Happy 1st Birthday Addison!

Addison Kate turned one year old this week! The celebrations just kept on coming. Daddy ended up being deployed to Haiti the night before Addison's 1st birthday party, but the show must go on :) We missed having Daddy at the party but the children had a great time. Addison is walking all over the house now and when she does fall down she says, "Uh oh!" Addison's other favorite words (when she is not screaming at me) are Ma Ma, Na Na (banana), Me-ya (Amelia), Ute (Luke), Da-de (Daddy), ball, tee (tree), and cup. It seems everyday she learns a new skill or word, she is moving into toddlerhood much more quickly than I expected, or was ready for. Addison is fond of giving out hugs and kisses but watch out, she will turn on a dime and grab hair, hit or pinch faces (or as we fondly say, rip our faces off) if she doesn't get her way. I hear over and over again, "Oh that is a third child for you." It is kind of a slap in the face because I am a third child!
Some of the kids at the party enjoying the bouncehouse. We ended up having around 30 children so it was a bit crazy and chaotic but Addison took it all in stride.
Addison loved jumping in the bouncehouse too, my camera was having issues that day so I didn't get a picture of it, she would laugh and laugh while jumping.
Thank goodness this playset was sturdy, I was wondering how many children it could support at once? The day ended up chillier than expected, it was only about 60 degrees and W-I-N-D-Y! However, we were able to have an outdoor party, in January, so I should count my blessings.
Pinata time!
The only picture I have of the three of them that day. I love Addison's expression. Look at Luke's face. He has licorice drool all over his cheeks and at one point came running up to me, "Mom, they said I am bleeding on my face!!!" I said, "Where Luke, does it hurt?" Then I realized, it was just dried up licorice drool, gross. With Stephen being gone, I was a little frazzled that day, just trying to keep a grip on things. We served veggies, chips and pulled pork BBQ but outside with the kids we had goldfish crackers, grapes, etc. I left it up to the parents to make their child a plate of good stuff. The day after the party, I realized... Oh my gosh, I never fed MY kids! I didn't make them a plate at the party and then I just put them to bed when everyone left. Oh well, I know they had cake and ice cream and clearly Luke had licorice, sounds like dinner to me.
Addison stealing a taste of her birthday cake.
Happy Birthday to Addison! She really enjoyed having everyone sing to her and smiled at each of the children during "her song."
Just a cute picture of the girls.
Then the big day came, January 26th, Addison's real birthday! Well, we couldn't just ignore that day could we? Umm, no is the answer I am looking for. So, onto the third birthday celebration. We had some great friends over to celebrate with Addison and help her open her presents.
Doesn't she look like, uggg, enough cake already!
Presents!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got Addison a water table for her birthday and she has had a blast playing with it in the family room. Of course, no water in it. Those that know me well would understand, maybe I won't ever put water in it, I mean really, why make a mess? I am kidding, really, kind of. Soon enough it will be hotter than Hades in Mississippi and we will all want to be playing with the water table, don't worry.

Preparing for Deployment

As if we can ever prepare for deployment, but we did try. Stephen frantically tried to fix things around the house that needed fixing, light bulbs, the van, the screen door, my mental health, etc. We all tried to spend as much time together as possible all the while dreading every time the phone rang...was it that call? Well, eventually it was that call and Stephen was deployed to Haiti late Friday night. We will miss him so much while he is gone but we know that right now the people of Haiti need him even more than we do (although, I have a hard time with that one). Amelia spoke with one of my dear friends who reminded her how special her Daddy is that God chose him to be able to help the people of Haiti. Amelia couldn't wait to tell me how special her Daddy was...boy do I know that sweet pea.

Poor Stephen knew he was going to have to miss Addison's first birthday so we decided to do it about a week early, we didn't think Addison would mind too much. So we dressed her up in her special birthday outfit, bought the cake and had a mini party with just our family. I have about 30 pictures of Addison in her beautiful birthday outfit, she is screaming in most of them. The whole family was dancing around acting like fools trying to get her to smile...

Angry baby.
Hooray we got a smile!
This was the only way to cheer her up, put her in the sink and give her some soap, who knows??
Okay, there was a second way to cheer her up. She got giddy when she saw a chocolate cake just for her :) We all sang Happy Birthday to her and she was laughing during that.
Notice her silver spoon in her left hand, while she shovels cake in her mouth with her right hand. Who needs utensils on your birthday?
Happy kids!
Someone take this away before I hurl please.
It's not called a "smash" cake for nothing folks.
This was the day Stephen ended up leaving but I thought it was a cute moment, the three of them silently playing Star Wars together. So cute.
I was so happy, two days before Stephen left, Addison officially learned to walk. There is nothing like that moment when the baby walks between Stephen and I and she gets to hear both her mommy and daddy cheer for her and cover her in kisses. So glad he didn't miss it. Yay Addison!
One last bike ride before Daddy left. We know you are a hero Daddy for going to Haiti but you were already a hero to us everyday. Love, Amelia, Luke and Addison

Waiting game...

Well, the Air Force has thrown us for a loop again. We were supposed to leave for vacation on Friday but instead, Stephen was put on orders to deploy to Haiti to help with the recovery from the earthquake. We are in the typical "hurry up and wait" cycle right now. Bags are packed by the door, waiting for the call. Our days have been a roller coaster of emotions and unknowns, but we are just trying to spend as much snuggle time together as a family as we can. This is especially difficult because Stephen is already deploying in June for the war so it kind of feels like a double whammy to our family. We welcome your prayers, the more the better :)

Amelia and Luke had lots of fun building a fort today, of course complete with a cannon on top.

No parents allowed.

It was a beautiful day so we thought we would head to the beach for some kite flying and sand castle building.

Hang on Mimi!

Addison taking a walk with Daddy.

Happy New Year!

This giant bumper ball was the big winner of Santa gifts this year. It made mom and dad happy too because Amelia and Luke spent hours everyday of Christmas vacation playing outside with it. It is pretty fun to roll the kids around in it and they have even rolled mommy in it too!

Sweet Addison Kate is 11 months old now. She is really moving around the house and hard to keep up with. She crawls but she also walks all around the house holding on to walls, toys, cupboards or anything else that will help her keep her balance. She is standing on her own for 5 seconds or so at a time so I think she will be walking any day. She laughs and smiles all the time, loves to play peekaboo but watch out, she will yell loudly while glaring if she disagrees with a situation. She usually does this if I take something away from her or if I am not getting her food fast enough, little Diva in training, Miss Addison Kate.

We have also had a lot of fun with one of my Christmas presents, my fondue pot. We had a blast dipping, pound cake, marshmallows and strawberries into chocolate. Yummy! Luke looked like he had dipped his whole self into a vat of chocolate by the time we were done, thank goodness for Oxiclean. I think Amelia ate a whole bag of marshmallows but hey, it was a great night. Luke said, " I love this fundip stuff." He kept calling the fondue, fundip. Close enough and very true!

Happy New Year kiddie style. The kids and I went to the Patino's house for New Years and it was a wild and crazy time! There were 13 kids under seven years old and some crazy mom (me) decided to buy them all horns and hats! It was loud until we sent them all upstairs and then the moms got some quiet time too. Here are the kids after our countdown and toast with sparkling juice at 7pm, Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!! Luke was in the corner sucking down as much juice as he could, probably straight out of the bottle and shoving as many desserts in his mouth as he could before I found him.

The moms wild New Year, all our hubbies were working in the ER that night so we got to party with the kids. Katie, Andrea and I with our littlest ones.