Clean Up the House!

I'm excited to have a weekend devoted to nothing but cleaning the apartment! Call me domesticated, but I enjoy putting my headphones on and getting into my cleaning groove. Honestly, cleaning is like therapy for me, and after a long, rough week like this one, it's time for some good ol' cleaning time.

Addi is a good helper when it comes to cleaning. She loves to use a towel and clean spills! She enjoys sweeping and dancing while cleaning (of course we dance while cleaning... We dance while doing everything!) It'll be some good mommy-daughter time.

Adam has a long weekend ahead of him. He's already worked the overnights Monday through Friday and will continue through the weekend. He'll be taking the time to finally get some good sleep... Hopefully.

Anyways, good times ahead for a nice clean home :-)

Palm Springs Family Date: The Tram

Saturday Adelaide and I went to the Tram with our friend Rose. We went to lunch at Chipoltle where Addi fell in love with guacamole and chips. We then drove out to Palm Springs to the Tram and waited an hour for our tram up to the top of San Jacinto.

Once we got to the top of the mountain, at the Mountain Station, Addi enjoyed playing in the snow for the first time. As we went on a short trail, we kept adding more and more layers to Addi. She looked hilarious by the send of the time we got to the lookout! Once at the look out, we asked a couple if they would take a picture of us. Mind yo, Palm Springs has a huge gay community, and whenever Rose and I, or Davis and Adam do something together without our spouses, and especially if with the baby, we wonder what people are thinking! That's why we call it our Palm Springs Family date.

About the time we finished getting our picture taken and returning the favor, Addi was cold and absolutely finished! She cried the whole way back to the tram station, which, of course, is all the back up this windy, steep path. Rose, who is in way better shape than I am, ran up this steep windy path carrying all 35 lbs of Addi AND her own back pack. I was amazed and so jealous that she is in such great shape!

Once we were in the warm lodge waiting for our tram, Addi was happy again and ready for a good nap. She was all smiles and playful. The best part of the tram ride back was when Addi found this Mexican guy next to us and kept trying to grab his mexi-stache. SO FUNNY! He was super nice about it, laughed and would say 'precious baby'. So glad he was nice about it.

We got to the car and drove through downtown Palm Springs. We stopped at a candy shop, looking for a certain item for Valentines Day they didn't sell anymore... We were disappointed, but got some other yummy treats instead! We met up with our hubbies after their Priesthood meeting and that was the end to a wonderful Palm Springs Family date! Thanks Rose for playing with us!

After dropping Rose off, Adam and I dropped Addi at the sitters and we had a fun evening at the mall. We got Adam a beautiful suit that looked AMAZING. It fit perfectly and was a fantastic color! It's a little on the dressy side, but he's going to wear it for interviews and look FABULOUS. We then went to the Gap and got some new jeans for me, on clearance, they fit amazingly AND they were an additional 40% off! Also, so proud to say, I dropped a jean size!!! Woot woot!

To finish the evening off, we stopped by the new candy shop in the mall that Adam had just run a story about that morning. This place is AMAZING! They have all these candy bars that haven't been around in years, any type of taffy you can imagine and TONS of glass bottled sodas... Including random weird stuff like Bacon flavored and Buffalo Wings, but also I'd say up to a hundred different root beers! I'll definitely be going again to try some new ones! Last night I got the Death Valley root beer, but I wasn't feeling so great, so I'll Ber tasting it today. Review to come!

All in all, super fun day! Everyone got a great nights sleep last night too! Always a plus :-)

Life As We Know It

As I was driving home from work yesterday, I realized that my life as I know it is going to COMPLETELY change in less than 5 months...

First, I won't live in California anymore!!! What is it like to be a Californian without California necessities... The beach... Relatively warm temps all year round (I like to call it "normal weather")... The occasional rainy day... June Gloom... Sandals and shorts all year round... Big changes to come.

Second, I'll be working from home and get to spend all day with my baby cakes!

Third, prego again? Addi will be two... Still thinking about it all! Don't want to push the envelope and have the next one before Addi is ready.

Life... Isn't it about time? I've never had this much of an extreme change in my life... Other than getting married, having a baby and working full time... It's going to be fun year! Lots of change. Lots of new experience. Lots of joy. Here we go 2013! Let's do this!

Shoes, shoes, shoes

Adelaide and I went to the mall tonight to return some clothes and get Addi some shoes! Addi found some cute, sparkly pink Disney Princess ballet flats. She immediately ran over, pulled them off the shelf and tried to put them on. I laughed, mainly because I love that she is such a girly girl! Sadly, they didn't have any in her size, so we went with the plain sparkly silver ballet flats.

After we settled on shoes to purchase, I brought her over to try some tap shoes. I've wanted to get her in tap shoes since she was born, but the smallest size I've been able to find is a 7. Makes sense though, seeing as most dance classes don't start until 18 months. Anyways, I put them on her feet and we walked to the tile. It was hilarious to watch her figure out SHE was making the sound as she walked! As she took steps she first listened hard, then looked around, then looked at her feet and figured it was her all in about 5 seconds. She then did her "happy dance" where she runs in place, says 'yaaaaay' and claps. She LOVED them! She was then ready to bolt out the door until I spoiled her plans by quickly grabbing her wrist.

We didn't by tap shoes today, but soon the day will come when Miss Little Dancer can freely express herself through tap, along with her other miscellaneous dance genres.

Adelaide Knows Her Letters!

How smart is Adelaide? Extremely. Last night, as she was winding down for bed and getting her jams on, I turned one of her favorite videos on 'Let's Go to School' by Leap Frog. She watches this video often. Anyways, she was getting dressed and the songs sings "A says ahh like ahh ahh ant..." and continues with the rest of the letters. SHE MADE THE CORRECT SOUNDS FOR EVERY LETTER SHE SAID!!! Before the song sang the sounds!!!!! It was AMAZING!!! So proud of my 18 month old baby girl :)

When You Give a Husband Technology...

When you give a husband technology, then he'll want more and more, better and better...

Right before the fire (literally, less than an hour before) we purchased a new TV (peace out Smithsonian. Hope you enjoy the museum life!). Now that we're in the new apartment, and the new smart TV is set up, Adam decided we needed a Blue-Ray player ("Amber, you know what would go great with this new TV...). We are now the proud owners of a Blue-Ray player and have experienced the sheer beauty of crisp, high definition movie. Our lives are forever changed. Please, come and stop by to enjoy with us!

We also emptied our TV savings jar. We had been putting all our spare change in a jar and ended up not using a penny from it! Instead, we treated ourselves to a game of The Price is Right, guessing how much was in the jar, bringing it to the local grocery store with a Coin Star in it, and using our savings for dinner that night. I guessed $8, Adam guessed $10. In the end, Adam was the closest without going over. We had saved $10.91! And that was after the $.10 for every dollar Coin Star took AND taking all the quarters for laundry! We rocked that one! We went around the grocery store, picked what we wanted for dinner under $5 and checked out. Adam grabbed a couple candy bars for after dinner and we were $.3 under cash ticket! We truly rocked it last night. The cashier and bagger thought Adam was crazy... With how excited he was, you would have thought he won the lottery! All in all, it was a fantastic win for us.

Great day, budget Starbursts, Lion King on Blue Ray and a good night.

An Unusual Christmas Miracle

If you're wondering why you haven't seen your Christmas card from us yet, we have a good explanation why.

This past Saturday the apartment below us was caught on fire by the 17 year old living there. The Fire Investigator released the cause of the fire as 'a juvenile playing with fire.' All we know is Amber felt and heard thuds in the bathroom while giving Addi a bath, Adam answered the door to the teen a few minutes later who said 'if you hear anything, don't worry' and ten minutes later we smell fire. Amber grabbed Addi, ran outside and called 911, Adam tried to help the kid put the fire out, but it was no use.

The fire fighters put the fire out before it got in our apartment. Our neighbors, on the other hand, lost everything. We have smoke damage to everything, but nothing some Febreeze, dryer sheets and elbow grease couldn't get out. We did lose pillows, but that's really about it. We have been extremely blessed!

We moved into the new apartment Christmas Eve with the help of many friends. Amber's family came out Christmas Eve and Christmas day to help clean, move and enjoy the holiday as well.

We have many people to thank for helping take care of us and offering their help through the Holiday weekend, and especially for helping on Christmas Eve. The Vorwaller's were kind enough to let us stay in their home while we waited for a new apartment to move in to. David & Rose Forsyth picked us up and helped us right after it all happened, and also helped with moving everything to the new place. Kimberley & Jeff Campbell helped us move and clean everything before it came in the new place and also watched Addi all day Wednesday and Thursday so we could get some uninterrupted work done (Addi had a blast playing with Avery!)

This will probably go down as the most unusual Christmas of all times for the Stocksdale family, but we'll never forget the help of friends and family, and all the help that was offered. This has definitely been an unusual Christmas miracle.

Pictures to come.