First movie

Wearing Daddy's sweatshirt- with the hood on, she looks like Yoda.


One of Micah's patients made Addie a quilt for her dolls, isn't it cute?

We took Addie to see her first movie last week: Madagascar 2. She loved the first one and the second one too.


She sat very still during the whole movie. This is serious business!!


Helping daddy trim his goatee


making faces in the mirror: this one's a favorite



We celebrated Epa's birthday last week. Addie helped him blow out his candles.


Addie has the entire pooping/potty thing down now. Every time she went #2, we were giving her a sucker. Here she is enjoying the "fruits" of her labor. She's been consistent for about two weeks, going on her own- no reminders and waking up dry. I'm not so nervous about going places and seeing accidents.


Bed Head

Addie's doing well....I'm hanging in there. Poor Addie sees me cry so much from pure exhaustion, she often comes over to me and pats me and says, "It's okay Mommy! Jesus loves you." It just breaks my heart.

I'm really praying for a healing so that Addie can have a healthy mommy. The endocrinologist told me to go get my blood drawn and we'll see what it shows. I have to wait until a certain time in my cycle to go and it doesn't look like it's going to work out right. I'm not sure if I'm too stressed out, or my body is just responding to lack of sleep, but I'm no longer functioning like a normal woman. I'm completely out of whack. I really appreciate everyone's kind words...they mean a lot to me. I've still got options- although they are getting more slim by the day. I'm so thankful for your positive thoughts and prayers.

Trick or Treat

We had a good time this Halloween. Addie totally gets the whole concept and is a huge fan. Let me tell you, this girl has our neighbors wrapped around her finger. Some of them bought a special treat just for her. She got candy by the handfuls and was very polite and thanked everyone fervently.

Getting ready for Trick or Treating


Standing on the front porch beforehand

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Checking out the decorations


Addie and one of our neighbors, Hardy


Addie with Mrs. Edith and Mr. Bill- our other neighbors


Enjoying the yummy treats afterward


Addie and her friend, Andrew, at the dock at Bass Pro Shop


Look at how cheap our gas prices are!!!


Me and my girl, singing and dancing

Please Pray for me:
My insomnia is at an all time low. Many of you know that I've been dealing with this problem since Addie was five months old. I've run through the whole gammet- visited several doctors, tried different meds, and am now trying to survive with out prescription drugs right now. I'd really like to add on to our family, but that isn't really an option right now b/c I'm completely unable to function like a normal person. For example, to get the two hours of sleep I got last night, I took 1/2 pill of unisom, one melatonin, hot tea with valarian root, magnesium, and a high quality multi-vitamin. Once I woke up at 12 am last night, I took two Benadryl and then the rest of the Unisom later that morning and still never got back to sleep. I'm planning on going to see an endocrinologist to see if I have a hormone imbalance- but don't have my hopes up. I didn't get much help from the Sleep specialist I've been seeing since July. Anyway, to make a long story short, I'm a shell of a person right now...very tired...very scared...and I'd love to know that I'm being prayed for. The night is really lonely, and I don't know how much longer I can take this.

A whole lot of nothing

After getting our family pictures, we met up with the Wilsons and the Morgans at the Ren. Fest.



Addie and Sydney don't see each other as much as they should, but they were still pretty chummy.


Here's a great picture I got of Sydney in one of the fairy homes...


Here's Addie Sue with her Aunt Debbie


Some funny stories and facts about Addie:

She loves to read...still... and has many books memorized. In this picture below, she has lined up all her books from the library in a semi-circle and was reading one at a time.


Addie gets gummy vitamins if she doesn't cry when we rinse her hair in the tub and after she gets her PJs on. She eats them slowly with teeny tiny nibbles to savor them. By the time she's done, her fingers are sticky!

Addie is starting to skip a nap about once a week. She still has to have quiet time in her room, but she just sings and talks the entire time. I'm trying to wear her out in the mornings to avoid situations like these, but some days she just isn't tired enough! :(


I bought Addie some of those little capsules that grow into funny little monsters once they're placed in warm water. Addie and Daddy are watching one of them grow. I couldn't tell you who was more interested!

When Addie is put in time out, she can now answer why she'd been place there. She's very articulate (for a two year old). For example, today I had to put her in time out...when I asked her why she was in time out, she said, "because I throwed the markers and I not going to throw them anymore. I love you. Hug." And off she runs to pick them up.

We had a chance to get together with Sue and Kevin this weekend.

Kalani is too cute for words.


He and Lucas had some tummy time together.


Kalani is a bit puzzled by the big hairy beast laying beside him!!!

Micah got a little bit of Kalani holding time too!

Family photos

We got our family photos taken on Saturday morning. Here's the link:

http://www.alissavoran.com/portraits/hunt

Tell me what you think b/c I'm highly critical of any pictures of myself and am incapable of being objective.

Addie and her boyfriends

Not that kind of "boyfriend"...just boys that are friends! She's only 2, you know!

We went to Music with Mar today and met Addie's friend, Kaden. Usually, when we go, it's really crowded and Addie sticks pretty close to my side. Today, most of the three/four year olds were in preschool and Addie and Kaden were go-getters. The class was made of only 5-7 families instead of the usual 15-20...we had a blast.

Here are Addie and Kaden dancing during the "Best Baby in the World" song:


Addie loves the Widemouthed Bullfrog story/song. Here, she and Kaden moved up to get a closer look:


Addie is really good friends with our neighbor boy, Andrew, too! They are so funny together! They seriously have conversations just like little people. One day, I overheard them talking. It went something like this:

Andrew: "You want to go my house?" (pointing to his home)

Addie: "That's not your house!!! That's Margaret's house!" (pointing to Margaret's)

Andrew: "I know."

Addie: "I know."

Not much of a point to it, but it was funny to hear them having their own agenda to talk about instead of just chasing each other and trying to outrun their mommy's.

We have wonderful neighbors, but most of them are all elderly and have been there since the homes were first built. I'm so happy to have a neighbor that is my age with a child Addie's age. We've really enjoyed getting acquainted.

Last night we went to Chuckie Cheese's with them. It was our first time to go--and we actually liked the pizza!

Addie and Andrew had so much fun riding the rollercoaster ride together.


We got a family photo sketched for us by Chuckie himself!!! Check it out:

Home Improvement

Things have been busy lately since I've started back to work. I've been trying to establish contact with all my families in my caseload and I'm trying to work 1 1/2 days instead of 2. We're only putting Addie in childcare on Wednesdays now---which makes me so happy. It will cost less and I'm trying to make better use of my time this year.



Mom came up last week so that she could help me repaint my cabinets. I wish I could say it is done, but I'm not even close. It's a very long process and the house is in chaos. Cooking is not even an option as long as I have not countertops/tables.

Our plan is to put our house on the market in the spring, so I'm trying to get the ball rolling. I repainted the cabinets white and replaced the hardware- something I'd been wanting to do for a long time but didn't have the motivation to do it. I plan on repainting the walls in a more neutral color this winter too, but it was way too much for me to handle at this time.



I'll post before and after pictures when I'm done. I hope I NEVER have to paint cabinets again in my lifetime. The next house we buy better be move in ready. I'm so sick of home improvement projects!!!

Anyway,
Addie and I went to my folk's last weekend and surprised them with a homemade Grandparents day gift. My folks took a picture of us. Addie placed the stones in the cement and we stamped a message to Memaw and Epa on it.



Addie walking walking with her grandparents this morning @ the Legends shopping center.


Taking time to smell the roses...



That's all folks!!!

Have a great week!

Labor Day

We celebrated my mother's 63rd bday this weekend. Addie helped her blow out the candles.





She also tried to take off with Memaw's birthday money!


We also went to Santi-Cali-gon days...but didn't really take any pictures.

On Monday, we followed my folks out to Deanna Rose Farm...so that afterwards, they could head home to Topeka from there. My dad had never been before and I think he enjoyed it.


Addie was timid around the sheep/goats this time.



She eventually warmed up to them.



They have a one room school house that Addie enjoyed playing in. I enjoyed the air conditioning...and my folks reminisced about the days that they went to school in a one room school house.


Ironically, they both went to a tiny school house by the name of Pleasant Ridge (See picture above).


We tried to to get a family shot, but my mom isn't exactly patient with this task. She took our picture before we even knew she'd done it. Her exact words were, "You should be ready when I'm ready." Does that sound like the child of Arthur Tilbury or what?


Addie Sue enjoys playing on her swing set. She's getting quite creative in the way she entertains herself. She stands on the swing, climbs the ropes, holds onto the other swings...you get the picture. I just hope we don't have to visit the ER anytime in the near future because of this girl's rambunctious behavior!

I wish we had the ability to put videos up on the blog. Our little miss is singing the sweetest songs and seems to have pretty good pitch. She's also really into letters. She knows all the letters and their sounds....I'm not kidding. Micah and I were at Lowe's and she told us the letters she saw on a sign (GRATIS- must be a brand name for something) while we were in line.

I would like to take credit for her brilliant little mind, however, I can only admit that I bought a video that taught it to her. Nice huh? Don't knock it 'til you try it. I swear, in less than three weeks, she was prancing around the house singing, "the T says Tuh".

Check it out: (I got it at Costco for $6.99)
Leap Frog's Letter factory

One last picture...

I'm not artsy in any way, but I thought this windmill looked so peaceful at the farm on Monday. It might remind some of you of your good ol' days growing up in Kansas.

Have a great week!