A Pictoral Review of 2008

January - We started 2008 with a trip to Omaha to see Elmo Live at the Qwest Center. Mom was already starting to feel quesy - there was a little someone growing and making their home in mom's belly!

February - Cassie found the "perfect" dress for her flower girls for hers and Lou's wedding. Addison was really proud to hold the honor of flower girl. Took a trip to Wichita to celebrate Londyn's 2nd birthday and Sydney's dedication.

March - Started with Easter Egg hunts, Bampo's birthday, a trip to the Shrine Circus and Easter of course, man it was early and cold!!

April - Took the girls to see The Wiggles, Kevin, Jenny and Leo came to Nebraska for Cassie and Lou's wedding..it was freezing, snowing, but beautiful and warm inside!

May - Addison finished another year of gymnastics at the annual "Time to Shine" performance for family and friends. She "graduated" from her 1st year of preschool. We celebrated Mother's Day (in bed, mommy was sick)

June - We finally started playing outside, took trip to see Kevin, Jenny and Leo in Idaho. Yes, we drove, all of us and grammy took the 16 hour trip!

July - We tried to spend as much time swimming and at the Water Park as possible. We started preparing the house for the new arrival. Olivia moved to a "big girl" bed and got her 1st haircut!

August - Ella Catherine was born August 7th. She weighed in as the smallest Chapman girl 7lbs. 6 oz. She was born via c-section because she was breech. Tony and I were still "discussing" boys names right up to the doctor saying, "it's a another girl"!!!!!! Olivia turned 2, and Addison started her 2nd year of preschool.

September - Addison turned 4 and we spent lots of time adjusting to our new "normal". Jenny and Leo came for 2 weeks, and Kevin got to come and visit for 1 week!

Ocotber - Mommy went back to work part-time, and we got ready for Halloween! Addison was a clown and Olivia was a Barbie cheerleader!

November - We spent time in York for Thanksgiving and also had Christmas with Tony's family. The girls had lots of fun playing with their cousins from Wichita.

December - I took Addison and Olivia to Disney on Ice; Christmas, Santa, and lots of messes!

This took me way to long to post, so if you read this and got this far, at least make a comment!!

A Little bit of humor....

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful women who lived in Grand Island. She had 3 little miracles to call her own! Olivia, the middle child, also the ornery one and the one who will more than likely give this beautiful women many gray hairs thinks she should feed her babies the same way her mother does...check it out! (Although in this video she is not "feeding" the baby, rather, "getting milk")

Check back tomorrow or the day after for a picture review of the year 2008!

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was lots of fun at our house this year. Santa was good to the girls and even impressed Addison. Santa teased Addison with her present and wrapped it in a cracker box, so she was sure he didn't bring her the Barbie Diamond Castle like she had asked for; "but i was a good girl this year, mom!" Santa brought Addison the castle and Liv a baby stroller, swing and bed. She is really enjoying racing through the basement pushing her stroller!!

Mom and dad bought the girls a princess tent for thier birthday; however, with Olivia sick and everyone staying outside, we opted to wait for Christmas to give it to them. After setting it up with no instructions (I bought it at a consignment store), the girls were thrilled and wouldn't allow anyone in to play, except for Bubba!! She must be extra special!

Addison wanted to go play "football" with daddy all day. He finally took her outside, they only lasted for about 15 minutes, it was freezing!!!! But they had a good time and got to play football!

We are still anxiously awaiting for the phone call that Madeline, Kevin and Jenny are back on US Soil. They should touch down in San Fransisco in about 40 minutes!! Welcome Home Madeline, and Welcome to our crazy family!

Thanks for the comment Karen...see that wasn't so hard was it!! :)

Merry Christmas

We are having a great Christmas and wish you and your family a wonderful Christmas!

December has been a crazy month for the Chapman family. Visiting Santa and his Elves was highlight for Addison. Olivia wasn't real sure of Santa and really didn't want to sit on his lap or even talk to him.

We started cereal with Ella in hopes that she woiuld start sleeping better. Hasn't worked, so we have stopped giving it to her. She doesn't seem to like it anyway. Usually just spits it out. More ends up on her bib or on me than in her mouth!

We hope you all had a great 2008 and look forward to seeing you in 2009! A highlight of 2009 that we are looking forward to is meeting Madeline. She steps foot on US soil tomorrow. Right now they are in Hong Kong getting ready to leave!

**Karen, this is for you! I love this picture of you and Addison at Thanksgiving. Now sign in and make a comment...i am calling you out!! :)

3 Little Elves

We tried this last year, but for some reason the link never worked. Tried it again this year, hope it works...

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/Ixw86hFbPpES63W2dDnR

Meet George

A nice new "elf" has taken up residence in our house. George, as the girls affectionatly named him, is here to watch over the girls and report back to Santa. George is one of Santa's little helpers and flies home to the North Pole every night to report how Addison, Olivia and Ella are doing being naughty or nice. No act of kindness goes unnoticed, and no naughty act goes unnoticed. The elf has some rules, no one can touch him, as he will lose his magical powers if he is touched, he can not talk to us, Santa says so! The girls can tell him their wishes and any messages for Santa. Each morning,George has taken perch on a different spot in the house. The girls have enjoyed getting up each morning to see where George has made his home for the day!

Christmas is Coming Early

A special little girl is meeting her forever family is a little over a week. Christmas is definatly coming early for both this so very special little girl Madeline and her mommy and daddy. Go check it out: http://www.kjjourneytomadeline.blogspot.com/

Madeline, we love you so much and haven't even met you! You are going to make this an extra special Christmas that your mommy and daddy will never forget!! Safe travels!!

Happy 9th Anniversary Tony

I wanted to post this on Thursday, but well, it was Thanksgiving, and lots of commotion and no time!

Happy Anniversary Tony! Can you believe 9 years ago we were getting married? Wow!! It seems like yesterday and other times, it seems like forever ago. One thing that doesn't change is how happy I am with you. I fall more in love with you everyday. You are an amazing husband, and have had to put up with a lot of the years. Thank you for you unending love, and undenible faith in me. We probably couldn't have accomplished as much as we have together without our faith in each other, and most importantly our faith in God. An amazing father you are to our 3 wonderful miracles. Who would have ever thought that in April 2001, we would have 3 miracles sitting before us? I know I did not think that possible, but someone else knew what was in store and has perfectly planned out our lives for us! I thank God everyday for the girls, for you and for our life together. I love watching you interact with the girls and read to them and wrestle with them!

Thank you Tony for 9 wonderful years! I am excited to see what the future holds for us and especially excited to see what you have planned for our 10 year anniversary!! Hope you are reading this and get the hint!! :)

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving celebrating with the Chapman clan in York. Tony, the girls and I went to York on Wednesday to help Gail get ready for all the people in her house on Thursday. The girls had a great time seeing their Wichita cousins, Londyn and Sydney. Everyone, inlcuding Ella slept great. The Wichita Chapmans may disagree with me, I don't think Sydney slept very well. They were up late most evenings, and up early, but happy for the most part. Haven't had a chance to load the pictures onto a cd, will soon and then upload them!

Happy Halloween

Carving/Painting Pumpkins

We have started a fun tradition of painting pumpkins with the girls while daddy carves one and lets the girls help him take the guts out of it. Last year, I ended up with paint all over my face, this year much better; however, Liv decided to paint herself after she was done with her pumpkin! What a goofy kid. They really enjoyed it, then hoped in the bath so they could watch the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown before bedtime. It sure is fun to have little family traditions!

I let Addison and Olivia paint their pumpkins however they wanted. They were very serious while creating their "masterpieces".

Once Olivia was done with the pumpkin, she moved onto painting herself.

All cleaned up and posing with the masterpieces.