The Big 9-0!

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. Thursday we had thanksgiving lunch at Aaron's step-sister's house in Minneapolis, then headed to dinner at my parents. Friday I shopped 'til I was ready to drop with my sisters (we were at Toys R Us at midnight...Target at 5 in the morning, and didn't get home until 3 p.m.)...and after that I went scrapbooking and stayed there until midnight! Aaron was home and had an "Addy 'n' Daddy" day :)

We also celebreted my grandpa's birthday this weekend. On Thanksgiving day my grandpa Tarara turned 90 years old!!! We had cake & ice cream with our Thanksgiving meal - and then on Saturday we had an open house style birthday party for him at the nursing home for friends & family to visit.

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The birthday boy!

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Addy's all ready to party! My mom made this dress for Addalyn & her other granddaughters - isn't it ADORABLE??!!

My mom and dad with their grandkids

The whole family! Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Cousin's kids, etc :)

Addy was all partied-out and fell asleep in my arms, didn't even open her eyes when I set her down, or when Aaron buckled her in her car seat. She slept until we arrived home!

Not much new...

I can't believe so much time has passed since my last post. Time sure does fly! We are hanging in there...gearing up for the holiday season. I'm so excited for Christmas this year, especially with Addalyn. We had some Christmas music going tonight (Amy Grant...my favorite holiday CD) and I got super excited thinking of all the future Christmas's and being able to see the spirit of Christmas through my baby's eyes.

We haven't been up to much this month, but next month will be busy, so more posts to come!

My precious cargo :) Addy usually is ready for a snooze by the time I pick her up from daycare. This is right when we arrived home...she looked so cuddly!

I discovered new headbands for Addy - her head had outgrown the others. I'm so excited about them!

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On a side note - we went to the Viking's game this weekend with our good friends, Jeff & Rachel. We had awesome seats! 5 rows up on the 10 yard line. I just uploaded pics, and I took 70 of them...apparently I was camera happy. I refrained and only am sharing 4 pics...

Aaron wore green to the game, there was no way he was going to act like a Viking fan. I swear I looked over and saw him clap for us once, but now he says that isn't true. Oh well, I'm not trying to convert him to a Viking's fan anyway! I was just happy he agreed to go because I had never been to a professional football game so I was very excited. He wants to take me to a Packer's game next...I'm game!!!

Aaron, Jeff, Rachel, and Me - thanks guys for taking us to the game -- it was so much fun!

Rachel and I :)

Time to Party!!!

You're Invited: To a party in Addy's crib

When: Around 3 a.m.

If I remember correctly from being a kid, it's not "cool" when your parents try to hang out at your party, so Aaron and I will respect her wishes and stay in our bed sleeping...we trust that you guys will take good care of her!

(Not the best picture due to lack of lighting...but you get the idea of our happy babe at 3 a.m.!)

5 Months already??!!

I can't believe Addalyn is already 5 months old. It is going so fast, which is scary, I can't believe how fast it has gone. I also can't imagine what we did before Addalyn. It's funny how quickly you can't imagine life without your baby.

Not much new to report in the life of Addalyn, she's sleeping the same (wakes up once for a bottle). I'm starting to think she has an internal clock of about 3ish and may not even be waking up because she is necessarily hungry. Who knows...I keep thinking 'tonight's the night'! I'm really hoping that sometime this week she figures it out, 'cause Aaron will be in Michigan for 4 nights starting Friday. We typically rotate 'night duty', so with me being home alone w/ Addy, I get night duty for 4 nights in a row! Do you think that means he'll get it for 4 nights when he returns?? Yeah right, he'll probably be super tired from being out a Deer Camp while he's in MI!

She is LOVING her cereal now and takes it like a pro. We've started doing cereal for breakfast and in the evening...here's to hoping this will help her sleep through the night soon :) One can wish, right??

She has officially decided that it is super fun to roll over, and does that all of the time now. And, she is really close to sitting on her own. She will 'sit' by herself for about 5-10 seconds before she starts slumping to one side...so maybe by her 6 month post she'll be doing that ...she also is starting to show an interest in crawling. Not that she's anywhere near ready for that, but when she's on her tummy, she's started to move her legs in the crawling position...so maybe by her 6 month post there will be a lot of firsts to report!

Getting her to stay still to pose with the bear is becoming a chore...it'll be interesting the next 6 months as she starts crawling and such!

I love to play!

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Thanks Grandma Jean for making me this hat. We love it!

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Other than that, life in the Anderson household is going good. We still love each other, despite the fact that Aaron's a Packer fan and I'm a Vikings fan - ha ha! I guess we must have true love, huh? :)

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We dressed Addalyn in white last Sunday...so she'd be 'neutral' and not be cheering for the Packers or the Vikings. I'm willing to bet she'll end up being a Packer fan like her daddy, since she's going to be a daddy's girl. Hmmm, maybe someday I'll have a mama's boy that can be on my team?

Our Little Wiggle Worm :)

Addalyn was a 'wiggle worm' for her first Halloween. Such a cutie! She was pretty serious throughout the day - I think she was wondering what the heck was going on with all the people dressed up so funny!

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We started off the day by going to my parents house and "trick or treating" there and then we went to my grandpa Tarara's. Very ironic, but my mom got Addalyn a glow worm for a Halloween gift. She loves it!! Mom didn't even know that Addy was a worm for the holiday!

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Addy & her glow worm

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My grandpa was VERY excited because he won the Costume Contest at the nursing home this year...apparently he's been working on his costume for like 3 weeks and my dad said it's all he talked about! He was so cute & happy :) We went to my grandpa's with my sister Angela, and her kids Hunter & Ella - I didn't get a good group shot of them with my grandpa & dad - hopefully one of the other cameras got a good one!

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The Pine Island Nursing Home Costume Contest 1st Place Winner!!!! A Pirate :) - Addy's wondering what the heck is going on!

After we left my parents house, we went back into Rochester and on our way home we stopped by our good friend Jeff & Rachel's so we could see Ella dressed up, and get a picture of the girls together! Ella was a cute little pumpkin :)

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Mommies & their girls

Addy really loves her new glow worm. I had one when I was a little girl - I remember playing with it and sleeping with it...that is actually why my mom got one for Addalyn, because she remembered me loving it. I just can't believe the irony of her getting it for Halloween when she was a little worm herself...too cute!

Batty for Daddy!!

I had Addy wear this shirt for the month of October - too cute. I really do think she's quite the daddy's girl (what daughter isn't??...?), so when I saw this onesie, I thought it was the perfect Halloween shirt for her!!

Busy Busy!

Wow - what a busy fall we have going on here. Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I am one busy mommy! I am taking a course right now to help me prepare for an exam to get my PHR (Professional Human Resources Certification). The course is once/week - and requires about 200 pages of reading in a week. And let me tell you - IT IS HARD TO FIND THE TIME! I could read 200 pages of a novel in a day with no problems, but this reading is different ---- much different!

I don't really like to start reading on the weeknights until after Addy goes to bed, because I want to spend time with her after she's been at daycare all day and myself & Aaron have been at work...so getting in all the reading in a week is a little stressful, but that's okay.

Looking cute in one of her fun fall outfits! Not the best expression, but I think she's still a doll!

Addy is SO FUN right now. She is getting really strong - she sits right now if you have her legs sorta wide - but she leans pretty far forward still. I think she's getting the hang of it though and she'll be sitting (and then crawling) before we know it!

She 'talks' all the time and squeals with delight. She's started a new thing where she scrunches up her mouth and nose - it is HILARIOUS and entertains Aaron and I. We call it her "mad face" although she's not mad at all when she does it. We have no idea where she got it, because she started doing this randomly on a Sunday when we had just been hanging out with each other all weekend, and she didn't pick up on it from us!

Addy's "mad face"! (It gets even more dramatic than this)

Aaron's also been busy, with work and doing some projects outside of work too. He's REALLY excited because he is heading up to the UP in a few weeks to go deer hunting. He hasn't been able to make it the last few years, so he's really happy to be heading out to his dad's deer camp and spending time with the guys and his family :)

Oh yeah! Speaking of the U.P. - I'm wondering if you've had any snow?? We had quite the snow fall last Friday (10/23) and I couldn't help but wonder if we had beat the U.P. with the first snow fall of the year? Check it out!

Our October Snowfall! Standing in our driveway looking toward the main road

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Looking toward our house - they were the big sticky snowflakes that would be perfect for making a snowman!...things to look forward to doing w/ Addy in years to come!

Rice

Rice Cereal - Day One: not a happy camper! (look closely and there are some crocodile tears)

Rice Cereal - Day Five: this isn't so bad!

Mommy, isn't it funny how upset I got the first time you gave me cereal??

After Addy's 4 month check up, we decided to give cereal a try. She was showing lots of interest in food, and even tried to take some bites when she was sitting on my lap during breakfast one day! She was very upset with me the first few days, but its getting better. I think the texture is so different from what she's used to, and that is what upsets her. We have some videos of it, maybe I'll post her reaction some day when I have more time :) We have to feed her in-between bottle feedings - 'cause if you catch her when she's really hungry, cereal just does not get in her tummy fast enough!

We're making progress, but taking it slow - no need to rush it!