and we celebrated...

Today we celebrated our little Addison Marie's first birthday.  It is so hard to believe just how fast this first year has gone.  It seems like yesterday that they put that 7lb. 7oz. little girl in my arms for the very first time.  What a year this has been for us!  As Dan, Addie, and I sat down for lunch today we had the discussion on how we survived the first year of being parents.  Addie is healthy and most important - in one piece! lol!  We both then realized that it will probably just get harder from here as Addie gets older and we add more children to our family.  We came to conclusion that it is all worth it in the end!  Being parents is such a rewarding job and the most important one we will ever have in our lives!

Today we had Addison's one year pictures with Nichole Priebe.  They went well this time.  Max went with us to help get Addie in the smiling mood.  We were able to catch some pictures of the two of them as well!  After pictures we had to come home so Dan could do chores and took Max to school.  I was able to catch a few pictures of Addie while we were home and off we went to have an afternoon of fun!  We went to the park to play, did a little shopping, went out for supper, and then came home to our immediate family and celebrated Addison's birthday some more.  She did much better with her little cupcake than her giant ladybug cake!  She opened presents and played with Max.  A perfect way to end a perfect day!

She went from so little a year ago....to so big in the blink of an eye!

We went out to our rock wall and took some one year pics.  Plan is to take them here every year!

Playing at the park!

Shopping!!!

Riding on Daddy's shoulder after we were done eating!

We got home and opened more presents...

blew out another candle...

and ate more cake!  She actually ate it this time!

It has been such a fabulous first year as parents.  We are so excited to see what the future holds for us!  Tomorrow we head for Wisconsin for a few days away!  I am a little nervous about traveling that far with Addie and making sure everything is packed.  Lets pray it all goes well!  I think the posts should slow down now!  Not so much going on from here on out!  Thank goodness, because I am ready for a break.  Hoping the weekend provides us with that!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY ADDISON MARIE!!!

52 Weeks!!

52 weeks today! Yep, that is the number of weeks in a year and little Addison will be ONE year old tomorrow!

I can't believe this arrived so quickly.  The last weekly post.  We have had a pretty busy week around here.  Celebrating lots of birthdays!

Addie is talking more and more all the time.  She seems to learn so quickly and really loves to copy what you say.  Tonight we had her saying "night, night" and "Maxie kiss" when we asked her to give Max a kiss!  Many times you hear her speaking her own little language and she has this new little "yabba dabba" saying.  

She received so many new gifts for her birthday, but it doesn't stop her from getting in mommy's "pretties."  AKA, the decorations in the house.  Addison is pretty good at letting me know when she is heading for them though.  She crawls over to them saying "pretties, pretties" all the way there.  Gives me time to catch her and move her away!!

She has began to take a few steps on her own.  By her own I mean without any encouragement from anyone.  Today she started walking in the living room by herself!  She will take about three steps on her own.  She walks on her own in between two of us, taking about six steps.  She gets braver all the time!  She got one of those little walker/rider things for her birthday and she does not like to walk with it.  I think it is hard to use it on our wood floors, but she does like to ride it!

So here are some pictures from our birthday week!!

Celebrating Auntie Em's birthday!!

Celebrating Uncle Max's birthday!!

Celebrating more of Uncle Max's birthday at Chuck-E-Cheese.  This was Addie's first trip there and she had a lot of fun, as you can see

We had a picture together in their machine, it didn't go so well...

She took a picture with Chuck-E in the car.  This was her favorite thing to do!  You can see in the picture that Addie is making driving noises!

Tonight we celebrated Grandma Jen's birthday.  Max had homework (reading a book), so he read to Addie and Grandpa Russ.  Addie loves when Uncle Max reads to her!

Tomorrow our little Addison turns one!  We are going to finally have our pictures done tomorrow morning and spend the afternoon together with Addison.  Dan took milking off so we could spoil Addie on her birthday!

Happy Birthday Addie Bug!!

We celebrated Addison's first birthday this Sunday!  We had TONS of family at our house and I learned that our house really is small!!  Good thing we are a close family!  Addie is SO loved...it was all around our little home!

Along with all of these family and friends came PRESENTS!  And LOTS of them!  Addie's little corner is getting bigger and I am afraid that it will soon become our entire living room if she gets any more toys!  She had a blast opening her presents.  She liked opening the cards the most (strange, I know...) and she would give me a look like "why are you taking that away, I just got it" when we would move to the next present.  At the end of the day our living room was full of cardboard and toys!  Most of the presents were open before everyone left, thanks to Max and Jasmine!!  The other thing I learned is that stores are REALLY paranoid that their toys will be stolen.  They were attached in every possible place and it took forever to get toys out of their boxes.  

I am a person who plans and plans and likes things to go the way you have always pictured things to go.  I should really say that I used to be that person!  After having children, one thing you learn is you NEVER know what is going to happen and you really just need to go with the flow.  For Addison's party I had an entire outfit planned for her.  It consisted of a ladybug birthday shirt that I designed (My aunt owns a screen printing business so I had some connections there!)  We made a tutu to match, she had little ladybug wings and black leggings, and her little piggy tails (antennas) to top it off.  She would not wear the tutu or the wings, so we ended up with our birthday shirt and some jeans.  Oh well!  I tried to at least put on the wings and she immediately started crying.  All I know it that it would have been adorable. But really, she is adorable in just about anything she wears!  So here is a picture of the shirt that was made just for Addie on her first birthday!!

As an activity for the kids, I had stuff for them to make their own ladybug antennas.  Here is Max and Jasmine with theirs!!  I said it was for the kids, but us adults were actually making them to wear too!!

Last, but not least, we had a ladybug pinata!  The kids had a blast with it, but we had to let Addie have the first hit!  I put some infant cereal bars in there for Addie since she can't eat candy.  We thought we were being smart putting a blanket on the ground to catch the candy, but it still ended up all over the grass!  It was fun though!  Dan had a blast pulling it away from the kids when they would swing!  We even decided to have them blindfolded!

Now for some other cute pictures...

We were SO lucky that it was such a nice day.  All that hard work payed off!  Addie had such a wonderful party!  Thank you to all of our family that came to celebrate with us and made Addison's first birthday party special!  We love you all!  I would also like to thank you for all the noise making toys (insert sarcasm)!! 

The noise makers really did come in handy today when I had about 3 hours of clean-up to do after the party.  I truly think that cleaning after the party is more work than the party itself!  What a mess opening a few dozen toys can make!!

We are excited to celebrate Addison's actual birthday on Wednesday!  She is also finally getting her one year pics...on her actual one year birthday!  How cool is that?!!  She is 52 weeks tomorrow!  Then we leave for Wisconsin at the end of the week!  I think things will start to slow down after that...I hope!

~Be sure to scroll down to see her other birthday post!~

Birthday Goodies...Ladybug Style!!

There was so much to Addie's birthday party that I have decided to divide it into a couple of posts!

I first wanted to share the birthday treats we worked so hard at making!  Addie's birthday theme was ladybugs, so I did my best to incorporate food that looked like ladybugs for the party!

Here is Addison's cake that I made.  I am pretty darn proud, since it is the first cake I have ever decorated!

Here are the cupcakes.  Didn't turn out as well as planned, but they were absolutely delicious!!  We had filled cupcakes made with love by Grandma Dawn!  It didn't help that I accidentally bought HOT cinnamon pull and peel for the antennas...oops!!

The idea from these actually came from a Fareway commercial!  It is just a Ritz cracker on the bottom with a cheese spread, a grape tomato, black olive, and celery for the antennas!  Easy-Peezie!

Yummy, yummy, food!  We had so much that my kitchen was FULL!  Although my kitchen is pretty small!

It then came time for Addie to eat her cake....  

and blow out her candle!!

Check out her high chair that we decked out for her!!

Lets just say it didn't go so well!  She hated her fingers getting dirty!  And she cried until we cleaned her hands off!  Such a girly-girl!

Well, I think that is it for the ladybug food!  Stay tuned for more birthday posts!

The Funny Things in Life...

It's funny sometimes when you look back at your life and wonder... What IF...

What IF I hadn't danced with Dan 11 years ago at the homecoming dance...
What IF we hadn't decided to call each other "girlfriend and boyfriend"...
What IF.... I guess I could keep going, but I am just going to accept that ultimately I am not the one in control here and I feel so blessed that my life has taken the direction is has.

Who would have thought that a middle school couple would be able to stay together this long, get married, and have a beautiful family.  Most would have laughed in our faces had we told them that 11 years ago.  We were so young.  I remember the night so well and how my friend Chelsea and I spent the entire night awake talking about the dance and dating Dan.  Seems so silly now!

So for some giggles, I thought I would share a picture of us from middle school!  I know, my hair... lets just say it was cool then, OK!  Oh, and those eyebrows of mine... just have to laugh there!  And look at Dan, what a scrawny little guy!  This is too funny!

So today we celebrate 11 years together and I still can not imagine my life without this man! 

I also realized that it has been 5 years ago today that I had my lasik surgery! I can still see well, so I am thankful for that too!

 __________________________________

On another note... I have LOTS of birthday wishes to make!! (Many are late...)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

 Grandpa Larry on Sept. 6

Cousin Spencer on Sept. 9

Aunt Terra on Sept. 17

Uncle Bob on Sept. 19

Auntie Em on Sept. 22

Uncle Max on Sept. 23

Aunt Raychel on Sept. 25

Aunt Amy on Sept. 25

Grandma Jen on Sept. 28

Addie on Sept. 29!!

Okay, better go and start planning what need to be done tomorrow for Addie's birthday party!  I am SO excited for Sunday! 

Bye, Bye, Summer...

Hard to believe that today is the first day of fall.  I love fall, it is my favorite time of year, but it is always hard to say goodbye to summer.  I think it's because we all know what comes after fall...

We had so much happen this summer.  It will definitely be a memorable one!

 

 

It has been such a great summer as a family of three!  We are going to miss the nice warm days playing outside and enjoying the fresh air.  Now it is time to take in the beautiful scenery and cooler weather. Thank you summer for being so good to us, and thank you God for all the wonderful blessings in our life.

HAPPY FALL TO ALL!!