even made it a Harris tradition. Each year, we try to plan some type of shopping trip, but with hectic schedules this month, we had never finalized plans. 

Well, they surprised me & showed up at my door the day after Thanksgiving! After trekking 4.5 hours down I45, they were ready to hit the sales. And did we ever! I'm almost done Christmas shopping...and it's only December 1st! Addi & I loved seeing Nana and Aunt Tami. Ya'll are AWESOME!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Wall Family

here, there, everywhere...

Sorry for the delay in blogging. The last couple of weeks have been somewhat of a blur. We've been on the road a lot; College Station, Colleyville, Houston, back to Colleyville, back to College Station.

We spent time with Ben in Aggieland, looking for homes, catching basketball games, and hanging out at the mall. I was even called "mam" a few times. Ouch! When did we get old? Addi and I also spent time with the Harris family while Ben was traveling. Aunt Tami and Gramps got to babysit while my mom & I worked at the Plano craftshow. It has been good family fun. Here are some pictures.

Addi sported a new A&M shirt to the basketball game. I don't think she blinked for the first 30 minutes. She loved the band & the dance team. She even swayed with us during the fight song. 

Here Addi is trying out the College Station mall. Nothing exciting as far as shopping goes, but Addi loved the kids zone. She would climb up this slide and slide back down on her belly. Already a rebel.

Here's Kenlee and Addison playing at Aunt Tami's. 

Such sweet little girls!

Kenlee was so good at sharing her toys. I'm not sure who had more fun playing dress up, Addi or Aunt Tami?! We love you!

my lil' bunny

Addi is a bunny this year for Halloween. This outfit adds about 5 lbs & is hot as heck, but she doesn't even notice. Thank goodness for the cool front! We spent the afternoon with the SV Mom's Club. They had a bounce house, a cupcake walk and a costume contest (the dinosaur won - which was well deserved). Addi's still #1 in my book. I was able to snap a few pictures before she pulled those ears off.

Parent Commitment

We had our Parent Commitment to Addi on Sunday night.  Instead of dedicating Addi to the Church, we dedicate us to her. I love that idea. 

Addi, I promise to be there for you. To pray with you. To pray for you. To laugh. To learn. To hold you when you don't feel good. To giggle and to play. But most importantly, to teach of you of the love of Jesus Christ. 

Psalm 78:4 We will tell the next generation the praise worthy deed of the Lord, His power, and the wonders He has done.

thank you family & friends, for making this commitment with us!

pumpkin patch

I convinced Ben this 

weekend that we needed 

to take pictures of Addi at a pumpkin patch. To which he replied, "why?". 

I said, "I dunno.... 

it's just what moms do". 

Being the wonderful husband that he is, he went along with it.

So here we go. Pictures of Addi at a pumpkin patch. 

Note: Addi is standing all by herself! 

Not that this is common-place yet, but she's trying.

I love this picture. She's such a daddy's girl. 

Little did we know that Ben's truck (parked behind the bushes), 

was getting broken into at the time. We've looked through all the pictures, thinking we'd see someone walking down the street with Addi's diaper bag. Urgg.. such is life.

college station bound

well, we're moving to Aggieland. Ben has taken a job with the A&M Foundation and it starts in less than 2 weeks! It's such a testament of what God can do!! On the same day that Ben thought he getting his severance (he works for AIG), he was signing a new job contract with A&M instead (which has been in the works for 4 months!) God is always faithful! And I'm so excited about what He has in store for us. 

At the same time, I'm so very sad to leave everything that we know and love in Houston. Family, friends, church, neighbors, Chuys... (Yes, Chuys comes in at number 5). I could go on. It's been a roller-coaster of a week, to say the least. Lots of anticipation, lots of stress and lots of tears. Please keep us in your prayers during this time of transition. 

Addi & I made a sign for Ben, once learning of the news. 

camp creek

We went to the lake this weekend with the Holts, McNallys, O'Reillys, Paxtons and Winters. Jenny's parents let us use their cabin on Camp Creek (a private lake about 30 minutes from College Station). This place is awesome! We swam, took turns on the paddle boat & went skiing. Brady even led us in praise & worship under the stars. It was a trip we won't soon forget. Great friends and great fellowship.

the whole gang

addi's first boat trip

just hanging out with the girls. addi loved the attention.

my brother will flip when he sees this. crazy!

Oil Ranch

Addi & I went to the Oil Ranch on Friday with some girls from our Sunday school class. Addi's on the younger end, so I wasn't sure what she would get to do, but she loved it!! We stood in line with the older kids and watched them take turns riding ponies. I was just going to sit Addi on the pony & take her picture, but she seemed to enjoy it so much, that we went for it. She made it around the entire arena. I was so proud. We skipped out on milking the cow (which I was okay with) and went for a hay ride instead. This was definitely Addi's favorite part because half way through the ride, we got to feed the cows. She thought it was hilarious! She was fearless! She would pet their nose & let them lick her feet. It was so cute & so gross at the same time.

the hayride group

addi's first pony ride

such a brave little one

miss-chievous

addi's into EVERYTHING! 

last week i caught her in samson's dog bowl & today i find her here. i bought her a shirt a few weeks ago that says miss-chievous. it fits her to a T. 

we're off to disinfect!