Progess on the re-finishing of the floors!

*Before* After the carpet and padding (and 5 million staples) were removed. This is the floor pre-sanding.
Above is pre-sanding also. Notice ALL of the paint stains on the floor. You also get a sneak-peek of the new color in the master bedroom in the 2 above pics.
Above is pre-sanding also. Notice the huge difference in the floor in the living area and where the carpet was.
Above is after sanding, but pre-stain. Looks awesome! They got all of the paint spalshes off in both rooms. You can also see the color of the living room walls.

Some inside *before* pictures of our new house!

View of the back yard from the house. The building in the back is our neighbor's garage.
Front porch from the front door
Side yard next to the driveway
Our small bathroom!
From the back of the house the stairs go up to Addison's room, the doorway goes to the living room, garage door is to the right. We plan to remove the wall where the doorway is so it's open to the living room.
Side of Addie's room. She has windows on both sides
Half of the kitchen
Steps up to Addison's room. Under the stairs there is tons of pantry/storage space.
Living room from hallway. Door to the right leads to the kitchen/stairs/garage
View from opposite corner of living room. Hall leads to master and bathroom. Notice the carpet!

Happy Homeowners!

A picture of the happy new homeowners the morning we got our keys!!

Who likes bubble goatees?

Clean Up, clean up. Everybody clean up!

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Evidence was captured of Addie cleaning up if you sing the clean up song!!

I'm 15 Months Old!

Ah, my sweet baby girl is 15 months old already. Where does time go? Lately it's gone to house-hunting, buying, and moving. Things are hopefully taking a downward turn for us soon and we'll be able to get back into the routines that Addison craves so much.

Overall, Addison is awesome! She is really a joy to be around. She is so interactive with everyone around her. When we get in the car after school each day, I adjust my mirror to peek at her. If she sees me, she waves to me.

It isn't all sweetness though, Addie has taken a bit to wrestling also. If we are laying on the floor or the bed with her she wants to body slam or pillow fight us. She loves to be bounced around and flipped upside down. LOL!

Addison took her first steps a few weeks ago. She'll take up to 4 consecutive steps now if you don't stare at her. She has such a look of pride in her face when she takes steps, but she still prefers crawling to get where she wants to go!

Addison is still such an awesome eater. She'll try anything, and loves most things. We just have to keep an eye out as she has recently learned how to share with the dogs!

She is really getting settled at our new place. Now the the daylight is later, we are able to talk walks with her buggy and the dogs in the evening. We've unpacked all of her familiar toys which really seemed to make a difference. The greatest celebration was when her crib was set-up. She went right back to her sleep schedule without a beep. She is still sleeping from around 7PM at night until about 7 in the AM. She takes one afternoon nap for 2-3 hours. Before bed we still enjoy our routine of books and snuggles. After a book or two we turn off the light and I rock with her while we listen to music. It's my time to enjoy the slow pace of rocking and hugging my sweet girl. I often tell her about my day and what tomorrow or the upcoming weekend will bring for our family. I sit in the chair and snuggle with her for a few songs. I can't believe that a baby that used to fall asleep swaddled across my arms, now takes up my whole body. Her arms drape over mine, her head snug in my neck on my shoulder, her legs so long she is bent at the knees on my lap. *sigh* when did she get so big? And how did I get so lucky to have her in my life?

Addison and her pug, Poppy!

Addison loves her dogs. LOVES them! She is always following them around, giving them love, or laughing at their antics. I think it says a lot about a person when they are an animal lover. Addison has an amazing spirit. She is an animal lover to the depths of her heart. When she sees a dog, she instantly wants to pet or hug them. When we see the baby goats on our farm, she laughs while they bounce around. When we walk up to my sister's horses, she squeals with delight. She also loves to watch the birds, chickens, and ducks. She'll point at animals and babble away as if she were telling you a story about them. I love it! Of course anything that makes her happy, makes me happy in turn. But something about seeing her love for animals already warms my soul. Maybe someday she'll rescue animals, or own a farm, or be a vet, maybe even an animal trainer?

I'm not really fond of these hard soled shoes...

Since Addison is taking caveman steps all of the time now, her teachers told me she was slipping on the floors and sand at school. I usually have Robeez on her feet. She likes them and soft soles are recommended for kids learning to walk. After the feedback from her teacher, we bought Addie a few new pairs of shoes with rubber soles. It was hilarious! She hated them. She fussed and fussed with her feet until she got them off in the end :) Such a fickle girl!!

Such a focused artist already!

Lately Addison has discovered writing instruments. She finds pens and markers and is always trying to write with them. This night at IHOP was no different, she was drawing on the placemat. If you look closely, she evens hold the crayon correctly in her right hand!

The Little Dipper!

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I'll blame Roger for getting her into this habit! Addison loves to dip her food in all kinds of dip. She loves ranch, french onion, spinach dip, artichoke dip etc. You just have to watch-she doesn't understand double-dipping etiquette!

Time to enjoy the afternoon snack!

On the car ride home each day I give Addison a snack. She is usually pretty hungry and I try to hold her over till dinner. This day it was Frosted Mini Wheats (or whatever the Trader Joe's version is called). I turned around in the car to see this face! Luckily if you give her a wet wipe and sing the clean up song, she wipes her face pretty well. Such a little goofball!

So happy-even when everything we own is in boxes!

Addison did fairly well with our move. Although, she hated the packing part. Each weekend and night we would pack boxes in each room. She would hear the packing tape and cry. I'd put things in boxes, she would take them out. It was quite a process. In the end it was pretty hard to relax with everything packed up and we certainly didn't have much family time with all of the commotion. I think that made it hard. She adapted pretty well in a matter of days once we did

actually move to the new place though :)

Playdate with Zaide & the twins!

My old roommate and Addison's Godmother Jen, Me, Christopher, Addison and Telos!

Sweet Zaide. He is my old roommate, Luma's handsome son!
Addie wants to share her sippy with Zaide..She's a little too pushy about it!

These pictures are from awhile ago (of course)!

We're set for Pinecrest School!

We've been waitlisted for an awesome private school here since November of last year. I got the call today that Addison is set to start in September. I just have to go pick up the packet for enrollment today and turn them in :)
What I love about this the most is that since we will already be attending the school, we'll be set for Kindergarten. Typically this school has a huge waitlist for Kindergarten!

Here is a link to check out the school:
http://www.pinecrestschools.com/moorpark/toddler/toddler.htm

15 Month Stats!

We had Addie's 15 month check-up yesterday. Now, I know I still owe you many pictures, but you'll need to be satisfied with stats for now, LOL!

Here they are:

Weight: 21 lbs 13.5 oz 30Percentile
Height: 29.5'' 20 percentile

We were so happy to her Addie's speach is right on track. She says Mama, Dada, Apple, and uh-oh. She also signs more, all done, and bye. Plus, we checked out with no ear infections-AMAZING! Wooohooo!!

I'll update more later, but I wanted to share stats for now :)

A House Update!

It's been so long since I've posted, I know! I have been so busy, it's crazy. I can share though that we closed on our house Friday!! We are so excited! We spent this weekend cleaning and painting. And, thanks so much to Roger's Mom, Boyfriend Bill and his son Michael, the painting is almost done! I just have trimwork, cabinets, and a final coat on Addison's room to do.

More pictures later, but here is our cute new house :)

14 Month Professional Pics!

These are scans from our pictures earlier today. We had high hopes of changing outfits and doing a few poses, but Addison wasn't feeling that great. We wound up just taking a few shots to pick from for her Valentine's Day cards. I love them!! I really like the retro finish in the last picture. I had an 8x10 made up of that shot for our house, the finish is unique and it softens the red jacket she was wearing. Overall I am really happy with the pictures. She still had her big Addie smile :)

More AZ pics!

Our Girl is Officially a Toddler!

We recently moved Addison up to the toddler room at Tutor Time. She is doing great! I'm so impressed especially because not only do they just take one nap a day in that room, but it's also on a mat! I certainly would have never thought my nosey child would lay on a mat in a room full of kids and toys and sleep ;) but she does. And not only that, her teacher told me today that she hasn't used her pacifier at nap time all week. YES! I'll be thrilled when we can ditch that thing completely.
Just the other afternoon when I went to pick her up I peeked in the window of her classroom before walking in. Addie was sitting on the floor on her knees in a circle with all of the other kids, it was snack time :) It was the cutest thing to see her in their following rules with everyone else. I'm so excited thst she is in such an awesome little school and she is truly developing social skills.