Who's Sweater You Callin' Ugly??

First Annual Wolsiefer Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

Every year since we've been married, Chris and I have a Christmas party to get together with all of our friends. This year I thought we'd change it up a little and have an Ugly Sweater party, and everyone came up with some good outfits!! We ate lots of food (well everyone else did atleast-the pregnancy is definitely hitting my stomach full force!!), visited, the kids played, and we had a Dirty Santa gift exchange again (and Santa was pretty nasty this year-LOL).

Oh my this gives me visions of the future!!
Busted-and they look thrilled-oh my!!

A Few Updates

Since my last post was Halloween, we have quite a bit of catching up to do!! I know that everyone has been super busy and understands the lack of blogging, so I'll try to fill you in on the last month or so:)

A BIRTHDAY SURPRISE FOR GRANDMA (HINT: NEW BABY!)
The weekend before Thanksgiving we had a whirlwind of birthday celebrations, two different 30th birthday parties, and Chris' mother's birthday dinner on Sunday. It just so happened that, as most of you should already know, we found out that Saturday that we are expecting a new baby! So we were so excited to be able to tell Grandma on her birthday that she's having a new little grandbaby to love!

Grandma and her soon-to-be expanded crew!

GIVING THANKS
We had a great Thanksgiving weekend again this year! We were blessed to be able to celebrate with Chris' family here in Evansville, and go to my family's dinner in Auburn. It was fun to be able to tell everyone about the new baby at Thanksgiving again this year, since we told them we were pregnant with Amelia on Thanksgiving two years ago;) I said we can just make it an every-other-year tradition, but Chris didn't think that was sounded so fun-LOL!

Preparing for what's to come with baby Addison?

Joining in the family tradition-watching Clamation Christmas!

ALLISON'S 4TH BIRTHDAY
It is so hard to believe that it has been 4 years since our first niece was born! Alli is obsessed with horses so of course she had a horse birthday party! All the kids had fun helping Alli open her presents, which Alli was so nice to do.

Alli was so excited about her new bike-and I think Amelia thought she should have one too!

Happy Halloween!

This past weekend was a whirlwind Halloween celebration! Not only was this the first year that Amelia could really trick or treat, but we took on yet another holiday festivity at our house as well! We had (the last time I counted) 26 adults and 19 kids at our house! We love being able to see our friends and family on the holidays so it was a blessing, and alot of work of course too! I made chili and vegetable soup and some treats, and people brought more food too, so we didn't even need the bags and bags of candy that the kids collected, but the more the better, right?? I unfortunately didn't think to get Amelia trick or treating on video, but we did get a play-by-play with pics that you can see in the slideshow:



After all the children finished trick or treating we heading back to our house and ate and visited until the children were too tired to go on, and we were in bed by 9:30! Thanks to everyone who made our Halloween special!

Our Little Pumpkin Picker

I am loving every minute of Fall so far (well except for the freezing rain)! With the arrival of my favorite time of year comes many traditions as well;) We were so excited to go to our first pumpkin patch trip this year! We went to Jackson's Orchard in Bowling Green with Amelia's Grandaddy, Uncle Jacob, and Great Grandaddy Hughes. I think everyone shared my affection for the season because that place was packed!! There was so much to do there we didn't have time for the farm animals, pony ride, or bouncy house, but Amelia did get to ride down the Cider Slider (as pictured below), feed the goats, and go on her first hay ride to the pumpkin patch. She was so cute trying to pick up every single pumpkin she came to and trying so hard to lift them;) After purchasing a couple pumpkins, pumpkin bread mix, and pumpkin butter, we were 'pumpkined' out and headed home. It was a super-short visit but we had a great time and were so glad to be able to share it with family that we don't see often!

The Quack Pack

The Fall Festival has come and gone, and this year I actually went the least in the past seven years since I was introduced to the week-long food extravaganza! Between working and the rainy terrible weather, there weren't many opportunities, but we were able to make it a couple times to eat, don't worry-I wouldn't let another year go by without an apple dumpling, fried Oreos, pronto pup (or two!), and my new favorite loaded stuffed pepper soup! For all my friends and family that have never experienced the Fall Festival-you just have to see it to believe it!

Every year, Saturday is the last day and they have a big parade at night (which I have never been to), and in the morning they have a Pet Parade for children and animals. This was my first year to go to the Pet Parade, and we entered it with a group of friends and family. Chris and his friends thought of the theme, The Quack Pack, and decorated the boat. My mother in law did an awesome job making Amelia's and her cousins costumes, little ducks (which she will now be wearing for Halloween it's so darn cute!). The kids and women got to ride in the boat, while the men walked the dogs around the boat in the parade, and we actually won first place for our group! It was alot of fun and we're already thinking of ideas for next year;)

Beach Baby

This post is a little overdue, sorry! We were so lucky to be able to go on our first family vacation over Labor Day weekend. Chris, me, and Amelia went to Panama City Beach for a 4-day, 3-night trip. It was so relaxing to get away for a while, just the three of us. We left late Thursday night and stayed overnight in Alabama. Amelia did great in her first hotel room, she was so excited to be out of the car finally and check out her new surroundings!

Friday morning we made the rest of the trip and finally made it to our condo, which was amazing! We stayed at the Shores of Panama and we definitely want to go back! Friday didn't go quite as planned because Chris got sick and Amelia did too, so we stayed in for the evening. Luckily everyone was healthy and ready for vacation fun on Saturday morning! We played on the beach in the sand and even took Amelia into the ocean. At first she didn't like the tide coming in, but once we walked past it she loved wading in the waves! Saturday and Sunday we just relaxed and went out to eat-the only absolutely necessary vacation activities! Sunday night the condo put on an amazing fireworks show for Labor Day, which me and Amelia comfortably watched from inside the patio doors of our room while Chris videotaped from the balcony;) Monday morning we reluctantly packed up and started home. We saw an Air Force museum on the way home and stopped, and Amelia loved the big planes! Here are a few of our favorites-enjoy!

Here Ducky Ducky...

As most of you know, Chris is a HUGE hunter, and he is especially obsessed with duck/goose hunting! Even before we were trying to have children, I heard stories and dreams of him one day taking his children hunting (motherly cringe noted ;/). Despite my lack of enthusiasm for his passion of hunting, I think it's precious that he and Amelia can have something to share just between father and daughter one day. I can't even describe to you, if you don't already know, how much of Chris' everyday life is consumed with hunting activities, one of which being blowing on duck and goose calls ALL THE TIME! If you've ever heard this act you will appreciate my intensity on the subject ;) So of course it would come to be that Chris would teach Amelia to "call" and I would have two people running around my house "calling" birds! So, as luck would have it, our amazing daughter has learned the art of "calling birds" and we had to share the news! Sorry for the sideways viewing, but listen carefully to the sheer joy in Chris' voice as he calls Papaw (Grandpa Wolsiefer) to tell him the news! (You'd think she learned to read for goodness sake!!)


And here's another video of Chris and Amelia practicing together-adorable;) Who needs boys when you've got this-haha!

Busy Bees

With the summer fast dwindling, we have been using every opportunity to take advantage of the weather and summer activities. Lots of swimming, park visits, and wagon rides, along with an ever increasing amount of birthday parties!! We are so lucky to have a daughter who is so easy to take places, she is such a joy to be around! No matter where we are, or who we are with, she is so easy-going and happy (of course there are occassional fits and whines but generally speaking she is truly happy)! I hope her personality stays so pleasant through the toddler years;)

Amelia loved the balloons at her cousin Tyler's birthday party!

Amelia loved all the animals at the 4H Fair

We got to go to our second annual (hopefully) Otters baseball game with our friends the Kirsch's. There was alot of snacking to keep Amelia in our row, as you can see;)

She had to try our her friend Carden's gift at his birthday party.

And most recently we had a great time swimming and celebrating our favorite 4-year old, Gunner's, birthday this weekend! Catch Daddy!

Hope everyone's enjoying their summer!

Pretty Pretty Princess

Our Amelia is becoming such a little princess, to the surprise of her very NON-princess mother! Her favorite game now is imitating people, especially mommy getting ready! She loves to have her hair blow-dried, has to have a Kleenex to "blow her nose", rummages through my jewelry box, and helps me put on my makeup, while make believing putting some makeup on herself;) I love seeing her imitate me and make new little gestures everyday. Here are a few pictures of our daily routine;)

Amelia loves playing in Mommy's jewelry [(and school tassles-lol;)]

Playing dress-up in Aunt Kelly's old dance costumes;)

Putting on some make-up

Notice the intensity in fixing mommy's hair!

Summer Lovin'

These last two weeks we've been really enjoying summertime! We've gone swimming several times now and Amelia is really starting to like it! Our reluctant little fish is much less reluctant now and much more excited when we go! We recently went to Burdette (a public pool with a great kiddie pool area). Amelia loved chasing a ball around the water and jumping off the edge. She doesn't like the water fountains at all yet though, but she'll probably like them eventually too, chasing her cousins around!

Here's Amelia chasing the ball in the pool with a little help from Grandma!

Amelia also got to play in the sand for the first time at the lake behind our house this week! Chris went fishing and Mommy and Amelia stayed in the sand. Amelia played with her shovel in the sand for probably close to 30 minutes, and then we let her put her feet in the water. She loved playing in the water and didn't want to get out, but we went for a wagon ride around the neighborhood and she was happy with that;)
If you know Chris at all, you know that he is a dancer-one trait that Amelia definitely inherited! This girl LOVES to dance! Anytime she hears music (on the radio, in a store, a phone ringtone...) her eyes get really wide and her head starts bobbing, saying "Look at me-I'm dancing!" It tickles me every time!

Amelia got some new giraffe maraccas and was feeling the groove;)

Such a happy girl!

And finally, the last new thing around our house are LOTS of KISSES! Amelia started blowing kisses months ago, but she has just recently started giving big, open-mouth, slobber kisses (the BEST kind)!! She is so happy to have learned this and loves to spread the joy of her new display of affection! And of course we are more than willing to accept!

Our Reluctant Little Fish

This week I have been off work so I wanted to get Miss Amelia out of the house. Luckily, we have lots of great friends that have pools, so I took Amelia swimming. She loves taking a bath, but she's not crazy about the pool thing yet. On Tuesday we went to our friend Cindy's and swam with Grandma, Cindy, and Melanie. It took some warming up but eventually she really got into it, kicking and splashing and playing. Then Wednesday, we went to the Bishop's pool (Amelia's cousin's other grandparents) and swam with Grandma, Aunt Kelly, Alli and Brooke, and Aunt Holly showed up too! She was a tired girl at first, so after a less than successful attempt at getting used to the pool, she took a nap. But after her nap she was more willing and ended up enjoying it at the end. I think a few more times and she'll be a little fish just like Alli and Brooke (but don't tell Alli I called her a fish-she DOESN'T like that-HAHA)!