I'm slipping

I was doing so well in so many aspects of my life, but I have been slipping lately. First some of you may have noticed my weight loss ticker at the bottom and how it hasn't moved in a while. I was doing a biggest loser competition. I did great the first 4 weeks and lost 10 pounds and then nothing the next four weeks. I hit a little plateau and after not loosing anything for a couple of weeks I started to loose motivation. The competition ended and I even had less motivation. The only good thing is that along with that 10 pounds I lost a pants size. I need to loose another pant size to fit into some of my old pants and 2 sizes to fit into all my nice lucky pants I wore in college. I got married and over my first 2 years went up 3 pants sizes how sad. I am determined to get back down so I am joining another biggest loser competition which starts on April 1st if you want to join us let me know it is $20 and the winner gets all the money.
The other thing I have been slipping in is having a perfectly clean house. The showings on our house have started to be further and further apart making me less motivated to clean the house every night I really need to get back in the habit because I know my day is so much better when I wake up to a clean house and my husband is so much less stress when he comes home to a clean house and a nice dinner. Maybe I should get off my butt and clean while my baby is sleeping, but this is the only time I can do stuff on the computer without her pushing all the buttons.
So here is to new motivation. Wish me luck. By the time we leave Iowa I want to be 30 pounds lighter and the perfect clean freak wife.

Like baby like dog

Tito was our first baby. We got him just before our first anniversary. He was 12 weeks old when we brought him home, a whole 3lbs and so cute. He was just like a baby we had to help him learn to eat dog food and to sleep through the night. We had to potty train him and give him lots of love and attention. He went to puppy kindergarten and everything. It was great practice before having a real baby (but easy then a real baby). Then Addi came along 2 years later and she is our baby. Everyone said that the dog becomes just a dog after the baby comes but Tito is still like one of our kids. He is a great older brother for Addi and is very protective and loving, yet can still get annoyed at time by his baby sister. It really is amazing how much a dog is like a child. Friday was Addi's one year check up. The doctor weighed her, looked in her ears and in her mouth and then she got 3 immunizations and her blood drawn. Today was Tito's three year check-up and the doctor weighed him looked in his ears and mouth gave him three immunizations and drew his blood. The only real difference in the check-ups was that I had to pay for Tito's since he is not covered under our insurance. On April 9th Tito will be 3 years old. We are very glad that he has been in our family and hope that he feels the same way. I know Addi loves having him around. Tito is the first thing Addi looks for when she gets up from her naps and Tito is always so excited to play when he hears her wake up. Addi won't say mama but she says Tito all the time. They are similar in many ways. They are both small and crawl around the house. They are both loving and love to cuddle with their mommy. Tito even loves the same food as Addi and will wait by her highchair for her to throw some food his way. They both like to climb up on the back of the couch and look out the window and they both hate getting in the car. I am glad that Addi has her puppy to grow up with.

One year ago today. . .

our lives changed forever. Our sweet little princess was born. All though we weren't expecting her for another week or two we were thrilled. You never really know how a baby will change your life until you have one and then once you have them you don't really remember what it was like without them. Addi is our precious little girl and I don't know what we would do without her. She is sweet and loving, unless you do something she does like. Although she loves her mommy she is not attached to her. She never has had stranger anxiety. She reaches for strangers to give them a hug or will blow kisses to people at the store. Although she is small she can do a lot. She is not walking on her own yet, but she could if she wanted to. She is content walking while holding on to furniture and such. She is a climber and loves to climb up on the couch with Tito and look out the window. Somedays she is a handful, but we love her still. Happy Birthday sweetheart we love you more and more each day.

Almost a year

My baby is almost a year old I can't believe it. My parents came out to visit for a week so we had an early birthday dinner for Addi.

We had her favorite things for dinner Broccoli and french fries (we also had pork chops for the adults)
I bought her a 1st birthday crown and wand and she loved them. To my surprise she kept her crown on all night. She never leaves headbands on she must know that she is a princess.
She had lots of presents to open and I didn't even give her all her presents she is way to spoiled.
She held on to her princess wand the hole time.
I made her a pretty flower cake. I made a delicious cake for the adults (check out my mommy creations blog to learn how to make it).
She dug right into her cake.
She decided she didn't like the cake to much,
but she loved the frosting.

We taught Addi how to say how old she is and I was lucky enough to caught it on camera.
We had one messy baby on our hands,
so we took an nice little bath. Notice how murky the water is from all the frosting.
All clean after a fun full night of birthday celebrations. Addi loved having grandma and grandpa here for awhile and was very sad to see them go this morning. Back to only boring old mom all day.

Carthage Jail and Nauvoo

On Saturday while Jared was taking his boards My parents, Addi, and I went to CArthage Jail and Nauvoo, Il. My mom had never been to carthage. There wasn't anyone else there so we got our own private tour. Addi loved the rugs in the house she got to play on it in the jail and then when ever she saw one in the old house in Nauvoo she wanted to get down and play. It was a very nice day and made for perfect weather for walking around old Nauvoo. Last time my parents went to Nauvo was when Jared and I were sealed in the temple and it was over 100 degrees outside and very humid. When we got home Jared was home and had made us dinner even after his hard day of boards thanks hunny you are the best.

Chicago: Family Day

Despite all the fun we had by ourselves we decided we wanted to take Addi to some places so on our last day we took Addi to the Aquarium and to see the big bird show at the planetarium. Then we meet up with my parents at Millinieum Park. I barely made it to the park. With all the walking we had been ding I got to huge blisters on my feet and was limping by the time we made it to the park so Jared and my dad had to walk back up to the hotel and get the car to come pick us up. We had a lot of fun in Chicago. Having your parents on vacation with you is great because we got to go and do stuff on our own, but Addi was just down the hall if we miised her or she needed us.
Addi got to sit in her own seat on the bus. She enjoyed the bus because everyone told her how cute she was.
Addi liked to point at everything at the aquarium. Pointing is one of her new favorite things.

It was dark in the planetarium show and Addi hadn't taken a nap all day. She woke back up in the middle of the big bird show and was hapy to see elmo on the big screen.

While at the park waiting for us my parents were sitting on the steps in front of the silver bean (it is called something else but everyone calls it the silver bean) when some guy says to his wife hunny why don't you go up there in the middle of the bean and take your hat off and I will take your picture. All of a sudden my dad stands up goes over to the bean and takes his hat off. He thought the guy said buddy not hunny and was talking to him. My mom was cracking up. First off why would some random person want a picture of my dad and second does my dad just take his hat off for anyone. Hehe!

Chicago: Day of freedom

For our second day in Chicago grandma and grandpa took Addi to the zoo while Jared and I went to the Museum of Science and Industry (our favorite), The Field Museum, and the Adler Planetarium. After a day full of musuem hoping we went up to the Hancock Observatory. It was very cool and I would recommend it to others. They have a tour of Chicago you get to listen to and it was very interesting. It was nice to be able to spend the day with just Jared, but we missed our baby so we meet up with my parents and Addi and enjoyed some Chicago style pizza.

Chicago:Navy Pier

Jared has never been to chicago and I have only been for a conference so for christmas Jared got a trip to Chicago over spring break. My parents flew out there to meet us so that they could watch Addi while Jared and I could spend some time together. We picked up grandma and grandpa a the chicago airport in the afternoon and then after checking into our hotel we all took a walk down the beach to Navy Pier. We walked down the poer and had dinner at Bubba Gumps I love their cocunut shrimp. Addi loves that grandma and grandpa are here to play with her. She would rather be with them then with me :(.
Apparently Chicago is not called the windy city because it is windy there (but it is windy) it is the windy city because their politicians are full of wind.
Happy St. Patrick's Day
Isn't he sexy
Walk on the beach

The Ferris wheel was design by a chicagoian for the world fair. They were trying to out do the french who build the Effiel tower for their worlds fair.
Our Family
Addi with Grandma and Grandpa