Quack says the Duck

My dear friend Annie became a super cool momma to 3 lil duckies(she is already a super cool mom to 3 amazing kids!!) so Addison and I went over to visit and got to play with the ducks. Addison chased the one for a bit and held the duck for maybe 5 seconds, but here are a few shots Annie did get of her playing with mr. duckie:)

pictures are copyrighted by annie torrini photography

Fun at Wisconsin Dells

We packed up the car last week and took our family to the Dells for a little mini vacation! We met up with grandma and grandpa VerStrate and cousin Cole. Although it was short, we had a lot of fun in that time. We found out if you put our daughter in a room with water and slides she is in heaven!! We couldn't get her out of the water park a few times without her kicking and screaming! She loved going down the waterslides(all the ones she could) running through the fountains and splashing around. She found out she could float with her life jacket on, so ever so ofter we found her belly up floating around just giggling away!! Here are a few pictures at the water park....

going down with daddy on the "BIG" slide was so much fun, as soon as they splashed down she would say...Again!!!

she had this fascination with the ketchup and mustard bottles. Opening and closing the lids and organizing them by color and size!

After breakfast one morning we headed over to the deer park to feed the deer and see the other animals around the farm.

off to feed the deer!!!

The best part of this last weekend was Addison telling the entire family that she is going to be a "BIG" Sister this November!!!

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!!

"Keeys"

Our conversation's lately first thing in the morning and ALL through out the day goes like this...

Addison: Side(outside)

mom: no not yet(when she is asking to go out at 6 in the morning)

Addison: keeys pease---Side(outside)

mom: no you don't need those

Addison: starts to cry and pout like I just crushed her excitment to go outside with the keys!!

I didn't think this was suppose to happen until she turned 16!! She is only 1! We found out today that she can walk up to the car and try to open the car door and then once inside(as you will see below) crawl into the driver seat and place the keys in the ignition!! Oh boy!! We are in TROUBLE!!

Operation Tear Duct(s)

Last December we found ourselves taking our baby girl to the University of MN Amplatz for her first surgery!! She was born with blocked tear ducts and they were stubborn little ducts,  we massaged, and massaged, and massaged them, well let's just say her tear ducts decided they would stay blocked!!
We went on to see Dr. Anderson in November and she recommended we proceed with the probing of her tear ducts to open them up. They say 95% of babies who have this procedure is successful...Our daughter and her ducts decided they wanted to be in the other 5%, where it does not work!! This last week we found out her first procedure did not work and that her tear ducts were too small, which still caused her eyes to be goopy and teary.  The doctor then suggested we have another procedure to put in stints(or some call it tubes, the tubes are the size of fishing line) in her tear ducts to help the opening stay open(they should stay in for 4-6months) So this last Friday we went for round two of operation tear ducts... our day started arriving at the hospital at 9:30am and ended at 2pm with the tubes in!  Addison was a Rock Star!!! She is such a trooper and deffinately knows how to ham it up with the doctors and nurses:)  Her recovery went so well that you wouldn't even know she had them done!! Here are a few pictures of our journey at the hospital:

When we first arrived they had a whole area of toys for her to play with, she even got to color, her favorite was tooling the trains and cars around the track.

 

She did great with the nurses in pre-op (this is from round one)

practicing with daddy how to breathe through the mask

playing doctor while waiting she was know as Dr. VerStrate this visit(round 2)

daddy and Addison ready to go back for surgery(daddy went back both times)

In recovery, both times she was given popcycles, juice, and her favorite...cookies!! This time she got to watch Elmo on the dvd player they had in her room and she even went home with an Elmo balloon!!

Daddy's Little Girl

Recently the term "daddy's girl" has come very prevalent around our house! It is so fun to see her get excited to see daddy when he comes through the door after a days work, and say "dada, up pease" then give him a BIG hug!! She follows his every step and wants to be right by his side trying to do what he does:) Infact today I asked who she wanted to hang out with daddy or mommy, her answer...DADAA with a big smile!!

going up the ladder to inspect daddy's work

trying to walk in his shoes

her favorite place to be and "trying" to help daddy with his report!

just chillin' with dada

having a little treat and anaylizing daddy's report to make sure it is correct

A Prayer for My Daughter

I pray that you seek God daily and know in your heart that you were created by Him, that you are His Master Piece. You were fearfully and wonderfully made, blameless before God.  Give her the strength to not fall prey in letting the world define who she is. Help her to see her true beauty and self-worth. My precious baby girl, you ARE God’s creation – beautiful, strong and created with a unique plan and purpose.

You are:

• Created in the image of God. (Genesis 1:27)

• Fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalm 139:14)

• Precious and honored in His sight.(Isaiah 43:4)

• Redeemed and forgiven. (Ephesians1:7)

• A new creature in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

• Holy and blameless before God. (Ephesians 1:4, 1 Corinthians 1:30)

• Chosen by God. (1 Peter 2:9)

• God’s masterpiece. (Ephesians 2:10)

• Created with purpose to do great works for God’s Kingdom. (Ephesians 2:10)

(this prayer was inspired by a Proverbs 31 daily reading)

"Dents"

"But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." Hebrews 3:13 NIV

Wow!!! Do you ever have those devotions when you feel like God just gave you a Holy Spirit butt kicking?!!?? Well today's quiet time with God was one good swift kick in a good way:) I am kinda embarassed to even blog about it, but here I am...I signed up to get emails from this Proverbs 31 ministry and todays email was titled "seeing beyond the dent".  It started out with a verse from Thesselonians 5:11 "encourage one another and build each otherwise up..." When I first read the verse I was like well duh...I am great at encouraging and building others up. Then I read the story  that followed the verse and that is when I felt HORRIBLE!!! This gut wrenching feeling that I sat there and thought that is sooo me!! Ugggggg, I am not fan when I am correctted on things!! Who is...I mean do I really have to be encouraging when I don't like what someone is doing or saying!! I don't know about you but sometimes ivket my mind go on spin cycle(like the washing machine) and I let one little sent turn into one gigantic dent, when all I could've done is looked past the dent and looked for the good!!! Ok Lord...I get it!! :-)
I will let you read the story for yourself(I encourage you too) but the just of it was that too often when  "dents"  are present in situations or in people ,we are more likely to be critical or judgemental of that person or situation. So, instead of just seeing the "dent" to look past it and encourage or build up the situation you are in!!!  Whew!! I am thankful that God DOES see the good in me and He is not critical or condemning, instead He celebrates the progress I make. Lord give me Your strength to look past the dents in life and to be an encourager.

Valentine Fun

Happy Valentine's Day!!
My morning started out with waking up to beautiful flowers and a cup of coffee waiting for me...my husband is AMAZING!!

After breakfast and a little play time, Addison and I got all dolled up for our Valentine Parties with our friends

the first party was at her friend Adry's house. They had so much fun!! We made crafts, played with lots of fun toys, exchanged Valentine's and of course there was SNACK TIME!!

the second party was at our friend Cassidy's house. There were more fun toys to play with and Valentines to exchange, oh ya and don't forget the good food... Pizza and Cupcakes!!!

After a morning filled with parties we headed over to Gramma and Grandpa's house to give them their Valentine and play for a few hours!!

(this is gramma and Addison at the zoo)

We ended the day with a yummy dinner,

Broiled Halibut with Lemon & Herbs and Dijon Roasted Potatoes

and for dessert....

Strawberry Chocolate Ganache Cake...mmmmm and a glass of wine!!

Finger Painting made EASY!!!

Hi my name is LaDonna, and I am a Pinaholic!!

Yes I jumped on the Pinterest band wagon and it is so ever addicting. It is quite fun actually, not to mention all the way cool ideas you find on there. One of the most "popular" pins lately has been this no mess finger paint. It looked fun so I pinned it on my Craft Board. (I figured if you are going to pin things you should at least try them!!) So I set off to find an "easier" recipe for finger paints. There are numorous ones out there and with a 1 year old who has more energy than I can keep up with the easier the recipe the better!! It literally took me 5 minutes to measure, mix and color. I also wanted to find one that if we decided to do a finger paint session with the mess that I should find one that if my daughter decided the paint would be better in her mouth I wouldn't have to worry that she would digest something she shouldn't (I did taste test the paint and it tastes like bland pancake batter;-) ) and a fun time of messy finger painting would turn into a not so fun for mom finget paint session:)

 Easy Finger Paint

(this is where I found my recipe)

I googled "finger paint recipes" and almost every mom out there has come up with their own version  and blogged about it, so it wasn't hard to find one that I liked and copied it. 

All you need is 2 cups flour, 2 cups cold water, and food coloring! Once I stirred the flour and water together I separted it out in my little mixing bowls and added the food coloring. So Simple!!

Then I found some gallon Zip Lock bags place a piece of paper in it with a few globs of the colors

AND.....

           

Walaaa! No Mess Finger Painting!! Maybe after nap time I will let her get messy with the paints.

CHEESE!! (waiting for mom to make paint)

Mo...Cookcaa...MOooo

While my parents visit to New York to see my sister, on a an outing one day they ran into Addison's FAVORITE Sesame Street Characters:)  Elmo and Cookie Monster. (pretty sure if we had a name that Elmo tune contest, I would win. I could sing you his songs forwards and backwards...oh ya I could sing them in my sleep!!) I showed her the picture they took standing next to them and she was sooo excited to see Mo(elmo) and Cookcaa(cooking monster) 

Bella

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Betty Crocker in the Making!

Hiee! Momma thinks I am napping... little does she know I snuck into the computer room and found my way to write this post!! Hehee:)
I love helping my mom out in the kitchen...especially getting into the bread drawer(I see she already told you about that in another post) oh and pulling all the pot holders out, and when I can,  rearrange her spice rack(dad put a lock on that draw too so when mom opens it...BAMM! I right there to help her pick out a spice or two!!) 

Now that I am a "big" girl she lets me help her when she bakes yummy food:) The other day she let me help make Rice Krispy Treats!! Who knew they were so easy to make!! Here are a few pictures of me making Rice Krispy Treats with her!! I am such a big helper...

First we measured out the Rice Krispies

                              Then you dump the marshmallows in...

momma says every good cook tastes what they are making...so I had to test out a marshmallow or two!

no worries, momma didn't turn the stove on, she was lettin' me practice stirring!!

CHEEEEESE!

The best part....Lickin' the spoon(can't let any of those krispy treats go to waste)

The Bread Drawer

"The path to becoming a better parent-like most every road to personal growth and mastery begins with self-examination." -Dr. John Gottman

A valuable lesson was learned today at my MOPS meeting this morning with me and my bread drawer! I know this sounds crazy but stick with me here...This drawer between 4pm and 5pm is my daughter and I's nemisis. It is during these hours that I am either trying to get dinner ready, tidy up the kitchen so I can start on dinner, or she is getting hungry, and or we are waiting for dad to get home. Little ms. Addison knows that she is not suppose to get into this drawer and will at times shake her head saying "no,no, no, no" while opening the bread drawer up(as I am doing any of the above in the kitchen). Why can't she get into the bread drawer??? you ask, well she likes the take the bread out, squezze it and hug it and bite into it...DRIVES ME BONKERS!!!! I don't know why, but right around the same time everyday, we seem to arrive upon this stressful moment almost daily in our house. My frustration levels rise and I feel like pulling my hair out at times. I try to discpline and teach her NO, then feel like the worst parent in the world for yelling at my child, for what...playing in the bread drawer! 
What did I learn...To let go of the situation, what is the real issue with the bread drawer? Is it because she is in harms way, no, is it because she is trying to rebell against me, no, it's because mom doesn't have control over the situation and I let myself get so frustrated that I allow it to be pointed towards her.. I need to remember that I don't have to be in control of this bread drawer...its bread for crying out loud!! so we have smushed bread, all I am doing is creating a negative environment for me and her and is not healthy for our relationship. Yes, my child needs to learn discipline and boundaries, but I need to learn to not be so controlling over something so little...OK...I admit...I tend to be a control freak as some would say.  I also learned to remember that after correcting my child I need to follow with a connection! That discipline or teaching boundaries with your kids should not just be about correcting, correcting, correcting, we need to make whatever the situation is a teaching moment and a moment to build on your relationship, that after you have lost it or "trying" to correct your little one by simpling hugging them and telling them, "mommy loves you, but at times I will say no and you might not understand right now, but just know that I still love you and always will!! "