We've Been Busy, Busy

I can't believe it's been two months since I posted. We have been so busy, it has gone so fast. We have been busy with birthday parties, garage sale, family picnics, getting the house painted and being out of town. It seems like all of Addy's little friends were born between the last week of September and Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I didn't really take many pictures of Addy during this time. She went to some really neat parties, but I kept forgetting to take my camera. Her favorite party was at a gymnastics gym here in town. They got to jump on the trampolines, swing on the bars and walk the balance beams. She had a blast and has already told us that she wants her birthday party to be at the same place next year in August. Yes -- she knows her birthday is in August. She says "My birthday's in August" all the time. I don't think she has any idea what that means though.

Two weekends ago we went to San Antonio with my parents and my sister and her family, and visited Sea World for Halloween. It was a perfect time to go because the weather was great (not too hot) and there really wasn't a huge crowd. Addy really loved Sea World this year. Her favorite part was feeding the dolphins. Then on Sunday, we visited Oak Hills Church and heard Max Lucado speak and then headed to the River Walk for lunch and a boat ride. It was a great weekend.

Here are some pics:

Kids with Shamu & Dolphin
Addy feeding the dolphins
Riding the rollercoaster
Shamu
Cousins
Feeding the ducks
Getting ready to trick-or-treat
Trick-or-Treat

Happy Addy
Addy & Papa
Riding the boat on the River Walk

River Walk
Exhausted and sleeping with her new friend Ollie the dolphin

First Day of MDO

Addy's first day of Mother's Day Out was yesterday. She is going to a new school this year that I think she will really like. She is in a class of about 12 kids, and one little girl she knows from our church. She cried a little when I dropped her off, but it only lasted about 30 seconds and then she was down and playing. She was also very excited to be able to play outside on the playground.

Here's my big girl on her first day of school.

Human Anatomy 101

The other day Peyton and Addy were taking a bath together. It is the first time Addy has noticed a difference between boys and girls. Did you know that boys have pelicans?

Happy 2nd Birthday Addy!!

Saturday was Addy's birthday and we had a party here at the house for her. Mimi (Scott's mom) came down for the celebration, my family, and some of Addy's and our friends were able to celebrate with us.

We set up a blow-up pool, a slip-n-slide and a beach ball sprinkler in our backyard and let the kids have some water fun for a little bit. We then all got dried off and changed and then came inside to eat dinner, have some cake and open presents.

Addy was much more "into it" than she was last year and even more so than we expected her to be. She had a b-day party for a friend of hers about 6 weeks ago and she had no interest in the presents. She did understand that you get cake for your birthday though, because every time we asked her what she wanted for her birthday she answered "cake." She was so into opening presents this year that I got one bite of cake and then had to run because I was informed that Addy had started opening her presents.

We are so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family. We had a great time -- and I think Addy will be talking about her birthday party for a while.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Philadelphia Trip

WARNING: Long post ahead.

We just got back from a great week in Philadelphia. It turned out to be a great place to go for all of us. They had lots of things to do for Addy and we also got to get in some good history and siteseeing for us.

DAY 1: We left Houston last Saturday. Addy was so excited to fly on the airplane, but the poor thing was so tired from being woke up early and she was asleep before we took off. After we arrived in Philadelphia, we got lunch, took a nap, and then headed off to Citizens Bank Park to see the Phillies crush the St. Louis Cardinals. It was a really great game -- we got to see a grand slam with an immediate home run after. It was an exciting game and Addy did extremely well - considering she was tired and pretty much sat all day.

DAY 2: After much needed sleep, we got up and headed to the Philadelphia zoo (the oldest zoo in the U.S.). It was a pretty good zoo, better than the Houston zoo. That afternoon, we caught the Phillie Phlash (a tourist bus) and headed to the Old City to see the Liberty Bell and take a tour Independence Hall - the building where the Declaration of Independence was signed. We were really lucky because the line for the Liberty Bell was farely short and you normally have to reserve a time to see Independence Hall - but we walked right in. On our way back to the hotel, we went to Franklin Square which had a really nice playground area. One side was for children over 5 and the other side was for 2 to 5 year olds. Addy had a blast.

Day 3: We started off the morning going to see Betsy Ross's house, Christ's Church - where Benjamin Franklin worshipped, the burial ground where Benjamin Franklin is buried, the site where Benjamin Franklin's house stood and a few other sites. We wanted to go into the U.S. Mint, but they wouldn't let us come in because we had cameras. For lunch we had our first Philly Cheesesteak. Then we headed to the National Constitution Center. After the Constitution Center we went back to Franklin Square and played putt putt golf.

Day 4: Today we rented a car and drove to Langhorne, PA to go to an amusement park for young kids -- Sesame Place. It is a Sesame Street themed amusement park that has rides and a water park designed for young children. Addison was able to do most of the things in the park -- I think there were only 2 rides she wasn't allowed to go on. They also had character shows and a parade. It was a really fun day and Addy still talks about going to Elmo's house and seeing Big Bird and Zoe.

Day 5: We drove to Lancaster County -- one of the Amish communities here in the U.S. It was beautiful land. Also, it was really neat to see farm after farm. We saw the Amish riding in their buggies along the road -- it was definitely a difference world. We ate lunch at a traditional Amish place -- family-style dining -- and shared a table and food with an older couple from South Carolina and a family from the Canadian side of Niagra Falls. It was an interesting experience. The food was also really good (especially the mashed potatoes and the dessert). We also took a buggy ride through the Amish farmlands.

Day 6: This morning we went to the Children's Museum. I've not been to many children's museums, but this was one was really neat (they say they are one of the best in the nation). Addy's favorite part was a water play area. They also had a music room, a transportation room, a space room, a hospital where they could pretend to be doctors, a little house with a garden and kitchen, a grocery store, a McDonalds, a shoe store, a construction site, and an Alice in Wonderland play area. We were only there a couple of hours, but Addy wore herself out playing so hard. That afternoon, we went back over to the Old City to see a few history shows they were showing at the Visitor Center.

Day 7: This morning we caught a bus across the Delaware River to Camden, New Jersey to see the Adventure Aquarium. This aquarium was really pretty neat. They had lots of fish, seals, penguins, sharks, and hippos. We also saw a 4-D show. Addy loved the fish and hippos. She wasn't too sure about the 4-D show. She was fine until a man on the screen spit water and she got wet. We spent the majority of the day there and were going to go back to Philadelphia and go to a park to let Addy play, but it started raining so we just headed back to the hotel and ordered pizza and called it a night.

We had a really great time, and Addy once again showed us what a good traveler she is. She slept well at night, took naps in her stroller, let us tour the boring things and played hard. We think she had a good time too.

Here's a long slideshow of our week:

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Here's a couple of cute videos from the week:

My Day in the Kitchen

Since we have moved into our "new" house, I have really enjoyed cooking and baking so much more. I love that I can be in the kitchen and Addy in the living room playing or watching a movie and I can see everything. I've also found a recipe site online that I love browsing and finding and trying new recipes. So, today I decided to try several new things. With Addy's birthday coming up, I am going to start trying out cake and icing recipes. Today I made a yellow cake (using a cake mix, but adding things to it) and buttercream icing.


I have also been eyeing a recipe for homemade hamburger buns for quite a while (since I got my bread machine) and finally decided to try. (I'll just say that as long as I have the time to make them, I will never buy buns again -- so good to have fresh buns:)


Then we also tried a new roasted potato recipe.



Everything turned out YUMMY!!

4th of July & Lake Vacation

The Thursday before the weekend of the 4th we headed to Northeast Oklahoma along with my parents, and the Seebers. We rented a house right on the lake. It was wonderful. It had a great deck that overlooked the lake and was shaded throughout the majority of the day (although it wasn't nearly as hot there as it is here -- and we actually had some rain -- I was beginning to forget what rained sounded like). The big reason for our trek to OK was to go to my cousin's wedding, then we just decided to make it into a vacation. My cousin Brit got married on Friday evening in a beautiful sunset ceremony. It was really great to be able to go and see family I haven't seen in years.

On Saturday we celebrated the 4th with all the family at my aunt's house and we got to experience my cousin Jarred's firework display for the first time. He really goes all out -- and this year they went across the cove from my aunt's house so the fireworks were out over the water.

Sunday the guys went golfing and the kids and me and Mindy we were able to hitch a ride with my aunt and uncle on their boat. Addy loved the boat and thought the more rough the water was the more fun it was. She wanted to walk around on the boat, while we were moving, and did not want me to help her -- needless to say she had a "drunk" walk and thought it was hilarious.

Monday the guys rented jet skis and we got out on my aunt and uncle's boat again. This was the first time Scott and ridden a jetski. I have ridden one before, but never got to drive one. We loved it. We even got Addy to ride with Scott and she had a blast. She kept saying "more fast". I also skied for the first time in at least 8 years. I was really worried that I was going to embarass myself, but was able to get up the 1st time, slaloming. (The boat must have had a really good engine.)

Tuesday we had to come home to real life :( We really thought Addy would cry when we left because we were leaving everyone else there, but I think she was ready to get home.

We had a blast at our lake vacation and visiting with family and can't wait to do it again. Here's a slideshow of our week (I wish I had taken more pics):

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Also, I just have to share my new favorite picture of Addy taken a few weeks ago. It shows just how blue her eyes are.

Summer Fun

We've had a pretty uneventful last few weeks. Addy's school ended and she has been going to a lady's house who keeps teacher's kids during the school year. She absolutely loves J's house and it wasn't really an adjustment at all. We've been trying to have fun and stay cool. On Friday we made some popsicles, and spent the evening at our neighborhood pool/splash pad. Tonight we got out for a little bit (it was really hot) to take a walk and feed the ducks. Here's some pics of our last few days:

Hope everyone is having a wonderful start to summer.

Memorial Day Weekend

We headed to Arkansas to visit Scott's family for the weekend. On Saturday we got to spend the day on Ouachita Lake with Scott's sister Susan and her family. We had a lot of fun and Addy loved the boat. She kept saying "more fast." The water was really cold, so we didn't swim, but Scott did tube and we had a good time just sitting in the boat relaxing.

The rest of the weekend, we spent at Scott's mom's house. Unfortunately, it rained all day Sunday and some of the morning Monday so we were stuck in the house, but we were able to get out for a walk after lunch on Monday to see the cows and then played outside after dinner.

Here's a few pictures at the lake: (I was bad and didn't take any other pictures through the weekend)

Last Day of MDO

Addy's last day of Mother's Day Out was today. They had a little program with each class doing a song from a Disney movie. The 1 year old class did "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid. They put a bubble machine on the stage and let them just do whatever (since they can't really sing a song like that yet). Wasn't too exciting, but it was cute nonetheless. Addy, the girl who likes to be the center of attention everywhere we go was very stage shy.

I thought I would post a picture of her 1st day and last day and show you how much she has changed since we started there.

1st Day of School

Last Day of School

1 Year Old Class

Singing Chapel Songs

Super Cool Wife

This post isn't about Addy and doesn't have any pictures (though we did take some), but it is worth reading, especially if you are a girl and want to show your guy how much you care.

A couple of weeks ago Lez told me I needed to take off early on May 15. Since I always do what she tells me I told work I was leaving early (I was already working from home that day, so it wasn't a big deal) and began pondering what could be up. I'm a big fan of letting surprises be surprises, so I tried not to dig too much for what it was that we were doing.

Friday came, so I worked a half a day (6-10) and then got cleaned up and dressed. We headed to Chick-Fil-A w/ Addy for some lunch, utilizing the May coupon from the cow calendar--yahoo for free milkshakes! After a bit Grammy showed up, ate lunch with us, and took Addy to her house for the weekend. Surprise #1 was a child-free weekend, which (though I love Addy w/ all my heart) was awesome.

Lez had made up some "clues" to where we were going, so as we left lunch I got my first envelope. The message inside directed me to "head west, young man," so we hopped on 290 and took off.

After a little driving I got my next clue, which said not only to go north but also to turn on the car's CD player. Surprise #2 was the new Newsboys CD. Giddyup.

So, now we're heading north (towards College Station) on hwy 6, and I've pretty much figured out what we were doing after ruling out flying somewhere (like Chicago, where the Astros were playing) or driving to somewhere on the coast that we've not been (like Corpus). I've been pestering Lez for YEARS about wanting to go to Six Flags in Dallas, and it looked like we were finally doing it. Despite me pretty knowing what was up it was still fun just driving in the car w/ my girl and talking and all of that stuff. Lately most long car rides involve lots of watching kiddy shows or chatting w/ Addy or (if she's asleep) Lez just reading a book or something like that, but we ended up just talking for the whole four hours we were in the car, and that was really cool.

Got to Ft. Worth in the mid-afternoon and went over to the Ft. Worth Stockyards thing (in the "old" downtown) and watched some cowboys drive some longhorns down the street. That was sort of an added bonus fun thing since we got away from the house earlier than Lez had originally planned. If you are in the DFW area and want to kill some time rather than being bored, this is something that could be fun. We mostly just went, watched the cows, and then left.

We checked into our hotel and relaxed for a bit. Started to get hungry, so Lez gave me my next clues, which revealed surprise #3: a trip to the ballpark to watch the Rangers play the Angels. We had nice seats on the 14th row just past third base, so the game was in full HD and all of that. I'm generally a big fan of the Astros, but I must admit that it was really nice to go to a game and see some actual hitting (by the home team). On a side note: if you go to the Rangers ballpark in Arlington avoid the pizza, which was pretty tasteless and blah.

The next day turned out to be super rainy, so Surprise #4--Six Flags--got postponed. If we don't get a chance to use our tickets this year then I'm sure we'll go some other summer once Addy gets bigger. The day turned out really well, despite the main attraction getting rained out. On our way driving up Lez had suggested trying to get a hold of the Bulls, who are home from Bolivia on furlough, on the off-chance that they'd be visiting Laura's folks in Ft. Worth. It turns out that they were, so we started the day visiting for a couple of hours over breakfast with Gary & Laura.

It was still raining, so we found a mall and did some shopping there for an hour or two and then watched "Angels & Demons" at the mall's movie theater. When I read the books I actually liked DaVinci better, but as far as the movies go, A&D had more action and suspense and was over-all a better movie, especially since it was a good compromise between what I would have wanted to see (Wolverine or StarTrek) and what Lez would have liked (some girly show w/ Matthew McBongohey).

After the show we ate dinner at Abuelos, which wasn't quite as good as we had hoped but was still some tasty mexican and was something we don't have in Houston. Then we headed back to the hotel, got in our PJs, and watched some netflix online (currently watching the first season of Heroes, which rocks).

So, that's it. My super cool wife took me for a fun weekend off by ourselves to do stuff that I like. So, thanks to Grammy and Papa for watching Addy, and all my love to Lezlie.

Mother's Day Weekend

We had a busy, fun weekend. We started off the weekend going to our neighborhood's splash pad on Friday morning. (Unfortunately, I have no pictures of that). Then Saturday we had a church outing to the Oil Ranch, a park about 30 minutes northwest of Houston. They had a train ride, bouncy house, horse rides, petting zoo, a cow to milk and a whole lot of other things. We spent the morning there and had a picnic lunch. We had a lot of fun, even though it was pretty hot. Then Mother's Day, the guys planned and surprised us with a cruise around Kemah and Clear Lake. We met at Mom and Dad's house and a driver picked us up and drove us down to Kemah where we boarded a yacht. We had lunch and danced around on the boat with live music. We had a lot of fun, especially the kids. Happy Mother's Day to everyone.

GG's Visit

This past weekend, Addy's GG (my dad's mom) came to visit us. We had a fun weekend hanging out at Mom and Dad's: swimming, cooking, eating too much, watching movies and playing with GG. We are do glad you came GG and had lots of fun.

Addy's ABC's

Our Easter Weekend

We had a really busy, yet fun, Easter weekend. We started off the weekend Friday morning at a friend's house coloring eggs. We spent Friday night at Mom and Dad's grilling pizzas and enjoying their new media room. Then Saturday we were able to spend the day out in the country. Some friends of ours parents have a farm 1.5 hours outside of town. We had a lot of fun getting out of town, relaxing, grilling out, fishing and enjoying time with friends. Both Scott and I caught fish. It was actually the most fun fishing I have ever had. Sunday we got up early and got Addy dressed in her pretty Easter dress and went to see what the Easter Bunny brought her. We went to church and then spent the entire day at Mom and Dad's. We had a wonderful lunch (of course, way too much food), watched a couple of movies in their media room and then spent the rest of the day outside enjoying the beautiful weather. We even got the kids in the pool for the first time (actually the hot tub).

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter.

Beware long slide show following!!

Astros Opening Day

We were able to get tickets to Opening Day for the Astros this year. It is so much fun to go to a game and we are so glad the baseball season has started again. GO 'STROS.

Waiting for the game to start

Bradford Family

Addy with Daddy
Playing with Grammy


Addy's crazy hair

Easter Picnic and Egg Hunt

Our church held the Easter Picnic and Hunt this past Saturday. We went and ate some yummy hot dogs and then Addy got to go egg hunting for the first time. I was really surprised that she just instinctly knew what to do. She had a lot of fun.

More Rodeo

Scott's mom and our neice Hannah came to visit during their Spring Break a coupe weeks ago and we went back to the rodeo. This time Addy actually got to see some things and go on a ride, instead of sleeping through it.

Addy on her 1st amusement park ride

She didn't want to pet the bunny

Looking at the chickens

Riding through the fairgrounds in her wagon

Houston Rodeo

Saturday morning we braved the 40 degree, rainy weather (yes, I know it's not freezing, but that's cold here in Houston) and headed to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. We had fun walking around the arena and looking at the cows and pigs there for auction. They also have a really neat children's area with a petting zoo, pony rides, watching the process of chicken's hatching and there is a section with baby animals. Unforunately, we didn't head to the children's area until after lunch and Addy missed it because she fell asleep. Peyton had fun though and we had fun watching him enjoy everything.

Late afternoon Mom & Dad took all the kids home with them so that we could go to the Rodeo and concert. We love the rodeo, watching the calf roping and bucking broncos and bulls. My favorite part though is when they get 30 teenagers and 25 calves. They left the calves loose and the teenagers have to catch the calf, put it in a harness and drag it to the center of the arena. It is so funny. The kids who catch a calf get a scholarship. This year, they added a new part to the rodeo that ended up being my favorite. It was called "mutton bustin". They get young kids (4-6 years old), put a helmet on them and put them on a lamb. The kids hold on as long as they can. So cute!!



Here's some pictures of Addy at the rodeo: