Happy New Year!

Addison is very good at pointing out too me how dirty the floors are. She finds every microscopic piece of cheerio, dirt, lint, or otherwise, picks it up all dainty, and holds it up for me to take away. When I went to investigate what piece of dirt she got a hold of yesterday this is what I found upon inspection. A sow bug! These buggers are everywhere here. When we moved in I found a bunch dead under where the furniture was. And now even if I have just vacuumed I find their little bodies creeping across the carpet. But I will take sow bugs over ants and mice, of which I have had the pleasure of both while living in this house.

She had a good time trying to pick him up. She wasn't hurting him so I thought I would take a moment to get a picture of her first bug interaction.

But then suddenly right after this picture he wasn't okay, he was popped into her mouth and MUNCHED. I yelled, "NOOOO!" and then started laughing hysterically about what she just did. I did get it back out but he was long gone. All the while she just looked at me in bewilderment.

If this is any indication of our upcoming year it's going to be an adventure! Happy New Year.

Lately, she's been going from here... to here. I can feel it, walking is not far off.Just a funny for you. She knows how to wave goodbye and will blow kisses too

She started pulling herself up onto things a weeks or so ago and now she's a pullin' up fool. If it has a handholds she'll pull up on it. She especially likes to get right in front of the kitchen TV.

Addison can now say two words, Da (Dad) and on. The other day she got her hat out of her dresser and brought it to me and said, "on." She's also been pointing at things she wants. So next, she pointed at the stereo and said, "on." I left to go clean up the kitchen and when I came back this is what I found.

She was "playing cards" while listening to her radio and wearing her fabulous hat. It was a sight!

I was pretty impressed at how well she could hold the cards in a fan. And the pinkie is always, always out like a lady.
P.S. That is Vick's under her nose NOT snot.

We live in the perfect climate for ice luminaries! We made some the other day and they looked fabulous!

Gratefully, it Was an Ordinary Day.

Today was a hard day, nothing extraordinary, just a tiring day. It has now been two weeks that Ryan has been underway and that leaves me to solely care for Addison 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In that time we have gone through a blizzard, popped a molar, both carried a cold, and done the trillion other daily tasks we repeat at LEAST a dozen times a day. Like today, we ventured down to Green Bay, just Addison and I, and for five hours it was unbuckle her, put on her coat, go into the store, do business, unstrap her from the cart, change her diaper, strap her back in the car seat, stow away purchased items, drive to next store, hear repeated sneezing, pull over, clean up snot, get back in car, pull over, fix a bottle, situate bottle in car seat so the drinking angle is just right for Five hours. And when I got home it was more of the same, unload her, unload the car, pick up around the house and I was more than ready for a break. Ready for Ryan to come home and do his Dad thing. Ready to NOT give just one more bath, not fix one more meal, not wipe one nose, not unbuckle a car seat one more time, not carry 25 wriggling pounds into a store. I was ready for a break. And then I listened to my voice mail.
It was my college roommate Tara. Our other roommate, Jenny's, fourteen month old passed away Mon. night in his sleep. And a million things race through my mind. What happened, what do we do, what is she going to do, what do we say, do we say anything, have you talked to her, does she want to talk, how are we going to make this better? And a million answers did not come to my mind to answer those questions.
All evening the calls and texts went back a forth between Tara and I. Calls to Jenny went out and then calls back to each other. Questions, questions, and more questions and just not enough answers. But one thing was made blatantly clear to me...I am GRATEFUL. I am grateful to have the opportunity to give Addison another bath, to fix another bottle, to position it just right, to put her in and out of her car seat, to make another harried trip to the city, to wipe away more snot, change one more diaper and care for her solely while Ryan is underway again. I am so desperately thankful for the opportunity Heavenly Father has given me to be a mother, to be Addison's mother. I am thankful to have the opportunity to fulfill the mundane tasks of everyday life with a child and marvel at what an extraordinary opportunity it is to serve a precious little spirit of our Heavenly Fathers.
My heart aches for Jenny and what she and her family must be going through. I am grateful for the example she is of what a Mother should be, even at a time like this. She is truly a spiritual powerhouse and I know she will make it through the hell she is facing. She is strong and she has faith in our Heavenly Father's plan. I am grateful for that plan that our Father has created, a plan by which families can be together forever and I am grateful that Jenny has that knowledge too.

What We've Been Up To.

This is how I contain my baby when I can't hold her. I tie her to a tall, tall, chair. J/K we went over to our friends house for a day of baking and a cookie exchange. I didn't want Addison to wander around while she ate her snack so I set her at the table. The only problem is that Sunday has those tall cafe table chairs and a long way to fall. So out came the trusty dishtowels and voila! An instant high chair! Hanging out with Mr. Dale and Hunter. She was so tired but wouldn't take a nap. Addison loves jewelry. You can see her sporting my necklace I wore that day. She now points to things when she wants them. Not only does she want jewelry she knows she wants it on too.Later that night when we all got together for dinner. Addison was the star of the party. One of Ryan's co-workers was there, he's a twenty something and Addison loved, loved, loved him. He was having a pretty good time playing with her too and even offered to watch her while I ate (Ryan was underway.) Gotta love that entertains her and lets me eat!

Looking for trouble.

Miss Sunday let Addison play with some of her decorations.

How do we not get bored when there is snow all around outside? We sit in boxes!

Thank you Gena for the cute birthday dress...and the box it came in.

Addison's birthday present from Grandma Jodi and Pop Pop arrived and we got to open it up with them on Skype. Addison loved all the goodies inside, especially the hair clips.

She's been sick again this week, can you tell?

She loved rediscovering the presents the next morning too.

Sorry Jana, this is the best picture I could get of her in the dress you got her. It wasn't her best day. Notice the cute tights from her previously mentioned birthday box?

I finally finished some projects I've been working on. I borrowed a friends ladder and got these babies hung up. See that curtain rod? Well I've had drapes up and down on that dang thing twice since we moved here and once again they are down. The window is so wide I had to get two hand rails and screw them together. I got so tired of waiting for Ryan to have the time to do it I just tackled it myself. When Ryan saw how jimmy rigged they were and that the stain didn't match he said they had to come down. I didn't care, after a year and a half I just want my drapes up again. So in blog land I found this ingenious idea to use PVC pipe for a curtain rod (because solid wood rods are super expensive, especially when I'll only live here for such a short time.) I think they look pretty believable. When I went to put the curtain rings on they were too small. Man! I guess I measured wrong when I got the pipe so I'm waiting on my new rings to arrive and then I'll show you a final picture. Oh, I also whipped out that little picture in the frame. Just some cute fabric and a sparkly JOY for the Christmas season.

I picked this little table up at a consignment shop here that I love. It was stained a dark brown, UGLY! But the shape was cute. This project took forever because I wanted to sand through the finish color and have the look of layers and layers of paint underneath. I achieved the look but it too three separate colors, many coats of paint, and a few months. I'll post a better picture when I get the drapes up.

Addison give kisses now. The open mouth kind. Here's a series of her kissing her new monkey.

Eye's on the target.

Going in for the smooch.

Open mouth landing.

Sealing the deal.

And when she's done with you, she's done.

This was the day when I looked at her and realized she's not a baby anymore she's a little girl.

having a sick day.

We have her dresser drawer out to fix. This is how I found her the other day.

Some Happy for YOur Day!

Just some quick pictures from the last few days. Here's she's sporting her new Uggs from her birthday! Kinda gives me a glimpse of what her first day of school picture will look like. Doesn't she just look like a little person when she's standing next to the wall like that?

This girl is so her Dad's kid. She loves technology. Did you know that when she gets a hold of a cell phone she tries to scroll on it. Ryan's phone is a Droid and you have to use your finger and scroll on the screen, she knows that and she tries to get every other phone to work by scrolling it.

Just watching some Yo Gabba Gabba music videos on U-Tube.

And sporting her new pajamas from Uncle Kyle and April.

This my friends is her super, super, super excited face and I've never been able to get it on camera till now. The mouth is always open in a "just can't stand the goodness any longer" fashion and there's usually a little excited body shakin' going along with it. I love it. The excitement is a result of me giving her my concealer brush and showing her how to use it.

Who knew a make-up brush could be so fun!

Or perplexing.

A little off target, but she's getting there.

Hope this brings some happy to your day!