Great Grandma and Grandpa Powell

I'm taking the picture, so that's why it looks like I'm not in Portland too.

Addison sure has a soft spot for this Great Grandpa. He would just look at her and she would smile and laugh!

Here is Addison enjoying time with her Great Grandma Powell.

We went to Portland for Fall Break to visit Addison's Great Grandma and Grandpa Powell. She has already met her Great Grandma Beals, so we were very glad she got to meet some Great Grandparents from her daddy's side. We had a wonderful time visiting an aviation musuem where we got to see the Spruce Goose. We got to visit with them, play card games (we learned how to play head and foot, which was a lot of fun), we went antiquing, and we got to look at all of Grandma's amazing quilts that she makes! She really has a lot of talent. Oh, we can't forget Grandpa's talent at building amazing model boats! They were really impressive too. We had a fabulous time visiting Portland and are happy to say that Addison enjoyed it too and was a great traveler.

Brynlee's surgery

What a brave girl our niece is! We are so happy that Brynlee and Addison are just 6 months apart, so they can be really close!

Now. this is a cute picture!

Here is Bryn getting ready for surgery. Doesn't she have a great smile?

We left town on Tuesday, October 13th to go to Portland to see Steve's grandparents, so we missed Brynlee's surgery! We were very sad that we were not here for such an important event, but we are very happy to say that the surgery went really well. Now Byrnlee has a thumb! We are so proud of our brave little niece!

Pumpkin Girls!

Pumpkin carving time!

We had four pumpkins, but only ended up carving three. Jen carved one for her family, I carved (while Steve videotaped the event), and Tyler was nice enough to carve out the pumpkin for us to stick the babies in!

Who let Jen have a knife? :)

Tyler did an amazing job getting the pumpkin ready for taking pics of the babies. I saw a picture of a baby inside of a pumpkin, and I thought it looked SO cute! Tyler was a real trooper to carve it for us.

We tried to get Poppa to carve with us, but he just wanted to hold the babies. That's the job he always wants! :)

Addison was not very happy being stuck inside a pumpkin. It was a little chilly on the inside! Sorry Addison!

Okay, maybe pumpkin guts aren't so bad. . .

Okay, seriously mom I'm done with this pumpkin thing.

Brynlee didn't mind being inside the pumpkin as much as Addison did. I think Addison got the pumpkin warmed up for her!

Looking for something?

Baby sized pumpkin!

I'm not sure if that's for eating Bryn. . . .

I love this picture! They are so cute together!

We're still working on learning to sit up.

It's so much fun having cousins that are so close together in age!

Okay, I've been wanting to post this for two weeks but have been crazy busy. I have been thinking about carving pumpkins for over a month now! I don't know why, I haven't carved pumpkins for a few years now, but I was really feeling the urge this year. So, at our family Sunday dinner we all got together and carved some pumpkins. It was so much fun!

First Word!

"Ma-muh." After saying it 3 times, I was finally fully convinced that she did it. She said her first word! It happened last night right after dinner. We are visiting Addison's Great Grandpa and Grandma Powell (Steve's mom's mom and stepdad) in Oregon. We were all talking and Addison, of course, wanted to "talk" to. So, she starts blabbing away and we all stop to listen to her. We all started saying "Ma-muh" to her, trying to get her to say it. Then, we heard "Ma-muh." I looked at Steve, "I think she just said it." Steve said, "I'm not sure. . ." Then again, Addison goes "Ma-muh." At this point, I'm looking at everyone and saying, "Does this count? Is she really saying Mama?" A third time, Addison goes "Ma-muh." I looked at Steve and said, "Okay, does THAT count?" Steve smiled and said, "Yeah, that counts."
I have no idea when I will hear that precious word again or when the next word will follow, but it was a wonderfully unexpected moment when my baby Addison said, "Ma-muh." I couldn't be happier!

Addi-isms

Our little baby is growing up so fast! Okay, maybe not as fast as other babies her age (last week she barely grew out of her 0-3 month clothes and is now sporting 3-6 months clothes!), but some mornings I wake up and when I pick her up I tell her "I think you're bigger! You grew last night, didn't you!"
Not only is she growing fast, but she is developing these little quirks and -isms that I just love about her. Here are some of my favorites:
1. Whenever she finds something funny, she has the most beautiful toothless grin! If Steve gets her to laugh, she will grin and giggle and then bury her head into my shoulder!
2. Her favorite toys are as follows: 1. her snuggly, also known as her lamby (She gets a huge smile on her face anytime she sees her lamby and she loves getting kisses from her lamby- she kisses back by chewing on its ear) 2. her pacifier- it's an endless game of pulling it out of her mouth and sticking it back in. She has eating ALL sides of her pacifier! 3. plastic bags and her- a hazard "toy" we know, but if she even sees a plastic bag she wants to grab it and shake it all around (just to reassure you, she rarely has a plastic bag in hand, and I always stay right in her face to make sure the plastic bag isn't on her face!) 4. her mommy's necklaces
3. She loves being "tossed" in the air. I hold her and lift her and up down; she just loves it!
4. She is an observer- BIG TIME! She has to look around and see everything that is going on!
5. She LOVES Gigi. I'm not sure if the feeling is 100% mutual, but she loves petting Gigi. She loves watching Gigi run around- it cracks her up!
6. She is a rolling fool! She rolls around, and around, and around (I think you get the point)
7. She loves to run her fingers through her hair while she is breastfeeding
8. She loves to play games with me- her favorite game right now is to use her hand to push my face to the side. I look back at her again, and she pushes my face away again!
9. She says hello by grabbing your nose
10. She loves to eat her feet! I am huge on putting socks on her feet, even though I know that two seconds later she will pull of one of those socks and will proceed to munch on either the sock or the bare foot!
These are just a few of our baby's -isms, and they just make us love her all the more!