Daddy's Helper

Addison is getting a swing set for her 2nd birthday and after church she was watching Daddy begin day two of the project.  Thankfully PawPaw is helping today to lessen Monty's load.  I know she will be as thrilled with the outcome as she was with the building portion (until the drill started - we did not care for that noise!)

Watch out gymnastics class - I have already mastered the balance beam.

No question they belong together!  

Inspecting Daddy's work from the day before.  Nice job!  

Purple Jelly

If you are around Addison at meal time you know that she is a HUGE fan of purple jelly (also known as grape jelly).  For breakfast right now she will tell you she would like umm...mini waffles with purple jelly (puple jelly) and um honey and um butter (buddah).  I guess this is not all too uncommon to like jelly with your breakfast, but she will request it with every meal.  She will eat it on chicken, fruit - you name it.  While I am sure this is a passing phase, her request for purple jelly never gets old.  The great thing about her is she loves condiments of many kinds, but when she 'dips' she barely gets any so a little goes a very long way! 

Want a bite???  I'll share!  

Monty's Birthday

Addison helped pick out Daddy's card this year.  She loves Dora and Diego so we decided on a Diego card (Dora is exclusively for girls).  As Diego is a children's character, we had to improvise and turn a 3 into 31.  She was so excited to give it to him and help him read.  She loves her Daddy and we are so blessed to be his girls.

Silly girl before school

Valentine's 2012

This year Valentine's Day fell on a school day so it was extra special.  Addison had a party at school and then celebrated with us at home.  She loves any holiday where there are parties and food (mainly the candy part!).

Before school - this is how we now pose

Noel, Addison & Bailey - the three school amigos

Play-Doh is serious business and is Addison's current love

2012 Valentine courtesy of Lisa & Pinterest

Pillow Time

For some reason, I was very uncertain as to when you introduce your child to a pillow.  As I am not too keen on relying on books for advice, we just decided on January 22^nd to let Addison sleep with a pillow.  She loved it!  Truth be told she is such a wild sleeper that she rarely stays on it for more than five minutes, but nonetheless she loves her soft pillow (notice it is satin like everyone else J).

NYE 2011 - 21 Months

Addison and her PawPaw

Very, very serious

She had to make sure mom had her accessories on 

Wow!  2011 was a fantastic year for our family!  Addison celebrated her first year of life, became VERY mobile and talkative and Monty completed his MBA.  We can’t complain about a thing J  We did fireworks at PawPaw and MiMi’s to ring in the new year. 

New Year’s Eve marks Addison’s 21^st month – unbelievable.  It has been a month full of milestones that have melted hearts.  On December 3^rd she called my mom Grammy for the very first time (prior to that she had said MiMi) and that same day while in Bed, Bath & Beyond she told me “I lub you Momma” completely unsolicited which also happened to be the first time she had said the phrase.  Every time she does something new and amazing I think that is the best it could ever get, but that took the cake! 

This month Addison celebrated Christmas with a real enthusiasm.  We looked at lights, made cookies and treats with Bailey (no pictures – it was a little hectic with 2 girls and sprinkles even with Kayla J), went to a Christmas tree lighting at Clark Gardens with Bailey, had a party at school and at my office and a number of other festive things.  Notice a visit with Santa was not on the list as this terrified her in our November encounter with St. Nick.

She is really getting a cute little personality and is talking up a storm.  She loves to come up to anyone she knows and say ‘up please’ to them and grab their hand and direct them to where she would like to go.  This can be anywhere from the pantry to play in her room.  This phrase also means that she would like to be held; we just use it in context to determine which one she needs.  She is now talking in complete sentences which are about 5-6 words long.  The first one I heard was “I don’t see the cheese” when we were grocery shopping in her room.  The list is too long to write, but there are many more like these.  She also answers ‘yea’ to pretty much anything you ask and can name virtually all animals and all colors.  She starts her counting at 8,9,10 and likes to stop the alphabet at A,B,C.  If you listen to her talk to herself when playing independently in her room, you will hear far more letters and she does start counting at 1 – that little stinker won’t do it with us! 

With a personality also comes the occasional fit, and by occasional I mean at least a few a day.  They are very short lived and when you ask if she wants to take a nap, she quickly stops whining/crying.  She is still going strong without a pacifier and hasn’t even asked about it lately.  She continues to love Olivia, Dora and Bubble Guppies on TV as well as all Eric Carle books (really all books but those are the favorites).   We are so very impressed with all she does and can’t wait to ring in another new year with our fantastic girl!  

Christmas Morning

Olivia and a sucker - what else do you need in a stocking???  

Happy girl showing off her kitchen

Cooking is serious business

Guys - someone called in their first order to my restaurant.....

PaPa - the vacuum is work, check out my kitchen over there

A baby and a new piggy bank to learn to count

She seriously shouted "SHOPPING" when she open the shopping cart - smart, smart girl!

Obligatory sucker break

Backpack, Backpack -we love our Dora!

Lisa stop posing for the picture, we have serious work to do here!

This was the first year for us to begin to really establish traditions in our family now that Addison is able to participate in so much more.  We debated as to whether or not Santa wrapped presents, where Santa would come (Grammy’s or our home), and various other things.  In the end, Santa brought stockings to our house, large unwrapped gifts to Grammy and PaPa’s and a ton of fun no matter the location.

Following Christmas brunch at Grammy and PaPa’s (this is the only one for which pictures exist at current) we headed out to PawPaw and MiMi’s for round 2 followed by a trip to Granny Virgie’s for round 3.  We didn’t make it home until 10:30, but we had a fun day of wonderful memories with our family.  We ended our night singing happy birthday to Jesus and look forward to telling Addison more and more about his birth and our salvation in the years to come.