Easter

If you have to go to Chemo mine as well make it fun right? So when Easter rolls around what do you do? Dress up like a little bunny. We handed out Peep treats to all of Addison's "Favorite Peeps," at Children's. It kind of didn't work because she finally had her MRI which she was suppose to have the week before but it got cancelled due to her being hospitalized with RSV (see her blog for more details http://www.bumpcourage.blogspot.com/). So she was a little drunk monkey from the anethesia they gave her during the MRI. But I handed them out to everyone and they all adored her bunny outfit. It was nice to bring so many smiles into a place that can sometimes be so sad and stressful. Her onsie had a peep bunny on it and the bum said, "Peep," with two more small peep bunnies.

For Easter dinner we had brunch with friends. It was a great view of Lake Michigan out the window and such a beautiful day.

Easter at our house was pretty low key. We mostly stayed in and tried to recover from our hectic week before. It's my goal to make our future Easters more Christ centered and this year we started by doing activities that mirrored the events that happened that day in Easter week. I got this great book last year from Deseret Bookstore , A Christ Centered Easter, which started my mind thinking about how we could be more Christ centered during the week. On Palm Sunday we took one of the ladies in our branch some bulbs. Just like Christ they live and die and just like Christ they will live again. And since it was a plant I thought it was representative of a palm. On the day when Christ cleansed the temple we thoroughly cleaned the house in preparation for the rest of Easter week. And this year those were the only activities I could get my rear in gear to do. Next year we will hopefully be able to complete the whole week of activities. It is my hope that our kids will look forward to celebrating Easter week for the real reason and the fun activities that remind us of the original Easter week. And we of course colored eggs.
Addison's Easter basket was one of my little holiday crafting projects. You turn a stuffed animal into a basket. So cute and easy too plus I got the animal for 50% off at Joann's, score!


Eating the non edible bunny Grandma Jodi and Pop Pop got her. The edible one stayed in it's package this year.

More presents from Pop Pop and Grandma Jodi.

To say the least between the bunny and both grandparents she made a haul. She got several outfits, LDS children's songs on CD, multiple teething toys, and a baby Einstein DVD she loves.

And just because. Wacky hair, snot freshly sneezed out, and drool. Yep that's our precious little monkey.

Only Your Dad...

Only your Dad would think to take a picture of you when you are puking.

Since Addison had been sick with RSV she would get cough attacks that would gag her and lead to unavoidable puking. Ryan jsut thought to get this one on camera.

Growing Up

Addison has been learning a lot of new skills and tricks lately. It's amazing how much she can do compared to just a month ago. This last week we started eating rice cereal. She loves it and yipes when we don't load it in fast enough.

She's learned how to put those big brown eyes to good use. She's quite the flirt already. Watch out Dad.
And she has most defiantly learned how to smile socially. She is such a turkey. She knows when you are frustrated or when she isn't suppose to be doing something, she'll just turn on the charm and smile at you until you give in and can't help but smile back. She wakes up happy and smiley and a lot of people comment on what a happy baby she is. She smiles at people she knows and strangers she's just met.
She is learning how to become a body builder by reading Muscle and Fitness with her Dad. She know what to do with her hands now and grabs her toys.

And she has discovered her mouth. Everything she can grab goes straight into her mouth with ferocity!

She is learning how to sleep better. She takes at least several 30min. naps a day and sometimes and hour plus. We lay her down, swaddle her up, and give her a pacifier and that's it, she's off to dream land. It took a long time and several tricks to get us through, i.e. hairdryers, swings, white noise, but now we've arrived and it's so nice to lay her down and be able to walk away at least for a half an hour rejuvenation.

Across the River and Through the Woods....

To Grandmother's house we go...

except Grandma Jodi and Pop Pop came to our house.Addison has been soaking up the attention latley. First, Grandma Cec came for a week during Addison's second week of chemo. That visit brought lots of spoiling, dresses as previously seen, shoes, and hats. And now Grandma Jodi brought some smashing new sunglasses to go with a previously shipped swimsuit (and lots of other Grandma goodies!)
I love this gummy little smile. And guess who she was smiling at? Her momma.

We had a ton of fun while Rick and Jodi were here. We traveled up the peninsula to take in the quaint little villages, made the obligatory cheese factory stop, made the rounds at the custom meat market, and Culverized (regional take on In and Out Burger) the in-laws. And as always there was lots and lots of baby holding and loving.

This is what my morning routine has become. Toothpast, flat iron, pacifier, bows, and eyelash curler, and a cute little monkey taking it all in from her Bumbo. Certainly different than it use to be, but I love it.

Great, Great, Great Blog

www.kellehampton.com/2010/01/nella-cordelia-birth-story.html

So a few weeks ago I was reading about this blog called designmom.com I went to it and was parousing through the posts. I came along one that caught my eye about pregnancy stories and out of the four or five posted this one really grabed my attention. And it is AMAZING. You will cry and cry and cry, but it's well worth it. I went onto Kelle's blog and I'm now addicted. She writes about enjoying the small things in life. She is very inspiring and her photography is beautiful. What's even more exciting is that she is being featured on CNN on March 16 at 4pm EST. But first you gotta read this birth story of Nella.

Finally Pictures of Addison's Room

So I can finally post pictures of Addison's room. Her crib took forever to get here, that's okay though because they gave me some money back for the delay. And let me tell ya some money back on this thing just made it reasonable. Both end panels are carved, so beautiful! I love how the room turned out, a good mix of contemporary and traditional. There's still some little touches I want to do but thought I had better get these up before Ann divorced me as a friend. The inside of the crib. This little birdy was a shower present. One of Ryan's co-workers, after seeing the draw pulls I painted, picked this up for us. I don't much care for stuffed animals but this one is perfect.
My Mom made the bumper pad and sheets for the crib. Thank you Grandma Worlton for the mattress and bumper pad insert. And I absolutely love the skirt! This is the inspiration for the whole room. Year back I saw a iridescent orange crib skirt and fell in love with how unusual it was. When we found out Addison was going to be a girl I knew exactly what my starting point for her room would be. It's so much lovelier in person. It has pink shots of color moving through it an dazzles in the sun.The dresser with little birdy pulls and the mirrors as I previously posted. Here they are all together.

This painting that Tiffany did brings so much color into the room and I love it! As you may have noticed I still have not covered the big ugly green chair, lovingly referred to as the Oscar (as in the grouch) chair. I just can't find the fabric I want for cheap. I don't want to spend $500 on a slip cover, you know? But the chair is great for in the middle of the night. Oscar keeps you nice and warm. Notice the little quilt blocks above her closet. Thank you Pat!

While my Dad was out here in December he was busy in the garage painting. Come to find out he was painting a picture for Addison of the day she was born. It's a picture of a barn, field, and blizzard. My sister Summer made Addison this quilt for her bed. It's a perfect blend of colors and traditional and contemporary designs. While she's little we'll keep it on the wall and later move it to her crib.

I picked up this little beanie on sale for three bucks! What a steal right? I thought it would fit her for next year. However, after trying it on I think we'll have to buy a bigger one for next winter. Summer says she looks Dutch with it on.

With the Valentine's Day present from Aunt Summer. Grandma Cec made this new hat for her. Right now it's just a touch big. We had to sit back and laugh while I'm sure she was trying to figure out why her little world went dark. The things we do to her.

I had to buy this little outfit for her to wear this summer, after all it is for a 6mo old. But it fits now. To say the least the chemo is not affecting her appetite too much. (And all moms know sizes do vary. Right?) I love those little chunky legs. She had her second round of shots this week. She didn't even cry with the first one. I looked at my Mom is disbelief. But you better believe she cried for the second and third. She did really well though, no fever and she wasn't even cranky.

Thanks Aunt Summer for the cool hair clippies!

Valentine's Day dress Grandma Cec made. It makes me think she should have a basket full of watermelons, trying to sell them on the side of a NC road.

Look Sum, there's no escaping the dulap even when you are a baby!