12 Weeks

How can you not just love this little girl? Ugh, I may be biased, but she just makes me want to kiss those cheeks!

Wow - I can't believe my little girl is already 12 weeks old. I just got home from a very long day at work (8 am to 11 pm) and went in to peek on her as she is sleeping. It took a lot to not just scoop her up and give her big smooches on her cheeks! I got a little teary eyed.

She is getting so big! I have definitely noticed a height difference in the last few weeks. Man, is she getting tall. 0-3 month sleepers that have the feet don't really fit her well anymore, 'cause her poor little legs can't stretch!

She's not just physically getting big, but in other ways as well. We have made a full transition to her crib :) She sleeps great at night. We are basically getting up with her between 3 & 5 to feed her a bottle. Most nights she's exhausted by 7:30 and I have to wake her up the next morning at 7 in order to get her ready for daycare.

As silly as it sounds, I am sorta going to miss the early morning feedings when the stop. Our little Addy is a bit of a drama queen (her daddy says she gets it from her mommy, but I beg to differ!). During the day when we are feeding her, she does NOT like to be burped!!!!! She sure does let you know that too. But, at 4 in the morning, when she's sleepy and just wants to eat and go back to sleep, she nestles right in to your neck when you are burping her and it is such a peaceful little 'cuddle time'. My heart just melts and I just want to keep her there forever. (Now Aaron, don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean I want to stop taking turns on our night feedings. Ha ha!).

Anyway, just a little update today with those cute pictures I took about a week ago. :)

Walking the Walk

Last year my mom's family formed "Team Jane" in memory of my Aunt Jane who passed away from ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease). My aunt was diagnosed with ALS in December, 2007 and sadly passed away in June, 2008.

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There are several "walks" around the nation. Team Jane walked last year for the first time in Rochester, MN and we plan on doing this again this year. The goal is to "Walk to Defeat ALS". We came in 2nd last year for teams that raised the most money. We hope to be just as successful this year.

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I don't know how familiar you are with Lou Gehrig's disease - but there are no good words to describe how hard it is to witness a loved one dealing with this disease. ALS "slowly robs the body of the ability to walk, speak, swallow, and breathe. Every 90 minutes another person loses their battle with ALS."

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Team Jane is walking again on September 12th here in Rochester, MN. If you are interested in helping raise money for this cause, you can click on the link below to access our website. Thank you in advance for your help - it means alot to my entire family!

Click here to visit my personal page.

If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:http://web.alsa.org/site/TR/Walks/MinnesotaWalk?px=2377427&pg=personal&fr_id=5815&et=A2tVOBMRaEHZQ4kz6E6-cg..&s_tafId=90867

Aaron and I on the Walk

Team Jane is the Best! I love my family!

Me and 2 of my cousins @ the walk! (Sara & Brandon)

Popsicles

Mommy tells me that someday I am going to be begging for popsicles and ice cream cones (like the ones on my dress) instead of my pacifier. UN....IM....AGINABLE! It's me and my paci for life!

A Week in Review :)

Addalyn had her 2 month appointment today - she's sleeping off the shots right now :) She actually did really well with the shots - she cried of course - but I was able to calm her rather quickly. I had tears in my eyes, it's hard watching your little one in pain! The appointment went well. She's right on track!

Here's where she is for stats:

Height - 23.6 inches (82%)

Weight - 11.5 pounds (56%)

Head - 40.5 centimeters (82%)

Here are a bunch of pics from the past week. I love this girl!

I pretty much love every outfit of Addy's - but for some reason, this one strikes me as super cute so I had to take a full length shot of it!

Just relaxing a bit!

Our neighbors had a little girl 5 days after Addalyn was born. Here is Addy & Rayna

Ha - this pic makes me laugh soooo much! Aaron wanted to figure out Addy's weight the other day. Well, the only scale we have is on our Wii Fit - so he created a "Mii" of Addy. This is what she looks like! The BMI is WAY off...you could not enter in a birthday after 2007 so it thinks she's 2 (which is why she's so skinny as a Mii)!

Checking out dad after a bath!

ZOO TIME!

We decided last minute on Sunday to take a ride to the cities and go to Como Zoo. It's a nice little zoo that only asks for a $2 donation/person. We met up with Aaron's mom & stepdad, as well as his step-sis Andrea, her hubby Jamie, and their girls - Mira & Serafina

We're going to the zoo zoo zoo, how about you you you, you can come too too too.....

(please tell me you know this song...Aaron had never heard of it until I was singing it to Addy as we were getting ready to go! I don't think my mom made it up when I was little!)

Getting ready for the Merry-Go-Round

A, A, Me, Jamie, Mira (2 yrs), Serafina (1 yr) & Andrea

Here we go!

Very pretty (and big) lilly pads - I'd like a reflection pond in my backyard with these!

We did take pictures of the animals too, but for some reason I didn't think of uploading them to my post, and now they'd be out of order if I tried...so maybe that'll be another post if I think about it!

TwO MonThS!

Can you believe Addalyn is already 2 months old? She officially turned it yesterday. Her 2 month check-up is not until next Wednesday, so I'll have to report her stats then. She has been growing in so many ways this month.

Her personality is starting to show a bit :) Addy is a smiley baby...but MAN...when she is hungry, or not happy with something, she lets you know. She doesn't have much patience when it comes to food, when she realizes she is hungry, she needs food NOW (hmmmm, that sorta sounds like her daddy!)! She really is starting to take interest in things a lot more. Like when I talk to her, she'll look at me and respond by smiling and such. And also, she likes to check out her toys that hang down from her bouncy a lot more too!

Addalyn had been going through a phase where the only place she would really sleep well is in her bouncy. So, we've been putting her to bed in there. She has been sleeping really well though, at night, she basically gets up once around 3-4 and then sleeps til 7 or so. We've also been starting to get her to bed at a decent time (8ish). It's great! We started to try putting her in her crib this week for bed, and so far so good. So, we may have turned a corner on the "bouncy phase".

It seems as though she has discovered her tongue. In the last few weeks, she's been sticking it out quite a bit. I tell her that it isn't nice to stick her tongue out at her mama, but she doesn't care!!

I hope you all enjoy pictures, because I seem to take a lot and love sharing them :)
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Addy's 2 month "bear pic"

Hmm, what's this thing in my mouth???...

Sticking out my tongue is really cool!

"Oh mama, you are sooo funny"

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Addy is also liking her bath better. Now she just sorta hangs out in it...it doesn't make her mad anymore unless she's SUPER tired.

She's not naked here, I swear she has a diaper on!! She has been doing awesome with holding her head up :)

Trying to do a little tummy time...but she's not that in to it!

Bathing Beauties

My aunt Nancy and uncle Jerry have a pool at their home so I went over there this afternoon with my mom and we brought Shannon's kids swimming. Addalyn even dipped in the water for a bit - only for like 5 minutes - MAYBE. I would have done it longer, but it was sunny...she did great!

Shannon is doing okay - still in the hospital and recovering. We found out last night that 3 of the nodes ended up turning positive for cancer, which is a bummer. Her cancer is stage 3. That means chemo is definitely in the plans. She will go back in about 4 weeks to discuss that treatment, once her body has recovered a little more from the surgery. The good thing is, that technically Shannon is now in remission because they removed the cancer from her body. Now, the chemo is to keep it away and ensure that anything that may be remaining...is GONE. I believe 6 months of chemo is the plan - so PLEASE - any prayers you can spare to send her way, I appreciate from the bottom of my heart.

I can't explain what an emotional rollercoaster this week has been...and I'm just the sister. My heart aches when I think of what Shannon has gone through and will. She's so strong. Love that lady SOOOO much. Ugh...tears just thinking about her right now!

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Anyway, these kids brighten up SO much in life. You look at children, and realize what miracles God CAN do!! Enjoy the pics of these little ones :)

The pool

Isn't she so cute in her suit???

Hanging out in her shades and swimsuit cover up (thanks agian Brooke for the cover up!)

Grandma (my mom) and Drew!

Brooklynn

Brynne - Oops, her head got cut off a bit :)

Drew-babes!

Brynne in action going off the diving board!

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"No matter how steep the mountain - the Lord is going to climb it with you." -Helen Steiner Rice

What a Week...and it's only Tuesday :)

First of all - THANK YOU FOR ALL OF THE PRAYERS! Please Please Please keep them coming for Shannon. Shannon's surgery is over with and she is in recovery. We just got home from visiting her. The cancer had gone through the colon wall, which is not good...but they removed 45 lymph nodes and tested ALL of them and NONE OF THEM tested positive for cancer. WHOO HOO TO THAT! We will know more as she recovers in the hospital. There is a very good chance she will have additional treatment such as chemo or radiation.

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I also started working again this week - so it has been EXTREMELY emotional for me! I was doing okay when I was getting ready for work yesterday morning, until I had to go in and wake my peaceful sleeping baby and she wasn't happy. I just kept saying "I'm so sorry" (and yes, had a few tears in my eyes). I did have a breakdown around 11:30 or so and called Aaron and lost it - told him I just wanted to go home and be with my baby. But honestly, I think it was just more because I was worried about Shannon and was having a hard time being in the "real world" at the moment.

So - to leave you with some smiles...here's a few pics of our babes!

This pic is now my background at work on my computer so I can look at her all the time!

She just looks so dang cute, you just want to kiss her cheeks over and over!

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LIKE MAMA OR DADDY???

So, these next pictures of Addy have already been posted, but we've been told that the top one looks like Aaron, and the bottom one looks like me. So, I decided to post them next to pictures of us as babies.

Been told this looks like Aaron

One of the youngest pics of Aaron we have scanned in...

Been told this looks like me...

Aaron and I think that I might be able to claim her eyes :)

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Maybe sometime in the future I'll put up a little poll to see what you all think...is she looking like here mama, daddy, a mix - or is she just Addalyn???