Videos from March

This is one of my favorites - we were watching The Amazing Race.....she found this night especially amazing :) ha! 

I was pretty impressed that she put my boots on, while standing, and then walked across the kitchen. She LOVES to walk around in my shoes! Tonight she was walking around in a pair of dress shoes but thankfully took them off before trying to go down the stairs.

And this video is on the Little Blue Truck. We used to do this to Makena and she loved it! Addison enjoys it as well. We tell her to put her feet up and then send her flying. Ryan warned her one time, "I'm going to launch you" and then he did. The truck flipped over and she landed nose first in the carpet! I yelled as it scared me too! Ryan told her to get up and brush it off, she got up, looked me, and that little lip just quivered. I told her to get back on the truck. I could tell she wanted to cry but she didn't. She got back on. I was so proud of her (and not me for picking her up and letting her cry, haha). However, when I sent her over to Ryan.....she quickly backed up with her feet so he couldn't push her! haha!


This is a sidenote, but I don't want to forget. I didn't get a picture or a video, but lately she has been using our old cell phones (or any toy really) and pretending to call people. Her most popular people to call are Mom, Grandpa Ron, and JJ (yes she calls a dog). She says "Hello?? Grandpa??" then she listens for a while. Then when "talking" to Grandpa, she usually asks about JJ :) Sometimes she asks about Grandma. Then she "listens" for a while longer then says "Wuv you, bye" - her version of Love You. It is soo stinking adorable, I just love it!

Also, whenever Ryan's phone rings she says "Mom??" And she's always correct (Ryan doesn't get many other calls). When my phone rings she says "Grandpa??" this makes me laugh, because my dad doesn't call me a ton. We always call him. And we call him and talk to JJ too. So I really think she's HOPING it's Grandpa so she can talk to JJ! ha! Girl loves that dog. (I didn't even push her to like him, ha!)

Videos from January

We can't get enough of her saying "get down" :) We think it's pretty funny. I had to stand off to the side because if she sees me with my phone she gets distracted. 

I was putting her in the car one day and we were practicing names. She had tried to say Parker, Brayden, Roo (for conner) and Kena (for Makena). I was so excited so I pulled my phone out to try to get it on video. It wasn't what I wanted, but still pretty funny :)

I'm not sure how we got into this game one night, but she was having a blast climbing on Ryan and jumping up and down. I tried to get some good videos. She loves to climb on Ryan and now I taught her how to play 'airplane' so she always wants to do that with me. 

Videos from December

Apparently I haven't uploaded videos in a while! Ryan sent me this one while I was in Germany, I loved it. She is standing a glass football case. Of all presents, yes it's the breakable one. She's telling herself to "get down". 

She was really impressed by the commercial with the Christmas lights - haha!

We have tried to get this on video, but for some reason, when you ask her what a duck says her reply is "duck duck" while she flaps her wings. Neither us or daycare knows where it came from but it's hilarious (to us anyways)! 

C is for Cookie

 Eating another cookie Grandma Rita made. Ryan made her share :)

We haven't put a baseball hat on her since she was about 9 months old, so it was pretty funny to watch her. She has put Ryan's hat on a few times, but these hats actually fit her. She kept getting close enough to the mirror that the bill hit. We aren't really sure what her thought process was.

This was the best I could get in the other hat. She didn't care for them too much. I'm not sure if she was just playing and being goofy because she kept taking them off and putting them on.....or if she really didn't like it! 

The Thraen's

We got together one Saturday morning to see the Thraen's new house and play with Caleb. 

I was pretty unsuccessful at getting them both to look at me :) 

They did play well together. Addison loved that she could run a circle in the kitchen, living room, and entry way. She loves being chased! 

The kids enjoyed the pancakes and eggs! Lauren is a terrific cook!

Lauren's step-dad make a rocking horse for Caleb. Addison crawled in all by herself and started rocking. She's saying "weeeeee....."

Clearly, Addison was not into having her photo taken. I was trying to get her and Bella together. Addison wasn't so sure about Bella following her and sniffing her :) 

A hug goodbye - but not for long! We are so happy to have our friends back in Iowa so we can get together more often! 

How does my hair look?

Her hair is getting longer, but that just means it gets crazier!! The picture on the right just makes me laugh every time, she has such an innocent look on her face! And the picture on the left, she will stand up on her truck and tell herself to "get down". Based on her hair, we must have been playing rough!

Happy girl cruisin' on her tractor!! 

I didn't ask for this pose. She ran over, stopped, and posed just like this. Good thing I had my phone downstairs with me! Yes that necklace compliments every outfit :) 

We are working on our letters! We bought a little LeapFrog laptop at Duckworth, we were told by a friend that really helped with learning letters. It has! This photo was about a month ago, and the puzzle wasn't much success. But we should try again. She is doing great at listening to the letters and repeating. 

Also, this is a big development (for us anyways), last Saturday Addison COUNTED TO FIVE! We were sooo proud. She kept saying "1, 2" but then all of the sudden added "3, 4, & 5". Then the next day, added "6, 7". Ryan and I just stared at each other, shocked. Apparently she does listen to us, haha. We are proud of you kiddo!! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

This was the best photo I could get, she wouldn't stand still! She made a butterfly with handprints at daycare and it says "you make my heart flutter". She kept making it flap it's wings so I couldn't get a good photo! Plus she is carrying her blanket and all her rags, that didn't help! 

She was excited to open her valentine's present from Shannon and the kids at daycare. She of course wanted us to open everything, even though she didn't know what the candy was. Can you believe she's almost 2 and hasn't had M&M's?? 

Grandma Rita gave more than just a cookie but that's apparently all we took photos of! We got a couple pairs of new jammies plus a super awesome penguin with buckles. Addison loves to play with buckles! But not more than she loves frosted cookies! She definitely knows what these are!!

Her an Ryan were sharing this cookie, but then it got down to the last couple bites and Addison took a HUGE bite. She wanted to make sure her dad didn't finish it I guess. Her mouth was so full she couldn't chew!! When Ryan saw the cookies in the basket, he said "You aren't giving these to her are you?" I said "Well my mom made them for her, of course she can have it". I'm not sure if he was worried about our daughter's sugar in-take or if he wanted them all to himself!! She knew where we kept the others and kept begging for them :) She is definitely our kid. 

CY!

Addison came along with us to the KU basketball game back in February. She did pretty good. I love the photo above with that wide-eyed stare. It was pretty loud in there, she jumped when people clapped. She did that last year too :)

She was too busy looking for Cy to take a picture with us. 

She's point to Cy :) He was a good distraction, he kept her entertained periodically throughout the game. So did her Scout cell phone. 

She was watching Cy & the Cheerleaders :) 

She did pretty good at sitting this game, but it might be her last game for a while. She has a lot of energy to be contained, plus it's hard for me to watch the game!! She knows who Cy is now and gets excited when she sees him. Anywhere, in person or on clothes, decor, etc. Now we are working on "Go Cyclones!!" 

New boots

She loves to wear my shoes, but she took this to a whole new level. She worked very hard and was able to get my snow boots on. I was quite impressed. Walking was another story.....

She is licking the spatula....she sees her dad do that when I'm baking :) I thought it was pretty funny. 

Kid loves playing with her water bottles. And the shaker bottles with the little wire ball. She knows how to put lids on the bottles but sometimes needs help getting the lids back off. She will hand you a bottle and say "help please". 

Addison LOVES her "The Very First Christmas" book I got on super clearance at Hobby Lobby. I almost didn't buy it because I wasn't sure if she would like it, but I needed a little more for her for Christmas. I'm so glad I bought it!! It has labels next to almost all the figures (like fish, camel, donkey, Jesus, broom, coal, etc). So we list about 15 things on each page that she has to find. Her favorite is the page with 4 owls :) Even if you ask her to find the pig, she points out the owls. She loves owls right now! 

She's laying all her rags in a pile and flattening them out. Yesterday, she laid her rag flat then lined up 5 dice in a row. I love watching her line things up and 'organize'. 

Baby Violet!!

This was back in January, I invited myself to the Nolting's to meet baby Violet! Oh she is such a sweetheart. I was so happy to get some baby snuggles :) 

Addison was pushing her baby stroller around the living room with some rags and a spoon. My caption would be "Mom-brain.......oops I forgot the baby!" 

As I was getting out my new photo backdrops from Christmas, Ryan asked if I need to take some test shots. 

Haha look at those wide eyes!! We should have someone recording me and Ryan when we take photos of Addison, her wide eyes are probably because of something stupid we are doing :)

Giving her baby a kiss. 

Poor little girl had a fever again. This time she recovered pretty quickly though. It's always hard to see her sick :( 

Grandma Rita has made her a few scrapbooks - She LOVES to look through them!! She loves to point out the people. She's also been really into my Shutterfly books. She loves the one Kelly made us from our birthday trip to CA. There is a photo in there with Addison next to a mural of Olaf from Frozen. At the time, we didn't really know the movie but now we do! She squealed when she turned the page and saw Olaf :) 

Women's bball game

We sent this photo to Grandma Rita & Grandpa Ron when they were heading to Ft Myers for a little vacation. 

What a goofy smile. She was helping me make a cheese dip for work. She is wearing one of Makena's old sweatshirts. It's one of my favorite outfits right now. Addison is starting to enjoy helping in the kitchen, she likes to dump things in. And just playing with the spoons.

We had free tickets to an ISU women's basketball game through the MBA program. I got 4 tickets so my parents could join us. We had a little tailgate function at the Alumni Center, so I had to take Addison's photo with bronze Cy. She was terrified. 

We sat in the balcony, basically by ourselves :) Addison enjoyed seeing Cy from afar. She's been to a couple men's games now, she always searches for Cy. At this game, she did not want to sit. At all. Each of us took turns walking her around the stadium. Nice part about the women's games, the ushers don't care if you walk around or just stand! It's very family friendly, I can see us going to more women's games as she gets older. Hopefully they get good again :) 

We struggled to get good photos that night!