Summer Time!

The past few weeks have been exhausting and fun. Karl had a few days off in a row so we went to Colorado to play. The first night we went camping on the Mesa. It was a blast, but not easy with a one year old who is used to sleeping in her crib. She crawled all over us in the tent all night and none of us got any sleep!


My little brother Jake. Need I say more?


Karl managed to convince me to ride our bikes down the Grand Mesa after camping. He is a speed demon and had a lot of fun, but I am a little more on the cautious side. My mom met us at the bottom with the car and we got there only ten minuets after her. Too fast for me!

Due to the plethora of willing babysitters at home we also got to go mountain biking and ride our bikes to the top of the Colorado National Monument. We didn't get to go all the way over because there was road construction on the other side. It was killer, but still fun!


Our camera was on the fritz so I didn't actually take this picture, but this is on the top of the monument looking out. We grew up in a beautiful place!

Two days after we got back from Colorado my grandpa had his second heart attack in five months. My mom drove up here to see him and we spent a lot of time at the hospital over the next few days. He is doing well now. I think this is a cute picture of him being such a trooper! I love you Grandpa!

This is my mom with Addison in the waiting room at the hospital. I included this because Addison looks like such a little girl in this picture. I was surprised at how tall she looks! She is growing up right before my eyes and sometimes I don't even notice!


For fourth of July we went to Stadium of Fire!


The fireworks were so close we had ash falling all over us. It was so loud that I thought Addison would get scared and cry, but she didn't. She just watched them in awe.


To end a long week, my Mom, Addison and I went to Lavender Days at the Young Living Lavender Farm. We got up early Saturday morning and ran the 5k race together through the lavender fields. It was so beautiful and smelled wonderful! I am so proud of my Mom for finishing her first race! She did awesome!

My camera wasn't working (grrr) but I found this picture of lavender fields to give an idea of what it looked like. I got a lavender cookbook while I was there, I am excited to try some of the recipes and see how they turn out.

The Big 1

Addison turned one this week, and we had a big barbeque at the park to celebrate with a bunch of friends and family. The main event was the birthday cake; we gave her two big pieces of chocolate cake and just let her have at it. She loved it, and we got great photos. Here are some of them.

The first bite:


End of the first piece:


After piece #2:


This is a slightly cleaned up Addison, playing with a present from Grandpa Stan and Grandma Vicky.


We also gave her a sucker, which she thoroughly enjoyed.


We haven't ever really given her any candy, so this was a huge treat for her. But that's what birthdays are for, right?

It's been a while since we last posted. A lot has happened since then!

We were thinking about moving to Grand Junction, but after a trip down there we decided the best thing for us right now is to stay in Provo. I will be going back to school in the fall for Radiation Therapy which will require me to do three days of clinicals a week and drive to Ogden once a month for class. The trip will be much easier from here and I have a great clinical site here that I am really excited about. Karl's job at the psych ward in really flexible so it will allow him to be home with Addison while I am in school.

Since we decided to stay in Provo we decided that we couldn't stand our apartment for another year, so two days before graduation, we moved! We love our new little place! It is an old house that has been completely remodeled so everything in it is brand new!

Before we were settled in our new home, Karl graduated from BYU! Dick Cheney spoke at the commencement. It was such an exciting day. I am so proud of Karl for all the hard work it took to get here! I know it wasn't easy to go to school and take care of this little family, but he did it and did a fantastic job at that!


For some reason we thought that things would get easier after graduation, but they have not. I am working two 12 hr shifts a week at the hospital when Karl is home and then he works the graveyard shift the other five days. It seems like we see each other less now than when he was in school. Luckily, our work schedules are only temporary and then we should have a little time to play!

To keep myself busy while Karl is asleep during the day, I take Addison and we go on some adventures with my good friend Vanessa and her baby Isaac. Last week we went to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point. I didn't think Addison would be all that interested, but she was!

I love the expression on her face in this picture.

She also got to ride the ponies. When they started moving she started laughing uncontrollably! It was so funny! She laughed the entire two times around!




She is so much fun, but for the last few days she has been the biggest pill! I was considering selling HER to the petting zoo. I could not get her to eat anything. She took up shrieking as a new hobby. She was so irritable and clingy! I could not put her down for five minuets and she would throw a fit. This is strange for Addison. She does NOT like to snuggle and she likes to play in her room by herself for up to an hour sometimes (I know I am lucky). I found myself vacuuming and mopping while holding her. Tricky, but it can be done.

This is how I felt:

Notice the look on the poor mom's face. I know how she feels!

Anyway, the point of all this is that eventually I looked in her mouth (not without struggle) and counted . . . and this in no joke . . . six teeth making their way through her swollen little gums!!! Six! No wonder! I promptly repented of my impatience and gave my little kid a big hug, and some Tylenol!

Today she seemed to be feeling a lot better so I took her to the pool. She loves to swim so we had a good time.



I am glad she is feeling better. This is more like my silly, happy kid.

Easter

No candy for Addison in her Easter basket this year. Instead she got a book and a nursery CD and some new sunday shoes. She didn't care about any of it. Except the grass.

It was fun to finally put her in this dress. It was the first thing Karl and I bought when we found out we were having a baby girl!

Addison's great grandparents came for a visit. She is spoiled because she is the first great grand baby on my Mom's side. Her middle name is Kay after her great grandma Kay and her grandma Tamara Kay. Anyway, she had fun reading her favorite book with them.

Life

Addison's hair is getting long enough to have fun with now. We've already posted some pictures of pigtails and the like, but here is our latest effort.


We didn't use any gel or anything, so it didn't stay long, but she did have a nice mohawk for awhile! We have had some fun moments lately. Here Addie is teaching dad to count.

Despite these moments of peace, life is actually pretty hectic for us right now. I have been super busy trying to finish everything up at school so I can graduate. Kristin has been busy looking for a place to live in Grand Junction, but right now the main holdup is trying to find a job! It's always such a frustrating process of waiting and uncertainty, plus trying to find something that will pay well and at least be flexible enough that I can do some physician shadowing is difficult. But then, without challenges and uncertainty, what would life be?

Rex Lee Run

From the looks of it, all we do is hang out with Addison and take pictures of her. That is mostly true, but sometimes we have time for school, homework, graveyard shifts, laundry, and even the occasional run. On Saturday we ran our first official race! The three of us did a 10k (6.2 miles) together. We ran the whole way, although not super fast. It took us 1 hr and 12 min. Not super speedy, but not too shabby for our first round. This is right before the race started. Addison was a good girl the entire time. She loves hanging out in her stroller. There were about 3000 people that participated. It was really fun because the energy level was so high and everyone was having a good time and cheering for each other. And what a feeling of accomplishment when we finally crossed the finish line! This is a map of the course. Map Elevation (ft.)

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Kid Icarus

Once a baby can crawl, and then stand, what's next? No, she's still not walking, but there is something else that can suddenly require that your child be supervised at all times.


But she's so proud of herself!

What a wild one. And as the pictures show fairly well, these stairs are made in such a way that we can't really put up a gate to keep her from climbing them. Looks like she'll get to spend more time in the playpen, at least until we move somewhere without linoleum sheathed concrete (mentioned in previous posts) where we can hopefully put up a baby gate if there are stairs.

Addison's First Swim

We took Addison swimming for the first time the other day. She LOVED it.

I love the look on her face in this picture.

Plus she just looked so dang cute in her little swimming suit!

My Family came up for a visit this weekend and it was a blast. This is Sarah and Addison at the fish tank at Cabella's. (Jake HAD TO go there to shoot the laser guns.)

We were all pretty tired after a fun but long weekend. I think Addie was affected the most though, as demonstrated here.

When Addison goes down for a nap, she plays around in her crib for a while before falling asleep.

This is how we found her the other day.

Who's the real Addie?

In what seems to be a continuation of her dedicated efforts to learn everything all at once, Addison is now standing all by herself. You'll recall my confession in the last post, that I helped her stand for that picture, but not for this one. In fact, I was sitting at the kitchen table studying and looked up to see this.

All of this behavior is getting to be a little bit dangerous since our floor is basically concrete covered in linoleum. Even the area rugs do little to soften the impact of her poor head. We have had to be extra vigilant to keep her safe. Just one more reason to look forward to moving back to Grand Junction at the end of the semester!

I was also ecstatic to read in the GJ FreePress yesterday that St. Mary's Hospital and CU Health Sciences are working on a deal that will allow the medical school to accept 24 more students per year and place them in Grand Junction to complete the clinical portion of their education. That's pretty exciting!

Addison in Motion

This picture is pretty much just cute. I will confess to having helped her stand up in this one, but she sure enjoyed it, and stood there by herself for quite awhile.


Poor kid has her dad's hair. Good thing she got her mom's beautiful eyes.


Addison's first roller coaster ride.


A friend of ours recommended these "Biter Biscuits", saying that his kids love them. Thanks for the recommendation, Kyle. I think Addison really did enjoy it, but we were done after the first one. And since we are currently running a despotic monarchy, her opinion was not calculated into the final decision: no more biter biscuits.


No sooner than she mastered crawling, Addison's world expanded to include the stairs. Great fun for her, and possibly the beginning of gray hair for us. Especially since not even our monarchical authority provides a way to fence these stairs off from her exploration.


Unlike the first picture, this posture was arrived at entirely under Addison's own power. It's amazing how fast they go from barely crawling to trying to stand and walk.



Quote of the day: "You know you're a mom when you lick your fingers and they taste like Desitin." --Kristin

Growing Pains

Well, it's official. Addison has been accepted into the School of Hard Knocks, and is learning her first lessons with enthusiasm. "Crawling 101" is the class, and it has given her several good bonks to the head plus some nice fat lips. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of that yet, but here is a funny picture I do happen to have.

This picture represents her active participation in the "Everything Must be Bitten" class from the aforementioned school.

Wedding Pictures

I have been meaning to put these up for a while now. Here they are finally!


Dad and Carol knew each other in high school, so Carol used their senior pictures on the announcements. She did it on this cake too. Isn't it cute?

It was a great wedding and we are all very happy about it!

Good Times

Addison is so much fun these days! I am loving this stage. I am sure I have said that about every stage. She is getting a sense of humor and loves to play with her daddy. This is one of those sublime moments. She laughs when we tickle her, but this was the first time she giggled like a little girl.


Today was the first day her hair stayed in pigtails!!! It was so cute I took a million pictures. I won't bore you with all of them, but this one was good.

Vampire baby

Addison has two new teeth! Click the picture to enlarge.

Nearly forgotten, but funny!

I was going through some old stuff on our computer and found these pictures which have not yet been posted. In fact, I forgot some of these existed, but found them hilarious. After I was done rolling on the ground, I decided I should share.

If Addison were blonde . . .

Nice wig, eh? I have a picture of Kristin wearing it too, but I think I'll save that for blackmail. This next one is what happens when Addison dresses herself. Of maybe it's when daddy dresses her . . .

Actually, that's Addison's Sunday outfit, without the dress, for feeding right before church. Any of you who have kids will understand that. The next two pictures are a series. This first one depicts the usual manner in which we put Addison to bed.


Now, you need to understand that lately Addison has been rolling over onto her stomach almost instantly, as soon as she gets laid down on her back. Which has made going to bed kind of rough for her, since she practically refuses to roll back onto her back or sleep on her stomach. So she just cries. This is what we typically find when we go in to help her out.

Note that she is almost completely turned around. What a silly kid.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did.