Update and Posts Following

We are in the house. Moved in on Monday and are busy unpacking. When I get it a little more presentable I will take pictures and post those. Meanwhile, I have put 4 new posts in -- what we've been up to the last month or so. Once we get settled, I will try to keep up with the blog better.

Santa's Wonderland

A week ago we decided to pack up and drive an hour to visit a place just south of College Station, called Santa's Wonderland. They have built a little country town with some shops, a petting zoo, an outdoor movie theater, and a restaurant with live entertainment. They also have a huge light display (which I didn't take any pictures of -- too busy trying to get Addy's expressions). You can either drive-thru or take a hayride through the light display. We took the hayride and Addy had a blast. She was bouncing around and laughing and singing. She loved all the lights. When we got back to the "town" we visited Santa. This year Addy is afraid of Santa, but we actually were able to get a picture of her where she wasn't crying. (I'll scan a copy of post it when we get our scanner up and running.) They also had a "snow machine" (it blew soapy bubbles that looked like snow) in the town that would go off every couple of minutes. Addy loved standing underneath the machine and when it would go off she would put her arms up and yell "snow". We were a little hesitant to go this year thinking she might be too young, but she had a blast and we were so glad we went.

Addy's 1st Christmas Program

Addy's Mother's Day Out put on a Christmas program on Monday night. The kids got all dressed up in the Christmas clothes and put on skits and sang Christmas songs. They were all really cute. The 1 year old class pretty much just sat there like deer in the headlights (because of all the people and cameras looking at them), but they were adorable.

Christmas Baking

Mindy, Mom, the kids and I got together a couple weeks ago to start our Christmas baking. We made a gingerbread train, sugar cookies and rice krispie treats. The kids had a lot of fun decorating and using the cookie cutters. Addy got a little tired of it after a while, but for a 1 year old she did a really good job. She has become my little helper and loves to help in the kitchen. She loves to stand on the stool and help me or my mom do stuff on the counter, so she really loved cutting out the sugar cookies.

Also, it snowed in Houston that day. Yes, I did say snow. We couldn't believe it. It didn't stick, but it snowed nonetheless.

Putting candies on the Gingerbread train

Working with cousin Peyton

Making sugar cookies

Addy telling us how it's done

Cheese!!!!

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, we all got together at my parents house. We had a really good time cooking, eating and hanging out. We even were able to play some cards (we haven't been able to do this in quite a while). After lunch, we ran around and played football on the golf course. All-in-all, we had a really good, relaxing Thanksgiving.

Addy Drinking from her Snowman mug

Getting ready to eat

The Feast

Running on the golf course

Catch-up: Halloween & Other News

Wow!! It's been a while. My laptop got a virus and I have been unable to post any pictures, so I just didn't post anything at all. I know everybody just comes to see pictures of Addy anyway.

So, Halloween was fun. Addy didn't really get it, but she had fun running down the street with her best friend/cousin Peyton. She was a sweet little butterfly.

In other news, we finally have a date set for moving into our house. We close on Dec. 19th and then take that weekend to seal grout and move into our kitchen (line cabinets and put in drawer pulls, etc.). Then the movers come on the 22nd. I think the first thing unpacked will be a Christmas tree and decorations. It will definitely be an interesting Christmas.

Here's a picture of Addy in her Halloween costume.

And one in her silly glasses:




And here's a pic of our house with the brick on. The driveway and sidewalks are poured now. The only things left are the wood floors, carpet, countertops and backsplash, sprinker system and yard/flower beds. Cannot wait to move in.



We also took a trip up to Arkansas in October to visit with some college friends of mine. There is a group of 8 girls and their families that were able to rent out a camp retreat facility. We had a lot of fun catching up with old friends and meeting new ones.

American Girl

Today we took Addy along while Scott and I went to early vote. (Gotta love early voting -- we were in and out in 5 minutes). For the occasion, Addy wore her patriotic red, white and blue. Then we went for to Chick-fil-A breakfast. Addy loves Chicken Minis (so do I).

Sea World

Well, things have finally settled down a bit, before we get busy again next week. We have finished our move into my parent's house and all our stuff is in storage. (It is amazing how you can get a whole house into such a small little space.) Anyway, we closed on our house on Monday, so now we are just waiting for our new home to be finished. Of course, we have no idea when that will be, as the date changes from week to week. So, hopefully some time between November and January, we will be moving into the new house.

So, onto the topic of the post: Scott, Addy and I went to Sea World along with my parents and Peyton a couple of weekends ago. We had a lot of fun, although I know it would probably have been a little better had Addy been a little older. The park was all decorated for Halloween with pirate skeletons and pumpkins. Addy did love the dolphin pool though. You can lay on your tummy and feed the dolphins. They come right up to you.

The next day we went to a drive-thru animal safari. The kids were having a great time (I think it was mostly due to the fact that they got to get out of the car seats) feeding the animals until we got to the zebras. My mom had both kids in her lap in the front seat and a zebra stuck his head in her window. All three were screaming (my dad, Scott and I were laughing hysterically). It was pretty funny. Unfortunately we were too busy laughing to get any pictures.

Here is a slideshow of the weekend.

And a video of Addy at the dolphin pool:

Cooking

Sorry it's been so long. We have been soooo busy. We got two offers on our house the weekend of Ike. We accepted one offer and have been very busy trying to pack up our house, find movers, find a storage unit, etc. (We will be living with my parents until our new house is ready.) We are tentatively scheduled to close next week, barring any problems. We have already had the inspections and appraisal and all went well.

We were able to get out of town this past weekend to visit SeaWorld in San Antonio. I will do a post on that later though.

For now, here is a video of Addy cooking (playing) in Rusty's water bowl while mom and I were packing up the kitchen.

Hurricane Ike

UPDATE: We are home now. We got power sometime this afternoon and came home around 8:00p.m. We are very lucky to have gotten power so quickly, because there are still many people without it, even close to where we live.

Well, we survived with minimal damage. On Friday morning we got our house ready for the storm and then headed to my parent's house. We set up their media room (which has no exterior walls and no windows) with mattresses and rode out the storm in there. We actually were having fun and enjoying ourselves (even when we lost power at around 10:00 p.m.). Then the big winds hit and it got pretty scary. We were having around 70 mph gusts from 2:30 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. You could feel the house shaking. The wind was howling and sounded like it was going to pick the roof right off the house. Then things started hitting the windows. I was pretty scared. Come to find out later, it was the outdoor ceiling fan blades that were ripped off and were hitting the windows.

My mom and dad's house got water back around 1:00 p.m. Sat. afternoon and then power back around 2:00 p.m. So, we are in great shape compared to everyone else. Mindy and Dwayne got their power back last night and they were able to go home. Unfortunately, our house is still without power. Thankfully, we have my parent's house to stay at. We drove through our neighborhood today and everyone was sitting in their garages or in their driveways trying to stay cool.

As far as damages go, our house has some roof damage and one of our trees in our front yard is leaning. My parent's house had some water damage because some of the west windows weren't installed properly (when the storm came through and the winds were coming from the west it was pushing water into the house through the windows and under the doors). They also have some trees down. We got out and drove around a bit and there are a lot of trees down, a lot of fences down and store signs ripped right out of the ground. There are even some places where brick walls were totally demolished. I really didn't expect it to get as bad as it did out here. We live in northwest houston and were on the "clean" side of the storm. I cannot even imagine what it is like for the people who live in south houston and along the coast.

Here are some pictures of our house and around our neighborhood:

Shingles off and roof rippling

Tree leaning in our yard

Sign for shopping center down at entrance to our neighborhood

Fences down

Street light hanging

We are also in the process of building a new house and it got started just a few weeks ago. They were supposed to put the roof on on Friday, but obviously that didn't get done. The door frame was ripped out and the wind blew some of the styrofoam boards off.

So we feel very lucky and blessed to have a place to stay at with power and air-conditioning and to have come out with very minimal damage.

Piggie Tails

I have been experimenting with new things for Addy's hair. She just doesn't have much hair and what little she has is sooooo thin. So, she has just been wearing headbands, until today. My mom has been wanting me to try piggie tails in Addy's hair, so I tried them today and I think she looks pretty cute. (Of course, I am very biased;) It may be a little hard to see them, because they are pretty thin.

Mother's Day Out

Addy had her 1st day of MDO today. She will go every Monday and Thursday. I really like her class right now. There are three kids and two teachers. They may add some kids, but right now I like that she will be getting a lot one-on-one attention. It is also really convenient and close to work so I drop her off and Scott picks her up, so we both get a full work-day in.

Here are some pictures of Addy getting ready to leave for school.





Her teachers said she did really good today and that she was able to take a good long nap. I was so glad to hear that because I was worried about her, especially since she was crying when I left (which made me a cry a little too). I guess we'll find out what she really thinks about school when we go back on Monday.

Birthday Party

Saturday was a great day. We started off going to my parents for a swim and then ended the day with friends and family at our house. My mom got Addy a tutu for her 1year pictures, but we decided it was too cute and that she would also wear it for her party. She looked like a little princess.

As for the cake, I made a lady bug cake and also some cupcakes with pink flowers. Addy really didn't want anything to do with the cupcake, so she really didn't get too messy.

Here are some pics of the day:

Happy Birthday to Addison

This year has gone way too fast. It is so hard to believe that Addy is already 1. It seems just like yesterday that she was born.

On Friday, her actual birthday, we went to Space Center Houston with Scott's mom, Scott's sister Susan and her two boys Rob and Danny. We toured around there a bit and then headed to Kemah. It was a really hot day (heat index was over 100), but Kemah was so neat and we all had a really good time. Addy loved getting out of her stroller and being able to just walk around the boardwalk. She also provided entertainment to everyone. The boardwalk had music playing and Addy was dancing and clapping and had a crowd gathered around her. There was even a woman from India taking pictures of her.

Here is a video of her being pushed in her stroller down the boardwalk. She has started doing ahhhh when we hit bumps in the car and so she was doing this down the boardwalk.



P.S. When I get pictures from my parents, I'll post pictures of her party. Addy looked so cute in her birthday tutu.

Catching Up - 4th of July

For the 4th we travelled to Arkansas to visit Scott's family. Addy did okay on the car trip, while it was light out she wanted out of her seat, but once it got dark, she fell asleep and stayed asleep.

We had a great time in Arkansas visiting with Addy's Mimi and the rest of the family. For the 4th we went to Scott's sister's house and spent the day playing, slip and sliding and watching a great fireworks show. We learned that Addy is definately our little tomboy. The first thing she headed to when we put her down was the mud puddle.

We also did a small early celebration for Addy's 1st birthday so that Mernie could celebrate with us.

Addy really enjoyed all her "big" cousins and they loved entertaining her.

Random Act of Kindess

Tonight Scott is working late, so I loaded Addy up in the car and off to Chick-fil-A we went to use Addy's free kids' meal coupon we got at VBS. I went through the drive through and ordered Addy's kid's meal and also ordered a meal for me. When I got up to the window I grabbed my purse out of the passenger seat and knew right away something was wrong (my purse was too light). So, I told the girl at the window: "I'm so sorry, but I left my wallet at home. I'll go get it and be back." As I was driving away, I heard someone say "Ma'am" I turned around and the manager was hanging his head out the window. He said: "Don't worry about it, dinner is on us." I was amazed and embarrassed. So, just another reason for loving Chick-fil-A. Everytime I go there, the staff is always so nice.

In other news, Addy has made lots of progress walking the past week. She is pretty much all over the house. I have started having to close doors because she wanders all over the house. It has been nice this past week, because I am now able to do my housework during the weekday. Addy just follows me around. She loves the vacuum. I think I'm going to have a good helper.

Here's a video showing Addy's walking progress:

Addy Walking

VBS and New Things this Week

We have had VBS all week this week. Addy wasn't too sure about it the first few days, but then did wonderfully. I think going to VBS this week has helped with her independence and playing by herself. She has been a very different baby this week. It is really nice to be able to leave the room for a few seconds and not have a screaming child.

Also, this week Addy has been taking a few steps by herself. She has also started bear crawling this week. This new mobility may also be contributing to her newfound independence. I'll try to get a good video of her walking and post it later.

Also this week, Addy is trying new words. Up until now, it has just been mama, dada, baba. But she has started saying ball, baby, bottle, and oh-man (she hears Peyton say this and has picked up on it -- it's really funny).

So, this week has been full of new things and changes. Needless to say, Addy was worn out and slept 13 hours last night and for the first time since she was born, I got to sleep until 9:00 a.m :)

Memorial Day Weekend

This last weekend we stayed over at my parents and enjoyed their backyard and pool. Addison loved spending time with her Grammy and Papa and loved swimming. She enjoyed the pool and waterfalls so much that she took her afternoon nap in the pool every day. We also went to an Astro's game Friday night and stayed until the end to watch the Friday Night Fireworks. Addison was enthralled by the fireworks. We were really surprised they didn't scare her because it was late and the babies were getting tired.

Addison also started standing up by herself this weekend from pushing off the floor. She hasn't taken any steps by herself yet, but I guess that's only a matter of time.

San Francisco Trip

We just got back from our family vacation to San Francisco. We had a great time visiting Fisherman's Wharff, riding the cable cars and visiting Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. We were also able to catch an Astros/Giants game (and got to see Lance Berkman hit a home run into the bay). The weather was interesting and not what we were expecting. The first two days we were there was during the SF heatwave and it was 97 degrees. Then the next two days were very chilly and windy.

Addison was a great traveller. She loved being outside, watching and waving to all the people.

Here are some pictures from our trip.

Here is a video of Addison going down one of the big hills in her stroller. She leaned forward as far as she could, flapped her arms and squealed.