Addy seems to be recovered from her illness and felt good enough to sport a brand new outfit from Grammie in Texas. Their 12 hour visit (sigh) was wonderful but we are looking forward to them coming and staying for at least 2 weeks (or a month!).

Our little AddyBatty is back!! And boy did we miss her... She is just so full of joy and smiles that it almost killed us to see her without either for a week. Rotavirus is no joke as we have learned. St George has a wonderful Pediatric unit that really got her back to herself with fluids and tests and such. Her little arms and feet are bruised where they had to take blood samples and where Kanab doctors kept trying to get an IV in. Addy was amazingly tough throughout the whole ordeal and we are so proud of her.

Just a walking update. HURRY Grammy & Grampa! She's just about got it down!

Wonderful Mother's Day

I spent the day with my two favorite people! It started by opening cards from Addyson and one from Daron. Then we had a really good breakfast on the way to Zion National Park. We took the shuttle to the trail head (which happened to be the very last stop and a 35 minute ride) Addy started to get a bit impatient but held it together! Then we let her walk around a little before we put her in the back pack. She liked the back pack since she sits so high! She likes to look down on everyone. ha. I carried her because I wanted to burn the extra calories. Daron said that everyone would call him a lazy Dad but sucked it up for me! We did meet a couple from St. George that asked why I was carrying Addy and I gave them the whole calorie/exercise story. We met that couple because they alerted us that a squirrel had crawled in our backpack while we were sitting down by the water! The squirrels at the park are very tame and a bit chubby. Daron and I were laughing that they probably have squirrel meeting about the risks of heart disease and how "billy bob" the squirrel met an untimely death due to eating junk food from the tourist. I wonder if I should start a group for them? Ha. Daron and I ended the day by having a cool very overpriced beer in Springdale and some horribly over priced and not very good Mexican food. Luckily, the company was fabulous and Addy was exhausted and slept through the whole meal. We got a great photo of her! We are looking forward to Grandma and Grandpa Texas coming in a little over a week! Yippeee!

Addy blowing a kiss





First ride in "big girl" car seat



Addy and the chickens

This almost brings a tear to my eye as it shows me a moment in time that I know will not last very long. Addy loves loves loves to hold our hand and just walk. Through the back yard, down the street, down stairs, through the house...It doesn't matter as long as she has a good grip on a finger or two. She is so precious!
 

The Chickens have landed! I repeat, The Chickens have landed!!
Quite the eventful Saturday as we went and caught some wild chickens for our "Save a chicken" project. The whole family including Mommy, Addy, Zeena, Bendy, and the Goldfish turned out to welcome our new buddies. Zeena seems to be the most disturbed by their presence, but hopefully she'll warm up to them at some point.

Addy in the bouncy thing at Zoe's fourth birthday. Daron and I guarded the entrances so that the big kids wouldn't hurt her. What can we say she is our baby~!
Daron and Addy on the trampoline. It had a safety net around it otherwise we wouldn't have let her sit on it. Just kiddin. She could sit on it as long as we had a hold of her shirt or leg. This was the FIRST time Daron was on a trampoline an didn't do a backflip. The last time he was on a trampoline that I remember he jumped up high and on his way down a kid got in the way causing him to divert his landing. He ended up on the ground but luckily no doctor visit was required. Not like he would go anyway...
Addy at the local mexican restaurant. We walked up there on a beautiful Friday evening and she loved it. She had cheerios, a little of moms enchiladas and some of moms lemonade. She would make a face when she drank the lemonade like "ICK" and would scrunch up her face. After she swallowed it she opened up her mouth like a baby bird saying I want more!
Amanda and I took Addyson and Isabella out for a hike on Friday afternoon. It was great but a little windy - thats why the girls are wearing hats!

Addy looks a bit too happy here to have found my bank card!

Addy boo's favorite spot is on the couch (of course, you can't hurt yourself if you fall off the floor so where's the fun in that!) She bounces and sings and Dad plays rough house with her which she absolutely LOVES. If he doesn't push her down she looks over her shoulder and waits for it!

She crawled in here all by herself. Ahhh I remember when her feet didn't even touch the floor.

Dad's cooking so Addy was right in front of him between him and the cabinet. However she moved by the time I got my camera. You have to download to photo to see the expression on her face.

It is finally getting warm 70 - 80 degrees so we are pulling out some of Addy's summer attire!

Addy is enjoying berry season. She likes strawberries and blackberries. Yummy! The outfit below is from Aunt Lisa. We are just glad it warmed up enough for her to wear it before she outgrew it!

 
 
 

Addy has entered another stage, and it is sooooooo cute! She now loves to point at things (everything) and she loves to give things to mommy and daddy. We always say "Thank you Addy!" so I think that is the fun in handing us stuff. She is quite proud of these new skills even though they have kind of taken her mind off the new walking thing that I thought she'd have mastered by now...
This is the new pointing thing...

This is her offering me a reed or something she picked up in the front yard.















These are some socks Karen sent I think for Jen, but they looked so cute on Addy I let her wear them

Addyson celebrated her first Birthday yesterday March 21, 2009. She didn't nap all day so she was a little dazed when all of her friends showed up. Looking at the group Daron and I quickly realized that she has more friends than we do! Well, just about! We are lucky here, there are lots of mothers and children that we hang out with at the park and it seems I am meeting new people every day. Addy loved having all the kids over and the cake I made turned out great. Unfortunately, Mommy didn't think about Addy trying to grab the candle while we were staging the big blowing out the candle. Well, lets just say it will make a good story when she is older and luckily there are no boo boos ma ma couldn't kiss away.

Here you will see another piece of evidence showing Addyson's strong will. She literally would have done this for hours if Daddy's back would have held up. disclaimer: there are no knives involved in the making of this video...

One of Addy's favorites is to mess with daddy's computer and cell phone. She has called her grandparents to chat and deleted some of her pictures from the laptop. Thank God for the recycle bin! She really gets a kick out of my screen saver too.

Our little angel is getting teeth of her own and... a mind of her own. It was hilarious when Jen was trying to get her to let go of the fireplace!  
 

Lisa is doing a wonderful job at her new job. I am particularly excited because she is focusing on getting rid of dog fighting in her town.

LMPD officers star in reality TV show.
Click here to hopefully see the video clip!

February 18th was my Mom's Birthday!! Happy Birthday Mom! The same day I went to the Navajo Reservation in the Gap, AZ. After doing a presentation at the elementary school we dropped food and water off at the local dump. There are thousands of stray dogs on the reservation and because there are no vets or humane societies near this particular town we check the dump for puppies and injured animals. Last month we found four dead puppies who's eyes weren't even open yet and a dog that had been shot and put in a box. This time however we found no dead dogs and one little puppy that was alive and VERY happy to see us. A few days before a friend of our found 12 puppies and lady found a litter of kittens in the actual dumpster. There is a free spay/neuter clinic in April on the Reservation so we are slowly trying to stop the overpopulation of animals there. We brought a Moloccan Cockatoo named Seppi to show the students and the Fredonia humane society took the puppy in when we got back home. Thank goodness. Best Friends doesn't take drop offs and they get over 2000 request a month from people and places wanting us to take their animals.