Daddy's lil' helper

Daddy and Addison teamed up to build Mommy a new computer recently. Normally Daddy does just fine all by himself, but this time he needed to call for some tech support. Luckily his little Geek Squad agent was quick to assist and show him how things are done.

First you have to open it like this...

Daddy, this doesn't look right at all...

What's this supposed to be for?

I prefer to chew on my mouse...

I think I work better if I have my tongue sticking out.

Don't forget to put this in!

It's Mommy's new computer... and I helped!

Storytime with Addison

Baby cereal.... mmmmmm

Addison celebrated Mommy being home for the summer with her first meal of baby cereal last Friday night. The directions say to mix it really thin the first couple of feedings and as you'll see that made for a very messy meal. After Daddy put down the video camera, Addison was able to share the rest of her first meal with Grandma and Grandpa Liddick via Skype. All in all, so far she likes her cereal and gets better and better at each feeding.

The end of another school year

Well, today marks the end of another school year. This year has certainly been different than any other since I had a 12 week break in the middle when we adopted Addison. I can honestly say that it's been a very good year. I was blessed with an incredible group of second graders that I truly enjoyed spending my days with. For 7 and 8 year olds, their spiritual maturity blew me away some days and I was humbled and challenged myself in my own walk.

We only had a half day today, dismissing at 11:00 and we spent a fair share of our morning together talking about our spiritual walks and praying together. We prayed for the two classmates that won't be returning in the fall but will be transferring to public schools instead. I gave the kids an opportunity to "popcorn pray" for their two classmates and told them I would close in the end. They didn't give me an opportunity to close for at least 8 or 9 minutes. They're 8 years old and they prayed non-stop for that long! They were praying for things like for those students to be able to "stand against the crowd" when others are making bad choices. They prayed for the students to have boldness to share their faith with their classmates. It was absolutely incredible. I had tears in my eyes by the end and as soon as I said "amen" one of my boys shouted out "That was so much fun!" God has done incredible things with my students this year and it's my prayer that this fire they seem to have right now will continue and their zeal for God's word will remain strong.

Speaking of zeal for God's Word... Our principal sent home a summer reading log and reading goals for the kids and this morning one of my boys asked if reading a book of the Bible would count as a chapter book. Yes, young man, you may read a book of the Bible and record it as a chapter book. Thank you for asking. :-)

Can you say thpfft?

This is a sound we are hearing a lot of these days :-)

Addison's New BFF

Addison has really been interested in Allie lately and will watch her every move. If Allie comes close enough, Addison reaches out to touch her, usually with the back of her hand. A few times she's grabbed hold of a flap of Allie's skin, but fortunately Allie has so much extra she's never even noticed.

Those of you that know Allie are well aware of her OCD tendencies to lick obsessively. To most of us that habit is royally annoying, but to Addison it brought sheer delight. Here's a cute video of her squeals and giggles at Allie's licks.

Four month pictures/Mother's Day present

Here are a few selections from our Mother's Day photo shoot. David was in charge of renting equipment/setting up/and organizing the taking of family photos at church in order to give all the moms a free 8x10 the following week. The one advantage of him being so occupied the whole weekend with this huge task was the fact that we were able to hold our own private photo shoot before tearing down the equipment to return. David has learned a lot about photography in the mean time and did a fantastic job taking and editing these pictures (don't you think?). Enjoy! (I know I am!)


It's getting kind of late and this process is sort of slow so I'm going to stop with these three for now and I promise to post more as soon as I can!

Addison's New Trick

Today, Addison learned a new trick. Enjoy!

Addison giggling

Addison has started really giggling in the past week. She still isn't consistently ticklish yet, but if you catch her in the right mood, you can get her to really giggle. She only does it a little bit in this clip. Of course by the time we turned the camera on, she was half done... that's the way it goes. But at least you can get a little idea of what her giggle sounds like. It's music to our ears!

Gafford Grandparents visit

Well, our lack of posts for a couple of weeks is evidence of my going back to work this month. It has been an adjustment for sure, but we're doing alright getting into the swing of things. Unfortunately after only one week, our daycare providers informed us that they would be closing, so we were forced to come up with a plan B for childcare. With David out of town the first half of this week and me single-working-momming it this week (I don't know how single working moms do it!), David's parents offered to spend the week with us and be our live-in daycare for this week. They were a HUGE help and Addison loved spending so much time with them. One of the extra perks was that Grandma and Grandpa took lots of pictures throughout the week. (Not spending our days together anymore, I'm finding a lot fewer pictures on my camera these days!)

Addison has decided that she would like to hold onto her bottle now.
I think she's afraid we're going to pull it out of her mouth to burp her!

Addison went outside with Grandma to check on Grandpa's progress. Grandpa was a busy little bee working on painting the deck this week. It looks incredible!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Gafford for all your help this week!

Easter 2010

Happy Easter to all! Enjoy these pictures of our beautiful girl!

Happy birthday Allie!

Today was Allie's 6th birthday, so this evening we made a trip to Dairy Queen to celebrate.

Happy girl

This little rockstar got a full night of sleep and even slept in until 9:00! She was extra playful (and cute) this morning after getting so much rest.

Spring Fever!

Sunday turned out to be a beautiful spring-like day with temperatures in the 60's. After being cooped up all winter, we were ALL eager to get out of the house and enjoy the outdoors.

Allie enjoyed her Sunday afternoon nap on the deck.

After naptime we took a nice walk. Within moments of leaving the house Addison was out like a light!


I'm sure there's more winter weather to come, but we're enjoying this while we can!

Bumbo Fun-bo

It's a corny title, I admit it.

Our little girl is getting stronger and stronger each day. She seems to really be working at and wanting to be sitting up more than before, so we decided to give a try in the Bumbo chair. She kind of liked it! It's so crazy to step back and see your baby sitting up!

Our little chatterbox

Addison has recently discovered her voice.... and she seems to really like how it sounds. Sometimes she'll really get going, take a deep breath, and try to belt her sounds out even louder. Last night she was in really rare form and I was able to get a bit of it on video for your viewing enjoyment.



I don't know if you could actually hear the toot on the video, but I promise it was there. You see how she's kind of shaking her head no to deny it was her? She's so smart.

Showered again!

Yesterday my students and their parents threw a shower for Addison and myself at school. It was fun to see my kiddos and hear their comments about Addison. The moms who put the shower together did a fantastic job of gearing it to the younger audience. They started out by giving each of the kids a card to write a note to second-grade-Addison. David and I really enjoyed reading through them when I got home. Some of our favorites include...

"Dear Addison, I hope you have fun in second grade. If you need to know 18+50 it's 68." (random, but helpful)

"Dear Addison, you will learn how to add 3 numbers at one time." (way to freak her out!)

"Dear Addison, I know you will be good in second grade. From your good friend ____. P.S. Here is a good math problem 200+500=700."

"Dear Addison, I think the best thing in 2nd grade is going outside. It is so much fun. Your mom is a great teacher. This is at your baby shower."

"Dear Addison, It is so much fun in second grade and your mom was my teacher and your mom is asum (awesome)." (she may need a little reminder of my awesome-ness by second grade).

"I hope you have a good year in 2nd grade. Do good in math. I do hope you learn a lot of stuff. You twinkle like a star!"

and my personal favorite.... (spelling mistakes included because it's cuter that way)

" If you have a litel sister she will be anowing." (annoying)

After writing their cards to Addison, they each made a model of Addison out of playdough (they could choose baby Addison or 2nd grade Addison) and had their picture taken with their model. We then enjoyed delicious cupcakes and punch and opened gifts. Once again, we were spoiled by many wonderful and generous treasures!

While I'm definitely sad that my time home with Addison is winding down to a close in a couple of weeks, I can't think of a better group of second graders to spend my days with.

Two months old!

Happy birthday, Addison!

Nursery improvements

It's been over a week since we've posted, so I figured I ought to give an update! We've had David's parents up for a long weekend and Addison sure has enjoyed having her grandma and grandpa here!

I am proud to announce (but not too proud because I realize that it probably won't last...) that Addison has been sleeping through the night for over a week now. I think I've only gotten up in the night with her once in the last 10 nights. It has been... AWESOME! So with that step taken (and the peace of mind having a video monitor), we decided to graduate her to her "big girl" crib/bedroom this past weekend. Grandma Gafford, Addison, and I took a trip to JoAnn Fabric's on Friday for some odds and ends to decorate her room with and after a couple of hours that night with my sewing machine, this is what I came up with:

(note the adorable model in the picture)

Addison continues to bring us the utmost joy. We are so thankful to have this beautiful, healthy baby in our lives!

Happy birthday, Grandma Gafford!!

Addison heard it was her Grandma Gafford's birthday today and didn't want to have to wait until the end of the week to sing happy birthday to her. She asked us to record this little ditty for Grandma and post it to the blog for her to see.



This one was an outtake, but too funny to keep it to ourselves...

Bath time- Now...

She's come a long way since then! We now have a baby bathtub with a handy little hammock for her to hang out in and we've gotten wise and turn a space heater on in the bathroom to keep her toasty warm. Here's a video of a bath earlier this week. You can see she not only tolerates baths now, but may actually like them!

Bath time- before....

Now that I've found a way to post videos a little easier, here is a video of some of Addison's first bath in Grandma and Grandpa Liddick's kitchen sink. As you can see she wasn't such a big fan...

So much for clean laundry...

This video is from last week. I'd done like 3 loads of baby laundry and had it all nicely folded and spread out all over the couch. I got pulled away by a little someone before having a chance to put it back in the basket to take upstairs. Apparently Allie took the "you snooze, you loose" or "move your feet, lose your seat" philosophy, because this is what I found when I returned...

Cutie pictures

Smiling girl

Addison received this fun new play mat at one of her baby showers recently and it has offered hours and hours of playtime fun for her. With that has come a lot of adorable smiles. I caught this smile this afternoon as she was looking at her reflection in the mirror. What a cutie!



Here's another one with a couple of great smiles...

Gift card shopping spree!

Yesterday David and I went on a shopping spree with all of our gift cards from Target and Wal-mart. Haven't made it to Babies 'R Us yet... Here's our stash so far...

Addison really loves her new swing. I'm so relieved as that means I can have more hands-free moments in my day! Here's a little video clip of her first ride on the swing... She looks completely comfortable and relaxed.

Another baby shower!

We had our church shower this morning and were blessed by many more little baby goodies! We know our moms are both at home dying to know what we got so this post is for them! Many thanks go out to our wonderful friends who went to all the work to put these showers on for us this week. We really appreciate it!