Addison's 3rd Fiesta

Addison was born on Cinco de Mayo so she probably will have many more "Fiestas" in her future but this year, we went low-key, fun and easy given little brother had the big 1 at the end of the month.

 

 

Given the fiesta theme and Addison's love for tacos, we went for a 10am, brunch-style party complete with breakfast tacos and other great morning treats.  I hope our guests enjoyed it as much as I did.  I love breakfast!

 

 

Addison got to play with her cousins which is something she just loves.  See that purple dress... that was mine!  I just love that she was willing to put it on for her party. 

 

Mimi found confetti eggs that were a huge hit and very "fiesta".   The kids kept themselves busy ...went on a bug-hunt, put on a Frozen show, and ran around like little crazies with a little too much sugar!

 

I love this picture of Brandon and Carrie... frame-worthy for sure!

 

This little man had fun hanging around too!

 

This girl has always loved the Happy Birthday song and this year was no different.  She might enjoy the spotlight a little too much.  Yes, I gave in and made her the Hello Kitty cupcakes per her request.

 

 

 

All in all, we had such a great morning celebrating our little lady with family.  I cannot believe we have a 3 year old.  She is 3 going on 13 and I seriously fear for the day she is a teenager but I love her to the moon and back. 

 

Have you ever hosted a party in the morning?  It is fun and different. Do it!

Addison's BirthDAY

Josh and I both took off work to spend Addison's actual birthday with her.  We took brother to school and had SUCH a fun day with just our little girl.

 

 

We started our morning with sweet birthday treat.

 

I put together a roadmap of our day together and Addison loved checking off her list.

First stop was the park.  It wasn't on the list but the weather was too great to pass it up.  We love HOPE Park in Frisco.  It is so kid-friendly, no matter the age.  Seriously, a park without rocks or wood chips = the best.

 

 

After an hour or so there we headed to Build-A-Bear.  Addison had fun but I honestly am thinking now that we have "been there and done that".    She named her bear Addison and picked out a princess gown for her of course.  Check that off the "every kid should do it once" list.

 

 

Next a ride on the carousel... I don't know how those kids do it!?  My head was spinning for an hour.

 

Then it was off to lunch of her choice... Chick-fil-A of course.  Some fuel before her first movie in a movie theater.

 

She did really good and the movie, Rio2, was pretty good too.  It's the first movie Josh and I have seen in the theater in years!  What a treat ... ha.

 

Note.... no time for a nap.  It was her birthday.

 

We then headed to pick up brother from school, headed home for presents with the family, and a special dinner... tacos!  Addison loves her a crispy beef taco. 

 

I thought I hit jackpot when I found a "Frozen" cupcake, bought it, got it home.... Got it out to sing to the birthday girl on her day for her only to tell me it was a "fairy" and definitely not Frozen.  It's the thought that counts, sister!  I'll try harder next year. 

(I have since been for my eye check-up and got a new pair of glasses, too.)

 

 

A fun day with our Cinderella for sure!  She sure slept like a Princess after our day together!

Addison: 3 Years

Our baby, Miss Addison Leigh - you are 3!   These past three years have gone faster than we could have ever imagined.   You are so sweet, loving, and smart with a double order of attitude and sass.  You are such a great big sister to your brother and the sweetest friend to your cousins.   You already want to do big girl things like wear makeup and drive a car.  You have your Daddy wrapped around your little finger.  You will always be our baby girl, always.  The little one that made us parents and we love you so. 

 

 Here is a little bit of what you are up to these days.  You....

• are 100% potty trained!  It honestly took you 6 months from the weekend we did our 3-day training to now where you are in panties all the time, even at night.  Wahoo!!  We are so proud of you.   We had daily accidents (always #2) for 6 months.  Daily!  I knew it would just click one day and it did about a month ago. 
• talk constantly.  No one has to be listening and you will just talk.  Usually telling a story.  You love to talk on the phone and do this cute little lip smack in the middle of sentences like you are twelve.  .
• Point out the "letter A for Addison" a mile away.  Every single A in this world is for Addison.  People, just accept it.  And you can write the letter A!  You are so proud of yourself.
• Love hot dogs, chicken nuggets and cereal.  Your favorite veggie would be carrots or corn on the cob.  Your favorite fruit is a banana or orange.  You love some grapes too.  You would eat a cereal bar every chance you got if we let you!  And you have a love for muffins morning, noon and night. 
• Still don't eat sandwiches. 
• are obsessed with Frozen and always want your hair braided like Elsa.  "One braid, Mommy, like Elsa - not two like Anna."
• are paci-free and we survived the transition!   It took you about 3 weeks to quit asking for it once the Paci Princess came to visit.  That happened a couple months ago.

• Love to pretend and have quite the imagination.  You will play princesses, school, house, mommy, princesses, ice cream shop, princesses, etc.
• always want to play with whatever Luke is playing with and will steal it from him.  We are working on that.
• can throw a tantrum like no one else.  Girl, you have some lungs and a scream ... oh, the scream.  And the videos of the tantrums we will show you one day.
• MUST do everything yourself.  Everything. 
• get dressed all by yourself from picking it out to putting it on.   See bullet above.  If I dress you just to move a little faster in the mornings, you will UNDRESS yourself and redress on your own.
• love to take showers and "clean" the shower while doing so with a washcloth.  Strange.
• love to ride your bike and you are really fast!  We are amazed at how fast you picked it up.
• favorite color depends on the day... usually pink, sometimes purple.
• bite and pick your nails... horrible habit your mommy also did as a kid... ugh.
• don't really have a nickname.  We always call you Addison but sometimes will reference you as Miss A or Sister.

I love so much about this age and want to always remember:

• your sweet, soft kisses and big bear hugs
• how you call a car wash the "wash car"
• the way you say: 
• hamburger; "hangabugah"
• Saturday; "satuhday"
• Luke; "woook"
• how you don't really have much concept of the calendar yet but talk like you sure do.  You will do everything "next week" like turn 4 and go on a plane.
• how excited you get over groceries.  "You got that for me!!??  Ohhhh, thank you!"  It could be muffins or goldfish.  It's a celebration.
• how much you love to go shopping.  We got to the point that we started telling you to remember that for your birthday so we could leave a store without a scene or the item.  Well, your birthday came and went and we are still "remembering ____ for your birthday".  Wonder how long that will last?
• how you want to know everyone's name - on tv, in a store, at a restaurant - you will ask "what his name" or "what her name"... we will tell you and you will repeat their name and describe what they are wearing with a color.  "Amy is the green one?"  Time for Stranger Danger sister.
• how you climb the stairs.  You will climb up the stairs one foot on each step and go so fast but coming down you usually only step down with your right foot.
• When you have an itch you say "it's scratchin' me"
• When your foot falls asleep you say "it's shaken' me"
• I want to remember how you want Mommy or Daddy to lay down with you every night at bedtime.  I know it won't last forever and there are nights I may not want to or think you need
• how you want to hold my hand.  We may just be going up or down the stairs at home but you want to hold my hand.  I want to always remember how small your little hands were and how much joy you got just from holding my hand.

Perhaps my favorite thing about this age is the verbal communication that comes along with it.  It has its negatives (aka "no, that is not a good deal Mommy) but definitely far more positives and it is so fun to have a conversation with you... about your day, what you learned, what you are doing, where you are going ... and you always have a response.  We make up stories in the car on the way to school about the birds.  We think the birds are on their way to school too in that "really big tree ovah dare".

 

As we tell you everyday, I love you to the moon and back sweet girl and Daddy loves you sooo much!   You will always be our baby, even 30 years from now.  Thank you for being you! 

Sixty and Fabulous

We put together a surprise party for my Mom's 60th birthday back in April and pulled it off.   This was a big deal!  She was totally surprised which was so, so fun.  She thought she was coming over to watch our kids so Josh and I could go to a friend's surprise birthday at Top Golf.... long (made-up) story but it worked!  

 

Logan, Aiden and Cale (the boys) keeping an eye out for Nana to arrive.  I wish I had snapped a picture of everyone that came to wish Mom a happy birthday.  We had such a great turnout.  We set the stage for her arrival so that just us "kids" and grandkids were seen when she first walked in.   That was a surprise alone but then all her friends and more family came down from upstairs one by one.

I am sad I didn't get more pictures of our guests and guest of honor but here is what we did catch with some help from my Mom's dear friend, Stacey.

 

The SURPRISE!!

 

 

 

 

 

My sweet friend Kathy made some the most precious TEAM NANA shirts for all the grandkids, "60" was on the back.  We missed my brother Christopher and his family so much, 3 more kiddos to add to this picture.

  

Some of THE GUESTS!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birthday wishes to our favorite lady!

Words cannot describe how much we love our Mom and all that she does for our family.  For as long as I can remember, my Mom has always instilled in me the importance of family.   She has always been my biggest cheerleader.  Today she is my go-to for all things "mom".  She always listens, she lets me vent, she makes me laugh, she is "home"... and we love her so.  We love her as our Mom, we love her as the best Nana to our kids, and we love her as our friend.  I sure hope she knows how proud we are of her, how fabulous we think she is, and how important she is to us and who we are today.   

 

Happy 60th, Mom, from your biggest fans!

Let Freedom Ring

I hope you were not holding your breathe for my next blog post!  Sorry to leave you hanging.. ha.   Reality is life is busy.  Although I have been fairly good about snapping pictures, I miss documenting our little journey called life here so... my goal is 31 blog posts this next year, by July 2015.  I have far more than 31 "drafts" so I hope to knock that one out of the park.  31 is such an odd number you say !? Just go with it friends. (I might have turned 31 this past week... 31!  Good Lord!)

 

Rather than go back in time right away let's talk about the present!  July 4th!  I love this holiday.  I love the family time, the food, the fellowship, the fireworks, the staying up way past bedtime, the sunscreen smellin' kiddos... I love it all.  Aside from Christmas - this is one of my favorites.

 

 

We kicked off our celebration of the red, white and blue with our neighborhood parade the weekend before July 4th.  It's so small and not a big deal but the kids loved it. Pretty much anything goes as long as there is an ounce of patriotism going on.  Led by a police escort, its mostly kids on bikes, trikes, scooters, etc.   We look forward to participating next year. 

 

Don't let that cute face fool you... we have a lot of this going on in our house these days.  Oh to be 3!

 

 

On July 4th, we headed to my brother's for some fun in the sun.  It's a tradition we have had for the last few years and we look forward to it every year. 

 

 

 

 

Then we headed out to snag a spot for fireworks. 

 

Keeping the kiddos busy while we wait for the show. 

 

 

Oh my, this boy.  He is only 1, promise.  He is my little man, loves his Momma and I just eat it up.

 

Luke LOVED the fireworks.  He said "WOOOOOOWWWW" after everyone.  It was so fun.

 

Between making sure the kids didn't run into the street, cousins were sharing, everyone was sprayed for bugs, and no one was eating the glowsticks.... This was the best family picture we got.   Josh is covering up Carrie and Brandon.  Ash and Landon were feeding the twins... Luke is eating a glowstick (sigh)... it's life and we wouldn't change it for anything.

 

Happy 4th, Friends.