A Whirlwind Vacation

For those of you who didn't know, we just came back from vacation to both Florida and Philly. It was great, but decidedly not long enough. We only were able to spend a few days with relatives in Florida (in both Sebring and Boca) and another few days with family in Philly. For those reading this blog who actually like Rexburg, I tip my hat to you; I suppose someone needs to like it! But being back on the East Coast made us really miss it and then to come back to Rexburg (or Idaho in general) with tons of snow already-which wouldn't be so bad if people learned how to drive in it, salt the roads (yes people I said SALT, if they would spread just a little of this wonderful stuff accidents and road conditions would greatly improve and it's not like people around here have their nice cars to worry about most are rusty buckets of bolts as this state does not require either a yearly inspection or emissions) and learn how to effectively plow this wonderful white stuff that comes EVERY year! I am not even bringing up the subject about the now non-existent sidewalks and the icy parking lots, but if this happened in a bigger city, there would be lawsuits left and right!! But I am getting slightly off topic: There are of course many pictures of our adventures, and rather than talk about them and then post the pictures to further chronicle the events, I will just show you, as pictures are worth a thousand words!

Not sure if you can read what it says, but as it's a pregnancy test, you can most likely guess what the outcome is if we posted it to the blog!

My family at the Light Show in the old John Wannamaker Bldg in Philly

Susie wants Adas' binky!

Devin in the process of getting proposed to from her now fiance Leo

A Family picture outside of the Art Museum/Rocky Steps; it was freezing!

A Family for Christmas...all there except Britt and Alicia

Daddy is cuddly...except for his beard

Did I hit the jackpot or what?

Uh-oh, this could be dangerous...

Ada opening presents early

Meemaw looking so happy

Garndpa "Pop" Bill

Ada with antlers. We took her to the mall in Boca and we got her new earrings: Snowflakes! Us at the beach with her Papa Ada with Daddy in the sand A happy family-except Ada. She didn't like the waves very much and eyed them suspiciously whenever one came near! Testing out the waves At the Pool at Grand-Nana and Grand-Papas' I love this picture! Ada in Disney World getting her inner Minnie On

Me getting eaten by my favorite Disney character Stitch, but don't worry it's just a hat.

Princess Ada

Me in the Swiss Family Robinson House

Waiting for the Jungle Cruise ride

Captain Josh. Doesn't he look dashing?!

Country Bear Jamboree

Riding the Tram from Goofy Parking to the Gate of the best place on Earth!

Ada trying out her new wraparound sunglasses with Grand-Nana

And check out the new videos too!

Waiting for a breath of hot air

It has been snowing a bit here lately, nothing major but enough to make the people around here freak out. Even though snow should really be part of the territory (no pun intended), there are a lot of people who are transplanted here going to school. And then the state of Idaho, or at least Rexburg, really has no idea what to do or how to deal with the snow! And let me tell you it is no picnic to drive around with people who can't drive in the snow! Anyway, we are very excited about our trip to Florida and Philly. To be again on the East Coast (yeah, can you tell we miss it enough?!!) and to be in Florida will be awesome: Disney and warm weather and family, it's great! Then to go to Philly, to be with more family, we are so excited!! So enjoy the pictures of this past week!

This is my favorite face that Ada makes!
Playing with Lucy

Playing with Mama

We just gave her a cup, she didn't quite know what to do with it at first. Then the juice she sort of drank, but then just would spit it out! This is her doing much better with it!

The Naked Truth

This week we have been feeding Ada food (obviously), but no store bought food for our child, no way. We have decided that we will feed her homemade baby food, which is rather easy to make provided you have some sort of steaming basket/apparatus, and then we freeze them in ice cube trays and keep them in the freezer until we need them. She seems to like anything we have given her so far (pears, apples, sweet potatoes and yams) except for peas. She HATES peas apparently! I have tricked her the past few days as I have added some peas to her sweet potatoes, but tonight I added a little more, and I could barely get her to eat it! Other than that, she has been teething some more and thus needing me more, and she now has this really cute habit of putting fingers from both of her hands into her mouth, as one hand of fingers was not going to cut it. She has also learned to scoot backwards, which was weird as I was making dinner and looked over every so often at her, and then noticed she had moved...but backwards. Then I caught her doing it and it was so cute. She even caught me looking at her and then gave me one of her priceless smiles! She also now does this cute thing with one of her socks: (her favorite toys and I don't care if she drools all over them) if we put one horizontally across her eyes, she won't reach up and get it; she will just laugh and squirm until it falls off and then she will laugh hysterically at us. So take a look and enjoy the pictures!

Do you think she is really teething yet?
She loves her daddy

The sock-over-the-eyes game...classic

talking for the camera

Well, most of the food made it into my mouth

I love it when Dad feeds me; he feeds me faster than Mama does!

Turkey and New Hampshire

We just came back from a long awaited vacation to the East Coast-specifically New Hampshire. It was great to be able to spend time with the McLaughlin and Tuthill Families and to see our new niece Alexia Brielle. Ada is really a wonderful child and it makes us really worry about our subsequent children! She was so great with the very convoluted process of driving from Rexburg to Salt Lake City (3.5 hrs), then on the flight to Chicago, and then even on the flight to Manchester! She got a little fussy a few times, but overall just ate, slept and played with us. Josh had to work on Sunday night, but only worked until about 3 am. So basically he came home and we got our stuff together and left. I drove for a while, but it was too early, too dark, or too much of a very long and boring drive for me to stay awake for very long. So I had to ask Josh to drive, but he was okay with it thankfully. So the plan was that he would sleep on the planes, but he couldn't do that either, so he didn't get to sleep until that night in a different time zone and late at night! He's such a great guy!
We got to spend a lot of time with Joshs' family and it was so good to see them, as we haven't seen some of them for almost 2 years! We still haven't seen some of his family in a very long time, but when we travel for Christmas we plan on stopping and seeing the rest! Thanksgiving was so great and we all were able to take part in the cooking, eating and even the cleaning process. Joshs' mom is really a great cook and it was so good to have some family cooking again. Ada is also a real pro at the whole turning over thing; she likes to be flat on the floor on the quilt my Sister In Law Sarah sewed for me (I had the squares cut and the fabric picked out, but that is about as far as I can go...). She has also started to begin to crawl. She arches her back and kind of gets up on her knees and inches her way forward; it is really fun to watch so we're trying to get it on film! (See the new videos too).
The return trip was really great, until the last leg of the flights. Josh got really sick, even though he blames it on the McDonalds' Chicken sandwiches we had in the Chicago Airport (he HATES McDondalds!) and almost passed out/threw up on the plane, and I couldn't go help him as Ada was sleeping in my lap and I was blocked in my seat. The flight attendants helped him out a lot and gave him some ice packs and a large courtesy bag...just in case. He didn't actually throw up, but he was really pale, sweating and the flight attendants had him ride in a wheelchair-which he hated. He slept most of the way home, and didn't feel better until earlier today! What an adventure to be sure...never a dull moment. So enjoy the pictures of our travels and our family!

Daddy/daughter timeOur Family picture The Tuthill Family-Cameron was not too happy!Cameron and Ada posing Not really sure what Cameron was doing...but it looks so cute!Grandpa McLaughlin with AdaNapping in the armchair Lounging around on the floorGrammie McLaughlin holding Ada and Alexia Ada and Alexia

Roll on over

Well Ada is now successfully turning over without any help from anyone! She has been almost there for a few months now, and haphazardly at that; but all that is in the past. She used to get almost there, but was not able to get her hand out from under herself and would then just roll back onto her back. But just today, she did it all by herself and of course while I was not watching! I went away to clean up after dinner, and came back to her on her back! And I know it wasn't Josh playing with my mind as her was asleep. We can also feel teeth getting closer and closer to the surface, but we have been saying that for months so we'll just take a hiatus from that topic until we have more breaking news (really...no pun intended).
Other than that we are so incredibly excited to go on a vacation farther away than 3 hours, and as I love planes, we are very excited for this! We will be going back to the East Coast (yes!) to New Hampshire and we will be there from 11/24-11/28 spending time with Joshs' family and our new niece Alexia who was just born on Monday.
I am desperately trying to finish my homework before we leave (or to get as much completed ahead of time so I can really have a vacation-even though my quarter is over the 1st week of December) and so far I have kept up with my designed schedule for when things are due. I also just received very enlightening news: I officially begin my student teaching to finish my masters' (my last quarter!!) on January 5th and it goes for 12 weeks. Then all I need to do is take my Praxis II test and then I will be a certified PA teacher (even though we do not live in PA anymore). So wish me luck and and enjoy the newest bunch of pics as I am sure there will be a ton of pics next week!

She just loves this blanket! She calms down almost immediately when wrapped up in it!
Playing with her monkey. She won but she is tired.

Tackling the monkey

Eating Harold with help from Dad.

Don't worry, we bought this big from a great Old Navy sale..she's still so cute in it though!

Rolling over