An Emotional Day

Yesterday we put our house up for sale.  A very emotional day for me.  We have decided to buy the family farm so we are moving back to where Dan and I began our married lives.  I am excited to move back to where our lives began, but not so thrilled to leave our first home and the home that we brought our first child home to.  I am also excited for Addison to be raised on the farm.  I think that she is going to love it!

So on yet another journey my family goes!  It is amazing how quickly your lives can change.  I can only pray that our house sells fairly quickly and all goes smoothly.  I really hate to move so I am going to need a lot of prayers to keep my sanity!  Packing, moving, and unpacking = no fun.  We will be doing some improvements on the new house before next winter so at least I have that to look forward to!  And of course decorating Addison's new room!!  So if anyone is available to help move...you are more than welcome to help...lol!!  Everyone have a great weekend!

24 Weeks...

 Addison is 24 weeks! We are so happy to be springing forward in this house. Addison and I spent a lot of time outside yesterday and enjoyed the warm weather! We also put her Lite Bundleme on her car seat! When Daddy was home for lunch we went out for a walk and later that day we set her Jumperoo on the deck for her to jump outside. She loved being outside. When we came in from the deck she was ready for a nap, she slept for about 1 1/2hrs before getting up. Got to love the work of fresh air!

We have had another eventful week this week. Addison continues to awe us each and every day. She is moving more and more, and has figured out how to go from sitting to her belly. It is not the most graceful move she does, and usually has her Boppy pillow behind her to help, but she gets where she wants to!! She is also doing wonderful eating her rice cereal. In fact she gets super excited when it is time to eat! I think we will start feeding her twice per day soon. She continues to talk with her "baba" and "gaga" and still laughs when we say "mama" and "dada."

One milestone that week after week I continue to forget to mention is how she holds out her hands for us! She first did this when she was 16 weeks old...yes, I know 8 weeks ago!! OOPS! My mom and I had just returned from a long day of shopping and she walked into the house with Addison, who had not seen her daddy ALL day! She saw daddy and immediately held out her hands for him. She did it a couple of times for Dan before she did it for me...can you tell she is a Daddy's girl?!! These past 3-4 weeks she has been consistently holding her arms out for us when she wants us. Usually while in her highchair, on the floor, or in her pack-and-play. It is so funny when you walk by her highchair and her arms go flying in the air saying "pick me up, pick me up!"

I want to share the video of Addison jumping on the deck! She loved it outside. She isn't doing too much jumping because she was trying to figure out why her toys were looking so funny through the glasses!  I was outside in my jeans and a long sleeved shirt and was hot. I always question how warm I should dress her, but I think she was okay!  We didn't stay out too long because I took her hat off since it was so hot and then realized that I had no baby sunscreen! She also did a wonderful job at keeping her sunglasses on. She would make some funny looks, trying to figure out how to look out of them at times, but she looked adorable in them!

Now for pictures taken from this week...

This is a foam sticker project that Uncle Max made for Addison. Being in Kindergarten, he loves these projects! He asked me how old Addison was and I told him 5 months...which is what the five is for. When I asked him what the "XO" stood for he replied, "you know what it means!"

Daddy feeding Addison her cereal! Daddy also decided he would try her cereal one night when he was feeding her and it soon occurred to him that it was mixed with my breast milk...lol!!  We both laughed about it!  He said that it had a bit of a sweet taste.  No wonder she wouldn't eat her cereal when I mixed it with formula one time!!

More to add from our post last week!  Addison sucking on her toe!! She is such a silly girl.  She absolutely loves her feet!  It is so fun to play with her and her feet...she just LOVES it and giggles and giggles!

Getting ready for our walk. What a cutie!!

Mommy and Addison before we headed for our walk!

Daddy and Addie walking. We live in a great location. We live on highway that turns to gravel so we can walk on the road because it is never busy.

Like I said, Addison is moving around the living room. Here she was facing the camera on the blanket and decided that the basket, or the sun shining on the floor was looking a little more interesting. She rolled and scooted until she was to her destination...and yes she is chewing on her changing basket!

See you soon...

Last night we had a get-together at our house to say good-bye to my Aunt and Uncle as they journey to live in California.  We are very sad to see them go, but are very happy that they were here in Iowa for 6 years with us!  We have had so many great memories in these past 6 years and Dan and I are so happy that they were able to spend the time they have with Addison.  We will really miss you Bob and Shelly.  We love you!!  I think this will now be an excuse to take a family vacation to California in the next few years!

Here are some pictures from last night...

Addison and Max got to open a few late Christmas presents!  Addie loved tearing at the paper and watching Max open his!  Another toy that makes noise...thanks Aunt Bee!!

Playing on the floor with Addison!

 Great Aunt Shelly and Great Uncle Bob with Addison.

Good luck on your move to California Bob and Shelly.  We will miss you bunches!!  I hate goodbyes...so...we will see you soon!  We love you!

The Garbes'

Meet My Feet!

Hello everyone!  I would like to introduce you to my little "chubby feet," as my mommy likes to call them!  I love to play with them and try to put them in my mouth!  They are one of my favorite things to play with, especially when mommy or daddy neglect to make sure I have a toy around me at all times!

You can't beat my feet.  They are always there when I need them...like toys that are always there for me to play with :)

It really doesn't matter whose feet I am playing with...I like feet!  Especially when mommy wears these colorful socks!  Don't worry, mommy had just changed her clothes after church and let me play with them...or that is what she told me anyway!

Mommy really likes my feet too!  She is always tickling them and playing 'this little piggy' making me giggle...which then gives me the hiccups.  I wish she would just let ME play with them!

These were my feet one night when mommy took off my socks to get me ready for bed!  I had lots of little fuzzies in them from my socks!  We have a picture of this because my mommy feels the need to document everything in my life, which includes fuzzy toes!

Here I am getting ready for bed last night.  I was talking to Daddy and playing with my feet at the same time!

Well...thanks for letting me introduce my feet to you!  I think I might just go and play with them now!  Bye Bye!!

Love, Addison

23 Weeks...

Addison is 23 weeks old today!  As you know we started cereal this week, which is going very well!  She eats more and more each night.  Last night Dan got a little crazy pouring the dry flakes into her bowl and put a LOT in there!  Our little chunky monkey ate it ALL!  She has now eliminated a night bottle and just has one right before bed.  She has been sleeping well through the night, getting up around 7:30am and one morning she didn't get up until 8am...what a PERFECT little baby!  Dan and I have been so lucky!

Not too much new to report on milestones. She continues to scoot a little on the floor, but is having a hard time figuring out how to crawl.  Dan had her on the floor yesterday trying to teach her with the phone as his incentive to get her to move.  He would help her with her legs and show her how to move them!  She still didn't get very far, but what an accomplishment for such a little girl!

She gets better each week with sitting up on her own.  She still has trouble with falling back when she gets too excited about a toy or mommy or daddy walking into the room.  She is babbling like crazy as well, most of the time saying bababa.  Whenever Dan and I try to get her to say mama or dada, she just laughs at us, probably thinking that we are the crazy ones!  She loves playing with her toys, especially when she gets to sit in her highchair and throw them on the floor.  Then watch mommy and daddy pick them up a million times.  One day she threw one on the floor, I picked it up and set it back on her tray, she looked right at me and swiped it on the floor again!  What a little stinker!  So I was a mean momma and didn't pick it up again!

My little brother Max stayed with us on Friday night and when we got up on Saturday this was the outfit he picked out for Addie.  After we put it on her we realized it matched her little doll that she has!  Later on we had a blowout in this outfit...you really wanted to know didn't you!!?

So after that, we changed her into this shirt that says, "I love my mom and dad."  I love it!  We also decided to go shopping on Saturday afternoon with Addie and she was (as always) great!  She loves shopping with her mommy (and daddy who reluctantly went along with us!)!  Mommy's incentive to get daddy to go shopping...FOOD!  I tell him we will go out to eat and he will always come!

This is our little dress that we wore to church on Sunday.  The bow unfortunately would not stay in her hair.  Her hair is getting longer, but not long enough.

I have been putting her in her pack and play to play with her toys now while I am doing things around the house.  She really likes it because her toys can not get too far from her and they are all within reach.  Here she is this morning...looking a little tired still!

"The world does revolve around me!"  This is what her shirt says today...and it is SO true! Doesn't she look so proud to be wearing it?  What a silly girl!

Happy 23 weeks to our little Addison!

All About Mommy...

I have been doing this every so often, sharing my feelings on the blog.  I have noticed that most of the time I am so focused on my physical self and how I look to others.  I read this quote the other day and it occured to me that I should not worry how I look any longer!

There comes a time when a woman needs to stop thinking about her looks and focus her energies on raising her children.  This time comes at the moment of conception.  A child needs a role model, not a supermodel.  ~Astrid Alauda

I really began thinking about this and the way I have been acting around Addison.  Ever since she was born I have worried about how I look after having a baby and the fact that I have stretch marks and loose skin.  The fact is that these were given to me along with the most precious gift I could EVER ask for, my baby girl.  All I want is to set a good example for my daughter and not have her think that to look "good" you must be skinny and have flawless skin.  I want to raise her to think that to be happy you just need to be healthy.  That means eating right and exercising.  If that does not get rid of the the loose skin...then so be it!  I am proud of what I have accomplished in my life and I have the scars to prove it! So from now on I am going to focus my energies on being Addison's mom...not her supermodel.  The fact of the matter is...that I don't have time to look like a supermodel anyway...I'm just lucky to get a shower taken most days!