Duck!

A couple of weeks ago when we had a very warm Sunday afternoon, we went in search of some ducks to feed. Armed with stale bread, we headed down to the botany pond where we envisioned hungry ducks flocking around us and Addie having a great time bestowing stale bread upon them. When we pulled up to the pond, we saw we were not the only ones with that idea. There were literally 50 families flocked (no pun) around the pond, pelting about 15 ducks with more bread than they could eat in a month. We decided to take our stale bread where it would be more appreciated and went in search of some ducks. You know how there are always ducks around? Well, not that day. We drove all over town looking for some hungry ducks without any luck.

Later that night, we had some friends over and asked them if anyone knew where all the ducks were hanging out these days. Surprisingly, one of them was really connected with the local duck scene. Our friend works for a company that delivers medical supplies, and he told us that one of the medical buildings he delivers to has ducks galore constantly hanging around. In fact, he told us, there were so many ducks that there were "Duck Crossing" signs up all over the complex. We decided to try it out for FHE, and after following his directions, we found the duck mother lode. And that's where these photos take place--at the secret medical facility duck jackpot:

Addie cautiously approaching the hungry ducks

Victory! Addie threw some bread and the ducks accepted.

This kid's got a great arm.

Love this shot. She threw some bread then jumped for joy yelling "Woo hoo!" Here she is mid air.

Addie kept trying to pilfer bread from the ducks.

And the rest of these were just cute.

Orange you glad it's Spring?

After a blizzard on Easter morning, and two more snow storms this week, Spring appears to finally be here. Finally. Yesterday, it got up to the high 50's so we took advantage of some outdoor time. John had to shoot some photos of an orange (both whole and cut) so we took Addie outside, armed with a rubber ball to keep Addie occupied, a camera and some citrus. John got a few photos in while Addie and I were playing catch, but then Addie realized that there was food available. She immediately absconded with one of the oranges. We got it back, and finished the photo shoot, then gave her one of the orange halves to eat. Giddiness ensued. Here are some fun photos from our first real spring day:

Orange thief on the loose

An orange of her own

Mmmmm!

She just really, really likes oranges

This is kind of a random wave she's been doing lately. Glad I caught it on camera!

Heading inside for the day, but not without the orange.

Easter 2010

After a 3 month hiatus, I'll jump back in the saddle with Easter photos (because they are so cute!) Easter was so much fun this year! We did a lot of Easter Egg decorating over the past month and ended up with a basketful of goodies for Addie yesterday morning.

Addie is fascinated by smashing eggs. We taught her to crack open the boiled eggs to eat them (something we hope she doesn't carry over to raw eggs, but I'm sure she will), and she loves that concept. She has since tried smashing apples, potatoes and oranges to open them.

I love this next photo because it highlights her gorgeous lashes. What a beauty she is!



We went to town with the new Cricut and did some fun things with vinyl on the eggs:


Addie loved the eggs (or "yeggs" as she calls them) but was really, really excited about the candy!


Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

A Side Effect of Snuggies

Last December at my work Christmas party, we got the best gift ever: two matching Snuggies. You may think I'm being tongue in cheek, but I'm truly not. I've wanted a Snuggie for ages, and the only thing better than one Snuggie is, you guessed it, two Snuggies. I have noticed though, that Snuggies bring with them a whole lot of static. I always get shocked after I wear one, and it always makes my hair fly away.

Addie loves the Snuggies as well, but she too has fallen victim to the Snuggie Static Side Effect. Yesterday, she got a major dose of hair static and I was lucky enough to catch these pictures:


Love. This. Kid. So much.

Oh the Irony....

This is a picture of a plaque. That I made. Me. The most craft challenged person in the world. How did this anomaly come to be? Well, I decided to make an effort to attend a weeknight Relief Society meeting for the first time in, oh, 8 years. For some reason, I just really, really wanted to make this plaque and I doubted anyone's ability to teach me to do it in under an hour. Don't look too close, because it is in fact crooked, but I'm still quite proud of it. After I finished the plaque, I sat in the cultural hall and basked in my own creativity, looking forward to going home and showing off my new found craftiness to John. I imagined how proud he would be of me as I showed him my tribute to the family unit.

However, as I opened the door to the house, I sensed danger. The tub was running, Addie was laughing in an evil, triumphant laugh, and John was shouting "Stop! Stop!" Turns out, Addie picked Relief Society night to mess with Daddy, hardcore. First, she had what we refer to as a major blowout in the diaper department. Usually, these blowouts are strictly a two man job to clean up, but John had no choice but to handle this one on his own. As John tried to clean what he calls "the worst diaper ever", Addie decided to "help" by sticking one of her hands in her own poop. When John tried to stop her, she laughed at him and stuck the other hand in too. He grabbed both hands and she managed to wipe poop on him and his shirt. He tried to secure both hands and both feet, which angered Addie. She started screaming for Mommy. John says he did too. He got her as clean as he could and transferred her to the tub, dumping in probably half a bottle of baby soap, judging from the amount of bubbles in the tub. She proceeded to do her best to splash as much water on John as possible, laughing the entire time. Keep in mind that John still has poop on her shirt, but he couldn't leave Addie alone in the tub, so he couldn't change. That was about the time that I came into the bathroom, proud as can be, carrying a plaque stating that family is life's greatest blessing. John quickly yelled for me to put the plaque down and get in there and take over for him while he changed out of his poop covered shirt. As I rushed to get the plaque out of the bathroom, I was struck by the irony of the situation. But, the truth of the matter is, family really is life's greatest blessing, even if they occasionally get poop on you. Now that's something I should put on a plaque...

Why Indeed?

My husband is a self proclaimed food snob, which I love. I embrace his food snobiness and appreciate the fact that he doesn't want me to ever compromise on the quality of what we eat. I just wanted to illustrate his disdain for what he considers to be poor quality food with this conversation he and I had shortly after the Tiger Woods scandal hit the airwaves:

Me: Can you believe the mess Tiger Woods has gotten himself in?
John: No, that's crazy.
Me: I can't imagine how bad his wife must feel. She's this beautiful model and he's been sleeping with girls who are not as attractive as she is. I mean he's been sleeping with the most random people including prostitutes and I even heard one of his mistresses was a waitress he met at IHOP. His wife has got to be asking "why?" And all these girls are trying to cash in their "celebrity" now.
John: He was sleeping with an IHOP waitress?
Me: That's what I heard.
John: (Shakes his head head in disbelief)
Me: You know, I just don't get it. If he's going to cheat, why would he pick people who are gold diggers? Why sleep with people who have a financial motivation to expose your indiscretions?
John: (Still shaking his head in disbelief) Why would you ever eat at IHOP?

Why indeed? Love that man of mine :)

A Late Christmas Dance

I should have posted this BEFORE Christmas, but didn't. And yet it's so cute I still have to put it up. This is a video of Addie doing some interpretive dancing to Jingle Bells. We shot this in Hawaii which is why she's dressed like it's summer.

Hello 2010, let's get down to business

On the 1st of January, John and I sat down and listed our goals for the year. It's an annual tradition for us. There is something liberating about making the effort to start fresh and be better, and believing that you really CAN be better. We not only plan our goals, we also plan our fun and vacations and make a conscious effort to make sure that we're balanced in work, play and spiritual growth. We have a very long list of things to do, but I'm happy to say we've made some progress already. Of course we have the standards, which we've tried to be really good about already (working out daily, eating healthy, etc) but here are some of our goals we hope to have finished by the end of 2010:

1. Run a 5K this spring! I know, some of my runner friends will scoff at this, but for me this is a VERY big deal. I'm working with a completely rebuilt left knee and had giving up the notion of ever running again, but I've been working up to it on the gradually over the last 4 months, and I'm feeling more confident. I won't be very fast, but I think I can do it. It's no marathon, but it might as well be for me.
2. Meal planning a week in advance. I'm hoping this will stop me from buying everything I see in the grocery store and will make meal times more enjoyable and more balanced. Thanks to John for being so incredibly supportive in this area.
3. Church stuff includes a big one for me--being on time. That hasn't happened in a long time, but now that we start at 1:00 and Addie just started Nursery and I actually made it being only 3 minutes late yesterday. HUGE! I also resolved to take more time in my lesson preparation and to plan better FHE's this year.
4. I have a list of books I want to read, although I'd love some suggestions from people of good books.
5. I also want to become at least semi-proficient in video editing. Not the hard core stuff, mind you, I'm talking about home videos but I want to do more than just fade in and fade out. I'll be spending some time with Lynda to get up to speed.
6. We have a goal to have our house rebuilt by the end of this year! This may be tight, since everyone is estimating that it will take about 9 months to complete, and we still have to get bids and choose a contractor, but we really, really, really want to be done with construction by next Christmas.
7. I want to spend more quality time with Addie, doing cool things. She's learning so fast and I want to take a day a week and take her someplace that will be exciting for her. I'll be honest, this may not happen every week, but I'll work on it. Any suggestions here from my mom friends would be really appreciated too!
8. One word: De-clutter.
9. We would love to grow our family by one this year. We have our adoption papers almost all the way completed and we're hoping to add a sibling for Addie this year. She needs someone to train in the ways of her mischief.
   
10. Lastly, I plan to appreciate every single day with my wonderful family. What a huge blessing they are to me! Every single day with them is a gift, and I'm so grateful for them.
    

I hope that 2010 brings happiness, renewal and good things to all my friends and family. I'd better go plan some menus and work on an FHE lesson...

2009: Our Year in Review

Confession: I've never sent out Christmas Cards except to customers. It's true. I'm a complete failure at that tradition. I'm bad at "Thank You" notes too. Those of you who have given me gifts can attest to that. Every year I think that I'm going to be better and get it done finally, but I just never do. Not enough time. This year is no exception. However, I am taking a giant step forward this year. I'm doing a holiday "Year In Review" here on the blog, which will have to double as my Christmas Card, or rather, my Christmas Season Card. Here goes...

January 2009
We started the year off with Addie's baby blessing and Open House. It was such a great experience and we enjoyed being with so many friends and family members for this event. Addie looked like an angel and was so well behaved all day.

We were so grateful for all our friends and family who joined us in making it such a special day. January also brought lots and lots of cold weather and snow. And John got an iPhone which brought great warmth to him. John and I constantly argue weather my Blackberry or his iPhone is cooler. He generally wins, but I get my emails faster than he does.

February 2009
Our company had a little employee switch. Alicia, who had worked for us for 4 years went on a mission to Oslo, Norway. We hired a dear friend Carrie to take her place and things have been just grand. Alicia is doing extremely well in Norway and Carrie has worked out great, other than the fact that she and I routinely disagree about whether or not the polar bears are really in danger. The really exciting news in February was that my best friend Candice got married! She married an AMAZING guy named Scott and we love him so much. It was so great to be at her wedding and see all the old roommates.

March 2009
John and I celebrated the 9 year anniversary of our first blind date. Every March 31st, I feel so incredibly blessed to have the random series of events take place that allowed me to meet and marry John. March 31st is practically a national holiday in our house. March was the month John bought me my new Canon Rebel camera which I adore. It was responsible for many great photos shot this year. Also in March, Addie started crawling. When she got bored with the crawling attempts, she moved into yoga poses and she did a mean downward dog before she was even mobile.

We used to put up couch cushions so Addie couldn't escape the family room. She's not a fan of barriers, and this picture just captures the annoyance she felt at us for putting them in her path to the kitchen:

April 2009
April brought General Conference, which in turn brought a mini mission reunion. It was so great to get together with two of the best sisters in the mish, along with their families.

I'd like to shoot for a bigger one this year if possible! Also in April, we put our house on the market at the worst possible time. We endured countless (and may I add fruitless) walkthroughs of the house. This continued through September.

May 2009
Spring arrived in full swing. John bought me a new macro lens for my camera which allowed me to shoot very cool closeups.

Spring also meant fun walks with Addie, who loves the great outdoors:

June 2009
This is the month everything changed for us. Addie started walking. I could stop this month's entry right now and it would be enough, but there's more. We also celebrated Addie's first birthday! We had about 70+ people over for a very fun birthday party/barbecue, and had a great time.

In spite of the house being for sale, I put in a garden and thought I may just be planting something for someone else to harvest. As it turned out, the house never sold so the garden served us well. Addie developed a full blown crush on our neighbor and good friend Ty. She's very possessive of him and really enjoys his attention.

July 2009
We celebrated our 9 year wedding anniversary in July. Each July, I'm so glad that we got married in 2000 so keeping track of how many years we've been married is a breeze. John and some friends went on an expedition to Topaz Mountain. They didn't find any really valuable gems, but they had a great time.

We also celebrated the 4th of July with the obligatory fireworks and threw in some homemade gnocchi for good measure. All in all, July was a wonderful month filled with hot days, warm nights, barbecues, fresh veggies and good friends.

August 2009
In August we visited Candice and Scott in Seattle. As it turns out, there is a saying in Seattle that nobody has air conditioning because you only need it one week out of the year. We chose that week to visit. It was very hot, but very fun. We got to visit with our old college roommate Mary who we hadn't seen in years.

Also in August, I got to visit with my cousins Karen and Diana and their families, which was a blast.

I also discovered some good new restaurants and embarked on a quest to create the perfect pizza. I'm so close. Addie spent tons of time outside and developed a great love for playing with the garden hose.

Summer could not have been any better.

September 2009
We celebrated John's birthday in September which was so much fun. We also went back to Seattle to visit Scott and Candice again, and this time we enjoyed better weather. Scott was a gem and took us all to see Wicked. Thank you Scott!

We also went to the best Farmers Market I have ever been to in Woodinville.

In September, we also made a huge decision regarding our house. We took it off the market and started working with a designer, architect and structural engineer to do an extensive add-on/remodel of our existing home. Of course, the minute we did that, people started coming out of the woodwork, distraught that we took it off the market because they really liked it. Oh well. We're in the final stages of the plans right now and are going to start working with a few contractors over the next couple of weeks. Our fingers are crossed that everything works out!

October 2009
October brought both good times and bad. Our very dear friend Kyle returned from his mission and it has been great to have him home. It was fun to have him meet Addie.

In October, our family suffered a huge loss when my Uncle John died very unexpectedly due to a massive stroke. Our family is very close and have a regularly scheduled family dinner each month with all the extended aunts, uncles and cousins in town. Uncle John was an amazing man gave us laughter, adventure, wisdom and goodness. We miss him. It's sad that the only times everyone in the family gets together is for weddings and funerals, but that seems to be the case. In spite of the sadness of the occasion, it was wonderful seeing all the family.

Addie really loved being with all the cousins who were in town for the funeral:

October also brought Halloween which is always fun. Addie was a cheerleader and John was Moss from the IT Crowd. After much deliberation and agonizing over what I should be, I was...nothing. But I had fun going out to dinner with Moss and Addie.

Addie has taken a liking to John's Halloween costume wig and insists on wearing it around the house now.

November 2009
November passed in a blur. Between work, Christmas shopping, Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping, we were running non-stop. After Thanksgiving, we took a much needed vacation in Maui, complete with sunsets, walks on the beach and golf.



December 2009
December brought the usual festivities. We enjoyed work Christmas parties and family Christmas parties. We loved being with friends and family at this joyous time of year. My whole family came out for Christmas this year and it was just great to be with all of them, playing games and catching up. We loved, loved, loved seeing Addie's face on Christmas as she opened her gifts. We loved our time off over the break and have treasured every second that we've been able to spend together. We've loved 2009 and we're looking forward to 2010 and all it will bring. And we're busy writing resolutions.

We hope all of you enjoyed a peaceful and happy Christmas season and that you have a prosperous and rewarding 2010.