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I am having blog mind overflow. 

Last weekend was Thanksgiving. I haven't even uploaded those photos yet, probably not going to happen till after her party. Sorry bout it. 

The week before we were home I don't even remember what happened, and the weekend before that we went to NJ to help my parents clean up their property from Sandy. I don't think I posted those pictures. 

I feel like I would pay someone in food to just organize my home life during open enrollment because work consumes my brain during almost all the waking hours and some of the night hours too! 

For now I am prepping for Addison's first birthday party this week. I have to head to the party store and Michaels one more time and bake and cook a bunch of stuff. Tomorrow will be an all nighter for sure. 

It will be an awesomely awesome 1st birthday though. I just love this little muffin that we made so much I want to make sure everything is just so. She is changed our lives so dramatically and we wished for her so deeply. It only seems fitting to create the most magical biggest celebration we can for her - and for our family. I have caught slack from people about putting so much effort into this party but ya know its not just for her, its a celebration of where my family has come in the last year. We welcomed our first child, we grew together. I got to see first hand my husband morph into a father and I learned to be a mother. Your train of thought becomes more defined. At least mine did. My career became just my career and my family had a bigger importance. I have learned more about myself and what I am capable of. I am learning to take time for me and manage life. I have never felt so blessed before, I remember feeling so lucky on my wedding day and so in love but growing a child with the man I adore is just more than I can put into words. 

We have all grown - separate and together. Addison is walking and understanding more, everyday its something more. The best part is I get to see this miracle before my very eyes every day. 

Back to work for the day and then more prepping. 

Here is a few iphone photos to brighten your day. 

RAWR I ran out of space so I uploaded them to shutterfly and they are showing below. DARN google.  Fail. 

November Instagram

Click here to view these pictures larger

The big scary grouchy event planner

There are times when I freak. I am predisposed to freaking. Its in my blood. Thanks Parents!

This week is a freak week. Work is on the low end as we just had a big deadline - phew. Back from a holiday all relaxed and refreshed. Nope.

Email chain from dear husband and I:

 ______________________________

She - Don’t think I will go to Yoga today, really starting to feel the pressure for the partay. Andrea said she will come over to help after she puts lilly down. 

He - I’ll start making stars as soon as Addie goes down as well.

She - Ok I am going to head to Michaels after work, grab some vase filler for the trees, paper, tulle, stickers, and lollipop sticks. Then we can bang out the snowflakes and finish the sticks tonight and I can start to make food Wednesday night.

I also want to print pictures of her from each month, sometime this week. 

He - If we have the spray paint readily available I can take them in the basement when you get home (or after Addie goes down) and spray ‘em super quick.

She - I want them to be white, if we have white, even the primer I don’t care.

 Thanks love.

-         - The big scary grouchy event planner

He- No need for the signature, I knew who was writing me. J

   ______________________________

True love ladies and gents.

Addison Mary is turning one year old in 12 days. 

Unbelievable. 

Preview of the Santa pics! 

Thanksgiving Week

Thanksgiving is in two days.

We are driving to Maine. 8 hours. Yikes.

Tonight we are packing the car and turning Addison's seat to forward facing. Wow.

Time is flying.

I am feeling very blessed and thankful, very excited to see my family and have Addison meet a whole bunch of family. Not so much looking forward to the car ride, but we will make the most of it.

Work is crazy as its Open Enrollment, but its just another year. Nose to the grind stone.

Stella ate half of the cheesecake for Dans work this morning. Great start to the day.

I am knee deep in party planning for the birthday girl but I have a trusty sidekick, who is SUCH A SUPER HELP. Best part is her baby girl and Addie are a few weeks apart so we are tag teaming this partay.

When I have a minute I will be sure to update on all the cuteness. Just you wait.

Have a very safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

We love you all!

Thanks

Motivational Quote of the Day

"If you are too busy to spend time with your children then you are busier than God intended you to be." Rabbi Mendel Epstein

I received this in my inbox today. 

And I read this last night. 

Heaven is Real - T.C Burpo

Thank you God. 

Halloweenie!

So this was Addisons very first Halloween. It was a strange holiday due to its placement and Sandy ripping thru the East Coast. Nevertheless our little punkin dressed as a pumpkin and we took her trick or treating.

 We went to Aunt Jaimes house for some dinner and to hang out with the cousins before we went trick or treating! 

 Sophie and Addie Matched.

 Then we went trick or treating for the very first time!!!!!

Then it was Daddys turn...

 It was getting late so we took our little pumpkin home and visited the neighbors, before bed time.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for my basket!! Hope you have power soon from the hurricane. 

 Addie had some candy, too bad she can't eat it. And all of it was taken by the tax man (aka Mom and Dad)  anyway.

 We played and gave out lots of kisses while we were waiting to hand out candy.

We had a REALLY REALLY fun first halloween. I can't believe its November and soon her first birthday will be here.

But for now baby Addie is still 10 months old.

Lovely little weekend

This weekend I wanted to redo a toy box for our living room. I am very pleased with the outcome and for $5 for spray paint it was totally worth it. I have this piece between the couch and electronics so that our little rug rat stays where her toys are.

We had a really nice weekend, we had dinner out friday night as a cute little family. Saturday night we watched our niece and nephew, it was so strange having three kiddos sleeping upstairs.

Sunday we went to the corn maze and had some fall fun. Love!

Our little redneck weekend

All last week we were debating wether we should go or not go camping because Addie had a cold. It was pretty much Thursday night when we decided to bite the bullet and go. We both took half days on Friday and packed up the family. It took about 45 minutes to get to the campground which was very reasonable and we settled into our cabin. Dan joked that it was a tool shed and we could have just asked our brother in law to clean his out for the weekend but never-the-less its getting away. There was a full bed and a couch and enough room for a pack and play.

We walked the campgrounds to get familiar with the place and went to an early dinner as ms addie did not nap well in the afternoon. We went to the D and R depot restaurant, so quaint and cute. Packed full at 5 pm. The crowd was a little older so we stuck out with a baby, but she was waving to everyone and the old folks just eat her up. The bread was great and the salad was awesome! The main course left some to be desired but very much worth the trip. It was not very expensive which was a plus and while we were eating a train came by and they handed out free desert tokens because of the train. Very nice marketing.

Our cabin was in front of the playground and Addison loves the swings, she was smiling from ear to ear and laughing every time we pushed her. It was amazing. 

After dinner we put the baby to bed and relaxed out on the front porch with a bottle of wine. That we opened with a pair of scissors. Oops! It was a relatively quiet evening.

 Saturday morning the baby woke at 4 am and thankfully went back down after a bottle. We left the cabin around 7 30 to grab breakfast and hit up the local farmers market. I wish I brought my camera because a guy was doing a demonstration in a screened in box full of bees. Yep, kinda cool. Then it was back to the cabin for a nap.

Which did not happen so we packed up and went to the Genesee Country Village - at first I was mad that it was $15 a person to get in but after we walked around for 3 hours and got to see tons of cool things. I was very happy I had my camera, it was very real and they had tons of detail in every building. There was probably 50 buildings that were moved to this area to show off. Pretty cool! 

This was the kitchen and they were actually making johnny cakes and drying fruit. I asked if visitors can try the food and because they are not an inspected kitchen they could not... the pigs get it. The right side is the printing room. 

The right was a newer era home that was full of amazing items, the childrens room was so sweet too! We checked out the barrel makers place as well. 

There was a woman making cheese and the Kieffer house had a midwife and some medicines. 

Finally the little lady decided to take a cat nap in the stroller, and yes I put her in a tree, How cute though! 

After the village we went to the dirt track races... interesting to say the least. It was loud but it was something to do and it was right across the street from the campground so we walked over. Addison was very interested and watched the little kids fly around the race track.

She also debuted her clapping skills. Awww love! My little lady is getting so big! 

All in all it was a very nice weekend and a nice getaway. 

Happy Fall! Total Random-ness!

Smile!

We got some free stickers in the mail and baby girl liked them a lot. So much that Mommy and Daddy had a fun game of sticking them all over! 

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 Our backyard.... 

These pictures do not do this justice. AT ALL. But I guess it is somewhat funny being today is the first day of fall and all.

I came home Friday after work to find the trees in my backyard all beautifully trimmed. Now Dan and I have talked about getting it done because we had had some larger limbs fall in the last year and there were some stuck in the tree and the last thing we needed was a big branch crashing down on our cars. We just didn't want to chance it another winter so we bit the bullet. 

We told him we would take care of disposing the trimmings but geez I don't think I could have imagined that my backyard would look like a jungle. 

All in all, we get WAY more light in the backyard which is nice but we have a lot of work to do. 

Happy Fall. 

It is now official in our home! 

Firsts...

This weekend is one for the books, its just been relaxing and peaceful. Yes we have had lots to do as always but I didn't feel the rush rush rush of other weekends. Addie stayed on her nap schedule quite well and we did a lot.

Friday night I picked up Addie and Dan from the house and off to best buy we went to preorder the iPhone 5 for the mister. His last upgrade was about 3 years ago and it was just time. He should get it next week and although he denies it he was giddy. Now knowing this man for almost ten years I pretty much have his emotions down pat. When he talks loud (which is most of the time, but this loud is slightly different) fast and lots - he is excited. But I was happy, if I could give him the world I would. Then we went to a kids consignment shop and got the lil monster some new pants, a skirt and a jacket. Now I am sure many other people struggle with this but I have SO MANY CLOTHES that she wears maybe once. Most of the pants she owns dont even last one trip to the wash, what we end of finding is that they won't even go on. So we tried on some 18 month pants and they were a little snug so we went to 24 months but the length was too long. I joked about hemming them but seriously - I refuse to hem my 9 month olds pants. No. Final Answer. So we found some jeggings and a skirt. Stretchy pants are her new thing. Dan found a jacket with bunny ears, so cute. So we had to get it. We also found a walker which is something she can really use for $12. I love the consignment shops because most of the stuff looks so new.

Then we came home watched a few episodes of weeds and ate mexican food in our bed with the air conditioning on. It was perfect.

Saturday we woke up, walked to Wegmans made some pancakes, hit up Weight Watchers. I have lost 15 inches since July and last week I didn't weigh in because of camping but I was up one this week. No biggie. I am working on it. We came home and Addie napped and then we were off to her very first birthday party. I was really excited for her - well all of us - she didn't know the difference. She looked all preppy cute and Mom and Dad had to dress up too because from there we were dropping Addie off at Aunt Jaimes and we were off for a date!!! I have mentioned the swap nights before and this was ours. Dan had a place he wanted to take me and I was all for it. I looked nice and he cleaned up well and off to wherever we went. It ended up we were going to Bonefish Grill. YUM. Bang Bang shrimp, yes please.

This time last year I was preggo and not in any fear of loosing this baby. Looking back I was anxious and excited, we just came home from Oktoberfest and we talked about how I couldn't drink last year. It makes it seem so far away.

At Oktoberfest we ate lots of delicious food, drank a pitcher of beer and danced. It makes my heart melt to see Dan and Addie making memories and watching him dance with her was amazing.

Addison's first birthday party! Happy birthday Jacob!!

One of the best things about all these photos are the love that my friends have for my baby. Its so sweet to see our "family" grow and how those who are close to us get to see her grow! 

Now we went to bonefish for my birthday two years ago, I have a picture he took of me with a glass of wine. This was a month after the second miscarriage and little did I know I was pregnant with Addie. Love. The last time we went it was with Addison when she was maybe 3 months old, ya know when you can take them anywhere and they just sleep. Yeah it was within that time period. Now last night they sat us in the same booth as my birthday which was sweet and we ordered a bottle of wine and some shrimp. It came really quick, mind you we were there at like 5, can you say Early Bird Special. Ehh no big deal, we just have to keep our evenings earlier as we are at the mercy of the sleep schedule. After we ate our shrimp we waited and waited and waited. Now Dan ordered the pad thai special and I ordered the app special to eat as dinner. It was an hour and 15 minutes later when the manager came over to let us know it would be right out. GRRR. Hunger-yyy! Then it came out and it was so rushed. The flavors were ok but it just wasn't worth the long wait. So they very nicely told us that we did not need to pay for our meal. Sweet! Then we walked around the mall all buzzed and giggly at like 7pm. Ha.

Then we picked up our baby and came home. Such a nice weekend. I was talking to my sister in law about all her 'firsts' and how there are many but I feel like we are hitting them quickly and I will miss that feeling of it being so special. Then we got to talking about Justin who scored his first touchdown in football - mind you they are so super cute 5 year olds - and she was reassuring me that the firsts get even better with age.

Addie is 9 months old and starting to get a 'tude. Awesome.