Hanging out at the Kelley's

I love this picture of Addalyn with her cousin's Brynne & Brooklynn. I've been spending one day/week out at Shannon's helping her with the kids since her surgery. I captured this picture while I was there. Yesterday I had her kids and Addy on my own. What a day! Taking care of a 4, 3, 1 year old and 3 month old is a lot of work. Not sure how daycare 'moms' do it with so many kids! I really do enjoy the moments though - kids grow up so fast so it's hard to complain about a busy day!

Shannon had outpatient surgery yesterday to put in her port. This will allow her to do some of her chemo at home...and the parts that she has to do in the hospital, she'll be able to do via the port also, so she won't have to be pricked every time with and IV. She starts chemo on Tuesday, and will do this every other week for 6 months. It'll be busy for this time, but hopefully, it will all go off with little side effects and before we know it, it'll pass. That is what our prayers are for!

I can't leave out a picture of Drew, Shannon's youngest. He's such a cutie. Check out his shirt...gotta love it!!

Our Little Sweet Pea

Uh oh! Mommy has discovered how adorable headbands are!!! Pretty sure I'll be having one of these on almost every day now!

It's pretty tiring being this cute :)

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!