And She's Off....

I can officially announce that my sweet little Addison is mobile.  She has been taking steps for quite a while now but now she walks all over the house!  It’s so cute and sad.  It has amazed me how cautious she has been with the whole walking thing because she is a dare-devil when it comes to most other things.  It really took her a while to build up her confidence but now she believes in herself and grins from ear to ear as she prances all over the place.  She will even walk on the hardwood now even though she has figured out that it doesn’t feel as good to fall on that as the carpeting. 

With her turning a year old exactly one week from today, it is time for me to accept the fact that my baby is not really a baby anymore.  Wow, that is difficult.  I can’t imagine how hard her first day of school will be on me and other firsts that I will have to endure down the road. 

Another milestone for her is that she is no longer taking formula.  We switched her to whole milk yesterday after we used up the last bit of formula.  I couldn’t justify buying another canister of formula when doctors recommend switching them to whole milk when they are a year old.  She has been on formula since she was 9 ½ months old after I stopped breastfeeding her because of her lack of patience with the slow-flow of breast milk (in addition to the fact that my supply was on the decline).  The whole milk has been a challenge so far but she does drink it.  I think it is just going to be a process of her getting used to it.  We are still warming it on the stove like we did her formula and I need to stop doing that too but we are taking baby steps.

I guess the next thing that will have to happen will be taking away the bottle and having her use sippy cups 100% of the time.  She uses sippys a lot now but she still takes 2-3 bottles a day and honestly, I enjoy giving my “baby” a bottle at bedtime.  So once I feel like she has gotten used to the taste of whole milk, I guess I will start weaning her from the bottle—boohoo!

Okay, so this post is depressing me…  Where has the time gone? 

Action shot

Reading with brother...

Napping with daddy...

Just being silly!

Easter 2011

It dawned on me Friday after work that I hadn’t taken Addison to see the Easter bunny….  Obviously, that isn’t an important part of the Easter celebration but it definitely makes for a cute picture and since this was her first Easter, I was anxious to see her reaction to the huge stuffed animal with rabbit ears.  Lyndi was still at work at the mall, so Randy and I packed up the 3 kids and headed to see the Easter bunny.  Katie was very excited—until we got there and then her enthusiasm took a nose dive.  We never did get her to smile and trying to get 3 little ones to look in the same direction is quite a task so this is the best we got:

Addison loves stuffed animals so it was no surprise that she loved the Easter bunny.  She kept looking up at him so it was actually hard to get her to look at the camera so that we could capture that sweet face!

We went to the food court to grab some dinner and noticed that there was a MAJOR storm going on outside.  About that time, my phone rang and my dad informed me that we needed to get home and get to the basement because we were under a tornado warning.  So Addi and I went straight home and straight to the basement.  Austin was still at school at play practice and they had to seek shelter there and Craig was still at work.  Luckily, no tornadoes hit our area although there were reports of tornadoes in nearby counties.  Later that night, at 3AM, the sirens went off in our city as we were under yet ANOTHER tornado warning.  Once again, we all headed down to the basement to wait it out and thankfully again, no tornado. 

The next morning, we were planning on taking Addison to an Easter egg hunt at church but because it was so rainy outside we decided to skip it even though the egg hunt had been moved indoors.  I just didn’t feel like getting out when it was so nasty outside.

We opted to attend Easter service at church on Saturday night instead of Sunday so we all got ready and met mom and dad and Lyndi and Randy and our “adopted-sister” Angela at church.  The church service was wonderful and the girls (Katie and Addi) looked adorable in their matching Easter dresses that grandma bought for them.  Even Connor had an adorable new Easter outfit on.  Here are some of the pictures in our Easter get-up:

After the service, we all went to Tony Roma’s for a wonderful dinner.  Brad met us there as he had been at work all day until around 6:30.  More pictures from dinner:

Easter morning the kids got up and went thru their Easter baskets.  Addison was more into the Easter grass than anything (of course)!  One of the things in Austin’s basket was a DVD of the movie South Pacific which is the musical that he has been rehearsing for—the productions are coming up soon on May 5-7^th and May 12-14^th.

A little sad that there was no chocolate for her!

We went to Craig’s parents for Easter lunch with the whole family and then to my parent’s house around 3 for an outdoor Easter egg hunt and then dinner from the grill.  Addison actually did well hunting eggs.  She would pick one up and put it in the basket.  Next year, she will be a pro! 

I am so grateful to have been able to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior with my amazing family and very thankful for the family traditions that we have.

Doctor, Doctor, Doctor…

Addison babbles all the time but for some reason lately, she has been babbling a phrase that sounds exactly like she is saying “doctor, doctor, doctor.”  She ALWAYS says it three times!  Not sure where it came from, but we repeatedly say that phrase a lot now at home and then she will repeat it.  It’s so funny. 

Well today she had an appointment with the doctor, doctor, doctor and it was to have her enzyme levels checked for the biotinidase deficiency that she has.  Unfortunately, they had to take blood from her arm which was no fun at all but before that, she had to have her hearing checked (and she passed with flying colors) and then she saw Dr. Mabry.  Here are some pictures we took of her while (im) patiently waiting for the doctor, doctor, doctor:

Destroying the paper on the table!

Her weight today at the doctor, doctor, doctor’s office was 20.5 lbs and her height was 30.25 inches.  We will get the results of the bloodwork back next week and hopefully if her levels are higher, we can discontinue giving her the biotin daily.   

After we left, we stopped at McDonalds because French fries and chicken nuggets makes everything all better, right?  J

Pizza!!!

Anyone that knows me well at all, knows that my nutritional existence is dependent on a few staple foods:  chicken (tenders, n’ dumplins, bbq), mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, pizza, poptarts, McDs, and turkey subs.  That pretty much sums it up.  I am not proud of this at all and hope to instill better eating habits in my 11-month old daughter.  I plan on using the ole “do as I say, not as I do (or eat)” saying a lot in the next few years. 

I am, unfortunately, though starting to see some similarities between the things that she likes and the things that I like.  For example, Tuesday night I stopped in at the Little Caesar’s drive-thru and picked up a hot-n-ready pepperoni pizza.  I just couldn’t resist—it’s just so easy and I needed EASY.  Austin was at play practice and Craig at work so it was just me and Addi.  I put her in her high chair and gave her broken up pieces of pepperoni and bites of the cheese and crust.  She LOVED it—I couldn’t feed her fast enough.  After I felt that she had had enough, I got out some of her stage 3 baby food and tried to balance out her meal by providing something a little more nutritional.  I got her to take a few bites but she quickly realized that the chicken with mixed vegetables didn’t taste nearly as good as the pizza had—and she was done with it.  Having a major desire to feed her something healthy, I got out the old faithful—a banana and she did eat over half of it and drank some milk so I felt a little less guilty about my sweet girl’s unhealthy dinner! 

Apparently the pizza made quite an impression on her because the next day, I had her on my hip (as usual) when I opened the refrigerator door to put something in there.  She saw the Little Caesar’s pizza box in the refrigerator  and pointed to it and said, “pizza.”  It was clear as a bell—I nearly fainted!!!  It was hilarious.  At this point, her vocabulary is very limited—da-da, ma-ma, bu-bba, ball, bye-bye, and now PIZZA of all things…  She is her mother’s daughter!!

Tribute to my Grandparents...

I just wanted to dedicate this post to my grandparents because I am so blessed to have all 4 of my grandparents and so thankful for their Godliness and integrity and unconditional love.  Unlike so many people today, I have had so many positive role models in my life and my grandparents are at the top of the list. 

This past Saturday, April 16^th, I got to celebrate with my Mamaw Pogue as we surprised her with an 80^th birthday party at Okolona Church of Christ (in Louisville) which is where they attend church.  Her actual birthday was April 19^th so we celebrated a few days early.  It was such a great time and it was so nice to have so much of the family together and to be able to reunite with friends and neighbors in honor of my grandmother.  We have a very large family and it was so nice that so many were able to com.  She had a great time and was really surprised.  My Uncle David was in charge of getting her there and he came up with a great idea of telling her that there was a cornhole tournament at church that day and he wanted her to be his partner.  Anyone who knows my grandmother knows that she LOVES to play cornhole and she is very good at it too—she can compete with the best of the best!  Needless to say, getting her to the church was easy as pie because she was looking forward to winning this tournament—she even brought her own (top-of-the-line) cornhole bags!!  She was definitely very surprised and had a great day of fellowship with family and friends.  The party planners did an excellent job and everything was very, very nice.  Aunt Sharon did a fabulous job of putting together a family scrapbook for Mamaw.  It turned out really nice and I know it will be something that she will look at often in the years to come. 

Here are some pictures from the party:

My dad’s parents were there also so it was so nice to get to spend the day with them also as well as with my dad’s oldest sister, Sandy.  My mom and dad’s families were close growing up since my dad was best friends with my mom’s brother , Lindle, so the two families were always close which is so nice.  Here are some pictures of the kids with the Smith’s:

It was a great day and a wonderful visit and I’m so glad that we got to honor and celebrate Mamaw Pogue’s birthday in such a special way.    Happy Birthday Mamaw—you are so special to me and I hope that you enjoyed your special day as much as I did.

Here are some more pictures from the ride to Louisville.  We all piled into Lyndi and Randy’s new Sienna van and took off…  2 adults up front, 3 car seats in the middle, and 3 adults in back—packed in like sardines!