The Great Harlingen Bean Wars

OK, the post title is kinda stupid, it references a really bad movie I once watched about an actual bean war. Whatever, it was all I could come up with.

In actual fact Mom bought several pounds of dried pinto beans (which elicited several remarks at the grocery store) for Addy to play with. It was an even bigger hit than the corn bins at Halloween. I certainly know a summer activity we'll be engaging in quite a bit!

Yeah, this has nothing to do with beans. It's just Addy eating her candy necklace. It also explains why she's so filthy in the subsequent bean pictures. Face and neck covered in sticky candy + dusty beans = an incredibly dirty child

Dirty and having a blast!

My Mom is probably going to lose her yard to pinto sprouts this summer. Not only did we get them all over the patio but Addy ran through the yard throwing beans around like Tinkerbell scattering fairy dust.

When burying your arms in a bucket of beans isn't enough? Just dunk your whole head in there!

Like I said, she adores her Uncle John. The two of them were inseparable all week. It was really cute and she's lucky to have such a cool Uncle

I was afraid she would try to eat a bunch of beans but for some reason she had no interest in that. Now sticking them up her nose and in her ears, totally different story

A Very Merry Christmas

As usual these pictures are going to be out of order. I hate Bloggers way of loading pics backwards. Especially since I write my posts at work and have to minimize the window so it doesn't look like I'm slacking off. Which of course I am :)

Every year we have a silly string war. One year we got John so badly he ended up having to shave his head because of all the silly string in the fro. This year was tame in comparison.

Opening presents on Christmas Eve

She got a play kitchen this year and TONS of accessories. The grocery cart was the real favorite though. We actually had trouble getting her to open anything else after that

Mimi and Grandpa

See what I mean about the grocery cart? Totally infatuated

Hiding in Mimi's napkin cabinet. She could almost close the door behind her and loved jumping out and startling people as they walked by.

Christmas Eve we headed out to the island for a little beach and Dirty Al's seafood. What is it about the beach that always makes people so tired?

Enjoying a lime at Dirty Al's. If we let her eat lime's as much as she begs for them she wouldn't have a bit of tooth enamel left

A really good family picture. We were going to have real ones taken too but the wind was 40 MPH that day and we had to cancel.

Seems like every time we go to the beach I get some variation of this picture.

Addy once again freaked out about the sand. This time though we didn't have time to let her get used to it. So some very accommodating grandparents and an uncle carted her around on the their shoulders the whole day. This is probably the only time her feet touched the ground.

Very accommodating

I can't really explain this one. I know Nate wasn't hungry. Mom cooked enough food for a small country. I'm still full!!

Making orange juice with Grandpa. One of many reasons I love the valley, fresh squeezed orange juice year round.

Addy fell head over heels for her Uncle John. Quite literally in this case

The first day we were there it was pretty cold (for valley standards). Again this picture has no explanation. I just love every one's reactions to Nate

Grandpa and Addy plugging up the hole in the fence so the neighbor dog couldn't come over to poop. It didn't work.

Addy comes from a long line of pyro's. I'm proud to say she was just as infatuated with the fire as both her parents and uncle. Hopefully she won't be as bad as John and I were as kids though. At 11 we burned down an entire clubhouse and at 14 John set himself on fire. Good memories :)

Okay I take it back. She may be as bad as John and I.

22 months and she's already set herself on fire :)

She LOVES hat's. If it's not Nate's beanie then she's sporting my Titans ball cap backwards or an old Togo army hat I have.

Nana (Nate's Mom) got Addy this table and chair set for Christmas. We've been having lots of tea parties. But if you don't slurp loudly and appreciatively you have to leave the table. She's very particular about tea drinking etiquette.

Christmas Parade

I'm going to have to do several Christmas posts just because there are so many cute pictures this year. I always marvel at how photogenic that child is.

This year we ventured out for the Mt Juliet Christmas parade. We had a blast but it was freezing!!

You know you live in Tennessee when the most popular "float" in the parade is a tricked out tractor

Addy was infatuated with the candy throwing aspect of parades. She ran out several times to grab some but only managed to grab one starlight mint. No worries though, she clutched that mint proudly all day and I found it in her pocket weeks later

Getting a better view. There were some crazy big kids who kept knocking her down and blocking her view.

Nate and I were both hysterical at the poor dog's expression on the "Spay Station" This same truck is frequently parked in front of our favorite Vietnamese restaurant. We're banking on there NOT being a connection there :)

Addy demonstrating her BRRRRR face. It was seriously freezing. About 20 degrees with a strong wind. Unfortunately about 4 days later she came down with pneumonia. Again, we're really hoping there wasn't a connection

These camels also cracked me up. They were on teeny little roller skate wheels. Probably fine for pulling a 40 pound wooden camel down the aisle at church. Not so much when battling it up our hills. The poor guys pulling them were just dying and you could hear them complaining from where we stood.


Addy and Aunt Kristen.

After the parade we had our annual "Gang Thanksgiving" Now that Kristen is back in school we rarely get to see her so Addy was thrilled.