Merry Christmas!

2010 has been a very good year for us. In fact, it's been our best year yet. We welcomed our dear Addison into the world last January 7 and she has brought such joy into our lives ever since. Though we can barely remember what life was like without her, it's also difficult to believe that she will be turning 1 in just a couple of weeks. We look forward to spending a nice peaceful Christmas at home in Minnesota, just the 3 of us. Our first chance to establish our new traditions as a family.

We wish you and your family a very merry Christmas!

Buried in Snow!

In case you haven't heard, we've gotten a little bit of snow in Minnesota recently...

Eating a pickle

We're currently getting pounded with a blizzard, so what better thing to do than dump videos from the camera and upload them to the blog!

Addison amazes me every day with what a brave eater she is. She tries everything and I literally haven't found a single thing yet that she doesn't like (besides baby food now; she only wants the real deal anymore...). Here is a clip of Addison trying her first pickle. It didn't seem to phase her in the least.

Piano Prodigy

Perhaps we should actually have the piano tuned now that someone in the house is playing it...

Mischief

Hi, my name is Addison and I like to put things inside other things. I've discovered how to open the doors of the entertainment center and I like to shove things inside. Just wait until I figure out how to eject the Blu Ray player!

Bye-bye Da-da

David left the house, probably to head in to church, leaving Addison, Allie and I behind. Addison remained at the front door for close to 10 minutes watching for him to return. It was pretty cute.

Fun at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Grandma and Grandpa with all the grandkids

Cousin Emily reading Addison a book

Addison trying a wedge of lime... and liking it.

(Is there anything this girl doesn't like?)

She liked it so much that she took this one from Aunt Julie a day later and tried to bite into it!

Someone found Grandma's Tupperware cupboard!

Olivia is getting brave and petting Allie!

My cousins were just tackling Daddy. Now it's my turn!

Playing with the cousins

Thanksgiving

We had the opportunity to drive down to Indiana to celebrate Thanksgiving with David's side of the family. Addison was a huge fan of the Thanksgiving meal. Her favorite parts were the turkey, the peas, and especially Aunt Julie's homemade rolls! It was great to see all of the family, including David's great-aunts who just moved from Colorado.

First snow

We woke up to snow this morning and it's not supposed to taper off until later this evening, leaving us an expected 8 or so inches total. So we decided that it was time to introduce Addison to snow for the first time (of her more aware part of her life). Grandma and Grandpa Gafford had brought us a special sled just for her and her first trip out on it was a big hit!

Addison and Allie

Here are a couple more cute video clips of Addison with her BFF Allie.



And here is a random moment where Addison decided to crawl under/through Allie, and Allie just let her...

Addison Gafford, World Explorer

Addison turned 10 months old today. My how time flies. This past month seems to have been somewhat monumental for her. She seems to have grown up a LOT over the last 30 days. She has become one super-fast crawler and is into everything. She now has her fifth tooth breaking through as we speak. She loves eating table food and has enjoyed everything she's tried so far. She gives hugs and kisses freely (to mommy and daddy) and often gives them just because she feels like it and not just because one was requested. Her best friend is her doggie and Allie usually returns the sentiment. She jibber-jabbers all the time and is usually talking about da-da. She has brought so much joy into our lives!

Happy Halloween!

Miscellaneous Cuteness!

I just wanted to post a few random videos of Addison from the last couple of weeks. Here she is playing with Daddy after dinner...


And here she is dancing/playing on the floor...



Finally, here she is playing with her new toy from Grandma and Grandpa Gafford.


This little one is growing up SO FAST! Lately I look at her and am seeing more of a toddler than a baby. How did that even happen? She's getting so big and so smart. I love watching her explore and discover new things. How fun and amazing :-)

Dinner Conversations

Standing

Addison was playing in her little play-yard while Mommy and Grandma were fixing dinner this evening. After a few minutes Grandma looked over to check on her to find this. It appears that someone knows how to pull up to standing now.

A day at the apple orchard

We enjoyed this beautiful fall day as a family by going to Aamodt's apple orchard in Stillwater today. It was a little chilly, but a great day for some fun pictures.

Addison got to play in an apple tree...

and she tried stealing Mommy's hot cider...

she played in the hay bails...

and pet some baby goats with her friend Ella...

We had a wonderful day together as a family.


Happy 9 month birthday this week Addison! You're growing up so fast!

Two Peas in a Pod

Crawling and Skyping

Well, Addison has been teasing us with it all week. But until today she would only crawl forward 2 or 3 strides before calling it quits. Today was a different story. Earlier this afternoon she did this to get her dolly...



And after her nap we had a Skype date with her birthparents and she did this...



Apparently an expensive laptop on the floor is worth crawling greater lengths for. Or maybe it was the wonderful people ON the expensive laptop she was crawling towards. Either way, our little one is officially a crawler.

Swinging

To Indiana and back....and then back to Indiana

We've had a couple of crazy weeks here! And it's not over yet!

Labor Day weekend was a sad one for the Gafford family as David lost two different grandparents (Grandpa Gafford and Grandma Cox) only 2 days apart. So he and Addison hit the road on Labor Day and drove to Indiana (It took 14 hours!) for a week of visitations and funerals. My first day of school was the very next day, so I was unable to get away until Thursday at which point I flew one-way to join them through the weekend. The first couple of weeks of a new school year are tons of work and very busy days, but I'm glad that I was able to make it work to get away and be with the family. I know it meant a lot to the family that Addison was there. Many relatives were meeting her for the first time.

We drove back together on Sunday (making much better time without the holiday traffic) ready for another week of work/school the next morning. And now David hit the road again this morning to return to Indiana for a workshop/training in Church Communications at Grainger Church through the end of the week.

Here are some family pics we took while we were all together last week...

Pictures and Smiles

 

 Here are some fun new photos of our little baby girl!  She had some fun this week with her friend Elizabeth during small group, and later in the week she posed for the camera while she worked on standing on her own.  She is a fantastic little girl, and we love her so much!  Enjoy the smiles.

Pool time and Addison's first tooth

Now that Addison is sitting up so well, we decided that it was time to get her a swimming pool so she can cool off on these super hot, muggy days. So far she's been a big fan. Allie thought that Addison's pool looked like a huge water bowl to her. Hopefully Addison didn't pee in the water... but if she did, I'm certain that Allie has consumed worse.



Also, you'll see in this video that Addison's first tooth has popped through her bottom gums!