Outside Fun

What's been going on in Addison's world you ask?  

Well, we've been busy taking advantage of the gorgeous weather we've had here over the past week!  Addison had her first trip to the zoo on St. Patrick's  Day.  Nick took off early that day and we met up with one of his co-workers and his daughter at the zoo.  They even brought along their wagon equipped with a canopy for the girls to ride in.  Addison loves riding in wagons so I knew we had it made!  She enjoyed scoping out all of her surroundings, but I'd have to say it would be a toss up as to what was her favorite part of the day...either the Cheerios that her new buddy so kindly shared with her during the wagon ride or watching the carousel go 'round and 'round!  She did lots of roaring at the animals which gave us all a good little chuckle.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to see the chimpanzees though!  We will be going back for a second trip before it gets too warm out so we can hopefully see more of the animals.  After we left the zoo we headed to my parents' house where she enjoyed picking up Grampy's golf balls, sitting on Grampy's tractor, and dancing on the chicken's cracked corn!  What a BIG day it was!!

We also took our first trip to Toys 'R' Us with Addison to get some fun outside toys.  We broke down and got a little Stage 2 jungle gym for her since she's wanting to climb anything she comes in contact with.  She was a little hesitant about it at first, but quickly warmed up to it after she discovered she could climb up the slide.  I think she enjoys going up the slide more than she does going down!  The novelty of the jungle gym wore off after a few trips up and down the slide and naturally, she picked up two pieces of mulch that kept her occupied for much longer...go figure!!!  She could spend hours toting around buckets to drop mulch, rocks, and leaves into.  Nick had fun blowing bubbles while Addison had more fun sticking the bubble wand in her mouth!  

We are keeping our fingers crossed that the snow they're calling for this weekend misses us and we get our warm weather back so we can continue getting outside more to play!  Here are some pictures of Addison's latest adventures!

Addy 'n' Leroy

Today was my brother's birthday so we decided to take lunch up to him at his feed store.  Addison LOVES going there and you'll see why!  

This is a little bit of what she did in our hour there:

She sat on one of the saddles he has for sale

     

She rode around on a dolly in the warehouse

 She cheesed BIG time after giving Uncle Jay a B-Day smooch

She had Grampy pushing her around the warehouse

 She met her new BFF, Leroy!

 She even got down on the ground with him...this kid is not afraid to get dirty!

She even played with Missy!

Missy gave Addy a good-bye lick!

Leroy followed her all over the place!  It was too cute!!!

 She was so gentle with the 3-day-old pygmy goat, Leroy!

He just tagged along with Addy!

Winter Wonderland

Nick and I bundled Addison up and took her out for her first adventure in the snow on Saturday afternoon and boy o' boy did she love it!!!  We kept trying to keep her in the shallow parts, but she was bound and determined to play in the deep stuff where she couldn't even manage to take more than just a couple of steps before falling face first in the snow.  Did this upset her?  Not a bit.  She thought it was hilarious and plopped down on her bottom to chow on some snow.  Not to worry though, I explained to her before going outside that we stay away from yellow snow!  She liked it so much despite the cold that she got upset when we took her back inside where it was warm.  Nick and I were freezing so I made us some hot chocolate and gave Addy a little bit to cool down in her cup, but she wasn't as impressed with it as I'd expected.  What kid doesn't like some hot chocolate after playing in the snow?  Then again, what kid enjoys falling face first in the snow?  Oh yeah, that would be our Addison! 

Say "Mama"...or not!

I was able to catch a bit of Addison's infamous 'Say "Mama" Game' while she was eating today!  Unfortunately, I ran out of space on my memory card just as she was really getting her vocals warmed up, but you'll get a good idea of what I was talking about in my post below!  Note: You will want to scroll down to the very bottom of my page and stop the music before playing the video.

Some Random Things I Love About Addison

As I sit here listening to Addy breathing over the monitor, I'm realizing how I have neglected to jot down some of these random things that I love about her.  I had started a notebook of my thoughts/experiences about being her mommy and had every intention of frequently updating it for her to have when she's older, but I've been  a bad mommy by not keeping up with it as I'd planned.  I'm still amazed each and every day at how much love and joy she has brought to our lives.  Now it's only fair that I share some of that joy with you instead of just posting pictures!

Some Random Thing I Love About Addison-

I love how she says "dada" (it gets louder the more she's asked) with a smirk on her face when asked to say "mama"

I love how she's stingy/selective with her kisses which tend to be open-mouth and very wet

I love how she mocks us blowing on something that is hot and cracks up at herself when she does it

I love how excited she gets when we say we're going to go see her dogs 

I love how she's started trying to say "Bailey" and points her finger in the air as if she's scolding Bailey when she barks 

I love how she always takes off her right sock with the heel of her left foot 

I love how she will come up to us out of nowhere and say "tickle tickle" while doing the tickling motion with her fingers against any part of us she can reach at the time

I love how she dances to anything that remotely sounds like music

I love how she squeals with excitement climbing up Nick's chest as he carries her up to her room at night with me following behind telling her I'm going to get her

I love how she cuddles her stuffed giraffes (BG and GG) while sucking her thumb when she's sleepy

I love how she throws her head back dumping the food that has fallen into the pouch of her bib into her mouth so she doesn't waste a drop of whatever she's eating 

I love how she's started holding her giraffes like a baby and rocking them (my mom worked on this with her today and she was doing it by the time I picked her up this evening)

I could go on and on, but I'm going to stop myself.  Our life with Addison is always full of smiles and laughter!

Some Crazy Faces And Wild Hair

Part of that is a shadow, but we're calling her our little Chia Pet with how fast her hair is growing!

She loves wrinkling up her nose now!

I caught this one just right when she was blowing her lips together at me.  I like how you can see her two little bottom teeth!

It looks like she's giving me a stern stare down here like she's had enough of the camera in her face!

I have no clue what she was doing in this one, but this picture reminds me of a bobble head!

She looks like she belongs in a Dr. Seuss book with that 'do!

'Tis The Season

My attempt at a couple of silhouette shots(I'm a newbie with this camera) in front of Grammy's Christmas tree.

Grammy got some footie pjs like Addy's for Christmas.  She looks really excited about them because she's always said she wished they made them in her size.  We weren't laughing with her...we were laughing at her when she put them on!

Acting goofy at Grammy and Grampy's!

Addison on Christmas morning after getting her stocking stuffers.

The extent of our Christmas decor this year (sad, I know) on Christmas morning.

Cheesin' for the camera while holding onto the spatula she carries around with her.

She really enjoyed sticking the bows to her Daddy's head!

This was her expression after opening her Elmo Live for Christmas!

Photo Tag...

The object of the photo tag is to:

1) Choose the 4th folder where you store photos

2) Choose the 4th photo in that folder...NO CHEATING...just choose it and explain it!

3) Post it in your blog and explain the photo

4) Tag 4 people to do the same (I'm skipping this part)

     This is a photo of the living room in our first house and it was taken when we were getting ready to put the house on the market.  Boring...I know, but the instructions told me not to cheat so this is what you get!  

     Opening up the folder with all of these old pictures brought back so many memories of that old house.  Nick and I put in a lot of work there starting with refinishing the hardwood floors as soon as we bought it, putting in a new driveway/curved sidewalk, and moving on to much bigger projects like completely gutting the master bath.  We loved (and miss) the character that this old house had like the archways between rooms, the built-in corner cabinets in the dining room, and the fireplace mantle.  We decided it was time to move on when we found out that we were finally expecting our first child so that we could not only have more space (along with having kids comes having a ton of stuff), but also so that we could be closer to my parents.  It was emotional leaving that place after all of the hard work we put into making it "just right", but we are so happy where we're at now.  We do miss the mortgage at the old house, but I know Nick doesn't miss the "honey do" lists that came along with it.

Happy Holidays

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Addison's First Birthday Party

Here are some pictures from Addison's first birthday party...our thanks go to Beth for taking all of them for us.  Addy did great with her cake and by "did great" I mean that she kept it tidy for her mommy!  My mom made the adorable giant cupcake cakes and I was so happy with how they turned out...thanks go to Grammy for doing such a great job on them.  You'll see that Addison kept her birthday hat on the entire party which kind of surprised me.  She really thought she was hot stuff with that hat on!