Oh My... Pumpkin Pie!!

Over the Thanksgiving holiday we headed to southern Indiana to visit our families. We headed home on Wednesday evening and stayed with my parents until Saturday morning. Addy loved seeing everyone and made the most of all the attention she received. She enjoyed the Thanksgiving feast. She had her first piece of pumpkin pie and devoured it in record time. Friday morning my brother, Brian and I headed out very early to brave the Black Friday chaos. Although my shopping trip was toned down from its normal craziness, Brian and I did manage to snag a few deals and see quite a few crazy people along the way. Friday evening my family headed to Santa Claus (which for the IL readers is a real Indiana town) for the Christmas celebration. The town has organized a celebration for the weekends leading up to Christmas. It was a lot of fun. We drove through the light display at the campground, which Adalyn really enjoyed. Her eyes were glued to all of the lights as she and grandpa danced to the Christmas music on the radio. She also really enjoyed the huge light tree in the parking lot of the shopping center. We visited Santa and Adalyn "tolerated" him much better then last year. Although she wouldn't let me go to far, she didn't scream or cry. I consider that progress!

Addy and Mommy at the Christmas Celebration

"Mom, I'm not so sure about this guy!"

Writing a letter to Santa to let him
Grandpa and Adalyn checking out the tree of lights.

Saturday morning we headed to Derek's mom's house to celebrate Thanksgiving with his family. Adalyn's cousin Cameron and his parents were coming to town to visit and we were very happy to see them. Cameron is 5 months old. It was interesting to see Adalyn interact to Cameron. Although at times she wasn't so sure about sharing the spotlight with him, she did take an interest in him and even gave him a few kisses and hugs. In the evening we went to a few stores and to the mall to check out a few sales. We are in search of bedroom furniture for Addy's "big girl" room and think we may have found it. Adalyn had a lot of fun eating and playing at Chik-fil-a and riding on the carousel at the mall. It was a crazy busy Thanksgiving weekend, but we are so thankful for the time we got to spend with both of our families. Adalyn loves her trips to Indiana and was asking to go back as soon as we got home.

Kisses for Cameron

One of the many books read by Grandma Freihaut

As far as Addy news goes, she is doing new and exciting things everyday. She is becoming much more independent and is vocalizing what she wants much more frequently. When we drive past any type of restaurant she yells "Eat, Eat" and then proceeds to request a hotdog and/or pizza. She still loves to eat her vegetables and fruit, but doesn't always want to eat meat. She also loves her Dora fruit snacks and could eat them all day if we would let her. Addy started to identify many of the basic colors and numbers. She still loves to color with crayons and has recently started to pretend more when playing. It is a lot of fun watching her treating her stuffed animals like babies by changing their diapers, feeding them, and pushing them around in the baby stroller. We have had our Christmas tree up for several weeks now and Addy loves it. When the lights aren't on she lets us know and won't stop until they're turned on. She also notices all of the lights and blow-ups in yards. Her babysitter, Patty, has a blow-up Santa on her porch and Addy loves seeing "Danta" when we pull into the driveway in the morning. It looks like Christmas is going to be tons of fun this year!!