Pics from Thanksgiving in DC! :)

So I went home for a week to visit my family, and I had such a great time! While I was there I caught up with some old friends, and one of them (Becca Watkins!) took AMAZING pictures of my little girl! This is her website if you like her work! :) http://www.rebeccawatkins.com

Thanks so much Becca! You really captured Adalee so beautifully!

calling all mommas

Nothing can compare to the love a mother has for her child. So cliche. So true. From the moment I saw Adalee, we were connected. I love waking up in the morning to my daughter babbling in her crib. I love when she copies me, and wants to be like me. I love when she wants makeup when I'm putting on makeup. She loves the touch of the brushes on her face. The cutest face. I squeeze her daily. I love when she plays coy... like it doesn't matter that I'm on the floor playing with her. No big deal... but if I get up to leave, she cries. We like to play together. We make animal noises and run around all day. She loves typing on the computer just like mommy, and looking at books. Oh books. She loves books. When I get home, she goes through my book bag and flips through my binder. Always checking up on Mom. If she sees me getting ready, she gets upset. Don't leave me mommy. I do hate that, but I'm always home soon. I absolutely love the snuggles. They're fewer and farther between, but when the do come, I relish. My little warm addiebugs. She eats what I eat, she wants what I have. She makes me be a better me. I want to be a good example for her, and help her become exactly who she is meant to be. Adalee Jane.

I love how tough she is, and how you can see the kind of person she will be. I know okay? I know. At 13 months you say? Yup. Seriously people. Adalee will be amazing. People will want to just be around her. She is like a light. She'll be outgoing, and already is. She's kind, and courageous. Never cares who's around, she'll dang well pierce your eardrums with a scream if she feels like it. She has the best of her mom and her dad. She smiles so much. Loves to be tickled. She loves when people chase her. Has the greatest laugh on the planet. I live for that laugh. Seriously. Every day I try new things to get it.

FACT: Babies develop most of their personality before the age of 6. After that, it's very hard to change. Laughing is always a good thing.

So... If you're kind, thank your mother. She must have been kind to you. When you threw food at her and screamed "NO!", she probably just wiped it up and kept calm. When you cried in your crib, she came and rubbed your back. When you were scared, she held you close and told you everything would be alright. Why? She couldn't help it. Any of it. She just loved you that much. Your cries made her cringe. All mothers want is for their children to be happy. Cries are never easy to hear. Even though some times she needed a break for her sanity, and some nights she wanted to pull her hair out, just ask your mother... She would do it all again gladly. Times a thousand. You are THAT worth it to her.

So, go hug your mother. She will always love you more than you know. You were probably mean to her some days, and an angel others, and she loved you no matter what. Even if you're not a Mom yet, you have to know how much your mother did for you. And if your mother isn't with you now, just imagine how much she loves you from heaven. She's spying on you with a magnifying glass, laughing when you laugh, crying when you cry. To all those moms out there: you are amazing. And to my own mommy: I LOVE YOU :)

Utah! Utah! FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!

Utah vs. San Jose

56-3

A blow-out, but still a fun game to see! I just love that stadium.

And my favorite part... the MARCHING BAND!! :) For those of you who don't know, I was in my high school marching band for 3 years. I loved every minute! Chase says it doesn't seem so lame when he sees the Utah band perform. He's still coping with the fact he married a band geek in high school. I think I was still cool. Go marching Utes! :)

On another note... Addie has taken her first steps and can stand on her own! Hopefully we'll have a walking baby soon! We'll keep you posted :)

Jungle time

This girl is so funny. The pictures speak for themselves. This was another daddy playtime extravaganza! Chase always gets the best faces from our little bug.

The lion was actually one I LOVED growing up. They're my favorite animal. As well as giraffes. I'm hoping to have an effect on Addie's choice in her favorite! Can you tell? Haha.

The State Fair

I'm a little late on posting this since we went ages ago, but I just couldn't resist. Adalee ADORES animals and so we took her to the state fair! Our good friends The Johnsons went a few days before us and got Avery (their daughter) a pillow pal, and so when we saw the booth we showed one to Addie to see if she wanted one. This was her reaction...

The girl loves ALL stuffed creatures this much! This one is as big as she is though, and let me tell you it was a LIFE saver on the flight to and from DC. She just loved snuggling up and sleeping with it! :)

This one below is Addie with the chicks.

She got a little tired after all the sweets, excitement, and crowds!

SO SO FUN! :)

My 2 favorite people in the world

Can I just say how much I love these two? They always make me laugh, and I hate leaving them to go to school or work! Who would want to leave this behind! This was them having fun without me! Chase and Adalee, you make my life complete and I can't begin to imagine what I would be without you. You are my motivation for everything, and I LOVE YOU BOTH to

p i e c e s ! ! !

Little 4-wheelin trip!

The Browns went down to Strawberry for the last little part of memorial day weekend! I had to work sunday night, and Chase had to work in the morning, so we couldn't stay long. (Just a few hours). We got to take 2 rides and stay for dinner though, yummy! Phil makes the BEST dutch oven cheesy potatoes. Here are a few pics. The family one of everybody was off the 4-wheeler. I put it on a timer and sprinted in! That's why it looks like it's so low! I think it's cute though :)

Videos!!!

Okay, these two videos are just so cute I had to share. Adalee talking on the phone, which she loves to do on her little fake phone! Don't tell her it's fake though! Then the smiling one. I mean, could my daughter be any SWEETER??!! I just LOVE her.

The Best Vacation of All Time

Well, the beach trip this year was a total success. We had SUCH a fun time, and this was the first vacation in a while that actually felt RELAXING. This is what our beach set up looked like. Jess and Evan brought a cool tent for those who like the shade. SO AMAZING. I love the outer banks. A LOT.

My sister Jess brought her really nice, new camera and we were taking lots of fun pictures. This one was us attempting a silhouette. I think it turned out pretty cool!

Addie is just so fun to throw! She tucks into a little ball, and we can get her so high! :)

Beach Bum, Cheerio fanatic, and sand eater in the making....

The peak of a meteor shower was at midnight on one of the nights, so we all set up our chairs on the beach to watch the show. It was so cool! We must have seen 30 or more shooting stars. Amazing. In the down time, we played with Jess' camera some more. This was using our phones! I'm the U. Of course. It spells DUCK, because that's where our beach house is.

One of the main events of the trip was giving my Dad his retirement gift. All the sisters made him a quilt and a movie to watch about his career and family. The quilt was of our family tree. It's beautiful. This is my Dad shielding his eyes because he was crying. That's the goal! Make him cry! He loves it :)

Then we took family pix in our red/white/blue outfits. I think this was our most successful photo shoot yet! All we used was a tripod! Thank you to my sister Jess, who set these shots up.

There sure are a lot of grandkids on the Hunzeker side!

Becky got stuck taking pix with the folks. We love you becks!

This is our golf cart that we use to get back and forth to the beach. We have so much gear and so many children, it takes a few trips.

Addie in the sand.

She LOVED the water.

Sometimes, when we had enough of the beach, we just hung by the pool. This is the craziness that is our pool. Just loco, but so fun!

That was our trip! Thanks for hanging in for the million photos! :)

Hogle Zoo

So on the saturday before the 4th we thought it would be fun to go see a movie... We went to the theatre, and it was PACKED. Then Chase mentioned he heard on the radio that the zoo was free that day for service members! We decided to go there instead. It was SO MUCH FUN! Adalee got pretty fussy. Well, REALLY fussy. We think she either got sunscreen in her eye or had an allergic reaction to something in the sunscreen. Her face got all splotchy and red, and she was rubbing her eyes and crying a lot. We bought her a stuffed animal that she picked out, though, and she went crazy for it and was pretty good after that. I had to hold her a lot, but she LOVES animals. The giraffes most of all. She just stared at it while it was eating. Well, here are some pix! Enjoy!

I don't know if I'm emphasizing enough how CRAZY Adalee went for this stuffed animal! She went from screaming to giggling. She wouldn't let it go until we got to the car. It was adorable.

Dad and Ads looking at the elephant exhibit. So cute.

Here is a random 4th of July picture below. We didn't do anything very special, just lit a few fireworks by a park so Addie could see them. We couldn't go to Jackson Hole as planned because Chase couldn't get off of work, but that's okay. It's nice to have a few days to relax.

Vegas BABY!

Well, we didn't take very many good pictures, but we had so much fun! We've been wanting to go to Vegas for a while, and this is literally the ONLY time this year we could go! Both being in school, working, and raising Adalee has been a challenge. Vacations are few and far between, so we soaked this one up! We drove down monday and came back wednesday afternoon. I know, short trip, but it was so worth it! I don't think I could have lasted another night without Adalee anyway. Thankyou SO MUCH to my wonderful, amazing mother-in-law Cheryl who watched our little angel the whole time! We didn't worry a second because she's so amazing. Thanks Cheryl!! We LOVE You and are so grateful to you!!! :) :) :) Adalee loves her grandma. I swear she didn't even miss me! Haha. So we got down monday night and went to NYNY for dinner. It was yummy! Pizza I think? It's all a blur. Next morning we woke up, had breakfast at Denny's of all places, and laid (*layed? it's late...) by the pool for a while. We stayed at Tahiti Village about 6 minutes down the strip. We wanted to stay at a quieter place with no casino. This was a good plan. MUCH more relaxing. The pools were amazing. There was a fun lazy river and a real sand beach. Not sure how we felt about the sand beach. It made the water all murky in the pool... let's leave the sand on the real beaches, shall we? Other than that, it was SO nice to soak up the sun! Boy was it hot! Whoppin 108 degrees at the hottest! I was DYING. Last time we went I was pregnant though, so this was an improvement! Then we walked the strip and shopped, ate at the Rainforest Cafe in MGM (one of my FAVORITES as a kid), saw the shark reef exhibit at Mandalay Bay, and went and saw the Lion King from Broadway! It was amazing. Chase fell asleep. He's just like my Dad like that... 10 PM hits and no matter where he is, he's out like a light. So cute. Anyway, enough blabbering.... PICTURES! Don't judge. They're random and not very good... Vegas isn't that scenic, ok? It's a DESERT! haha.

We had just gotten out of the car and into the hotel after a 5 hour drive. YAY! Our room was HUGE!

A view from our window. SUCH a nice hotel. We recommend it!

This was a shark from the Mandalay Bay exhibit. We couldn't get ANY good pictures with our dinky camera. The glass just wouldn't cooperate. It was breathtaking though. Some were scary! Jellyfish, Pirhanas, and Sharks! OH MY!

I touched a sting ray. The person taking the picture, I won't say who he is, was too chicken to touch one...

Yay for childhood memories! My mom remembers me begging to go to this place in Virginia every time we were at the mall! It's closed down now :( At least there's one in Vegas! Yummy. Had to get a pic with the gorilla!

This is why the rainforest cafe was so amazing! Look at this fish tank! Just beautiful.

Being cheese balls. Love it :)

Well that's all folks! We had a blast! Can't wait to go again! I don't think we'll ever take Adalee though. It's not such a kid friendly place! We'll stick with Disney land. Can't wait!