Friday, January 28, 2011

Video Cameras Rolling

This blog is for my dearest friend who requested a little dose of Addison on the blog :)

I love this little girl more than words could ever come close to describing, she is so sweet and BONUS...a RIOT!

Sticking her tongue out. She can make a monkey face/noise but I couldn't get her to do it here.



She gets so shy on camera hence the grin and roll away. She really will stomp more than once but this is the best I could capture on camera.


Every time she hears "dance, dance, dance" this is what we get


I caught her monkey face at the beginning of this video and then it took her a while to do it again, HA!!! You can almost hear her trying to get "bye bye" out but it comes out as "dada".

The New Place---FINALLY

I received an anonymous request that my blog was in need of an update, so here we go and I hope this will do. However I think they meant one of Little Joy :)...soon soon soon!

We moved from our apartment to our new place in October but between the holidays and everything else I have not had time to take pictures without Christmas decorations up. We absolutely love the new place. It is the perfect size for us, not too big and not too small. We are in a fabulous area: walking distance to pool, play grounds and elementary school (should we stay here that long), close to our church, lots of places to go walking and close to our favorite suburb in D.C. The best part (to us) is we are still renting, I still cannot describe how it feels to still be 100% debt free. Perhaps one day the Lord will lead us to buy a home again but for now we rest in his current glorious plan!

Below is a "tour" of the new place...enjoy and by all means, COME VISIT and see our nation's capital!


End unit. Only bad thing about this is, we have much more snow to shovel than non-end units :)

MAIN LEVEL

Living room to right as you enter and stairs up to your left.

Living room facing front of house and back to kitchen entry

Eat-in dining area

Kitchen with dining behind you. Complete with half bath in a totally awkward area (but we are thankful to have a half bath on the main level) and a huge pantry!!

Off the kitchen/dining area. This is our favorite part...we used it tons in the fall!

Stairs down to the grass for Piper. No more leash to let her out AND we do not have to climb to the basement level to let her out like in most places we saw. YAY!

BASEMENT LEVEL
Large recreational room, TONS of storage, laundry room, full bath

Basement level full bath. The laundry room is in a separate room down the hall and although I do not like having to climb so many stairs to do laundry I am SO INCREDIBLY THANKFUL for a full sized washer and dryer again. In the apartment I had to do laundry every other day just to keep up, no I only do it once a week.

Recreation room/guest quarters side

Recreation room/office side of the room. Its a great place to work out too because its so big.

SECOND FLOOR
2 "Master Bedrooms" joined by a jack and jill styled full bath with tub and double sinks.

Our room.

Our room. That door leads to the jack and jill bath which joins our room with Addison's.


Addison's very own room!!!!! No sharing right now!!! YAY!!! Have I mentioned how much I LOVE that glider?!?!!? Oh man, it changed my life when we bought it upon our move in.

Addison's room and her lounging in it. She gets this pose from her Daddy.
She has two huge closets; we use one for her and one for all the outgrown clothes and paraphernalia. However, right now we have a friend borrowing everything...I LOVE that someone is getting to use our things. Seems like such a waste since babies only wear and use things for such a short time.

In case anyone was wondering what I am doing with all Addison's monthly pictures, here you go. This is hanging in Addison's room.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Blowing Kisses to Daddy

Addison's new "trick"...she even makes the sweetest "mmm-wah" noise when she "throws" the kiss!


Monday, January 10, 2011

Merry Christmas

Addison's big girl chair from Mia and Papa!

Yet again, SO overdue on this blog!

Our first Christmas was about a week and a half long; doesn't bother because I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas!! We did our Christmas in DC then some in TN then more in DC.

Christmas in D.C.
We started our Christmas off by selecting a REAL Christmas tree from a local nursery. Addison seemed to enjoy walking around looking at the trees. We did not waste anytime decorating the Grant Gang Christmas tree with hand me down and hand made ornaments! This is only the second Christmas Matthew and I have even spent together so we did not have tons of ornaments; we will try to get a few new ones each year to build up our eclectically decorated tree!


Picking out the perfect tree.


Da Tree!
Family pic in front of the tree


During my brother's visit we made a trip into downtown to see the National Christmas tree. It was FREEZING; it took Addison about 20 minutes to realize that she has to lay back in her stroller to stay warm! We were not able to get up close to the tree because the President was due to fly in on the helicopter so much of the area near the White House was closed, but that's ok---we got close enough!

The Capitol.

Addison, my brother and I at the National Christmas Tree.

BURRR...it was COLD!!!

Santa visited Addison early since this was her very first Christmas; he stopped by our house on December 18!!! Addison got very good at opening presents; however this first video below was too funny not to share!

Head banging gift

Piano present from Santa

Christmas in Gatlinburg, TN
Since Addison did not reeeally understand what was going on for Christmas THIS year, we decided we would take a road trip!!! Matthew, Addison and my brother (aka Mateo by Addison) drove from D.C. to Gatlinburg (about 8 hours) to meet up with my parents. All things considered....Addison was a trooper. We enjoyed several days of jamming to Rock Band, lots of good food, family time, 60 hours of snowing...and much more! We got so much snow that we got snowed in and stayed for an extra day and half! I am SO glad that we decided to make the drive and I am so glad that the Matt's didn't murder me for stressing out in the care when Addison was fussy----they love me :)

It was a big time in Gatlinburg for Miss Addison!!! She said her first word: OUT, she got a big girl chair and she became quite attached to her Mia. When Mia was within reach she wanted to be touching her; she didn't want to be held...just a simple hand on her. So Sweet.

I cannot wait until Christmas 2011!!!!!!!!!!

Pro at present opening now.

Playing in the snow.
Trying to make a snow angel

The snow angel...errrr blob



Her new travel high chair

Shopping

Oh how she loves that bear

PROOF that I can survive on EXPERT...yeah...thats me with 83% on expert guitar, whats up???

What a GREAT Christmas...I say this a lot but...we are blessed.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Thanksgiving 2010


Wow, I am so behind on blogging that I am even doing it out of order. At any rate, here we go on the cliff notes version of our first Thanksgiving as a family of three (er, well...maybe not so cliff notes).

Orginally, I had planned on staying Mississippi two weeks after Thanksgiving since Matthew would have two weeks of training, but at the last minute his training was canceled. So, we changed our flights so that we did not have to be separated unnecessarily!

The flight to MS was a little more difficult than our last flying experience with Addison. BUT she really never cried; she just got antsy! I must remind myself that Addison's worst moment is probably some babies best moments; we are blessed.

We spend the first part of our week and half in Mississippi with Matthew's family. His sister's family, grandmother, aunt and uncle all came over for an early Thanksgiving meal with us. Addison and her cousin played SO well together (they are almost 10 months apart in age). Addison tends to take a backseat and be submissive when there is another child around, she just watches them closely. Analyzes. Allows them to lead.

We enjoyed a Mannheim Steamroller concert with my parents and brother while Grandma Grant babysat Addison. Babysitters is a rare treat for us, so it was almost odd not to have A.J. with us. Grandma Grant also watched A.J. while Matthew and I had breakfast together one morning; we cherish and are thankful for our alone time!! While with his family we had a chance to see some of our friends too.

After several days with the Grants, we packed up and headed to the traditional Gambrell Thanksgiving. My entire Gambrell extended family meets at my grandmothers house.my parents house for Thanksgiving every year. I look forward to this time every year; especially this year! I was thrilled for Addison to meet all her second cousins and great aunts and uncles; it was such a special time. Selfishly, I wish I had been able to spend more time with my cousins but my motherly duties kept me busy so the time I had with them was short, but LOVELY!!!

We ended our trip by having a "Friends" thanksgiving with Matthew's friends from High School and College (well, they are all my friends now too!). I LOVE that he is still so close to many friends from high school!

The trip home to D.C. was QUITE an experience. After delays.....we finally got home about 2:30 am, we had one tired baby!!!!!! Thanksgiving was wonderful!

Grandma and Grandpa Grant with Addison. I love how every picture with the three of them is everyone laughing and smiling so big!!


Grandma Grant with Addison; we think she gets her smile from her :)

This is Addison's Gigi (Matthew's grandmother). I LOVE this picture, because they have the same look on their face. They are kindred spirits or something; since the first time Addison met her she has always smiled the MOST for her. ALSO, they share the same birthday AND the name we had chosen if Addison was a boy, was after her. SO SWEET!!


Playing at Grandma Grant's daycare; there is always something FUN here!

Tea Party with cousin Lyla.

Tea party!

Lyla looks like she is deciding what to eat while Addison is being a ham for the camera.

SO SWEET, they loved hugging!!!

RE-introducing the cousins. Addison was SO excited when she saw Lyla; all she wanted to do was touch her.

Fun in a wagon!

Uncle Tim with Addison.

Swinging with Daddy; she is always lounging!

Second cousin Brittany took time away to spend with just Addison and we had so much fun!

Thanksgiving day at "Gambrell Manor"

Eating at "Gambrell Manor" she is the third generation in the Gambrell family to eat in this high chair!