Addi Turns One!

Yesterday was Addi's big day! We celebrated at the Nelson's with Kathleen. She always throws a great party!

Our little Birthday Girl


New toys are so much fun! Even for me! She loves anything that has buttons and makes noise and lights up. Our house is always loud because there's at least two or three toys going off as Addi crawls back and forth between each one. She keeps so busy and I love it. The noise doesn't bother me cuz I can get so much done!


Showing off her spitting skills. I love this stage when babies spit as long as it's not food being spit back in your face.





Alyssa loved the new toys just as much (or more) than Addi. She showed Addi how to dance with the maracas.


My mom told me about this cute giant cupcake cake mold, so I had to get it for Addi's birthday. It turned out pretty cute. The frosting was too warm and it was dripping all over the plate, but Addi didn't care!



She had no hesitation. First she put her handprint in the cupcake and then I cut her a slice and she dug right in.




Alyssa only eats the frosting. Unfortunately she didn't enjoy it much because most of the frosting dripped off the cake.




After partying too hard, Steve was so tired. Alyssa helped by burying him under tons of pillows.


Thanks Kathleen for letting us celebrate with you at your house! Happy Birthday Addi!

Watching Baby Einstein

To Addi, there is nothing more exciting than the baby einstein movies. Life just could not get any better. She can't contain the excitement in her little body so she just goes crazy. I die laughing every time!

First, the legs start kicking...





Then, the "oh my gosh, I cannot believe it!" face...





And finally, as she calms down a bit, (but not for long cuz all these motions keep repeating as her favorite parts come on) the clapping...




And then I get caught taking the pictures...

Summer Crafts

Since summer is coming and it will be way too hot to play outside, we have to come up with tons of indoor activities. Alyssa loves to do art and asks to do it every day. Michael's is having 1/2 off all foam kits right now so we went and stocked up, plus a few extras! The sales ends on Saturday, so hurry if you're interested! The foam visors and other accessories are on sale too, so we got one for Lissa and Addi. Then I got jewels for Lissa to stick on them.

We did our first foam kit yesterday. It was little animal magnets on clothespins. Alyssa loved it! It took her an hour to complete four animal magnets. The pack makes 24! So, I'll wait a couple of weeks and whip them out again. I love that the packs are a combination of stickers and pieces that need gluing. It gives a little variety for her.

She was so busy and loving every moment

Her favorite part was definitely gluing

So proud of her creations!

Alyssa helped me put all the accessories in piles first and then it was easier to find all the pieces we needed.

All rest of the stuff we bought. (And, I'm tempted to go back and buy more kits! The summer lasts a long time! The kits are just so darn cute.)


The best thing about the kits is that they make so many, so you can do it for little parties or just when friends come over or put them away for awhile and pull them out later and they are just as excited to do them again!

My New Favorite Snack

I was trying to think of something to blog about when suddenly I was craving my new favorite snack. So I thought, I'll let everyone know about this little bag of wonderfulness. Here it is



It's relatively low calorie and low fat, but not healthy in any way. I just love it. I have a thing for treats that are sweet and salty, like those 100 calorie kettle corn microwave bags too. Good snacks are hard to find (that aren't high in all that bad stuff).

Latest Trendy Hair-Do's

You can tell a lot from looking at the hair of a toddler after naptime, like what side of their body they slept on, or if they were cool or hot and sweaty. In the case of my girls, they usually sleep sweaty, even with the air conditioner and a fan on. I can still get Lis down for an occasional nap and when she wakes up, her hair is always a disaster, but this day was the best. Even Addi, with what little hair she has, can wake up with some great styles. On this day, they were pretty sweaty. Addi slept on her right side and Lis on her back. Can you tell?






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The Binky Fairy

Well, sad to say, it was finally time (maybe way past time) that Alyssa needed to give up her Binky. Thanks to my ingenious sister-in-law, D'lonna, she told us all about the Binky Fairy. She saw the idea on Nanny 911. That show has a lot of great ideas! Anyway, the binky fairy comes at night and takes all your binkies and brings them to the little babies who are so sad and don't have binkies. Then she leaves a little gift in return to thank you for your binky contribution. So we built this story up for about two nights before the night of her visit. On the big night, we gathered all her binkies, put them in a baggie and hung them from the doorknob. (The Nanny hangs them from a tree outside, but our trees dies last winter!) Alyssa was so willing to "help all the poor babies" and was so excited for her to come. I think it was harder for me than for her!

Now that the binky is gone, there is no more incentive for her to take naps and now naps are quickly dwindling! The good thing, though, is an earlier bedtime :). She's done a great job transitioning and hasn't even asked for her binky and it's been about two weeks now. The binky fairy also left lots of fairy dust behind and a little kiss on her forehead. When I told her the binky fairy kissed her, she replied, "Oh! That was so nice of her!" and ran to the mirror to admire the glitter on her forehead. (For those of you that have little boys, the binky pirate comes to plunder your binkies and he also gives them to the poor babies in need and then leaves some kind of treasure behind. Props goes to Dave and Cindy for that little twist.)

The Binky Fairy came! (Sorry for the blurriness)

Careful not to touch the fairy dust! Mom doesn't want to clean up a mess!

Ok, just one little touch...

Happy with her new prize


As for Addi. . . Last month she all of a sudden started crawling and pulling herself up within one week. She also loves to make this silly face that Alyssa also used to do (well, I think lots of babies do it, but it's still cute). Her screaming is also becoming less and less (thank goodness!) and she is so much happier now that she can get around on her own. Life is good!