Toes

Toes sure are tasty...don't ya think???!!!!

Weekend Travels

In March we did a few weekends of traveling back to back.  The first weekend, we went to Madison and spent time with the Charbonneau's - Jason ("Charby") is one of Aaron's closest friends.  It was a nice weekend.  We did a few things, but really just relaxed together and caught up. 

We happened to pack a pair of jammie's for Addy that their oldest also had, so of course it was a good photo opportunity! 

Alexis (3) and Addy (22 months)

Both Aaron and Jason are such great dads.  It's awesome to watch them with their kids.  Like his wife Maryellen commented...knowing how crazy those 2 would/could get back in the day, it is funny to think that those crazy guys now have kids (3 out of 4 being little girls) and just fun to see where life took them.  :)



Blake & Addy Anderson; Alli (Allison) & Alexis Charbonneau

The next weekend in March we went to Green Bay to spend some time with Aaron's family.  We typically go to the U.P. every March, but it just seemed like a lot this year to make that drive around March, so we thought we would try and meet at a half-way point. 

Green Bay is perfect -- only 3 hours for Aaron's dad/sisters; 4 for us without stopping.  Sure beats the 7 hour drive that we have...which typically becomes 8-9 with our stops (poor little Addy is not showing signs of getting over car sickness anytime soon!). 

Unfortunately Tina and the rest of the Lindholm's couldn't make it that weekend - but his sister Tammy and the rest of the O'Brien's and Aaron's dad made the trip down.  Aaron also has relatives in Green Bay - his aunt/uncle Sue & Gary, and 2 their kids -- Dustin (Aaron's best man in our wedding) and Derek all live there. 

Friday night we stayed over at Derek's house.  I think I've blogged about them before when we went to GB after Vanessa's wedding last summer...Derek has 2 little boys.  His oldest, Tyler is a riot!  You just have to have a conversation with him -- I just can't do him justice.  He is on the go 110% of the time and total entertainment!

He has a Silverado that he wanted to take Addy for a spin in.  Not going to lie, I felt like I had fast-forwarded 14-16 years and some crazy teenager wanted me to trust him with taking care of my little girl in his truck on a date.  Crazy!

Anyway --- it's actually pretty cool and Derek made sure to run after them the entire time so that they didn't crash into anything, LOL!

Hey you two -- keep your eyes on the road!  (how cute is this??)

Saturday we checked into a hotel that has a nice waterpark.  Everyone came to the hotel for the day to take advantage of the water park and of course watch some basketball later in the evening!

In the kiddie pool!

Not so sure about it the second time around :)

After only a few minutes, Addy was over the kiddie pool, and on to their fun play area!

Peaking at someone in the fam and full of squeels!



Uncle Eddie catching miss Addalyn

Addy and Brandon also went down the big slides a few times and I took her in the pool with her floatie also.  All the pictures from the slides were blurry.  I think she sort've liked it and it sort've scared her at the same time!  

Hanging out Pool Side

Snack Break



Papa Lowell and Blake

I get so mad at myself when I come home and look at pictures and realize I hardly got any pictures of anyone.  I wish I had some of Addy with everyone (like her Papa and such).  Addalyn absolutely LOVED her time with Papa, auntie Tammy, uncle Eddie, Brandon, & Alesha.  She would go up and down the hallways of the hotel with them and really didn't want to sit still in our room.  Which was fine - she was entertained! 

I think we should meet in GB again sometime - it was a nice time and not TOO lengthy of a drive! 

Can't wait to see everyone again in May when we head to MI for Brandon's graduation.  Holy craziness....we have a nephew that is GRADUATING?  Say what??!!!!!!

5 Months

This post is a bit late, because Mr. Blake was actually 5 months a few weeks ago.  Buuuut, holy cow has life been busy.  Of course it is crazy busy on a daily basis with 2 little ones...but we've also been gone on the weekends and such, so not a lot of time to sit and relax and blog (or time to clean for that matter.  WoW!).

Life is good with this little man.  He is a very content baby these days!!  He looks at you with such serious eyes that MELT.MY.HEART.  (pretty sure I've mentioned that a few times on this blog!).

We have officially transitioned him into the nursery with Addy.  They do pretty well.  Addy is such a "mother hen" to him, always reporting to us when he is crying, smiling, rolled over, talking, needing a paci, etc....so for a while any noise he made would wake Addy up.  And, in the morning he usually woke her up earlier than normal.  I think she is starting to get used to him being there and willing to stay asleep if he wakes up earlier than her.  On the other hand, it takes a lot for Addy to wake up Blake.  He is sleeping before we put her to bed, and she'll talk, sing, etc and it typically won't wake him, THANK GOODNESS :)


He is such a sweet little boy, usually just observing and watching his crazy big sister run around like crazy.   He really has a lot of patience with her, and loves to watch her.  He sometimes smiles when she talks to him, but usually he just looks at her, like "here you are again, all up in my space"!  She gets right in his face (I mean RIGHT in his face) and says "Hi Blake, How are you?" and "Good Morning Buddy" and a bunch of other cute things that sound even more cute than necessary 'cause of the fact she doesn't have all of her words down yet.  :)

Blake LOVES his cereal too.  We are ready to move to other foods I think.  He fusses every single time we are done with it, like 'GIVE ME MORE PLEASE!'  I just am waiting for the 6 month mark I guess, not sure why though.  He starts each morning with a bottle around 6:30 a.m., then again at 10, 2 & 7.  He has cereal in between that around 8, 11, and 5.  He is growing and it shows.  He is starting to transition out of his 3-6 month clothes.  I'm excited to see his stats at his 6 month check up.

I can't figure out who he looks like.  Most days I see my side of the family in him...especially our nephew Drew when he was this age (minus the fact that Drew has brown eyes, some pics you could not even tell the difference!).  But then I will glance at him and totally see Aaron.  I think he has more "Tarara" than Addy did at this age though...

Blake discovered tummy sleeping this month also.  I will never put him on his tummy myself, but there isn't much I can do if he rolls to it in the night I guess.  And, since he sleeps through the night, I can't complain too much!  He has a somewhat consistent sleeping schedule.  He goes to bed each night between 7:15 and 7:45.  He's usually ready on the early side of that, it is just a matter of getting him in his jammies and bottle in when we've barely gotten home from work and done baths some nights...it gets a bit hectic.  He takes a morning nap around 8:30/9 and afternoon nap around 12:30.  He sometimes thinks he needs to wake up after only 40 minutes to an hour of napping...but we're working on that!

In the picture below, it was the first night that Aaron and I discovered him on his tummy.  He was sleeping later than normal in the morning when we were getting ready for work.  Aaron went to check on him and came to me saying "come look at your son".  Not only was he on his tummy, but on the OTHER end of the crib from where he started.  He is quite the wiggler in his sleep!


Officially no more swaddling after this...the animal blanket that he has his head on, was the blanket he was swaddled in for bed.  Silly man!

 

Blake Aaron - 5 months!