Monty Lauren and Addison

NYE 2011 - 21 Months

2011-12-31T20:42:00.000-06:00

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

2011-12-25T21:11:00.000-06:00

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.

Bye-Bye "B"

2011-12-24T21:59:00.000-06:00

When Addison was born we made the decision to use a pacifier to soothe her. We decided to call her pacifier her "Binki". Over time it was shortened from "Binki" to "Binx" to "B". The only true attachment Addison had to her "B" is when she was tired. She would either ask (or whine depending on her level of tired) or dig for it in her bag pocket and get it out on her own. Monty and I have also used it to hush a whining child on a few occasions, but sleep was her only true 'must have' time.

At her 18-month appointment Dr. Ramsey noticed she had a pacifier (whining during the hour long wait in the doctor's office that happened to fall during nap time) and commented that she would like to see it gone by her 21-month appointment. The thought of life without "B" for Addison seemed unimaginable. She has had one since her little life began so a "B" free life did not seem logical. I simply dismissed the comment and thought to myself I know many children older than Addison who still have their pacifier.

As her 21-month appointment approached I really began to think that we do need to try a "B" free life to see how it would work out all the while knowing this was way too traumatic of an exercise to put my baby through. Turned out, it was not as awful as I had imagined, and, in fact, maybe I was the one with the attachment of a quiet, easy way to put Addison to sleep. On Wednesday, December 21st, we had our first night without "B". It was not too traumatic. I had to rock (sway) and sing her to sleep (she actually thinks I am quite good) like I did when she was much younger, but she didn't really cry too much for "B". Thursday was a bit more rough (no nap while at Mimi and PawPaw's) but with rocking & singing it was not more than 10 minutes until she was asleep. Friday was better than Thursday which provided great encouragement. Tonight, Christmas Eve, Addison went to sleep without rocking (which was normal before life without "B") and went straight to sleep.

It is so funny how I often underestimate how strong she really is. We are so proud of how quickly she was able to move on from her "B". It makes us sad that she is becoming such a big girl so quickly, but we could not be more proud. We will miss "B", but will never forget her sweet face in the morning with her pacifier.

Cherry Park

2011-09-18T17:53:00.000-05:00

Following the September 15th corporate and partnership filing deadline, I took off on Friday for a three day weekend. We had lunch at Chick-fil-a and then headed to Cherry Park in Weatherford for an afternoon of fun. It was past our naptime so the visit was brief, but Addison got in a lot of trips down the slides and time in the swing. You will notice in the swing pictures she is looking off to the side - there was a 3 year old boy in the next swing she found very fascinating. Wonderful way to enter a beautiful fall following a record setting 71 days of 100 degree plus days this summer!

College Station Cuties

2011-08-14T16:30:00.002-05:00

We visited the Howells in College Station one last time before Cate arrives in October. We were not sure how Addison would handle an entire weekend with a friend, but she absolutely loved it. They played so well together and laughed an giggled throughout the weekend.

We went to Cheddar's on Friday night where the girls wooed all the other dinner patrons. We got back from dinner and Addison and Emma had a bath. Neither one of them were sure why they were sharing a bath, but loved it nonetheless. It is a good thing Addison loves water because Emma loved to dump the cups on her head. Addison was a great sport and smiled the entire time. I think she liked the company so much a little water was not a big deal in the least.

Saturday morning we got up early - funny how that works with kids :) and had breakfast and went out to Kristin's parent's land. The girls scoped out the cows (both mooed) and rode the Gator with theirs dads to go and get a closer look. No such luck with the cows, they ran away, but they enjoyed the ride. Emma went to the chicken coop to show Addison the chickens, but in true Addison fashion she looked from a distance and didn't want to get nearly as close as Emma. I will take the blame for this trait - I cannot blame her in the least. They had a fun time and were super stylish in their boots. Addison's are on loan from Emma, but she has some at home that were a birthday gift from Emma we are ready to break in this fall.

Kristin and I took the girls back to their house for a swim to cool down. They had great fun and Addison provided Emma an education on drinking with the hose entirely in your mouth - not sure why but she loves this even though it makes her cough. They had another bath and got dressed for their lunch and naps. While they were napping Kristin and I shopped, of course. You can never pass up a Target trip!

We went to dinner at Layne's and then dropped by the Association to get a quick campus visit in. The girls had their pictures taken in the new Aggie ring and looked so super cute. Monty jokes this is pushing her to be a Longhorn, but I will take the opportunity to keep her in maroon as long as I can.

What a wonderful weekend with great friends. We can't wait for Cate to arrive and play. I am sure she will be just as wonderful as big sister Emma!

16 Months

2011-08-09T22:31:00.000-05:00

Addison is absolutely verbal these days. It amazes us daily how a word we did not know she knew she will say out of the blue in perfect context and shock us all. Here is a break down of her favorite words she can clearly say:

Gubba, Gubba - she literally wakes up each morning saying this the instant we go in her room. This stands for Bubble Guppies on Nick Jr., her favorite show. In fact, she can turn the TV on with the remote and will stand there and say Gubba, Gubba until it is on the screen. (Little worried about this...)
Elmo, light, elbow, bite, chip, bubble, eye, peach, my, Dora, Lilly, Lisa, PaPa, PawPaw, duck, meow, hallo (hello), hi, up, B (binki), ice, wa-wa (water), milk, fish, shoe, nana (banana & Monty's Nannah), Pappy, toot, apple
MiMi - Addison's version of TV
NO, NO, NO
Baby
Many more that escape me...

She is still very much a lover of books. She impresses us because one of her favorites she can recite with us. The book is called Moo, Baa, LaLaLa. The book starts a cow says moo, a sheep says baa, and three singing pigs say lalala. If you say a cow says ____, etc. she will fill in the blanks by herself. We are so amazed and proud. She also has books for each letter and she and Monty are very fond of the "K" because she knows when kiss is coming up and will 'kiss' on that letter - genius, I must say.

In the last month she discovered babies. It is a bit funny because she has always had them available to play with, but one day she just made the discovery and needs to have one more often than not. Lucky for us, she does love a particular baby, but she is really happy to play with virtually any baby. I do have a back up of her favorite in the event it ever disappears, but I am relatively certain she would be happy with any doll.

I was happy to think Addison was going to be immune to separation anxiety, but alas in the last month or so she has fallen victim as all children do. Each time we go to the nursery (or dawn the doors of our church or Grammy and PaPa's church) she immediately begins to cry knowing she is going to be 'left'. This has been really hard as we hate to see her cry, but I think we are slowly making our way through this as all other children do. If nothing else, MDO will be great for her start in the fall to re-acclimate her to life outside of her family. It has been so hot she has spent a great deal of time at home or Grammy and PaPa's this summer.

She has had free reign of the house since she started opening doors back in June. This means she helps herself to any and all items in our home within her arm's reach. She also learned on the SAME day to climb on the couch and chairs. It is funny to go in to the living room and see her on the couch with the remote in hand pointing at the TV willing it to come on. On the times she is able to make it come on with the right combo of buttons, she absolutely beams at the accomplishment.

Another wonderful month with our wonderful girl.

Swim Lessons

2011-07-31T17:11:00.000-05:00

Addison had her first taste of swim lessons this year with the Red Cross. The lessons were Monday through Thursday for two weeks from 6:00-6:30. It was obviously not on her own yet, but sometimes I think she would have preferred that mom and dad not have been there so she could socialize instead of swim. She LOVES the water, but I truly believe she loved the social aspect just as much. Her class had four other swimmers which was the perfect size.

She made a ton of progress during her sessions. The true objective of the class was to get the children comfortable with the water. Luckily all of the kids in the class were water babies so we were able to focus on learning some basics. The first objective was to learn to blow bubbles. As you can imagine, this is not entirely natural. Her instinct was to hold her mouth open as we moved through the water (meaning she drank some good chlorine water), but she caught on very quickly and now blows bubbles in the pool and daily in her bath. She also worked on her back float (much better when you sing twinkle twinkle), using her arms and legs, jumping off the side and being passed both with her head in and above the water. PaPa and Lisa came for the last night of class, the presentation of skills, and Grammy and Dad were out of town and were very, very sad to miss. This was the only night that Dad missed! She was a star and we are looking forward to our class next year.

Bubble Blower!

Bubbles and Legs!

Happy Girl

Not only does she climb all things at home, she climbed the wall of the pool. Notice everyone else is swimming :)

Addison swimming after the duck. She even called it duck!!

Swimming with her head fully under water. She popped up happy every single time!

Jumping off the side for a grand finale - what a great time we all had!

First Hair Cut

2011-07-22T21:17:00.000-05:00

Addison has followed in the footsteps of both of her parents with respect her hair. When I say hair, I mean the lack thereof. She had a ton of dark hair when she was born which subsequently fell out and was replaced by lovely blonde/brown hair. Her hair has really started to grow, but unfortunately the back is growing much faster than the front. Every time I go in to have my hair cut I tell the stylist about it and she says Addison needs a cut to spur new growth.

The thought of getting her hair cut troubled me because she has the most perfect, adorable curls in the back. I finally gave in to have it cut while we were in San Antonio so she could go to a kid's salon, but unfortunately she wasn't feeling well and didn't think that would make her feel better. I had it cut when we got back during one my appointments (1 day later on July 22, 2011). As you can tell, Addison isn't feeling her best, but she had the iPhone during her cut and was a perfect angel! In the end, the cut was not traumatic and since she looks adorable no matter what, there was little to get excited about. Here is to many more cuts in our future....

Waiting for her cut & style

Cute curls!

On the way to our new look

Finished product - beauty queen (all though you can tell not her usual smiling self)

Austin's San Angelo Wedding

2011-07-11T09:05:00.000-05:00

Addison and I traveled with Grammy, PaPa and Lisa to Austin Haire's wedding in San Angelo (Monty had a tournament). It was a long car ride for a 15 month old, but between 2 iPhones an iPad, box of raisins, babies and book, we made it! We dropped Grammy off at the church about 45 minutes before the wedding started to see if Ronda needed any help and while the rest of us headed to Sonic. These days Addison LOVES ice and will walk around with a cup of ice an eat every piece until it is gone. She actually even asks for ice. We got this particular cup as a distraction during the wedding; a 15 month old has a very unpredictable personality.

When we arrived at the wedding I had full intentions of sitting on the back row to make the inevitable exit when Addison started to talk; Ronda had a different plan in mind. She wanted us to sit on the 2nd row as family! While this was a lovely gesture, you can imagine my hesitation! We did sit on the 2nd row and Addison was a champ. She had a snack trap in each hand - one with Goldfish the other with Honey Nut Cheerios. The four of us set in a row and had the ice cup, Binx, sippy cup and books/toys all ready and at her disposal. The wedding lasted about 30 minutes and she made it through without any major issues. She did get a little chatty and did grunt as she was trying to get on to the seat, but all in all I could not have asked for a better outcome! Following family pictures, we headed out for the reception.

The reception was just what Addison needed; room to run freely. She did just that and at one point even tried to go through someone's purse on the back of a chair. Oh the lessons left to teach! She at a ring pop from the candy bar, her cheese stick and fruit we brought and then topped the night off with a bite of wedding cupcake. Needles to say she slept the 3 1/2 hours back and did not mind our 1:15 a.m. arrival in the least. On the upside, I did give her a bath right before we left and brought her pajamas for the trip home. Congratulations Austin and Sarah; we had fun!

Sonic girl! Notice the snack trap in our other hand!

Reception venue with Lisa

Addison - a lover of art already!

Oh ring pops how you make me sticky!

4 girls

Oh, and punch. Tonight I discovered my love for punch. Oh the rules you break to keep her happy!

Addison Upate

2011-06-18T22:38:00.000-05:00

As we approach Addison's second Father's Day, it makes me realize how quickly things are really passing me by. I will be the first to admit I get caught up in the day to day and neglect to realize that all of the incredible things that Addison does daily will become routine and I will forget the initial amazement that accompanies each new stage.

Since she has turned one, she has become quite the walker. Addison began walking at 11 1/2 months and has not slowed down one step since. She is now running with great ease and loves this motion both in the water and on land. She is not so graceful in the water running category which often leads us into full submersion under water. She is quite the swimmer/water baby. She loves the sprinkler, back yard pool, big pools, the ocean and water parks.

While she is the best baby we could have asked for, she has begun to throw the occasional fit. If she does not get what she wants, she will cry until a) we give in b) we give her her "binx" or c) she gets tired. I know this is part of it, but we are willing to ride this phase out as the episodes are relatively infrequent.

I LOVE to be the one that gets you up in the mornings. You still never cry when you awake. You simply turn your music on and lay down for a while and then sit/stand up when you are ready for someone to come get you. When we get in your room, you say 'hello' which makes us smile EVERY day. We then ask you to take "binx" out and put it in your bed and to turn your music off. You do each of these things and then join us for breakfast - at all meal time you are always fascinated by the lights. We love each morning with you as you wake up on the right side of the bed each day!

These days you still LOVE books over toys any day. Lisa (she is watching you 2 days/week this summer) and Dad spend a good portion of each day reading to you. You love your alphabet books, flap books and any book by Sandra Boynton.

You are trying to mimic each word we say. Your current stand alone vocabulary includes mama, dada, PaPa, baba (bottle), no, ss (yes), nah (no), chss (cheese), hi, bye-bye, wow. There are a number of others that it sounds like you say, but those are the ones you can say at any given time.

You now will actually kiss and hug us along with your kisses you blow. Dad has taught you to blow on my leg so at any given moment you will walk up to me and blow on my leg so proud of what you have done. It is adorable and really does tickle so we all laugh together.

You are such an incredible joy and it pains me to think that I will ever forget any of the wonderful moments that we share together. God gave us an incredible gift in Addison Blair and we truly do treasure every moment!

Memorial Day 2011

2011-05-30T22:24:00.000-05:00

We had a pretty low key weekend and skipped the lake as we were at the beach the previous weekend. We got a lot done around the house and relaxed. We introduced Addison to the sprinkler. Grammy and PaPa were in San Antonio so we decided to help with their yard establishment by using their sprinkler. Addison LOVES the water and we learned that her love also carries over to the sprinkled variety. She absolutely loved playing in the sprinkler, but learned not only the sprinkler but also the hose valve. She noticed Monty adjusting it and decided to help him. After that, she would play in the sprinkler for minute and then run and turn the water off all by herself. She loves to do things by herself and this was no exception. Yet another fun activity we will enjoy this summer.

On Monday evening we had the Hons family over. Their daughter, Bailey, is 5 months older than Addison and they really hit it off. She has had friends over before, but this was the first time one has come over since she was walking. She showed Bailey all of her toys and did a very nice job sharing; we were very proud. They ended the weekend with a swim and sprinkler finale. We hope to have them over again this summer and maybe even hit the pools.

Family Beach Vacation - Saturday

2011-05-29T18:13:00.000-05:00

Summer 2011 marks our first true family vacation with our 13 1/2 month old. We decided we were up for the adventure and invited PawPaw and Granny to join our fun in Corpus Christi/Padre Island/Port Aransas. Addison and I left on Friday morning and headed to San Antonio. It seemed like a great idea to split the trip and visit Gram and Grandpa as an almost 8 hour car ride can be rough on the best of passengers. Dad and PawPaw cashed in their NASCAR driving experience on Friday so they all caught up with us on Saturday.

One fun thing about Addison is that she, like all children, do not like to sleep when you need them to. On this particular day she was up at 6 with me so she had to entertain herself in the bathroom while I showered until Gram got up.

What a mess, but I was able to get ready...

Addison and I were not only able to visit with Gram and Grandpa but all with our good friends Zach and Kelli. We had lunch at Panera and Addison was the perfect lunch guest. Nothing makes me more proud than when others are able to experience the sweet Addison we know and love! After our lunch, we said goodbye to the Wiebes and a final goodbye to Gram and Grandpa and met up with the rest of our vacation gang.

Addison & Gram

Zach and Kelli

We arrived at our destination around 6 and checked in to the condo. Addison was a great help with the keys! After we got all unpacked we headed over to Snoopy's on Lisa's recommendation. We had our first taste of seafood and took some pictures in the beautiful sunset. Following dinner, we headed to HEB to get all of our food for the trip and then got ready for bed for the big day that was sure to follow.

I've got the key!!

Yum! They had Scoopy's next door, but we were too full!

Beautiful end to our first day

Egg Hunt at First Steps

2011-04-23T10:50:00.000-05:00

We love Addison's class at First Steps. They seem to all get along so well and each little person has their own distinct personality. I took off on Thursday to play catch up following tax season so I was able to join Addison for her Easter party. We dropped her off at 9:00 like Monty does each week and stood around for a minute while we unpacked her bag, etc. Addison walked up to her friend Noel and gave her a hug (she is very affectionate these days which I adore). I could not have been more proud of the sweet child I have, and then she did something that is more along the lines of things I do (aah, she is turning out to be a control freak like me!) she pulled sweet Noel's pacifier out of her mouth - just yanked it out. I put it back in her mouth and explained to Addison that Noel is allowed to have her pacifier and that it is not our place to take it out. Well, that speech feel on deaf ears. Addison pulled it out yet again (three times to be precise) until her teacher put it in Noel's cubby. Addison appears to have a mindset much like all children that if she is not allowed to have hers, then other children need to follow the same rules. What a wonderful experience parenting continues to provide. Lucky for us we do have a wonderful child who is very eager to treat others kindly. In the process, she continues to teach me patience..

We are having the worst fires in Texas since 1917 and they are about 30 miles from where we live. God blessed the fires with a touch of rain on Wednesday night which meant the hunt had to come in to the gym. It is propabably more safe for Addison's class as 4 little new walkers don't need any unexpected terrain to interfere with their journey. They each had a blast, but surprising the girls were much more interested in the actual hunt. Kayden liked to kick the eggs and Silas was just fine observing. They are each so adorable

Addison and Noel on a mission

There is a gym full of eggs and yet they all huddled in one spot!

Addison holding her own - I don't know who won, but they sure were funny.

The best picture I was able to get of her class; believe it or not they do not really pose! You really can't see, but Addison is sporting her Easter shirt.

What is a party without cupcakes?!?

Paw Paw's Birthday & Easter Hunts Begin

2011-04-17T14:49:00.001-05:00

We all had a wonderful weekend full of lots of family time. April 15th is now behind us (this year they are extended to the 18th though) and we can spend a great deal more family time together. I got back from work by 9am on Saturday (we had to quadruple check extensions!) and had the whole day to ourselves. After Addison's morning nap, we headed over to Weatherford for lunch at Cabana followed by a little retail therapy which no doubt included Target. We came back to town and grabbed and snow cone and headed home. We got all of our purchases unloaded and headed to Granny and PawPaw's house to celebrate PawPaw's birthday (a few days late).

We had a wonderful fajita dinner catered by On The Border (no such thing as too much Mexican food in one day!) and more dessert that you can imagine. Candi had an Easter egg hunt organized for the kids following dinner. We weren't certain how Addison would do (attention span, etc.) but she continues to amaze us. She and Grammy have been practicing placing eggs in the basket and her practice certainly paid off. She got about a dozen eggs on her own and kept trying to find more after they were all gone. She wants to be like the older kids and can most certainly hold her own.

She cannot only walk, but also squat and stand back on her own!

The first of many egg that entered her basket

Strong girl holding her basket!

Check out all of Addison's eggs

To spice it up, Addison found the eggs and Monty 'airplaned' her to her basket for the drop off

On Sunday, we had lunch and an Easter egg hunt following church. Addison continued to do well at this event, but became much more distracted by some of the candy which had fallen on the ground. The shiny wrappers on the Reese's cups really caught her attention. She is now ready for the official Easter day celebrations, but too bad she can't really enjoy the candy. There is always next year...

Spring

2011-03-12T15:47:00.000-06:00

You love to play outside! Based on your fearless and adventuresome personality this comes as no surprise. This winter we bought you a slide for the back yard and we were so thrilled to find that you love it. You have played on it before today, but today we took our first pictures. You love the slide, but you also love the door that you go through to get inside the play structure. I think this love of the door comes from a toy that you and your friends play with at school that also has a similar door; it is the hot toy in your class. You will open and close it over and over and I think you enjoy it almost as much as you enjoy the slide. I know we are going to have a great time with you with all of your outdoor toys and you will enjoy the change in environment.

This should come as no surprise given my complexion, but we are being extra cautious of the sun and wearing a hat. It is a dual purpose item - sun protection and a fashion accessory.

Beautiful day

It is hard work closing this door!

Mission accomplished

Sweet Addison waiting to go down the slide

You were amazed by the grass. You would gently touch it because it is still a bit crunchy following winter and wanted to avoid getting poked.

Our thrill seeker. Attempting to climb UP the slide at 11 months.

Milk & Cereal

2011-03-04T15:20:00.001-06:00

Your dad loves for you to do the same things he does. He has often fed you bites from his cereal while you were eating your applesauce, yogurt, etc. but today he decided to give you your own bowl. He ran next door to let some workers in and I snapped a few pictures of this monumental occasion - Cheerios, banana and milk. I should have known this would end disastrously, but it was worth the spill to capture the moment. You and your dad are so very close and it makes me so happy to see the love that you two share. God has greatly blessed our family!

Oooh, I love new food!

Bet you can't guess what happend when she grabbed the bowl...

11 Months

2011-02-28T15:20:00.000-06:00

It is impossible to think that as I write this the next month's post will read Happy Birthday! You are an incredible joy in our lives. You continue to smile and laugh at virtually all times. You love people and the ability to interact with them. You are still completely comfortable to be dropped off at the nursery or at First Steps. I will probably laugh at this in the future, but have asked the ladies that have watched you without us around if you are aggressive. When I asked the Director of MDO, she literally laughed at me and said you do not have a mean bone in your body. To this point, I will not argue, my only fear is that you play too rough. Your pats that you give us and others are so sweet but oh so hard. You have a sweet spirit and would not hurt a soul on purpose, but sometimes I don't think you know your own strength.

You had an interesting month as far a food is concerned. You went through a long stretch where you were 'over' bottles and had no interest. Thankfully that phase has passed and still drink 4-5 4oz. bottles a day coupled with your meals. You are sippy cup champ, but really enjoy the opportunity to drink for our glasses or any liquid we place in straw to give you. You certainly have a choice food 'color' group. You would be perfectly satisfied with goldfish, cheese and peaches. We continue to expose you to other foods/colors to show you life is a bit bigger than your choice three.

You have never required a great deal of sleep especially compared to your peer group. You are now consistently waking up between 6:15 and 6:30 no matter when you normally go to bed (normally 8:30 - 9:00). You are so happy when you wake up that we can't be angry to get up and go get you from your room. I am now in full swing with tax season so I am already up, but we may have to talk about this pattern when I get to have Saturdays again. With respect to naps, you take one in the morning and afternoon and they have been long enough to let Dad get quite a bit accomplished.

You LOVE books! You will sit in your room and pull every single one of them off the bookshelf and 'read' for a very, very long time. Our current definition of reading is turning page after page and stopping on most every one to see if there is an object that was meant for you to touch. You love touch and feel books and books with flaps. I love that you are showing what I would deem is an early interest in reading. At this point, you are really not yet interested in listening to us read to you, but I think you are well on your way to that point.

You are:

Able to turn things off and on without our help - lights, your jungle in your bed
Able to shut doors and open and close drawers
Feed us your snacks. We love how you share, but sometimes you will take them back if we are not fast enough
A speed crawler
Walking holding our fingers
Balancing on your own
Walking behind your dinosaur at a very high rate of speed
The best driver of Cozy Coupe I have ever seen
Curious
Incredibly happy. You constantly clap and cheer.
Verbal. You will attempt to imitate each and every sound we make with great success. We are anxiously awaiting more sweet words from your mouth.

We love you so much and are blessed to have such a sweet, sweet daughter.

First Mud, First Bite, First Step and a Pot o' Goldfish

2011-02-20T15:32:00.000-06:00

February 17th-20th

When Monty picked Addison up from school on Thursday she was in her spare clothes. After 10 months, we are very familiar with why this happens, so we thought. It appears while they were playing on the playground Addison discovered a mud puddle of some nature and decided it looked like a good place to play. She must have had a good time because she manged to get it in her hair and enough on her clothes to require a change. I am so sorry we did not have a picture, but it did earn her the name "Pig Pen" from PaPa. Oh the messes Addison finds!

It has been a busy weekend for our family as far as firsts go. When I got home from work on Friday night we all ran next door to see the progress of Grammy and PaPa's house. After the update tour, we were sitting in our living room talking. I was sitting in Addison's chair and she was crawling all over me laughing and playing. She wanted me to put her in my lap, which I did, and then proceeded to what I thought was kiss me. When you ask Addison to kiss someone goodbye, etc., she will open her mouth in a large "O" and place it on their cheek. She had the same "O" formation when she approached my face only she closed her "O" and let her top and bottom teeth touch around my right jaw. Needless to say this did hurt a bit and she did leave slight whelp. More than anything tough, we now realize that we have a biter! I pray this phase will be short lived (in fact, I would be ok if it is now over!) and that we don't get any notes sent home from school or church.

We continued our evening with a visit to Lisa's (Eric had Disciple Now) to take her dinner. Her mouth was bothering her so we ate an El Paseo picnic in her living room. Addison ate mainly pineapple tidbits, but Lisa was kind enough to introduce her to Oreos following dinner. Needless to say she is quite a fan! One other amazing thing Addison did was lean her torso over to get a bite off her spoon while standing. We were quite impressed with her core strength to keep her balance.

Saturday was rather uneventful as far as firsts go, but Sunday you made a giant leap! After Addison got dressed for Sunday School, she was in our room for me to get ready. I was letting her play in the floor and she crawled over to me and grabbed my pant leg to pull up. I pulled her off and held her by the hand and let go (she can easily stand with no support) and she took ONE step to me and then grabbed my hand. I realize this is not walking but this shows our true progress in that direction. It would appear we are getting more close to increased mobility!

Before church she also discovered how a Kleenex box works and pulled out one (thankfully!) Kleenex and shredded it into a ton of pieces. She loves new discoveries and continually amazes us.

How small can pieces of Kleenex become? (February 20th)

Busted!!

What mess?

Addison and Monty have some interesting things they do together. She loves to play with pots and she loves to eat Goldfish. So, you ask, why not put them together?? Monty has done just that! He fills her pot with Goldfish and she eats them at her leisure. Isn't he a genius? It is like a giant snack trap without the lid Addison hates. He might be on to something...

Addison and her pot o' fish

Our Valentine

2011-02-14T21:51:00.000-06:00

As we celebrate a day that is set apart to show people in our lives how much we love them, it is hard to believe our love has grown so very, very much over this past year. A life absent Addison seems impossible. You fill each moment of our day with incredible laughter, pride, joy, and an abundance of other wonderful emotions. You bring a smile to our face with your giggles, the way you pose for the camera, how you lean in to people who blow on you, the way you close a door before you reopen and go through it and too many other things to count. You are the love of our lives and cannot imagine a moment without you!

You were showered with gifts from your Granny Virgie, Granny & PawPaw, Gram & Grandpa and Grammy & PaPa. You now have more animals to entertain you and more books to read along with chocolates. Mommy and Daddy thank you for your generosity in sharing your chocolates this year. I have no doubt you will make up for it in future years! Happy Valentine's Day!!

This is the pose where we show you our new turtle. Wheel of Fortune here I come!

Sweet girl! Elmo and the Elmo Loves You book are sure to be a hit. She laughs when we 'talk like Elmo".

The toy Granny and PawPaw got signs and dances. Addison is still a bit uncertain even when it is not playing.

Super Cute Super Bowl

2011-02-06T16:25:00.000-06:00

We were really bummed that Dallas was not in the "Big Game" this year as it was held at their home field in Arlington, but we decided to celebrate Addison's first Super Bowl either way. The 45th Super Bowl on February 6, 2011 was played between the NY Jets and the Pittsburgh Steelers with half-time headlined by The Blackeyed Peas. The Jets won 31-25.

We had the Pierces over to watch the game and share Leila's first experience as well. We had fajitas, queso and goodies like any good party should. The girls played together and did very well. It was really cute to watch Addison interact with a 'younger' child as she has had limited exposure to such things. She even tickled Leila at one point and Leila thought she was hilarious. We were happy to have them over and look forward to many more activities with them.

They were even dressed alike on complete coincidence! What sweet girls!!

There has been and will continue to be plenty of football in our future

Addison's First Lesson in Texas Weather

2011-02-05T22:05:00.001-06:00

As the adage goes, ‘If you don’t like the weather in Texas, just wait five minutes’. In this case, wait three days. Addison made her first trip to the lake on Saturday, January 29^th and three days later had her first encounter with snow. She seemed to love both extremes of the weather which is a great because we have these extremes at least once a year.

The weather did not get above freezing from Tuesday morning when this began until Saturday. I worked every day but Wednesday and we ventured out to take pictures.

Our happy snow girl

I will try to eat any and everything you put near my mouth!

I love to crawl so I might as well give snow crawling a chance

First encounter with the new slide. Have to wait until the snow clears to try it out.

Friday - Addison and Daddy ventured out during the snow storm

10 Months

2011-01-31T21:42:00.000-06:00

Yet another month has passed and it seems unreal that this could have already happened! 2011 is off to a great start. You have had a busy month full of wonderful activities. You are a busy, busy girl. During January we finally had to break down and put locks on all of the cabinets because our mobile genius has determined how to open the cabinet doors and drawers. There are a number of drawers and cabinets that we let you play in, but there are some that are far too dangerous for you to explore. Beginning in about mid-January, you began to let go of the objects you were holding to gain support, and stand on your own. In the beginning, you started this because every time we say ‘Yea’ or ‘Yea Addison’ you automatically clap and you had to let go to clap at these phrases. Eventually, you moved from doing it only on this instance to doing it at random. You also love to hold our hands and walk, as well as walk behind the Dino Grammy and PaPa gave you for Christmas; it is adorable!

You love music. You love for us to sing to you, listen on the radio/TV music station, and on your piano. Your class has also started to go to music time each day and your teachers comment that it is your favorite part of the day. The part of your music experience that we enjoy the most is that you shake your bottom when you listen. It is absolutely priceless and melts the hearts of everyone that sees you.

You were sick for the first time this month with bronchiolitis and an ear infection. As you will read, you were on antibiotics and breathing treatments. Coupled with these, we also added a humidifier, propped your bed and put Vick’s on your feet after bath under your socks. There were so many ‘remedies’ going at once who knows what (if any) contributed with the antibiotics to get you well again.

You love to eat, aside from the week or so you weren’t your normal self! This month we added a ton of new food, and there really have not been many that you don’t love. To be honest, you will eat anything, but you love almost everything. This month you tried lemons and pickles and loved them both. You really, really take after me in the respect that you like snack foods. You adore Goldfish crackers, YoBaby yogurt, applesauce, and fruit. You are extremely bright in that you know when Daddy is eating ice cream and if he eats in front of you he knows he is going to have to share with you. You did have a rough patch this month where you would throw fits when you wanted out of your high chair. You would rare back and wiggle until you turned around and could stand up. Needless to say you have now begun to wear the harness when you sit in your chair. Luckily this was a short-lived phase and you are back to loving your highchair.

Bath time is still a highlight of your day and you will splash and sing and play with your toys until we make you get out. We love how much you love water and are still anxiously waiting until pool time this summer.

You are quite vocal, or as Dr. Ramsey noted, articulate. Your current vocabulary includes: Dada, daddy, wow!, hi, bye-bye, ba-ba, pawpaw. Sadly, you will notice it does not yet include mom, mommy or momma. We are all three diligently working on it and I you are so very, very close. You also like to flip your bottom lip and make a boat sound, and you love to motor boat your lips.

We love you so much and are thankful for such a fantastic month!!

Lake Mineral Wells

2011-01-29T16:09:00.002-06:00

It goes without saying that Monty's fishing trips have decreased following Addison's arrival. He is the absolute best dad and would not trade time with Addison for fishing any day of the week. His boat, however, is in shock following such a long break from the lake. In order to not create a problem from lack of run time for the engine, the three of us took a trip to Mineral Wells State Park for a quick ride around the lake to get the boat in the water. It was a gorgeous day, about 80 degrees, and what better way to enjoy the day than the lake. Addison wore her camouflage Bass Pro hat and red life jacket that we bought last summer in anticipation for the arrival of this day. She loved it! She stood in floor of the boat while we drove (I held on to her life jacket 'handle') and then helped Monty 'drive' the boat when we were going at slower speeds. She loved everything about it from feeding the ducks (Monty even remembered to bring bread!) to crawling around the bottom of the boat as we idled and let Monty fish a little (that would be evil to go to a lake and not fish!). There will be many, many trips in her future, and we are so thankful we got off to such a great start! I must confess I don't have any of the pictures with the ducks because they fed them while I was parking the truck. This takes me a VERY long time because I am absolutely horrible with trailers and no matter how many times I practice, I seem to crumble under pressure.

First day on the water - January 29th

Addison loves to dig in her bad no matter the location

What a sweet end to a day Monty has looked forward to for a long time

Ear Infection & Bronchiolitis

2011-01-25T12:56:00.000-06:00

Addison battled with what we thought was a cold beginning around mid to late January. We took her to the see Dr. Ramsey on Friday, January 14th and she noted that Addison had a cold and to give her Tylenol/Advil in alternating doses every three hours and it would run its course. She ran a fever for a couple of days an was fever free by Monday and returned to school on Tuesday, January 18th. Things continued to seem routine in our house except that we continued to pass cold-like symptoms around. On Saturday, January 22nd, we went to my friend, Stephanie's, baby shower in Coppell and then hit the DFW malls before heading home. That evening when we were leaving Ft. Worth, Addison seemed a bit hot and as a matter of fact had a fever by the time we got home that night. We missed church again that Sunday due the fever and she continued to have a fever on Monday coupled with a very, very runny nose and the desire to constantly be held. In addition, she began to pull on her ears. We went back to Dr. Ramsey on Tuesday, January 25th and this time found she did have an ear infection in her right ear as well as Bronchiolitis. This required that she begin taking 2 antibiotics: 1 tsp. of Amoxicillin twice daily as well as Albuterol Sulfate breathing treatments every 3-4 hours.

She loves the Amoxicillin but did not have great affection for the breathing treatments. They require that she wear a mask that looks similar to an oxygen mask and inhale the steroid treatment for 10 minutes. This is a difficult challenge on multiple levels 1) she is only 9 months old and does not stay in any one place for 10 minutes which required we 'restrain' her 2) she has no desire to have a foreign object covering her face. To simplify, there are no pictures/videos of this process because it took everyone to do the treatment/entertainment and no one was free for pictures. We enjoyed the help of Lisa and Grammy in the afternoons when they would sing and read to Addison during her treatment. This made a difficult process a little less stressful. We are glad that is behind us and we have our healthy, happy girl back. I must stay she did laugh and play even while she was sick; she has the sweetest spirit!

We are the proud new owner of a nebulizer compressor complete with a fish mask. I bet you can't guess who picked the mask?!?

Our Big Helper

2011-01-16T15:46:00.000-06:00

Addison is learning to do new things every day and during her 9th month she has learned to do some very 'helpful' things. She can now open drawers, doors (if they are open she will grab on the side/bottom and swing them shut), and cabinets (with handles) as well as pull kitchen chairs "across" the kitchen. Granted, she does not always recognize that something is capable of being opened, but her recognition of such things increases on a daily basis. Needless to say, we have gotten very serious about Addison-proofing items that could potentially be hazardous.

She has not only discovered the drawers, but also realized it contains clothes that can be pulled out. (January 11th)

This is just the beginning.....

Another new thing she loves to help with is unloading the dryer after I have loaded it. She finds great humor in pulling wet clothes onto the laundry room floor after I have placed them in the dryer. I know that one day we will work in unison with laundry, but right now I am just pleased to have her company!

Step 1- Pull out the clothes (January 16th)

Step 2- Throw them in the floor and go back for more (a bit blurry but the end result is the same)

Hello Toothbrush!

2011-01-04T15:33:00.000-06:00

Dr. Ramsey mentioned at Addison's 9 month appointment it is time to start brushing her teeth, and by teeth we mean the two bottom ones she currently has. Thanks to Heather's wonderful baby shower gift and mommy wisdom that knew a baby toothbrush would be needed in our future, we got Addison's Elmo toothpaste and tooth/gum brush to get the process started. Her first session was on January 4th, immediately following her ice cream cone like good parents. She loved it! I guess it should not be surprising because she enjoys any time you would like to put your fingers in her mouth to let her chew on and this process comes with the added bonus of toothpaste! The only difficult part of the routine is getting her to let go of your finger long enough to brush her entire mouth and not use the toothbrush (fingerbrush) as a toy. Dr. Baum will be so proud when he sees you in a few years for your first dental visit!

Ice Cream Cone

2011-01-04T15:32:00.000-06:00

Addison had her first encounter with an ice cream cone (January 4, 2011) and loved every bite! A picture says a thousand words.

New Year's Eve

2011-01-01T16:25:00.000-06:00

This year we celebrated Addison's end of her debut year. Needless to say she was in bed by 9, but we still had some party attire to celebrate the occasion and her 9-month birthday! If you will notice, she touches them in most every picture. She has now discovered she can remove all objects that were once safe on her head including my most beloved bows!

First Word: Bye, Bye

2010-12-29T22:32:00.000-06:00

It is official as of December 5th, Addison is now talking!! We are so very, very impressed by her verbal abilities! She will now say bye, bye to you when it is said to her. We practiced before church while we were eating breakfast and once we returned from church and were practicing some more, she began repeating bye,bye.

She has been babbling for a while now, but this is her first word that she actually seems to associate and which is clearly spoken. She is starting to also get the hand movements to accompany, but as of now the wording is enough to leave us speechless.

Her is her video of her first word and I must say it has gotten more clear each time it is spoken:

As I mentioned she is also working on her wave and is 99% there. We love the ability to interact with you in yet another way.

Mitchell Christmas

2010-12-24T15:57:00.000-06:00

We celebrated Christmas with Monty's dad's family on Christmas Eve. We had a lovely meal followed by more yummy dessert. This gathering was a bit larger than the one the day before which kept Addison very alert. She and Jax, who is almost three, played very well together, all though I am not so sure he liked sharing his cars with her. Addison really enjoyed the sweet potatoes that her dad gave her as the ones she is used to eating do not come covered with delicious gooey marshmallows!

Yet again Addison received a ton of wonderful things including singamajigs, a Little Tykes kitchen, dolls, clothes, a First Christmas ornament, a pink elephant with matching blanket, and more money for college (we are starting early!). She is one fortunate girl to have a family who is so very generous to her!

The ABC money from Granny Virgie and PawPaw

Pink elephant and blanket from Aunt Heather and Uncle Corey

Oh tissue how I love to crinkle you in my hands and make noise

Action shot - pull that tissue paper out!

I believe I will check out the noise this Singamjig is making.

That was fun! I believe I will now yank my bow out and take a little nap.

Addison's gift to her dad was a Nascar driving experience. We hope he has fun and is super careful because I am not sure if his life insurance policy will cover that type of incident in addition to the fact that he is the most important person in our lives!

Mehaffey Christmas

2010-12-23T15:21:00.000-06:00

In order to accommodate the many plans of our families, we started our Christmas festivities with Monty's mom's family on December 23rd at his grandparent's home. We enjoyed a yummy lunch followed by amazing dessert and got down to the business of opening presents. As Addison is the only great-grandchild it can go without saying that she was the absolute center of attention.

She loved all of the fun clothes and toys she received and will most certainly appreciate the money and savings bonds that were given to her. We have them tucked away for college!

Addison with Nannah. As you will notice she has a remote. How she love those things!

Addison loved "opening presents", but this only lasted a short while. After the second one, she was perfectly content to watch everyone else and take it all in.

Office Christmas Party

2010-12-16T21:53:00.006-06:00

Each year my office throws a party and allows everyone to bring their children to join in the festivities. This year was my first and I was delighted for an opportunity to bring Addison to work; I can never get enough! We had lunch (Addison brought her own) and then opened gifts. Since I was on my own for this event, I have to apologize for the lack of pictures! Addison is one busy girl who wants to crawl everywhere which is not a good idea on solid marble floors. The fact that she could not crawl around coupled with the fact it was almost nap time made for a mommy that was busy keeping Addison happy and falling down on photography duties. We were able to get one with her friend Dax after she opened her gifts from the office. They were so sweet to give her a Fisher Price book and a really nice bear that comes with the rights to name a star (we will save this part and just love on the bear for now). We had a great time and look forward to next year!

Dax and Addison -- Double Trouble (December 16, 2010)

8 Months

2010-12-03T23:30:00.002-06:00

It is hard to believe in four short month we will be celebrating your first birthday! Your seventh month brought so many new things, things which continued to bring us amazement. The most monumental accomplishment of the month is the addition of crawling. You began at a little over seven and a half months, but by the time the reached the eighth month, you have become a crawling machine. We are not too certain how long this phase will last as you are already beginning to pull up on EVERYTHING from people (often time at the expense of mom's hair), to your bed, to furniture. You are too funny because you will try so hard to just stand up on your own in the middle of the floor but get caught and basically stick your bottom directly up in the air making a 'triangle'. It is also priceless to see you crawl on the wood floor in the study because you try so hard to get the area rug to have more traction and just giggle the duration. You are one determined girl and don't give up until a task is accomplished.

(Evidence of hair pulling - we can't even take a picture without you grabbing a handful!)

You are the happiest girl ever! By this point you would think separation anxiety would have begun, but you are completely willing to visit with anyone who wants to hold you. In some instances, you make certain we are in visual range the entire time, but generally you go without reservation. You enjoy both mother's day out and the nursery at church. It makes us so proud that you play so well with everyone.

You giggle and laugh at all times during your day. You wake every morning with a huge smile on your face that makes it impossible to resist no matter the hour. We are working on getting you to sleep through the night again which has been a challenge. We have loved the nights when you get in bed with us mid-way through the night to extend everyone's sleep, but we are trying to let you stay in your bed all night. So far it has been a pretty successful venture.

You LOVE food. There is not a food that you will turn down. You are supposed to have 5 - 4oz. bottles each day and three meals. For breakfast you either have bananas or a cup of applesauce, both of which you adore. For lunch and dinner you have baby food. During the seventh month, you were on stage 2. Of these foods, your favorites were sweet potato with anything-turkey, corn, cinnamon, etc., peaches, and pear-raspberry. With each of these meals you always eat your fair share of puffs which you seem to love in all varieties. You now hold your own bottle and sippy cup which is fantastic. You let it fall next to you whenever you are finished to indicate that you no longer need it. It is priceless.

You still love your exersaucer and activity table and this month have discovered catalogs and eye glasses. For as long as I can remember, you have loved to 'eat' paper. It could be a Target ad or a grocery list; to you paper is paper and it all tastes delicious. We will now give you catalogs we receive in the mail and you will tear the pages out and play with them. This will occupy you for a good length of time. We are very fortunate it is the holiday season and catalogs come each day. Now that you have teeth, though, we have to make certain that you have not really gotten any paper in your mouth. We like to avoid this because 'fishing' it out with those teeth is not fun; you bite anything that comes into your mouth.

Your new noises for the month were 'panting' like a dog and crinkling your nose and blowing in and out of it. You continued to stick your tongue out and blow. You love to hear yourself make each of these noises and I feel it is because it makes us laugh which you love to do.

We put the Christmas tree up right before your 8-month birthday. As you can tell there are no low hanging ornaments or presents at this point. We are not sure if they could handle all of the affection that you like to bestow on objects and don't want to take any chances at this point. That is why we chose the study for the location behind the glass doors.

We have loved this month like all the others are so blessed that God gave us such a sweet, sweet girl. We are thankful for your health and your smiles and for all of the adorable faces and noises you make. What a gift!

Crawling!!

2010-11-20T13:15:00.000-06:00

Addison has been well on her way to crawling since she was around 6 months old. She could seem to get the stance correct but never wanted add the arm movement to her already mastered leg motion. So, consequently she took a while to make forward progress. In the meantime, she REALLY became quite a little rolling machine. On November 20th, I think we can officially say she is now crawling.

On that day, we were going to Monty's dad's house for an early Thanksgiving celebration. Monty had so kindly offered to go to Whataburger to get me a drink. When he arrived home with our drinks, Addison and I were playing in our bedroom floor while I was brushing my hair (I had just gotten out of the shower). I sat my cup on the floor near me and Addison immediately honed in on it and started toward it. That was the first time she had ever made such fantastic forward progress. She does love to drink out of cups even if it just water. I guess that because drinking from a cup is something she can mirror that we do. She still is not crawling everywhere (resorting still to rolling), but when something catches her eye, she is off in a flash. I have no doubt in the next week or so she will realize that she can crawl anywhere and everywhere she wants. We are so proud of yet another milestone you have hit, but must admit this is a little intimidating. Mommy and Daddy won't be able to look away for even a second!!

October 24th following church. We had lunch at my parent's house and Addison gave her new Baby Legs a try. She has them in a variety of patterns and colors. My mom and I have more fun buying things like this!

Santa

2010-11-13T13:52:00.000-06:00

At seven and a half months old, we were not entirely sure how Addison's first encounter with Santa would go. At this age, she is not always too certain when people she is not entirely familiar with speak to her. Often times, she will bury her head in our shoulders, but she does not cry. That being said, we were a bit leery to hand her to a stranger in an outfit she is none too familiar with. Much to our surprise and delight, she sat on his lap without issue and even smiled most of the time. This might be because she could see Mom and Grammy the entire time, but at any rate we had a wonderful first experience with Santa. We were so thrilled this went so well and we have such adorable pictures to document her first visit (November 13th).

Bubble Bath

2010-11-11T13:44:00.000-06:00

Addison loves the bath and loves it even more when she gets to play in my tub with the jets. She would stay in there forever if we would let her playing with all of her toys, the wash cloth, and bubbles. We don't actually put bubbles in there (yet) but her soap just creates this many on its own. I can't wait for her to try the pool in the summer, but this is a great alternative in the mean time.

She moves so fast it is hard to catch her in a picture, but as you can tell she has an absolute blast. (November 11th)

Happy Halloween

2010-11-09T21:38:00.000-06:00

In October of 2009 Monty and I received the fantastic news that we were going to have a girl. As no surprise, this created yet another reason for us to shop. My mom (Grammy) bought Addison's Halloween costume 6 months before Addison entered the world. I could not have been more thrilled to have such a cute mermaid costume for what I knew would be a beautiful baby girl.

The costume appeared so big compared to all of the other clothes in her closet, but by the time Halloween arrived this year, it turns out the costume fit (if anything it was a bit short). Time as a parents taught us a valuable lesson. While costumes may be adorable, in the future, make sure you can legally ride in your car seat. Addison was an adorable mermaid but an even more understanding traveler as she had to change in and out of her costume at each stop along the way.

New Car Seat

2010-10-31T14:41:00.001-05:00

On her 7th month 'birthday' Addison made the move into her 'big girl' car seat. According to the salesperson at Babies 'R Us, she was due for an upgrade as she was too long for her infant carrier. I purchased a car seat while we were in San Antonio in addition to the one previously purchased for Monty's truck. On our (my parents, me and Addison) way back from San Antonio, Monty installed her new seat in his truck so we could begin using it that night during our Halloween adventures. She absolutely loves sitting in her new seats and I am sure will love it even more once she is able to face forward.

Bye, Bye Baby Swing

2010-10-19T21:19:00.001-05:00

Addison was not feeling well on the 19th, and since I was finished with tax season (hooray!) I stayed home with her to snuggle while her teeth came in. I put her in her swing to see if this might soothe her and it was a successful venture, but it caused me to realize that she is now too big for her swing. She enjoyed it, but she is now big enough to grab on to the mobile and is the length of the swing. The swing was a wonderful gift from Grammy and PaPa, but we said our goodbyes for now until Addison passes it down to her future sibling some day.

It caused me to get quite sentimental as I put items like her swing and bouncer away because it really is starting to sink in how very fast she is growing. Here is a picture from one of very early swing adventures to her last one. What a difference a little more than 6 months can make in a wonderful girl's life!

April 7, 2010

October 19, 2010

Puffs!

2010-10-17T21:13:00.001-05:00

According to Monty, puffs are the greatest invention ever with respect to meal time. When Addison was a little over 6 months, we gave her her first taste of Gerber puffs (sweet potato variety). As with all foods, she loves them. Her first introduction was made as we placed them in her mouth but she very quickly began to start picking them off of her tray and feeding them to herself. At this point, we are not quite sure if she is going to be left or right handed as she will alternate the hand that she uses to eat no matter where we may place the puff on her tray. Monty's great adoration for puffs developed because puffs are fantastic filler and allow Addison to occupy herself so that we can quickly eat and return our full attention to her. In the very beginning, it would take her a few tries to go directly in her mouth, but now (about 3 weeks later) she is the master eater.

First solo puffs - October 17, 2010

Around the same time that she started to self feed her puffs, her first teeth were really beginning to poke through. In order to soothe her poor gums, she would take a puff and grind it between where her teeth eventually broke through. She preferred this method to frozen rings or any other remedy we tried. In the process, Lisa dubbed her 'Mater' from Cars. Do you see a resemblance?

Mattress Move

2010-10-10T21:24:00.000-05:00

Addison is on the move! She loves to pull up on any and all things that surround her (if you have put her in a seated position or she is on all fours). She has discovered her the rainforest toy that attaches to the side of her bed. In true fashion, she quickly learned that it too could be used to pull her up. This immediately made us realize that it is time to lower the mattress before she becomes even more brave and attempts to make a getaway. You are one adventurous little girl!

October 10, 2010

Crazy Water Festival

2010-10-09T13:54:00.000-05:00

Mineral Wells is known for "Famous Water" and our annual festival to celebrate this fabulous water is the Crazy Water Festival held the 2nd weekend of October. PaPa and I had to work in the Rotary T-Shirt booth and Addison hung out with Grammy until our shift was over. The booth next to us was selling kettle korn and because Addison is so cute they gave her some. Needless to say a six month old did not partake, but her family sure enjoyed the rewards of having such a beautiful, sweet girl.

The festival moved locations this year to the grounds around the Famous Water Co. and added chalk art as new exhibit. My firm bought a square which turned out really well. By the time our shift was over and Monty arrived to meet us, Addison was passed out for the afternoon. Next year I know she will be ready to partake in the petting zoo and every other wonder they have for children. It was a fun first year for us nonetheless.

Can you tell the Aggies were playing that afternoon? We were ready to go cheer them on as a family!

6 Months

2010-10-05T22:49:00.000-05:00

As I look back over an entire half year, it amazes me how truly far you have come from the tiny 7lb. 10oz. baby to the adventurous 16lb. 14 oz. daredevil you are today. You are so much fun to be around. You are the happiest of happy babies. You constantly smile (even first thing in the morning) and laugh and giggle all of which are all contagious beyond my wildest imagination. You light up any and every time you see your daddy, even if he has just been out of your range of vision for 30 seconds. You have never met a mirror that you did not like and smile every time you see yourself in one. You obviously do know who that pretty baby in the mirror is.

A little before you turned 5 months, you were beginning to use our fingers to pull up to a sitting position with our help. At this point, you will reach for our fingers and pull yourself up without any assistance from us. You are just beginning to attempt to pull yourself up on other objects, but mainly still reach for our fingers to pull yourself from your back to a sitting position and then up to your feet. Once you are on your feet, you love to 'walk' to obtain any and all items that surround you. Your dad and I like to attribute this to the introduction of the exersaucer at 3 months.

You are beginning to 'dive' to reach objects that you can see but can't quite reach. Needless to say, you can no longer sit anywhere unattended. You sit extremely well and your doctor is impressed at all of the physical milestones that you surpassing. At this juncture, it is rare to do terribly more than sit. As far as crawling goes, you have the motions down (at times) but seem much more interested in either scooting on your stomach or simply skipping straight to walking.

You still love your baths and now have toys that we play with each night. You especially love your blue and green turtles. I think you would stay in there forever if we would allow it. We are starting to go on more walks now that it is beginning to cool off and you seem to really enjoy the outdoors and the opportunity to take in some new scenery. You also have started riding in shopping carts and love the opportunity to look around at all the other shoppers. We are constantly stopped and told what a beautiful baby you are; I must agree.

You are continuing to be a good eater and up until your 6 month appointment, you ate a 4oz bottle every 3 hours and cereal before bed. You eat every last bite and make it known that you are not finished or we are taking too long to get the food to you. You would think the moans you let out were indicative of great pains. You were sleeping really well until about two weeks prior to your 6 month appointment. We are hoping things will get back on track and you will again sleep through the night now with the addition of solids.

You still seem to love both church and mother's day out. As of yet, you have not exhibited any signs of separation anxiety. This makes leaving you, which is difficult, a much easier task.

God has blessed our family beyond our greatest dreams and we are so thankful to have you as our daughter. We look forward to all of the new adventures that our next months will hold.

Sippy Cup (September 30th)

2010-09-30T13:55:00.000-05:00

At Addison's 6-month appointment she was given the go ahead to add sippy cups to her list. We were very excited to let her start that evening after I got home from work. Until now (with the exception of certain people letting her "try" sweet tea from their glasses) she had not had anything other than breast milk and formula. Now that her kidneys are fully developed, she can add water. When we handed her the cup, she immediately knew where to put it, but still needs to develop some additional technique. She does great when we hold it, but it is a little large yet for her to hold it up and tilt her head at the same time. She has the mechanics down, she just needs to catch up on her cup to body ratio. It was yet another first which she was thrilled about which makes it all the more fun for us. It won't be long before she graduates from this version to the next. We are so proud of your adventurous spirit that prompts you to try any and all things that are introduced.

First Steps Preschool

2010-08-31T22:06:00.000-05:00

Addison started First Steps (Mother's Day Out) on Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning on August 31st. This was a really big adjustment for our family as she had not stayed with anyone other than family before, with the exception of the church nursery. We had "meet the teacher" the Thursday before and met Addison's teacher, Melissa. We really liked her and were thrilled to learn this was her third year to teach the class. Addison is one of three children in the class and the only girl. Her classmates are Issac and Silas. We are looking forward to watching her develop and interact with others over the school year.

Addison was not the least bit nervous about her first day as she napped on the way to school. She was all smiles as we got her "locker" set up and gave Melissa a final run down. When we left her, there were no tears, just a smiling girl. We are so proud of the ease with which you adapt to new situations. You are the best ever and will have an incredible year!

We are sitting!

2010-08-29T22:07:00.002-05:00

It is hard to really nail down when Addison began truly sitting. She had been able to sit for a while on her own, but I am not truly sure if it counts when you are still a bit apprehensive that she might fall back at any second. On August 29th, I feel certain that we can say that she is truly sitting. She is even now brave enough to reach for things after she has been sitting for a while, but that never ends well. She has the best posture and is so proud of this new feat. It is amazing how quickly you have moved from the Bumbo to the look what I can do all on my own phase. We are so proud!

July 16, 2010

August 29, 2010

High Chair- August 12, 2010

2010-08-22T18:27:00.001-05:00

Now that you have begun to eat cereal, we decided it might be time to move from eating in your Boppy to the high chair. Our first night, we discovered this might be a bit of a challenge as your dad noted that gravity is working against you in this mode. You didn't love the high chair, but the reclining feature did help to ease into the transition. You were able to finish your cereal, and we decided that maybe you weren't quite ready for complete use of the high chair quite yet, but we are going to use it a few times a week to get ready for the addition of foods following your sixth month visit. You do have fun sitting in your high chair and getting wheeled around the kitchen area as we prepare our dinner and eat. You really feel like a big girl sitting at the table with us.

Four Months

2010-08-22T18:04:00.000-05:00

Addison-
It is hard to believe that one-third of your first year has already passed. You are at such a fun stage right now! Your dad and I are having the best time with you. Each day you continue to amaze us. This month you have continued to love your baths and we have even started putting you "on you tummy" to let you feel what it will be like some day to actually swim. Around the time you turned three months, we began to put you in your Exersaucer. You absolutely love it, specifically the dog, which I refer to as Spot. You push all sorts of button on him and just giggle in delight at all of the noises he makes. You are really beginning to also enjoy mirrors. We will talk at length about the pretty girl we see in the mirror and you just grin at her.

This month has marked quite a few firsts in addition to the Exersaucer. You have really started to begin to reach for any and all things that we place in proximity to you. You love to just talk to us and make noises with your tongue. You get so very, very excited when you notice that we are making a bottle for you and love to help us feed you. Your way of helping is not always the best, but you sure do give it a go. You try to put your hand in with the bottle and somehow haven't grasped quite yet that you are working against yourself. You and Dad have so much fun during the day and I rush home after work to join in on the fun.

To mark your four-month birthday, your Lisa took some special pictures for you at the Famous Water Co. as well as First Christian Church. As you can tell from the pictures, you LOVE to put your hands in your mouth and by hand I do mean the ENTIRE hand. One day you will learn that the gagging reflex you often evoke is the result of cramming an entire hand in your mouth all the way to your wrist. We can't thank Lisa enough for capturing our sweet girl at this fantastic time in our life.

Pictures taken August 3, 2010

Big Girl Bed

2010-08-11T22:00:00.000-05:00

Monty and I have had differing opinions as to when the appropriate time for Addison to move to her own room would arrive. Most opinions shared with us ranged from 6 weeks to 6 months. Monty would have opted for 6 months whereas I felt Addison would get a more restful sleep in her baby bed. Until this point (less one night in her bassinette) she had been sleeping in her pack-n-play on my side of the bed. During the night, she would make various noises and I would notice her in a number of positions, all of which were different from where she initially started her night. In the process of literally turning 180 degrees, she would get upset as she kicked/ran into the side of the pack-n-play.

Our compromise was that when Addison was able to successfully roll over she would be able to move into her own room. On Friday, August 6th, we made the transition. She went down about 9:45 and slept until 7:15 the following morning. It was the best sleep anyone in our home has gotten since her arrival on March 31st. We have a video monitor in our room (thanks to Nannie's sisters!) and it was funny, albeit sad, but Monty and I watched her in the monitor that first night for quite some time before we went to bed.

In her new bed she is still just as squirmy as ever! In fact, there are nights that I have to wake up to move the monitor camera because she has moved so far out of range, and it has quite a substantial range. It is a good thing that I took her bumpers out of her bed. I miss the extra bit of color and the way they look, it was just too risky to leave them up with our wiggle worm. Yet another milestone as she continues to amaze us each day. God is so great!!

Sleeping beauty on her first night in bed. Notice her sleeves are rolled up because otherwise she will work to make sure they end up in her mouth the minute you put her pajamas on!

Firm Lake Party

2010-08-11T21:38:00.000-05:00

Following her four month appointment, our family of three headed out to Possum Kingdom Lake for my firm party. I really enjoyed the idea of closing the office for a half day for a break of boating and B-B-Q! Addison did very well considering she had just gotten two shots. She "played" in the lake with dad and was able to visit with everyone from work. Needless to say Addison, Dax (Heather's son) and Sophie (Kelley's daughter) were the hit of the party. It will be so fun to see Addison in a lifejacket next summer with the other two. She already wanted to join them this year......

Cereal Time!

2010-08-02T12:09:00.000-05:00

After a long day of a 4-month doctor's appointment, my firm party at Possum Kingdom Lake and dinner with Cousin Adam, Addison had her first taste of rice cereal (July 29, 2010). Doctor Ramsey told us that Addison could begin to incorporate cereal into her final nightly feeding. She instructed us to give her 1 tablespoon (dry measurement before adding liquid) and said she would probably not be able to eat that much at her age. Dr. Ramsey wanted us to try to feeding her with a spoon, but mentioned that not all babies can start straight with a spoon and we could resort to a bottle if she did not like the spoon.

Since we started a bit later in the day than usual, she was extra tired and could barely hold her head up to eat in her Bumbo. Monty suggested that we feed her in her Boppy which is where she normally takes her bottle/nurses. She caught on immediately and would open her mouth for the next bite of food similar to the way which she will open it in the event that you remove her bottle from her mid-feeding. We loved sharing her first "food" experience and can't wait to introduce her to even more. What a precious girl we have!!

Silly Sunday

2010-07-25T21:18:00.001-05:00

Addison and I spend the occasional Saturday or Sunday morning without Monty. He deserves a fishing break every now and then and we are happy to honor that request. This particular day Addison and I were getting ready to help my parents move to their temporary home while their new house is being built. She loves to look in the mirror and is a terrific companion as I get ready for the day. She will sit in her Bumbo and stare at all there is to see in our bathroom. I guess it is out of the ordinary as she doesn't get to watch her dad put makeup on or do his hair. It might take twice as long to get ready, but I have a million times more fun doing it! We miss daddy, but girl bonding is already taking shape...

So many toes, so little time...

Busy, Busy Weekend Continued

2010-07-18T22:14:00.000-05:00

Following our trip to Waco on Saturday, Addison got a visit from some of our best friends from college. Our friends Dorcas, who now lives in Frisco, and Reagan, who now lives in Plano, made the drive to Mineral Wells to meet Addison. I will be the first to say I could use a little help in the keeping in touch department, but this visit made me realize how much I really missed them. I love that truly great friends can be out to continual contact for a great deal of time and still pick up exactly where they left off. I love that Addison was able to meet them and look forward to many, many visits in the future! Addison and I would love to join them for some shopping. We had a great time at lunch talking about the old days of college. Monty and I realized how truly old we really are!

That afternoon, we headed over to my parent's house to get in a final swim before they closed on their house on July 28, 2010. It is bittersweet that they are moving as that is the house I would most consider "home" moving there in 7th grade. I mean, it was where Addison spent her first holiday meal this Easter! All though it is a bit sad, we are so very very excited for their house to be built and become our next door neighbors. Next summer we will just have to use the pool at the Club. I am excited for next summer because I cannot imagine all the improvements Addison will make. We were already so impressed with what she can do this summer! She already kicks he little legs when she is in her float! I am so glad she loves the water!! Bring on next summer - I already have purchased 4 swimsuits, a swim shirt, hat and 2 cove-rups!!

Swimming & Father's Day

2010-07-18T16:19:00.000-05:00

Addison loves the water so it is no surpirse that she enjoyed the pool. She swam in her PaPa and Grammy's "big pool" and also a baby pool (naturally in pink) that my mom got for her. We swam that afternoon and ended Monty's first father's day with his favorite meal - chicken fried steak. What a fun way to celebrate such a fantastic dad!

Great-Great Aunts

2010-07-17T21:49:00.000-05:00

On July 17th, Addison, Lisa and I started off our weekend with a trip to Waco to introduce Addison to her Great-Great Aunts on my dad's side. My Nannie passed away the November prior to Addison's arrival, but it is very important to me to let Addison experience as much of my Nannie as possible. She was one of seven girls, and until her stroke in March of 2008, she too called Waco home. Currently, all four of her remaining sisters live in Waco and what better way to capture the essence of Nannie than to be around these four amazing women who remind me so very much of her.

I know my Nannie would have loved and adored Addison in the exact same way Annette, Oveta, Catherine and Geno did, and I am so glad that we were able to make the visit possible. My Nannie was the most kind, thoughtful, Godly woman I have met and being around her sisters reminded me of that. God has truly blessed our family with such a fantastic legacy of women. Addison was a bit moody following the drive, but cooperated long enough for us to take a picture. We have to go back soon to catch up with everyone. In the mean time, we will stay connected on FaceBook. We appreciated the hospitality and delicious food!

Maw Maw's 100th Birthday Celebration

2010-06-13T21:02:00.000-05:00

In honor of Maw Maw's 100th birthday (Monty's paternal grandmother Rachael Pierce), we traveled to Amarillo for a party. Addison was introduced to a number of extended family members including Maw Maw. She was part of a very special photo that few will ever have the opportunity to be a part of - one that included FIVE generations. We had a fun time in Amarillo which included many firsts for Addison including a hotel stay (Fairfield Marriot Amarillo) and birthday party. She was very cooperative and let everyone hold her including the guest of honor. We made the 5 hour trip in about 7 hours to accomodate Addison's feeding schedule. She was a real trooper especially considering the long hours spent in her car seat.

5 Generations: Granny Virgie, PawPaw, Dad, Maw Maw, and Addison

Great Grandchildren and Spouses

First night in a hotel. We obviously adjust well to new locations. She started in her pack-n-play but migrated to our bed about 4:45.

Paw Paw on a motor-cooler at Aunt Ruth's house.

Paw Paw and Addison. He sure did have a hard time getting her away from all of the other guests!

Big Sleeper

2010-06-13T20:26:00.000-05:00

On June 8th (2 months, 1 week, 1 day), Addison slept through the night for the first time. She does not have the most consistent schedule, but we are working really hard to fix that. On the 8th, she went down around 9:30 pm and slept until 5:45 am. After she woke up, she nursed and then took an hour snooze. She is still sleeping in her pack-n-play in our room at this point, but this is a fantastic feat for a 2 month old! We are so pleased with all of your continued accomplishments!

Our rested girl the morning after in her jammies.

2 Months

2010-06-08T19:27:00.000-05:00

On Memorial Day Addison celebrated her 2 month birthday. That is right, it was a recognized holiday! At her 2-month visit, she weighed 10 pounds 8 eight ounces and measured 23" long. She has come a long way in just two months growing 2 3/4". It is so wild to see the change from April 1, 2010 to May 31, 2010:

She is growing way too fast!! We have loved every minute of your first two months!

What a chatter box!

2010-06-08T19:18:00.000-05:00

Monty jokes that Addison is going to be just like her mom given the amount of time she spends 'talking' to us each day. This began when she was four weeks old and the frequency and lengths of our conversations seem to increase daily. At around eight weeks we began to add bubbles to our little chats and the occasional laugh (she has only done it for Monty) came around week 10. She is so much fun to talk with, but Monty better hurry up and get anything he has to say out quickly because there will be some strong competition for talking between his two girls.

April 28, 2010

Bath Time

2010-06-01T14:56:00.000-05:00

Addison loves her bath! We started bathing her when she was 2 days old. My memories of her first bath are not that pleasant because neither she nor I knew exactly what to do, but she has since fallen in love with them. It only took about three or four days for the turn around. At seven/eight weeks we are still bathing her in the sink on a 'baby bath sponge,' but know that is quickly coming to an end given that she now takes up almost the entire sink. We wanted to get a few pictures of her in the sink while we still can. Monty gives Addison her bath most nights, but I am right next to him watching the many wonderful faces and noises that go along with this happy little girl. It is one of my favorite nightly activities that we enjoy as a family. (May 15, 2010)

Addison's Dedication

2010-05-09T16:52:00.000-05:00

On May 9, 2010 Monty and I stood before our friends, family and church family at Indian Creek Baptist Church to dedicate our precious gift from God . We committed that she would be raised in a family centered around His Word and surrounded by people who would support her as she grows in relationship with Him. We take this commitment very seriously and are so blessed to have the opportunity to someday share Christ with her. I do not see a better way that I could have spent my first mother's day. She is an absolute joy and without a gift the most precious gift we have ever received. I know God will do great things in Addison's life over the years to come. We are so grateful to be your parents.

Addison is wearing my dress and shoes. I am so thrilled her Grammy saved them for her!

San Antonio Trip

2010-05-07T14:45:00.000-05:00

On April 30th, Addison and I made our first overnight trip. We went to San Antonio to introduce Addison to my grandparents. I was by no means brave enough to try this alone, but luckily my mom, dad and sister were more than willing to have some additional Addison time.

On the trip down, we stopped in Lampasses to use the restroom. In all of my wisdom, I decided to change Addison in the back seat of the Tahoe rather than use a gas station changing table. While it seemed like a good idea at the time, I did not consider the fact that car seats slope. She pooped and pottied while I was in the processes of changing her, which proceeded to run down the back of the seat. I handed Addison off to Lisa to attempt to stop the 'fluid' from running down the back of the seat. In the mean time, Addison pottied while Lisa was holding her (no diaper) and it ran down Lisa's arm and on to her flip flop covered feet. It is a good thing Lisa loves her and that the Tahoe has leather! Sorry Lisa, Grammy and PaPa!!

We had a nice visit with Gram and Grandpa and Addison had no problem adjusting to their house. She just loves to be the center of attention! We had brunch with a couple of my old friends and then hit the stores with the family. Addison acquired some more clothes, because goodness knows she does not have quite enough. On Sunday we went to church with my grandparents and Addison made it about 2/3 of the service before we had to leave. She could only be quiet for so long, most of which was prompted by the need for a clean diaper. Before heading out of town, we made a stop to see Addison's great-great aunt Margaret. We had a great weekend, but we were sure glad to get home and see our Daddy!

1 Month - May 1st

First Month Doctor's Visit

2010-05-07T14:23:00.000-05:00

On April 30th, Addison had her first month appointment with Dr. Ramsey. She weighed in at 8 lbs. and measured 21 1/2 inches. That is the 25th percentile in weight and the 60th percentile in length. She got a great report and looks just fantastic. Our next appointment will involve shots, but we lucked out this visit. Yeah Addison!

First Sleepover

2010-05-07T14:00:00.000-05:00

Kristin and Emma Howell came to meet Miss Addison the last week in April. After Emma was born, we made a trip to see her in College Station as well as see the Howell's new home. So, this was their two-part visit to Mineral Wells. We had a great time with them and were able to show them all there is to do in Mineral Wells- it took about 5 minutes!

We ventured out of the house on Tuesday and into the big city of Weatherford for some shopping. A visit with Kristin would not be complete without a trip to Target! This is an important lesson to pass on to our daughters and now seemed like a great time to begin the lessons. The girls both did really well, but I must say that we did not cover near the amout of ground that we would have before the girls. They are going to be quite the shoppers!

Emma was able to try out Addison's big girl bed and gave it her seal of approval. It won't be long until she is sleeping in there by herself. We are so glad that they were able to make the long drive to visit, and we will be in Aggieland this fall so that Addison can begin wear all of her A&M outfits. We must get together more often so that the girls can grow up to be best friends!

Boppy Buddies - Emma 6 months, Addison 4 weeks (almost)

Pictures We Love

2010-04-14T18:18:00.000-05:00

We are now 1 week old and are starting to open our eyes more often!

We love our swing and spend lots of our day swinging.

Mom may be a little ambitious; we are not quite to the point where we can appreciate our play mat.

We have mixed feelings about bath time, but one thing is for sure we love it when they are over!

Week 1 Recap

2010-04-11T15:17:00.000-05:00

Until March 31st, I never realized that our life was truly incomplete. We are enjoying the gift of parenthood more than I could possibly imagine. Addison is such a joy! We were released from the hospital exactly 24 hours after her birth. Monty and I were ready to give life a try outside of the walls of the hospital as quickly as possible. It is true that you get no rest or privacy in there. We had a fantastic experience in Weatherford, but we were ready to introduce her to our home as quickly as possible. My parents and Lisa made dinner for us at our home and then left us to give us a shot at our first night alone.

Thursday night, our first night, was a bit rough. Addison did not feel the need to sleep very much. This is understandable as she slept virtually all day. We made it through our first night with some serious teamwork and her wonderful father secretly enjoyed holding her and talking to her all night. He is so wonderful with her!

Friday we stayed around the house attempting to get everything back in order (laundry, etc.) and ventured to my parent's house for dinner on Friday night. It is crazy how I just forget to eat sometimes. I am so focused on making sure that she is eating, happy, etc. that I will look at the clock and realize that meal time has passed. I hope this will help in my weight loss journey. Monty's dad and grandmother both came for a visit on Friday as well as my mom; they just can't seem to get enough time with her. My mom spent Friday night with Addison to allow us to recover from the limited sleep in the hospital and the prior night. What a lifesaver she is!

We woke up on Saturday morning relaxed and ready to tackle another day. To be honest, by this point I was ready to take her out into the world. Lisa and I took Addison to Target to buy a wedding gift on her third day of life. She did so well, and I am convinced she is going to be a fabulous shopper! Everyone that stopped us could not believe that she was out at three days, but I had to beat my mom's record. She took me to the mall at four days. Monty was glad when we returned; he missed his baby girl!

On Easter Sunday we were not quite brave enough to venture to church quite yet. Truth be told, I was not really sure I could get everyone out of the house in time for the service! We went to Easter lunch at my parent's house which was delicious. We arrived around 12:30 which was a bit of a stretch. I had no idea how much work it is to get ready; I am going to have to speed my routine up.

Monday Addison had her first appointment with her pediatrician, Dr. Ramsey. We had to be in Weatherford at 8:00 and made it without any problems. I only had to wake up at 5:45 to make that happen! She got an excellent report and weighed 7lbs, a loss of 10 oz. from her birth weight. At this point, she had not pooped so we were instructed to come back on Tuesday morning if things had not changed. From there, we went to Monty's grandparent's house for a quick visit then returned to Mineral Wells for an afternoon at home.

We slept in on Tuesday which was really great, but had to return to Weatherford as Addison had not made any progress. In what I am sure will become a trend in our life, she waited until we were in Dr. Ramsey's office to poop. I guess she just wanted an excuse to ride in the car again. We returned to Mineral Wells to eat lunch with our friend Heather. We eat at Taco Casa every Tuesday and wanted to include Addison in our weekly routine. This was Heather's first time to see Addison since she was in the nursery when Heather came to the hospital to visit.

We made our way to Weatherford for our last appointment with our OB/GYN before he moves. It was a sad visit because we really enjoyed getting to know Dr. Miller over the last year, but are thankful that he was our doctor through my pregnancy/delivery with Addison. I got a great report and we were thrilled to introduce Addison to everyone in his office. Following our appointment with Dr. Miller, we met with a lactation specialist because Addison has shown limited interest in eating. Again, during our consultation, she ate like she had never eaten before. If nothing else, the visit reassured me that we are making the right decision to nurse. She has been eating like a champ ever since then. She is a bit lazy when it comes to eating and you have to wake her up to eat, but once she gets going there is no stopping her.

What a blessed first week we have had. God has truly given us both a great gift and an awesome responsibility. I know that our lives are going to continue to fly by and we look forward to the experiences that Addison will bring to our lives.

Addison is Here!

2010-04-01T18:31:00.000-05:00

Hi, everyone! This is Lauren's sister, Lisa, "guest-posting" for the new mom :) Let me give the baby's info:

Addison Blair Mitchell

March 31, 2010

3:18 PM

7 lbs. 10 oz.

20.25 in.

Addison is perfect and beautiful. She is doing well, along with Lauren. Monty is a bit tired from sleeping in less-than-luxurious hospital mini-beds, but is great - all things considered ;) The family arrived home today. I'm sure Lauren will post eventually and tell you more about Addison's grand entry into the world but for now, I'll give the public what they want most:

New Parents!

Addison, just 30 minutes old

all cleaned up with a nice hairdo :)

She loves to sleep and is VERY talented at it!

Lauren is looking great, as usual :)

Addison's super-sweet going home outfit

About to go home...

Addison is oficially ready to roll :)

Home at last!

Snow, Snow, Snow

2010-02-28T17:07:00.000-06:00

We have had a winter to remember! On Chirstmas Eve, this area receieved what we considered to be a great deal of snow, but that was before we knew what was to come in January and February. We received almost 11 inches of snow on February 12th and 13th. It was breaktaking, but Monty was very quickly ready for more favorable temperatures to return. He enjoys Texas weather 95% of the time, but this is not one of those. I wish Addison was here to play in the snow, but I will never forget the timing of this uncharacterisitc winter as it corresponds with pregnancy. I hear I will gauge a lot of memories in this fashion. I can only hope we will have this much excitement to share with her next winter. I have a sneaking suspicion that Monty will like snow a lot more when he has a new audience to share it with!

San Antonio Shower

2010-02-28T16:52:00.000-06:00

On the 16th of January the Wiebes graciously hosted a couples shower for us at their home. We enjoyed the opportunity to catch up with all of our San Antonio friends and remembered how very special each of them are. We receieved a ton of wonderful gifts that got our nursery off to a fantastic start. We are so very blessed to have such fantastic friends and loved the opportunity to visit. We can't wait to bring Addison to San Antonio to meet everyone. Thanks to Zach and Kelli for hosting and for everyone who came!

What a Difference a Year Can Make

2009-12-27T19:37:00.000-06:00

Last year around this time we were settling in to our new home making sure everything was situated just perfectly. Since then, we have torn what used to be the "guest" side of our home apart in order to prepare for the birth of our daughter. I had no idea that a person so small would impact our home so greatly prior to her arrival; I cannot imagine what her presence will impact following her arrival. Monty and I (along with help from my mom and sister) are enjoying putting her room together to attain a different sort of look than we have ever known, but will be blessed to enjoy. I will post pictures once the room is complete which I am hoping is by next weekend.

I am right around 26/27 weeks pregnant (we are waiting for an updated arrival date) and could not feel better. I love my active little girl already so much! I don't think I could have ever accurately imagined how special it feels to know that a tiny little life is beginning in my stomach. I treasure every movement and look forward to the next active moments now that she has really developed a "personality" and a "schedule". I now understand why some women love being pregnant and experiencing all of this wonder. I am sure I will less than enthused as she continues to grow and movements become more uncomfortable, but for now they are the highlights of my day.

Our Christmas was delightful filled with time for each of our families which is fantastic. We love that we are so close to our parents and that sharing the holidays is done with such ease compared to our previous voyages from San Antonio. I was shocked at how generous the new grandparents were, but I must admit I am not surprised. I really believe they are equally as excited as Monty and I are for her arrival. We had a ton of snow for this part of Texas with 60 mph winds which created a "blizzard" for this part of the world. We hope each of you had a joyous holiday with your families and that you will be blessed in 2010.

Rodeo - Mineral Wells Fashion

2009-05-11T21:40:00.000-05:00

I know it has been forever since our last post, and I promise I will put pictures of our completed home up here some day, but that will have to wait a bit longer. Since tax season is mainly behind us (not-for-profit and Texas franchise are due Friday) we have had a bit more time to spend doing a few things in our area. Last Tuesday, my friend Heather won our firm's box seats at the Palo Pinto County Rodeo and invited us to share the 'box' with her and her husband. Naturally I welcomed the invitation because let's be honest, the food at those events can't be beat and the rodeo in a 'box' seat had to be entertaining! Unlike 'box' seats at other venues, we learned upon our arrival that 'box' seats meant folding chairs on the first two rows of the arena. In other words, not the bleachers. It turned out, these seats were really great, but a bit scary at times. During the bronc and bull rides, we got dirt all over us (I prefer to say dirt and not think of other things that I am sure were mixed with it) and got to see the animals/cowboys up close as our seats were right next to the chutes. We had a great time and got to share in Dax's first rodeo experience (Heather and Adam's 9 month old son). Following the Wednesday rodeo, I headed to San Antonio on Thursday to meet up with my friend Kelli for a great time of wedding dress shopping followed by a wonderful dinner at Pappasito's. During the weekend, I was also able to enjoy some quality time and shopping with my mom, grandmother and sister. It was so much fun and it made my return to work today all the more difficult. I miss San Antonio and all of our old friends, but life in Mineral Wells is pretty great! The last picture is from trip Monty and I took in April; I had to put my biggest catch on to share. Monty is so proud :)

2008-11-10T21:54:00.000-06:00

So here are some new pictures of the house as of Sunday. We hope to be in over the Thanksgiving holiday, so keep your fingers crossed. It still has a way to go, but Monty and I (ok so more Monty) have been working a lot on getting it to the finish line. I will try to put more up as soon as we get the bathrooms and flooring all squared away. Other than the house, not much is going on in our little world. Once someone shows me how to rotate and change color, I will have many more to add.

Now that the rain has gone....

2008-09-18T19:49:00.000-05:00

You'll have to read and find out...

This is Monty's favorite part of the house- his garage!
This is the entry hall and dining room. Kind of hard to really tell anything.
This is looking from one bedroom to the next with the bathroom in between the arches.

This last week has been a bit crazy. We go straight from work to either the house or to buy something for the house or talk about the house. This must be how people with children feel; the house has become my new little life :) On Sunday we went to Church and out to lunch with some friends and decided that we would just relax, do laundry, and of the fun stuff that life throws your way each week. Monty also offered to make some of his delicious ribs, and you know me how could I turn that down. As he was doing all of the work with the grilling, I thought the least I could do was help him take them off of the grill and bring them inside to bake. He grabbed one pan and specifically told me to wait and he would be back to get the next one. I, because I am so helpful, ignored his advice and removed the pan from the. The moment I grabbed the, pan I must have discarded my brain because I attempted to prop it on my hip to open the door to the porch. In the process, the juices ran down my arm and leg. It didn't really hurt much at all, but here is what it looks like tonight (Thursday) since my unfortunate incident on Sunday. Like I said, it was not a big deal at all until someone started talking about scaring. Start praying now that does not happen! I am way too shallow to have a big scar on the top my arm, but enough of my drama.

This has been a productive week since Hurricane Ike's rain showers moved out. They finished the sheet rock earlier this week and the texture portion today. Monty and I will spend all weekend painting in order to be ready for the cabinets and floors. The masons have been working this week to get all of our rock and brick up, and I think they should be done within the next few days. Here are some pictures of the house to give you an idea. We still have a really long way to go, but we are making pretty significant progress. I will have some pictures from our painting party this weekend sometime next week.

We now look like a house!

2008-09-09T21:52:00.000-05:00

This is the fire place with a ton of pipe, wiring, etc. Not a good pic, but you get the idea.

So I know it has been roughly a month since my last post, but things have been a bit hectic to say the least. Now that we are back around our families, it seems that there are constantly people to go eat with, people to drop in for a visit with, not to mention activities at church and in the community. We are really enjoying it here, but I never would have guessed our life in the small town would be this crazy. It is a different kind of pace than San Antonio and one that we both love.

As far as the house goes, a lot has happened since my last post. We now have a frame (which is covered here in Tyvek- which is like the 'skin' pre-brick), windows, a roof, and painted exterior, and all of our plumbing, security, cable, electric, etc. that has to be put in before the walls are insulated and sheet rocked. We will begin the insulation process tomorrow and sheet rock will start on Friday. The masons will arrive next week so the house will really start to take shape. It was extremely overcast today, so by the time I arrived at the house, you couldn't see a lot from the inside, so this is exclusively an outside picture post. I am going to ask Monty to take some pictures of the insulation process because it has the best of my curiosity. I will try to be much better with my posts, especially when it comes to the selection of tile/wood, paint, etc. We are thrilled with the progress and can't wait to share more with you. Sorry!

No More Dirt

2008-08-13T21:59:00.000-05:00

Trenches for Plumbing
Steel Re-Bar Before the Pour
The Day of the Pour!

I knew that building this house would be a learning experience, but I had no idea how much I would learn. In my simple, simple mind I never contemplated how foundations are constructed, specifically how the pipes are placed, the cement formed to the exact shape of your house, etc. First, the slab people came and placed the forms for the house, which gave us a rough estimate of how big the house is, but nothing more than that. Next, the plumber came and placed the pipes in the ground in the various ditches they dug, which was followed by an inspection. Then the slab guys came back, dug the beams, tied the steel, covered the dirt with plastic, and poured the slab. Our first 'incident' happened when the slab crew sliced one our pipes down the middle! Monty took care of it, and the pipe was quickly fixed and the process continued without incident. Just another example of how much more calm and collected Monty is. I immediately wanted to know who was going to pay for the repair. We definitely balance one another. That is an extremely simplified version of the week's events, but the important part is that we now can really see what the house looks like. They will start framing next week; I can hardly wait to see the rooms!

Brick?!?

2008-08-13T21:47:00.001-05:00

I never would have guessed that picking an exterior could have been so difficult. When we moved from San Antonio I had a vision in my head of rock and stucco, a San Antonio staple. When we arrived our plans took a new turn to match the entire town; we switched to brick. I had a very hard time with this because I had the other house pictured in my head (and on our plans)- with rock! The best thing about this decision is that Monty and I have identical taste in brick. We were able to narrow down a color without too much effort, and crazy enough both Acme and Hanson manufacture brick in Mineral Wells. After living in Mineral Wells from 7th-12th grade embarrassingly I had no idea! Here is a picture of the brick we chose. It is a bit hard to get a good feel for it in picture, but until you visit in person....

Life in Mineral Wells

2008-07-24T22:08:00.000-05:00

OK, so it looks like a big pile of dirt, but picture a house.....
Monty's dad in the tractor moving the dirt pile around

Wow! We left Mineral Wells about 8 years ago, and my how much has changed in such a short period. They have upgraded from Wal-Mart to Super Wal-Mart, added a Chili's and other various fast food establishments, and raised the price of a movie ticket to rival that of other towns (it previously cost $3). This being said, we are really enjoying our life here. The pace is much different, but a really good kind of different.

Living with my parents has been wonderful! We eat real meals (at the table!), swim after dinner, play games, and all types of other fun stuff. They have been more than gracious to allow us to live with them; I don't know how we will ever repay them. Monty has been fishing with his grandfather (Pappy) on Thursday nights, and absolutely loves it (he won tonight!).

Work could not be better. I like all of the people that I work with, but I do miss working almost entirely with people in my own age group. I get off work between 5 and 6, but the real selling point is that I don't have to leave the house until 7:50 to arrive at 8:00 and even allow for a little wiggle room. Monty is currently waiting for our appraisal to be completed so we can begin construction. While he has been waiting he has been able to work with his dad (he is a huge help!) to get the lot leveled so that the minute all of our paperwork is complete we can begin building. I have included some pictures so you can get a feel for where we are building, and hopefully the next pictures will have a bit of cement included.