Our little 9 month old.

On her 9 month birthday, Addilyn finally went forward! I trained her one day with my hands being her kick off. Then the next day Scott tried keeping her knees down. Together, you get what's in the video. It's not crawling and it's not army crawling...it's...something. She'll only do it now when she's convinced there is something in it for her. Otherwise, crawling (or the closest thing to it) is just too involved and difficult at this point.

I really can take a good picture...as soon as she stops wiggling

What to say about Addilyn. She's still teething, nothing has cut yet. But today I noticed one of the teeth is much closer to the surface. She's been sleeping on her belly and she really likes it (so do we). Addilyn is just as cute as can be, and everyone can see it. I was talking to my friend Wendy the other day about how long it takes to go shopping with her- because people stop us to admire her. Wendy understood and sympathized with her 3 cuties. Speaking of Wendy, I've been helping her will the best project I've ever been apart of. Click here to visit the blog we put together for her friend's daughter Lila. I highly recommend watching the video at the bottom of the page and have tissues near by.

I promise she was happier than what this picture shows

Addilyn has her 9 month check up on Valentines Day. But I can tell you she is the most darling healthy little girl you'll ever meet. She is learning new things all the time and loves getting all the attention she can get. We are the luckiest family to have her!

Oh you know, it's February

[[This was in my draft box, I thought I had posted this...please forgive if it's already old news...]]


January has already passed and gone! In January we experienced some funky weather. It has been in the 70's and also below freezing...but mostly we've seen 50's-60's. I guess I like to talk about the weather because this time last year we were in the middle of winter in Rexburg. I definitely like the change. As for other news, Scott was released as a ward missionary and has been called to the Young Men's 2nd counselor, which is also the Scout Master. He has his hands very full now!

She's really good at downward dog

I realize I haven't posted any pictures of our house since we first moved in with all the before pictures. I guess I just don't like showing what's not all the way done in my eyes. Well, here's a little taste in case you didn't see it on facebook. This is our front room, at least one side of it. We bought these chairs off of Craigslist $50 for both! It was a steal. We have the kitchen done for now, but it doesn't have a dining room set that I like (so you'll have to wait until I have that probably). Our bathroom upstairs is just about complete, but again, after a few tweaks and it will be photo ready. All of the other rooms in the house are partially finished, but not worthy in my eyes to take a photo of and post for all to see.

One day a week or so ago I was asked to watch Addison (aka Addi) for a few hours while Karen and Lance swapped duties. I was slightly nervous but excited at the same time. Addison is 3 months old, and Addilyn (was) about 8 months.

It calmed my nerves knowing that it's not physically possibly to have two babies this close together. Because in my head I kept thinking, this is like a dry run for when we have a 2nd baby. NOT! Ah I'm glad I realized that.

It was a cinch watching these two. Addison is still young enough that she mostly sleeps- compared to Addilyn. After 20 minutes of her arrival to our house, she conked out. So I put her in the pack-n-play I set up in our 3rd bedroom which is currently the office. Shortly after I put her down, Addilyn went to sleep. For about a half hour both girls were asleep. That was easy! 

I had brought out the things that we used for Addilyn for Addison. Addilyn was trying to show her how to play with the toys. I tell you though, the swing (not pictured) is amazing. When it worked for Addilyn, I absolutely loved it. After Addison had woken up for about 10 minutes, she went back to sleep in the swing and Addilyn and I played.

 Today it's 65 degrees. We enjoyed a lot of time outside. I've been practicing with Addilyn to crawl forward, and she's sort of getting the hang of it. Once I'm not behind her as her launch pad (she kicks off) she realizes it and get's mad because she doesn't know she can do it by herself.

Addilyn is so much fun. Even though the last week or so has been hard with her teething (nothing has cut through yet!!) she's a trooper. The last 3 nights in a row she's slept 12 hours. Scott had suggested maybe putting her on her belly to sleep and since then (3 nights)

Nascar?

This past Monday Holiday, MLK Day, we joined the White's to go see the Richard Childress Nascar Museum. I've never been a fan of Nascar, but here in North Carolina-it's in their blood. Just a few minutes south of us is the Childress Museum, aka RCR. It's where Dale Earnhart and Richard Childress had their homes for their cars and shops.

Part of the current team- in case you didn't know, 29 is my number

Karen, Lance, Addi

He took forever to get through the exhibits

These are the actual size seats that fit in the cars

You really have to have skinny hips to fit in them.

I think this was like 1/3 to scale and cost a ton of money

Their work shop.

Their only "classic" car. It was my favorite.

The trucks that they load the cars in for races

The museum is actually where the original work shop was. Their current shop is in another building a few hundred yards away. We came during their lunch break.

The work shop.

Addilyn eating from her new contraption.

I love it. She can eat frozen peaches, strawberries, whatever. She loves it too. It really helps since she's started teething. Along with this, she's gnawing on cold celery to help her gums. We haven't seen anything yet, but "they" say that babies can show signs of teething for a while before anything shows up. She's got the clear snot and even her eyes are goobing up. Poor thing. But through it all, she seems to still be able to have fun! Even though half of these photos are blurry, they are still cute to me! There was a night where I stayed up with her until 4am. Not fun! But she makes up for it.

Love. Pure love.

Pilot Mountain

The drive up, only about 30 minutes from our house.

This past Saturday was PERFECT hiking weather! Scott, me, Addi, and Alex and Nyk Travis ventured out to Pilot Mountain to do only one thing...concur! It was just beautiful. The temperature was just right- we couldn't ask for anything better.

Out east it's called Pilot Mountin. However, we westerners would look at it and say, "You mean hill?" It's 1,400 feet above the valley floor, and we hiked 7.5 miles to the base of that dome. No one's allowed on top of it anymore due to it's habitat for birds. However there are plenty of other places to rock climb along the hike, which you'll see those pics in this post.

Our view of the Piedmont Valley for lunch at the top

The other side of our lunch spot

The dome from our lunch spot

Addi ate lunch on the ground. We had to protect her food from Cabo

At one of the look outs

Alex and her brother Nyk

Heading down the trail to loop the dome

I thought these steps were way cool.

"Warning: Injury or death can happen on this trail" hahaha At least that's what I pretended it said when we were on it, but only if you go off the trail. It was rated as strenuous.

There's no pictures of him, but there was another fearless hiker with us on this trail. And his name is CABO!!! He was a beast. He's an awesome trail dog because we can take him off his leash and he'll stay on the trail and stay with us. When people go by, he'd join them for a few steps and then back off to come back with us. He's a trooper!

On the strenuous trail, Addi just woke up before this shot.

On our hike down we saw a ton of rock climbers. We also decided for sure that we will not go hiking again unless we have a hiking bag for Addi. She was too heavy on the front side especially when going down hill. Scott and Nyk traded her off during our hike- but Scott had her 80% of the time. At the end of the day we were all hurting in all different places. After dinner and showers, we reconvened and watched Cowboys and Aliens and ate ice cream.