Last, but not least!

Our last stop on our Christmas marathon was a trip to Granny and Grandad's. We played the name game some more and by the end of the day, Maddy was able to identify (receptively by pointing SLP friends) Granny, Grandad, and Grandpa after many repetitions. I love seeing her face light up when she recognizes our family. I can't believe her little mind is able to really "know" a person even though she only sees them a few weeks out of the year. Our time together is so short, but I am so blessed to see her joy in our family with the time we have.

Aunt Mary was nice enough to cuddle up with Maddy and watch "Finding Nemo" for the 3rd time I think also. Andy and Mary had a dancing accident on NYE, which left Mary perched nicely on the sofa on our last day in town.





The girls had fun with Maddy even though she interrupted their card game.



All in all, it was a great trip filled with lots of family and wonderful friends...many moments not even captured by the camera. We are so blessed by everyone we saw this Christmas and can not wait to see you again. We love you and miss you all!

What were you doing 10 years ago?

Ten years ago on New Years Eve 1999, I was arguing with my father about staying out just a few minutes past midnight. This argument proved fruitless as I was escorted prior to the big count down and called my friends as they rang in the new millennium. Skip ahead 10 years, I am sitting at a table filled with fondue discussing with my favorite couple where they were 10 years ago.



Logan and I had never been to The Melting Pot until NYE so we indulged every minute of the experience. Probably a little too much indulgence on all the yumminess, but oh well.



Jane + cheese = Happy Jane




The meat was the best part. Oh how I would love some more of that meat!



Scott was done with pictures and definitely wanted to get back to the meat.

We also did something different as far as resolutions. Instead of making them for ourselves...and inevitably breaking them as most resolutions go....we each made one for our spouse. Resisting all temptation to be a nag, I simply asked for Logan to continue to encourage me and help me whenever possible. He asked me to be confident in my independence and take time more time for myself. Hopefully we will be able to stick to both of these resolutions and not look back a year from now neglecting both of these!

Happy New Year!

Aunties

Since Amanda and Becky flew in from the east and west coast to be with their families for Christmas, they knew they had to make a trip to Fort Worth to see the girls...and Miss Maddy. Neither of them had met her yet!



So 6 out of 9 of my favorite girls were there: Shannon, Jane, Meredith, Becky, Amanda, Erin, and myself....and some boys. But the girls were more important!

Cecily, Meredith, and Jaime - WE MISSED YOU A TON!!! We said, "opah," for you and took a sad face picture just to make sure you knew you were missed.



Aunt Jane and Aunt Shannon fed Maddy guac...lots of guac.



I think Aunt Shannon had a dirty mouth, so they told Maddy to clean it. She is getting really good at following directions. Shanny thought this was pretty funny.



Aunt Red took sips of Maddy's cup, but let's hope Maddy did not take sips from Red's cup!



Love these girls. It was so fun to see them and I hope we all get together soon. Thank you Lord for amazing friends and the beautiful memories I have with each of them. They are so precious to me.

Baby it's cold outside

Maddy got to see her very first snow this Christmas. Well, just a few days after Christmas, but in 2009 nonetheless. When my parents called on Christmas Eve saying they were snowed in and couldn't drive to my grandparents house, I was sure we would miss the snow and it would be melted when we got back. Well, it was, of course, but luckily it snowed again on the December 29th just enough to play in the snow.







Again, we tried to get a good family picture in the snow, but Maddy was not happy about being held. She only wanted to be in the snow and be with the dogs. Back to the name calling, she added Sassy and "Bambi" (Bandit) to her list. Bimbo and Mame (Jimbo and Marme) were oh so excited to see this little snow baby.

Christmas Morning

I searched and searched for Christmas pj's and was only semi-successful. Next year, this year rather....I will search and search and search some more so that way we WILL be in cute Christmas pj's. I know this is not the reason for the season, but Christmas pj's are fun and I know all about looking like a hobo on Christmas morning, so this girl needs some cute pj's.

Luckily, Maddy is always cute. And Santa pj's helped too...



A hobo and a cute baby.



Maddy got some fun, fun, fun things for Christmas. It started out with a playhouse from Nana and Papaw that arrived a few weeks before Christmas. And then Santa brought her very first baby doll. She loves giving her baby, "mil" (milk) and then sneaking a little from the baby's bottle for herself. Sneaky girl. Santa also brought stuffed animals, clothes, a Tennessee hat, and more toys! Santa was good to this little girl! (II tried to scan in Maddy's Santa picture, but it didn't work.

This is a picture of one of Nana's favorite Christmas gifts. From the dollar bin at Target is the roaring fireplace DVD. It doesn't take much to make our sweet Nana smile, but this kept her giddy throughout our time there. We even took it to Poppie's house on Christmas day to share the warmth. I just couldn't bare to let Maddy touch it...it is fire you know and you don't want to foster a love for fire, right?....so I told her, "Hot, no touch!" each time she came near the screen.



This was the only picture I got of Maddy's cute Christmas dress. Darn! Cousins Kristen and Kristi supervised the cooking in the kitchen and baby feedings. Maddy and I also got matching aprons, but of course she wouldn't stand to have her picture in it with me so this is the best I got. Mine says, "Holiday Hostess," and hers says, "Hostess in Training." We didn't do much cooking, but we wore our aprons proudly before the Christmas brunch began.




The Baker girls also had cute aprons that said, "Cookin' Claus." When Maddy saw them all together, she said, "ho, ho, ho." I hope that isn't an insult, I think that just means she likes your aprons and loves Santa!

Name Calling

Maddy did a great job naming everyone...almost everyone...we saw over the past two weeks. Nana, Papaw, Poppie, and "A" all had a clear name from little voice.



Maddy has happy to cheer for the Vols, but it took a little coaxing for her to sit with Poppie.



Pouting, but close to Poppie so it was ok.




This girl loves her Nana. I love this picture of them reading. You can always tell Nana is a teacher by the time she takes on each page to describe everything and look at all the pictures.

Cheesecake and Lasagna

Whenever the Fritts boys get together at Nana's house, there are always two things that must be there: lasagna and cheesecake. I've never even attempted to make Vicki's cheesecake knowing it just wouldn't be as good as it is during Christmas when we get together with the family.

Maddy had a great time playing with Abbey and Morgan while we were in Tennessee. She loved watching them dance and jump up and down. Abbey is getting to be such a lady and Morgan is quite the little diva as always. I can't wait to get all of the Fritts kiddos together someday. Hopefully soon.






Another recurring event is Josh missing Nana's cheesecake so we always send him a picture and he replies back with a sad face and a quick comeback for his brothers. We missed you guys!

While you were out II

A week or so ago, Logan picked me up for school and Maddy was not wearing pants. Since 3 or 4 months, we've worn pants so I knew something was up. He immediately showed me pictures of her covered in baby powder he had taken with his phone. Apparently, the little one was "quietly playing in her room" while Daddy was "cleaning/watching TV" (which one of those was actually happening, I'm not sure) and then Maddy was a little too quiet. So he went back to check on her.

And when I got home, this is what I found...



That is what happened when Logan tried to clean her up, but she ran away. And here is what I saw next in her room.




So she reinacted it for me...for the full effect.




True creativity at work.





Not a day goes by now that Maddy doesn't try to steal the baby powder bottle from one of us and reattempt her masterpiece. What a little stinker!

Thanksgiving visits

We were super busy over the last two weeks. Vicki and Terry came to help us work on the house from Wednesday to Sunday. Logan and Terry installed new 5 new doors and painted the hallway and front living room. (pictures to come soon!)



After we took Vicki and Terry to the airport, we headed north for a visit with Scott and Jane. (no pictures...what was I thinking?) We celebrated Erin and Billy's birthday and got to see lots of TCU friends.

Marme and Maddy made a gingerbread house on Thanksgiving after everyone got back from hunting. Jimbo skinned his deer and Logan went back and forth between football and deer trimming.



Maddy's favorite part was the icing and candy-eating. Cari told us the secret is hot glue for next year.



The family came to celebrate Thanksgiving on Black Friday so we could all be together. The little kids rode horses after we ate and I got on with Maddy. Dancer is such a great horse for the little kids. Dena and I even galloped around the house and did the pattern I rode for competition years ago. After a LONG time of not being on a horse, it was nice to see I could still hang on and hold my own. We had a great thanksgiving and have much to be thankful for.

I have so many post to catch up on. They are coming soon. I promise.

This is it!

You asked for pictures. So here they are. The whole ugly naked truth of just moving into a house and pretending to have a place for everything is knocked out of the water here. We are a mess right now, but we're hoping not for long. Here goes:


Master bed: needs paint, blinds, curtains, new bedding, the list goes on...




The dining room: needs organization, deocoration, paint, no panelling, more paint


The kitchen: needs new lighting, paint, new countertops, organization, and child locks on the cabinets


The family room: needs paint, curtains, blinds, more paint, wall mounting for TV, furniture


Guest bath: needs NEW TILE! NOW!, new curtains, blinds, remove old wall heater, a clue as to what century this is. (I was too embarrassed (which is saying a lot compared to the bedroom pic) to put the actual pic I took a few hours ago. This is a shot I got when we did our final walk-through of the house. This is the much nicer, neater picture.)



More to come later: Living room, guest room, Maddy's room, outside, garage, laundry room.

Not Me Monday

I did not eat after my daughter on Friday the day after she had just gotten over a 24-hour virus. No, that would be absurd. Which means, I did not end up getting sick all weekend and thinking to myself, "Why did I eat after her? It was only applesauce."

I did not just pack a large majority of our belongings in grocery bags, stollen newspapers from Trinity University, and a somewhat racy (but still free) periodical I snatched from Chipotle. Nope, not me.

I did not cheer for joy when the TV left tonight to go to the new house.


And I did not buy two pumpkins and make my husband take them to the new house just so I would see the said pumpkins on my doorstep when I first pull up tomorrow. That is so silly.

Enough

This is what I have been looking at everyday for the past few months.



First: A good home must be made, not bought...





I pulled this out of a magazine in June when we were a little depressed at the way things were going for our house-buying situation. In my mind, I pictured that a cute little curly-headed girl was wildly painting her room a vivacious shade of blush (or bashful) while her mother stood back and captured the scene with a snapshot. For a while this summer, I stopped making really doing much that incorporated our apartment: inviting people over, chatting with the neighbors, etc. I just so badly wanted to be away from here. All the while, I wasn't recognizing that no matter where we live, our home will always be where we make it. If we're an "09-er" or in a homeless shelter, "home" must be made not bought.


Second: "Are you here to use God to get a bigger god? Or are you here to enjoy God because He is enough!" - Marc Driscoll




This spoke to me when I found myself praying every day for a house. Somewhere along the way I just realized that praying for the house was not the answer, but praying for peace with whatever was God's plan was. The idea of a house had become more important than simply waiting for the plan he had created for us. No matter what the circumstance, He is enough. No matter where you live, or where you work, or who is next to you, He is enough. He is!

Tomorrow we are going to our new home. Thank you Lord for giving us a roof over our head and a place to call "home" for the past year. You are enough.

It's Moving Time

Can you tell we're packing? Maddy wants everyone to know that Mommy normally has a really clean living room, kitchen, bedroom, etc., but with all of the boxes it's been a little tough lately. This is what used to be the office/playroom/small corner of our living room.



Here is what is left of our dining room. Now her high chair won't even fit in there so she has to eat in the living room.



To get away from the boxes, Maddy and I took a walk down to the church gardens. Maddy played in the fountains, picked up lots of rocks, and pointed to all the pretty flowers. The mosquitoes were out so we didn't get to stay after the red bumps started appearing on her face. Does she look like Logan or what?



She's saying "ti" for cheese here.



Maddy has also been working on her spoon skills. It's hard work, but she's getting pretty close. She's still not sure what hand she likes better, but in this shot it's the right....we'll see. Today she colored with both.



So did I mention we're moving? We closed on our house on Thursday and will move in on Tuesday. I can't believe it's finally here. I still need to take a picture of us standing in front of the house, but that will come on Tuesday. The top thing on our priority list when we move in...paint and smoke detectors. We will definitely be painting very soon and adding in a few smoke detectors to make things a little safer.