Good times in the fall

My cousin Alecia posted this picture of my dad and uncle and I thought Addison would like it when she got older. When you grow up on a farm and see this every day, you don't think to take photos! My dad and Gary have farmed together for many many years and this might be the only farm-related photo of these two that we have! I'm glad my cousin likes photos as much as I do :) 

It was the last time mowing for the season and Addison wanted to help Ryan clear off the sidewalk. She did a pretty good job. 

Addison was wearing one of Addison's hand-me down Halloween outfits. I thought she made a pretty cute kitty, ha! 

Another good video of Addy-Lion. Ryan and I would chase her around telling her we were going to "get her tail". Then the tables turned and she would chase us saying "I get your tail!!" It was hilarious and super cute. If you pay close attention, you can hear her say "I get your tail!". 

Potty Training

Starting at the beginning of September, we started thinking about potty training. Ryan was ready before I was (which surprised me). Fall is super busy for me, so I didn't really want the stress of potty training along with that. But when we started looking at the calendar, we didn't have many weekends before Christmas that we could dedicate 4 days to potty training. So we set a date and started reading up on how to potty train!

We started out the first day with throwing away her diapers. She was actually "excited" about it and was saying "no more diapers!". 

We read a lot of books while she sat on the potty, at one point during the day she set Scout on the potty and read him a book - ha! We started out the first day going naked from the waste down. We watched her like a hawk and when she started to go, we ran her to the potty. That first morning, she actually told us before she had to go. We were shocked! 

She was pretending to sleep. She thought she was pretty funny. :) 

Then we put pants on. We had a couple accidents that day but she did pretty good then too. It was hard to have 4 days cooped up in the house, but we still entertained each other. We played some hide and see. We needed to get creative with new hiding spots..... Ryan squeezed between the couch and the wall.We thought he might get stuck, but he made it out - ha! 

We had to document with the photo above.... for the kid who doesn't require a ton of sleep, it's unusual for her to just fall asleep randomly. This was the 4th day of potty training and she fell asleep watching Bubble Guppies. 

The photo above was not potty training weekend, but still on subject. We were digging out our winter clothes and she got super excited about her hat and gloves. She insisted on wearing them! 

Potty training was a success, and way way way easier than either Ryan or I expected. We did night training at the same time and she caught on with that within 2 weeks and no accidents since. She had one accident at daycare and that's been it. She tells us when she has to go and is able to hold it until she gets there. She says "Mom Poop!!" when she has to go potty. I don't particularly love that, I would prefer she say "potty" instead..... especially in church! But at least she tells us :) Ha! 

Lion says "ROAR!!"

Addy had a hand-me down lion costume this year, and LOVED it! We never imagined she would enjoy her costume as much as she did. We got it out in early October because we thought she would need to get used to it. She loved it from the first time she put it on. She already knew how to roar, but her roar really improved once the costume went on. 

You can't see it real well, but the photo on the right is her pumpkin carved with her name from Grandpa Ron.

We tried to take a few more fall photos. She was a little cold but we were able to snap a few good pictures quick!

2 years later.....

While looking for something from her 2nd birthday, I came across this post that was still in the "edit" phase, and apparently I never "published" it. So this should have been posted in April 2018!! 

Here is a photo from us in the hospital, this was her "going home" outfit. It was a super cute lady bug outfit. It clearly was quite big on her! 

And now it's quite small!! HAHA! I was doing something in her baby clothes tubs and came across this outfit. I brought it out and showed Ryan how little her going home outfit was. I'm not sure how the conversation went, but these photos were the result - ha! She wanted to put it on, so we did. Please note the one sock, too. She has since grown out of that phase and takes them both off.

These photos remind us of Chris Farley and "fat guy in a little coat". haha :) 

Pumpkin Patch II

More pictures from the Bondurant Pumpkin Patch. We had to take a picture with their giant pumpkin!

This one makes me laugh. I can compare the height while pouting vs. height standing up. haha! 

Don't you just hate it when you get corn down your shirt?? ha! She is digging corn out of her shirt. She was loving the corn and especially that she had the whole bin to herself.

She insisted on putting her head in each hole :) 

And we ended the trip with Ryan the Scarecrow. Addison was scared and wouldn't try it, but she thought Ryan being a scarecrow was pretty funny. It was a good trip to the pumpkin patch, which we followed up with a trip to Addison's favorite restaurant: Pizza Ranch. It was a good day! 

Pumpkins!

I wanted to get her dressed up in her adorable Halloween outfit and take pictures with her pumpkins and Casper. This is how that went. Ha! 

In desperation, we thought letting her take pictures of us would help. The whole "taking turns" aspect.

I will let you think it was that easy. :) But in reality, it was about 10 minutes of us bouncing around and begging for a smile. These super cute pictures were a lot of work, but totally worth it!!
These pumpkins are ones that Brayden and Grandpa Ron planted. The smaller one has Addison's name carved in it. Also, note that Casper is holding Addison's rags. Haha!

Then we went to the Bondurant Pumpkin Patch. It was pretty chilly that day. We went right when it opened and we were about the only ones there. 

Corn pit was a hit this year! And it was nice because it was slightly warmer in the grain bin. The cold only seemed to bother me and Ryan, Addison kept wanting to take her coat off.

And of course, I tried to get a picture on our way to the jumping mat. Someone was not having it. haha! I haven't compared this picture to last year, but on our ruler at home she grows about 2 inches every 6 months. It's been really consistent since she was 6 months old. 

More pumpkin patch next time!  

Craft time!

We hadn't done a craft in a long time, so I thought a Halloween one would be perfect. She was pretty excited this time, she does them at daycare and loves it. She loves seeing her artwork, she always talks about it. We have a canvas that Shannon made for Father's Day where she did a purple handprint and footprint. Addison will randomly yell out "Purple hand!!" when she sees it.

We did a spider handprint craft this time. Apparently I didn't take a picture of the final product, oops! And it's packed away now!

She still does the monkey face that cousin Conner taught her in August when he was at the farm with her. Silly girl! 

Homecoming Parade

I picked up from daycare one day this fall and our daycare lady told us that her daughter was going to be in the Homecoming parade. We had no idea there was a parade so we were happy Shannon said something! The normal parade route goes down the street that is at our corner, so that's pretty nice. Addison took her Easter bucket with her rags. She insisted on taking the rags with her. ha!

She was happy as a clam with the rags in her bucket, she didn't care about the candy. We did see Mikaya in the parade, she was playing in the jr. high band. She actually saw us and waved to Addison. Addison was pretty excited. 

This was funny, she sees the semi coming down the street and hops up, runs behind Ryan and ducks down. Then she was saying "scared". We had never seen this before, it was weird! We tried to tell her there was nothing to be scared of. But she hid a few times when the firetrucks and ambulance came by.

She came home with lots of candy, and some of it pretty good candy! She doesn't know you can eat it, she just plays with it. She sorts it by color, then lines them up, then puts them all back in the bucket. Then dumps them all out again. It's mid-December now and she is still playing with the same bucket of candy from September! It's good entertainment while I'm doing something in the kitchen. :)