It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year! Part Two

Brandon and I had so much fun putting out her stuff from Santa.  We just knew she was going to love, love, love her Crayola Creativity Art Station and she did.  She loves to color! While she is coloring she always sings "color, color, color" as she is coloring and it's pretty cute.  When we were putting the art station together, we were mimicking  her in anticipation of many moments she would "color, color, color".

She was outside with Brandon the other day and I was in the house.  We both heard her saying "color, color, color" but didn't really think anything of it until Brandon went to check it out and found her with a stick, "coloring" the side of my car!  Luckily it didn't make any marks, but you certainly have to keep an eye on her.  She colored the pantry door this weekend.  I quickly gave her a wipe and made her clean it up which wasn't much of a punishment because loves wiping up and sings "clean, clean, clean" as she does it!

Anyway, back to the most wonderful time of the year...she still had to open gifts from my mom, her Nana.  Here are a few pics from the rest of our celebration.

 Minnie Mouse bath toys from Nana

 Minnie Mouse booster seat from Nana and check out the huge sock monkey from Mimi in the background, oh and Millie is back there too!

 Minnie Mouse pull-ups from Nana

I got a very nice camera for Christmas which I'm really excited about and hoping will inspire me to blog more regularly, you know, when you have a fabulous camera that takes beautiful pictures, you want to share them.  Unfortunately, Addison isn't real happy about my new toy.  She gets pretty tired of my constant lens in her face.  I have to beg and plead for a cheese at times but often resort to just asking her to show me her teeth and this is what I usually get.

Showing her teeth for the camera

I guess that's all I'll bore you with for now...oh wait, one more thing.  Much to my surprise, I have to admit, I think my favorite gift was the toy pink baby grand piano from CC and Uncle Donnie.  When I first saw it I just thought good Lord, what in the world! I told Chelli she was going to have to keep it at her house.  But I will say she loves it which means I love it.  It has a microphone and for now, it's stationed right in the middle of our living room.  Occasionally she will walk over to it, turn it on and belt out the ABCs or Happy Birthday loud and proud and it's awesome! 

You can't really understand her because she essentially eats the microphone when she sings but she is singing happy birthday to baby Jesus and it's so fabulous.  I have about 15 videos just like this from different days on my cell phone but will spare you anymore.  

Here's an iPhone shot of my fancy new camera...here's to more blogging with beautiful pictures from my fabulous new camera!

Canon EOS Rebel T3

I'm pretty excited about a project I'm working on at the house this week and hope to share about it here when I've finished! Also, in case you didn't notice, she's pretty much obsessed with Minnie Mouse right now so we are in the progress of planning a Minnie themed second birthday party...stay tuned!

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year! Part One

Christmas is my most favorite time of the year...I don't know if it's because my mom always made Christmas so special for us or if my name is Carol, as in Christmas Carol.  At any rate, I love Christmas.  I love decorating, I love gift giving, I love Christmas music, I love gift receiving (of course!).  I love that I can listen to Christmas music anytime I want with Pandora but limit myself - this year from Halloween to Christmas day, then that's it!

This Christmas was tons of fun because Addison is at the right age, still young enough that we can buy Santa presents with her, don't have to hide Santa presents from her and was she very excited to open gifts.  I even caught her one time opening up my niece's present that was under the tree!

As usual, I went a little overboard but it wasn't really my fault.  I planned ahead this year and picked up little things here and there over time, storing them in the closet in her playroom.  When it came down to it, I had a lot of stuff in there.  I intended to follow the tradition of Santa bringing three gifts like the three wise men brought gifts to baby Jesus but got tired of wrapping all of the stuff I bought so ended up being that Santa was very generous this year. 

 Goodies from Santa

Christmas was also quite nice this year because we didn't have to run all over town - we usually have the typical four Christmases.  We spent the Sunday before Christmas at Brandon's brother's home, celebrating with his family.  Addison loved spending time with her cousins and grandparents and even had a surprise visit from Santa Clause much to her dismay.

Cheese! In her Santa dress

 Cheese! With her cousins - Raegan and Rachel

  Addison digging into her gifts like a mad woman!

 Addison and her toy pink baby grand piano...yes, that's right, you heard me, toy pink baby grand piano!

 Addison visiting with Santa (aka Uncle Wallace), she wasn't too sure, daddy had to go with her

My sister went to visit our dad and his family for Christmas and was kind enough to play messenger for us and delivered our gifts from Pops and Jojo.  Addison was super excited for more presents after spending the day with Brandon's family.

 Addison posing with her gifts from Pops and Jojo

 Precious ear warmers from Jojo...I mean, have you ever seen a kid this cute?!?!

Addison and her Little People Disney Princess Song Palace

All of this and it wasn't even Christmas yet!  I had to work Christmas Eve but we spent Christmas day at home sharing our gifts with each other and a visit from Nana.  Addison was a little overwhelmed with all the gifts from Santa but still had to open her gifts from mom, dad and Nana.  I'll admit the toy organizer on the right was really a gift for me and boy has it come in handy keeping her playroom organized!  Here are a few more pics from our Christmas celebration.

 Checking out her loot from Santa

 She went straight to coloring at her Crayola Creativity Art Table

 Pushing her new Minnie in her new stroller

 Stockings with the puppy sister

Millie waiting patiently to open her stocking

It appears Blogger won't let me add anymore pictures...so stay tuned for part two!

Z is for zebra

I got this fabulous idea from pinterest to make a personal alphabet book for Addison so we headed out to the zoo last weekend to get some good pics. Unfortunately, the zebra at the zoo had other plans. Every time I would try to take a picture, he would turn around so we got a lot of pics of a zebra's bum.

Note: just realized I never published this from June! Worst! Blogger! Ever!

Hey Mike!

Addison and I went to visit Mike the Tiger at his habitat for the first time recently.  The weather was so perfectly springy a few weeks back, it was hard to come straight home after picking her up.  We made a trip to the park and to see Mike all in one week.  Here are a few pics from our visit to see Mike.

When we first arrived and found Mike in the corner shade, he spotted us right away and began licking his chops.  Seriously, if he could talk, I'm certain he would have said "Hey lady, I want to eat your baby." It was a little eerie!

Addison wasn't too interested in Mike but was just thrilled to pieces over the steps at the front of the habitat.  She kept going in circles up, down around and up again.

Sometimes, I really enjoy being a tourist in my own town, and visiting campus always reminds me that Baton Rouge is a pretty fun place to be.  Geaux Tigers!

Crawfish Time

Addison experienced her first crawfish boil this spring. Brandon had the great idea to take the "pinchers" off of the crawfish for Addison to hold and she loved it.  She walked around for quite sometime with that poor crawfish in her hand.  I guess in crawfish world, there are worse things then the boiling pot! :D
She had a good time hanging out with her cousins, playing on the trampoline and visiting. 

 It's a good thing she wasn't actually jumping because she probably would have lost her tongue...

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from the worst! Blogger! Ever! I know, I'm pathetic...it just seems like life is too busy to take a breath let alone blog about it. We've been so busy lately and have so much more on the agenda this spring. I've just been trying to squeeze in as much as we can before the summer heat arrives.

We moved in March which has been a major time suck! You never realize how much stuff you have until you put it in boxes and move it. I imagine before it's all said and done, we will be getting rid of a bunch of stuff. Brandon and I purchased my grandparents home in Stanford Place, just down the street from our old neighborhood. As you know from reading our blog, we loved our little home, it was the perfect starter home and we put a lot of sweat equity into it. When my grandparents moved out of their house, it was something we couldn't resist. More space, much better neighborhood and sidewalks!!! I'm so excited about the sidewalks, I can't wait to teach Addison how to ride her bike without worrying about her getting run over!

That's the good part, the bad part is the house has been vacant since May of last year and needed some work, mostly cosmetic. We hired a contractor who started in November last year and finished up before the end of the year. We knocked down some walls, replaced all the flooring, had the interior and exterior painted and updated the kitchen. The house was covered in wallpaper and dark wood and we were successful in brightening it up a good bit. We had the kitchen cabinets refaced, new cabinet doors and drawer fronts and a few new items built, including a new island and cabinet for my new double oven. Yes, that's right a DOUBLE OVEN, every bakers dream! The exterior of the house was in great need of some attention. My grandmother was an avid gardener which means a lot of beds, potted plants and crazy overgrown areas!!! Brandon has spent so much time cleaning up the back yard and patio, we haven't even started on the front yard, which I'm sure the neighbors would appreciate.

With all that said, I wanted to share a little about our Easter. Addison is still too young to really appreciate the Easter bunny yet, which is a good thing since the "Easter bunny" forgot about our house until about 7am Easter Sunday morning. Since moving, I'm just not on top of my game in many ways - diet, exercise, parenting, etc. That's my excuse anyway for letting Easter sneak up on me. I attempted a picture with the Easter bunny on Good Friday and that didn't work, so I made up my mind to be the first person in line on Saturday. I arrived at the mall around 9:45am on Saturday and the line was already about 20 deep! We waited and about two hours later, this is what we got:

Addison's Easter 2012 Pic

Addison was none too pleased about the experience. She was so good and waited patiently for over an hour, in her stroller but as soon as we approached the Easter bunny, it was full on panic! She had a death grip on me and was all clingy like a baby monkey! I told the lady taking the pictures, "I'm going to set her in his lap, she's going to scream, you're going to take the picture and we will be done!" That's pretty much exactly how it happened too...as soon as we walked away she was fine. It didn't bother me too much because it was quick, but the collective "aw" from the now hundreds of people waiting in line as she wailed kind of made me feel like a bad mom.

The Easter bunny did make it by our house about 7am Sunday morning and let some goodies for all of use, including chocolates for Brandon and me (well, mostly for me) and a pink ball for Millie which she has already destroyed.

Addison with her Easter goodies

Addison got a pink polka dot bean bag chair, bubble machine, sidewalk chalk, sprinkler amongst stuffed and chocolate bunnies. It's a toss up as to whether she preferred the bubble machine or the sprinkler, they were both quite the hit. We used all the bubbles up in one sitting, so I'll have to share that adventure another time but here is the cutest video ever of her first time in the sprinkler. Warning! This video is too cute, viewer discretion is advised!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter...here's to hoping for a more eventful blog!

Top Ten of 2011

Since I was such a slacker blogging after Addison's arrival, I decided to do a top ten of 2011 to highlight some of my favorite moments of the year...enjoy!

10)Becoming a Kelly's Kids rep - yep, that's right, I became a rep for Kelly's Kids in 2011. My first season was this Fall and it was a lot of fun having trunk shows at friend's homes and getting to pick out all sorts of ridiculously cute clothes for Addison. I looked into it for the rep benefits and pretty much spent every penny of my commission on clothes for Addison, which was just what I had planned. I recently received the spring catalogs in the mail, and went through today deciding what I can spend all my commission on in the spring.

9) Best compliment of 2011 - a coworker stopped me to ask me what color lipstick I wear, she said she was noticing my lip color the other day and meant to ask me what lipstick it is...I don't wear lipstick!!! Best. Compliment. Ever!

8) New patio - Brandon got a wild hair shortly after Addison was born and added a patio in the front yard, at the time I was a bit confused about the sudden urgency, but understand it is basically the opposite of nesting. Women make a happy home to prepare for baby's arrival, men need to work outside after the baby comes. I blogged part one months ago but never completed the update, you know, because I'm a slacker. Well, here's the finished product, it turned out awesome!

Our new patio

7) Girls Night Out - I love spending time with my girlfriends which is new to me because I never really had a lot of girl friends growing up. I have made a lot of good girlfriends in the past five years and love sushi/margarita/American Idol/Project Runway nights.

6) Pick a state - I've set a goal to visit all 50 states by the time I'm 50 and truth be told am a long way off. It's getting harder to decide where to go because, I'm not that excited about all 50 states. This year we decided to put the remaining states in a hat and draw our next location. The winner was...Kentucky! So, I've been planning our 2012 vacation to Kentucky and am excited about seeing Churchill Downs, the Louisville Slugger and Kentucky Derby museums, going on a bourbon tour, Louisville Zoo, and much more. Imagine my delight when I discovered that Indianapolis and Cincinnati are a few hours drive...so I'll attempt to knock three states off the list in one trip. I'll need to do that to achieve my goal because 50 isn't that far off!

5) Labor Day at the beach - We spent Labor Day weekend in Gulf Shores with my dad and his wife and Tropical Storm Lee. It wasn't really what I had in mind for a weekend at the beach but we made the best of it.

Labor Day in Gulf Shores

4) Boo at the Zoo - We took Addison for her first visit to the zoo for Boo at the Zoo. Our local zoo decorates for Halloween and local sponsors give out candy to the children. It was absolutely crazy packed. We weren't worried about waiting in line for candy with a nine month old so it was no biggie. We ended up with an annual zoo membership because you could bypass the admission line if you purchased a membership. After waiting for all of one minute, we signed up. The best part is, the membership reciprocates to other zoos around the U.S., including the Louisville Zoo! :)

Addison's first trip to the Baton Rouge Zoo

3) Mother's day - this mother's day was very special because it was my first mothers day and I got a Kindle! Just kidding...well, I did get a Kindle, but that's not why it was so special. We also had Addison baptized on Mother's Day and all of our family came over for brunch after church, it was a very special day.

Addison's baptism, my first mother's day

2) LSU's undefeated season - how special is that...I know it's kind of lame for that to beat out mother's day, but I'm pretty freaking excited about our amazing football team and am nervously awaiting the BCS Championship game on Monday night.

Trying to keep this in mind

and the number one moment of 2011...

1) Addison's birth day - the most special moment that I don't really remember thanks to complete exhaustion and lots of narcotics but still the best day of the year by far!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful year...looking forward to all that 2012 holds, wishing you many blessings!