"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

Fall Favorites (2)

Pumpkin Patches and juming in a pile of leaves is another fall favorite of ours around the Ver Strate household. We visited Paul's market in Apple Valley with some friends and picked out a few pumpkins to decorate this month and had some fun in the leaves this weekend!! 

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!

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!!

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) 

Merry Christmas!!

Addison (with the help of mom) hosted her first Christmas Party! It was quite the party. She made ornaments for her baby friends(she is very talented at 1) and mom made a yummy French Vanilla scrub for all her mommy friends. All the babies dressed for the occasion, they chased each other around, ate lots of snacks(gold fish are the "in" thing) and took lots of fun pictures. Here are a few pics from her party!!

Here's to My Girlfriends!!

Girlfriend Motto
Girlfriends honor us and our choices ~although they may not agree~ Girlfriends live without judgment. Girlfriends live without jealousy. Girlfriends honor confidences. Girlfriends lift us up without rescuing us. Girlfriends always live in truth ~and that truth being spoken in love~ Girlfriends Celebrate our differences. Girlfriends know how to listen. Just listen. Girlfriends know how to love themselves and so then are able to love us ~unconditionally~ Girlfriends Celebrate! ~Rachel

I am not sure why we don't celebrate our girlfriends more often!!(me especially) I was talking with one of my girlfriends recently and she felt bad for bringing up a touchy subject with me. I then realized that, that is why God gave us girlfriends, to talk about our "touchy" subjects in life. To go through life as we call it together. I am not sure about you but I tend to put walls up around certain areas of my life becuase I don't want to "burden" others with it. But He uses our life lessons to help and even encourage others. I have also learned that if I do open up with what is going on with me, it is bound to happen that one of my girlfriends are going through the same thing!! I am so blessed to be surrounded by a great group of women who are there to cheer me on, cry with me, and laugh with me. Thank you ladies!!

Happy BZZZZaloween!!

October was filled with lots of fun activities for the VerStrate clan. This year we dressed Addison up as a BumbleBee. We got lots of good use out of the costume. She went to her first baby costume party, got to go trick or treat at the zoo and make crafts, and story time at the library had a costume party read along.

 We also took her to her first pumpkin patch to pick out her very own pumpkin. As you can see she found the perfect one.  I found a "Mr. Skeleton Potato Head" from target to dress her pumpkin up(we weren't quite ready for her to dig into the pumpkin and be wearing the entire pumkin on her. Knowing our daughter we would be have pumpkin findings all over our house and her for days!)

I thought I would leave you with this classic picture from her costume party, it was for sure a hallmark moment, all of us moms are still giggling about the entire ordeal, but the moment was for sure a precious one! We hope everyone is enjoying their fall!!

Happy Bzzzzaloween,

love the VerStrate's

Cards by Me!

Well ever since my daughter has gone to one LONG nap in the afternoons, I have found that I have way more time on my hands to do things I want to do!! So I dusted off my craft box, sharpeded up my scissors, found some cute paper and stamps and this is what I came up with:

I call this collection "just cause"

Footprints on our Hearts

I was given this poem by my aunt way back in the day that hangs on my wall. There are a few verses that always stick out to me and as I read them I sit and reflect on the journeys I go thru in life with my family, friends, and the random people I meet in the store or on the street. It is the last verse that I seem to dwell on the most lately as I have been going through this new chapter in my life...

“Some People” By Flavia Weedn

Some people come into our lives and quickly go… Some stay for awhile and embrace our silent dreams.

They help us become aware of the delicate winds of hope… and we discover within every human spirit there are wings yearning to fly.

They help our hearts to see that the only stairway to the stars is woven with dreams… and we find ourselves unafraid to reach high.

They celebrate the true essence of who we are… and have faith in all that we may become.

Some people awaken us to new and deeper realizations… for we gain insight from the passing whisper of their wisdom

Throughout our lives we are sent precious souls… meant to shareourjourney however brief or lasting their stay they remind us why we are here.

To learn… to teach… to nurture… to love

Some people come into our lives to cast a steady light upon our path and guide our every step their shining belief in us helps us to believein ourselves.

Some people come into our lives to teach us about love… The love that rests within ourselves.

Let us reach out to others and feel the bliss of giving for love is far richer in action that it ever is in words.

Some people come into our lives and they move our souls to sing and make our spirits dance.

They help us to see that everything on earth is part of the incredibility of life… and that it is always there for us to take of its joy.

Some people come into our lives and leave footprints on our hearts and we are never ever the same.

Diaper Babies

(Brandon,Summer,Addison,Adry)


for daddy's day a friend of ours(summer's mom) thought it would be fun if we got the babies down to their diapers, laid some paper on the floor, took out the paints and with mom's help of course we let them decorate a pot with their hands and feet! I think the moms had more fun than the babies did, but it was deffinately cute to see the end result. They were more interested in crawling around into the paint and sticking the paint brushes in the mouth!

the finished product...Happy Fathers Day!!

New Look Same Stuff ;-)

I was inspired by a few of my friends blogs to venture out and try something new. I wouldn't call myself an advid blogger, and I am deffinatly not an expert either:) I have always used your basic Blogger template and changed the background a few times....now I have no clue what I can and cannot do with this new template of mine! I found it on www.ourblogtemplates.com ( I found the link on my friend Nealy's blog) and it was still FREE!! I liked the look of the different columns and you can link your posts as pages(not sure how to do that one yet but sounds cool) plus it seemed like a good challenge for me to figure it out. It might take me awhile(hence why I am not your advid Blogger) but I do enjoy talking through my random thoughts every once in awhile and if I have a good recipe to share with you...I'll blog about that too:)