Tuesday, December 31, 2013

13 Things about Our 2013

 If you know me, you know I LOVE writing our Christmas letter. I was pretty devastated when ours didn't get printed in time to go out with the cards this year. I cried. And then I did something I generally avoid doing with all my power - I let it go. I decided it probably wasn't the end of the world and that most people who get our Christmas card could tell you everything you'd ever need to know about our lives. So what's the big deal anyway? Right? ... Right?! So, here's the non-pretty, non-edited, non-witty, definitely not creative or clever version of our 2013 Christmas letter. Bah Humbug.

I promise next year I'll print them in November... if you're lucky.

Trice
1. Remains in the tiny peanut category somewhere in the 20th percentile for height and weight. Turns out midget little people birth midget little people...who knew?
2. Despite his lack of growth, he can out eat most toddlers. His diet consists mainly of bananas and anything in muffin form (Benny told me enough was enough when I whipped up some spinach muffins) -- but the kid will eat ANYTHING. To his mother’s dismay, he no longer has much interest in cheerios. (It's no big deal. Really. I only spent at least 1,000 hours handcrafting every detail of his Cheerio 1st Birthday party).
3.    Signs: more, hot, help, drink, turtle. His Favorite Words: Daddy, Pa, Mama, Bye, Ball, Hat, Hi, Woof, Aah (for Adam), No, Mine, More, Turtle, Cheese, Hands, "No" (for snow), Side for outside, Shhh, Toes, Come on, I did, and Uh Oh.
3.    Learned that sleeping isn’t so bad at 15 months (Thank the Lord!)
4.    Loves books, puppies, balls, his blankie, seahorse and Ella-Fendt (an Elephant lovie Nick brought back from Germany!) 
5.    Got is first hair cut at 7 months (needed it at 5 months) and has had 5 more since. The verdict is out on when his next one will be after the last attempt.
6.    Attended his first tailgate for the ISU vs. Iowa game... LOVED it. Obviously. He still has yet to step inside Jack Trice stadium. What is wrong with us?!
7. Skipped walking and went straight to running and climbing. If you blink, he will be on top of something.
8. Loves to clean and help mommy with any task... he's just a very helpful little guy.

 The rest of us...
9.   We are currently attending membership classes at Faith Evangelical Free church in Spirit Lake. We really feel like God led us to this church and it has been a huge blessing.
10.    We attended 4 weddings in June. Nick was in 2 of them and I was in one of them. It was busy, but we loved seeing lots of old friends and celebrating the marriages of some of our very best friends. 
11.   Grace quit her job as a home visitor in January to stay home with Trice and despite the occasional hiding in the bathroom when Nick gets home just for a moment of peace, she loves every minute of it. She began teaching preschool 3 mornings/week this Fall and teaches dance one night/week at a local studio. Come watch her dance in the recital in May! (assuming she doesn't dislocate a hip or fracture an elbow before then)
12.    Nick continues to work at AGCO as a software engineer but seems to be helping out the HR department a lot by attending career fairs, giving factory tours, and recruiting his friends to come work at the company.   He only traveled to Germany once this year, but made several smaller business trips to Kansas and Chicago and Ames. 
13. We participate in a “life group” church and have met a lot of great people who are helping us to grow spiritually as a family .. and thanks to this, Spirit Lake is starting to feel more like “home.”

And because I have an obsession with comparing pictures... 

December 31, 2012

December 31, 2013

2013 truly has been an AMAZING year. As with every year, there were some rough patches. Unfortunately those don't go away when you get a new calendar, but we can look into the new year with hope. Really I just don't have much bad to say about 2013... it kind of rocked. I'm certain 2014 will be full of many more adventures and joy for the Edwards' Family .. I'm excited to see what it brings! I'm especially excited to see where God leads us ... we are about to write our goals for 2014. Maybe I'll even share a few ... Happy New Year to you and yours!! 

Christmas {Morning!}

We spent Monday packing and finishing gifts and cleaning and doing laundry.. preparing for our trip! It was nice to have Nick here while I was getting everything ready. Usually I'm trying to do it all while he's at work and end up in one big pile of stressed mess which leads to unorganized packing and forgetfulness. 

We left as soon as the car was loaded and Trice had a fresh diaper on Tuesday morning. The trip went exceptionally well. We stopped to pick up a few last-minute gifts and we were on our way! We got to visit Nick's aunt and uncle for quite awhile. They had a bunch of old pictures for us to look through so we enjoyed that!

Wednesday morning Trice SLEPT IN .. say whaaat?! He picks Christmas day to finally sleep past 5 am?! We'll take it. We took our time getting ready. Mostly I wanted to soak up every second of the day with my family I could. Snuggles in bed are a sacred thing in our family.

We got Trice all spiffed up. He wore a sweater vest that Nick wore when he was just a little fella. I'm so glad Donna saved all these special outfits so our littles can wear them! First stop was Grandma Donna's house .. I LOVE Christmas morning at Nick's house. We always get holiday socks in our stocking and lots of sweets .. what could be better than that?



You guys are so... Lame.

Hmm.. what do we have here, ma?!

It might look like I'm sharing, but really I'd just like you to open this for me.


This boy loves his grandma!



Grandma needed a little help!

Wait a second guys - that's MINE!

Our present to Adam!





Donna and her boys!

Hugs for Grant!


Uncle Adam is so cool!









This is the best we could do. Don't judge. 

The morning went by way too fast.. as it always does on Christmas day! There's just never enough time. After a nap and pancakes it was time to head to our next stop - my brother's house... 

Monday, December 30, 2013

A Wheels on the Bus Christmas!

Since we were going to be travelling for Christmas and knew Trice would be overwhelmed by all the presents from family (he's lucky to be the only grandchild on both sides... aka spoiled), we decided to do our own little Christmas on Monday.
I had my eye on this little school bus chest, but I wasn't about to pay full price for it. A couple days later it was on sale for "dirt cheap" (as I told Benny), so I had to get it. I mean, he is a "Wheels on the Bus" fanatic after all. We just put his wrapped presents in it which led to him wanting to just take them out and put them back in... oh what fun we had!! Next Christmas I think I want to start the 

















And all he really wanted was the container that held the bath toys!! This has made for hours of entertainment. Did you know even mommy's foot and BOTH of Trice's feet can fit in it?!



 The Trice's on the bus go "Wee, Wee, Wee!"

'Twas the Weekend Before Christmas...

Remember when we were in school and LOVED Christmas break? And then we grew up and got real jobs and .. still LOVED Christmas break? Yep, that's us. Even when I was working full-time I got a pretty nice Christmas break - benefits of working in a job that revolves around a school calendar. Nick saves up his vacation every year so he can take a good chunk of it at Christmas. I sometimes wish he wouldn't do that so he could take random days off elsewhere, but when it comes to Christmas I'm always glad to have him around. I'm going to really break these Christmas posts up because we had several Christmases and a whole lot of pictures!

The first weekend he had off my brother and sister-in-law and her two little sisters came to visit! We did some last minute shopping, ate some Chinese, and went to the indoor water park. It was fun to have company and her sisters LOVED Trice. We even let him open one gift... he decided to do it in a box.

We woke him up from a nap so he mostly just wanted to float on top of us on the lazy river!








Friday, December 27, 2013

Christmas Card Rehearsal

Getting the camera ready while Trice was napping ... led to this! What would we do without the self-timer function?! Just to hold you over until our Christmas cards are in your hands.