Trick or Treat...Indoor Style

With Hurricane Sandy on her way we decided to go trick or treating a day early. The mall was hosting a free night of candy so we figured we would scoot on over. We met up with a few families and made our way around to the stores. It wasn't too crowed and Addison was pretty happy get a stick of licorice that she ate within the first 2 minutes. She kept saying, "back, back". She wanted her candy bag back so she could dig through for another sucker. Dave had to leave to go to YM so we finished without him. Addison loved it and I loved not chasing her in the dark, cold and wet streets!

Back to Hurricane Sandy...we were suppose to get horrible rain and power outages. We had fairly heavy rain last night with some high winds. Today there was nothing! I stalked up on water, got some new batteries and filled the fridge with groceries. It was a good feeling to know that even if we did have power outages that we would be prepared. I am grateful for the recent Christmas presents from both our parents of preparedness starter kits. At the time they weren't very exciting, but now I feel blessed that they did. 

Addison has started picking up some funny words. She will come hand you something (that she isn't suppose to have!) and say, "Good girl, tank too!" This is what Dave and I both say to her all the time. On another note she she has also started to say, "MINE!" I am not very excited about this one. I couldn't figure out where she head this from until tonight. Dave looked at her and said, "Mommy is Mine!" Go figure. Dave has since learned that he needs to play nice! You may also hear Addison knocking on everything! She knocks on your head, the door, all her toys, her high chair. I don't know what she loves about it, but it keeps her busy! 

Family Pictures 2012

Well, it is that time of year again when we get family pictures done. I warned Dave for a few months that they were going to happen again. The combination of Addison running away and Dave just being Dave during pictures made for an interesting shoot! We have been really lucky (don't know if she feels the same!) to have our friend, Laura take our pictures a few other times. We found this cool nature preserve to take pictures. The leaves were really pretty and they had a neat board walk or a swampy little lake. Everything that I wanted Addison to do in the pictures went south, but we managed to get some really cute ones! Thanks again Laura! 

Halloween Happenings

We have been busy getting ready for Halloween this weekend.We went to a pumpkin farm this week for playgroup. It was a little rainy for Addison got caked with mud. She loved the animals and may have gotten over her fear of goats! Addison carries around her pumpkin every time we go outside.  She likes to sit it next to her and talk to it. It is just her size! I make candy corn rice krispy treats that Dave thinks can be eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner! We tried to go to the mall this weekend to a Halloween carnival and it was a flop. Addison was already crying in the car on the way there so we should have just gone home. She lasted about twenty minutes and we dragged her out screaming and kicking. She fought a nap all day and so we were all a little cranky:) We played at home the rest of the day and then got ready for out ward Fall Festival. Dave willingly put his costume back on and I dressed up as a tiger. Addison was not a huge fan of her costume and ran away from both of us as we tried to put it on her. She wound't really let us take a good picture of her either. She ran around eating cookies and chasing the kids around the gym. She loved carrying her candy bag around and picked out a dum dum to eat. She also managed to sneak a kit kat and bit through the paper and scarf the whole thing down on the car ride home! We make ghosts out of our feet a few weeks ago. Every time Addison sees it she says, "GHOST." She says it pretty clearly too!  We carved our pumpkin for FHE and baked the seeds. Addison didn't want to help scoop the pulp, but she was a good observer on the table next to her dad. I drew a pretty cool owl and Dave and I took turns carving. Hopefully Addison will put her costume back on for Halloween so we can load up on candy again!

A Little Girl Time

I have developed a knack for painting my nails while watching tv. We normally sit down and watch an episode of something a couple times a week and I paint. Addi is usually asleep when this is happening, but got up from her nap early one day. She wanted her nails painted too. I have tried doing this several times and she cries when I put the paint on and runs away. She sat down and put her foot up and kept saying, "Pretties!" I painted it a light pink with sparkles. She wasn't too happy that she had to have both feet done, but loves to look and touch them! 

Addi loves to play "house" pretty much all day long. She sits in her yellow chair and plays with those little people. She has a doll that is a price. I was sitting by her and looked over and she shouted, "WILL" and gave him a big kiss. Uh Oh. We have big problems here. Today in sacrament meeting Addison escaped the row and ran to Will. Those two get so excited seeing each other!

The Scowl

Emily is always getting upset and annoyed because she thinks I don't read her blog (which is partially true, but only sometimes), so I thought I would surprise her with a post. Yesterday Emily had a rough day with Addison and didn't end up being able to make dinner before I got home. Since I was too tired after a long day at the hospital and a few hours of studying to bother with trying to make something, we went out to Red Robin. While we were there I got Addison to make this scowl she had been doing periodically for me (mostly in the bath tub), and until then Emily hadn't seen it and I don't think believed me. It was so funny we continued to get her to do it and she did it over and over the whole time we were there, luckily I even got it on video. We were all laughing the entire time and enjoyed each others company.

Cleaning and A Little Party

I picked up a  play vacuum off the curb a few months ago for Addison. It has sat in our garage collecting dust since. Addison squeals every time Dave turns on the vacuum and we caught it on video the other night, it was the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. She throws her arms up and starts running in place and giggling. I brought in the play vacuum and Addison has been very busy "cleaning" around here. I love it and she makes me laugh how seriously she takes her job. 

I was sick this week with a little stomach bug. It was miserable, but we just kept ourselves busy to pass the time. I have a meeting or an activity every night this week. It is the primary program this upcoming Sunday and I am busy planning that. It is going to be really nice and a lot of work has gone into it! Recipe exchange was on Wednesday and it was a great turnout. I have really enjoyed planning this group and each month it gets better. 

We got invited to a Halloween party this past weekend. It was almost a deal breaker that costumes were required. Dave refused to dress up and I am pretty bummed. I called my mom and she managed to find a pretty harmless costume out of the dress up box. He got to choose from a giant peanut M&M or a Hawaiian tourist. He went with the tourist. He looked awesome (I secretly think that he enjoyed how good he looked!) The only thing that would have made it better was if we had a fanny pack...perhaps one of Grammie Fajen's would have done the trick:) I fulfilled a life long dream of dressing up as Harry Potter. Jenny let me borrow the one and only wand and cloak! We had a really good time catching up with friends and eating good food. Addison got to have a date with Will and a babysitter. She was a party animal and stayed up till 11! I felt bad that she didn't go to bed, but I kinda didn't think that she would being at Will's house. Dave survived his costume and we had a great weekend!  

FHE

Yes, that's right folks the Michael family is having FHE! Dave and I have always gone in streaks where we will have it and then we don't. Since having Addison we are a little more motivated to start having it again. Tonight we did a lesson on service and then made some Halloween monster mash. We bagged them up and made some "Booed" signs. It was fun to ring doors and run away (I almost sprained my ankle trying to get away). We plan to do a service night two more times before the beginning of the year and I am holding us to it. I am learning what it really means to serve being the primary secretary. It has been a difficult calling for me to get into the swing of things. There is a lot of behind the scenes work and I am learning to readjust my attitude about it. Taking an evening to talk about service and then carrying out an act of kindness really helped me keep things in perspective. Turns out Addison loves chocolate covered popcorn!

Weekend Trip

We went down to Pittsburgh this weekend. We packed up and waited for Dave to get home from clinical and then jumped in the car. We were greeted with my favorite steak salad when we got there. I think the first time I had it I talked about it for 3 days! Addison enjoyed the ipad for the entire drive down, it was amazing. She was laughing and busy learning about animals all at the same time! I never thought I would be "that" parent who let their child play with the $300+ electronic. I am already planning what apps to download for the long traveling trips at Christmas. Addison loved being around Harley as usual. She started saying something in a really low raspy voice over and over. We later realized she was saying, "Harley"! It was hilarious. She would say it and then chase him around. We took a few walks and Addison was thrilled to get to carry the leash. For most of the time Harley was walking her, but she was on cloud nine. Addison even managed to get Harley a devil Halloween costume. We love being so close to family for quick weekend visits.