The Power

As many of you may know from the news there was a major landslide on 410 a few days ago. Here are some very interesting pictures from WSDOT. Our folks have been up there working on it for days now. Amazing pictures that speak to the power of nature.

Click here to see the pictures/slideshow. Check it out if you are interested. Beautiful country - we were just there last month!

Family Tree

We'll be heading off to Arizona to visit family soon. Its been some time since Addy has seen everyone - some little guys weren't even born yet! So, here's what we've been working on these last couple of weeks:

Family tree lessons . . . hopefully Addy will feel right at home with all the familiar faces! She is getting pretty good. Can't wait to see everyone.

Sick Bed Entertainment

We still managed to have a little fun while we were sick last weekend. Addy's new favorite game is to play catch with the ball. This is entertaining for me, her hair just goes crazy every time. (Isn't her little sick face so sad?)


And I made these cookies from my good friend Courtney's blog. Click here for the recipe. So worth it. Warning - it makes a LOT of cookies. Notice the half cookie? Can you guess where the other half went?!?!



Cookies are very important in the healing process!

VIP

This is Addy's VIP week at school. It happened to fall on her birthday - so she got a double special week out of it . . . at least until Tuesday night.

We put together a VIP poster for her - so she could talk during circle time, and share her favorite things with the other kids.


Addy and I made cupcakes for her birthday to bring to school.

Monday night my parents threw Addy a Dora party - boy did she LOVE her Dora cake!


And then she came home from school on Tuesday with a high tempature and she's been totally sick ever since. Poor little thing - mostly she just lays around like this. :(


Get well soon Little Bear!

3

Tomorrow morning when I wake up, I will be the mother of a 3 year old.

Amazing!

Addy has been such a joy to us this last year. She has transitioned from young toddler into a young girl. She loves to tell stories, carry on conversations and try new things.

Addy loves to watch Scooby Doo. It is by far her favorite show. I think its definitely helping her out because she doesn’t seem scared of a whole lot. Check out the Halloween decoration she chose for her room. (Not the cute fluffy ghost with the candy bag, or the funny, sweet pumpkin.)

Her imagination is taking off! It is amazing to watch and listen to her. She loves to go to the store, park or on a trip with her babies and friends. She has a whole host of “friends” she tells us all about – with exotic names like Nota, Trop, Gonep, and Enbur. She is so caring of the babies and her puppy friends. She always can be overheard saying “don’t be scared, I am here”.

Addy is obsessed – I mean OBSESSED – with dresses and tights. Any time I make her wear pants she cries. Many times in the morning, the first thing she says to me is “dress and tights please”. She is by far the best dressed kid at school – they probably think I am crazy. But don’t get me wrong, it clearly doesn’t stop her from having fun. She isn’t a proper little lady in her dresses. And if they come with matching panties – even better! She can show them to everyone. (Lets hope that particular behavior stops soon!)

Addy continues to enjoy causing Daddy a little pain. She is getting really good at delivering knee drops to the stomach. And she laughs and laughs and says “Daddy, what happened?” when Scott groans. Clearly she gets her laugh-at-pain-and-injury from my Mom and I. Poor Scott and Dad don’t stand a chance.

Did you know that Addy was practically potty-trained this year? Last spring she was pretty much all done and then came the flood. Apparently at school a toilet overflowed and Addy hasn’t had any interest since then. She wasn’t even in the bathroom, let alone on the potty, when it happened. And I don’t anticipate that changing any time soon.

Addy has a traveler’s heart! For this we are both very grateful. Traveling and adventures are one of the things Scott and I enjoy most in life. One of our early commitments was to travel with Addy and teach her the love of finding a new place. Addy constantly surprises us with her adaptability on the road. (Flying is hard – but she is just a little kid after all!) She loves to go visit people and places. The other night Addy and I were snuggling on the couch and she tells me, “I am ready for vacation!”. I love this girl! Scott and I are intent on feeding her travel bug – and ours too. Hopefully before long she’ll be able to say she’s been around the world!

Her interest in books continues to grow. We love to share our favorite stories with her. She also seems pretty fascinated with puzzles – hmmmmm . . . I wonder where that comes from? (Scott) She is pretty fast at learning them and finds much joy in completing a puzzle all by herself.

In the last few weeks her curiosity has greatly increased. Why, why, why? I am sure I will get tired of it, but right now I think it is pretty charming. I got to explain why you turn off the car at the gas station. Now Addy tells people, the car might blow up and be on fire at any moment. (Gotta work on my explanations a bit.) I explained why girls and boys can have the same vitamins. Now she tells me a boy probably doesn’t want her princess vitamins, but if he does that is okay and she won’t be mean or laugh about it. (Trying for the whole gender neutrality thing . . . I’ll keep trying.)

Here are some of my favorite pictures from this last year.

Thank you Addy for each and every day!! You are such a blessing to us all!

Scooby Doo Party for Addy

Thanks to everyone who came and helped us celebrate Addy's 3rd birthday on Saturday. We had a very spooky Scooby Doo party! It was fun to hang out with everyone, watch the kids hang out and celebrate the big 3!!

All the kids:

Singing Happy Birthday, (a little dark, sorry) the look on Addy's face was so sweet. She was very shy.

Opening presents - they were all great, I think in the 24 hours since her party she has played with all of them already!

My funky Scooby Doo cupcakes!
Special thanks to Mom, Brandy and Niki who helped decorate and cook for the party!