Happy birthday, Abbie! :)

My cute little flower girl is 5!

I love you, Ab!

A Trip to the Sip :)

Since I can't seem to fall asleep tonight, I decided to blog a little bit... :)

We took a trip to my hometown the week of July 4th. We had a Sip-n-See for my niece, Lexi, a relaxing week by the pool, a night out for our 3rd anniversary, and a baby shower for my friend, Azlyn. :) It was a busy week, but it was fun to be home. :)

Here are some pics from our trip:

We got to visit with my Maw Maw. She LOVES Addie... can you tell? :)

Four (patriotic) generations :)

My baby girl and me with my parents and grandparents :)

This picture makes me happy and sad all at the same time. 

Maw Maw cannot follow directions, by the way.

See what I mean? I guess my Dad is the same way. :) ha

Addie said "ooo" and "look" about a million times... we saw two nights of fireworks. :)

She couldn't figure out the shovel, so she opted for putting the sand in the bucket by hand. :)

Sweet pic of Lexi with her Mommy at the Sip-n-See

The guest of honor was tired! :)

Addie with the girls at the party... she loves playing with other kids, especially now that she can walk!

Addie LOVED the pool! She wanted to swim every day... 

She checked out my Mama's flower beds a lot, too. :)

More pics to come... we had a family photo session on the beach. The pics are precious, but I'm finally tired. :)

Happy 18 months, Addie!

I simply cannot believe it's been 18 months! A year and a half. Holy cow.

Here's our little munchkin at 18 months.

Weight: 20 pounds, 10 ounces!

(Dr. Huss didn't think she'd hit 20 lbs... he was excited to see that she had!)

...AND we are officially in the 6th percentile for weight! Wahoo! Mamas of preemies, you know how exciting this is!! Praise the Lord!

Height: 31 inches (31st percentile... shocker! ha)

Head circumference: big. The girl is in the 98th percentile. :) So what if her Mama wore the same size graduation cap as the biggest guy in her graduating class AND she had to special order her hats for dancing. Big deal.

*Her pediatrician was so pleased with her development! It was very encouraging to us to hear. This was the first well visit that we actually got to "check-off" most of the milestones... we usually only have one or two. Praise Jesus for bring her so far in just 18 months... :)

Diaper size: 3

Shoe size: 3 (but getting very close to moving to a 4)

Clothes size: 9 month or 6-9 month; 12 month pjs

This has been a major month in Addie's development (as evident in this picture of one of her new "tricks" :)... we sat and made a list of all of the things she says/does. These are mainly for our benefit so I don't have to write them down. :)

Things she names/says:

bah (ball)

nigh-nigh (night night)

chis (cheese)

shoes

tos (toast)

hah dog (hot dog)

no

yes

hello! (when the phone rings)

hi! (when someone waves)

hat

dog

kitty

walk

wook! (look)

help!

duck 

A-Duh (Addie)

bebe (baby)

uh-oh

oh no!

ouch!

tuh-tee (cookie)

wah-wah (water)

ta-ta (thank you)
As-lin (Azlyn)
doctor (she says it...plain as day. Crazy.)

Babe (she calls me this sometimes... she heard Eric calling me Babe, and she picked up on it. Adorable.)

Signs:

more

milk

please

all done

thank you (sometimes... this one is new)

She can point to her hair, head, nose, toes, ear, belly, and knee... she can show her tongue and point to herself when we say her name. She also calls her name when she sees herself in pictures. She names her cousin Abbie, too. :) Believe it or not, we can tell the difference when she says their names. She and Ab are the two who never get confused!

She can do the dog and elephant sounds--mostly when she sees them in a picture or on TV. She makes a fun sound when she takes a big bite of food (my Mama says it sounds like Pac Man), and she does the refreshing "Ahhh!" when she takes a sip of her drink. :)

She can "pat, pat, pat" and "blastoff" with the Baby Einsteins, and she can do the Hot Dog Dance with Mickey Mouse. :) She can sing with us (she says, "La! La! La!"). 

She also loves the Chipettes, and she'll drop everything to dance to "Put a Ring On It!" She'll even say the "oh, oh, oh" part with the girls. :)

If she hears the phone ring, she says (loudly), "Hello? Hello?" until someone answers it.

If you tell her to go to the tub for bath time, she heads right to the tub. :)

When she has a stinky diaper, we'll say "Shoo-wee!" and she'll wave her hand in front of her face. Her Daddy loves this one. Men are weird.

She'll blow kisses, waves bye-bye, and give hugs... and even give kisses. :)

She tickles baby feet when she sees them... she practiced with cousin Lexi, and she did the same with Jacob at the shower! It was cute! She even said, "Shh!" when Jacob was sleeping... which is crazy because the girl doesn't have an inside voice.

She has begun to recognize family members in pictures... I like to work on this one since we have such big families and she's going to have to get a head start learning all of us. :)

She quickly learns peoples names, and she can either say their names or look right to the person we are asking her to find.

She can follow commands pretty well lately... she'll clean up, put on her hat, bring us things, wipe her face, brush off her hands, etc.

Addie did a lot of swimming this past month! She loves the water, and she even completed her first swimming lessons. :) I'm glad she seems to be a "water baby." I'm going to make sure to expose her to the pool as much as we can while the weather is hotter than sin warm.

This girl also loves the beach! This was taken on our trip to my hometown (which I will post about later). We went to the beach, and--to be honest--I wasn't expecting her to love it like she did... thus, the lack of preparation on my part. She had no swimsuit, so she just went for it in her shirt and her diaper. She had a BLAST! :)

Not sure which she likes more... swimming or snacks during our swimming time??

One more thing... notice anything different about this pretty face??

Yes, my big girl got her ears pierced! We were at the doctor today and Eric mentioned it to the doc. He casually said, "Well, Kim pierces ears here!" Well, that made our decision so easy! We love Nurse Kim! We were pumped and Addie did just fine. She only cried for a few minutes, and she's been great (and looking precious) ever since! I can't believe she looks so "growny" with those things in her ears!

Addie,

Seriously. You are the best thing that has ever happened to us! We love you to pieces and can't thank God enough for letting us take care of you!

Love,

Mama and Daddy

Here's why I don't have time to blog...

I'm too busy chasing this munchkin... :)

Addie is a full-time walker, and she is fast! She's into everything and having so much fun exploring things from this new perspective! We had a wonderful trip to MS, a fabulous 4th of July, and an amazing 3rd anniversary... hopefully, I'll get to blog about those soon! :)

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday with friends and family! Thank you to all of our military men and women who help us keep the freedoms we cherish every single day! 
God Bless America!