Traditions

We just had our Christmas Party at church last night and tried to participate in the age old tradition of having our child see Santa. I was hoping Addie would be cooperative and we could snap a cute picture of her smiling wide eyed on Santa's lap. Not so much!





Why do we torture our kids? Notice Addie with the death grip on Brian's shirt. We never got her on Old Saint Nick's Lap.



Luckily Santa snuck up behind us before he left. Addie didn't know he was behind her. At least we got one smiling picture.

She was definitely happy to see him go. Hopefully this girl will learn she's got to butter him up for the goods!

a

Decorating Contest

Addie's tree decorating job.
(the cluster approach)

Brian and my decorating job.
(the balanced approach)

You be the judge!!

Really?

Is this really the most comfortable spot to watch Sesame Street???

Bedrock

Introducing the Flinstones and the Rubbles!

Isn't she a cute Pebbles?

But, Pebbles wouldn't be complete without Bam Bam!

Ahh...Fall

Fall??? Yeah right!!! I was so excited to visit a local pumpkin patch and have some fun picking out a pumpkin with Addie, a couple of her friends (Abby and Laney), and Addie's cousin Jaxon. Ok, so my hopes and dreams were demolished by the 90° heat, craziness of 2 toddlers running around and the rough terrain. Let's just say we had no fun and I was so hot I could feel sweat dripping behind my knees. To top it off, we couldn't find our camera before, so luckily Aunt Kelly had her's and snapped a couple of pics. I don't think we'll be visiting the pumpkin patch next year unless it really IS fall weather.

Addie and Jaxon
(looks nice right? wrong!! we were dying!)

Our one group shot of the kids
(notice only 6 year old Abby is smiling.)

When is fall REALLY arriving????

No news is good news

Nothing new to report. Nothing exciting going on. The weather is cooling off. It's getting darker earlier. Addie is getting so big. AND my FAVORITE time of the year is coming...the Christmas Season! I absolutely love Christmas music and would listen to it all year long, but Brian won't let me. I'm one of the crazy's that loves it when KOST plays Christmas music all day everyday for an entire month. I know, I know, kind of annoying. So, our agreement is that I can listen from October 1 to the end of the year. It's time to break out the Christmas CD's! Wahoo! Anyway, here's a recent pic of Addie. She such a big girl...and is developing an attitude already. I am in so much trouble during the teenage years!

I'm just lazy...

I've been meaning to write something on here for awhile, but I have no good excuse, just lazy. I really have nothing exciting to write about and nothing clever to say. So, I'll just post a few pix of my sweetness. Here are all the fun things we've been doing this summer.

Watched way too many Laker games!

Fed the ducks at El Dorado Park

Got passes to the LA Zoo

Made lots of messes

Started Gymnastics

Sprayed mommy with the hose

Went swimming

Used daddy as my primary mode of transportation.

Went to the beach for the first time!!!

Played with my cousin Jaxon

And there's still another month of summer! Woohoo!

My new favorite place

It doesn't matter where Addie is in the house when the fridge is opened, she's comes running as fast as she can and sits herself down in her new favorite spot. I've almost closed the fridge on her a couple of times because she's so sneaky fast. :) I love this age!

Negotiations and Independence

Addie was a great eater until she had to move from breast milk to solids. She is so picky that we are always trying to change things up to try and get her to eat more foods. So, it has come to negotiating (as much as you can with a 14 month old) and giving her independence. The problem is, she is way too smart and WAY too messy for either of these things to become a habit.

An inside look at real life negotiations with a toddler.
I'm trying to get her to eat some whole wheat bread.
p.s. - cheeto's are not usually part of her diet (although she would love them to be!)



The results of allowing her to try and feed herself a little bit of sweet potatoes! While she is distracted trying to feed herself the spoonful we give her, we quickly shove the rest of it in her mouth. Pretty successful, but not if we want to go anywhere after she eats.

Mother's Day

I loved Mother's Day! Brian didn't have ANY meetings at church and got to come home with me instead of stay for the normal 1.5 - 2 hours after. He made me breakfast (3 different items because I couldn't decide what I wanted), cleaned up the house on Saturday night so it would be clean on Sunday AND kept it clean all day ( i woke up this morning to a perfectly clean house...it was awesome!!!). He made me dinner. And, the best part.....responded with "whatever you want, it's your day" all day long. Isn't he wonderful?? I love my husband!! I think we should turn this into Mother's Week. Who's with me?????

The Chef

The first meal
Egg Sandwhich and an omlet.
(we split everything)

The second meal
Homemade waffles with strawberries and raspberry puree...mmmm.

My two favorite people!

She is talking a bit now and her favorite word is duck. She says duck while scrunching her face and with a big smile!

Addie and mommy after church.

I did it...

After months of Brian nagging me I finally did it...I joined facebook. Don't tell him, but I really like it and am already addicted. I usually check my email 2 - 3 times a week, but today I checked it like 5 times because I was so excited to see who wanted to be my friend. Ridiculous.

Bad blogging mommy

Everyday I say I am going to update my blog and everyday I don't. So, here is a short post to tell you what's happened the last month. Maybe one day I'll be a cool blogging mom with cute wall paper and something clever to say. In the meantime here's what I got...

Addie had her first birthday (March 13).

We got Disney passes.

Addie is almost walking.
(She is much faster and more independent with the walker, but again, I am a bad blogging mommy and have not downloaded the latest pictures and videos from my camera. Now she is taking about 5-7 steps without a walker...nice and controlled too I might add!)



And I got a pedicure today for the first time in a year!! Wahoo!!
(sorry no picture...i HATE my feet)

Freeman Family Pictures

In January we had family pictures taken with the Freemans for the first time in 7 years. The last time I had just come home from my mission, my younger brother was about to leave for his, and it was right before I met Brian. So, we finally took pictures at Seal Beach with our amazing photographer from our wedding, Kaelene Petersen. Of course, she didn't let us down and captured some awesome moments with my family. If you want to check out her work, click on her name and it will take you to her site . Now, enjoy the show!!

The Scavenger

How come Addie won't eat what I put on her clean high chair, but she'll eat anything on the floor???


Hmmmmm....what's this?

Looks like food to me! Yum!

Gross Alert, I repeat Gross Alert!!!! One time after coming in from out side, Brian found her moving something towards her mouth. He swatted at her hand before she got the object in her mouth and was horrified to find a wiggling silk worm on the floor!! Why? Why? Why?

Yeah!!!

I am now working part time! Yeah!!! Brian started a new job 3 weeks ago and I am now able to work 3 days a week! He works Mon, Wed, Fri and I work Tues, Wed Thurs. Addie gets to go to our friends house (The Arroyos) every Wednesday and she absolutely loves it! They have a 5 year old girl (Abby) and a 21 month old girl (Lanie) who Addie adores. She has always loved being around other kids, but she is in hog heaven having a playmate for an entire day. So, we couldn't be happier with our new schedule and feel sooooo incredibly blessed that Brian was able to find a job during this horrible economic crisis. Now, I will finally get to spend more time with my baby girl and maybe, just maybe find a hobby. Currently, I am liking the photoshop thing. This picture was at the Santa Ana Zoo on Saturday and I couldn't resist posting it.

Home Ownership

Brian and I have lived in our house for about 2.5 years and are still very much in the process of making home improvements. Since the day we moved in, I have hated the carpet in our family room. Most of the house has beautiful hard wood, but the family room had this awful forest green patterned carpet that had yellow bleach spots and felt like sand paper. When we had Addie we swore we would replace it before she was able to roll around or crawl on it. Well, she's been rolling for months and luckily was a late crawler (she was 10 months) and we FINALLY replaced it. We also painted (the previous walls were yellow complete with stains where the previous owners had hung pictures), replaced the ceiling fan and put in new baseboards. Now, we just have to finish putting new trim on the windows, hang the curtain rods and curtains we have, and figure out what we want to do with the brick shelving. I LOVE OUR NEW CARPET!!! It feels like heaven! Addie loves it too. Now maybe one of these days I will find the energy and the time to take down the fruit wall paper in the kitchen!!

Before

After!!!!

Before carpet, paint and furniture that is comfortable and actually matches.

After! I also love our couch. It's so comfy and fits so many people.

Yet another angle before:

Final after!!