Best Buds

Addison learned at an early age that the man should do the heavy lifting. Can you see her checking to make sure that Wyatt (her best bud in the whole wide world) is doing it correctly? I have no idea where she learned that from! LOL

Here they are a year later. Aren't they cute?

Wyatt was Addison's bestest bud in the whole wide world! We were so upset and devastated when we moved away from him and his family. It was funny to seem the two of them interact with each other after nearly a years abscence. AWKWARD!!! I think that it means we need to get together more often! But I love that they were cool enough with each other to pose for pictures.

Happy Birthday

On Friday, Addison had her 3rd birthday. I can not believe that my little baby girl is now three! She earned herself a butterfly cake. As mentioned in previous posts (click here and here), Addison wanted a butterfly birthday cake for getting potty trained. I was more than happy to spend many, many hours on this cake in return for not having to change another poopy diaper! :)

Addison's cute little cousin Kylee wanted a picture with Addison. Aren't they both adorable?

Addison opening some of her birthday presents. Her cousins wanted to help her really badly, but she was not about to share in the fun of tearing the wrapping paper into tiny, tiny, tiny little pieces. We were all having a good laugh at the dainty little pieces she was tearing off. Needless to say, we were opening presents for quite a while.

Addison's aunts Nancy and Shirley were nice enough to get her a pinata. I thought it was very sweet of them to think of her on her special day. This was Addison's first time with a pinata and had such a blast with it. All of the kids had a good time taking the bat to the pinata and all of the adults were having a good time laughing at the kids taking the bat to the pinata! :)

Cute butterfly cake with 3 candles. I am still trying to wrap my mind around Addison being three. Where did the time go? The past three years have just flown by so quickly...kind of like a butterfly zipping right past you! {Bad joke, I know!}

Video of Addison going to town on the pinata. I love her dainty little swings she was taking with the bat.

After the pinata was broken, all of the kids went for the prizes on the inside. Here is Addison throwing a fit because she stole all the squirter rings and wouldn't share with anyone else.

Happy Birthday to you Baby Girl!

We love you so much Addison and are extremely grateful that you are apart of our eternal family!!!

Officially Potty Trained

Week 1

This was our first week at potty training. As I have mentioned in an earlier post, we started potty training on the Friday, but I kept her in a pull up all day. She went potty once (hence the one star), so on Saturday, Randy and I decided to stay home and just let her run around in just panties. She did so great at recognizing when she had to go potty! During week 1, we only had one accident and it didn't quite count as an accident. She needed to go potty and told us, but didn't quite make it to the potty in time. As Addison would and has said, "The pee was faster than me".

Week 2

There were a couple of days that I hounded Addison to go potty and she didn't need to. Those were the days that she only got four smiley faces. I think that she didn't go too much because I have not given her enough to drink. It kind of scared me (and still does) that we would go somewhere and have an accident or not be able to make it to a bathroom in time.

Week 3

Addison has got such great self control. She is getting so much better at holding it until we get to a bathroom. There are times when she is having too much fun playing that she doesn't notice that she has to go until she has gone a little bit in her pants, but for the most part, she is doing amazingly well.

Both Randy and I are so proud of Addison. We didn't think that she would get potty trained as quickly as she has. We kind of joked that she would be 16 and still in diapers or depends! I totally believe that when a child is ready to be potty trained, they will get it quickly. I have also learned not to push the subject and to also have a great prize waiting at the end. Addison wants to go to school with her cousin Miles and have a butterfly cake for her birthday. I thought both of those were great goals to shoot for. This last week, I registered Addison for preshcool and for her birthday made her a really cute butterfly cake. Both are totally worth seeing my little girl grow into a big little girl!

Random Photos

I have a few random photos of Addison. She is such a pretty girl!

I love her happy smile with teeth.

{I have to remind her to show her beautiful teeth.}

Look at that hair! I love the color of her hair and have to admit that I am a tad bit envious of her volume.

She wanted me to take a picture of her "puppy ears". You can't really see them from this vantage point, but I think she is darn cute anyway!

She is being a puppy in her "puppy bed". Looks mighty uncomfortable to me, but she loves playing in my laundry baskets. {You may be able to see the puppy ears better in the right photo. Aren't they cute?}

Showing off her new sparkly shoes that Grandma got her. {Please don't mind my chinese laundry in the background.} Her sparkly shoes are shoes that light up when you walk. I love them! I have never before seen light up flip-flops before.

Showing us all exactly how her sparkly shoes work.

I love the way Addison talks. She has such a cute little voice. She reminds me of Boo from Monsters Inc. The only thing I didn't get her to say and should have in this video was "Mike Wazowski".

As Promised...

...pictures from our Yellowstone trip - that we took a month ago! These pictures are not in the order of which they were taken. (Sometimes Blogger is too hard for me to figure out!) I will try to explain what they are and hopefully our trip will make sense.

Randy and Addison in the car on our way into the park. Addison was so excited to have nonoculars (binoculars - in Addi speak) that she hardly put them down from her face. I am not sure how she didn't end up cross eyed or with a major headache. They seem to make my head hurt when I use them.

Waiting for Old Faithful to go off. I must say that Old Faithful is pretty darn faithful to it's time schedule. I am convinced that they give it a daily dose of Metamucil (If you don't remember this commercial, check out this little gem from 2003 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF5cyH_GRKE). Addison was so excited to see the Geyser. So excited in fact that she didn't care too much to actually sit around and watch it go off! LOL

I am not sure if you can see the bear in these pictures, but if you click on the photos and enlarge them you may be able to see him behind all of the snow way up on the side of the mountain. Addison was lucky enough to see 2 bears this trip, Jen 3 bears and Randy, Beth & Gwyl (Grandma & Papa) 5 bears. {Jen was too tired and had to use the potty too badly to get out of the car and see bears #4 & #5!}

What a cute little family photo :)

Randy was laughing at all the tourists that had to stop and get their picture at the entrance. I laughed and said to him that little did he know, we were going to stop and have our picture taken there too.

I wanted to see the petrified tree. I hadn't seen it since I was a kid. While we were driving there I told Randy that I didn't remember it being too special. So when we showed up Randy looked at me and said "This is it?" I laughed so hard! I don't think he was understanding what I was trying to get at. It is just a tree!!! Maybe it would be a little bit more neat to see if you could actually look with you hands and not just your eyes. Too bad they have to have the fence around it. My dad was saying that when he was younger and would come up with his family there used to be three petrified trees, but little stinkers would come and take parts of the trees home as souvenirs.

Elk - Or as Addison would call them "Reindeer".

This is what I was most excited about seeing. Even more exciting than seeing bears. I was hoping upon hope that we would see a moose and we did. Right before we got to the petrified tree. {I don't remember ever seeing a moose in the park, at least not in my adult life.}

You can't see it, but we are standing on top of the waterfall right before you head down into Mammoth Springs.

Addison again with her nonoculars. I really thought it was cute that she was loving them so much!

"Dragon Holes" - This is the name Addison gave to the sulfur ponds that we saw. The weather was cold enough that we could see puffs of smoke all over Yellowstone. I don't think I realized how many "Dragon Holes" Yellowstone really had.

Addi getting a close up view of the "Dragon Holes" with her nonoculars. Many thanks go to Papa for being willing to hold the little wiggle worm.

Come on, say it with me AWWW! Aren't they so cute!

Addison was wondering why Yellowstone was called Yellowstone, so Grandma found her a little yellow stone. She was completely happy and satisfied with this answer. She still {a month later} carries it around like it is her most prized possession.

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. This picture does not do the waterfall justice.

Addi was such a good sport in the car all day long that her daddy and I promised her that she could go swimming when we got back to the hotel. She loves her rainbow swimming suit and was so excited to put it on.

Daddy was a good sport and took Addi swimming. The water was really cold, so Addison wouldn't go to far into it. But she had a blast in the hot tub! :)

This was bear #2. He was walking across the street when we came upon him. I was thrilled that I was able to get pictures of him up close. Though I will have to say that Randy locked the doors when he came close. {Side story - The first time Randy and I went to Yellowstone together, we had only been married 5 months. We were driving around Jackson Lake and came upon a black bear. This bear was so close to our car that I could have reached out and touched him. While I was getting my camera ready to take the bears picture a stupid motorcyclist came up behind our car and scared the bear away. I was so ticked. I got out of the car in my high heels and started chasing the bear up the street so that I could get my "perfect" picture. All the while, Randy is sitting in the car yelling at me to get inside the car NOW!}

Feeding the ducks, fish and muskrats at Big Springs. I remember coming her all the time as a child. Too bad it is so busy with tourists. I don't remember all the tourists when I was a kid.

*Cute side note* My parents had their picture taken right on this very bridge 35 years ago. As soon as I get a copy of it, I will post this picture with that picture and let you take a look at the differences. They are still a happy, beautiful couple!

More family pictures. {Posing for the camera is Randy's VERY favorite thing to do! - said with a lot of sarcasm in my voice.} I love the little wheel house in the background. I have always wanted to go and play in there as a child {and even as an adult}!

This picture was taken at the end of our trip. Can you tell that Addison has about had it with picture taking? But don't Grandma and Papa look great?

Potty Training 2.0

We are at it again. I really want to get this girl potty trained before her 3rd (yes, third) birthday and have it down to a science before baby sister gets here (only 103 more days!!!).

This time, her incentive is a birthday party with her friends. We started again on Friday and her birthday was exactly 3 weeks away. I told her that if she fills up all three weeks of her potty charts that she could have her birthday party. That was enough to get her going. Friday was a slow potty day, but we have since realized that Addison does better when she doesn't have a diaper or pull up on. So on Saturday we just stayed home all day and let Addison run around with nothing but sweatpants on. She did so great! Both her dad and I are so proud of her! She even woke up Saturday night and told her dad that she needed to go pee pee in the potty.

Today, Addison went to the potty and did her #2 business all by herself. While I was in the bathroom helping her get cleaned up I was about to tell her how proud I was of her when she looked at me and said "I know, your so proud of me!" What a funny girl! I am absolutely so proud of her!!!

Also, today we went to all 3 hours of church (both Randy and I were anticipating the worst) and she did fantastic! No accidents whatsoever. She even whispered to Randy during sacrament that she needed to go potty.

Since I have taken this picture, she has added two more stars onto Sunday!

I love...

Addison was sitting in her high chair (yes, we still use one) and I was helping her eat her pancakes. I leaned my forehead in towards hers and told her that I loved her. She looked at me with all seriousness in her eyes and said "I love myself too." I burst out laughing. I am so grateful for the innocence in children. Their candor makes me laugh!

PS. We went to Yellowstone over the Memorial Day weekend. Look for updates to come soon.