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.