The Birthday Bash

We celebrated Addison's birthday last Saturday with a fun little party at our house with a couple of her little friends from church, and some family. It was such a blessing to have so many people come and love on our little girl.

Addison's friends and family at the party.

The "theme" for the party was pink, and green polka dots. Many times as a teacher, and decorating the nursery, etc. I tried to pull off a theme, and never was successful at it. I see cute things that don't fit with the "theme" and just have to throw them in, thus throwing off my whole theme, and making me abandon my intent. However, I had seen enough themed birthday parties blogged by other moms that I knew it would be worth it if I could really pull it off. And...dum, dum, dum...I did it!! :) I had to really restrain myself, especially on some cute, cute paisley items that I came across, but I knew it would be worth it. And, I think it was, I was very pleased with the outcome. I had so much fun putting it all together, here are some of the "details."

The birthday banner.

The cake table with cake made by my sister-in-law, Gabi, and polka dot party favors (pink watermelon sours and green gumballs).

How cute is this cake!!

Addison's adorable smash cake.

Addison's birthday highchair with tutu. (I actually made a tutu for Addison to wear, but my texture sensitive girl would have none of it...so tutu for the highchair it was!)

The balloon wreath on the door. My favorite part!!

We got Addison a Winnie the Pooh train for her birthday. She loves playing on it...I think all the kids at the party enjoyed it...even though Addison was a little over-protective of it at the party.

Addison riding her train in her cute polka dot birthday dress.

Close up of the birthday banner.

Addison's one year banner, a picture from each month.

The food table with all of the polka dot food. :)

The thumb-print cookies were the best, and so pretty on the table!

Brad pushing Addison on her train.

Loving on my birthday girl.

The party favors turned out really cute...17 kids...that's a lot of favors, haha! :)

Singing Happy Birthday to Addison.

She got embarassed by the end of the song, haha...I'm not a big fan of people singing Happy Birthday to me either. ;)

Not really sure what to think.

Our only family picture, Addison was showing me the icing she had and asking if it was really ok to eat it...such a good girl. :)

First bite of cake/icing.

This is pretty good!

Oh my goodness, that's a lot of icing! When she was done, she was done...she actually started trying to put the cake in her hand back on the cake, hehe.

Opening gifts. We had so many good little helpers! :)

It was so fun to throw a birthday party for Miss Addison. Thank you to everyone who came and loved on our little family. You are all such a blessing in our lives!!

P.S. - There are better pictures of Addison at her party on my mom's camera, as soon as I get them downloaded I'll post them. :)

And 12 Months Makes a Year

Happy Birthday, Addison Elizabeth!!

My big girl!

My baby girl is ONE! Soooo hard to believe. And yet, her actual birthday was kind of busy enough, and poor little one was a bit sick, that I didn't even really get sad about it. It was actually just exciting. I wished her happy birthday every chance I got, and gave her pancakes for breakfast. :) Why was lowering her crib mattress all the way really sad for me and her birthday not? Haha, who knows. But Miss Addison is one!! Here are some things she was up to in her 12th month:

• Mimicking so much of what Brad and I do.
• Gives kisses and hugs.
• Loves on her baby doll by picking it up, holding it by her face, and squeezing it.
• Holds her arms out when asked, "How big is Addison?"
• Following directions to simple things like, "Clap your hands." "Pick up your baby."
• Points to the palm of her hand when she wants me to sing, "Round and Round the Garden" to her.
• Her jibberish has begun to sound like real words. It sounds like she's trying to carry on a real conversation with us.
• Is extremely attached to her blankie, which is a wonderful thing when we drop her off in the nursery...as long as I remember to pack her blankie!
• Loves to splash and splash in the bath tub...sometimes I think she is going to drown herself with all the water she splashes in her face.
• Switched from bottles to sippy cups, and then from formula to whole milk (with very little protest), what a big girl!!
• Taking one or two steps by herself towards me.
• Loves to be chased and tickled.
• Crawls up the stairs at my parents house, but hasn't mastered coming down.
• Wearing 6-9 month clothes, or 6-12 month, and size 3 shoe
• Weight: 19lbs 15oz (30%), Length: 29.75" (75%)

She has been doing so many cute things lately, and I wish I could remember more of them. She is just becoming so grown up. We are enjoying her so much, and laughing a lot. What a fun, fun year it has been. I never ever knew all the things that would accompany being a mom, and I'm so glad I didn't. Every day is a surprise. :) And being Addison's mom is the best adventure I could ever imagine!

I love you, Addison Elizabeth!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Mountain Air

Brad and I took a vacation to Colorado at the beginning of August, and it was beyond wonderful. Brad's mom came to Lubbock and stayed with Addison while we jumped in the car and drove the almost eleven hours to get to beautiful Estes Park. This was our first real vacation since our honeymoon, and it was beautiful, and restful, and so refreshing.

We stayed in a cute little cabin about three miles from downtown Estes Park, and right across from a river that put us to sleep every night. The view from the cabin, of course, was amazing. We were directly across from the Rocky Mountain National Park, and had views of gorgeous mountains such as Long's Peak every morning. The cabin was called, "The Carver's House" because apparently the man that owns the cabin is a wood carver, and he had a lot of interesting pieces throughout his cabin. But, the Carver's House...doesn't it sound a little bit like a bad scary movie? Haha. After I got past that, though, I thoroughly enjoyed our little cabin. The cabin also had a little porch area with two hand made gliders, but it rained every day and so the chairs were never dry enough to actually sit in. But, the big picture windows in the living room, and the sound of the river filtering in through the open windows made us feel like we were outside as we relaxed and read on the over sized living room couch.

Our cute little cabin. The windows on the left enclosed the kitchen/dining room.

The truck parked outside of our cabin...Brad assured me this is what made the cabin the creepiest. A reference to some scary movie, I think?

Our patio with the (wet) chairs.

The kitchen.

Living room. Windows are on the right side looking out to the mountains and river.

The first night we arrived in town we went into town and ate dinner on the patio of a cute little Italian restaurant. Unfortunately, coming from West Texas we had not taken into consideration that after about 6 p.m. in the mountains, the air SIGNIFICANTLY cools down. So we shivered and rushed through our meal, eyeing the Starbucks across the street the entire time. We did make it through dinner and rushed over to Starbucks to grab some hot drinks to warm us up as we walked back to our cars. Since we had come into town unprepared with the correct attire we decided to go back to the cabin with our drinks for the night and read in our cabin. Oh, how I love to read!! The next day was our white water rafting adventure. The river was a little bit low, so there were more rocks, but less rapids. But, we still had a blast. Our raft was comprised of Brad and I, our guide, and this cute little family with three kids. It was fairly uneventful...oh, except for that one time we had to rescue a man from the rapids and pull him into our raft...oh, and the POURING rain! So, day two and we are still FREEZING! As if the water wasn't cold enough, add rain to that and you are almost shivering enough to go overboard. Haha. But, we both had a blast and would definitely have done it again! Our third day we got up and decided to go hiking in the Rocky Mountain National Park. I don't remember what our hike was called, but it was gorgeous! We ended up at this beautiful lake, but on the way to the lake we saw many waterfalls.
Self portrait - excuse the foliage that was in front of the camera. :)


It was neat to get to the end and see where the waterfalls were originating from. We saw many families hiking with their little ones on their backs, and it made me miss Addison, but it also made me excited for the time Brad and I were able to spend together without the exhaustion that accompanied those families hiking adventures with little ones in tow. However, I can't wait to bring Addison back with us someday!
Breath taking scenery!


Our last day we decided to spend the day in town. We ate at cute little places all over town, and went into I think just about every little shop there was. Thank heavens for a patient husband! Later that evening we went on a drive in RMNP. We drove to the top of the Continental Divide. I don't remember ever having seen such gorgeous scenery. It was literally breath taking. And, there were elk everywhere. They were so close to the road, and not bothered by a car driving by.
Notice the elk in the background!

Being up in the mountains like that, and seeing such amazing sights, and magnificent animals made me just think how much fun God must have had creating the world. How blessed we are to be able to see glimpses of his majesty in things like mountains and strong animals like elk. Wow, thank you God!

While I loved our vacation, my heart was aching for my little girl by Saturday. We planned to leave a little after 7 on Saturday morning...we drove away from our cabin at 6:30. I think Brad might have been a little anxious to get back to Miss Addison as well. :) Coming home to our sweet baby sure made being back in Lubbock, rather than surrounded by mountains in Estes Park, very much ok. However, our trip was so relaxing and refreshing that I wouldn't have traded it for the world. We have already started planning our return trip, I can't wait to show Addison all of the gorgeous things we got to see!!

Eleven Months

Addison turned eleven months old on July 20th. I was so sentimental on that day, wanting to hold on to every second of her last month of babyhood. But, the things that she has begun doing are pointing more and more to her beginning to transition into toddlerhood. Here is what Addison was up to this month:

• Cruising all over the place.
• Understanding what we tell her. This has been amazing to me, and I love to kind of "test" it. Like, "Addison, where is the ball?" And she points, or crawls to her ball. Or, "Addison, can you love your baby?" And she will give her baby doll a hug. My favorite, "Addison, can you give daddy kisses?" And she leans in to give him a kiss. So sweet!
• Walking with anything that isn't nailed down. I might have put this last month...but it's gotten worse, haha. She is working so hard at learning to walk.
• Walks while holding onto my hand.
• Stands without holding on to anything for long periods.
• Loves putting lids on and off things.
• Her favorite toy is nesting cups and a set of foam shapes that I have, and a little race car. Nanna thinks she needs a pink car, haha. :)
• Wearing size 6-9 months

And of course her 11 month pictures:

Pictures in the corner of her bed just aren't going to happen anymore.

Pretty smile from our little eleven month old.

"I'm eleven months old!"