Addison - 8 Months

Weight: 17lbs 8oz on December 11th. Even with her little illness she was able to gain a little weight.

Height: 27.5inches. She has been the same length for a couple of months now. This is shocking to me, as Mason grew 1-2 inches every month for a year.

Clothes: Since she hasn't grown much she is in the same size clothing. 9month PJs and 6-12 month dresses/clothes. Size 3 diapers.

Eats: Addison eats 4-6oz bottles a day and 2 meals a day. Somedays she eats her milk great and other days it is closer to 4oz bottles. She gets mad when she finishes her pouches and will yell at us with this fake cry.

Sleeps: Great little sleeper. 7pm-7am and on the weekends or when we don't have to go to school she sleeps 7pm-8am. She naps 2-3 times a day.

Likes: Addison loves her Mommy. Addison also loves her brother and sister. She is always trying to get to one of us and now that she is crawling it is fairly easy for her to get what she wants. She loves to steal other babies pacifiers. I think it is because she typically only gets them during bedtime or nap time. She is loving crawling over her sister and her sister just takes it.

Dislikes: Addison gets nervous around large groups of new people and pretty much anyone but Mommy and Daddy. She is good with other people holding her for a few minutes as long as Mommy is within sight. It made for an interesting Christmas. Pretty much, Michael, myself and my Mom held her the entire time. She hates the dark but only in the car.

Teeth: Nothing. Absolutely no teeth.

What's New: Addison is crawling. Everywhere! She is also standing up/pulling up on everything. One week we were scooting and the next real crawling and the next day pulling up. Just this last week she decided to let go while standing and then falls quickly. She also decided crawling up the stairs sounds like a fun idea. We have two small stairs going into our media room and she will crawl up them and then roll down. And repeat. She thought it was fun. Mommy did not agree.

The Polar Express

Mason loves the book and movie the Polar Express. He loved it last year and I found this train ride in Branson, but it was completely sold out last year. So, this year, I marked my calendar way in advance to get us tickets. Mason's best friend wanted to come too, so I finally found a day that we could all go that was not already sold out. We were on the last train ride of the season.

We told Mason all day that we had a surprise for him and when he found out he was SO excited. He couldn't even sit down on the train. His excitement was fun to see. Addison on the other hand, was out cold before we ever got on the train. I was worried she was going to sleep the night away and not see Santa. Luckily it was only a cat nap and she was ready to go.

The ride starts with the reading of the book. After the reading, they bring out hot chocolate, unlimited sugar cookies and then SANTA shows up. Because Mason loves the book so much, he immediately stood up with his hand in the air saying, pick me pick me pick me Santa. HAHA. Every kid on the train gets a bell. It was fun since Mason asked Santa for a jingle bell for Christmas and Santa gave him one. It was wonderful.

 

 

 

Yummy Hot Chocolate!

 

He is here!!!

Addison wants to try the cookie. 

Pick Me Pick Me Pick Me

Christmas Cookies for Santa

One day last week we had our good friends over to make cookies for Santa. Our kids love each other and we were all off work, so we thought lets make a huge mess and lots of fun memories. I thought this was so much fun to do and something we will continue to do in the years to come. I can't image next year with 5 kids or more if others join in. 

We gave the kids flour and aprons. Pretty much let them have at it. I had flour all over my floors and I can still feel it when I walk into my kitchen, despite the number of times I have vacuumed and wiped. I am glad my cleaning lady come this week. 

Sweet Stella, it getting so old to me. She could do everything herself without any help. 

We were even brave enough to give them icing and sprinkles and let them decorate 3 cookies each. Rachel and I spent nap time decorating the rest of the cookies. The kids were less messy with the icing than I thought they would be. 

3 Days...Birthdays

Happy Birthday to my husband and friend! Every year we celebrate his birthday in the middle of all of the craziness. He never complains that he has to share it, and today he is sharing it with a trip to Branson to take Mason and Addison to do the Polar Express! He is a good Daddy and even suggested doing it on his birthday.

I am so in love with this man and when I see him with our children it makes me love him even more if that is possible. Our life is far from perfect, we argue, we disagree, we laugh, and we play together.

You are my biggest supporter and bring me back to reality when I start getting to big for my head. You keep me in check and you make me smile. I love how you get upset when Mason picks me over you and I love how smug you get when he asks for you over me. I love how when you walk in a room Addison just gives you this look of love and smiles the biggest smiles to you. She already has you wrapped and you don't even notice. Or maybe you do and don't care. I love how you will drop everything if Mason asks to go outside or play inside. I love watching you play swords and how animated you are when Mason says you are dead.

I hope this next year is better than the last. 32 is looking great on you!! I love you and so do our children!

4 Days...Gingerbread house

A new tradition I started last year with Mason, was making a Gingerbread house. Last year he ate most of the icing and since it was our first time we learned lots of lessons. So, this is I was way better prepared to make a house.


First thing I did differently this year, I put the house together and let the icing dry during lunch so that when Mason got home from school we could decorate it with the candy. I recommend giving the gingerbread house time to dry or it will be falling apart the entire time. I also used icing to stick the house on the plate I used.

The best part this year was watching Mason lick every piece of candy. I didn't care. Not like we are going to eat the house. It is decoration. I asked Mason, "why are you licking all the candy." His answer, "I am licking all the bugs off." I couldn't really argue with that answer. I said "Thank Bud, No one wants bugs on their Gingerbread house."

Finished Project

6 days...Wall of Cards

This is where we keep all of the Christmas cards we receive. I love getting Christmas cards, especially with pictures of everyone's children. It is wonderful to see how they have changed and grown. These usually stay up well past the new year. This year, Gabby even received 2 cards from her vet and her puppy friends. I love this too! It is just fun and seeing these daily makes me happy. Mason calls them his cards and some are a little more loved than others. When he would open the mail before me he typically ran off with one or two calling them his cards. He is so sweet.

7 days Christmas Cards

Christmas Cards. I love getting family photos done each year. I love seeing the changes every year of my kids or how Gabby has changed. I also enjoy receiving Christmas Cards. We put them on the door to our laundry room in the kitchen and Mason calls them his cards. Sweet boy. If you come over and notice some have been quite loved on by Mason, you can just smile and know he got a hold of them before I did.

8 Days...Lights

Christmas LIGHTS!!! On the 8th day before Christmas we love lights! We went to the Fayetteville Square last weekend for the Lights of the Ozarks. It is awesome. Mason loves the lights as much as I do. He ran. Flat out ran around and around and around. 

WOW Dad look at the Lights!!! It is so COOL!!!

Christmas is Coming...

Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love Christmas music, Christmas lights, Christmas decorations, and I love giving gifts. I do hate going to the mall and fighting crowds of people, so most of my shopping is done online, but I still love it. I love trying to come up with something everyone will love or need.

So...for the next 9 days!!! You heard that right 9 days!!! I am going to share something daily that brings a smile of holiday cheer to my face.

Today, It is the decorations inside our house. Every year I add a little more to my decor and this year it was mostly outside, but I still love the decor inside. Next year, I am going to let Mason get a little tree for his room and he can decorate it.

My stairwell has a new addition this year of pictures of my three babies. Along with garland I made several years ago. Easy to make. Hobby Lobby is your friend. 

 We had the addition of a new stocking this year. Who needs an elf on the shelf when you have a giant picture of Santa. Not us. Santa is ALWAYS watching.

Someday, I will get a new tree for this house, and move this one into my dining room. The ceiling height in our living room is 10-12ft so I need a taller tree, but this one works. Every year, I collect ornaments from places I have visited. When Michael and I put the ornaments on the tree we reminisce on past trips and experiences and fun. It is by far my favorite tradition. I could get rid of everything else in this house for Christmas, but those ornaments are my memories. 

Above our front door we have a ledge. I see years and years down the road have a Christmas village up here, but maybe not. I also joke that I still want to sell this house and build one, so no need to collect that just yet. Not that I don't love my house, because I do, but sometimes I want a smaller house with lots of land for a million animals. 

The dining room. This year I added a new runner. I love red. My whole house has splashes of red and during Christmas it makes them stand out more to me. 

When it Rains...It Pours

The last few weeks have been interesting to say the least. Now it is time to vent fill you in a little.

Addison has been sick for 3 weeks now. She started having diarrhea and at first I thought she was teething, since she was chewing on EVERYTHING. It was the week of Thanksgiving, so I wasn't too worried. On Thanksgiving morning, I woke up throwing up and thought maybe Addison really is sick, or maybe I should not have tasted all the food pre-cooked. I called the doctor the following Monday after it had been at least a full week. They said give her ONLY Pedialyte, Bananas, Apple Sauce, and Rice. BRAT for a full 24 hours and see if she improved and if she did then slowly give her milk again. At the 24 hour mark she hadn't poop, so that was improvement from 8-10 a day. As soon as she had the first bottle, it started again. So we switched to Soy and then to Nutramigen and continued to stuff her with stuffing foods. Wednesday of that week we took her to the doctor, who wanted to run a stool sample cultural for several things, and I had to keep her out of school. Michael worked from home the rest of the week to tag team Addison.

At least she is in a Great Mood, as long as you are not changing her diaper.

Then last weekend happened. Besides the continued diarrhea and worst diaper rash I have ever seen...We woke up Sunday and had our normal big breakfast, egg, bacon, biscuits, the works, and then I loaded our dishwasher. I turned it on. I tried to turn it on. It did not work. Luckily for me I have a brother and father who are masters of electricity and I called my Dad first who walked Michael through a few things that did not work. Then we called my brother. Still nothing worked. Sad Face. So I proceeded to order us a new dishwasher. The only positive thing is that my Dad is retired from Whirlpool and my brother still works for them, so we get a discount. After research on consumer reports, we bought a KitchenAid to be delivered Thursday. Thank goodness! I am glad I didn't have to go 10 weeks without one.

AND THEN...

My garage broke. Yes. Yes. Yes. I thought I was going to scream. We just got brand new garage doors at the end of summer. I called the company, who put them in because they are under warranty still and the lady on the phone acted like it was my fault they missed a VERY important bolt when installing the new doors. She said they would hopefully get someone to it the next day. Thursday. Thank you mean lady, hopefully your tech is much nicer.

Thursday, rolled around and Addison's diaper rash was the worst I have ever seen and I decided to call the doctor, who wanted us to come in and make sure she didn't have an infection. Two technicians are supposed to be coming to my house, my work load right now is crazy and this is Michael's busiest time of the year, so I called my Mom and cried. And she dropped everything at work, thank god she is the CEO of a her own business, and drove 1.5 hours to help me. The doctor wanted to do another stool culture, because we still have diarrhea. And gave us 3 prescriptions including a super strong diaper cream. I was starting to feel a little better. The dishwasher arrived before lunch, so Michael worked on installing it during his lunch break. I was so excited, I was going to cook in my oven for the first time since the weekend prior. YAY!! I turned on the oven told Michael I was going to make him lunch while he worked. After a few minutes, I opened to oven door, and it was not hot...it wasn't even warm.

AHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Now my oven is broken. We think it is just a fuse blown, but still!!!! REALLY!!!

So to sum things up, as of today, I have a "sick" baby, a new dishwasher, a fixed garage, and a broken oven.

Here is my new dishwasher...that I played with last night :-)

via Consumer Reports

via Consumer Reports

At this point, I do realize things will get better, but man it has been a rough week.

Stitch Fix December 2015

I received my third Stitch Fix last week. I asked for specific items to take on my ski trip in January. I was wanting a few things to take to wear off the slopes. My stylist did not disappoint me. I kept EVERYTHING! Bad Bad Bad. Oh well. I love it.

The first item I received Alan French Terry Asymmetrical Zip Cardigan. This Cardigan also zips up. I am a fan of the length in the back, it will be great for wearing with legging. The material is a heavy/thick jersey type material. I personally will probably never zip it up unless I am freezing, but it is very cute open.

The second item in my box was Bray Raglan Textured Knit Top. This is probably my favorite item this time around. Mainly because I live in blue. My favorite color is blue. The front is a knit and the back, not sure the material but it is nice. It has a great design.

I also received the legging in this picture. Kristin Fleece Leggings. I love them too. The leggings have a wide band at the top. I prefer my leggings to have that. I think it helps keep them up if they begin to stretch out. I wore these all day and they fit perfectly!

I received this sweater.  Dubost Woven Back Knit Top. It is super comfy and warm. I had one complaint about it. As I was putting it on, my ring would catch on the sleeve. I am sure to snag it a million times, but I will be careful. This one will be a great addition to my suitcase in January. 

The last item I received and the only one I considered sending back. Mons Puffer Jacket. I love a good jacket. But I really rarely wear them unless it is super cold and recently our weather has been unusually warm, so it was hard for me to jump on it. It is warm though and I like the style. I kept it because I know it will get cold and I also know I can easily pack it when traveling as it compacts well.