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!

Liddick Family Christmas in July- #9

Fun at Uncle Glenn and Aunt Linda's Cottage

Our last day together involved packing the crew up one last time and driving to Uncle Glenn and Aunt Linda's (VanHarken) cottage on a little bay off of Lake Ontario. The weather was beautiful and it was so good to see the VanHarkens and Grandma Liddick. We really wished we could have gotten cousins Sarah and Kristen and their families back for the day, though. Maybe next year! Marlena and Jacob experienced a couple of firsts on that trip. They both went fishing for the first time and they also both got to try tubing for the first time in Lake Ontario. Marlena made it look like so much fun that Uncle Dave and Aunt Melissa decided to give it a go even though we'd left our suits back at the cabin. My muscles are still sore; this body is not as young as it was the last time I went tubing!
We also managed to get some cousin pictures before going our separate ways. This is probably one of the best ones taken, but it's quite comical watching the sequence of all the pictures shot. It's not easy getting a good picture of little kids! We also tried getting pictures of Addison and Brogan in the fuzzy yellow chair. This chair used to live at Grandma and Grandpa's house and we all have pictures of ourselves in it when we were little. Brogan was definitely on the move and not really in the mood to sit down for a picture!

Matt, Brianne, and Brogan left from the lake to go home so Matt could preach the next morning. Mike and his kids left early the next morning for Arizona, and David, Addison, and I flew home Sunday night (with much less drama than the first time, however sleepy baby+flying does not equal easy). I'm sure Mom and Dad have been home today completely exhausted by all the hustle and bustle of the week! It was busy, but it was lots of fun!

Liddick Family Christmas in July- #8

After the zoo, we met up at Ontario Beach for a picnic lunch followed by ice cream at Abbott's and a carousel ride. We had intended to go swimming after lunch, but unfortunately the beach was closed that day.

We were delightfully surprised at how much Addison enjoyed her first carousel ride!

Liddick Family Christmas in July- #7

Seneca Park Zoo

While the guys went golfing, Grandma and the moms took the kids to the Seneca Park Zoo for the morning.

Here we are making our own totem pole.

Poor Brianne is behind that picture holding up the whole stroller so she didn't have to wrestle Brogan back in afterward.

Jacob had fun holding Brogan's tail (even though it doesn't look like he's having fun in the picture!).

I took Addison to Como Zoo a few weeks ago, and she didn't seem nearly as interested in the animals then. Apparently the view from mommy's belly is a little better than that from her stroller. She really had fun this time.