Birthday Girl!

Happy Birthday Addie!!! I had so much fun getting ready for her party. I decided to be brave and decorate her cake myself. It was such a fun experience and I will definitely be making her cakes for at least the next few years. We just had a small party at our house so that she wasn't overwhelmed, and it turned out great!

 We had her party on the 7th since Shawn was going to be out of town on the 9th. Plus it makes the best FHE!

 We decided to go with a ladybug theme since Addie is our Bug.

She didn't really understand how to open the presents or even what we were doing but once I got the paper started for her, she loved ripping the paper. She wouldn't finish unwrapping anything though. She just jumped from present to present.

 Finally (after plenty of help from Mom), she pulled out some of her gifts. She was so excited about all of them.

 She got books, a puzzle, stuffed animals, a baby doll, a Little People playhouse, clothes, and a little xylophone. Since her birthday she hasn't played with any of her 'old' toys. She only wants to play with the new, exciting ones!

 We gave her the whole cake to have fun with and she went nuts. At first, she was a little tentative but once she got the taste of the frosting in her mouth she dug right in. I actually had to take off some of the frosting so she would get the cake.

She ate so much of it! And she just kept going back for more!

 Little disaster! It was close to her bedtime so by the time we took the cake away she was so tired. We quickly gave her a bath, cleaned up, and got her to bed. Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate!!!

Shawn was out of town on Addie's actual birthday due to work, which is why we held her party a couple of days early. I decided that I didn't want him to miss out on anything that happened during her birthday (however mundane those things might be), so I took lots of pictures throughout the day and emailed them to Shawn so he could be a part of it even though he was far away.

 As soon as I heard Addie waking up in her room, I grabbed the camera and went in singing Happy Birthday. This is the face I got.

 We spent most of the morning playing with toys. She loves to talk to her baby doll and give her hugs and kisses. She carries her around all day long.

After playing for a bit, I got her bundled up to take the dog outside in the freezing cold!

She then decided to walk the dog. She absolutely loves holding his leash and dragging him around the room. Usually I don't let her do it for very long but hey, it was her birthday.

 Then I spoiled my little munchkin with chocolate chip pancakes. Ok lets be honest, we have chocolate chip pancakes a lot. I love that she signs All Done except that means that her hair gets so gross!

 She was such a mess, I just had to get her undressed and let her run around naked. Check out that cure hair!

 We then laid on the ground and read books. Notice that she would not wear any pants. Again, she got away with it. Birthdays are awesome. And she looked so freaking cute in her birthday onesie!!

 We watched Bubble Guppies. She is such a big girl sitting on the couch all by herself. She just kept saying Bu, bu, so we'd watch another one.

We finally got her dressed and headed out for the afternoon. We spent the afternoon with grandparents and uncles and then came home and crashed for the evening. Such a fun day spent with my little one year old. As I was driving home to put her to bed, I looked at the clock and it just happened to be 7:43. The time that she was born. I got a little misty eyed as I reflected on this past year with my sweet June. It has been the most rewarding year of my life. I can't wait for many more years with her! I love you sweet Addie girl! Happy Birthday!

Yikes....

Yes, my child looks a mess. I took out her piggies and her hair looked hilarious. 

Then she has a blue mouth from the sucker I gave her. She loves suckers.

We played and played and just enjoyed the fact that she (and I) looked disastrous this day. But I wouldn't change it for the world.

Remember.....

It's days like this where I truly believe that looking back and remembering where we've been and what we've gone through is really important and therapeutic. So what do I mean by 'days like this'? Well, it was 2 years ago today that I miscarried. I will never forget that day.

I was so excited the day that I found out that I was pregnant. I think that is a moment that is truly special when you see those two pink lines. Well just a short 9 weeks later, I lost the baby. I know some may say that 9 weeks just isn't that long and the baby wasn't that far along but losing that child rocked my world. I went from picking out baby names to realizing that I didn't know when I would become a mother. My plans all got completely rearranged.

I leaned a lot on the Lord that day and through the following days and weeks. And you know what? I became a lot stronger because of what I went through. I learned to have faith and trust in the Lord's timing. I came to know that I would be a mother when I was supposed to. I was really lucky and blessed to get pregnant so quickly after miscarrying and that helped ease the pain.

Now two years later, looking back at what I went through, I have realized how powerful and magnificent the Lord's timing is. I have a stronger sympathy and empathy for those who have gone through the pain of losing a pregnancy. And my life has been so greatly blessed in these past two years. We have been blessed financially. We have been blessed spiritually. Our families have been looked after. I had the privilege to give birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl who is such an amazing, wonderful child. She is such a strong spirit and has made Shawn and I better people. I need her in my life and it is because of the Lord's plan and timing that I have my sweet little girl with me today. I love her and my Savior so much and I'm grateful for the trials that we go through. I love being able to come out on top and come out of them a better and stronger person than I was going in. I hope to always remember where I have been and what I have gone through. I never want to forget the special lessons that I learned. I want them to make me stronger for myself, my husband and my children.

Addie is 10 1/2 Months and My Birthday!

So my little munchkin is now 10 1/2 months old. She has been changing so much this past little while. I even had a friend tell me that she all the sudden looks like a little kid! 

Addie's newest thing is to climb. She climbs onto anything that she can. This morning she decided that she wanted to play with the dishes. I didn't want her to pull anything out so I pushed the bottom rack in. Then I continued to do the dishes until I heard a little whimpering. She had climbed onto the dishwasher and got stuck!! I know, I'm such a mean mom and took a picture instead of rescuing her!

 

Addie also has been really interested in her sippy. We have tried several different kinds and she never seems to be able to figure them out. Then we found this one and she carries it everywhere with her! We have also started introducing cows milk and she loves it!!

One thing she has started doing is sitting and laying on things. I know that sounds weird but she will stand up, walk to something or someone and then sit or lay down on it/them. My favorite is when I'm sitting cross legged on the floor. She will come sit on my legs. Not in the middle but on one leg on the outside. It's so cute! She also will lay on the floor when she's tired and wants a nap.

Addie now has 5 teeth! They are so cute! She has started grinding her teeth too. Such a creepy sound! Her other teeth have come in so easily. She only had a few days of grumpiness and then all 3 teeth came in! I can see another top tooth slowly making its way down so we may see tooth number 6 here pretty soon!

My favorite thing that Addie is doing now is clapping. We have tried for a long time to get her to clap and she had no interest. Then one day all the sudden she started doing it! That night we went to an Owlz game and she just clapped away! Now she claps all the time. Anytime she does anything like pick up a toy, put a toy away or give kisses, she'll clap afterwards. It's so darling!

I love my little munchkin! She is such an amazing baby! We are so lucky to have her as a part of our family. I truly cherish each moment I get with her!

This last Sunday was my birthday and man I was spoiled!! I got some very sweet cards from family and  my friend and her kids got me a bucket of candy with some balloons! Then there's my sweetheart. He made me feel so special! Starting on Wednesday, he gave me a present a day. Wednesday-Book, The Red Pyramid. Thursday- Criminal Minds Season 6 (My favorite TV show ever!). Friday- A pair of shoes. Saturday- A new set of scriptures with my married name on them. Sunday- Skirt, shirt and shoes for me to wear on my birthday! It's not everyday that you find someone who knows you SO well that they can buy you clothes that you absolutely love and that you don't have to return for a different size.

I had a fantastic birthday! We also got to go on a date without the baby and just spend quality time the two of us. It was such a great weekend and I'm so grateful for a loving husband who made me feel like the luckiest girl on the planet. I love you Shawn and thank you!!!!

Oh dear me......

So I'm doing the dishes yesterday and I realized that it was awful quiet. So I peeked my head around the corner and this is what I found.....

 Yes, she dumped all her toys out, turned the box upside down and climbed on top.

 Look at that little mischievous smile.....

She fell off a few times but just kept trying. Little miss smarty pants. Too smart for her own good. I'm in trouble now.

Personality

Our little munchkin has SOOO much personality!! We decided to let her have an oreo the other day for the first time and she loved it. She loved it so much she got it everywhere. So we took some pictures of her. These were all the faces we got in the 30 seconds we took the photos.

The last few are my favorites! She is such a goofy little girl. We just can't get enough of her!!
PS. Doesn't her hair look red?!? I mean it's kind of strawberry blonde but my goodness, it sure looks RED!!!

Trouble....

Look what I stumbled upon the other day.......

 My little monster gets into everything within arms reach!! Yes, not only are the wipes pulled out, they are shredded!!

But she's such a cute little helper, don't you think?

9 Months

Wow. I can't believe my tiny little baby is 9 months old!! she is getting so big so fast and thinks that she is older than she is. We had a great doctors visit. She now weighs 16 lbs 6 oz (10th percentile) and is 27 3/4 in long (58th percentile). Tall and skinny! She is doing so great developmentally and was charming the doctor with her sweet smile!

She is such a funny little girl. She makes the cutest faces and noises. I love when she scrunches her face. Addie has also learned how to wave. As soon as she sees someone new, she waves at them. Or if we tell her to say hi or bye, she waves. It's so cute!
One of her new favorite things is mirrors. She loves to look in them and see herself. She just stares and laughs at herself in the mirror. She also looks at my reflection in the mirror and then looks at me. Then she looks back at my reflection. It's so cute!

She has also found the doorstoppers this past month. In any room that she is in she finds them and hits them so they make sound. The sound is pretty annoying but watching her completely enthralled is so worth it.
We have spent a lot of time outside playing. Addie is really starting to love being outdoors and playing in our playground. She tries to be a big kid and crawl/walk in the bark. She just thinks she is so much bigger than she is! She also is becoming a daddy's girl. If Shawn is home, she wants to be with him. She will lean out of my arms for him. I love it but it also makes me a little sad and jealous.

Addie absolutely LOVES picking the grass and running her hands through it but she absolutely HATES her feet or legs touching the grass. Hence her sitting on the edge of the blanket with her leg in the air! So funny to watch.

Food. The kid can't get enough food. And she is starting to not let me feed her anything, not even yogurt or applesauce. She wants to feed herself. But she is a fantastic eater so I can't complain. She loves sourdough cheese toast. She loves mandarin chicken. She loves spaghetti. She loves ice cream. She loves fruit (she did not get that from me!). She loves EVERYTHING!!!
Addie's bottom two teeth came through this past month as is evident by the above picture! She has destroyed the inside of her crib with her teeth. I must admit its super cute (the crib, not the teething process). She has been a fairly good teether. Her first tooth just appeared overnight and so it was super easy. Her second tooth was a bit more difficult and she was pretty clingy for a few days. Her napping was all over the place but her night sleep wasn't affected at all. I was so grateful for that!! She also got a big red blister where the tooth was coming in. Here's to hoping the rest of her teething goes as smoothly as her first tooth!!
Oh and last but not least, Addie is walking!!! It's absolutely insane. She started standing up in the middle of the floor just before she was 6 months and i think that has helped out with her balance. She then started crawling around 7 months and picked that up quickly. Then just before she turned 9 months she decided that she wanted to walk! It was kind of crazy to be playing with her and have her take two steps towards me. She wasn't even cruising around the furniture yet! So now each day she gets better and better at walking. She is now up to about 7-8 steps at a time. I'm just not ready for my baby to be a toddler!!!

Oh and a random sidenote: We got a new couch. Shawn went to the RC Willey Outlet with a coworker to buy a TV for his friends new place. Instead his coworker left empty handed and Shawn left with a couch. We got it for $215. The guy at the store wanted $340 but my little negotiator got him down $125 bucks!!! We just added it to our original couch and now you can't tell that they are separate pieces. I love it!!