Your first glimpse at Hotel del Everett

Welcome to Hotel del Everett. We offer the finest accommodations during your stay. Our guest room are equipped with a wall mounted television, wireless internet, a personal bathroom, and a walk in closet. We provide complimentary breakfast and entertainment by the blog famous "Addison". Our lobby includes a comfortable leather sectional and 52" TV for your social gatherings. You receive full house privileges with your stay, which includes access to the "playroom" and a business center with computer and printing capabilities! We are right off of exit 199 and are within walking distance to shops, Starbucks, Kidsburg and a convenience store! We hope you will choose us for your next stay in beautiful Colonial Williamsburg!

Hope everyone had a happy valentines day. My valentine surprised me with 24 multicolored roses on Thursday :) Thanks honey, they are beautiful!

Okay, so maybe it isnt that glamorous, but we are happy to announce that we have furniture, and that ALL of it should be here by the first week in March! I am just thrilled to have a couch!
We have had a busy week! Josh got a new car, we got our couches, we had friends over for dinner, went to the beach, put up curtains, and got news that our new niece should be arriving by next Saturday!
Here are some pics of my favorite kiddos playing at the beach. They were so free that day...they had so much fun, it was such a blast to see them enjoying themselves with nature :) We have the best friends ever!

We love spring weather!

I know I havent posted any pictures of the house...I am waiting until the furniture arrives. Most likely, I will post one room at a time as it comes together. The guest room is almost complete, Josh just has a couple more drawers to put together, so I will post them soon.
On friday we made the trip up to Fredericksburg for Madisons birthday party. Addison had so much fun that she didnt even want cake or ice cream. Thanks, Jen, for having us! It was so good to see everyone! (I have more pics I will email out :))



Today we took advantage of the pretty weather and headed down to our favorite little beach. Addison was so excited about finding seashells and playing in the sand. I think she is definitely a beach girl! She also made friends with some ducks, and I remained calm despite my dislike for them! Addison kept teasing them and throwing shells at them, and they thought she had food...poor things. I got a couple of good shots, and it was so nice and relaxing to be on the beach. A much needed retreat from this crazy couple months and the cold weather!








Josh is busy working in the yard, and we are busy playing! Hope everyone was able to get out and enjoy the nice weather!

welcome to our new home!

We are all moved in and all the major stuff is unpacked and has found permanent homes. Its the stuff still in boxes that stresses me...the stuff that doesnt really have a home, doesnt really deserve a home, but stuff that you cant just bring yourself to let go of. The stuff that could possibly stay in the box until one day when you realize youre missing one specific item...ugh. I dont even know where to start with those boxes. Were gonna take our time and really weed through them. But I know they are driving Josh crazy.

Were still waiting for the delivery of much of our furniture, which has made sleeping/showering/tv watching arrangements sort of tricky. I am sure in the next month we will forget that we never had furniture, but right now, I am SO anxious! We cant wait for everyone to see our new home!

Today was a beautiful day. Absolutely perfect. Sunny, and 60, and for the first day of february, I am not complaining one bit. We got to go out and enjoy a little bit of our yard, and I think Addison was so excited just to be free...without jacket, without other people to get in the way (except mommy's camera, of course), just free to roam around and try to find sticks and climb trees. She is such a different girl out there, so excited, and so full of life. There is a pile of leaves at the bottom of our deck steps, and I think that there was some magnetic force drawing her to them. She jumped right in, and at one point, even belly flopped in them. She swam in them, threw them, and stomped them. She loved every minute. God, I cant wait until spring!

Addison had an awesome birthday. We went to Friendly's for dinner, and where the food was lacking, the ice cream definitely compensated. The waitress couldnt get anyone to sing, which was fine and dandy since our little princess freaks out whenever anyone sings the birthday song. But she dug into that sundae with no fear, ate all the M&M's and then announced that "i finished". :) She had a great day, I think she really did understand that it was a special day, and thats all that mattered to me. She was super excited about all of her presents, and some of them, we cant seem to go anywhere without! Tricia got her a tea party set, and all we have heard since we moved in is "mommy tea party!? Daddy, tea party!?" She even has tea partys with her penguin, although she would definitely prefer for a real person to play.

I started weight watchers today, I dont know what I was thinking starting on superbowl sunday. We went to a little party, and I dove right in, so I think I am definitely over points on my first day, how pathetic! I think I am actually going to do just fine on the plan, they have made it very easy for me to track my food, which is how I lost the weight last year, so this is just an added support. I cant wait to feel good about myself again, and just in time for Aruba in May!

And now, what youve been waiting for, the pictures!

Happy Birthday, Big Girl!!!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Addison!

Obviously, due to my limited internet access, this is only the tip of the iceburg. Thanks to Tricia for her cutie patootie birthday shirt! :)

I will post more after the big move!

just some Addie-isms

We are coming to a close here at the condo.  It has been a nice place for us. I was thinking back the other night about all of the things that happened here. Addison learned so much here, and went from a helpless little baby to a big, independent girl. She learned to crawl here, walk here, eat food, she had her first birthday, her first word, and her first major boo-boo. She took her first big girl bath here, her first nebulizer, and danced for the first time. This was the first place that when we pulled up, she was able to say "home". She had her first pet here, hosted her first playdate, and pee peed in the potty for the first time here. So much has happened since we moved here. Somewhere in the past year and a half, my little munchkin has become a big girl, capable of telling me what she wants, how she feels, and when she doesnt like something (which she exercises regularly, I might add) So as the next week unfolds, it is fitting that we are moving to a new house for her new adventures as a preschooler. She is no longer considered a baby, no longer considered a toddler...she is a big girl. On to big girl stuff. I cant believe how quickly the past two years have gone by, and how much we have all learned in the process. We have had a blast on this road of parenthood, we are a family, and I am reminded everyday of how blessed we really are. So in case I dont get a chance to get on here on the big day (although I most definitely will try), Happy Birthday, Big Girl. Daddy and I love you more than you will ever know and cant wait to celebrate your birthday.

Okay. enough mush and on to the addie-isms:

*So, obviously our house becomes more and more disrupted by the day as we prepare for the move. Josh moved some furniture last night, and Addison came down this morning and said "Oh, no! My chair! Daddy Deeeeeed it! Daddy put back!" and then moved on to a coffee maker sitting beside a box... "Oh, no, mommy! A hoffee maker not in a box!" When I was telling Josh this story at dinner, Addie added that we need to"take hoffee maker to house. In bafroom." Interesting.

* Addison has been obsessed with my eyebrows lately. I dont know why. She thinks they are funny, and she randomly talks about them. The other night she told Josh that we "went to Target to get mommy's eyebrows"

*I had a soda on top of my car as I was putting Addison in the car. I didnt even know she saw it. When I got in the car and started it up, she started freaking out "mommy, the hup!" and pointed to the roof! Luckily, I had remembered it, and I showed her, but I couldnt believe that she remembered!

*We were playing around tonight, and I told Addie to do a somersault. She said "mommy do it! Daddy do it!" and we did! Boy did we find out why grown ups dont do somersaults!

*I dont really believe in ghosts, but I do believe in spirits to a certain extent, and I definitely believe in angels. Today, Addison and I were driving to meet Josh for lunch and she pointed up to the sky out her window, and said "look mommy, an anhel (angel)!"...It kinda freaked me out!  I said, "where?" and she said "Up there. He hiding. He hiding in the clouds" Okay...now I was a little more freaked out. So I asked what the angels name was...and she said. "He up there. He have buttons....and a hat....and a nose...." and just as it was all coming together in my head she said "snowman!" I had to laugh. For a minute there I thought she had the sixth sense!

Addison has been a little bit under the weather the past couple days. On wednesday, she didnt move from the couch AT ALL between the time I woke her up at 745AM and the time I laid her down for nap at noon. I brought her pillow downstairs, and all of her friends, and she laid there watching TV, and dozing off all morning. The only time she said anything was when I would ask her if she was hungry, and if something good was coming on TV, she would tell me. Poor baby. She looked so pitiful. She was in better spirits in the afternoon, but had a fever, and faded fast. Today, she woke up as normal as normal could be! She was talking everyones ears off as if everything that ran through her little head while she wasnt feeling good still needed to come out!

Although were not doing much for Addies birthday right now, I will most definitely take some birthday pictures on her big day :)

Oh to be almost two...

Addison is just plain funny. I think all "two" year olds are, but when you are around her all day long, she starts rubbing off on you.

When she says "meow" she actually says "neen-yow". So we joke that she is a japanese kitty. We spent the good part of the afternoon on Friday, crawling around on our  hands and knees, saying "neen-yow". And when I would try to say "meow", she would correct me!

Her favorite sign is "drink". I dont know why, but she does it all the time, and she even does it when she actually means something else. The sign for drink is an obvious one...

but for some reason in Addie-sign, she sticks her thumb to her mouth and holds her pinky out like she is hitting the bottle. Anyway, the other night, she looked at Josh and said "Mommy drink"...now picture her saying this with the "hitting the bottle" sign...Josh just had to laugh and ask me if I had been boozin' during the day again.

She has very precise words and phrases that she uses for certain things. She has a little bit of a lisp, and so when she says yes, it actually sounds like "yesth". Its very cute, because she says it so deliberately. Makes you feel like you say the word wrong! We were driving the other day and she asked me to go to the house. Silly me, thought she meant she wanted to go to our house, so I said that we were going. Silly me. We pulled in the drive way, and she cried, "no, mommy, no HOME, HOUSE!" She knows what she means and expects you to, too!

She is still jumping, all the time, now that she can. Her George doll is her best friend right now, and she talks to him, and apparently, he talks back. She has started blaming things on the stuffed animals...she is going to be one sneaky two year old!

Apparently, when you live in Virginia, and you have only seen snow once in your two year old life, your instincts teach you how to make floor "angels" instead of snow angels. I dont know how she learned this (Danielle?) but after crawling around pretending to be japanese kitty cats, she INSISTED that we throw ourselves on the floor and make "anhels, mommy!" I drew the line at laying on the hard kitchen floor, but did do one on the carpet for her!

Here are some random pictures. Things have been a little crazy around here.

We are off to stay at the timeshare next week while we complete our move, and *gasp* supposedly they dont have internet, so its very possible that I am MIA for a while...I know youre sad, but think of all the fun things I will have to share when I return!

making floor angels...

dancing with daddy...

dancing with her shadow at the house..

making letters like princess presto!...

okay, okay, okay...

Is what Addison says. Just kidding, she copies me when I say it. I know its been a while, but I think I have good reason. This past weekend was a partypalooza. We celebrated my moms 60th! Birthday Party in style, by throwing her a party at Taras. Good food, good wine, good company. Thank you to Aunt Sue & Charlie, Norma and Reuben, and Grandpa for making the LONG trip down to help us celebrate. We really appreciate it, and it wouldnt have been the same without you! We had a great time catching up, watching Addison boss around her cousins friends, and watching football. Addison was a trooper and I think she may have even done better than some of the adults! On sunday morning, we woke up bright and early and headed to jake and mikes restaurant to host Tara's baby shower! I dont know about anyone else, but I thought the food was great, the atmosphere was right, the lighting was a little dim, but I LOVED that they personalized the menus for us! Thanks to all of those who traveled to get to the shower! You really made the shower special! I think the entire weekend was a success, but it left all of us crawling to our beds with exhaustion!

On the homefront, we are still busy getting ready for the big move. Furniture hunting, packing, trying to stay out of Josh's way...were busy little bees, and I for one cannot wait for it to be complete and done and we can be settled again.

It has kind of shadowed the fact that a certain little princess has a BIG birthday coming up. Terrible, so they say, and I am definitely starting to believe it. It has to be the most fun and most exhausting yet! The chitter chatter, the tantrums, the attitudes, the giggles. She is just too much. She talks in sentences the majority of the time, and they are usually funny. Tonight she was climbing on Daddys back and told me that she was a giant! her imagination is running wild, and she is becoming quite the little story teller. She loves to match things, she will tell you "Its the SAME!", and her new favorite thing to point out is the toyota symbol...if she sees another toyota, she tells me "Its the SAME mommy, same as mommy's har"

Today, she finally learned how to JUMP! If you have been following since she was little, then you know that she has thought that she could jump for about six months, but she never successfully got her feet off the ground. Until today...and now, in her words, not mine, she is a "jumping monkey!"

We had a new addition to the family arrive today...Josh's new 52" LCD. Oh yes, you read that right, 52". It is currently in a box taking up half of our living room. He is very proud of it, and thinks it blog worthy, so I figured it could have 5 minutes of fame.

Here are a couple pictures, I know that Scott has some more ;)