More of this cutie pie, Miss Adaline

This is just our average Sunday. I came in to visit Joe at work and brought him dinner. So I had access to a computer and thought, "why not add some more pictures?"

Addie in the walker. Even thought the lights and noises don't work, she still gets a kick out of the buttons and toys.

Her first "piano recital". She loves this toy that Stephanie found for her. She gets excited, jabbers, and goes crazy pushing the buttons. She squeals a lot.

This a a dress my mom made me when I was a baby. It's so cute, with appliqued flowers, birds and hearts on the pinafore's neck and pocket.

Our family has reached a milestone....we bought a minivan!!

I know, I know what you are thinking, "they only have one child, what do they need a minivan for?" Well, Joe's car has been giving her all to us and has finally decided she's done. When Joe was still in Washington, his newly paid off truck quit on him. What was he going to do? He was a poor poor college student, barely making it by. I am not sure if he had his part time job at the bank or not yet. He needed a miracle, and he got it. He bought this 1990 Buick Le Sabre for $325 from a widow. She is not a beauty, that's for sure. Joe's dad was going to pass her up, but Joe asked him to just take her for a drive. And she purred like a kitten. She is Joe's "faithful tithe miracle" and he has enjoyed her since!!

This is her the day we sold her to the garage.

When he told me about his purchase, I told him he needed to give her a name. And he came up with "Linda" (not knowing my mom's name yet). And she has been amazing! We kept saying, "if only Linda can make it until we graduate, we will be happy."And it was around June that she started really having issues and we started to look for a car. Around 5 1/2 years later, and she fulfilled our request.

Joe saying goodbye to his old friend.

I am not going to lie, I got teary eyed! So silly, crying over a car! But hey, we get attached! We name them....

We want to have more children anyways, so why not plan ahead and buy a minivan? Mon Cherie (my 2000 Cavalier that I have had since I was 19, Jan 2001) is too cramped in the back seat. When I am back there, trying to take care of Addie, it's a bit frustrating. So we thought it would be nice to get more space.

And we bought our first car that we looked at!! LOL, Joe researched online, we made a budget and named what were deal breakers. Needless to say there weren't a lot of cars available that fit that list! So we bought a 2006 Toyota Siena for $9500. We were really excited, took her for a drive and felt like this was a perfect deal for us. We have loved her so far! We still need to come up with a name. She is white, has 8 seats, the back 2 rows fold down flat, and I have so much room next to Addie who sits in the middle of the row. It's wonderful!!

Well, and just to add some more fun,

Promoted to Big Sister!! 2+2=4

We are expecting another baby!! LOL, Joe and I found out June 26th, our 4 year anniversary! Anyways, we are so excited. Addie has been a tremendous joy for us. We want to have around 4 kids, so we thought why wait? It would be fun to have them close in age. And that way we have a few more years to plan the next 2, in case one of them is a handful. And because people have already guessed/found out we were pregnant, I thought why not just add a post here.

This is the shirt that I made to share the news the weekend of the Fourth. I thought it was a fun idea, but it didn't land that well. LOL, I needed to pick of the supplies for the shirt when we headed to town,but that weekend was when we were going to Arimo. So when we went shopping for the supplies, I told mom I was just working on a project. I put it together Monday night, so I could let it dry for in the morning. Well dad had already headed out to work by the time we got up. So I thought, well, we will put it on Wednesday so the Bare's can join in the fun too. But I accidentally grabbed it Tuesday instead of a plain white shirt to put on under her swimming suit. Stephanie was there, ok, so I folded it back up and asked her to give it to Joe and he would get me another white shirt.

I was not there, but I guess she took it to Joe, and held it up wondering why this shirt wouldn't work. A conversation later, and she knew our secret. Oh well, we still wanted to do it. So Wednesday morning I put Addie in it and gave her to mom. She commented on it being the shirt I made, said it was cute, and nothing more. Seriously!? That's all we get! So I said, "Mom, if Addie is being promoted to Big Sister, what does that mean?" Then it clicked!! Like I said, it didn't land very well. But we tried! And Rachel had to admit that she saw it in Arimo in our room when she went to grab something. SO our secret wasn't so much of a secret by then.

Surprise, we are expecting March 6th!! Stay tuned for further developments!!

7 Months Old!!

Our cutie pie is so much fun and we are loving every minute of it! Every where we go people comment on her big smiles and giggles. It's fun having a happy baby that is mild in temprament. We continue to hope she stays that way =0)

This is on the 17th, just before she went to bed. Look how happy she is =0) She just ate her dinner, messy!

Since we went to the Dr in between months and with work, we didn't get this months stats.

Milestones:

* Addie is able to go from her tummy and sit up all by herself. The first time she did this, she looked up at Joe and I and started to clap. She was pretty proud of herself, and we were too!

*This was also her first time to actually clap. She has been working on that for awhile. She is so fun to watch as she figures out how things work.

* She is a wonderful eater! She has kept up with her appetite from day 1. She still drinks about 32 oz of formula a day. She has been eating 3 solid meals a day, and usually eats a whole container in one sitting. She loves yogurt, sweet potatoes, mixed veggies, chicken or beef with veggies.

This a picture of her eating yogurt for the first time...face covered and spoon fun!

She does not like fruit very much though. Her face puckers up at the tartness of apples especially. LOL, we are working on that...we have tried bananas and peaches too, but it's a no go.

*She is working on crawling. She gets on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth. It seems that eventually she gets further backward then moving forward, but she is working hard.

We spent the week of the Fourth of with my family. We drove down Sunday night and stayed until Saturday. It was fun to see the whole family, especially the Bares. The last time we saw them was for Addie's Baby Blessing.

We went to Bear Lake Tues-Thursday and enjoyed the time on the water. Addie was pretty good during the day. We brought our swing so it helped out a lot. However, she jad a hard time at night. I am not sure if it was because she had vaccinations the Friday before? or if she was teething still? or if she was sick? She woke up like clock work at 2 and 5 am. I felt bad for my family because no doubt she woke them up too. Also we stayed in my Grandma & Grandpa's camper with my mom, so she put up with us as well. But the first night we got home, she slept for over 12 hrs. Phew! We were ready for some regular sleep again. I still need to down load those pictures from my camera.

We spent the Fourth at Arimo and enjoyed the Fireman's breakfast and the Parade. This was Addie's first parade, so I had to have fun and get her an outfit. However, no matter how hard I try, this little girl does not like headbands. She pulls it down over her eyes, nose, mouth, neck...you name it, she puts it there. LOL, it makes me sad because I have made so many headbands/flower clips to only sit there on the stand. Hopefully she will like them when she gets older.

  

Her shirt said "Lil' Fire Cracker". I thought it was pretty cute.

I promise I have a rag over the important parts! She was just so cute I had to take a snap shot.

She LOVES chewing on everything. And everytime I pull out my phone she starts to smile and laugh. I think we have a Diva on our hands!

Adaline's 6 Months Stats...and more!!

Adaline had her 6 month check up today, and here are her stats:

19 lbs 8 ozs (93rd percentile)
28 inches (97th percentile)
17.13 inch head circumference (80th percentile)

Dr. Lyons was asking if Addie had sprouted any teeth yet, and we told her no. She's been drooling like crazy and putting everything in her mouth, but we checked the day before yesterday, and nothing. Dr. Lyons looked and said she saw a tooth!! Krystell looked, and lo and behold, there was a tooth!! We have noticed a little white spot thinking a tooth is just waiting to break through, but it's been like that for seriously 3 months. Crazy!? We were waiting for her to get all crabby and feverish, but that never happened. Addie is just so well behaved and mellow, we are seriously scared we are in for a surprise with our next baby.

Look at her two pearly whites!! This was actually taken July 31st.

Addie can now sit up for quite a while if she has her hands on the floor in front of her, and her balance is getting a little better every day. She sat up with me on Wednesday with her hands on her lap for 10 seconds before she began to topple over. Also, when she's on her tummy, she can get into a complete push up position where she's on her hands and toes, and we've noticed her trying to put her knees beneath her like she's getting ready to crawl, but she hasn't figured out how to do it just yet. We are expecting her to crawl in the next month or two. She is growing up so fast!!

She's also enjoying eating sweet potatoes, apples, sweet carrots, and bannanas about 2 times a day. We are so proud of her :)

Mom, Kevin and kiddos come up for a visit.

We were excited to have the family come up and visit us again. To be honest, this was initially planned because we thought we were moving...14 plus hours south!! And we were wanting to spend time together. Ever since Joe graduated, he has been so dedicated to applying for jobs. He had applied to multiple places in Idaho, Utah, Oregon, Wyoming, Washington, Colorado, Montana....He heard from a few places, but either they were on a hiring freeze and couldn't interview him yet, or it was a resort town just like here and defeated the whole purpose of moving. So we decided to widen our application location. I really wanted to stay more at home with Addie and just work a shift a week, or something close to that. It is really important to me to be home for my kiddos as long as it's feasible.

Then one day while he was working at the Orthopedic clinic, he got an interview from Gilla Medical Center in Silver City, NM. And then he was OFFERED the job! Oh my goodness, never ever would I have thought about moving to New Mexico, and only 2 hrs from the Mexico border no less. I was not excited but amazingly calm about the idea. So we decided to give them July 7th as the starting date, and if no other offers presented themselves, we would move. Joe even asked for a priesthood blessing, and so we moved forward with faith....

And the week we gave our 3 week notice here at the hospital, the Orthopedic surgeon Joe and worked for occasionally asked him to stay and he would give him a full time job! Dr Judd said he did a great job with his images, the office staff loved him, and he had never gotten so many great comments from his patients. He said he would "MAKE it happen", and our little miracle took place! Seriously, that chances that he would get hired on here full time were like getting hit by a lightening rod! I am not kidding, and the chance that I could stay on part time as well, in such a small area....There is no other way to explain that we were blessed!!! We have noticed that since we moved from Utah and made that crazy, drastic change we sometimes get to the very last moment when we think "What in the world are we going to do?" and then just at the time when our faith is tested, miracles happen. So by now, I told Joe I had no worries. Heavenly Father has taken care of us this far, I had no doubt in my mind that it would work out now. But never could I have imagined it would work out THIS GREAT!

So excitedly we had visitors just to visit, and not so say good bye!

This is just outside of Joe's work in Ketchum. I had never seen it before, but noticed it in pictures of my cousin Launi. Sometimes I wonder what other fun things we are missing out of. I thought the boys would think these twig huts were fun.

Kevin with his boys.

Addie and I

 Kevin and the boys went camping Saturday a few miles north of Ketchum. We joined them and went swimming in a hot springs. Addie sat in her little floaty device, and enjoyed the time with Grandma. I was shocked that she did so well.

We enjoyed a campfire dinner, it drizzled a little, had smores, and then headed off to bed. I think the boys had fun.

The next day we went to Church. We had a member of the seventy come and speak to us. I don't know why I can't recall his name, but I have seen him half a dozen times. I really enjoyed him and wished he would have hogged more of the time. Oh well.

Then we headed for a drive up north to Red Fish Lake. I really wanted them to see how pretty it is up there. I think if you just drive up to Sun Valley, this area is a disappointment. But if you can make it up there, it's gorgeous!

Addie enjoying the Grandma love!

Addie wearing the Sunday Dress Mom and Stephanie bought for her. So cute!!

They left Monday morning and Joe and I headed to work. The visit flew by, but it was wonderful. We are excited about seeing the rest of the family soon for our reunion at Bear Lake.

6 Months!

I know it's so cliche, but boy, does time fly!! WOW! Ok, our baby girl is 6 months old and is as cute as ever! We are thoroughly enjoying being with her and watch her personality blossom. She is always bringing a smile to our faces and more often than not, laughter. Her Dr's visit isn't until the end of the month, so I don't have her stats.

Daddy's little girl

She is all smiles! She is playing with a rattle that was mine. Thank you Grandma for keeping these. She loves them!

Milestones:

• She enjoys standing at the coffee table by herself. She loves to play with everything on the table and push it off. She is pretty strong and can stay there for quite awhile. 
• She can sit up on her own. She still leans forward a bit, but she can stay sitting up without help. 
• She can pull her knees under her and get in the crawl pose for a few seconds, but then she gets tired. She is learning so fast =0)
• When I am driving with her I like to sing Primary songs. The other day I was singing "Give Said the Little Stream" and she started singing in her own little way. It was so cute! It was more than just her jabbering. She was really trying to sing. 
• She can hold the bottle and feed herself on her own, pulling the nipple away, then putting it back in. But she has to be in the mood for it. 
• She is eating 8 oz. of formula about four times a day, and sweet potatoes and apples twice a day. She LOVES the sweet potatoes. And she deals with the apples. We will start introducing other foods too.
• She knows when bed time is, and she even gets fussy until we lie her down. As soon as we cover her with a blanket she smiles, pulls the blanket over her head and rolls to her side (usually left). I always check on her later to pull the blanket down. However later in the night she will usually have her blanket up over her face again. I do worry about it suffocating her. She is also flipping over to sleep on her tummy more. Which makes me and Joe worry because some of the time we catch her face planted down on the mattress. But what can you do?
• She is trying to attempt to clap her hands. She really enjoys watching her hands and feet. They are the best toys ever.
•  Her is is growing, slowly but surely. I think it will remain brown like her daddy's. I can't wait until it grows and I can braid it. 
• She really enjoys watching Silky. I think when she gets older they will be good friends.

Trying on a headband that mommy made for the Fourth of July. She doesn't necessarily hate them, but they always seem to end up over her eyes. Poor girl has to put up with me wanting to cute things.

Tuckered out with a day of fun.  I don't know what we will do when she exceeds the weight limit on this thing. We only use it once a day for a half an hour, unless she falls asleep in it. But there are times that she just LOVES it.

On her 6 Month, June 17th, just before bed time...don't mind the crazy socks! LOL, I am behind on laundry.

Gratitude!!

I just wanted to say how GRATEFUL I am right now. I reflect back on my life and there have been many moments of happiness, as well as times of sadness. And I would have to say the The Book of Mormon speaks perfectly of how I feel right now (I am keeping in mind that things can change any minute! and I will regret saying this...oh, by the way.... the next day that I posted Addie slept 4 weeks in a row through the night....she woke up 4 times. Yes, I jinxed myself! And not only that, but we had 2 weeks in a row of 3-4 times of waking up in the night, 2 weeks in a row of 2-3 times a night. Poor little girl got really sick with a bad cough, chest cold, and stuffy nose. But finally this weekend she is feeling better, and is sleeping in again so far.)

2 Nephi 2:11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.

I am still learning this principle, and I suppose will keep learning it. But for now, I can honestly say that "I'm on the top of the world lookin' down on creation. And the only explanation I can find, Is the love that I've found ever since you've been around. Your love's put me at the top of the world". (The Carpenters) 

And this can be sung about my sweet baby girl that has brought so much depth into my life. Who could have imagined I would love a soul so much. I saw that love between a parent and a child, but now I have felt it. And it's truly amazing!! 

I could also sing this about my wonderful hubby who is incredible. He is so patient, kind, loving, and fun. Once again, I never knew what true love was. I have seen it between spouses at times, but now I have felt it. And it's truly amazing!!

And I could also sing this about so many people in my life. But right now I am thinking about my Heavenly Father and Savior. Truly, can any of this be without Them? Would we ever feel the depth of gratitude for forgiveness, or feel the magical hope of eternity without them? The gospel brings so much depth, color, and meaning to life. And when things are bad, we can always remember the promise of better things to come. And though there are times that I am not paying attention to my blessings, or just being ungrateful, I have continued to feel Their love in my life. And that is truly amazing!!

Life is great, life is good, life is a miracle. May you all feel "On Top of the World" frequently!!

LOVE YOU!

Addie is 5 months old...

Our baby girl is growing and so is her fun! Adaline seems like she is always smiling, squealing, and jabbering all of the time. She is so fun to watch. She is precious and we are so grateful to have her in our home. Even when she is sick and not feeling well, she is easy to please and smiles often.

She loves playing with her feet. Often we find her socks pulled off, thrown all over or she is chewing on them. What a character

I just love this pose with the her whole face breaking into a smile. What a happy girl!!

Her Stats for this month:
*Length: 27.5 in
*Weight: 17 lbs 9 oz

Milestones:

• We tried some rice cereal for the first time. She seemed to enjoy it. She opened her mouth wide and swallowed some. But two nights in a row she acted like she had colic again, so we decided to take a couple of weeks off and try again. 
• The weekend she turned 5 months, she started to roll across the floor until she ran into the couch. She is pretty proud of herself too! She often looks over at us to see if we are paying attention, and when we do cheer and clap our hands for her, she gives us big excited smiles and giggles in return
• She has been practicing the word "Ga". I know that sounds silly to write down, but you can see her concentrating on the sound and how it feels in her throat. 
• She can stand at a table and play with toys, as long as someone is there to hold her steady. She loves to stand up. It's hard to get her to practice sitting up because once you hold her hands to guide her up, she wants to go all the way. So we are practicing on that more, and crawling.
• We bought "The Hungry Caterpillar" and she actually looked at the pictures. And she played with the pages. In the past I always just read to her while she was in the bath, or on the changing table. So it was fun to have her in my lap and have her interact.
• I am not sure, but I think she is trying to give me kisses sometimes. We will be playing, squealing and having so much fun and I will give her a bunch of kisses. Then she will lean forward with mouth open wide and touch my mouth or cheek with her mouth. It's sweet. So whether it's an actual kiss or not, I love it! 
• Joe has found that she is trying to make him laugh. He can make some noises that sounds like "Roger Rabbit". And it makes her break out into giggles. Well now he has noticed she tries to do something similar, and so he laughs and this makes her so happy. So she will do it again. 

We've been trying to do evening walks when I get home from work. It helps her take that nap just before dinner and bedtime. These hot shades were given by Aunt Kathy. They have Tinker Bell on them, cute. And the hat we got for our Hebdon Family Reunion in Bear Lake to protect her from the sun. Look at that sass ;0)

Mother's Day weekend. I was trying to show my family the new rash on her face when she started to get sick, and she just kept smiling. Made me laugh because I was just trying to get a shot of the spots. She already know what to do with the camera.

I love the color of her eyes. They are a dark blue, like my mom's. And she is wearing a cute pink headband Aunt Stephanie gave her. So sweet =0)

I can't get enough of her sleeping shots. She is so adorable! It's so hard to put her down! This is also when she was sick, poor little girl! We are praying for a healthy fun summer.

Her hair is starting to come in again. But it is still pretty sparse. We can't quite decide if she will stay brown or if it's turning lighter.

Joe's Graduation!! He's a Registered Radiology Techonologist!!

The long awaited day finally approached! And all three of us were excited!! After having to complete 1170 clinical  hours (many of those commuting 1.5 hrs one way), along with full time classes, we were so ready to be DONE. But it has been a fantastic experience. And now Joe has a career that he can honestly say he enjoys. That was so important to me when we were discussing his schooling. I just wanted him to have a job that he loved and didn't dread going to work for. I have heard of so many people hating their job and dreading to go to work. I can't imagine doing 30 plus years of that. We pray that this remains a good fit and that we can now find a full time job for him, and a very part time job for me. YAH!! 

He graduated from the program with a 4.0 GPA!! What a stud!

Our graduate that we are so proud of!!

So excited of my Hubby!

Addie was amazing! She had a cold and everything! But she was still smiley, happy, and such an angel. I was a little nervous being by myself with her, in the bleachers, and trying to get photos as well. I couldn't have asked for a better evening.

Joe with his classmates. They all had Radiation Warning sign on their caps. It made it easy to point them out.

They were the last group to be called, but he finally got his diploma!!

Walking out with a huge smile of relief.

Proud of Daddy!! She went through a total of 14 months of this program too! I really wanted a graduation outfit for her, but there were done to be found...

She is so tired, what a sweetie!

He also took his National Registry test the following Monday May 19th, and he passed!! He got an 85! So job well done! It's a hard test, (having taken it myself) and a few of the prior class didn't pass, so he studied really hard. Congratulations Joseph Johnson, RT (R) (ARRT), his official signature!

Miss Silky

So we have heard a lot of people caution us about having a cat when Addie was born. And although I admit I have heard of the same old wive's tales, I researched it out. And there are no worries about us. She is fantastic with Addie and Addie loves feeling her fur. Most of the time she also gets a handful of hair pulled out too. And Silky doesn't flench. However, I do admit we have talked about giving her to Joe's brother Phil just because she is always meowing. It drives us nuts and getting after her only increases the loudness. Phil's cat just died of what I think was breast cancer. Poor little thing, so Phil is lonely now and I think would adore her. 

But then there are times that Silky just wins me over and I can't imagine her not being there....

Addie is around 2 mos here. This picture cracks me up. Addie was having fun with Silky smelling her face, tickling her with her whiskers. She would shriek and squeal with delight.

Silky LOVES laying on blankets or towels. And if she can, she will get inside them too. Can you see her peeking out?

This is a recent picture of Addie 5 mos with Silky demanding attention too. 

And this was taken our first night from the hospital after Addie was born. And there is Silky, always wanting to be close. She was gentle with Addie from the beginning.