Just for starters. . . Bill, this is for you. These fat little guys have been pooping under our patio furniture for weeks. Ok, I rest my case. :)

It's been a few weeks of busyness again. Should I be surprised? It all started with a visit from Audrey (who I've been friends with since we were 6!) for a weekend (I'm pretty sure she was coming to see Addy!). We enjoyed mostly laying low, catching up and heading off for a day with just the two of us to explore the Temple Square and enjoy a yummy lunch. We had a great time.

When I took Audrey to the airport, I took Brad as well. Brad went to CA for 6 days for manager training school. As it turned out, the night he left, I spent throwing up all night. I figured it was food poisoning and that I'd never be able to have our yummy Minestrone soup recipe again. Not sure how I was going to take care of Addy, I called our neighbor, Sandy, to see if she could help. She had a busy day preparing for her a birthday party for her twin granddaughters, but she agreed to help as much as she could. As it turned out, her daughter's family had had the chucks earlier in the week (hmm. . . starting to think it wasn't food poisoning) and so she knew how awful I felt. She got me some gatorade and took Addy to her house between each of her naps and entertained her while baking cupcakes and making food for the granddaughters. It was amazing! I got to stay in bed only having to get up to put Addy down for naps. Sandy was a lifesaver! By the end of the day, my friend, Melissa had brought me soup, jello and more gatorade and I was starting to be able to stand up straight.

Right after I called Sandy, I called Brad to let him know what happened and as it turned out, he spent his first day of training school (in a suit!) running to the bathroom to throw up all day! (Pretty sure it wasn't food poisoning!) He had a rough week because he couldn't recover from it and he only got about 5 hours of sleep each night. Who knew I would end up with the better deal.

The bummer was that the day after Sandy watched Addy for me, she got the bug! She really made the sacrifice for me! Thank you Sandy! You know what's weird? Addy never got the bug. . . how strange is that!

Anyway, enough with that. . . the rest of the week with Brad gone was slow for me and crazy for him. He really enjoyed networking and picking the brains of Farmers' leadership. He was really glad to come home though so he could rest!

Before Brad got home, his mom, Lynn came to visit. We had a great time with her and Addy loved spending time with Grandma Lynn. She got a pretty pink pony from Lynn for her birthday and she loves the songs it plays. She's still trying to figure out how to ride it though.

While Lynn was here, she treated us to a southern feast of sweet potatoes, onion rings, collard greens, chicken friend steak and banana cream pudding. Brad loves to cook new things so Lynn passed on a lot of her secrets to him.

These were seriously the best onion rings ever!
I had never had any of these dishes so I enjoyed the new flavors. Addy also enjoyed the sweet potatoes and banana pudding! She pegged Lynn as the giver of sweets! :)

During the week when Brad was at work, we spent time at the park. Addy is learning how to play on the playground and is really funny to watch.

She loves the swings!

Since Lynn's visit, we've started some exciting things at church. I started MOPS and a women's Bible study. Brad started a men's group and we are going to do a short married class. We'll see how this schedule holds up. Addy seems to come down with a cold each time I take her to the kids club at 24 hour fitness so it's hard to stick to a routine. Grr.

We're enjoying SLC and now that we're getting into fall, we should enjoy some pretty fall colors in our neighborhood and much cooler temperatures!

Happy fall!

Wow!

Ok, I'm embarrassed. . . it's been over a month since my last post. Clearly there's been a lot going on so I'll try to catch you up.

Since Addy started walking, she's had lot of bonks and bruises as she figures out how to get around. But really, she's getting pretty good at it and she has figured out how to change directions, and sometimes even tries to 'run.' It's been fun.

Gosh, almost a month ago, we had our friend Grace, from Denver, stop by on her month long road trip through the west. We enjoyed hearing about her travels and visited the farmer's market here with her.

A few days after that, we left for Gunnison to spend Labor Day and the following week with my parents and some old neighbors from da hood back in Denver. You'll see some cute families (Pat, Kesa, Olivea and Conor Sullivan and Scott, Brooke and Levi Kleski) as well as our cute Addy Paddy and Mom & Dad. Most of the pictures in our slide show (get some popcorn, this is almost a month's worth!) are from our time in Gunnison. Brad and Dad got to do a float trip down the river and they fished other streams, rivers and ponds as well. We saw lots of wildlife and we did a beautiful hike about 10 minutes from their house. (Just like her dad, Addy liked to soak her feet in a stream after a long hike like that.) Addy liked playing with our old toddler toys (from when I was little!) and she loved seeing Tig Kitty and helping in the garden. We also celebrated her first birthday with some cake and good company. She had some bites of cake off the spoon but wasn't too keen on picking it up with her fingers. The darn stuff just crumbled apart so she kept trying to give it to me. :) She opened presents (over a series of several days!) from family and friends and was pretty overwhelmed by all the new toys and books. She's a hoot.

Once we got back in town, we all came down with colds. . . you know, Addy's at that age where she's going to get it and if she does, we're doomed. Oh well. So much for getting into a routine. There's a lot you can't do when your kid is sick!

We started MOPS at church so I can continue to get to know other moms at our church, and we officially switched to regular milk in a sippy cup. I don't think Addy's tummy is too keen on milk so we've got quite a road ahead trying to figure it out.

Addy had her 12 month appointment at the Dr. and low and behold, still a string bean. :) She's 12% for weight and 85% for height. She's still only 18.5 lbs so we have a ways to go before she'll be facing forward in the carseat. Oh well. At least she doesn't seem to mind but we'd like some more leg room in the front seat!

We really are enjoying Salt Lake and our new neighborhood. Just Sunday night, I came down with a stomach bug and was up all night sick (with Brad out of town for the week, of course) and I was able to call a neighbor (who also happens to be the mother in law of our pastor) to watch Addy for me off and on all day Monday. It was a life saver and it was a neat demonstration of the way the Lord has provided for us here. What a life saver! I stayed in bed all day and recovered. (Brad wasn't so lucky. . . he came down with it Monday at his leadership training seminar in a suit and tie! He's having a hard time recovering because it's such a busy week for him and he can't rest! Not to mention he didn't start off on a great foot throwing up throughout the day at his conference! Ok, TMI Brad would say!)

Anyway, it's been busy but we're doing well. Sorry this is so long in coming. Enjoy the pictures!

FIRST STEPS!!!

Tonight Addy took her first steps without holding on to anything! She was playing with her toys and crawling all over us on the floor and then she stood up and stomped her foot on the ground. Then, a little later she did it again. Then she took a few steps and landed on my face. We got smart and pulled out the camera. This is the 3rd attempt at walking. We'll let you know when she gets better at it!

Camping!

Saturday we headed up to the mountains for Addy's first camping trip. We spent the morning packing up the gear and getting ready for the big adventure. Granted, we were only going for one night and our campsite was only about an hour away, but we had the car packed to the max!

Addy prepared for the trip by eating a piece of bark in her stroller right before we left the house. By the time we were in the car though, she was happy as a clam.

Our campsite was a 'walk-in-only' campsite (oops, read the fine print before you pay online!) so we had to haul our gear about 1/4 of a mile to our campsite. It wasn't a big deal, but we were glad to know that ahead of time so I could pack right. We set up camp and tried to put Addy down for a nap. The nap was a flop because there was a huge Hispanic party going on at the day-use site just down the way and they were rockin' out to amplified music.

We eventually gave up on Addy's nap and headed to Park City where it was a little cooler and we could drive around while Addy slept in the car.
By the time we got back to camp for dinner, the party was over and it was much quieter. :) We had dinner and got Addy ready for bed. She was not, however, ready for bed. She cried off and on for a while (sorry neighbors!) before falling asleep for a few hours.

Late in the evening she woke back up and was panicked. I had to sit in the tent 'shh-ing' her until she fell asleep. Good grief. By the time she fell asleep, Brad was already out and there I was thinking about my 'new' life as a mom. It made me smile that I didn't mind it too much. :)

Addy slept like a rock until about 6am and then a bit more 'shh-ing' kept her quiet until 6:30. Yeah for sleeping in. :) We had breakfast and got Addy ready for the day and then she conked out again in the stroller. Apparently she didn't get enough sleep the night before.

We decided to pack up camp while she was sleeping so we'd be ready to head out exploring when she woke up. We decided to drive to the part on the map that showed all the 13000+ ft mountains to see if there were more pine trees and if it was cooler. We found the area (while Addy slept more) but it didn't seem like you could actually drive into the mountain range. Hmm. We plan to head back there, just to be sure.

We stopped for lunch at Provo Falls and got Addy into the stream. It was super cold but she really enjoyed it and ended up dipping her bottom in the water as well!

It took us no time and all to get home from the falls and we decided that is what we like most about SLC. You can get into the mountains really fast!

We had a great time camping and plan to go again. We are optimistic about Addy learning to fall asleep on her own in the tent. . . we'll see.

Here's a little slide show of our trip.

SLC County Fair

On Friday night we had a spontaneous outing to the SLC County Fair. It was pretty far from our house and we had to fight suburban traffic to get there but once we did, we got our fill of carnies, flies and good ol' fashion white trash company. :) It reminded me of going to the fair growing up but my memories of the fair were slightly more classy than what we experienced Friday night.

Addy visited her first petting zoo and it was the craziest petting zoo I've ever seen! There were dozens of little goats running around trying to find food and then there were ponies, bunnies, camels and who knows what else just milling around all the little kids with handfuls of carrots. Did I mention there were lots of flies?! Addy thought it was great!

After the petting zoo we visited the 4H animals and Addy got to get up close and personal with cows, flies, pigs, flies, goats, flies, birds, flies, bunnies and more flies. Did I mention there were a lot of flies?

After the 4H animals, we watched the Racing Pigs. It was pretty funny to see fat little pigs running around a race track to get to their prize of a cookies and creme frozen yogurt at the end. Addy's eyes were as big as saucers seeing that!

This outing made me realize how much of a city kid Addy is. Her cousin Natalyn (who is just about 6 months older than her) lives out in Kansas and sees farm animals all the time. We need to get Addy out more. . .

11 months old!

Addy turned 11 months old last Friday! I can't believe so much time has passed so quickly. And while we've had some major changes in the last 11 months, I still have the feeling that I haven't DONE anything all year. Welcome to motherhood? :)

Well, Addy's been busy, as usual, working on new teeth and new very cute behaviors. Her newest one is cuddling, hugging or kissing everything: her stuffed toys, the couch, blankets, or whoever's knee is close. :) She'll even give a hug or a quick cuddle to us but it usually lasts about 1/2 a second. She's just too busy to cuddle very long. It's darn cute though!

This is Addy cuddling with the couch pillow that I was trying to get her to climb over. She lets out a little 'hmmm' when she cuddles something. Isn't she cute?!

We've been getting to know SLC by swimming various pools and getting together with new friends. There are actually some really cool things about SLC. . . more to come. :)

P.S. Our realtor gave us some veggie plants/seeds when we closed on our house back in May and since we didn't move in until the end of June, let's just say most of those plants didn't make it. But, ironically we have a little 6 inch tall Roma tomato plant that produced these little beauties. It's ironic because we don't like tomatoes. :) There is also a volunteer tomato plant behind the garage that has 2 tomatoes on it and it isn't even getting any water. I guess our yard likes to grow tomatoes. I will say though, I ate these in a salad (with a LOT of ranch dressing!) and they were pretty good. :)

A bit behind. . .

We had a great visit (over a week ago!) with Bill and Judy Slease. We visited Temple Square, Park City, a few fun places to eat and finished Addy's swim lessons. Brad and Bill even got to go fly fishing 45 minutes away from our house. We really enjoyed their company and Addy liked getting to know her SOPA and Gramma Juice. Here's a slide show of their visit.


Addy has changed so much even in the last 2 weeks and she's recognizing toys by name, cruising around on the furniture, walking holding onto only one hand and doing LOTS of babbling and funny faces. She has also started a strange fake laugh. You wonder what's so funny. . .



I've been a little slow getting back in the groove since that visit because I've been in a funk. You know how it is when the next exciting thing on the horizon is not that great?! Yeah, like Brad having to go out of town for 5 days soon. :( Bummer.

But, we're getting back into it slowly. After egg blowing up in my face and all over the kitchen yesterday (don't ask!) and a good cry, I'm feeling better. Funny how little things (the egg thing was not little though!) can send you over the edge when you're in a funk. I'm praying that God would work on my emotions because they're all over the map these days.

Anyway, something else we'd like prayer for. . . Some of you know that we'd like to adopt. We planned on starting the process early this year and then we moved. We've been a little stumped trying to start over getting to know the process and agencies here in SLC. We spent several years in Denver getting to know the adoption community, volunteering at adoption events, traveling overseas to orphanages and learning from other people's experiences about adoption. Well, we were hoping to be well into the process by now but. . . we're just barely starting here. We'd appreciate your prayers about how to proceed, how to select an agency and what type of adoption to do.
Thanks!