The first of many "me do"

When I was little my mom said I would always say "me do" I wanted to do everything myself. I am thinking that Addi my be learning thoses words very soon. This morning Addi did not want me to feed her she wanted to do it so I finally just gave her the spoon and this is what happened.
At first she used the spoon
But then she started to test other methods of getting the food in her mouth.
And setted for the old spooning it in your mouth with your hand. She reminded me of pooh bear eating honey out of a honey pot.

The secret to a clean house

In the process of trying to sell our house I have learned the secret to keeping my house clean. I am not normally a clean person. I like things to be clean and organized, but not enough to keep everything clean all the time. It has been 3 weeks since we put our house on the market and our house has pretty much been clean ever since. I am so proud of myself. So you are wondering what the secret is? Well there are a few steps.
1. Get rid of half the stuff you own.
I sold a ton of stuff on craigslist. There were things we had that we didn't use anymore and they were just taking up space. Not only did I make more room, but I made almost $500. I didn't sell half our stuff, but I sold a lot got rid of other stuff and packed up stuff that we will not need in the next few months.

2. Get you whole house clean at the same time.
This is the hard part. It seemed like if I was cleaning one part of the house the other parts were getting messed up, but there is nothing like your first shoing to motivate you to get your house all clean. We are not talking just clean at first glance. I cleaned everything. I vacuumed out the couches, I organizes the closets, and I made sure everything had a place even in the garage.

3. Keep it clean
After all that effort of getting the house clean and organized there was no way I wanted to stay up all night the night before another showing cleaning the house and I never now how much time they will give me. So I made a vow to keep it clean. I pick up as I go through out the day. When addi takes a nap the first thing I do is take 5 min and clean up any mess we made before I start on a project and speaking of projects I put one away before I start anther one (funny how we teach this to our children and then don't do it as adults). And I don't got to bed unless the house is all clean (most nights). It usally doesn't take very long since I clean up after myself as I go throughout the day. And since the house is all orginized and everything has a place it is quick and easy.

So I know it has only been 3 weeks, but that is about 2 weeks and 5 days longer than I have ever kept our house clean before. It is so nice to wake up to a clean house it just makes your day go better and then I have more time to do the things I enjoy when my baby is asleep. I think my husband enjoys it and I know he enjoys that I cook dinner more since our kitchen is clean. Three weeks ago if someone had dropped over unexpectedly I would have been very embarresed, but now drop by all you want. My house is not spotless all the time but it is usally nothing that can't be picked up in less than 10 min like Addi's toys. Here is some pictures of our clean house just to prove I can have a clean house and hopefully this will become a habit and I can countinue it even after we sell our house and move.

Addilyn Loves . . .

Water. She doesn't care if it is the bath water

or if it is toilet water or Tito's water bowl. If the gate is not up the bathroom or laundry room where Tito's water is, is the first place she head. She loves to slash in it and try and drink it. Don't worry she has not been drinking the toilet water, but she tried to drink her bath water and I caught her trying to drink Tito's water like a dog.

So I decided to give her some water for her to play in that was clean. She played in it for a minute, but it is just not as fun as water I am not suppose to be in.


Outside. Addi loves it outside and she has since she was born. When she was a tiny baby she could be screaming, but if I took her outside she would instantly stop. Since it has been crappy Iowa winter for awhile we haven't played outside much. She loves to look out the window. She tries to climb on the back of the couch and look out the window with Tito and if you are in her way she will just climb right over top of you and step on her face.

Since it has been getting warmer we got to play outside today.

She loves just crawling around and playing with her puppy who she also loves.


Buttons. If there is a button Addi has to push it. If we are in the check out line at the store she has to touch the buttons on the card machine. She has noticed that everytime we come in from the garage we push a button (to shut the garage) and so everytime we come in she reacehes to to push the button.
If I am on the computer she has to come up and push the buttons which is why I can no longer be on the computer if she is awake. So I found her this Barney computer at a thrift store and she loves it except her favorite button is the red button which turns it off and then she wants to know why it isn't making noise so I am constantly turning it back on for her.

Happy Birthday Tee!

Today is my sister Makenzie's 16th birthday. She is a funny girl. I thought I would embarress her a little for her birthday. When she was probably about 12 she made this cute little magazine complete with an article on how to get boys to notice you. I thought it was so funny I took it and kept it so that I could give it to her when she was older and could look back at herself and laugh so here you go Tee now everyone can see what a funny Girl you are. I love you have a wonderful birthday!

Reading and Pretending

Addi has been so much fun lately and she has cute little imagination for such a little girl. She loves to read books and play with her toys. I think it is so cute to watch Addi pull a book down from her shelf and act like she is reading it. She also loves to play pretend. She loves her play kitchen and will open up the microwave or oven place food in it and then shut it again. I am so amazed at all of the little things she picks up on. Sunday night she got my empty bowl and spoon and started acting like she was eating and feeding mommy (video). We got a web cam for christmas so that we can talk to family that live far away. Addi Loves to call grandma. She knows the sound the computer maes when it is connecting or when aomeone is calling us and she gets so excited. She gets so upset when no one answers. We talk to grandma almost everyday. She learns so much from using the webcam. The first time she waved bye bye was to grandma Susan on the webcam. She has also learned to blow kisses to grandma. It is so cute I love it but have yet to capture it on video.

Close to Walking

I did a rotation at a nursing home few weeks ago. It is amazing how similar entering and leaving this world are. Here is Addi using her walker.

Sleeping, Eating, and Playing

Addi is growing up so fast I can't believe she will be a year old this month. She is such a big girl. She sleeps through the night (most of the time),but she started only taking one nap. She is just like her daddy and doesn't like to where socks and is always taking them off. I usally can put shoes on her tokeep her socks on, but she learned how to undo the velchor on her shoe and take them off so everytime I get her out of the ca or get her up from a nap she is bare footed. She eats big people food and loves to eat what ever mom and dad are eating. Yesterday she got mad when Jared wouldn't give her some of his coke (we do ot give our child caffiene she has enough energy). She loves to play with other kids and she thinks she is big kid and wants to do what they are doing. She is the sweetest little girl most of the time, but will let you now if she doesn't like something. She is spoiled and only seems to make it out of the store with some sort of prize. Today she got green beaded necklaces from joanns and a chocolate chip cookie from subway. Here are some pictures from the last week. They were taken with my new compact camera. I love being able to always have a camera on hand, but it is not as nice as my DSLR camera.