Oh Christmas Tree!

I decided on my day of work last Tuesday to decorate the tree and boy did I get lots of help!! I didn't realize just how difficult a task this was to do alone with a 1 yr. old. She kept saying "ball, ball" unfortunately those balls were very nice breakable ornaments mom bought a few years ago. I guess I wasn't thinking when I loaded up at Silks a Bloom with this nice ornaments a few years ago that one day they might not be the best choice for children. I love my tree but needless to say it is less a few ornaments this year to a little "ball" throwing. Finally Addie Blaire and I decided it was in the best interest of all of us involved to put this nice new unbreakable ornaments on the bottom of the tree and the others way up high!! It is amazing how fast we got the tree up this year. It is a good thing for all the ribbon on the tree because it disguises all the big holes mom didn't take time to fix this year. Thanks Addie Blaire for all your hard work!

We decided not only did the tree need to be decorated but Addie Blaire looked much better draped in beads and pearls!

Addie Blaire putting her first Christmas ornament up on the tree! I have started to collect her ornaments for every year. So one day she will have them to decorate her tree! Mom found her the cutest one this year from Hallmark. It is a barn with farm animals, but not just any barn the Fisher Price barn that I had when I was a baby. Addie Blaire plays with it at her Nanas when she is there. She really loves the barn and all the animals. The other cool thing about the ornament is it even "moos" when you open the door.

Okay so maybe putting the ornament on the tree was a bad idea, but eating is a much better one!

Look out Cowboy cheerleaders!!

I decided to try Addison's cheerleading outfit my mom had bought her on this weekend. And well we waited a little too long to try it on. It was a little snug!! But I took a few picks in case we don't get to wear it again. I didn't make it to any games this year and I feel so bad that she never got to wear it. I think she will make an excellent cheerleader one day though because she took to the pompoms right away. I think the cute thighs are the best part of the outfit. Those Cowboy cheerleaders have nothing on this little cutie!
I had to put this cute bow that Mrs. Janice made for her on with the suit. It was a perfect fit!

It looks like she is striking a pose!! Too funny. However, I guess she is finally getting used to the camera because now she says cheese everytime I get the camera out!

Hanging with Aunt T

We spent last weekend with Aunt T at her house. We had a lot of fun. I didn't get many pictures but there were lots of funny moments when your with Aunt T. The girls, there were 7 of us that went to Holiday House and we had so much fun!! I found some really cute things for Addie Blaire too!
Here she is posing in front of the house with Aunt T's festive decor. I was letting Terri give the camera a try. She is alot better at it than me. Addison can even say "pumpkin" for the camera.
Aunt Terri thought it might be a good idea to teach her the proper way to go up and down the stairs. She for some reason thinks that mom and I are not good teachers. I wonder why??? Now instead of going head first she goes bottom first!! Thank goodness for good teachers!!

I am attaching this picture because it is Addison Blaire's new hiding spot. Everytime I leave the frig open, guess who decides to have a seat. She thinks it is so funny to sit there and pull out all of mom's condiments. (As you can tell that is all that is in there to begin with, we sure are thankful for microwaves at our house.) Addison loves some ketchup though. She will lick the ketchup off whatever she is eating just to dip it again!! She comes by it honestly though so I can't say anything.

Katie Ella's Party

We went a couple of weeks ago to Addison Blaire's cousin Katie Ella's birthday party. She had so much fun will all of her cousins. The party was great and the birthday girl was such a cutie!!

This is where Addie Blaire stood most of the night until they cut the cake. Now that she knows what cake is we counldn't tear her away from this spot. She was even begging Katie Ella for a piece of hers. More thing so mistreated and underfed!!! Yeah right.
The beautiful birthday day girl and her awesome cake. She took a second to figure out the whole cake thing but once she did there was no stopping her.

The three cousins, Katie Ella, Addie Blaire and Lilly Kate hanging out in the birthday girl's new wheels. I am so glad she has some cousins her age to play with and that they all get along so well. She is going to have so much fun with them in years to come I know.

The Webster's had a blow up ball play toy and Addie Blaire loved it. It is the first time in a long time she has passed up dinner to play. She kept saying "ball, ball" she had never seen anything like it. I guess we are in for some real fun in a couple of years at Chucky Cheese!!

I am so glad she seems to like wearing these hats because I am quite the hat person myself and they are so much fun!!! I hope she will always want to wear them and not kill me for dressing her this way one day. Mitch for some reason thought it was a bit to much, where would he ever get that idea!!!

As you can tell she is cutting a few teeth right now. She has two of her bottom teeth coming in and they are really bothering her. She is constantly chewing on things, I feel so bad for her. She does get a little relief from her teething ring with ice, unfortunately not for long though!

Even Addie Blaire thought the hat was a bit to much because she kept checking herself out in the mirror.

Don't forget to stop and smell the flowers!

Okay so I guess this picture is going to need some explanation. To show exactly how wonderful my babysitter is and how much she cares form my child and Griffin I had to post this story. She has told me that she has learned more from my child in the past several months than she has from anyone else in years. She is too kind to say that, but I understand exactly what she means in some sense because (not to get all sensitive) but I have definitely stopped to smell the flowers more, looked up at the sky and down at the ground and pretty much all around more now then ever before. I realize that she has taught me to slow down and smell the flowers literally. So back to the story Janice takes Griffin and Addie Blaire on walks everyday. Griffin has just gotten really interested in ant mounds and loves to yell out "Ants" when he see one! In the midest of all of this Janice said she stopped to look at this huge ant mound that he had found from a distance. At that moment, Addison Blaire looked up at her and said "flower." Janice thought she was just crazy I think but at closer glance she noticed the smallest yellow flower in the middle of this huge ant mound!!! That is where the picture below comes in, she saved the flower for me!! How sweet is that!!! I know like most moms that work it is so hard some days to leave your child because you wonder what you are going to miss out on that day. I don't have to wonder because Janice always lets me know. I am so lucky to have her taking care of my sweet baby girl. So the lesson in this according to Janice is that only a daughter as sweet as mine could find a flower in an ant mound!!! She said the bigger lesson in that is that you can always find the good and beautiful in the bad and ugly things in this world. I would have to agree Addie Blaire is definitely the sweetest baby and is always so happy. She really does have the sweetest and most loving presence, even when someone else knocks her down she gets right up and asks for a hug!!!

Trunk or Treat!

We went to the church trunk or treat on November 1st. Mitch and I had to judge the costume contest so we dressed Addie Blaire up again. However she didn't mind I think she was so okay with the costume after the night before that she just put it on and loved it!

Mitch and Addison Blaire checking things out.
Dixie Coffee had the coolest setup because she had these fog bubbles that all the kids were facinated with all night!
They even had a jump zone, Addison Blaire and Griffin had never seen anything like it. Addie just kept trying to keep her balance. She was laughing so hard at the fact that she just couldn't stand up. I even had to get another child to drag her out for me!!!

Poor thing that bow was just hanging in her hair and not only could she not walk, but she couldn't see either.

My two little sweeties!! Mitch is such a great dad and I am so proud of him for being so actively involved with Addison Blaire over the past year. I know that Addison Blaire adores him more than anything. I can't wait for many more years of watching these two together!

Okay, so I guess I have to explain that this is a picture of Griffin and Addie Blaire, with Sophie. These two love some pickles!! She loves pickles, pickled okra, olives, and anything else sour like that. I guess I am partly to blame considering that this is all I ate the first several weeks of preganancy when I was so sick!!! The faces in these pics are too funny.

Duck, Duck, Duck!!

I guess a continuing theme for Addie Blaire over the past few months has been her love for ducks. She loves them so much that against Mitch's wishes (he wanted her to be something girly, I told him there was plenty of time for that in the coming years) so we decided to go with the duck costume in the end. However, as soon as the costume came in I tried it on her and she hated it. I think she liked the idea of the costume and loved to look at it, but I guess I had underestimated the fact that just because she does love ducks so much it completely freaked her out to be one!!! Yet for some reason on the night of Halloween with a little persuasion from Mom and Dad and a little diversion with some candy the costume went on and stayed on !!

This was up in the neighborhood and she was very interested in it all month!!


This is how the night started and I didn't think we were feeling very ducky so I was a little concerned until Dad stepped in and made it all better....with the help of a little smarties!!

Addison Blaire was the cutest duck ever, in my opinion, I know I am a little biased but there aren't many ducks that have such cute chunky thighs and cheeks!! The costume was actually stuffed with something so it really did look pretty funny!

Okay so now she is working that costume. I guess it takes a little while to get adjusted to the web feet and extra stuffing, oh and that duck bill on your head!

Zoe has never stuck so close to Addison Blaire, but she was begging for some candy!!

We took Addie Blaire over to visit both sets of her Great-Grandparents that night. For some reason she was not in the mood to have her picture taken at the time though. But I still wanted to post some pics with the family. Playing with Pop Powell on the floor.

Addison Blaire also got to see the other farm animals like this little pig (aka her cousin Lydia) at the Powell's house. They enjoyed sharing their candy and comparing each other's crazy costumes!!

I had to post a picture of this because I have made a video of it but it is too funny. Since dad is a big fan of the horse races we don't just ride the horsey we race the horsey. Mitch puts Addie Blaire on his knee and gets her arms out like she is a jockey in the gates. She starts smiling right away and knows what is coming. Then they come out of the gates and start running and cracking the whip at the horse. She just thinks it is so much fun to have such a cool dad!!