"POTTY" like a RockSt★r

my "potty" rockstar

Well, we did it!! we are officially potty trained here in our household, it was a process of many...many...many months and down to an ultimatum(we were at the end of our diaper pack and you knew she was ready when she opts not to use the big girl potty cause she knows she has a diaper on!! so we took the risk and went straight to big girl underwear) and we did it!! YAHOOOOO! so we threw our first ever "potty" party! We invited all of Addison's friends to come and "potty" like rockstars with us:) What a fun way to celebrate my lil girl!! Good job baby girl!! mommy and daddy love you:)

the spread...

the party favor: big kid underwear, potty treats, and a fun Kazoo to let cheer them on when they go potty!!

snack time

Our 'Lil Brody Bear

I am 2 months old today!! I have grown 2 inches and have put on a little weight. I love to smile and coo and ca with you if you let me. Mama says I am the best baby ever and the cutest..ok I might've added that last part, what, I can't help I am so adorable:) ... I have the BEST sister in the whole world, she loves me to pieces, literally, her favorite thing to do is to pounce on me to give me kisses and tries to wake me up by screaming at the top of her lungs..."WAAKE UPPP!!" She knows how to keep mom and dad on their toes that's for sure!

 

here is a game I like to play often, its called "Caption This Ma":

"...you don't want to see what happend to the other guy"

"What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

Happy Birthday to Our Sweet Lil' Bella Babe

(c) Annie Torrini Photography

(to see more 2yr pics and family photos click on the above link)

 

A few weeks ago we celebrated our beautiful lil' girl's 2nd birthday!! She had sooo much fun!

 

Since Addison loves to build and destroy towers and her favorite characters are from Sesame Street we decided to go wih an Elmo and Cookie Monster Construction theme. 

helping daddy set up for the party!

the kids got to decorate their very own hard hat to wear around the construction zone!

the kids bounced and bounced and bounced and just kept bouncing, the parents had to drag the kids out of there:)

after a few tries mommy and daddy made the perfect cookie monster cake for our little construction builder!

Turning 2

All of Addison's friends are turning 2!! We have had so much fun celebrating all her friends, here are a few pictures from the parties she has been too....

Adry had a Minnie Mouse party at her house with lots of outdoor fun activities and ice cream cake!!

Adelyn had an fun pool party Elmo Style andat one point ALL the kids made it into the pool:)

Summer and Lilly shared their birthday party(they were both born on the same day only hours apart from each other) we played at the burnsville splash pad and had lots of snacks and cup cakes 

Sydney had her party at Blackhawk park and we watched a fun puppet show, did a craft, played at the park and had a yummy lunch!!

We were out of town for Faith and Noelle's party, but heard it was super fun and we still have some friends turning 2 in the fall/winter months!

Next up to turn 2 is Addison!!

A Dancer, A Baker, A Construction Demolition Maker!

We have been having so much fun watching a our little girl learn new skills and discover new things in life. 

She has recently found a love of dancing! If dancing with the stars is on TV she is right there dancing along with the dancers, if music is playing of the radio she is most likely dancing away, and she has this toy tractor that plays 10 secs of music, yes she is pushing that button over and over and telling mommy and daddy to join her on the dance floor and dance with her:) here is a short video of her and her friend dancing away sorry it is a sideways view....

She aslo has a love for cooking or baking with mommy and daddy. She really loves helping daddy mix egg as she calls it Saturday mornings while making breakfast.  She pulls the chair to the side of the counter climbs up and and insists on helping us:)

We love to play with blocks around our house, build them up as high as we can and then Addison will come along and torpedo them all down to the ground!! She recently has started identifying each color that is on the block. The other day we were playing with the big duplo lego blocks and Rich was trying to teach her how to build symetrical(don't ask its an engineer thing) he had a tower going pretty good all the way up to the ceiling and here comes Addison to PLOW right through it all:)

A few other things that Addison loves to do is play in water(whether it is a puddle the size of a quater or a big pool of water, she is in it:) ) bounce around on anything she can make bounce, eating corn on the cob, taking care of her dolls/stuffed animals and making sure they have a clean diaper on, blowing bubbles, coloring, and she also has started using 2-4 word sentences!! Here are a few more pictures to enjoy!!

18 months and Growing

Ok, I know everyone who has a kid says this, but I will say it anyway...Wow I can't believe our baby girl is growing up so fast!! I know it has only been 18months but a lot happens in that time!!
Her vocabulary is accumulating new words almost daily!! (This would be a pretty long blog post if I wrote all the words down) but here are a few new words she says...luv you, up pease, help pease, close, plate, fork, hungry,coat, & night night, just to name a few. She also has the anatomy of the head down as well; head, hair, eyes, mouth, ears and nose!!
Some of her favorite things to do is color, play with her friends, go for walks, playing at the park, playing outside(morning, noon and night...I often get walked to the door bright and early in the morning by my little girl as she is saying "side, side...go!"), hanging out with daddy, helping mommy around the house, playing dress up, bouncing in her chair, and talking on the phone(even if no one is on the other end)!!
Addison's biggest milestone this last week is going peepee and poopoo on the BIG girl potty!! The first time she walked daddy to the bathroom and pointed at the toilet saying "poo" so he put down her Elmo seat and put her up there and a few minutes later she went potty!! (This is probably TMI but we are just so excited for her and very surprised!!) There were a few other times she let us know she had to go, it is still a learning curve and I'm sure we have a long, long, long way to go before she gets to big girl panties!!

Over the Lakes, & Thru the Woods...

To Grandma and Grandpa Ver Strate's we go(with a pit stop in Janesville, WI to play with great granma Brown)!!!

Addison enjoyed her new found freedom in having her seat turned around. She loved playing peek a boo with daddy and mommy, watching movies, reading her books and playing with her toys.

We made a pit stop to visit GG for a bit in WI. Addison quickly made herself at home in GG's house, pulling cans out of the cubbards to stack them, dragging cases of pop across the floor, reading books to GG, playing with GG's fun toys,taunting Great Aunt Linda in pulling ornaments off the tree, and her favorite...climbing on all the furniture:)

After GG's we ventured on over to MI to spend Christmas with the ENTIRE Ver Strate clan. It snowed enough to cover the grown and take the kids out for a few 4 wheelin' sleigh rides. The kids loved to pile up on Rich and ride along:)

Addison got lots of play time with grandma VerStrate and her cousin Isabelle.

We all went out for dinner at Tres Amigos to celebrate my birthday!! With this big of a family there is sure a good time to be had:)

                       

We had such a great year, and so much to be thankful for. We look forward to seeing

you all in the new year and pray that your New Year be filled with the love of Jesus!!             

Say Whaaat?!!?

such a fun stage we are in with our little girl:) she is starting to sound more words out and has added a few more words to her vocabulary!! When it comes to names she can only get out the end part...so for her friend Summer is "merr" and Elmo is "mo" :-) oh and everything seems to be "ought" for hot, and you will find her blowing on whatever is "ought" to cool it down:)  Here are a few of her recent favorites:


"AT" for hat

"Coookie"

All Grown Up!???!!

Addison and I were out shopping the other day and stopped to get pizza for lunch. We sat down to eat our pizza and as usual I will cut the pizza up into small bites for her so she can pick them up with her hand or try to stab the pieces with her fork. To my dismay she started to throw a fit and swiping her arms across her tray like she did not want them(keep in mind pizza is one of her favs) and she kept pointing to the plate on the table(where the rest of the pizza was) I soon realized she wanted to eat like mom and hold the entire slice of pizza in her own two hands!!! Or in her words..."enough with the baby bites mom...I want the whole slice!!!"

And She's Off!!

Our little baby is girl is walking at 10 months!! It was a process for her to get to this milestone but with her daddy's mindset she was bound and determined to make it!! Around 4 or months she decided she was done sitting and just wanted to stand on her own feet! So we picked up a walker for her because mommy and daddy's arms could only handle so much of holding this little one up:) She figured out fast how to tool around the kitchen in that thing, in no time was she cruising around our center island and under the table and back around again:) At 6 months she realized, hey if I grab onto mommy or daddy's fingers and pull myself up they will help me walk around. And so began her walking fetish. She new how to find your thumbs and pull them up and if you weren't quick to your feet she was more than happy to help you up!! She was getting braver and braver by the day and soon was scaling the furniture on her own and was down to a one thumb helper. On July 19th she took her first couple steps on her very own by walking from daddy to mommy! After a few tumbles she reverted back to the crawling deal. I am pretty sure she was inspired by a few of her baby friends that are now walking that she decided within the last few weeks shee too can walk all by herself and she did!! Yay!!!

Milestones

I can crawl now!!!

Yes we are mobile, she started out with the army inch worm crawl and would pout the entire crawl until she reached a toy and then the pouting stopped. she would even look up every so often to see if you were going to help walk her over to the toy... so rough being a baby:)

Big Girl!!

no more car seats brought into the store or resturants...mainly because mommy's back needs a break(I feel so old after hauling her car seat in and out)and she is to the point that she can sit up so big!! she loves it:)

Walking??!!??

no not yet, but she would much rather walk then crawl!! she will even grab for your fingers to help pull her up so she can walk wherever her hearts desire. She is deffinately a determined little girl:) if she sees something she wants(mainly the remotes, or our phones) one track mind until she gets the prize only to be taken away...mean mommy and daddy:) She can pull herself up now and walk around the coffee table, and transfer to the couch(if it is close enough) now only to figure out how to get back down after we are up...yes we have had quite a few tumbles, but we are learning:) Addison proofing the house has deffinately begun, we have had to move a little shelf and all the picture frames and magazines on the bottom shelves....GONE!!