The Girls Meet Again!

On Friday we were able to get Addison and her friend Autumn together.  PLUS us moms were able to chat about the girls and just life in general!  It is so nice to have another mom to talk to, especially one that has a daughter that is about 7 weeks younger than Addie!

When Autumn first arrived Addie clung to me and would not leave my lap, but it didn't take too long for Addie to warm up to Autumn and started playing with her friend.  Addie and Autumn played so well together throughout the entire visit.  They never really got too close to one another, but played with all of Addison's toys around the house.  Kelsi (Autumn's mommy) and I decided that we would sit the two girls down for pictures, thinking we would probably get no cooperation from either of them.  Surprisingly they both sat there very well as you can see in the pictures!  Addie was being a goofball the entire time, and it didn't take Autumn long to start too!

This is my favorite picture!  Autumn and Addie blowing kisses to the camera!  How cute it this?!!

Last time the two girls got together, neither of them were walking.  Friday's visit was a blast because both were walking all over!

The balls really seemed to be the favorite toy of the day!  They were throwing them all over!

The girls had a blast and I think both mommas were thrilled that we had the opportunity to meet up while Autumn and Kelsi were home for Thanksgiving!  You can check out Kelsi's blog on my blog list!!

Giving Thanks - 2010

Wow, I can't believe that Thanksgiving has been here and is gone already.  I remember last year at this time we had a two-month old...

One year later we have so much to be thankful for!  Motherhood has come much easier than I thought it would.  Dan and I have molded into our roles as parents with ease, which is something to be very thankful for!  The greatest gift in our lives was given to us over a year ago and the blessings she has brought to us is more than we could have ever asked for.  I could go on and on about what I am thankful for each and every day, but I think everyone who knows our family will know that we are so very thankful for everyone and everything in our lives!

What I really want to give thanks to tonight is the fact that Thanksgiving and so many other holidays bring our family together!  It stinks that our family is really only together a handful of times per year and if I had the choice it would be at least one weekend a month!  It is so much fun to have them around and Addie loves seeing her family.  There is so much love around us, now THAT is something to be thankful for! 

We had three Thanksgiving festivities to attend this year.  We had our last one this Saturday at our home.  Our home is small, but that just means we get to be close and don't miss a thing!  My kitchen, normally a one-person kitchen, had about 6 of us cooking our Thanksgiving feast!  We had great food, lots of laughter, a little snoring, football, and some nose-pickin'...give you one guess who that was!!  There will be a picture to follow!  We had a great time in this little home.

Here are some pics that momma snapped when she wasn't busy in the kitchen!!

Little Miss walked around with black olives on her fingers.  She thought it was the coolest thing, but when she went to eat one, it was spit out in someone's hand!  They must have been okay to lick...  She would also walk up to various people and try to feed them the black olive!

Here is our little nose-picker!! Our day is not fulfilled if we do not catch Addison with her finger stuck up her nose at least once!

And what is a holiday with our family without the Wii?!!  They gave Addie a control without batteries, she thought she was big stuff!

The Wii was played in our bedroom!  So everyone piled on our bed and played games!

Addie was in rare form on Saturday.  In the past she has been pretty shy around people she doesn't see all the time.  She did some of that, but most of the day she was acting like a goofball and would really go to just about anyone!  If she happened to do something and people started laughing at her, she would keep doing it and giggle at herself...show off!!  Here she is with cousin Jaime, whom she has only seen twice now!  

And the day is also not complete if she doesn't run around the house and play with her uncles!  Uncle Mike was running her around the house chasing Uncle Max, and here he was crawling around the house with Addie.  She kept giggling so hard that she would fall down!

Thanksgiving morning we got up to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade before we headed to the Garbes' for dinner!  When Elmo and the Sesame Street gang came on the television, Addie went WILD!  She was pointing, yelling, and dancing!  She really loves her Elmo!

I don't think I could have pulled her away from the t.v. if I wanted to!

These pictures, the memories, is what I am thankful for each and every day.  We hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with their families.  God Bless!

Keep a look out for more posts from our weekend!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

As you may notice, most of our blog posts tend to be about our little Addison.  I very often forget to write about what makes our family whole...DADDY!!  It's daddy's 25th birthday today (he has officially caught up with mommy today!) and daddy being daddy, just expected a "normal" day.  BUT mommy being mommy, wanted to make daddy's day special.

I don't thank him enough for what he does for us each and every day.  I have never met a harder working man to provide for his family and even when he is so tired he can barely keep his eyes open from working all day, he still makes time for his family.  And we love him so much for that!  We could not ask for a better husband or daddy!  I truly feel so blessed to have married such a wonderful man!

Today we had Thanksgiving with my family.  One thing that stinks about Dan's birthday being so close to Thanksgiving...he usually has to share!  So we lit up a bunch of candles, and Addie took him his cheese cake and pumpkin bar!  Two of Daddy's favorites!  Addie really liked the candles.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!

Our Christmas Tree!

Our Christmas tree is up and decorated...for now!  Addie has attempted several times to take off ornaments.  Has tried to eat them, and one time she knocked one on the floor and started kicking it around the house calling it a "ball, ball"!  Thankfully I had enough "non-breakable" ornaments to put on the bottom of the tree.  Oh, the joy of having a toddler! 

Only Addison...

There are so many times in my day that I watch what Addison is doing, and all I can do is shake my head!!  She is such a silly little girl and she never ceases to awe us....

Like when she gets her foot stuck in the dishwasher...

Oh, Addison!

Or when she finds random things and puts them in her hair...because they're "pretty"...

This morning it was her eggs, because they are "pretty", ya know!!  The other day it was a purple sticky note...very "pretty" too!

Or when she brings mommy and daddy shoes to put on...even if you already have shoes on...

and when she goes out and puts momma's shoes on...

Or when she takes off with her Aqua-Doodle pen and you find it in the most random places.  The other day it went home with Auntie Em in her clothes basket, because Addie stuck it in there while they were doing laundry!

Or when she eats her food so quickly that half of it ends up on her little face...

Or putting the bib on our head...

and when she doesn't think that mommy is laughing hard enough...

she eats her bib, because apparently the spaghetti wasn't filling enough...

Or (my favorite one of all) when she stands in the middle of the house, twirling herself in circles with the sweetest giggle you have ever heard...

Only our little Addison would create these memories for us!  She is so much fun at this age...minus the moments where her temper begins to show!  Most days I just shake my head saying, "Oh, Addie!!"  Man, I love being a MOMMA!!

Happy Birthday...

...to me!!  The big 2-5.  That's half-way to 30.  A quarter of a century old!  Oh my, I really am making myself feel old now!  Anyway, I had a wonderful birthday today!  I taught Sunday School this morning and dealt with a grumpy Addison in church.  She was very tired and wanted to run.  As we were leaving church she wanted to walk right through everyone and when mom held her hand to hold her back...she threw herself to the floor.  Ugh.  Thank goodness the people behind us were very understanding and very nice people!

After church I took Addie home to nap while my wonderful hubby had to finish up chores before we left for dinner.  We went out for dinner at Applebee's with the entire family.  There were 12 of us to be exact!  Addie had a blast with Uncle Max (as usual) and ate her little heart away!

We spent the majority of the remaining day at home.  We went over to my mom and dad's house while Dan was milking.  Nice and relaxing, the way I like it!  I did nothing around the house, which means I will have to make up for it tomorrow!  Especially since I have turned the house upside down looking for Addison's Aqua-doodle marker...story for another post!

So the rest of the night will be spent snuggling on the couch with my wonderful hubby!  He got me my new ottoman for my birthday!  It even lifts for more storage...LOVE it!!  I also got some clothes, a couple new scarves, and the arrangement from my mother-in-law (pictured below)! 

Addie and mommy....

I love this little crock and used to have a plant in it.  Well, first of all...I am not good with plants.  Second....Addie tries to eat them!  Or she used to anyway.  So I thought that these twig lights with some other filler would look great in my crock!   I put my mother-in-law up to it, because she is great at that stuff.  It turned out wonderful!!

Well, another year passed right before my eyes!  Before I know it, I'll be a half of a century!!!!  I also wanted to take the time to thank all of my family and friend who have made my 25th so special!  Love you all!!

Bath Time!!

Addie absolutely loves her bath time.  If you tell Addie she is going to take a bath she gets extremely excited and runs around yelling "bath!" for all to hear!  She usually spends around 20 minutes in the bath before she will even think of letting mommy or daddy get her out!  She splashes around so much that all around the tub gets extremely wet!  She squeals with delight as she splashes around the tub and throws her toys out of the tub at mommy and daddy.  Here are some pictures from our bath tonight!

...and to end the post.  Addie is now able to take off her pajamas.  At least her legs anyway.  She gets her legs out and then goes for her diaper.  Give you one guess why she wants her diaper off so bad (other than it is full from the night).....ELMO is on her diaper!  We have had a little difficulty with that since she found Elmo on her diapers.  She does not want to put them on, she wants to keep them and give Elmo kisses!  Such a silly girl!

Hope you have a fantastic night!  We have Uncle Max's wrestling meet tomorrow.  It ought to be fun chasing Addie around that!  On Sunday is my birthday!!  So we will probably do a little something for that as well!

look what i can do!!

Before mommy and daddy get too busy and forget....

~ I can say several words.  I get better and better at communicating to people every day, but I still get frustrated sometimes when someone doesn't understand me!  If I need something I usually just grab mommy or daddy's hand and lead them to what I want.  Mommy and daddy think that several of my words sound alike.  Like when I say "belly" or "baby".  But they seem to catch on to what I am saying, I just have to point for them!

~ I am also beginning to understand mommy and daddy more when they talk to me.  I am able to do what they ask me to do, although I don't always listen (shh don't tell mom).  Mommy and daddy can tell me to do things like, "Go find your baby or Elmo.", "Where is your sippy?", "Can you go get your blankie", "Do you want to get a book to read?", and I can go and do all of this and more!  It is nice that they have started speaking my language!

~ I can do the animal noises for a cow, kitty, puppy, and occasionally a horse.  I also like to make car noises when I drive my car around the house!  Uncle Max taught me that!

~ I can go just about anywhere now, too!  I like to climb onto things, especially my rocker and the couch!  I also enjoy pushing my baby and Elmo around the house in the stroller.  I like to run with them and swing them in circles!  I wish my mom would have done that to me in my stroller because it looks like a lot of fun!!  I can even walk backwards!

~ I am learning where my body parts are.  So far I know where my ears, eyes, nose, mouth, feet, toes, fingers, and where my belly is!  I like to look at my belly and show people my belly too!

~ I just got two more teeth in on Monday!  They are way in the back and they hurt really bad!  I now have 10 teeth!  I also love to brush my teeth and I get really mad when mommy takes the toothbrush away from me!  I have an Elmo toothbrush, it's pretty cool!!

~ Reading books is one of my favorite things.  I go get my books and take them to mommy or daddy for them to read, and sometimes I read to them!  Some of my favorite books are my Elmo books, Goodnight Moon (it has kitties in it), Is Your Mama a Llama, Mr. Brown Can Moo Can You, and I Love You Stinky Face.

~ I have so many toys that I like to play with too!  Some of my favorite toys are my babies, my farm, Elmo, my car, anything that makes noise, and my crawl-through gym.  I like to play with things that Mommy says are not toys, but she always seems to take them away from me and it makes me really mad.  Seems like I can't have any fun around here sometimes, but when Daddy is home I get away with a lot more!!

~ I really like watching Elmo on t.v.  When he comes on, I run to the t.v. and stand right up to it to watch him.  That is until Mommy moves me further away.  No big deal, I just walk right back and stand right in front of the t.v.  It's where I get my best view...mommy just doesn't understand!

Here are some pictures of me having fun this week...

I love to feed my baby.  I put the sippy to her mouth and say "num, num!"

Playing with all of my toys wearing my Hawkeye dress!

Playing in my room.  I think I was starting to get too many toys in the living room so mommy moved some of them to my room!

Reading my book, "Goodnight Moon" to Mommy.  Here I am showing her the kitties and meowing for her!

 I give the kitties kisses all the time...I really wish mommy and daddy would get me a REAL kitty to play with in the house!

I love crawling and scooting through this thing!

Thanks for stopping by to see me!  Bye bye!

Momma's little helper...

I LOVE this time of year, when the weather starts to cool off.  And what better way to warm up the house than turning on the oven and doing some baking?!!  Addie helped me make pumpkin bars today.  She is such a little helper.  Especially when she empties the entire drawer of measuring cups! hehe!!

She'll be a pro in a few years!!  Happy Baking!

Our Itsy Bitsy...

Our little Itsy Bitsy Spider took her first trip trick-or-treating yesterday!  We went around town to family and friends that we knew, which took long enough with Addie walking!  She loved to walk to the houses and crawl up stairs, but when they would answer the door...our little Addie became quite the shy little spider!

Here she is with her sitter, Alice!  I think she was confused to where all the kids were!

Addie and Daddy with Addison's great great grandma!

Another stop to one of Addison's great great grandma's.  As you can see she became a little shy once they opened the door!

After we were done trick-or-treating we went to Dan's family's house for a little Halloween party.  Mainly so she could see Addie in costume!  We had a really hard time getting her to sit still for a picture.

Grandma got her a bib that said, "official candy taster" which fit her well.  We didn't let her have any candy, but we let her carry a Hershey chocolate around and eventually she got a little hole in the melted thing and was licking away at the chocolate!  Needless to say, she didn't go to bed until 10:30 last night!

Grandpa being silly.  Addie thought he was a pretty funny witch!

Here is Addie with her witch hat on!  She wouldn't keep it on for long, so I had to snap some quick photos!

Digging in her candy bucket...

It was a great Halloween!  The weather was great!  Not too cold and not too hot!  Addie had a blast in her costume!  Now mommy and daddy just have to refrain from eating all the candy in her bucket.  Easier said than done!!