8 Months

Dear Addison & Mackenzie,

The fact that this month's update is over a week late is testament to how busy our lives are these days.  e are preparing to celebrate your first Christmas, and although you won't remember it, your daddy and I will treasure these memories forever.  Christmas with you girls is going to be so very, very cool.  I can't wait to watch you figure it all out over the next few years, as we create new traditions for our little family.

This first Christmas is going to be a little crazier than usual, since we have sold our house and will be moving just a couple of days before Christmas!  We didn't plan it to work out this way, but at least you won't remember the chaos our lives will be for the next month or two.  I am so excited that you will get to grow up in my hometown and go to the same schools I went to as a child.  I think you will love it there, although you will probably get tired of it at times and wish you lived in a bigger city where there is more to do and where everyone doesn't know your business all the time.  We all felt that way at some point, particularly during our teenage years, but I hope you will come to love our little town as much as I do.  I am very excited to cut out our 45-minute commute each morning and evening.  Your daddy is taking on a commute in this move, so remember to thank him for it when you're older!  : )

This last month has been full of fun and new discoveries for you girls.  You have become steady, expert sitters, and you can roll wherever you want to go.  You are both showing signs of getting ready to crawl soon, but I'm okay with it if you want to hold off a little longer, since I have no idea how I'm going to keep up with the two of you moving in opposite directions!  Food has become a major source of fun and entertainment for you both.   Addison, you particularly LOVE your food and you are very vocal with your appreciation when you are enjoying a meal.  You tried some new foods this month, including turkey, lima beans, broccoli, and small bites of my cinnamon toast-which you would devour if I let you.  As a food lover myself, I am having a blast introducing you to new and exciting tastes.  It blows my mind that you are now big enough to begin eating off my plate...soon there will be little hands reaching over for a bite at every meal. 

Your Auntie Laura was home from college to celebrate your first Thanksgiving with you.  We went to church, as has been the tradition in our family for four years now.  Our church cooks a meal and serves it free to anyone and everyone who would like to eat with us.  It is a real blessing to those in our community who have no place else to go, and I was so excited for you to spend your first Thanksgiving there with our chruch family.  Auntie LJ will be home again soon, and I know she is excited to spend some more time with you. 

I am looking forward to a lot of time off work during this upcoming month, and it will be fun to spend the extra days hanging out with my two best girls.  Some of my favorite moments come from the normal moments spent at home, just being with you.  All week long I look forward to Saturday mornings when I climb up in the recliner with the two of you in my lap and we take a good nap together.  The cuddles and giggles every evening when we get home are truly the highlight of my day.  We sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and go over all of our animal noises, and you two just laugh and laugh.  I love those moments...and I love you girls more than you will ever know.

Love, Mama