Christmas

We had fun for Christmas. John's parents came over and had breakfast with us, and then watched Addison open her presents. Just an update on the snow thing, yeah, it was white for Christmas day, but the next it reached like 70 and all the snow melted and everything was slushy. It snowed again the next day!

I love her eyes in this shot

Having a tantrum before church

Just a crazy shot.

Jingle Bells

She's a natural Tomkinson! Now I just need to find the music!

It Snowed

I have mixed feelings about the whole snow thing.

1. I HATE to clean my car off in the winter time.
2. It is really stinking cold right now.
3. I have not left the house for 3 days and am running low on milk and other perishables.
4. I am afraid of a repeat of last years ice storm.
5. Kansas weather is crazy, just last Saturday it was in the 60's
6. I have yet to have a White Christmas.
7. It's fun to play in, for about 30 sec. Then your hands freeze even with gloves on and the melted stuff gets in your shoes.
8. It's really pretty, until it gets dirty from all the traffic.
9. I do like to drink hot chocolate and watch a fire burn. We don't have a fireplace though, and who really needs the extra calories.

Ok, maybe I'm just really negative about it. I grew up in Arizona! I never had it snow for Christmas, and you could even go golf if that is your thing. I just really miss the heat. Morgan, If you read this, I will gladly trade you. Gas is just too expensive to heat your house to a non chilly point. I took Addison outside yesterday on our porch and after a min she started to freak out because her hand was freezing. Sorry John, I think we are going to have to veto the whole living in Kansas thing. I am so moving back to AZ someday!

Thanksgiving in Arizona

Ok, so it's been a couple of weeks, get over it. Here are some of the pictures from Thanksgiving at the Riggs. We went there because we love them, and my parents are in Honduras. I figured that would have been way to long of a drive for Addison to live through.

Decorating the tree for FHE
I love the way John bowls, he is so graceful.

Driving the mini van. He loved every minute of it. Our Expedition was in the shop because of the accident still so the dealership was so kind and gave us this to replace it.

Keeping her entertained for 20 hours is harder then you would think

John has been wanting to take the girls bowling ever since they beat him on the Wii

She loves to be out side

This was her favorite toy while we were there. I just love the John smirk!

Trisha, I mean Kristen teaching piano. Yeah, thanks, now she knows how to lift up ours!

John also helped Rusty tile their office. It was great because now he can do our house. We also say Shane and Sam for a little bit and Ed and Rachel's fam. Overall it was a lot of fun and I hope that we can do it again some time.

My Toddler

So, this is my little toddler. She is now by definition one, though she still acts like a big baby sometimes. Oh, and we have been working on the word baby. I watch a 2 month old for about 16 hours a week and so I have been teaching Addison that we have to be gentle with the baby. The other day I found her practising her b sounds so I just kept saying baby over and over again. she is starting to put sounds together and recognize things. Whenever I say "where's Dada" she looks at the front door expecting him to walk in. It is so cute. She is now climbing. I have mixed emotions about this.

Middle of November and my grass is still GREEN

Birthday Girl

Addison is now one year old. Only 17 more to go! Ok, not really but some days I feel that way. She is all over the house, yard and other kids. She only stops to eat(and that is minimal), observe other kids, and when she is forced to crash for a while (sleep). We had lots of fun watching her demolish the traditional 1st birthday cake with a few friends and family. She was more into making a mess then eating. I also got to talk to my mom and dad all the way in Honduras, it was just so exciting to here their voices. I know I don't write them enough and I'm sorry, but I still love you. I just can't get over how much I love this little girl. It has been so much fun having her in our family, and I know she is very loved by all. So Happy Birthday Addison! We love you!

Sleeping in until 10!

Addison's best friends

Arizona

We are going to Arizona for Thanksgiving. That means that anyone who is going to be there and wants to see us needs to let me know. But if you don't want to see us, that's ok, I really don't like you that much anyway!

New Shoes

Addison now wants to walk all the time, isn't very good at it yet but wants to all the same. She won't keep her socks on if she is contained for more than a min. so I decided that even though she really isn't ready for shoe she needs them in order to be able to walk around outside our home. Here are some pictures of the cute little thing doing what she does best.

Just really cute, she couldn't stop giggling

Today

Yeah, so Addison is now walking. Not all the time but she is definitely mastering her fears and self confidence issues. That is a lot for an 11 month old to handle. Also, one other thing I forgot to mention about Halloween. We got in an accident. We are perfectly fine and the car is only a little hurt, it is just a major inconvenience. So I guess more news to come on each o these things as they unfold, though the whole walking thing will probably not produce much in the way of news so much as just more of the same exciting thing. I guess I will have to start putting her in shoes when we go out.

Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone. I hope you all had a great time, we did. Our festivities started on Wed. night at the ward party. Then on Friday night we went out with Grandma Downs (dad had to work). I think I have the cutest little chick ever, but the pictures speak for themselves.

Farmer John and his Chick
All the cute little animals

So this one is driving from the mall. Addison had stole a piece of the candy from he bucket and fussed whenever I tried to take it away. So I just let her have it. It was mini M&Ms and by the time she fell asleep with them in her mouth they were completely melted. I gave those to John.

Walking Girl

Ok so not quite, but she is really close and even took a few steps the other day without help. The blog worthy part of it is this. We were at play group at the church and my friend who used to watch her was there and playing with her. side note, I don't know why but Alisha's little girl can always make Addison laugh. It is the coolest thing. Anyway, she asked if Addison was walking yet and I said not on her own. She happened to be holding her up and right then she looked at me and just started coming toward me. She took like 4 steps before going down. I swear she did it out of spite. She's so her dad!!

I had bought a cute headband for Addison to wear for Halloween, but she can't stand anything on her head. It's really me fault, I never put those silly little baby ones on her head when she was younger. I just don't like them that much, and she always had plenty of hair. But it did keep her busy for about a minute!

Thanks Janie

Our friend Janie is the cutest Aunt to her nieces, and decided to send Addison a Halloween card along with a dollar bill. She really liked it.

Here are some pictures to catch you up. I have been kind of busy, but mostly just can't find 30 min. to come downstairs and download them.

The first 2 are of Addison doing what she love best, emptying a box full of something. She does it several times a day to her books, toys and my boxes of stuff all around the house. It is quite fun to watch though. She will take out each item individually and look at is for a second before throwing as far as she can chuck it behind her. John hopes that's a sign of good motor skill for sports, though I can't recall any that require you to though something behind you.

This is just crazy hair Addison. I comb her hair like this after baths so it doesn't mat down and develop gross stuff. John thinks it's weird.

What's Going On

Ok, so it's been a while, but I really don't have much to tell. I did a Visiting Teaching conference last week that consumed all my extra time. Addison is walking with the help of just one finger, but no step on her own yet. I keep trying to convince her she can do it, she is physically capable, but just lacks the confidence. What are you going to do with that 11 month old who lacks confidence. John had a week off from house work, he had too much other stuff to catch up on. My yard is almost cleared of shingles. It has taken hours and many dumps to get rid of them. I just want to be able to mow my lawn again. It is getting colder. We have already turned on the heater at night because John is paranoid that Addison will get too cold. I think that he has forgotten that she emits about 1000 btus. My point was, fall is here. The leaves are changing, the grass is dying, and it is usually beautiful weather for walks. We have been taking a walk almost everyday. This is for both me and Addison. Addison because she loves to be out side, but tends to eat the grass. Me because by 4pm I need a break from the baby talk/whining. I have found that it takes a half an hour to get her to fall asleep. Sorry, we really are quite boring.

FYI: I am working on some bread recipes to post.

Big Girl PJs

OK, so my sister Trisha Has 3 girls and because she doesn't plan on having any more she gave me all of her clothes up to 3 years. Yes, I have 3 years worth of clothes for Addison stashed in my basement in size coordinated boxes (Kim, you'd be proud). Its kind of like our year supply, but just clothes instead. Anyway, because of this I have had to buy very few, as in like 4 actual outfits, clothes for the little one. (This has been a huge help and I really appreciate all of it and can't wait to pass it on to the next girl in the family, hint hint Amy) It is mostly just supplemental items that bring some of the pieces together. Addison just keeps on growing though, the darn girl, and already needs some 12 month clothes for length. I brought up the 12 month box specifically to find pjs for her. There was one pair. One. In the 0-3 month I could change her pjs every day and not have to wash for 2 weeks. Now I have one. People, when bestowing the much beloved and cute little baby shower gifts on mothers to be, PLEASE think ahead. They grow out of the little stuff way too fast and you just end up with a very large, slightly used pile of 0-6 month clothes. OK, rant over, back to my original point of the post. I had to go and buy a couple of pjs for Addison, which is a whole different therapy session because I am way cheap and don't see why stores feel they have the right to charge $25 or more for an outfit that is made with a 1/3 of the material of an adult sized version. Anyway, Addison looks way cute and way grown up. She no longer looks like a baby, but instead a little girl. The End.

This is Her showing us her driving skills, she pushes it all around the floor.

Front Porch

My home is a construction site! We have been doing so much work to the house it is ridiculous. John has been busy doing something every night for the past 2 weeks. We have some guys John works with working on the roof, and in order to do that we needed to fix the front porch. Fixing turned into completely redoing because John has befriended a contractor who was sick of doing just paper work and knows nothing about cars. That, by the way, is my wood anniversary present. Then, while they were taking the shingles off some fell and hit our outside water spout. We had a lake quickly forming in our back yard and didn't know where the shut off valve was. A plumber friend come over and helped with that. Thankfully John has lots of friend in different fields of work. I am very grateful for that (I have very few friends).

And all this is going on while I am trying to get licenced for daycare. I'm just grateful that they haven't call to come and inspect yet because there are so many hazards in the yard alone. I am watching a friend's little girl for about 3 hours a day. She is 7 months old and so different from Addison. It's fun though. I really haven't gotten much of the million things I want to do done, it still just feels like a long weekend.

Happier note, Addison stood for about 15 second unsupported today.

Pictures

Here are some pictures a friend took of Addison while babysitting. She apparently thought she was a dog that day. I love her bright eyes!