20 Months!

With Addy, I think each age is my new "favorite" age!  I can't believe she's only 4 months away from turning two... that is scary to me!  I like to record what she's doing new each month because when I make her scrapbook for the year, it helps me to look back through the year to see what all we did and how she changed!

This month we went swimming at Mia & Pop's house twice and Addy is not too sure about the pool. She liked it last year but her cautious side is kicking in this summer. We will keep trying though! She does love the sprinkler ("Git WAY-YET" is what I hear the entire time I'm watering flowers!) and still loves bathtime so there's hope for the pool!



This was her favorite way to be in the pool... on a float, out of the water!



Walking down to the pool with Pop

We went to a birthday party at the Barnyard in May and Addy had SO much fun!  It was neat to see how much the animals had grown since we were there with our church friends in April.  Addy got to hold a chick and a bunny and bottle feed a pig.  She rode in the boat with her Daddy (and about 8 other kids and parents :) and got to ride the pony. 

This month, we visited all of Addy's great grandparents!  We were in Centreville around Mother's Day and took a trip to Gadsden last Friday to visit my grandparents.  My aunt Lynne & Bob were also there and it was so good to see them! 

Addy talks all the time... she has a bit of a southern drawl and some words that are one syllable somehow turn into three!  She does a lot of narrating (for instance, she labels everything when we are driving down the road... motorcycle, big truck, car, almost home, etc.) and she asks us simple questions (Mommy go?  Daddy go?)  Here lately, she is very concerned with where Mommy is.  I think we are going through the whole separation anxiety thing again.  Dropping her off at church is tough and even putting her down for bed has gotten to be a challenge.  I am hoping it is just a phase that will pass quickly!

She does more silly stuff and when we think something is funny she will ham it up a little bit... I think she gets that from her Daddy!

She tried on her hula outfit while everyone was over for Memorial Day

She tests us more when we tell her No.  She will look right at me after I get onto her to see if I'm going to stop her from doing the thing she just got in trouble for.  Sometimes, she will repeat whatever it is she's not supposed to do and then she usually doesn't do it (which is good!)

Her new thing is "singing" songs.  She doesn't really sing but she repeats the words of songs that she knows all the time and at random times.  We will say "I love you" and she will break into the Barney song and then sometimes she jumps over to Wheels on the Bus or Jesus Loves Me.  She doesn't know the whole song or anything, just a few familiar phrases.  But there is nothing sweeter than hearing that little voice say Jesus loves me this I know... Bible tells me so!

KK brought over a fun new toy last week... thanks KK!

She likes trying on my shoes!  She still loves books but I don't think she spends as much time looking at books as she used to.  Along the same lines as singing songs, she has a few lines of each of her favorite books that she has memorized... she will pick up The Cat in the Hat and say "Bump!  Bump made us jump!  Cat Hat!"

Do these match my pajamas?

Her very favorite thing is to be outside.  She always wants to go out, no matter how hot it is!  And her second favorite thing is playing with Julie (her baby doll).  She is such a good little mommy and pats Julie and tells her "it's okay" all the time.  Sometimes I will hear her telling Julie to "be still!"

She still loves the vacuum... she gets ill if I don't let her do it all by herself

She is going to her very first Vacation Bible School this week.  Our church has Bible school for preschoolers and Courtney and I are helping out so Addy gets to come hang out with the other kids.  BUT with the whole separation thing, I ended up in her room for half the time tonight! 

First night of VBS!

Rainy Day (or Hot Day!) Fun

Addy loves helping in the kitchen (or helping anywhere really!) and one day recently when it was just SO sweltering hot that we needed to wait on the weather to cool down to go outside, we made playdough together.  My mother-in-law has taught toddlers at Northport Baptist Dayschool for years and I think she is the one who introduced me to making playdough.  It's not hard and you probably already have the ingredients in your kitchen!  The recipe I used is in the Winning Seasons cookbook but I copied it below in case anyone would like to try!

Love those little toes!

First we had to make brownies!  We hear the words "Addy Do It" a lot when she wants us to let her do it by herself!  Here she is stirring the eggs... a dangerous idea!  Only one egg ended up cracked on the floor.

After the brownies were in the oven, we moved on to playdough. 

Recipe:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 cup water
1 Tbsp cooking oil
2 tsp cream of tartar
Food color, if desired

In a saucepan, mix flour, salt, water, oil and cream of tartar.  Place over medium heat and cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.  The mixture will form a ball.  When this happens, remove from heat and drop on wax paper.  Knead the dough.  Food color may be added to ingredients while in the pan or after the dough has been removed from the pan.  You may want to make several colors.  The dough may be kept a long period of time if tightly covered.  It will not stick to fingers and is pliable.

Fun Fridays!

I wrote this a week ago but my pictures wouldn't upload correctly and I'm just now getting around to trying again!
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I am looking forward to Fridays this summer! We are hoping to get together lots with Cooper, Tucker & Talon (and Jennifer & Courtney). Last Friday was the first installment of our "fun day Fridays" and we went to the Children's Hands On Museum with Tucker, Talon & Courtney. Jenn & Cooper couldn't join us and we missed them! We had a great time and I think we're going to sign up for a summer membership so we can go back often! I posted some pictures from our visit below.


Today, we had another "fun day Friday!" We missed out on lunch at Chick-fil-A with the rest of the crew but they came to our house this afternoon and the kids played play-doh and bubbles and ran around in the sprinkler outside while the moms got to visit! Talon was such a sweet baby and managed to take a little snooze! It was so fun watching them all play... I think they had a great time, and I know I did too! We ended the day with dinner at Jalapeno's with Jenn & Cooper before they drove back home. I didn't take a single picture today though! Maybe next time.

Funny Faces.

Addy likes to make faces sometimes.  She gets this from Courtney.  Her newest funny faces are the "cute smile" and the "goofy smile" and she (usually) does them on command... here are a few shots to demonstrate.

Cute smile... scrunched up nose, squinty eyes, cheesy grin (and notice the cute pigtails to add to the look!)

Goofy Smile... wide open mouth, which quickly turns into an "I'm proud of myself" smile

Once Again...

Cute Smile...

Goofy Smile!

Back to the Farm...

We went to Centreville to see Courtney's grandparents for a belated Mother's Day visit last Sunday.  Addy had the MOST fun playing outside all day.  She loves being outside... she usually requests to go outside in the morning soon after waking up!  We all had fun being together since we hadn't seen some aunts/uncles/cousins since Christmas and hadn't ever met Baby Sophie on the LeCroy side of the family! As always, the food was delicious and we were worn out by the end of the day!

Melanie & Myron gave Addy a special bracelet!

Aunt Melanie

Myron liked Addy's book!

Nanny had this cute rocker and Addy enjoyed rocking Julie (her baby, who is truly a member of the family!)

Moo cows!

Getting to pet "Lucky" the cow

MOOOOO

Family photo

Addy had the most fun running around in this thing that they put salt in for the cows

Peekaboo!

Baby Sophie - so precious!

Mother's Day

This Mother's Day, we had both our moms (and dads) over to eat dinner.  It was nice to have everybody in one place and not be rushing around and watching the clock to make sure we got to see all the family!  Courtney grilled out for us and we had kebabs, grilled mushrooms, asparagus, strawberry salad, fruit and yummy key lime cake for dessert! 

Sunday picture

Giving Mia a picture frame with our picture from the beach

Helping JJ open her card

Playing in the band with KK!

Pop's Birthday

A few weeks ago, we had dinner at Cypress Inn for Pop's Birthday.  Addy acted the best she has at dinner since before she could walk... so I hope we are breaking into a new era of eating out (and I hope me saying that doesn't jinx us!)  For awhile, she has been kind of hard to take out to eat because she would be ready to get up and move around right about the time our food came so one of us always ended up going to walk around with her and missing the meal while the other one ate alone!  Last year, we ate at Cypress Inn for Mia's birthday and had an incident (see this post) and this time we sat at the same table but thankfully nothing embarassing happened!

We walked down by the river after dinner

Reading a book with Mia

She "helped" Pop open gifts

Sitting in her new chair at Mia's house

Beach!

Last weekend, we were in Sandestin enjoying the beautiful weather!  It was Addy's fourth trip to the beach (I think?) but probably the first one where she was actually old enough to enjoy it!  We mostly played in the sand... the ocean was too cold and the pool was not a huge hit this time (which was fine with me!)  When Addy first stepped into the sand, she said "UH OH, foot dirty, get off!" but once we told her it was supposed to get on her foot and it was okay, she quickly got the hang of playing with the sand toys.  She wore her pink sunglasses all the time when we were outside and even with 50 SPF, she got a little tan.  We were glad Mia & Pop let us tag along... we had a great time!

Excited to be at the beach!!

Lounging... the sun and sand wore her out!

Cheese!

Playing in the sand...

Addy's favorite tool was this purple shovel.  She would use it to "cut" whatever sand creation we came up with!

Courtney & Addy played a LOT in the sand!

Miss Priss posing with hands on her hips

Addy had fun with Mia & Pop!

Courtney & Addy



Family Photo, take 1: failed!



Take 2: much better! 

Happy Birthday to Pop...

Pop's birthday was this week and since he was out of town working, we sent him this little birthday message...

Helpless!

As everyone knows, horrible storms affected the southeast U.S. last Wednesday, April 27.  Tuscaloosa was hit especially hard along with many other rural (and not so rural) areas of our state and the surrounding states.  All three of us were home when the big tornado came to Tuscaloosa and although we weren't in the path of the storm, we were in our safe place and watching as the devastation came into our city.  At that point, all we could do was pray for the people that were in harm's way.  It was a helpless feeling!

I have been AMAZED at all the efforts this past week... so many people are helping all over the place and in so many ways.   There is still a long way to go but it is so encouraging to hear and see everything that is happening around us. 

I have had a heavy heart for the children that were casualties of the tornado (and their families that may have survived them).  Last night, I read something in Radical by David Platt that God used to speak to me and I thought I would share in case it might help someone else.  In the chapter, Platt was teaching that "Life is Radical when Death is Reward" and the point was that risking much and living radically become common sense once we consider the reward promised in Christ.  He told the story of a twenty-something who traveled to other parts of the world spreading the gospel instead of embracing the "American dream" to stay here and get a job and get married.  The girl in the story died in a bus accident and as Platt points out, many people (including me) would look at this as a tragedy... but he says that Christ's perspective is much different because when she breathed her last breath, this young woman was "ushered into the presence of Christ.  There she glimpsed his glory in an amazing beauty that you and I cannot even begin to fathom."  When I read that, I thought of those babies and young children that were taken from this earth and just had a rejoicing in my heart that although people here are sad that they are no longer with us, they are with Jesus in heaven!  I realize that the book was trying to convey a different message but I think God reminded me that I was being so focused on the world and needed to concentrate on heaven instead.  Deep thoughts tonight!

Here are a few pictures of the relief efforts that have been going on at our church.  Please continue to pray for all those affected by the storms.

This was the view of the gym at Five Points on Tuesday afternoon

Lots of paper towels and toilet paper... but they were hot items!

Toiletries station... making up bags of toiletry items to pass out to individuals... I was amazed at the amount of toothpaste and bar soap that had been donated! 

Video of Addy "Jumping"

I wish I could take the sound off because I don't like listening to myself on the video but this clip of Addy attempting to jump makes me laugh! 

Lots of New Pictures!

I finally caught up on lots of pictures we took in April but I backdated the blog posts so they would be in order!  Here are links to the most recent posts (or you can just keep scrolling down!)

Easter Sunday
Egg Hunt
Easter Egg Adventure
Birmingham Zoo
Visit to Centreville & Brent
The Barnyard
Dad's Birthday