Stupid Groundhog....

I guess winter is staying for a bit longer...which wouldn't be so bad if we weren't getting so bored and stir crazy. I just keep baking and I worry that someone is going to have to roll me out of here in the spring. I almost wish it would snow, so I could at least go out and play with Addie. She loooves making snow angels and hasn't got to use her new snow pants yet. Lame.

Anyway, I digress....so it's still winter, we're bored....so what are we doing?

Well aside from hanging out in jammies and a tutu while coloring....


We've had a Nap Battle 2010..... Yep, it's been a fun week in the nap department. We took Addie's binky, or "Gee" away on Saturday night. She was sad but got over it and slept fine all night. Saweet! Well skip forward to naptime the rest of this week....holy. meltdown. She's cried, screamed, yelled, thrashed and even yelled to me from her crib "I wanna talk to Ashy!!" (her aunt, who apparently wouldn't stand for such torture) Thankfully, today she went down in just a few minutes, so I hope she'll get back to normal because she's been a FABULOUS napper till now.

Got a little crafty
I saw some bows in a boutique a few weeks ago like these selling for $6 a pair and decided to get my craft on and attempt making some. They were super easy and fairly quick. I think they're pretty cute too.

Did I mention I bake a lot??
So seriously, I should stop. Technically these chocolate chip cookies were for the ladies I visit teach...so I didn't eat them...okay who are we kidding, I did eat ONE. Since I had already made sugar cookies last week (don't judge me) I decided to bake my favorite cookies and then cut them into hearts afterwards. Cuteness no? I put them into some cute treat boxes with some candy hearts and it made quite the darling Valentine.

We also had Niki and her girls over last week for some wheat grinding/bread baking (yup baking again). I made some sweet pulled pork and we had delicious sandwiches on fresh baked wheat rolls for dinner once Jed and Brian were both home from work. Loved it. Sorry, no pictures of this event....I was either covered in flour or eating the whole time :)

I've been bad at taking pictures lately for some reason, except a few on the Blackberry. We had some really yummy Superbowl food on Sunday. Pictures should have been taken. Jed makes some seriously awesome pico de gallo, guacamole, and queso....oh all the lovely things to dip stuff into. I still can't remember anything about the game. Saints won right? ;)

This post is really random I just realized. It's also been mostly about food...hmm I really need to branch out. I can't promise my next post won't include food, because I do plan to make ONE more Valentine treat this weekend. Enjoy your Valentine's Day everyone!

An update on our 2-yr-old and us

I haven't done a good ole fashioned Addie update in awhile. Yes I realize most of my posts are about her, but ah well :)

I can't believe how much Addie has grown up in the past few months. She's talking in full sentences...and talking all. the. time. In the car she just rambles on and on, jumping from one thing to the next. It makes me laugh because, me being her mom, I usually know the exact train of thought that takes her from one thing to the next. Oh and for all of you already thinking it, yes, yes I realize exactly WHO she gets this trait from. Haha.

She's also growing! She's almost 35 inches tall and weighs 28 lbs. Not sure where that falls into percentages yet, because I still need to take her in to her 2-yr check up. It seems like she's suddenly a little girl, rather than even a toddler....sniff sniff. She is SO MUCH FUN though. We are thoroughly enjoying her and it's fun to have her be big enough to do more things with her. She's also getting easier to compromise with...whew. She still tantrums sometimes, but usually it's pretty short and we can talk to her and get her chill quickly. It's funny because she used to not listen when I'd explain why she couldn't do something, she'd just ignore me and cry. Now she'll get annoyed, then just say "Okay" and move on. It's almost shocking.... :)

A few things our big girl likes to do now:

Eat cereal by herself, then drink all the milk out of her bowl. Seriously she does this daily and still thinks it rocks. Jed made us french toast Sunday morning, and she acted bugged that she didn't get to have cereal instead. Funny kid....doesn't she know how much better french toast is than cereal??


Entertaining herself better and in random ways.
I was at the mall last night, and while Whit and I were ooohing and awwwing over cute baby & kid stuff in Dillards, Addie decided to take ALL the Taggies balls off the shelf and put them in a pile. Should I have not allowed this? Meh, it kept her happy.

Lining things up
Once she had all the balls in a pile last night, she lined them all up. She's been doing this lately with random objects. Just a random thing I've noticed. Fruit snacks, cups, books....they can all be lined up.

She also loves to help me bake, pretends to fix my hair and will pick out her/my clothes (or at least I let her think she does) She'll go into my closet "let's see....what should mommy wear?" She is ALL girl.


So besides raising this darling little girl, what else have Jed and I been up to? Well for starters Jed started an new/old job. Kind of funny, but Alliance, the credit union Jed worked for the 4 years before he was done with school just hired him back. He's doing a similar job as before but on a larger scale since they've grown. He's doing their IT and Accounting. It's been a big relief and blessing, since it is salary and benefits. His other job was straight commission, and since mine is too that gets scary. He's liked being back in his old place with his credit union buds and he's very happy.

I've been very busy lately. The market is really picking up with buyers and I've had a flood of house showings! It's great that things are picking up, but also has been kind of hectic to balance it all. Thankfully I've got awesome family who's willing to help with Addie! We feel very blessed with life right now. Things are far from perfect, but we feel like we have all we need and the tools at our fingertips to be successful. Thanks for the love and support family and friends- we couldn't do all we do without you!

Grief.

I've been thinking a lot the past 4 days about life, death and grief. It's hard to put in to words the feelings you have when you lose someone close to you and your loved ones. Wednesday night, our dear friend, Mike Lee, had a heart attack and died.

Mike isn't just a friend of ours, he's a husband to one of the best people I know, Lori, and an uncle to one of my closest and dearest friends, Niki. He left behind two boys, Cade and Eric who are 10 and a beautiful daughter Samantha, who's 13.

My heart truly breaks for their family. I feel like the grief I've been feeling is mostly FOR his sweet family and not for my own personal loss. I'll miss Mike for many reasons: his ability to make me smile and giggle every time I saw him, his amazing love and care for his daughter who is severly handicapped, the way he always would drop whatever he was doing to play with kids and even act just like them and his strength and support he always provided for Lori. I've observed him as a husband, father and uncle.

What I'm mostly grieving for though, is the loss that his children, wife and family are going through. I know that their lives will never be the same and they'll have a long and hard road in front of them. Seeing my dear friends in such pain is so hard to watch, yet I'm grateful that they have many people surrounding them to show love and support.

I've been thinking a lot about my own family and relationships. It's interesting how death opens up your eyes and makes you focus more on the things in life that matter most. It's also a little sad that it takes the death of a loved one to remind us how short life can be and how grateful we ought to be on a daily basis for life itself and those who we love.

I'm very grateful today for the knowledge I have of eternity. For the knowledge that this life doesn't end at death and that someday we will see the ones who go before us. I love the gospel. I love my own eternal family. I love that at the end of the day, even a day as hard as this, I can have peace and comfort in my heart knowing that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and blesses me.

Cute Cousins and other stuff

I've been meaning to blog for over a week now, but it seems like we've just been so busy. Every time I get on the computer to blog, I end up getting sidetracked with work and then it's 11pm.....but hey, work is picking up and getting busy so that's good! The rush of people realizing the first time home buyer tax credit is expiring soon has begun! Yay for me :)

I'm very happy that we had some storms the past two weeks to clear out the awful inversion. We've had some pretty snow and blue skies....perfect for daddy and Addie to get out and wash my car! Addie loooves to be a "helper" these days, and really really loves being a helper when it involves being outside.



We got to watch Beckam for the day a couple of weeks ago and Addie liked having a buddy around..... One reason Aunt Jenny rocks- Sugar Cookies :)
The kids liked being able to put sprinkles on their cookies and then enjoyed eating them (well the frosting in Addie's case)

Our cousin Jen was in town for Christmas and she brought her cute little girl Mia over a couple days before they left to try and get some pictures of her with her cousins.....well taking pictures of a toddler and two infants is tricky, so here's the best we could do.




My sister-in-law Melissa, who's 32 weeks pregnant, had an emergency appendectomy on Saturday...no fun! Her cute little Deacon got to come over today while she recovers in the hospital. Addie likes having other little kids around and had fun playing with him....who wouldn't....isn't he a cutie?


One Reason Uncle Jed Rocks.


Deacon had a sleepover with us tonight. The kids had a bath then Deacon requested we all play on the stairs in jammies before bed.
Look at Addie adoring him :)

Well that's about all I can remember from the past couple of weeks. I can't believe how fast January has flown by! We still have a lot more winter to get through, so all you other cousins and friends out there who we haven't seen- bring on the play dates!

Addie's Birthday and Birthday Party

Addie turned the big 2 on Friday and we celebrated all weekend. The night before her birthday, we decorated the dining room with some balloons and princess paper. Daddy made sure to get her a special sprinkle birthday donut to have for breakfast. She was most excited about the donut....girl after her mommy's heart.


We really could have just gotten her a donut and balloons and she'd be set for the day.... and yes, yes my child IS wearing a little crown on her head. She wore it all day on her birthday and to her party. Hey, if it was socially acceptable, I'd wear one on my birthday ;)


Jed and I took her to the Treehouse Museum to play and then to lunch. She had fun playing and wore herself out, then took a nap (I SO want to have a 2-year-old birthday schedule...)

Jed left with his dad and brother later in the day to go to Vegas till the next night for CES, so we went out with Dawn and my sister-in-laws to celebrate. We went to Pizzaria and had some yummy pizza, and of course Addie's favorite part was the ice cream.




Me and my sweetie pie....note me looking happy to be there and her just focused on her ice cream. Ha ha

We went to Grammy Dawn's afterwards and had a sleepover. She opened some presents from Dawn and Ashley. She loved this cute vacuum! It cracked me up that she got all excited about new cute boots too. Most kids are like, oh grrreat clothes...., but Addie said "Oh boots! Cute!" Seriously love her. So my kid


Party Time!

Sunday, we had a party at Grammy and Grandpa Rees's house. She had a blast and got some fun gifts. I made some yummy cupcakes for the occasion (supposed to look like sundaes)


Addie loves a party and had sooo much fun.


We sure loved partying with this little princess of ours. She was ready to crash by the time we left....look at her zoned look in the car ride home. She jabbered the whole way home though about EVERYTHING. Who was there, what she did, about having a cupcake and opening presents.....kept asking herself questions that she'd answer. "Did you have a cupcake? Was it good?.... yes"


Thanks so much to everyone who celebrated with us and for all the love and support you've all given us and Addie the past two years. She is the joy of our lives and we are so blessed that she's got so many people who love her dearly in her life!

2 Years old, really?!

I'm not sure how we went from this


To this


To this


But yep- we've got a two year old girl! Happy Birthday Addie boo! We love you the most and are so happy that you've been in center of world for the past two years!

Out with '09....In with 2010

Well last year at this time I came up with the slogan, It's all gonna be fine in '09 Looking back, I'm just going to say, yup it was fine :) Fine isn't great and isn't horrible right? We've had a lot of trials and hard times this year, but also many blessings and much happiness in our little family. I'm amazed how much Addie has grown in a year and I can't believe she'll be two this week! I think 2010 is going to be a great year-- I feel like many people in our life have struggled the past couple of years, but I'm confident that if we all keep pluggin' away and keep positive things will get better. So here's to 2010!

We celebrated the new year by going to the New Year's Eve party at the Treehouse Museum with Emily, Grady and Taylor and my mom. Boy did I UNDERESTIMATE how many people would be there.... ummmm I've NEVER seen a line at all to get in there.

It was a cute idea though, just too crowded for it to be enjoyed very much. They counted down till noon, rather than midnight, and gave the kids all bags with noise makers and M&M's. We also made party hats whilst there....and yep no picture of the kids, because I really couldn't get any. Too. Many. People I think the kids still had fun....although Addie mostly just ran around and eventually just laid down in the middle of the floor with a look like, Um I'm done with this Haha, poor kid.

We celebrated that evening at Blake and Kacey's house with Jed's siblings. It was fun to hang out, put the kid to bed and play games. Jed made a delicious turkey too! I hope that you all have a great year and I'm saying that We'll all have zen in 2010! :)

Addie has decided that she LOVES playing in the snow. She got a new snow coat for Christmas from her papa and was so excited the other evening to go out and play with daddy after work. Her new snow-related obsession is making snow angels. This was one of her first attempts. She's got it down pretty well now and will also do them inside on the carpet at random. Oh I love her