Happy Birthday John!

John's birthday was Thursday...he turned 36!

We started our celebration on Wednesday and enjoyed a nice dinner out with family and friends.  I made chocolate chip cookie cupcakes for everyone. 

Thursday we had a nice quite evening at home as a family of three.  Addison and I made John a yummy chocolate cake and it was a beautiful evening so we made John grill his own birthday dinner outside.

Addison was a HUGE help when it came time to open presents...she did it all!  No bow too tough or tape she couldn't handle.  She got to open all of daddy's birthday gifts and Easter presents from Mimi and Peep and Grandma Diana...she was in heaven!

Spring Break

Spring Break doesn't mean much when you don't have kids in school...but Addison decided to have a beach vacation of her own on Sunday to celebrate Spring Break.  At her request I dressed her in her swimsuit and swimcap and she ran around the house for awhile.

March Madness

This girl loves BASKETBALL!  We plan on watching a lot of basketball over the next few days/weeks...I'm thankful that its tournament time because now when she brings me the remote in the middle of the afternoon and asks for 'ba-ball' at least I can find some on TV.

She is still calling the hogs and saying Landon every time basketball comes on.  Maybe next year the Hogs will make it back into the tournament...maybe Landon too someday :)

John and I both did brackets.  He has Gonzaga vs Kansas in the champtionship and I have Duke and Indiana.  The winner gets to pick where we go to dinner later next month after a show we are going to at the Walton Arts Center.  If I was a real betting woman, I'd bet that none of the 4 teams we picked will actually be in the championship game...I'm just saying?!

Spring Fever

We've had a string of unseasonably warm temperatures the last few days and we have taken full advantage of it!  We've logged some serious hours outside over the last 72 hours.  Combine the warm temps with the extra daylight in the evenings and we've got a major case of SPRING FEVER!

Addison loves taking Emily for walks now...
I'm just not sure who is walking who yet?

Addison is a great helper, making sure all the trees are watered

Quick spin around the block...

And we've accessorized for the trip -- sunglasses, bow, and dog purse.

Addison and I walked the trails at Crystal Bridges Museum.
It involved her getting in and out of the stroller a million times...
She needed to touch every sculpture.

 

 

Posing for the camera!

A nice couple even offered to take a picture of the 2 of us...
And they were nice enough to wait as I chased her down for the picture :)

My little sweetie...

Made By M.E.

It's been all things sugar cookies in the Made By M.E. kitchen lately

Walmart Holiday

It's that time of year again...the one that we are ever so thankful for and never take for granted.  WALMART BONUS DAY!  It's hard to explain to those that don't work for Walmart or don't live in Northwest Arkansas...but it is like a little mini holiday.

John's teams planned a special celebration at the park this afternoon and requested my services for the sweet treat....90 spark sugar cookies!  I used a new stencil technique so it actually went pretty quickly once I got the technique down.

Endless Walmart Spark Cookies

17 Month Update

Developments this month...

• Her vocabulary is expanding everyday! She says: mama, dada, Emily, Mimi, Kyle, Mallory, Landon, Tucker, ball, bubble, baby, cookie, cracker, cupcake, uh oh, what's that, wow, bye-bye, done, tickle-tickle, down, bad-bad, good girl, papa, Sam, purse, noodle, one, row-row, no-no, yes, up, more, out, two, Abbey, uncle, Elmo, Grover, Big Bird, Telly, hi, nose, apple, banana, Riley, basketball, go, ouch, burrrr
• We continue to work on her animal sounds and she makes sounds for dog, monkey, elephant, bear, snake, cow, alligator (chomping motion), kitty cat, bee, roster, fish, horse  
• She can point to many of her body parts....hair, head, ears, eyes, nose, tongue, armpit (which comes with a 'spi-spi' sound affect like she is putting deodorant on), belly button, knees, toes, chin, cheeks, bottom (and points to her butt)
• She makes sounds for cars -- vroom, fire trucks -- wheeewheee and buses -- beep beep.
• She gives the best hugs (with a little back pat) and kisses these days.  And will still give nosey kisses if you ask for them.
• Favorite songs are still   'Row, Row Your Boat', 'Wheels on the Bus' and 'If You're Happy and You Know It' and 'Itsy Bitsy Spider'.  She requests songs by saying "row row" or "beep-beep" which is the horn on the bus or "boom-boom" which is the sound your feet make when you stomp them in 'If You're Happy and You Know It' or shows you her spider.
• She gives commands to Emily and her new golden retreiver stuffed animal...raises one hand and says 'down' and now is following it most often with 'good girl'
• She still loves her purse, Bitty Baby and Elmo dolls.  She likes changing diapers and plugs her nose before she sets the dolls down on the changing mat to be changed. 
• She is getting better with crayons, as in they aren't immediately going into her mouth.  She has figured out how to get the basket with the crayons and coloring books down herself so we are playing with them more these days.
• She has mastered several of the puzzles that we have.
• She LOVES basketball, maybe as much as Elmo!  She will bring us the remote control and ask us to turn basketball on.  And she will sit and watch it!  She thinks her cousin Landon is always playing.  She calls the hogs (or her version of it) everytime she sees basketball come on TV -- I have to get it on video!

Kisses from Addison

"Potty"

WARNING:  The word "POTTY" is used about 107 times in this post....sorry!

I will be the first to admit that the purchase of the pint-size potty was a bit premature on my part, after all my baby girl is just reaching the 17 month mark.  But I couldn't resist a good deal...when I saw 2 potties for $5 each at the Walmart Associate Store, I knew I had to have them!  I would have been kicking myself 3 months down the road if I had to pay $10+ a piece for them at the actual store.

So here we are with our nice new pint-sized potties, 1 upstairs and 1 downstairs.

 

John and I both agreed we were in no rush to get on the potty training bandwagon.  But we have started talking about going 'potty' and each night before bath Addison sits on her potty while the bathtub fills up.

Sunday evening Addison started saying 'potty', which she had been doing occasionally so no big deal, right?!  Then she started heading towards the half-bath on the first floor.  So I took a chance and quickly pulled off her diaper and wouldn't you know it after a little wiggling around, she went potty!  She was promptly rewarded with 2 fruit snacks.

 

Of course, first thing I think is 'my child is a genius'...but I already knew that, ha!  In my proud mommy head I start thinking all these crazy/wonderful thoughts about how quickly this whole potty training thing might be.  So bath time rolls around later that night and I think I'm going to put Addison on the potty and she is going to amaze me by going again...guess again!  After several minutes on the potty and a lot of wiggling, I place her in the tub and she immediately goes potty in the tub.

So maybe she isn't a genius...or maybe she just isn't ready for potty training.  Fine by me, because mommy isn't ready yet either!

OK Aquarium

We took a little day trip to Oklahoma last weekend and went to the OK Aquarium.  Addison loves fishies...at the doctor's office, at the library, at the pet store.  She wasn't too sure what to do at first, especially at the interactive exhibits, but before long she was having a ball and we were chasing her around the place.  Note to self, next time skip the stroller because all it did was hold my purse.

Still a little tentative...

John breaking all the rules and picking up the
star fish out of the water so Addison could see it.

What's that!?

My little girl getting up close and personal with the sea creatures.

Daddy had to hold her back because she wanted to go swimming with the fish.

Addison is clearly more interested in the fish and her
fingers (teething) then she is in taking a picture with me.

 

 

When we aren't playing paparazzi and snapping a million pictures of our daughter we sometimes take 1 or 2 decent pictures of other things.  John took these and I think the colors are awesome.