Swings

I took Addison to the park the other day and she insisted that I swing on the swing next to her. I decided this could count as my workout for the day, combined with the walk to the park (have you ever swung for a long time and then felt sore in your thighs the next day?) Well, as I was pumping pretty hard I noticed that every down swing forward, my stomach was in my throat, and I hate that feeling. Who gets that feeling when swinging at a childrens park? Boy did that make me feel old. I honestly had to stop swinging because I felt sick. Do you think that means we shouldn't go to 6 Flags in September? It' like I'm an old woman who doesn't enjoy thrill rides anymore. Or does it mean I just need to do them more often to toughen me up?

Finally a Vacation

We finally got away for a much needed vacation over the 4th of July. We drove up to Utah to visit my family for a week. Dave was able to go golfing twice, once with some former classmates and once with my dad and brother-in-laws. My awesome cousin Abby cut my hair and then my sisters and I took my dad out to dinner and a play for his birthday/Father's Day. To see a picture of us with my dad, see my sister Rachel's blog: http://drlabrumfamily.blogspot.com It's a terrible picture of me, but I don't know that I've ever seen a better smile from my dad in a picture. The girls were all laughing trying to get my dad to smile like he meant it, not like he had gas.
On the 4th of July while the guys went golfing, we took the kids to my aunts house and set up a big tarp to slide down. The kids had a blast. It didn't hurt that my cousin Melissa's HUGE husband tossed the kids down the hill to make them go faster.

After all the fun in the sun the kids were tired so we took them home to watch a movie while we prepared a barbeque. I found all of the girls in grandma's bed watching The Little Mermaid.
Addison missed the fireworks, both the ones we did on the street and the professional shows. She was so tired we put her to bed at her normal time and just watched from my parents yard.

The next day we went on a hike with my parents to this waterfall. Addison had a blast throwing rocks in the stream.

On Sunday my grandparents came over for dinner. They've been married for 67 years. Can you believe it? They are both incredible people.

This was the main source of entertainment for Addison at my parents house. I've never really wanted a dog except when I see how much she is entertained by one. She followed Dolly everywhere. She also insisted on putting all of Dolly's toys, brush, shearers, collars etc. around her. If Dolly moved, Addison moved the stuff. It kept her busy, so I loved it.

On our last night we celebrated Addison's birthday with my parents and then Dave and my mom played volleyball with my cousins.

The next day we picked up my niece Savannah and drove down to Dave's parents new house near Provo. They both recently retired and moved to Utah to be closer to grandkids. That night Dave's mom and dad prepared a huge dinner and had Dave's brother and his family over for dinner and more birthday cake and ice cream. Technically Addison's birthday was the next day, but since we were driving home that day and we'd already celebrated twice, we didn't bother celebrating on her birthday. Does that make me a bad mom?

We can't believe that our baby is already 2 years old. She is learning and growing so fast and we are so grateful to have her in our family. She brings such joy to our family.

Family Pictures

My friend Brandi agreed to take our family pictures last weekend. Unfortunately Addison slept poorly the night before and was super grumpy that morning. We had several individual pictures of her turn out really cute, but she was grumpy for a lot of the family ones. We had to be creative to get her to smile. Brandi must be a great photographer because even through the grumpiness, we got quite a few good pictures. Thanks so much Brandi, we love them.

...Just to prove that she really was grumpy. I only put the good ones on.

"I Did It!"

Addison and I were stacking dominoes yesterday when she started doing this. I thought it was so cute. I don't know where she learned to do it, I'm guessing Max.

Animal Lover

Addison is going through a stuffed animal phase. She takes them everywhere with her. For the last month she has insisted on taking them in the car and to bed as well. Maybe she's trying to soften me up to get her a pet. It'll probably never happen, but at least she's easy to entertain, as long as their are stuffed animals around. I love to see her imagination at work.

Nap Time

Addison is getting pretty creative in her playing. Earlier this week she strategically placed all of her toys on their backs (including her cars, trucks and her sippy cup) and told me to shhh because they were sleeping. She even makes her version of snoring noises for them. She never ceases to make me laugh.

We Aren't Moving

For those of you who knew we were thinking about moving, we aren't. We tried to sell our house by owner for a couple of months, without much luck. Then I decided it was time for me to learn to be happy no matter where I live, so that is what I'm focussing on. Dave and I have always loved out ward, so I'm focussing on the positive. I told Dave that I would stop trying to move for a couple of years, but that I needed new flooring in our living room. Dave hometeaches a contractor so we hired him to come replace our flooring, and we love the way it turned out!

Before

After

The other great thing about getting our floors redone is that the surround sound wires no longer run up and down my walls, but go under the flooring! They have been an eye sore since we put them up more than 4 years ago. If you look closely at the before picture you can see them above the sliding back door. We are still looking for a bigger area rug, but it may take months to find one that we like.

Mother's Day

I know that I've been terrible about blogging lately and I don't really have a good excuse. I've had plenty of things to blog about, I just haven't. Everybody else seemed to blog about Mother's Day and I realized my wonderful husband probably doesn't think I had a very good day because I didn't blog about it. So, I know it's really late, but this is a peek at my Mother's Day.

I woke up Sunday morning, showered then ate a yummy breakfast that Dave made: waffles and bacon. Here's a picture of my beautiful baby all ready for church. Dave got her ready so all I had to do was comb her hair. Look how much hair she has now!

Addison fell asleep on the way home from church for about 5 minutes so when we got home she was energized to play. I think she was just too excited to celebrate Mother's Day that she couldn't sleep. No nap for her that day. Then Dave made me a yummy dinner and we all relaxed at home. Dave frequently has meetings or other obligations on Sundays so it was nice to have him home all day. Here's a picture of the watch he gave me. I love it! Thanks Dave and Addison for a great Mother's Day.

Tag, I'm it!

I've been tagged with this cute idea to talk about all my friends and family whose blogs I have listed on my blog. Here are the rules:
1. Answer the questions about the list of friends/family that you have on your blog.
2. If you don't have the number of names that the question asks, answer the question about the next name that you have not had a question for your your list.
3. Tag your friends and family.
*When did you meet the first person on your list? I visit teach Amy and we always have great discussion. She moved into my ward about 3 years ago?
*What do you like about the third person on your list's blog? Brandi is so creative and is an amazing photographer. She's supposed to be giving birth today to her third son or I'd be bugging her to take pictures of my family. I'll give her a week or two to recover, then bug her... ;)
*What do you like best about the 5th and 6th people on your list? Abby is one of my cousins on my dad's side. She is so much fun as a person and as a mom. I haven't seen her in years, but I love that blogging makes it feel like I see her all the time. She also always looks great. That's not fair..
Allison is also one of my cousins on my dad's side. If you knew that side of my family very well, you'd understand that the siblings didn't love to spend time together when we were young, and my family lived out-of-state almost the whole time. That's my excuse for not know either of these cousins really well. I do know, however, that Allison is hilarious. I haven't seen her since she's had kids, but I'm willing to bet she's a great mom. We need to have a family reunion (we can just invite the cousins if we want).

*How long have you known the 8th person on your list? Meredith is my husband's cousin on his dad's side. I think we first met about 3 years ago? She came down for Thanksgiving. She is so much fun. Or was it at her house in North Carolina that I met her? I can't remember.

*What impresses you about the 11th and 22nd person on your list? Cyndi is an old family friend of Dave's. She is best friends with his sister, Katie. I don't know her well, but I enjoy reading her blog. I can tell that she's a great mom and really knows how to have fun with her daughter.
I don't know where to begin on what impresses me about my sister-in-law Kristy. She is amazing in so many ways. Her blog is always interesting and fun, she's a great mom, wife, sister, daughter and person. She's beautiful inside and out...I could go on and on.

*What memory do you have with the 17th person on your list? Jenny was a roommate of mine in college. She is absolutely hilarious. She always speaks her mind, you never have to wonder what she's thinking about. She would regularly come out of her room while we were studying and start her sentence with "Random thought..." and finish it with something thought-provoking, but also very funny. One of my more recent memories was when she had a house party (after her mission we weren't roommates). I had just started dating Dave and our roommates Jenni and Eric had just started dating (different Jenni). We started playing a game and within seconds, Dave and Eric could tell Jenny was super competitive and also into keeping the rules. They decided, without even discussing it, to try to change the rules just to make her mad. It was so funny watching her get so frustrated. She didn't care that Dave and Eric were strangers, she fought them to the end. She truly is one of my favorite people to spend time with. Too bad we live in different states.

*Say something nice about the last person on your list. Stacey was a super good friend of mine when her husband was in med school and they lived close. They've since moved 3 times and we keep in touch mainly through blogging. She is also an awesome mom and super spiritual. We were close friends almost immediately upon meeting. She is super sweet, loves to be active, along with her husband, and is gorgeous. I miss you Stace!

Now I tag anyone I talked about who hasn't already done this. I changed a few of the instructions.

Enjoying being a mom again

I'm finally ready to write about my week with my mom and sisters. My mom, sister Rachel and her two daughters got in on Saturday night and stayed with me until Monday. It was nice having Savannah and Kenadee here during conference on Sunday to help entertain Addison. Here she is wearing my mom's reading glasses and the wings that came on her Easter bunny. She's also still in her pajamas. What a stylish little girl!

Addison with her counsins. Savannah is such a huge help with watching Addison and Kenadee is so much fun. Thanks for playing with Addison!
On Monday Mom and Rachel checked into the hotel and I drove up with Melissa and Carter to play at the pool. Besides a minor incident of pooping in the pool and a few near-drownings in the baby pool, fun was had by all.
On Tuesday I dropped Addison off with Maylene (thank you so much for taking her at the last minute!) and met my mom and sisters in Scottsdale. The very first thing on the agenda was to get pedicures. They felt great and we had beautiful toes the rest of the week. I forgot to get a shot of our toes after.
Then we had a dinner of appetizers. I love eating out with my mom and sisters. We almost always want to share the same dishes!
My mom's twin sister, Ardene, and her daughters got in late that night. the rest of the week was full of tennis, walking, laying out at the pool and lots of shopping and food. Notice that the majority of the pictures were taken at restaurants. We love food!

Shannon, Ardene and Melissa

All of us at Flo's. I was impressed that we only went to Flo's once during our trip. But I think my mom and sisters also went on Monday night. My sister's and I have all worked at Flo's at some point in our lives and we are still in love with the food. Sorry, Ray, but this was the only photo I had of all of us together. The rest of us look good!

Beautiful Rachel posing for a tennis shot.

My gorgeous oldest sister, Jessica. Look at that form!

This is my other sister, I mean mom. She passes for being one of the girls all the time.

The twins that never age. Now I know where I get it from. Maybe I'll be happy about it when I'm their age.

Me with the cousins and my aunt.

We had such a great time. In fact, too good. I was exhausted when I got back. I needed a nap the day I got back! But I also got back ready to be a mom again. Thanks so much to Maylene, Melissa, Dave's parents, and Dave for doing my job for the week and letting me take some time off. It was much needed and appreciated.

Dave's parents brought a little rocking chair for Addison and she just can't get enough of it. It's just her size and she thinks it's great.

Dave's parents were in town for the blessing of our nephew, Katie's baby, Reese Benjamin Clement. Isn't he the cutest? The blessing was beautiful and lunch was yummy. It was fun visiting with all the family. Thanks for having a baby, Katie and Greg!

So that's a recap of last week. It was busy, but filled with fun.

Sick and Tired

Addison came down with a nasty cold last week. She had a fever for 4 days and terrible cough. It was so nice to have Dave's help over the weekend to care for our very needy, sick child. Now it's only Monday and Addison is actually doing quite a bit better, but I'm ready for her to get better! My mom and sisters minus Darci :( are coming down next week and we are spending 3 1/2 days at a resort in Scottsdale, without the kids! I am so excited for the much needed break. And grateful for Dave, his parents, and Melissa for being willing to watch Addison so I can spend some girl time with my mom and sisters. This week can't pass fast enough!

A little late

I promise, I am almost always on time, if not early for things. So why is it so hard for me to blog about things right after they happen? I'm just barely getting to blogging about Easter.
I must admit I was disappointed that I didn't get Addison on video doing the cute things she did on Easter morning. It wasn't because I didn't try, but because as soon as she heard the camera turn on, she stopped. She was especially excited about her new Lightning McQueen car. She's a little obsessed with the movie Cars, but I had never heard her try to say his name until Sunday when I gave her the car. All day long she went around the house talking about "O Queen".