Addison's first birthday

So, I was feeling like a bad mom getting Addison's birthday together, when I compared what I did for the other two girls! I just don't have the time or energy to go all out as I have in the past, but I still wanted to make her birthday special. Due to our living arrangements, we couldn't really have her party at home, so Uncle Kurt and Aunt Stephanie were kind enough to loan us their house for the party. We invited mostly just family (the exception being a couple girls who are practically family to me:)), which still worked out to be twenty-some people. It was a great little celebration, and I felt good about a couple of things that made her party unique for her! Here they are:

I found a cute new outfit at Pumpkin Patch, which is NOT a hand-me-down. Darn those two older sisters that had such cute clothes that Addison gets mostly their clothes to wear. This outfit will help me know which girl she is when I look back at the pictures in the future! Plus the pink blanky is unique to Addison.

I loved how this banner turned out. Thanks to Ms. Nancy, our children's pastor, who did the writing and Amy Jo who helped me attach flowers in different spots. It was such a cute decoration.

I was going to make my own cake for her.... but I am not such a great baker and then there's the time issue again. So I found some cute plates at Target, took one to a bakery and had them make the cake, along with a mini cake for Addison to have by herself. Addison wanted NOTHING to do with her birthday cake, which is another thing that makes her a unique girl! She would not even touch it after I put some frosting in her mouth. This picture below kind of looks like she is eating it, but that is only due to me trying to force her! I gave up and we gave her some cheese, which made her happy.

She did love the part where we all sang to her and gave her undivided attention, however!



Then there was this little book I made. She had gotten this at her baby shower, and I made it into a little showcase of her year, with pages for each month of the first year. I did a similar thing for the other girls and I love that it is done so quickly, compared to the real scrapbooks I am trying to keep up with!

I used all coordinating paper and embellishments to keep it pretty uniform and easy this time. I love how it turned out. Then I had family write little messages that I am adding to the end of the album, along with a few pictures of her birthday party.

So, my baby is officially one now and I'm doing better with it. I think now that the big day is past, I can look to the future and remember all the fun things that come along with leaving the baby stage. And I felt like she won't look at her pictures and think she was COMPLETELY neglected, as the third child!

25 random things about me

This idea of writing 25 random things about yourself is going around facebook like crazy, and I have even seen it on a few blogs I read. I never have the time to do these things, but since I actually did it this time, I thought I would record it on my blog. With my plan to put this blog into a book one day, it seemed like a fun thing to look back on! If you haven't done it yet, you should try it. Here goes...

1. I rarely do these things because I'm kind of boring and everyone else's always seem much more interesting. Plus it takes a lot of time!
2. I love to plan, organize and schedule things - much more than the follow through.
3. I have always loved memory keeping in some form. I actually have a file folder with all the notes that my friends wrote me in junior high and high school.
4. I am pretty sure I am addicted to coffee - is it bad that it makes me VERY happy in the morning and I love my family just a little more after drinking it?
5. I am endorsed in history (fancy way of saying I can teach history through the 12th grade), but I hardly remember any of it. I think I have a very short memory.
6. I have no cousins. I love that my girls do.
7. I have never had a perm. My hair only became curly in high school.
8. I love to look through cookbooks.
9. I love to cook, just not with small children under my feet.
10. I hate condiments and have always eaten everything plain.
11. I still love kid food - chicken mcnuggets, macaroni and cheese, etc.
12. I don't mind doing laundry, just hate putting it away. Same with the dishes.
13. I'm so thankful that God blessed me with the perfect husband FOR ME.
14. I love having 3 girls. Despite all the time spent doing hair.
15. Listening to my kids pray and talk about God is the best.
16. I tend to be an all-or-nothing kind of a person. I have a hard time just "sort of" doing something.
17. I pass out very easily. Talking about anything to do with the body and how it works makes me lightheaded.
18. I love going out to eat.
19. I am a serious procrastinator. I need some pressure to get things done.
20. I've never had a cat.
21. I wanted to be a dancer when I was young. I put on many shows for family and babysitters. 22. I love hanging out with my friends. I wish I had more time to keep up with those I don't see as often.
23. I have always been a scared person - went through phases when I was young of being afraid of ghosts, snakes, killer bees, you name it. I'm still a little afraid of the dark.
24. I have always been a bit of a hypochondriac. Every little pain could be...fill in the blank. And I wonder where Symantha gets her drama...
25. I love a good debate or discussion, but HATE real confrontation.

Whatchu talkin' bout Willis?

I may be dating myself here, but if any of you ever watched the 80's show "Different Strokes" when you were younger ( I was under the age of 10, I'm pretty sure!), you would know that little Arnold would always say, "Whatchu talkin' bout Willis?" to his older brother while making this puckered lip face. Addison did this face all day, no matter what she was doing last Sunday. It was generally very serious, and it cracked me up! I've hardly seen her make the face since - such a funny thing to do for no reason.

How did it happen?

My baby girl is about to turn one, and I am having such a hard time with it! This last year seems like a blur, and I can't believe she is already so big. I was getting some pictures together to make a little mini-album of her first year, like I did with the other girls, and I found myself bawling my eyes out! I know this is cliche, but it truly does seem like YESTERDAY that she was this little.

1 month old

2 months old - I loved cuddling her in that sling

3 months old


7 months old

Almost a year, and seeming bigger than ever

I did not have this hard of a time with either of the other girls turning one, probably because I was never sure we were done having children. Now the finality of my last baby is really getting to me! It's not that I really want another child, I think I just want to keep my baby a baby for longer. Derek is ready to move past the baby stages without a problem, but the mommy is having a bit more of a struggle. I know there are great things to look forward to, and maybe after this milestone is officially reached (January 24) I will be ready to move on. But right now I just can't hold her enough! I'm so thankful that God gave us our three little girls to cherish and I'm reminded again to enjoy each minute.

Annual Girls' breakfast

Ah, how I love traditions! The four of us girls (Amy Jo, Heather, Chrissy, and I) have been getting together for Christmas breakfast for many, many years - I'm sure Amy Jo knows exactly how long, because she remembers EVERYTHING! But Heather did part of the math, figuring out we have alternated each of our houses for breakfast for the last 8 years, and who knows how many years we met at Coco's restaurant before that. It is usually our "kick-off" to Christmas, but this year we weren't able to get together until early January. And we changed tradition a bit, by making our gifts TIME spent together. We planned to have breakfast and shop the whole day. I don't get to spend near enough time with these girls, as we all have such crazy schedules, and it was great to have some catch-up time. I love each one of them, and was thankful for the fun day we had!

Project 365

I am so excited about my 2009 scrapbooking plans. It is always a struggle for me to balance scrapbooking the past with keeping track of what is happening right now. Becky Higgins is a scrapbooker that I have LOVED for years (yes, some friends may say that I stalk her just a little bit:) and she has created this kit to make it easy to record your everyday life. The basic idea is you take a picture every day and then keep it in this organized binder with all sorts of fun journaling cards and decorations. At first this seemed a little overwhelming to me - a picture EVERY day?! But then I realized that I probably take a picture every day anyways, especially with a baby and small kids, and with my new camera I am hoping to get better at photography, as well. I love the idea of capturing all the day to day stuff, without having to plan full layouts or think too hard about what to do with them. I will still continue regular scrapbooking, but this will be my plan to capture 2009. The other bonus is that there are now 10-12 girls who are joining me for monthly get-togethers to keep it up! I love getting together with my friends, so it will be the perfect combination. It is kind of cool to know that thousands of people are doing this also - we went through craziness yesterday to get our kits, seeing as they sold out in a matter of hours and the website crashed due to the demand! But even if you don't have her kit, you could still do the same thing yourself - just look online and you will see tons of people's ideas for how they do it. I have already started a folder to keep my pictures in and a word document to keep my little journaling comments together, until I get it all in the binder. Let's hope my excitement continues throughout the whole year and I actually stick to it!