Party Time

We absolutely cannot believe that she is one year old!! Where in the world did the time go?  Its been one of the hardest and most special years of my whole life. So much to learn, so much adjustment and most of all SO much new love! 

We celebrated her one year birthday at Monkey Bizness since I knew that we were inviting a lot of kids and there was no way I could entertain all of them at our house in 30 degree weather with rain and snow...yes I said snow!  Its like Spring is never coming! 

We had a fabulous time, Addy played great on the slides and eating her cake. It was just about nap time so we were surprised how well she did.  I made 6 dozen cupcakes and icing from scratch.  I am insane I know and I don't think that I am ever doing it again!  No more attempting to be super mom, I will leave the baking up to the pros!  I have to admit though I did cry once for a few seconds during her party.  Once I heard all of our friends and family singing Happy Birthday to her I lost it!  It just hit me like a ton of bricks and I had a hard time containing myself but I pulled through and was able to carry on hoping no one would notice! 

We are incredibly thankful for our wonderful friends and family for coming to the party, it meant so much to us that everyone was able to come and wow did Addy get a lot of great gifts!  Tons of adorable new clothes, hats, sunglasses, puzzles, books, a wagon, a horse, a princess car, and so much more! She loves all of her new stuff so much she has forgotten about her old toy basket! 

Here are some, okay a lot of pictures from her cupcake themed party...

We had our professional photographer at the party too and you can see her pictures here but you do have to enter your email address and name to view them.
http://www.seeyourphotos.net/syp/event-personalize.html

Professional Pictures

Here are some of our professional pictures that we had taken of us and Addy! 

Happy St. Patricks Day!

We are SO lucky!

A new dance move!



An Annual Tradition....The Auto Show

If you know anything about my family you know the Bartle Hall Auto Show is an annual tradition.  My dad gets free tickets from work every year and literally I think I have gone to this every year since I was born! No matter what, pregnant and all, we always go!  We have shared great memories there, from my Mom wandering off and getting lost and us spending at least half our time there playing Where's Waldo Mom, Rachel's hands getting rashy from all the chemicals on the pamplets and how I used to cart every single piece of paper, brochure and bag home from this event when I was little and I would keep it all hoarded under my bed until the next years new papers, brochures and bags came along to replace them.  So funny!  This year Addy had her first experience and loved it. Even though she has been under the weather she still enjoyed all of the lights, people and getting in all the cars!  She was a real trooper!

"Grandpa.....pay attention...... I see something over there I want!!!"

"This is how you open the sunroof Grandpa!"

Zoom Zoom!

Until next year....

One Sick Little Girl

March has started out to be a nightmare so far! Poor Addy has been suffering from croup, an upper respiratory infection, RSV, croup again and now a double ear infection.  The sick little girl hasn't really been well since Christmas, this winter has been brutal for her!  The latest RSV has by far been the toughest.  She has been on breathing treatments every 4 hours for a week and is finally today starting to get better.  Mat also ended up with the flu, its by far the sickest I have ever seen him in 11 years! Horrible for all involved!  So needless to say Mommy is ready for a vacation!  Summer is right around the corner thank goodness!!!  

11 Months Old

Time is going by so quickly! The countdown is on for her first birthday, its so hard to believe!  She now waves bye-bye, gives kisses and claps on command and has stood by herself a few times.  So far she has been a real healthy eater, her favorites are bananas, peas, green beans and yogurt, but thats it, she wont branch out and try anything new yet so we are hoping its just a phase!  The big girl now has 6 teeth!  4 on top and 2 on bottom, she always gets them 2 at a time which makes her extra grumpy delightful!  She still continues to be a great sleeper, which we are super thankful for!  She is just the most precious girl and we are loving every moment with her!  Here are just a few pics of playing, talking, singing, all of her favorite things! 

Busy, Busy, Busy and No, No, No!

Addy has been on the go lately, crawling everywhere, getting into EVERYTHING and defiantly learning what the word "no" means!  She started swimming lessons recently once a week for 30 minutes.  She is such an observer that the first few time she really just wanted to watch and make sure this is really what she wanted to do! She has now turned into our little fish, she splashes, kicks and puts her face in the water!  Its so foggy and warm that we have not been able to get any good pictures but we are getting ready to switch locations so I will get some pictures in a few weeks.  Luckily we are spending our lessons with Addy's best friend Callie. I work with Callie's mommy Michelle and luckily she came up with the idea and found the place for us!  Thanks Michelle! :) Addy and Callie love giving each other kisses, its so cute!  But then we wonder why neither of them can keep illnesses away!  Ha!

Here is a picture of her in her swimsuit ready to swim (and pretending that she is NOT playing with the nightlight!)

Something else new is the word "no"....Addy hates this word! She gets a big pouty lip and doesn't understand why she cant drink out of Farley's water or eat the edge of her crib or play with the knob of her humidifier. She is into everything and I am sure will be hearing that word more and more often! 

Here she is showing me Farley's green mouse friend and right when I tell her no-no....

This is what happens.....



Happy Valentines Day and Addys New Friend Violet

We got to spend this Valentines Day at home, playing and snuggling with Addy!  Mat bought us roses and Grandma and Grandpa got Addy a balloon and a new special friend, Violet.  Addy loves Violet, she is a Leap Frog puppy that says Addy's name and even talks about how her and Addy have so much in common, both love Farley, the color pink and french fries!  Addy loves it when Violet sings her songs, she puts her arms in the air and rocks back and forth like she is at the best concert she has ever been to!  Hilarious!  Violet sure does get lots of kisses, its adorable!  She also received 3 Valentines from Grandma Krebs, Kathy and Skylar at daycare, she is one lucky little girl!

Blizzard

The weather has just been crazy this year! We got another huge snowstorm and ended up with 13 inches of snow with some 2 foot snow drifts.  We got snowed in once again for a few days which was nice because our backs were killing us from all of the shoveling! Spring cant get here fast enough!

10 Months Old

Uncle Luke

Mat's brother, Luke, flew in from Portland, Oregon to spend the weekend with us and to meet Addy for the first time. We ended up getting about 8 inches of snow the day he flew in but he got here just in time!  We had a snow day on Thursday since we couldnt get out of our subdivision and end up spending the day by the fireplace catching up!  We went to Leon to visit the rest of the family on Friday.  I was a little nervous that Addy would be a little scared of Luke since he is 6' 8" but she warmed right up and loved all of this hugs and kisses!  Here are a few family pictures from the weekend!

 Us with Mat's Aunt Barb who is an amazing breast cancer survivor, we are so proud of her!!

 Courtnie helping the kids play piano, Addy loved it!



Sledding!

Addy had her first experience sledding and boy was it hilarious!  I got her all bundled up in her snow suit, her hat and gloves her slippers and away we went.  As I was putting on my snow boots I had to set her down to put them on and she just fell right over she was bundled so tight!  I laughed and she cried! :) 

Once I set her down in the sled she gave me "the look" which consists of a mean glare and pouty lip.  Once we started moving around she got a little happier and I only mean a little! She was confused most of the time and continued to give me "the look" most of the time, like really mom?  Is this suppose to be fun? as I am jumping around trying to get her to smile. It was hilarious, to only me apparently. 

Happy New Year...kind of...

Poor Addy has been suffering from Croup the week before Christmas.  After a weeks worth of steroids we thought she was all better.  New Years Eve Addy woke with a 103 fever so we rushed her to the walk-in clinic at her pediatricians office office and they told us to immediately go to Children's Mercy, so away we went!  After waiting for 3 hours in the waiting room and 3 hours in the room we finally got seen.  We were all exhausted and starving and basically the doctor just told us that she couldn't find anything wrong with her, no ear infection, no strep, nothing!  Either she had a viral infection or teething.  So after a long day we ate a wonderful meal at my best friend Kendra's and Addy had some needed play time after being confined to our laps all day long!!  We came home and crashed and barely made it until midnight. Not the way we wanted to ring in the new year but we were so worried about Addy. We spent most of the night checking in on her and hoping that they Tylenol would continue to work.  All day New Years Day the poor thing still had a lower grade fever but played and played like nothing was wrong!  She was in great spirits all weekend and enjoyed playing with all of her new toys that Santa brought her.  Finally Sunday she was fever free! Hopefully this doesn't mean that 2011 will be filled with sickness! 

What a year its been!  Such a wonderful and exciting 2010 with so many things to be thankful for!  Our beautiful Addy who amazes us each day! She is so smart and is learning so much every day! She dances to any music she hears, even on commercials, loves to eat banana's and sweet potatoes and curls her nose and snorts when she gets excited!  She loves to read books and has learned how to turn the pages on her own!  Farley is her best buddy even though the feeling isn't always mutual!  Playing with daddy's lunch box, chewing on the sides of her crib and spilling Farley's water all over the kitchen floor are just a few of her favorite things to do at the moment!  She is growing up so fast that we are trying to savor each moment! Each night when I rock her to sleep I wonder how she is going to fit on my lap next month and if she will still let me cuddle her when she is 5 or 10?  My mom always told me that you will never love something so much and just when I thought my heart was full with my love for Mat Addy let that love overflow!  We love her so much and don't even remember what our lives were like without her!  Your love for your child is something that is truly magical and can never be replaced!  I luckily was off the week between Christmas and New Years since her daycare was closed. We had a wonderful week and have never read so many books or crawled around on the floor so much!  I am looking forward to our week together in years to come!  I love our quality time we get together and hope that I wont ever forget these memories! 

Okay now that I am tearing up lets move onto other things that we are thankful for! Our jobs, even though they can be challenging at times we are very thankful to have them so allow us to have all of the wonderful things that we have!  We bought a boat this year and cant wait to take it out this summer when Addy is older and can play in the water!  Mat also just bought a new truck so now all 3 of us can ride in a car other than mine!  We are thankful for our health, our family and friends and Farley!  Even though he has become our second priority I look forward to our cuddle time at night!  He is a great feet warmer!  So as 2010 ends we are looking forward to the new things that 2011 has in store for us!  Bring it on, we are ready for a new fresh start!  Happy New Year!