January randomness

January is usually a pretty boring month. Cold temperatures, not a lot to do, and no sign of spring in site. This month has flown by though! We've embarked on new adventures, had lots of partying with Addie and have been beginning the nesting process for our upcoming baby.

 Speaking of baby...um, he's coming 8 WEEKS from tomorrow!!! 

I'm not a fan of self-timer photos....especially when it's of my "baby bump". 

Let's face it, it's beyond a bump. Nonetheless, here I am!

 30 Weeks 

He's going to double in size before my due date...

not sure how he's going to fit or where he's going to go!

We've been preparing for baby Dalton to come and I am pretty sure that within the next couple of weeks I'll be totally done with everything....and then I'll just be waiting for him to arrive. I not only have the nesting bug, but I'm a big planner/a little OCD so I can't stop myself from getting everything ready, like NOW. Melissa hooked me up with some baby clothes (thanks!!!) and they're already washed and in the drawers of my changing table. I've also made him a blanket, crib quilt (Dawn is finishing the edges for me right now), and a valance for his room. Now I've just got to do a bed skirt and I think I'll be about done with the nursery stuff. Jed is painting a wall tomorrow night in his room.....and after a random/kind of scary crib recall, we're also getting a new crib for him. That about sums that up....I'll post some pictures once it's all done :)

Preschool!!

 Addie started preschool 2 days before her third birthday. She's doing well and seems to like it quite a bit. She was pretty nervous at first, as I expected, but now she's getting more comfortable with it. It's only two hours, three times a week, so it's not too much for her. She still seems so little to me and when I pick her up each day I can't believe that my baby girl is that big.

She won't pose for pictures anymore...so I didn't get great ones from her first day.

 She wanted Yoda to be in the picture with her....silly girl.

 Yet, one more birthday bash....

Last weekend we went down to my dad and stepmom's house and went to dinner to celebrate Addie's birthday. She loves seeing her grandpa! It was funny when the restaurant brought ice cream out to her after dinner and sang to her. She just sat there then whispered to me, "Um, mom, it's not my birthday". 

 Snow Playing with daddy

 We finally got some decent snow today. The kind that actually makes good snowballs. Jed came home and asked Addie if she wanted to go out and play. Of course she did! She loves it.

They made a giant snowball as big as Addie.....and I watched from the window in the warm house :)

Once again....my no-longer-napping-girl hit a tired wall one day and randomly crashed on my hand in the grocery cart. I couldn't get her to wake up....she slept for 30 minutes in the store. 

That's about it....okay, so maybe our January was kind of boring. I've just been too busy to care I guess. 

Addison's 3rd Birthday!!

We've been celebrating Addie's birthday for three days straight pretty much! Well, the past three days, and also last Sunday...so um she may start thinking that birthdays are really birthweeks. I'm okay with it though- she's got a lot of people who love her and spoil her and want to get in on the celebrating. Jed went out of town Friday and today, her actual birthday, so we called Thursday her birthday. Hey, she's 3, she doesn't know if it's the 6th or the 8th right?

Addie started the day by coming downstairs and opening some presents from me and Jed and seeing her balloons and streamers hung everywhere. She was excited!

She LOVES tea sets, baking stuff and play food....no idea why ;)

After she played for a bit, she and I made some PINK blueberry muffins for breakfast.

Ashley was here and helped me set some stuff up that morning and prep for her friend princess party. We took her to preschool, along with mini cupcakes for her class (more on preschool in a later post) 

and then kept on decorating and getting everything ready.

There were princess things EVERYWHERE and LOTS of PINK! 

The party favors- personalized crown-shaped cookies tied with a little wand.

 Since Addie has a lot of little princesses and princess barbies, we used it all to decorate

Somehow I didn't remember to take many pictures of the decorations......

 Probably because I took SO many of the mini-cakes that Ash and I made.

I have to say, these turned out as cute as I'd hoped and imagined they would. The idea popped into my head at 4am on day when I was wide awake with pregnancy insomnia. They were almost too cute to eat :)

 Ashley did me a solid and wore my Snow White costume for the party

Addie was so happy about it! Of course she had already demanded to wear her Aurora dress too.

 I should clarify, Ashley didn't just come dressed up.....I had her hide from the other girls upstairs till they were all there then I announced I had a special friend there....look at the girls reactions. Love it.

 Kallie (in yellow) was terrified at first and a few were stand-offish but warmed up eventually.

It was very cute. They really thought she was Snow White!

 She gave them all princess crowns and then invited them to the table for a princess tea party!

 Addie loved it...well she loves pb&j and lemonade so I couldn't really lose there. Plus she loves tea parties. We have pretend ones daily.

 The girls all sipped their "tea" and ate some snacks

Then it was time for cake! Look how excited Addie was to eat her Snow White cake! 

Love it!

I swear it took her like 4 minutes to blow out 3 candles...so dainty ;)

The girls ate their cakes while the adults snacked, chatted and played Paparazzi 

Then Addie opened her presents, with assistance from her guests. It was funny, they all helped her rip them open. Then they all preceded to play with the toys. It was a lot of fun for the girls it seemed.

 I tried and failed to get a great shot of all the girls with Snow White. This is the best I got.

Still cute.

So....about 5 minutes after the second to last little princess left, I remembered that I never brought out the pinata! Addie has been asking for one for months for her birthday. At that point we figured we may as well break it open. So she and Eden took some whacks at it with the light saber (worlds colliding? lol)

 We knew it wasn't going to break and eventually Jed just broke it open- oooh CANDY!

It was such a fun party. The girls were all so darling! We've got a fun little group of neighborhood girls and it was fun to have them and a couple other little friends celebrate with us. 

Thanks for all who came!!

Yesterday, Addie told me "I think it's still my birthday though" Hey why not kid, live it up.

Grandma and Grandpa Rees came over and she got another fun present and played with them for awhile.

She spent the rest of the evening putting a baby my little pony to sleep and potty in her little house.

 This morning, we celebrated her birthday, yes again...by going to breakfast with her aunts (Jed's sisters and our sister in law) and Jed's parents. I'm glad that she embraced her birthday being a whole weekend so I could still have her actual birthday be a little special. 

Me and my princess...yes, my little girl wore a crown to breakfast. Oh, and a tutu skirt. 

Addie with her cousins, Tristan and Emmett

 After that we went to Jed's parents' house so they could give her a present 

She was so excited about her new kitchen 

and also about bubble wrap.

That about sums up the birthday celebrating! Wow, after blogging this I think I have an idea why I'm so tired today! I loved throwing Addie parties, playing with her and having family and friends share it with us!

3 years ago this minute....

My baby girl was born. Addison has brought more joy and love to our lives than we ever thought possible. I love her with all my heart! We've been celebrating her birthday all week long and will continue to play today. I have lots of fun pictures to share from her friend Princess party :)

Here's a quick snapshot from her first day right after preschool. We celebrated her big-girl moment with a Jamba Juice. Love her and thank my Heavenly Father for her every day.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful girl!

Wait, when did this happen?

It's been brought to my attention in the past few weeks that I have an almost three year old! I'm seriously in awe that three years have gone by since she was the one in my belly. I think registering her in a preschool this week was the kicker. I constantly tell her that she's not big enough for school (meaning elementary) so she's a little confused now as to how she's big enough for preschool. I hear ya kid...I don't know how it's possible either! We took her to Target to pick out a backpack and she now wears it around the house. I think she's excited and I hope that she'll do well on Tuesday when I take her (heck, I hope that I'll do well) She isn't napping anymore, so I think it'll be a good 2-hour break in the day to fill in some boredom of winter. I obviously have mixed emotions about it. I think we both need it, but I also know that it means she's growing up even faster than I thought possible.....okay let's table this whole topic before I cry and get the cookie dough out of my fridge.

Here's what Addie has been up to

 She's still loving her letter/chalk board....notice her backpack on :)

She now has long hair to the middle of her back

 I still haven't ever cut it, other than her bangs....and I don't foresee me doing it anytime soon

Loves being silly

 She likes to take the Mr. Potato Head pieces and put them on herself instead of the potato. Weirdo. Usually it's the Vadar pieces. This time she was being a monkey with the ears and mouth.

Embraces technology

 I was shocked to see how quick she picked up on using an Ipad this week. She wants one now. For real. Um, sorry kid, if one of us gets one, it won't be you ;)

Could play outside all day- even when it's freezing cold!

 Making snow angels with Grammy

 "Ice skating" with daddy yesterday (holy seriously COLD!) 

 the area behind our house filled with rain water on Wednesday which then froze over. 

So it has become our own little ice rink. Sweet! I pulled the carrying a baby card and didn't participate.

Acting out scenes from movies while watching them

 This was Jed's proudest dad moment thus far. She picked up his/her light saber and did Luke's whole routine as he was fighting Vadar. It was pretty accurate and very funny. (sorry light saber fights are blurry)

Looking forward to being a big sister

 Baby Dalton at 28 weeks. 

Today we began celebrating her birthday, which is Saturday.

We had some cake and ice cream up at Grammy Dawn & Papa Steve's house

 She said she wanted the giant cupcake to be PINK

and she wore her cute tutu skirt that Grammy got her for Christmas

 poor girl had a tummy ache when we got there, 

but after some Ashy cuddles and a trip to the potty she was good to go :)

 She told us on the way up that we were having a party, but that it's not really her birthday. 

We opened some presents and visited with family. It was fun and simple.

I'm looking forward to/having anxiety about the upcoming week with Addie. Preschool, a princess friend party and more birthday fun to come!