Adams Family Christmas Note

Another year has come and gone for the Adams family. We've been overcome with the blessings of the Lord as we try to help others.

Analee (“Babe”) is now 28 months old. John William (“Bubba”) is now 19 months old. The time that we've had them has gone both incredibly quickly and incredibly slowly. We don't remember life without them, but we don't remember much of them growing up. Life really has been a whirlwind for us here in our tiny slice of heaven. The kids moved into the same room in preparation for another birth, and it was easier than we thought. They now go to bed and wake up at the same time, and do both giggling.

Babe is powering her way through things. Her philosophy seems to be thus: if brute force doesn't work, punch it harder. She alternates between being the sweetest girl around and the “terrible two” that we've heard about. She's growing up almost too fast for us; she knows letters and numbers, shapes and colors, and loves to show them off. Her favorite toy is a computer keyboard that we gave her, which allows her to “practice letters,” as she puts it.

Bub is playing the dutiful victim of his big sister's powerful playing. That said, he's become quite the happy guy as he is now more mobile and can get to just about anything he wants. He's got a wonderful streak to him, showing his willingness to give up what he fought so hard to get. He's a cuddly little boy who showers us with hugs and kisses.

Life is about to get more hectic for us, as Drake will be born some time early in 2010. He's due February 11, but we expect him in mid-to-late January. He's an active little guy, and we can see him moving from the outside. Three kids under three? What were we thinking?!?

Anika is doing well, or at least as well as she can, considering her belly. We're excited to see what she's like without either a pregnancy or post-pregnancy issues.

John is trying to be a father and a husband while working as much as he can and keeping up his grades at Liberty University, where he's a graduate student. He's doing well, as he just got his report card full of A's. We're all very proud of him.

We're excited to see the changes our family will go through, and are blessed to see what has come before. The Lord has bent over backward for us, and we see no reason not to do the same for Him.

Merry Christmas from the Adams family!

P.S. Included are pictures of us outside earlier this week. We got two feet of snow and the kids loved it.

happy days

some pictures from our temple trip in october. we didn't get any from november's...but we'll be going again this weekend! yay!

babe was way excited to get there. i guess she would be since she spent four hours in a carseat being told "it's okay, babe, we're going to the temple". actually, she ran right inside. the doors are automatic, but thankfully there are two sets, so i caught her before she made it through the second set. poor thing, she was crushed. "but i wanna go to the temple!" boy, did i had stopping her.

the fountain was a big hit. the kids spent a lot of time looking at it and running around it.

they were big fans of the guy mowing the lawn. they thought he, and his lawn mower, were pretty cool.

we're so grateful to be able to go to the temple. while it takes a bit more planning with kids, once we decided that we were just going to do it then it's worked wonderfully every time. we've been october, november and are going this weekend. unfortunately january isn't a safe bet (especially now that john has banned me from going further than lexington after the end of december). since i'm at a higher risk than usual to have a precipitous labor (baby coming early and fast-as in under 3 hours), then traveling that close of my due date (feb. 11) is pretty unsafe. in that case february could be out too, depending on when the baby comes.
but we're thrilled to be going often and taking our kids with us. they love the temple and know what it is. i had to laugh, babe saw a picture of a fairy tale castle and instantly called it a temple. talk about making you feel good inside.

update oh update

well, i've been pretty bad at posting but thought i'd drop a little something. i usually like to do pictures, but john's been pretty busy on the computer lately (he's working on multiple papers for his masters in teaching program), and pictures take a while. so i guess i'll skip them.

posts that haven't happened...the labor day parade. it's a big deal here, historically buena vista is the start of the campaign trial, so all the candidates come and walk down magnolia street. it was nice since we were near friends who also chose to enjoy it and let their kids have fun with all the balloons and stickers and disregard the politics.

we got to go to the temple both in october AND november (yay!). we're hoping to get there in december, too. but john's declared that after the end of december i'm not traveling beyond lexington, so january, and i'll just assume february, are out. but i guess that brings us to other news. since bub's birth was precipitous (being fast and early) chances are this one will be as well. the doctors informed me that it didn't matter where i was, if i thought i might be in labor i go to the nearest hospital-which is why john doesn't want me traveling too far away near the end (my due date being feb. 11, but if this one comes as early as bub then he'd come come about jan. 7).

halloween was pleasant and fairly uneventful. i made costumes this year, which was interesting. babe was a ballerina (and mightily excited by it). bub was a bumble bee, stinger included but no wings (i noticed i had forgotten them just before we left for the ward party). oh well. the stinger was cute.

and most recently, thanksgiving. another couple, the dunn's, joined us. i was half surprised seeing as they came last year. last year's big mistakes: the turkey was underdone (parts were pink), i forgot to put the eggs in the pumpkin pie (translates to pumpkin soup) and "just enough" flour for the gravy, i learned, is not several cups...it came out let jello. but i didn't do any of that this year! i did however break a meat thermometer (no matter what the directions say i guess i'm not supposed to leave the thermometer in the turkey), forgot to make the stuffing and while the gravy wasn't jello it tasted pretty bland. so overall i think i'm improving:)

but hopefully soon i'll be able to post some pictures. if it's not in the next month though we'll probably end up skipping fall pictures and moving straight to new baby excitement. again, due on feb. 11th we're expecting a little boy. we're still hashing out official-ness, but plan to name him drake. we'll see if we actually call this kid by his name though. if not we'll probably have babe, bub, and ducky. yeah, ducky. maybe i'll have to explain that one later.

Fight for Right

John and I have a dear friend, Jordan James. John got to know him and his family while in California. My freshman year of college I met both John and Jordan. At our wedding reception that summer Jordan was getting ready to leave on a mission for our church. He spent two years in Florida teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and serving the people he met. After returning home he and his family discovered that he had developed adrenal cancer. Jordan lived with us as he attended classes that summer. He planned to continue on this fall but was unable due to his condition. During this time his family moved to Michigan where Jordan could get the best available help for his type of cancer. That is where, a few weeks ago, Jordan died.
Jordan was and is an incredibly uplifting person. Not only did his spirit bring peace, gratitude and strength to our home and family, but he wanted to share it with everyone he could.
Jordan had a website. He called it Fight for Right. That is what Jordan did. That is what Jordan does. I would like to encourage everyone to look at it, to read it. To Fight for Right. www.fightforright.net This is part of Jordan's introduction to his fight.

"I'm Jordan James, and to state the purpose of this site as simply as possible, I've pretty much decided to save the world. Some may roll their older, wiser eyes in amusement and shamefully shake their shiny dome-shaped heads at this ridiculously bold statement — thinking that this is all merely the naive attempt of a simple-minded, inexperienced dreamer to be a vague sort of hero. They may very well be right (which really makes no difference to me). But whatever the case, I get much more satisfaction out of life through my obsession with maximizing human potential and happiness through motivation and influence, seeking to fight evil, and making significant contributions to society, than I would if I were cynical and critical of others' efforts to do the same!"

Fight for Right, Jordan.

sleeping babe

while babe doesn't take naps, she will occasionally crash on the floor after a busy day. this time our friend leah sidwell (or as babe calls her 'lela') was here and took some pictures.

the fun thing about this box is that analee pulled it over herself before she fell asleep and would adjust it like it was a blanket.

every day fun

john being attacked by babies

bub on daddy's shoulders

apparently it's a comfy place:)

afterwards bub decided daddy should be on his shoulders!

the hilarious fashion sense of babe. granted, the clothes she didn't pick (she was still in pj's from the night before). but the hat and the "bracelets" were all her. in case you can't tell, her bracelets are those rings you make baby chains out of.

so it got quiet and this is what we found. if you can see it she is drenched in lotion (she's a fan of lotion). face, hands, arms, legs, the whole deal. she had so much on that even by the time she woke up we had to wipe her down b/c it couldn't all soak in.

hanging out...in the stroller basket...

i guess pushing the stroller wasn't quite manly enough. but bub loves to try to push the lawn mower. every time john mows he wants to be out there helping. it's pretty sweet.

Friday Fun

during the summer bv had these friday events with food and music, it was supposed to be a dancing in the street sort of event. we only went once but it was pretty fun.

babe got a glow in the dark bracelet (she loves bracelets) and swiped my lemondade:)

the city featured a local band "rockma". we thought it was fun since all the boys were 12 and we had had three of them as webelos (all but the drummer). so left to right...the drummer (don't know him) jordy, dransfield (nate) and jack. they did a pretty good job.

bub dancing to rockma

babe dancing to rockma

kid dancing is pretty much the best ever:)

walnut canyon

while we were at the family reunion (way back in june) we went on a hike through walnut canyon. a way cool place you should certainly see if you're in arizona (i hiked it pregnant with a kid on my back! if you know me you know that's a BIG deal, i am NOT physically fit, so you can totally do it too! they even had these great backpacks at the visitor center that we could use for free! so no excuses!) oh, p.s. i totally uploaded these on the wrong size...but there's a lot, and i really don't want to do it all over again...so yeah.

okay, so this plant is a prickly pear cactus plant. cool b/c my grandma takes the fruit off these and makes the best jam in existence. it's kinda a distant picture though since the plant was off the path and on a steep decline.

i just think this place looks cool. the rock formations are really neat.

i like pictures like this one (with my sister anja) b/c it shows you at least a little just how big it all is.

ander, my awesome little brother who carried around babe the whole way, despite her constant chimes of "mo' nack peas" translated as "more snacks please". he was such a trooper, way awesome.

this was kinda a leaning over the edge picture. it was seriously just cliffs going down. kinda scary, but way neat. the whole way my thoughts were 'wow!' and 'don't fall'.

my sister anja (in the pink) and my other little brother josiah (in the red).

yet another awesome little brother.

to the left is my mom, they're will be a better picture of her later. i'm so glad she was there. being completely not physically fit she was nice enough to hang back with me:)

i thought this was a cool tree, growing out of the rocks and all. i guess it's the purcell side coming out.

so i think these are way cool. it's where the native indians lived...in little cliff rooms they made...seriously, on the edge of a cliff! these were hardcore people.

another neat looking tree.

me and bub.

ander and babe.

okay, this lizard was totally cool. see how it's pushed up on it's legs? it would go up and down...this lizard was doing push-ups! it was the funniest thing. just up and down and up and down. it was great.

yay for mom!