Happy 1st Birthday!!

In a years time you've gone from this:


to this!




I can't believe that a year ago today I was in labor; that a year ago today, my life changed forever; that a year ago today I fell in love with someone more than I ever thought possible.

Addison, you are such an amazing little girl. Your laugh is contagious. Your smile lights up a room. Watching you grow this past year has been a dream come true. Watching you learn new things every day is the best part of being a mom. I will continue to enjoy watching you grow and learn but this past year has been wonderful. I am proud to be your mom. I love you monkey!

Christmas Wrap-Up

Thurdsay and Friday were jammed packed with christmas parties. Thursday morning we went to my dads house and opened presents there. The girls definetely got a lot of good gifts from Santa!


This wagon was overflowing by the time we left


Playing with some toys before heading to Uncle Dan's house

Did I say playing? I meant putting her feet up and relaxing!


Friday morning we woke up and opened gifts here. Kyle got me an external hard drive, I got him a Blackhawks jersey and tickets to a game. I might be the best wife ever. I didn't get any pictures of Addison opening gifts. She saw this one
and wanted nothing to do with any more presents.

After we were done here, we went next door to my moms. Where Toys R Us relocated to. See what I mean?! There were about 25 gifts for each kid, a trampoline, a slide, a tunnel/tent combo and an easel. Think my parents went a little over board this year? But its ok, the girls had fun jumping on the trampoline instead of opening up presents and that's all that matters!


We left moms with a no nap 1 year old and headed to Lansing for Kyle's family party. She got some good gifts there but I think she had more fun teasing the dog :)



Back to my dads house we went. I was too busy using the camcorder to take any pictures. Santa was there though!
This was NOT her face for Santa. She screamed when it was her turn to receive presents.

I hope Santa was good to everyone this year. I can't believe it's already December 27th. Tomorrow is Addison's 1st birthday!!

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours, we wish you a merry Christmas!!

Pics will be posted later of all of Addison's gifts!

Christmas...Round 1

On Saturday we had Kyle's parents over for dinner and our gift exchange. I made dinner and they brought the gifts. We ate, opened presents, laughed and watched football. It was a good way to spend the long day I had cleaning and cooking!

Look at all those presents!


Opening up her first one!


It's a baby doll!


Very angry that Uncle Erik took it into the kitchen to cut off the plastic twist ties


All better now that she has dolly back and grandma!




Taking her baby for a walk around the dinning room


We will have round 2 on Thursday morning followed by 3,4,5 and, 6 on Friday! Then next two days later its her her birthday, the following weekend are her parties. Phew! I'm exhausted just writing it all!

Picture Update

Today I got Addison's 1st birthday and Christmas pictures taken. So cute! Can't wait to get the disc back so I can get them printed! Really wish Jen could have done them, but it was just too cold do to Christmas pics outside! Oh well, there's always next time, and the time after that :)







And now for the Christmas pics. I didn't get any of just her (my fault) but it was more of a "cousins" day instead of just her.

A few steps...

Last night Addison took a few steps!!!! Yesterday while Kyle was watching her he saw her take a few from her toy box to the couch. He said that she 'didn't know I was watching her'. I think she tok about 8 between Kyle and I! And we got really excited and saying "yay Addison!!" and she started clapping at herself. So cute!

And its about time that she started walking around us. I swear she does at school! This girl is just lazy and won't do it in front of us hehe

She's got 3 weeks to start walking on her own. If not, well then I don't know, but wouldn't that be a GREAT Christmas present from her to mom and dad??? I think so!

Rock-a-Bye Baby

Rock-a-bye baby, in the tree top
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall
And down will come Addison, cradle and all

I have sang this song to Addison since she was a newborn. During those endless nights of her getting up every 2-3 hours I'd sing it to her while she was eating, or while we were both fighting a nap. Now I really only sing it to her if she's screaming in the car or being cranky. Tonight was a different story.

She's been able to fall asleep on her own for I don't know how many months now. Since she was 6 1/2 months old she's been able to hold her own bottle so I don't have to hold her while she eats in the middle of the night. Now she doesn't take a bottle (or only 1) and she's 11 months old I'm not going to rock her when she wakes up-she'll think its play time.

She has been exteremly cranky the last few days due to her top two teeth coming in. She has no problem falling asleep but staying asleep has been a struggle. She's reverted back to waking up 2 times a night and not taking good naps during the day. Tonight wasn't an exeption. She went to bed at 8, woke up at 10 screaming bloody murder, drank a bottle but didn't fall back asleep. So I went up to her room and rocked her back to sleep. Singing to her ever so softly while she chewed on her blanky and softly tapped on my chest.

I'm not going to lie. I had tears in my eyes. My 11 month old baby actually wanted to be rocked to sleep because she was in pain. She wasn't even like that when she had surgery. I guess just forgot how much I really did enjoy and miss having our special alone time in the middle of the night...

Christmas Shopping

Forget going out on Black Friday, I'd rather be sleeping! But I do enjoy me some online shopping. I did pretty much all of it on Friday/Saturday and waiting until Monday for the Cyber Monday sales to pick up a few more things. So far I have gotten:

Vtech - Learn & Dance Interactive Zoo


LeapFrog Fridge Farm Magnetic Animal Set


Fisher-Price Go Baby Go Bounce & Spin Zebra


Fisher Price - Precious Planet Resin Monkey Bank


and I'd really like to get her this Laugh & Learn™ Learning Home™ but I can't see spending $70 on it! But it looks like SO much fun!!


I've also bought her some clothes and puzzles. Maybe someone will buy that Learning Home for her *hint hint grandparents* Lol!

11 Months Old!!

I can't believe it! One more month and I'll have a toddler! Where has the time gone?!


Some new things she's doing-
--Will walk if you hold her hands.
--Only taking bottles if/when she wakes up in the middle of the night
--Eating all real food now
--Loves to play peek-a-boo
--has started to dance to music
--give kisses on command
--does the sign for "all done" when she's done eating
--can say mama, dada, baba, da (dog) and flaps her arm like a duck when you say quack quack
--is becoming more into books/reading. She'll bring a book to us and we have to read it twice
--can crawl up the stairs at lightening speed
--knows where "her" bathroom is.
--loves to look at pictures of the family
--needs to have her food on a plate and have a spoon or fork to "eat"
--top two teeth are trying to come in

So there it is! My baby is 11 months old today! Happy Birthday monkey!! I love you!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Turning 25 was a lot easier than I thought it would be. When I turned 24 I had a hard time. Not sure why but I did. Saturday morning I woke up to this


I bought myself a new winter coat as a birthday present to me. My mom got me a spa package--can't wait to use that!!

Kyle and I went to Popolano's for dinner then out to Hooligans with a bunch of friends. It was an amazing night. All I have to say is thank god for Sundays!

Make the holidays more meaningful

I'm gald that I found this article in the new issue of Parents magazine. While reading a fellow bloggers blog the other day, this article really hit home with what she was talking about.

Here are some simple ways to make your holidays more meaningful

*Explore Different cultures
Help your kids get a sense of life in other countries by introducing them to a variety of holiday rituals celebrated around the globe during this time of year

*Share a Story
Start a discussion of where traditions come from with info from the experts at patheos.com

*Capture Memories
Record interviews with your kids after the excitement of gift receiving has died down. It's a great way to document their changes from year to year. Try these questions:
----What was your favorite thing our family did together this year?
----Who are your best friends? What do you like most about them?
----How is school this year? What is your best/worst subject?
----What do you daydream about?
----What is the nicest thing that a friend or someone in the family has done for you this year?

*Lend a hand all year 'round
Volunteering during the holidays gets kids in the habit of helping those in need, but so many families do it that most charities see a huge surge in donations and participation each December-it's every other time of the year that they need attention.

*Pause and Reflect
Give your family a chance to think during the holiday rush: During December share a half-minute of silence each night at dinner. Tell the kids to focus on whatever they like-something good that happened that they're grateful for, positive thoughts for a sick friend, a wish for the coming year.

*Create Rituals
A unique tradition teaches kids that they are part of something special-your family-and binds this holiday to future ones.

I'm hoping to start something with Addison this year that is special to just us. I'm just not sure what I want to do.

6 weeks and counting....

Only 6 more weeks until my baby turns 1 year old! I can't believe how fast time has gone by. I can't remember life without her. With that being said, we have started weaning her off formula and bottles. At first we tried mixing formula and soy milk, that didn't go over well. Then we tried just straight soy milk, she wouldn't touch it. I think milk is bad for you and gross so I/we aren't even going to try her with that. So needless to say she won't be drinking real milk. I've talked with the doctor and she said as long as she's getting calcium in other ways it's ok. Yesterday and so far today she's only had one 6oz bottle and that was at 6:30am when I knew that neither one of us were ready to get up. She's eating pretty much all real food now. She is one of the few babies I know that will eat everything. There were red peppers in her gerber graduate meal and she ate those---LOVED them in fact! She eats veggies and fruit and meat and just loves to try new things. I really hope she stays like this and doesn't become as picky of an eater as her dad!

Family Portraits

Here's a few of my favorites from Saturdays photo shot with Jen. I can not begin to express how much I love these pictures!

Teaser Pics :)

On Saturday, a fellow blogger and friend Jennifer Loving took our family pictures. She sent me a teaser pic tonight and I absolutely L.O.V.E. it!! I can't wait to see the rest. Choosing one for our Christmas card is gonna be rough!!



Thank you so much Jen! I loved my wedding reception pictures and I can already tell I'm going to love these ones too!

Birthday Ideas

I've been searching around for gift ideas for Addison's birthday and I think I have found some presents! All from Amazon I'm hoping to order these soon.

A Monkey Bank


LeapFrog Fridge Farm Magnetic Animal Set



Fisher-Price Amazing Animals Spinnin' Around Musical Zoo



We will probably get her some books and clothes too. I know the grandparents will practically buy out toys r us this year so we are going easy. After Christmas and her birthday I will be sorting her "baby" toys and donating a lot of them. I'm having some problems coming up with what to get her for stocking stuffers. Any ideas?

Spaghetti Face :)

So far, Addison's favorite food is by far spaghetti. Which is fine by me because it's one of my favorite's as well. We had it for dinner the other night and this is the mess that she created....



Thank goodness for soap and water! I don't think she would have came clean without a bath!!