22 months!!

The countdown and birthday planning begins!! Our girl is TWO months away from being TWO years old!  Oh, boy...a two year old.  Sounds a little intimidating!

"Mine!"  That is Addison's favorite word these days.  Apparently I missed the memo that everything in the WORLD belongs to Addison Marie!  We were at the park the other day and she kept saying, "my slide, mom." "My swing, mom!"  Today we went out to eat and every time she saw a waitress walk by with food she would say (loudly) "Addie's food?"  She must have been hungry!

She is talking so well now.  I honestly have a hard time keeping track of all the new words and phrases she comes up with.  You have to be careful around her because she listens to EVERYTHING!  She picks up on things so quickly, it is amazing!  She has the three word sentences down, and is now working on longer ones.

She has wonderful manners!  Saying please and thanks is a norm for her.  You don't usually have to remind her.  She also walked past me in the living room the other day and said "excuse me, mom."  I think my jaw dropped that day!  If I ask her to do something, she replies with "okay, mom." (although sometimes she says that and still does not do what I ask..lol!)

We are learning LOTS these days!  We still work on shapes, colors, and counting.  She has been able to count to ten for awhile, but has not made it past ten.  We are working on more sign language now, which she LOVES.  We are working on the signs to her favorite animals.

Addie has a vibrant personality, but when she gets around people she does not know, it takes her some time to warm up.  When we were at the restaurant today, Addie would hide in my arms from the waitress the first few times she came to our table, but she later began to show off!  She loves showing off, and if she gets a laugh out of you, she will keep doing whatever silly activity she got you to laugh about.

She is now in a BIG girl bed!  I was a little worried about how this would go, since she would be able to get in and out on her own, but it has gone wonderful!!!  From the first night we put her in there last weekend, she has slept through the entire night!  She does not get out of bed, but shouts for me in the mornings.  I think she was a little cramped in her crib.  She loves her new sheets and blankets.  She walks in her room saying, "my bed, my blankey."

Here are some pictures to share from our week...

Look at that hair!! I just LOVE her little blonde curls...

Momma and Addie...

My beautiful family.  I am ONE LUCKY GIRL!!

I love this picture of Dan and Addie.  She has such a little grin on her face.  She definitely LOVES her daddy!

swinging at the park...

She loves her kitties.  Dan and I agree that she would stay outside all day with her kitties if we let her.

look at that grin...

Big girl at 22 months...

We went to Wal-Mart today and I found one of those bracelets that snap on your wrist.  We had those when I was little.  Addie loves bracelets, so I let her have it since she was so good in Wal-Mart.  She loves that darn bracelet!  Flicks it all the time.  Oh, my new car is behind her!!  

My thoughts....
Oh, BOY!  I start back to work full-time on Monday.  I have not worked full-time since Addison was born, and I am really struggling with leaving Addie all week long.  I know it is going to be harder on me than her, but it really doesn't make me feel any better :(  I just hope that after a few months we will adjust to our new routine and everything will fall into place.  I know that Addie will be in good hands!  On the other hand, I am SO excited to do hospice social work again!  It is my passion, and I feel grateful that I have this opportunity.  I also feel great that I am able to provide for my family.  The insurance is going to help us out so much.  I need to keep my focus on all the good that is coming out of this!

So, we are doing a practice run tomorrow for our new routine!  I have to leave the house a little after 7am.  Dan is going to be in the house at 7am and get Addie ready, feed her breakfast, and take her to daycare.  I am told that ALL I need to do is lay out Addie's clothes and do her hair.  Dan says that he does not know how to do girls' hair!  So I will get Addie up at 7am and do her hair and give her as many hugs and kisses as I can fit in 10 minutes!  Dan will take her to daycare on Mon, Wed, and Fri.  My Grandma is watching her on Tue. and Thur (at our house).  On Wed. and Fri, Dan's mom is picking her up from daycare after lunch.  I am SOOO grateful for the support of our family.  Without them, I don't think I would feel as comfortable as I do now.  We are so blessed!

Here's to a new routine, and a new start!

Phone Favorites...

I finally learned how to put photos from my phone to my blog!!  I hadn't really tried it before tonight, when I wanted to put up that picture of Addie reading her book in the car.  So, here are a bunch of favorites from the phone.  I had TONS more I could have put on here, and as you can see I have them from when Addie was just a tiny little thing...

Be sure to scroll down to our other post tonight!  Trying to catch up before I start work on Monday!!

Story Hour

Today was our last story hour for awhile.  It was hard because Addie always has so much fun, but I am hoping that I can take a Friday off every now and then to take her!  Since I hadn't really had any pictures of her at story hour, I decided to take the camera today...

doing puzzles...

The cookie song!!  Addie's favorite thing to do in story hour!  She loves going up to get her cookie!

Running back to mom with her cookie...

She loves to do the coloring pages!

Leaving the library with her book...

Addie only wanted to check out about 6 books!  She loves her books.  After story hour we went to the park with some of our friends that we made at story hour.  We made last minute plans so that the kids could play together!  I think we will be doing play dates during the winter!  It will be so nice to be able to stay in touch!  We met some wonderful people at story hour!!

reading her book on the way home...

Addie turned 22 months old today!!!  I will post tomorrow about what she is up to these days!!

Family...

I love spending time with family and taking pictures!  My family actually makes fun of me because they see so many flashes!  We had the entire family home over the weekend, so we had lots of fun together!!

Addie did really well with everyone once she was around them for a few hours, but she was still unsure of her Great Uncle Bob!  Sometimes she would go to him, and other times she would have nothing to do with him!  I love this picture because she is looking at him like he is full of it!

Maddie is one of her favorites!  Maddie was teaching her how to play the guitar last night!

We were all together last night for pizza.  Our Aunt Deb is home until Wednesday, so we got together again last night!  Here is Mike taking some pizza home with him!  Our pizza delivery boy!! 

Jone's Family Reunion...

It felt wonderful to get everyone together at the Jone's family reunion on Saturday!!  I don't think that we have been together as a big group like this since I was a little girl, and I remember having so much fun when we did.  Every time we would gather, it would end up in a water fight.  It was NO different on Saturday!!  Everyone had a blast!  Here are some pictures from the day...

My mom's siblings, mom, and grandma...

Great Grandma Jones is a blast!!

Addison with water balloons!  She would end up throwing them on the ground!

Look who was one of the instigators...yep, DAN!

Eating a cookie with Great Uncle Bob.  This was the first time she has met her Great Uncle.

The Cake Disaster...

This is what happens when you have an uncle that will give you anything you want, no matter what mom says!

She wanted a piece of cake she saw sitting on the table.  Good ol' Uncle Mike just picked up the plate and let her eat of it!!  I just shook my head.  She had SO much sugar that day because everyone was giving her ANYTHING she wanted!  

 

messy, messy...

Change...

There has honestly been SO much going on lately, that I can't even think straight.  These past two weeks my head has been spinning, maybe it's the heat. :)  To get everyone up to speed, here are a bunch of random thoughts!!

To begin...we bought our very first brand new car!!  Or, I should say I bought our very first new car!  Dan was busy with work, so he wasn't able to go.  He left me to do the wheelin' and dealin'.  With 0% financing we couldn't beat the deal!  I wanted something with better gas mileage (for a reason I will talk about in a minute) and decided on a Toyota Camry.  I LOVE the car, and it honestly has just as much room as the Murano!

The biggest change for our family is that I am going back to work full-time.  It is bitter-sweet for me because I really don't want to go back to work full-time, but it is a job offer that I could not turn down!  When I did my internship in college I did it with a local hospice that offered me a PRN (on call) job when I was done with school.  That was all they had at the time and I couldn't depend on that, so I then got a job with the hospice that I left after Addison was born.  I won't go into the reasons, but it was the right thing to do at the time.  Last week I received a call from my former boss asking me if I was interested in a social work position that would be opening.  I was caught a little off guard and it was hard to come to this decision, but with the rising cost of health care, I don't have a choice.  We pay out of pocket for our health insurance now and it is SOOO expensive!  This hospice offers wonderful insurance!  PLUS, this is what I love to do.  I love hospice work, and I am SO excited to get back into it.  I am just REALLY struggling with the fact that I am going to work full time and leaving Addie at daycare.  I mean, REALLY struggling.  People keep telling me it will get easier, but I am having a hard time thinking it will be!  I just keep telling myself that I am off at 4:30pm and we have every night and weekend together as a family. I start the 1st of August, and so the countdown begins.

Dan's new job is going well.  It is so nice to have him home on the weekends!  I have felt SO bad for him (or anyone working outside) this past week with the heat.  He told me that he had to change his shirt 5 times the other day because he was sweating so bad.  I think we are going to have a break in the heat today!!

Addison is transitioning to a BIG girl bed!  It was getting to the point where she was not safe in her crib.  She would jump in that thing and I swear that sometime she is going to fly right out!!  The bed is here, we just have to get it put together!! I am hoping that this is the solution we need for her NOT to come in our bed at 2-3am.  I hope that I am able just to go lay with her for a short while until she falls back asleep.

This weekend is our family reunion.  We have close family coming home from Hawaii, California, and Texas, and other family coming from all over.  I can't even express how excited I am to get everyone together!!  It has been 12 years since we have all been together.  FAR TOO LONG!!

We got Addie a BIG swing set with a tree house and all!  She is so excited to play on it, but with the heat, we still have not put it up.  Hoping we can do the sometime soon!!

We put all new interior doors up in the house.  It looks wonderful compared to the doors before!!  Take a look...

We also got all the hardware on the cupboards in the kitchen!  Now we have to get the lighting and the fan above the stove done.

There have been construction crews here the past few weeks putting in Dan's manure pit.  I will post pictures of it sometime because this thing is HUGE!!  When it is finished it will cut about an hour from his chores and will reduce the smell on the farm!

Okay, I think the last change that has occurred in this house is that Izzy is now an outside kitty with the rest of them.  I guess I am allergic.  I didn't know I was, but I have had a stuffy nose and have been sneezing non-stop since we brought her in the house.  This wasn't our only reason for the decision.  Izzy kept wanting to run outside with the other kitties, I don't think she wanted to be in here.  Who would when you have to be tortured by an almost-two-year-old!  Addie was SO mean to Izzy.  She would pick her up by her tail, ears, fur, pretty much whatever she could grab.  Then she would squeeze her so tight!  Addie really hasn't even noticed, thank goodness!  She will just have to play and torture outside! lol!!

Picture Update!!

We have been having LOTS of fun this summer!  Addie loves to do just about anything and has been keeping us very busy!  We have had so much going on this past week, which I will share when I have more time.  For now, let's enjoy some picture updates!!

On Saturday we took our annual trip to the water park with my family.  This year Addison had a blast playing in the water!  It was adorable watching her interact and play with other kiddos her age.  

 This was her reaction when I told her to look at the water slides, which she wanted to go down!!

crazy hair after her nap...

I will try to do another update SOON! It is a busy week for us.  I have to work and then go to VBS at night.  I am teaching Pre-K and Kindergarten and they are FULL of energy!  To top off the week it is extremely HOT out!  Heat indexes well over 100 degrees, hoping it will cool down for our family reunion this weekend!!