Happy Birthday!!!

This past weekend we celebrated Kurt's 32nd (12/12) and Daniel's 18th (12/11) birthday. We enjoyed eating out, seeing Santa of course, and cake.

Addie is still not so sure about Santa. She has so much confidence when he is not around. She'll say - "Santa is a big guy. He won't hurt me." Then when she sees him she stops in her tracks and screams at the top of her lungs. In the photo below, Santa had to sneak around at first so we could capture a photo. She asks for new mittens from Santa - note that they are mittens and not gloves as Addie will certainly correct you.

Sad news to share ......

We have had the unfortunate event of a second miscarriage this past week. Stephanie was about 6-1/2 - 7 weeks along. The baby stopped growing at just over 5 weeks. It is a very sad time especially just before the holidays as well as occuring again within months of the last miscarriage. Stephanie will have enhanced blood testing done later in the month to see what the potential cause might be given that the statistics of being a fluke twice is unlikely.

Kurt's grandmother is also not doing well. Mary Jean is in a nursing home in Stonghurst, IL. They believe she has suffered from another stroke. Her kidneys are failing also and the family has decided to stop her feeding tube. She will be seeing Grandpa Webster soon.

A future builder, designer, architect, engineer....??

Here is one of Adeline's first attempts at building a tower crane! She is also wearing her hard hat - safety first! Mommy and Daddy are so proud!!

I am a mess!

Oh, the weather outside is.....

Frightful. Last Friday, we received about 5" of ice and 12" or so of snow which drifted to about 2-3' in places. Mommy was out of town in sunny Phoenix for work until Saturday to welcome her buried car at the airport. Luckly there are angels out there. Several people offered their hand to assist. Addie enjoyed the snow but now it is too cold to play out in it. The snow will be here for a while so there will be more opportunities I am sure. This certainly puts us all into the Christmas spirit!

Thanksgiving 2006

We made the rounds this Thanksgiving enjoying lots of company and lots of turkey and pie!! We all enjoyed each others company as always.

Just a quick little vacation

Just before Thanksgiving we took a quick trip to the indoor waterpark at Grand Bear Lodge near Starved Rock State Park. The indoor waterpark was amazing. We all enjoyed it. We also went downtown to Chicago. We went to the Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium. Below is a photo of us in front of a life size gingerbread house (which smelled incredible!).

Here are a few new photos we had taken for the holidays. I love the first photo when they captured Addie being shy (I know, who knew).

Addie is getting so big and is learning to use the big girl potty and loves it!

Happy Halloween (a little late....)

It has been a while.....

We are long over due for an update. So many things are going on, Mom and Dad are busy with traveling for work and I am busy learing new words, forming sentences, doing my A-B-C's and counting! It's dark out Mommy.

Great-Grandma/Grandma Webster (Mary Jean) is in the hospital at OSF in Peoria. She has had to have surgery to fix a brain anuryseum (sp?). She had surgery on Friday (10/27). She will be in the hospital for unknown amount of time. Recovery is a long road ahead. We are looking just one day at a time.

On a much lighter note, Addie is just getting so big. She is now 2 years 2 months. She's getting taller and is losing the baby fat. We can understand her and she understands us. Understanding and listening/doing are completely different acts! She sleeps in her big girl bed (crib converted to toddler bed). She will count to 20! Here are some recent photos of us carving our very first family pumpkin. Seems strange to say this is our first carving but until we had Addie (and she got a little older) it didn't seem as fun. She wanted nothing to do with it.

Addie looking very cute.

Addie and Daddy are starting to carve our first family pumpkin.

Adeline helping separate the "ickies" and the pumpkin seeds. We roasted them later in the oven. Addie keeps calling them apple seeds for whatever reason. She does like them though.

Daddy and Addie....

Mommy and Addie....

The finished product

What a picture....Addie loved camping and even better were the stars and sleeping in the tent in her own sleeping bag.

Saturday we went camping on our property. Here is Daddy and Addie going for a tractor ride.

Just a few pictures to share for all to enjoy. We hope all is well with everyone.

Addie and Daddy taking a ride on our tractor in the back yard!

Addie is also officially off the binkie - we do let her hold the "broken" binkie at bedtime. There are worse things.....

Adeline is 2!!

Today is Adeline's 2nd birthday. Daddy is out of town but we had a fun filled weekend with even a party. Addie's first day in the Two's room was today. She did really well. Mommy completely forgot that she didn't have a binky for nap time. They say she still went to sleep on her own and just needed her back rubbed. Not so lucky tonight. Maybe we're at least down to just nightime.

Friday (08/18) we had her 2-yr pictures taken - finally she cooperated after day 2/second appointment. Desperate times call for desperate measures - fruit snacks and straight juice all before 9am! It worked though, check out the pics below!

Saturday (08/19) we had a party for Addie and friends and family came to visit. We enjoyed swimming, tacos, cake/ice cream and of course Addie loved all her presents. She got clothes, toys, money, even a tu-tu (thanks to Megan! - she immediately put it on when she opened it up which I need to get more pictures of. It is so cute!!!) Mommy and Daddy bought her a Dora rolling backpack and a kitchen.

Adeline's 2-year photos. It is so amazing to look back on the past year and see how much she has grown. Time does fly by.

Me, who me.....I'm not up to anything Mommy and Daddy!

Weeeeeee!

Addie thinks the slip-n-slide is fun especially when other kids are around to play with.

Group photo!

Cheese!

Time for cake!

Adeline's new kitchen. Notice that it even has a hood light! If you look real close, she's got the tu-tu on!!

Addie is ready for bed, here in her new PJ's from Grammy. They read "That's It! I'm calling Grandma".....very cute.

Kurt's new toy. This yard tractor was part of the purchase agreement when we bought our property. He has already mowed once looks forward to fixing up the tractor. Not sure that it needs it but it must be a guy thing.....

The Websters new addition.....

.....Greg and Claudia's new sunroom/screened-in-patio that is. Papa Webster has been working this summer on completing it and it looks nice. Good job Papa.

The Webster clan....minus Brad & Kristi :(

Peoria Heights Tower Park.

During the Balloon Fest on Friday night, we realized that Addie needed her own chair. This one is a kid's backpack chair and even has a pocket for her stuff (Wal-Mart if anyone is interested). We thought it would just pull her over, but she insisted on wearing it!