All we need is just a little patience

I came home to Rick standing up in the living room holding a smiling and happy Adelaide.

Rick "Shhh... Emily watch this!"

Rick sits down on the couch and Adelaide begins to whimper and scream.

Me "What am I supposed to be watching?"

Rick "Every time I sit down she screams and when I stand up she is happy again"

Me "Yes I know... she does that a lot"

Rick "Well it is driving me crazy"

Me "I thought you pride yourself on being patient"

Rick "Patience is one thing... but I don't like being taken advantage of!"

There you have it... our little girl already knows how to manipulate us into getting what she wants, and Daddy does not like it!

Thanks!

And finally our last destination was the bay area to be with the Walton clan for Thanksgiving! It was so fun to be all together, and once again we all camped out on air mattresses for giant sleepovers every night. We were busy busy busy with lots of family traditions to do... The boys started out Thanksgiving with their annual Turkey Bowl by the Walton's house. Later we had Thanksgiving at the Keesling house with our family, the Dugans, the Holts, and my grandparents. The next morning we chopped down our Christmas tree in the mountains. When we got back we were all so tired that all 12 of us took enormously long naps at the same time... I have never experienced anything like it, AMAZING! Saturday we headed up to San Francisco for our annual cable car experience which gets us all into the Christmas spirit! Good times had by all.

James and Rick are quite good friends:)

It was great to see some Holts for the holidays!

Abigail was so funny because I went around the room and took pictures on Thanksgiving, and she popped her cute little face in almost every single one... Like this one with Eric, Kev and Rach.

It was great to see Mary:) Jess, Mary, me and Jamie.

We were so blessed to have Grandma and Grandpa Holt come all the way from Idaho!

Steve and Eric met Adelaide for the first time this trip.

Some of the girls after the trolley ride, Britt, Adelaide, Jamie, Jess, Gracie and me.

Grandma holds Adelaide while Grandpa makes her laugh.

Four generations!

In keeping with tradition, James encouraged us to play MANY Jenga games... FUN!

Our family wouldn't be complete without it's newest member, Pom. Pom is Kent and Tinkers cousin.

Simi Valley

After San Diego Jess, Rick, Adelaide and I road tripped north to the Bay Area for Thanksgiving. We thought it would be nice to stop and visit some of Rick's family on the way up who live in Simi Valley.

Rick, Adelaide, (Great) Grandpa.

Aunt Sue with Adelaide

Great Grandpa with his first Great Grandchild.

Jim, Maddi and Adelaide.

Adelaide's Blessing

After Arizona Adelaide and I met up with Rick in San Diego for Adelaide's blessing. We wanted to do the blessing in San Diego where some of our friends are and it was a location where both of our families could travel somewhat easily to. It was so great to have so many people come that all love Adelaide- all her grandparents, some aunts and uncles and other extended family like the Whitemans. This is probably the last time that so many people from her familly will be all together- I figure the next time will be in eight years at her baptism.

I don't have all the pictures yet ( I'm missing some from Rick's Mom's side of the family, but we'll hopefully have them soon)-- so I will update this post later, but this is a start:

Dad and Grandpa getting Adelaide ready for the day.

Here are all the men that were involved in Adelaide's blessing. Jeff (great uncle?), Richard(grandpa), Nick(uncle), Rick(dad), Gerry(grandpa) and Curt(grandpa).

The Walton's: Curt, Michelle, Rick, Adelaide, Emily and Jessica.

Our little family.

Adelaide with Grandpa Walton.

Adelaide with Grandpa.

Meg, Janet, Richard, Adelaide, Rick and Emily.

Mimi Janet and Grandpa with Adelaide.

And Freddy of course!

Winter Treat

There is nothing better than homemade snow ice cream on a winter afternoon! I sent Rick out to fetch some freshly fallen snow for our treat. It reminded me of trips to Tahoe when I was younger... After a long day of sledding and playing in the snow with my cousins outside our grandparents cabin, my grandma would instruct some of us to find some clean snow, and to especially beware of yellow spots. After we completed our mission and passed her inspection, Grandma would make a big batch of delicious ice cream.

I don't have her exact recipe, but the one I made today tasted pretty similar:

1 big bowl of snow

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

I love winter and the beautiful, yummy snow!

Trip to Arizona

Adelaide and I have been away from our home in Colorado for the last three weeks! Our trip started out in Arizona where I watched cute little Nathan and Lanie (Rick's younger siblings) for a week while their parents, Nicole and Gerry, had a getaway for their anniversary. The week went smoothly and Nick was there a lot of the time helping which made things easy. After Nicole and Gerry got back, we still stayed and visited with them for another week and had a fun time together hanging out and I even got Nick and Nicole into 'Project Runway.' We were all very disappointed in the final decision and wish that Carol Hannah would have won! Oh well.

Adelaide is so happy to be in Arizona! She became a lot more relaxed during this trip because for the first time in her life she had to share me with other kids.

The girls: Adelaide, Grandma Nicole, Lanie and Gram Cooney.

Adelaide and her great Gram:)

Adelaide with her Grandma Nicole... and they are matching!

Nicole had this great swing that Adelaide loved... most of the time.

Adelaide and her second cousin? Nick.

She just LOVES being the center of attention! Holly, Chloe and Lanie.

Uncle Nathan made Adelaide smile and giggle all week long.

Lanie loved to hold Adelaide... so cute! They are going to be good friends:)

Happy Halloween

I was really proud of myself this morning for actually being ready for church on time... and it turns out I was not just on time but an hour early! We totally forgot it was daylight savings until we were almost out the door. So now I have an extra hour of time and thought I'd start blogging our Halloween weekend.

First was the adventurous pumpkin patch experience:

In order to get the above pictures we had to trudge through a lot of MUD and snow.

Our shoes were pretty much destroyed and I almost fell multiple times.

We also had a fun Halloween party at our church on Friday night. We dressed up as hippies. We are on the activities committee so we helped with the decorating and planning... At the party we took pictures of everyone in their costumes and printed them out for people to take home, there was a chili cook-off that I made some chili for, and I also made some pretty disgusting witch finger cookies. We had a costume contest for the adults and one for the kids and as prizes Rick carved pumpkins that said "Best Costume" "Scary" and "Creative." They turned out really good. I wish I would have taken pictures of our cookies and pumpkins but we were really busy and just never did... and now they are gone.

For Trick or Treating we went out to a neighborhood nearby with our neighbors Ruthie, Brad and Dakota. Brad was a boxer, Ruthie was a nerd, Dakota was a pink leopard, Rick was a hippie, Adelaide was her pumpkin again and I was a mechanic named Rick although I looked more like a giant marshmallow or a member of Ghostbusters. It was kind of awkward trick or treating when our little girls obviously couldn't eat the candy themselves...

The whole gang.

Adelaide fell asleep at the end of our adventure.

Happy Pumpkin.

Adelaide wishing she could eat her hard earned candy.

Boo to you.