Home...

"A house is built with walls and beams...a home is built with love and dreams."

This quote is hitting 'home' lately (ha, no punn intended!).  We sold our house at 3191 Lakeridge Dr in Rochester on May 31st and are temporarily not owning or renting a place to live.  About 90% of our stuff is in storage, as we are living with my mom and dad.  We will be building.

So our home...well, it is where WE are right now as a family, regardless of the house we live under.  (Obviously my parent's place is home to me, but it isn't our home --- the Anderson's home). 

I'd be lying if I said it was easy to leave.  I was SOOO emotional about leaving our house!  I love the location...but for our future goals - we were ready to take the next step.  When I finished all of the cleaning and the house was empty, I walked around and glanced at all of the rooms, and got pretty emotional.  This house was boutght when we were engaged...Aaron turned 30 there right before our wedding, we had our gift opening there, took our first 2 babies from the hospital to THAT home, I just turned 30 there within the last year, ETC!  It had been good to us in the 5 years plus that we were there...that's for sure!

Man I love my babies's room!

So, to say that life has been busy lately - is an understatement. We have been going and going (and going and going and going) for more than 4 weeks straight. We had weeks of moving/packing, cleaning, traveling, then more moving/packing. Throw in there a retirement party (my mom...more blogging to come) and a golden birthday party (Addy's!) -- both of them to plan and organize for - and I seriously thought I was going to lose it for a bit! Not to mention the craziness with work these days....

Stressed??? -- nope, not me! (sarcasm)

ANYWAY - we are done. Settled for now. And ready to take the summer as it comes! Aaron's been working crazy hours (for example he worked today from 5:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m...and it's Saturday, and way more than a normal 40 hour week had already been put in before today). So, we have little planned with Aaron working weekends.   Which is a bummer, and not so bad, all at the same time.  I'm looking forward to not having to rush on the road when work gets done on Friday...and maybe taking in more pool days, walks, runs, parks, just around here. 

So, another month of little blogging is behind us...and here's to hoping June is a little less stressful than May, 2012!  This mama is ready to sit and just breathe for a bit (oh yeah...and blog!)!


My Favorite Thing About May: these 2 peeps! (and Aaron!)

This picture above was taken on Mother's day.  We were packing, and I peeked outside to check on the kiddos and they were sitting next to each other so cute and close...made me smile!  They were sitting way over by our neighbor's swingset on our wooden retaining wall in the corner of our lot...it was a cute little sight to look at out that window on Mother's day!

....Here's to our love and dreams, and new adventures to come our way!

Easter!

 

Easter was a very fun event this year.  Addalyn is at a very fun age to enjoy the holidays!  Everything gets her starry-eyed!

We started the day off going to church - we didn't do the Easter Bunny thing until the end of the day.  Addalyn was very excited to get on her "beautiful dress".  They both looked so cute in their "Sunday Best"!  Cute story about church on Easter.  Addalyn was listening to the sermon, and when our priest mentioned Jesus, Addy goes "Where's Jesus???  I want to see him!!" 

After church, we drove to Minneapolis to celebrate Easter with Aaron's mom's family.  We had lunch and an egg hunt and just hung out.  Aaron's stepsisters Renee & Andrea were there, and our niece Alesha and her boyfriend Blake were visiting from Michigan :)  We were very excited to get to see them.

Aaron's stepsister's (Andrea's) kiddos with Addy & Blake - Oliver, Serafina, and Mira

Alesha!

Blake & Blake - Addy calls him "Big Blake"!!!  :)

I insisted on getting our picture taken because we never have one with just us anymore!

While we were gone in Minneapolis - we had a little visitor.  The Easter Bunny had come.  For the record, the Easter Bunny that visited our house is NOT the same one that visited my house when I grew up.  He must have traveled with Aaron from Michigan, because he gives very nice gifts that align with what Aaron got from the Easter Bunny when he was little :)

The Easter Bunny had eggs ALL over our house and they led the kids to our office/toy room where the found this:

Addalyn was so excited when she saw eggs in the entry-way, I swear she was about to hyper-ventilate!  (Like I said in my recent post on her these days: dramatic!)

Whoo Hooo!!!  Side note: I'm pretty sure that the outfit Blake is wearing right here: cargo khakis with a plaid button down shirt is probably the exact same outfit (or dang close) to what Aaron wore on our first date...and well most dates that we went on when we were dating :)  Aaron actually has this EXACT same printed button-down shirt.  I didn't know it when I bought it for Blake though!

We celebrated Easter with my family the following weekend.  We had lunch together, an egg hunt, flew kites, and just spent the day together.

Getting Ready for the Egg Hunt: Drew, Hunter, Ella, Addy, Brookie, Brynne & Blake

All the girls trying to help Blake pick up some eggs :)

One of my favorite pictures of Addy!  She looks so big!

Handsome Blaker-boy

Blake - 2012 (Jan through April)

Blake is getting WAY TOO BIG!  He is definitely a toddler these days vs. my baby.  Makes me sad when I think about that.  Sometimes I will just sit and watch him play, walk & run around, say words, etc/ and I can't believe he is already as big as he is.  Why does it go so fast?  Ugh!

Blake saying "Cheeeeeeeeeese"!

 From January to now, he's definitely changed.  Just looking at pictures is crazy to see the difference to me.  He is still my little cuddler.  Seriously - the best cuddler most of the time.  He loves to tuck his head right under your chin or on your shoulder.  Even my friends will comment on his cuddles and other moms at our daycare. 

It might be safe to say if he keeps up the good cuddles, he'll probably melt the hearts of ladies when he is older just like he melts his mama's heart and some of the ladies as a 1 year old. :)

Blake loves loves loves his bath time.  If you mention bath, he drops what he's doing and goes straight to the bathroom.  He could play in there for hours if you let him.....

....which is good - when you are a messy eater like this:

He is SUCH a boy at the dinner table.  Or at least, what I think of when I think of little boys.  I didn't have brothers, so he is just confirming the stereotype in my head!  He gets baths almost every night because of this.  (oh yeah, and trying to put bibs on him is a waste, he gets more distracted trying to pull it off then eating).  Most nights he eats shirtless!

After-bath cuddles.  Pretty sure that is this mama's favorite type of cuddles.  Both of my kiddos are good at after-bath cuddles!

Blake loves to keep up and follow his big sis around.  He tries to do EVERYTHING that she does.  The good thing is, Addy loves to have him follow her.  There are very few times when he is occupied in his own toy or something and Addy wants him to play - she gets sad/mad sometimes when that happens because she wants him to follow her!  They play together well, giggle a TON together and rarely get in fights.  In fact, I'm thinking of trying to separate them for bed - they currently share a room.  If Blake isn't asleep before we bring Addy in to get tucked in, they end up giggling and playing for a while before sleeping.  Grr!  It was cute at first, but now they prolong bed for WAY. TOO. LONG.

Just playing "nuh-night" together in Addy's bed (Addy likes to put band-aids in random places!)

 Blaker is usually up in the morning before Addy.  We've started a little routine where he cuddles up on the chair with his pillow, monkey (which he calls "Bear"...since that is what Addy's bear is called of course!) and he watches something on Disney while I finish getting ready. 

It's another close favorite time of mine with him, other than the after-bath cuddles, to be awake with just Blake in the morning.  He is again, very cuddly and happy.  We usually play some games together and he giggles with me and likes to sit in my lap and relax.  When I am awake with enough time to just relax with him for a bit - I take advantage of it.  Most days it ends up making me rushed at the end of our morning before heading out the door - but oh well!

Just relaxing watching some morning Disney shows :)

 My little man loves sweets like his mama!  He's a really good eater in general, but he does love chocolate like me, and also suckers.  Seriously loves suckers! 

Fell asleep with a sucker in his mouth...on a 5 minute drive from the store where he got it from and home :)

 Blackmale for the future:

Did I mention he likes to copy EVERYTHING his big sis did???! Yep, that includes dress-up! 

 Although Addy is 95% daddy's girl - I think I can safely say that Blake is more of a Mama's boy - but it isn't as obvious.  He definitely has many days where he is ALL ABOUT HIS DADDY.  But, this kiddo, with his blue eyes and long lashes and the way he looks at his mama...well, he's got me wrapped pretty tightly around those tiny little fingers!

Mr Blake at 18 months is just as fun as my 'almost; 3 year old girl.  I seriously love every stage of life for these kiddos.  I love watching him try to say more words, be more confident in his steps and more independent.  Although, showing independence definitely has its down side!  He shows off his temper at times (I might be able to blame that one on Aaron :)  Not that I don't have a temper - trust me - I do! --- but if I'm contributing Addy's drama to me, I'll give Aaron Blake's temper :)

He is definitely learning to test his limits, and has found himself in time-outs.  Which, he sometimes thinks is funny.  STINKER. 

He is starting to say lots of words: mama, daddy, Addy, puppy, drink (which he says 'mik' meaning milk but he says it for any beverage), eat, love you "wuvu", bath, nuh-night, bye, hi, yeah, book, Bear (for his favorite monkey, LOL!), shoes, socks, and many many more words.  He also repeats a lot of phrases, where the majority of it just babble but you can pick out the phrase from his tone and the last word.  For example, he says "I love you to the moon and back" but it comes out "babble babble babble back"! 

He sleeps through the night, going to bed around 8 and usually waking around 6-6:30.  He always sleeps with him monkey-man and a sippy.  Right at the beginning of 2012 we got rid of his pacifier, around 15 months.  We did it a little later than we did with Addy - that was because of the holidays and traveling for December.  We waited until we were home again.  It took about one night of tears, another night of wimpers, and he was golden!

Blake has almost all his teeth - I think the only ones missing on both top and bottom are his 'fang' teeth and 2-year molars. 

He loves to read books, play with some trucks, Little-People, dolls, and things that make noise :)  He really enjoys being outside -- favorite thing to do out there is run after bubbles.

He has a few nicknames: Blakers, Blaker-boy, Lover-boy, Mr. Man, Little Man, and Blakester -- most of them mine.  Blakers is one that was developed at daycare and pretty much the only thing his daycare friends and Julie call him! 

He's such a handsome man...!

I <3 Him Tons!

Addalyn - 2012 (Jan through April)

In efforts to get caught up on my blog - I'm going to recap my kiddos for the year of 2012 so far and start off fresh for May with a post on our Easter celebrations and life going forward :)

In January of 2012, Miss Addalyn officially became a big girl - she got potty trained!  She started showing interest in the later months of 2011, but we never really pushed it.  Our daycare always said, wait until she's 2 1/2 before starting to think about it, which she was on December 3rd.  Given our travels for Christmas and all the busyness of the season, we had decided to wait until January.

Miss Addy had other thoughts...she started asking to go right around mid December and really just took the initiative.  With the travels to MI and such for the holidays, we had a few setbacks, but as soon as we got home and settled into our routine again, she did great.  By the end of January - she was pretty much potty trained!  She's still wearing a pull-up at night, but it is dry pretty much daily :)

Goofy Addy

In February, we did not have any really exciting things going on.  Typical MN excitement.  She did get very in to Valentine's day - she gets excited about any holiday that includes sweets :)  She helped me put together her Valentine's for her daycare party by coloring on each of them.  That was pretty much all of the excitement for Valentine's day -- however Daddy made a very kid-friendly romantic meal for us!

Heart-shaped strawberries and mini pizzas!

"Cheers Dad!" Addy used her wine glass from her toy kitchen dinnerware for supper and had juice "like us" :)

The highlight of 2012 for me (and probably Addy too!) so far was March - when her and I got to go to Disney on Ice with grandma Jean!  Addalyn had SOOOO much fun.  I absolutely loved it as well, I had never been to anything like it as a kid or now, so I was enjoying it just as much as Addy.  If not more! 

Addalyn wore her princess dress that Jean had made for her and given to her as a Christmas present - which made the occasion that much more fun and special!

Grandma Jean and Addy --- love this pic!

Cinderella's ball ---- just a shot from the show.  Cinderella was probably Addy's favorite part of it.  She still talks about it and says "the step sisters were naughty and they need a time out" :)  She also points at all of the Disney princess when she sees them and says "I saw that one, and that one, and that one....etc".  Too cute!

Little Princess Addy

Group photo with the scene in the background!

 My little Addy Jane is SOOOOOO much fun these days.  I love having conversations with her.  She is SO dramatic when she talks.  Seriously, NOOO idea where she gets it from?  :)  J/K - I'll claim her drama, I don't think I have a choice but to claim it. :)

Drama is not all bad.  It also means when she's excited and happy, she's REALLY excited and happy.  And when she tells story, there's a whole lot of tones, and deep breaths, and arm movements, and, well - you get out of breath just watching her!  And she's full of giggles, hugs, and lots of love!

She's pretty good most days and doing things we ask, like brushing her teeth, going potty before bed, etc.  But, she doesn't mind testing those limits every once in a while.  Sometimes she gets in trouble and has to do time-outs or go to her room.  But it hasn't been too bad so far.  I'm nervous though - I've heard people say that 3 yrs. old is worse than 2!

She has been going through a phase the last few months where she prolongs bedtime for as L-O-N-G as she can.  She'll go to bed at 8, and sometimes it'll be 9 before she finally is sleeping.  She wants to read books, come out and talk to us, have the light on, then off...you name it, she tries it.  Grrr!

A rare occasion where she hadn't come out of her room...I had gotten her to go to her room for bedtime by pushing her in the laundry basket.  Assuming she'd eventually climb out, I didn't think much of it.  Aaron went to check on her later and this is what he found --- sleeping Addy in her laundry basket! Silly girl!

 Addy is still a WONDERFUL big sis for Mr. Blake.  She absolutely loves him and loves to take care of him.  They play extremely well together most days.  She is too funny, because a lot of times she will still talk "baby" to him.  She'll raise her voice to a higher pitch and say "good job, buddy!" or other things.  She also calls him Lover-boy, Blakers, & Blaker/Blaker-boy.  It cracks me up when she calls him Lover-boy!

I'd say that Addalyn is still VERY VERY much a daddy's girl.  95% of the time she'll want daddy to do something over me if she can.  I'm okay with that...what girl doesn't want her daddy??!!!!

 Miss Addalyn and her daddy love to make me VERY VERY nervous by some of the things they do together. I sometimes have to tell them go to the carpet because they start doing these things on the tile. The more I get scared - the more they laugh at me.

 Addalyn Jane is getting WAY too big.  She knows all her colors, shapes, counts to 10+ when she feels like it, sings lots of songs - has a huge list in her vocab and tells stories very well.  She's starting to learn letters.  She knows 'A' pretty well.  And when she sees an 'M' she says "M for McDonalds & Mommy."  Aaron just taught her lately that M is also for Michigan so sometimes she yells that out too!

I love my almost 3-year old tons.  I keep thinking each stage is so fun and that I don't want my kids to grow up.  I really do wish they could stay little forever.  But I know that's not possible.  So, I try to appreciate all of the things that make them little.  Good and Bad.  Sometimes I let the little things get to me -- but I keep trying to embrace it all :)