Family Mini Golfing

We went mini golfing as a family and it was a success! Addison was content in her stroller and even enjoyed hitting a few balls...Can you believe she is standing on her own!! I managed a few hole in ones much to Dave's surprise. Dave still beat me, but I gave him a good run. We bought a groupon for about 5 more times of golfing so I think we will be going a lot this Summer.

Catch Up

We haven't been up to really anything exciting around here lately. We are getting ready to go to DC before Dave starts clinical this summer so we are saving our money and energy.  Dave has been busy with the young men and enjoying getting back to his days as a youth. He took them paint balling and is getting ready for a camp out coming up. School is still taking over his life. He went to a CRNA conference this weekend and learned all the joys of life once he graduates. Addison and I played single mom and had a pretty fun time of it. 

I have been busy keeping this place clean for the Realtors who have been coming in and out. Our land lord put our place up for sale which has been somewhat of a pain. I keep hoping that nobody wants to buy it! I have entered the world of refinishing furniture. This could very well be my first and last project. It is a lot of work! I hope to finish my project soon. I have been focusing a lot of energy on planning Addi's first birthday party. I am having way too much fun and Dave thinks I'm crazy. Nursery is keeping me busy both during the week and on Sunday's. I am slowly getting the hang of being organized...or as much as I can.

Whenever I take her out these days it seems she attracts more and more attention. She has become quite the social butterfly to say the least. She loves to wave Bye-Bye and flap her hand as fast as she can. Uh-Oh still seems to be at the top of her vocabulary skills. We are still not really sure where she picked that one up? She is learning to sign "more" and "all done" at meal times. It is more of a frantic wave of her hands, but she is starting to associate it with eating time. When she hugs her baby she will softly mumble something that we think is baby. It is really sweet and she loves to give hugs now. She will pat your back or arm while she gives you a love. Sometimes during meals she will start to go, MMMM. This is usually while eating crackers or cheese which are her favorite things. 

Our little Addison is now ELEVEN months. In less than four weeks we are going to have a one year old! This is very difficult for both of us to wrap our minds around. She still seems like our little baby. She still lets us rock her to sleep at night and cuddle her:) Until this stops I think I will still think of her as a baby. She has started to truly turn into a busy girl. She manages to get into things that I never thought possible. We no longer can keep our toilet paper on the holder. It has to go on top of the toilet...until she can reach that. I was cleaning the blinds this week and she dumped the whole bottle of vinegar on herself while I was up on top of a chair. We both looked at each other and she bolted for the door. She is a smart lady. She has had her first taste of soap and left bite marks in the bar to prove it. She never sits while taking a bath and tosses all her squirters out on the floor. When Dave is out grilling Addison will stand at the door and pound on the window shouting really loud. I am pleased to say that Addison and I are no longer napping partners! She proudly takes her naps all by herself!  So much has changed these past few weeks in terms of Addison's growth. She is a very verbal and playful child. She is very interested in exploring her surroundings and we are enjoying seeing her discoveries. 

5 Years

Dave and I hit a milestone of five years of blissful marriage at the beginning of the month. It started out with breakfast in bed and getting to sleep in. We had a relaxing afternoon and then dropped Addison off at a babysitters. We went to a really good Italian restaurant called Mulbury Cafe. It was some of the best homemade Italian that either of us has ever had. My meatball was the size of a baseball! Dave got lasagna and it was almost as good as mine:) We topped it off with a pistachio cannoli that hit the spot. Dave gave me a really pretty necklace of two little birds kissing with our initials on it. It was very thoughtful and I will treasure it. 

In 5 years we have...

Lived in Idaho,Texas and New York

Graduated from BYU-I with a Nursing and Special Education degrees

Vacationed to Bahamas, Vegas, Arizona, California, New York City, Hawaii, New Mexico, Boston...and countless others

Had a baby

Driven across the county 

Been in the hospital 5 times...of course all those belong to me!

Started a masters program in Nurse Anesthesia 

Oh did I mention had a baby! We both look back and feel blessed for where we are in our lives in just 5 years. 

Trip to Grammie & Papa

Dave has been swamped with school and it seems like we barley see him. He sent us down to Cincinnati to have some fun with my parents for a little bit. We got to stay for 10 whole days. It was just what we both needed. We got homemade breakfasts per requests almost every morning. Addi got her first aebleskivers and of course loved them. I got some much needed sleeping in and even sneaked in a few naps (ok a lot of naps!). Addison got to taste her first Skyline Chili and she loved it! She would shove fistfuls of noodles and then slurp it down. Grammie and Papa somehow talked me into letting her have her first ice cream cone as well. Of course she was thrilled with this little treat. Her cheeks were beet red after from being so cold, but she didn't seem to mind. She ended up throwing up that night due to the over indulgence of Papa sneaking her frozen yogurt later! I have a feeling that her father's love for ice cream has been passed down to her. Papa had some quality bonding time with little Addi. By the end of the trip she was quietly muttering, "Papa". He would take her for a wagon ride in the afternoon and then cuddle her for a nap. She was on cloud nine. Grammie let her take over the kitchen. She got to pull bowls and spoons out and cook away on the floor. Grammie had a little baby doll for her to play with. When you would say,"Where is your baby?" she would go hurry and find it and give it a hug. Grammie's doll house is also a favorite of hers. She would sit and play with all the little people and push the buttons and get really excited. A lot of stories were read and she even got some new Baby Einstein movies to watch and dance to. I am realizing how happy of a child Addison really is. She has really started to laugh out loud now at just about anything. We were able to go to the Art Museum one day. Addison quickly found out that her voice would echo and we had to keep shoving her binky in her mouth. We went to the zoo and Addison waved to all the animals and started to shout WOW at the bears. She hated her sun hat which was a little bit of a struggle, but overall enjoyed being out in the nice weather. We managed to go the park one evening and got to show Grammie and Papa how much Addison loves swinging. She would hold on tight and open her mouth and smile big. We enjoyed going out to eat and letting Addison make a huge mess with her beans! Addison is pretty much eating all table food. She has baby food only a few times a week. She is a very independent eater. She has to be able to feed herself or it gets thrown on the floor. This is something we are all trying to be patient with:) We survived the 7-8 hour drive there and back and can't wait to do it again!! Thanks for all the memories Grammie and Papa.

On a side note Dave passed his comprehensive exam with flying colors and will start clinicals in about a month! We are really proud of him and all his hard work studying.

Easter

The Easter bunny did stop at our house this year! I found an old halloween costume that I wore and it just happen to fit Addison. She was a little confused about the tail, but left the ears on. The bunny brought her lots of goodies. She got an old fashioned spinning top that I think Dave and I like better than she does. She LOVES her baby doll these days so she got a new bottle and bib for her. When you ask her where her baby is she goes over and gets it. I love seeing her turn into a little girl. The Easter fairies happened to bring her a pretty fluffy pink dress and some little stuffed farm animals. She looked so cute in the dress. She couldn't crawl in it because it was so big. This presented a big problem for her! Dave and I each got our favorite candy and it is already gone. We had a few families over from the ward and had an awesome dinner. It was nice to not make a huge meal just for us. Addison got her first deviled egg and ate it right up! We can't wait for next year when Addison will be able to have an egg hunt and get lots of candy for us!!!

Warrior Child

Last week we had some more family visitors! Aunt Jenny and Uncle Paul are moving to Pittsburgh this Summer. They were there picking out a place to live and got finished early. They drove the four hours and where here by dinner. Addison enjoyed some quality bonding with her Aunty and even talked to into a few morning naps. We are really looking forward to having more family close by.

Addison went in to get her Easter pictures taken just in the nick of time. She now is covered in two huge goose egg bruises and scratches on her poor face. Dave was joking when we took her out to dinner that we were going to be on the local news for child abuse. She has an obsession with the stairs and we haven't been quick enough these days. I think the Easter bunny might be bringing her a baby gate:)

I would regret to not mention the early anniversary gift that Dave gave me. Jenny, Paul, Dave and I were sitting down to dinner and Dave said he wanted to give me my gift early. I knew when he wanted to give it to me in front of a group that it was going to be interesting. He pops out with a bow and arrow. I think that he took my liking of the Hunger Games a little too seriously(not to mention he bought it from a 15 year old off of craigslist list). Jenny and Paul started laughing as I started to cry. Most people get a piece of jewelry or go on a little trip for their 5th year anniversary. However, I get to say that my man got me a BOW! I am over the initial shock and can't wait to actually celebrate tomorrow!

Dave has been really busy with school. Addison and I are slowly getting used to this fact of life right now. We are really proud of him and know that one day it will pay off...

Our Baby

Addison June has so much personality we just don't know where she got it from! She has so much hair coming in on top and it is indeed going to be curly. I don't know whether to say sorry or your welcome. She will be ten months this week and I can't handle her growing up so fast! I am learning so much from her in each stage that she is in. There are so many things that I don't want to forget about her. Here is my attempt to document some of them...

* She is awesome at putting the ball in the hole in her dino toy over and over. The music has to be on loud in order for there to be repeated motivation. This is one of my favorite things to watch her do. She will look at you for praise after and then flap her arms up and down really fast.
* She is going to be a phone talker like her mama:) She will take a phone and put it up to her ear and grin. Dave is convinced that she sees someone doing this all day long while he is gone.
* She loves to jabber! We think that she is saying some words, but they are just our own Michael family interpretation. Ba(ball), Hi, waves bye bye, Mama and Dada.
* She tends to say Mama all day long. I used to be really proud of this...until I realized I think she associates that with food. When she gets put in her high chair or I get ready to nurse her she will being shouting it. I guess I am the one who normally feeds her so her confusion is valid.
* She loves to pull books of the shelf and open and close all the pages. I love seeing this. I have a weak spot for buying children's books so I am glad she enjoys them.
* She stands up in the tub almost the whole time. I used to fight this, but it makes he very happy and therefore I gave in. She still  dislikes having under her chin washed:)
* Some new foods that she is enjoying are hummus, bananas(you just can't look at her when she is eating them), clementines, kiwi, bread in any form, crackers, deli ham, potatoes, corn and cheddar cheese. She will reject all of these foods if you try to spoon feed them to her. She is an INDEPENDENT woman and has to be able to fist them in her mouth, hair, ears and floor herself:) We go through several outfits and baths around here.
* She scrunches her nose and snorts in an out on command now. Her dad has been working really hard to perfect this new talent.
* Changing her diaper has become and Olympic event. She runs away now after I get her diaper off. This leads to a lot of naked bums running around here.
*She is a trooper shopper! She loves sitting in the front like a big girl. We will push the cart away from us and say bye bye and then run up to it. This makes her laugh so hard!
* She is starting to stand with no hands for a few seconds. This frightens me to death!!!! We may have a walker on our hands soon.
* Dave will chase her on the floor around the hallway upstairs and she crawls as fast as she can. Her poor little knees are always beet red at night from cruising all day.

We love having such a happy baby. She makes us all crazy and smile at the same time. I hope that she never forgets the love that we have for her and the hopes that we dream for her.