Santa Claus is in Town.

Once again we have made the trip to visit with Santa. I love that every year I have had Addison's Santa picture taken at the same spot with the same Santa! It makes it so fun to look back on and see how much she grows from year to year.

Addison's 1st Christmas 2009

2010

2011

2012

I cannot believe in four short days we will be celebrating Jesus's Birthday and that it is Addison's fourth Christmas! 

Merry Christmas!

Life Lately.

As November has come to a close I am reminded how hectic our lives become during the particular month. Trey and I attended my end of the season managers dinner for work at Meo Mio's.
We have enjoyed a Sesame Street Live performance. Thank you to Aunt Jessy, Uncle Seth, and Griffin for Reagan and Addison's birthday presents!

I voted.

We celebrated Reagan's 3rd birthday!

On Reagan's actual birthday we enjoyed pizza and play-time at Pagliai's pizza!

Reagan's birthday party was a sweet celebration with all kinds of sweet treats, at mom's house!

My sister even baked the cupcakes for the birthday party from scratch and they were fantastic!

We read themed books!

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving. We took the time to remember all the things we are to be thankful for, and the many blessings upon us! I asked Addison what she was thankful for and she said "Thank you Jesus for grandma, candy, and maybe mommy and daddy."

Next, came Addison's 3rd birthday! We celebrated her actual birthday with special birthday donuts for breakfast at Mima and Granddad's house.

After breakfast, we took the time to open a few birthday gifts and later we got ready to head over to YaYa's Island in Paducah for some more FUN!

We had a blast and it was extra special because it was full of family time! We played at YaYa's and went over to The Pasta House for dinner where the waitresses took the time to sing Happy Birthday to Addison. Addison loved all the attention and made the sweetest little face when she was being sung to. This birthday was too much fun! Addison has realized what birthdays are all about and was talking about it for days! On the way home we hit Mike Miller park in Draffenville,KY to check out all the wonderful Christmas lights!
The next morning we woke up and headed to GiGi's house for Addison's milk and cookies party! I spent a good amount of time, during the month of November, gathering up milk bottles and preparing for this particular birthday party!

We also welcomed a new baby into the family...

I believe we are going to be calling him Barkly but the name is still undecided by Addison.

In between all the running around we found time to build a fort at home, and squeezed in some shopping trips.

We have had sooo much fun this month and are looking forward to the most wonderful time of the year!
I cannot believe we have celebrated another year of Addison's life! She is just too precious and special to our family!

Titans vs. Bears.

On Sunday,November 4th, my in-laws, my mom and I took off to Nashville, TN to enjoy some Tennessee Titans football. The Titans were taking on "Da Bears" in Russell's and many others' words. It was an interesting trip to say the least. The Titans got whooped 51-20 and our tailgating experience was one for the books. We called it tailgating "Sanford and Son style." Sanford and Son is truly a perfect description of what it felt like. Russell says he is determined to tailgate like this again!

I just love this atmosphere...

After the extreme lost, Russell had to drink his blues away!

All in all, it was a fun trip with fantastic company! Even if we did lose!

Memphis,TN.

 Trey has been training for a new position for a few weeks in Horn, Lake Mississippi. Since Trey had a couple of days off over the weekend of Oct. 26th, Russell, Addison, and myself took a little weekend trip down to Memphis,TN to visit Trey. The three of us left after work on Friday Oct. 26th and came back Saturday night Oct. 27th. We arrived at the hotel, around 8:30 PM, and got our stuff all put up for the night. Then we took off to the Rendezvous for dinner. Our hotel was only a couple of blocks away, so we decided to enjoy downtown Memphis and walk.

After dinner Russell and Addison headed back to the hotel. Trey and I decided to go check out the action on Beale Street. We stopped and listened to a band at Wet Willies. 

Saturday morning we woke up and went downstairs at the hotel to enjoy a complimentary breakfast. We had to rush to arrive at the famous Peabody Hotel by 11:00 AM to let Addison watch the ducks walk down the red carpet and into the fountain. My parents took my sisters and I, as kids, so I wanted Addison to see it for herself. Although, I'm sure we will have to do it again for her to be able to remember it!

After watching the ducks walk down the carpet we decided to avoid the crowd and take the elevator up to see the ducks palace!

Afterwards, we went back down to let Addison get a closer look of the ducks.

While strolling back to the hotel after dinner Friday night, Addison told granddad that she wanted to ride the "train" AKA trolley. So riding the trolley was our next Memphis adventure!

Addison loved hanging from the handle and went back and forth between her dad and grandad!

Then we were off to one of Addison's favorite spots in the world! She wanted to see animals! So to the zoo we went...

After roaming the zoo for hours, we decided it was time to eat again. We were famished, and Addison was extremely tired. So we took off to Houston's. The food was delicious!  Russell and Mary used to frequent the restaurant when they lived in Memphis.
After dinner, it was time to say our goodbyes, which is way to familiar these days! Trey only has one week left of training! After four weeks of training, we are so ready for him to be back home!
We cannot wait for another visit to Memphis, TN only next time we expect Mary, Angela, Carter, and Reese to join us!

Halloween.

This year for Halloween Addison wanted to be a ballerina princess! So we settled for just a ballerina since I could not find her princess crown in the last minute preparations.

For Halloween we hit the usual spots that we have gone to in the past: Gigi, Grandma Collins, Grandmother Nancy or Sissy, DQ, and Vanessa. We met Reagan and Griffin at Gigi's and ate on some beef stew and then took off for more stops!

Addison loved every minute of the adventure this year and every piece of candy that she received she insisted it be opened then and there! When we got back home you better believe I hid the pink pumpkin filled with candy. The only thing missing from our Halloween adventures this year was Trey who is still off training for his new job!

A glance of the past...

Halloween Eve.

Since Halloween is right around the corner I thought I would show-off my Halloween decor.

Along with a pinterest inspired wreath...

Our house is "Spooky Spooky"!

Addison and I are excited to go out and trick or treat tomorrow night, but sad that Trey will have to miss it. He still has 2 weeks left of training in Horn Lake, Mississippi. Boo.

F-A-L-L into Fall.

With today being the first day of Autumn, we kicked it off just right! We woke up with Griffin already at our house and fell straight into a day full of F-U-N! We left the house to meet some friends for lunch at Pagliai's Pizza. Then after lunch we took off to Fall on the Farm at Murray State University's Pullen Farm. There were so many fun activities for kids of all ages.

Our journey begun at the amazing pit full of corn.

After my little one got tired of the corn she spotted her next new adventure... and off she went.

Addison has no fear that I have found.

After a few times down the slide and a few fights to get off the slide. We went on to pretend to be a horsey...

Then we ran to the tire "horseys" and this is where we ran into another sweet little girl hanging out with her daddy! 

We were not done yet though. The next activity was the one that Addison has waited all summer for...

Addison rode her very first real "Horsey!" I had a hard time restraining her while we waited in the line. She was ready to hop on that horse. After Addison's turn was over, she ran back to the ENTER door and tried to cut all the other kids that were waiting to ride. She had been telling me all week, as I have been leading up to Fall on the Farm, that she wanted to ride a pink horsey, but Griffin broke the bad news to her this morning and told her there is no such thing as a pink horsey. She tried to argue with him but he would not have any of it. I believe she would have rode that horse all day long.

From the horseys we went to check out the real tractor.

and then we tackled the corn maze...

Phew! What a day! 

We loved Fall on the Farm and cannot wait until next year!