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!!

baby boy VerStrate

Here is our little bundle of joy growing ever so fast in my tummy.

I am now 26 weeks. I am guessing I have a future NFL Kicker growing in my tummy or he is getting way tooo much chocolate:) The doctors can't even get him to keep still long enough to take his heart beat. I feel him move all through out the day and into the night. He is going to have to learn quickly that when 10 o'clock in the evening comes it is sleepy time for mommy NOT play time!! I still have my cravings, most of my pregnancy I have craved popcorn, beer( I don't even like beer and don't freak out if you are reading this...I have not had any beer to drink, just a weird craving), and pickles. Lately it has been funnel cakes, and strawberries with Nutella chocolate!! Addison is very excited for her little brother to arrive, she loves going to the doctors with me to hear his heartbeat, she talks with him, tries to hold mommies belly saying "I hold brouder", and will give zurberts to mommy's tummy and tickle my tummy saying she is getting baby brouder:) The cutest is when she hugs my belly and gives it kisses and telling her baby brother "love you brouder"

Monkeying Around!

We took Addiosn to go see Curious George at the MN Childrens Museum and found ourselves getting more and more curious and having lots of FUN!! Not sure who had more fun though, mom and dad or Addiosn:) here are some pics of our day!

playing minature golf with George

building towers with daddy

future construction maker??!!!??? she loved her hard hat!

There was a room with lots of tunnels, bridges and slides for her to run about!!

showing daddy how the gears are suppose to work!

They had a huge bubble station...every kids dream!

Racing boats with daddy

lots of water fun!!

here daddy was showing Addie how to operate a crane...

here is the crane and the truck to
place the beams on...                                           I think daddy had more fun with this one:)

We found a room where the kids could become scientists, so Addison put on her lab coat and came up with her own formula on how to make playdough!!

Mommy had to take a bathroom break and this is what I came out too....

Addison playing with face paint!! As she painted her face she would say "pretty"

Our little Warrior Princess

Going through the Scary moments...

Over the last week I have witnessed what no mom likes to go through, watching their little girl(or boy) go through a scary moment.  :-(
When Addison was playing on a small trike at her grandparents in MI,  she turned the handle bars and she started to go down a hill, she started going faster, a small cry turned into a blood curdling scream and then crashed! I couldn't get to her fast enough, but when I did I held her so tight and cuddled her for hours.  Her scream is what haunts you as a mom. You wish your child would never have to go through a scary moment but they are bound to happen. Scary for them and for you.

Building Trucks

The first Saturday of the month Home Depot offers a kids make and take workshop. They have a section if the store set up just like daddy's workshop would like to hammer, sand, and paint all sorts of fun stuff. Today they had the kids build a little truck. Addison's favorite part was to pound the hammer on the wood and color her truck that her and daddy built!

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!!

Boom Chicka POP

I was telling a good friend of mine cravings I was having during this pregnancy. One of them being popcorn. Around 2 o'clock everyday you can guess where I am, making a bowl of popcorn and indulging the savory taste of each popped kernel. She then proceeded to go grab a bag of popcorn she had picked up from the store and told me to try it out!!   OMG!! LOVE LOVE LOVE this popcorn!! and I don't feel guilty for eating almost the entire bag:) it is that good! I have found it at Byerly's and Rainbow Foods. 

 Boomchickapop

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!!