A Year in Review

What a busy year we've had!

2010 brought more changes to our life than any other year. With our daughter being born on the coattails of 2009 the past year has been full of new experiences and firsts. First, adjusting to the life of being parents...the pressures, the joys, the ups the downs and the nights of very little sleep.

A couple of memorable moments of 2010.... In January we rung in the new year with a new baby girl in our arms. What a New Years spent changing diapers instead of out partying. JD and I also celebrated 4 years of marriage. February and March were quiet and spent loving our new baby but in April we made a huge life change...after trying to go back to work for 4 weeks I quit my full-time job as a photojournalist to be a full-time mother. BEST DECISION of 2010 I would have to say. Being able to be there for Adeline 24-hours-a-day without having to run back and forth between work and home is a such a blessing. Our summer was spent with visits from Minnesota family, Seattle family and Indiana family. We visited Missoula and Greybull numerous times. A road trip to Salt Lake, visits to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons. Addie's first camping trip, boat rides, hot springs, trips to the library and church play groups. The Fall was a blast with Adeline dressing up as a lobster in a pot for Halloween. November was met with her first word, "kitty" and her first airplane ride to Indiana for Thanksgiving. And December was just a whirlwind between Christmas and her FIRST BIRTHDAY. In the midst of it all JD's career path took a change. His last job took him away from home for weeks at a time and it was taking its toll. So now we find ourselves both without steady-paying jobs and on the cusp of 2011 deciding if we should stay in Helena or embark somewhere else. Another high note of 2010 is we found a church that we love. We've been attending Helena Alliance Church and have met many new friends. I feel challenged spiritually and welcomed by the fellowship.

As for New Year's resolutions...there are always the obvious ones, stay in a good shape, eat well, love my family and dedicate more time to studying the Bible, making more home-made baby food, save money, oh and love my family.

Favorite Things

Right now one of Adeline's favorite things is to explore under the dinning room table. She loves to crawl under the chairs and squeeze into small spaces. I just love in the video her saying "Hi" while playing. She mastered the "Hi" during back-to-back visits this last week from both sets of grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and friends. What a great time to start talking more!

Toys Toys and too many Toys

We decided to do a toy inventory.

So this evening I gathered all of Adeline's toys and dumped them in a pile. (Boy did she have fun climbing through the pile) We sorted out the infant toys, grouped her puppets, put away her books and just generally packed away a bunch. Between Christmas presents and Birthday presents we needed to make room for her new toys. I am so happy to say she was gifted a lot of books over the holidays.... 24 to be exact! What a lucky little reader she is.

Happy 1st Birthday Adeline

I can't believe it's been a whole year ....

Merry Christmas

Our family would love to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. And we would like to remember the true reason for this season...baby Jesus. JD and I are joyful because God sent his son to this earth, and we need not be afraid of this world for he has given us hope.

"An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord."

Luke 2:9-11

Lego Advent

This year, like many before, my mother bought JD and I a Lego advent calendar. (For those of you who have never seen one before, you get to build a small lego character or object each day of December.) For most of the month we built helicopters, drum sets, wagons, excavators, airplanes, things like that. But the closer we got to Christmas the more festive the little toys got. Today's picture is what we built the last couple days...Santa driving a train with a really awesome Christmas tree. Addie enjoyed watching us build our objects each day this month but her favorite part was playing with the Lego box.

The man in the red suit

Adeline didn't really know what to make of Santa...and yes she did cry...

All I want for Christmas ...

If Adeline could write Santa a Christmas list we think it would look like this:

another kitty
jars and jars of puffs
an ipad loaded with "Squeak"
Christmas lights hung year-round
the song pat-a-cake on repeat
her own little guitar
fluffy bunnies
bath toys
world peace

The photo was taken back in August when Grandma Cathy, Addie and I visited the Salk Lake City Mac store. That place was ... awesome

Mama drama

Mama drama...part 4: Yesterday Adeline's appetite was unstoppable at dinner. She usually eats 2 rice crackers, she ate 4! She usually eats 1 jar of baby food, she ate 3! And she usually eats a handful of those yummy puffs, she ate probably 4 handfuls! Our little girl is growing and it's hard to keep up with. Then in contrast for breakfast this morning...she ate about half of what she usually does...maybe she hid some puffs in her jammies and snacked in the middle of the night?

My little shutterbug

A couple days ago I took this photo of Adeline in her own little world playing with her camera. It was inevitable that my daughter would want to play with cameras. She sees me with a camera in my hands all the time so we decided earlier this summer to buy this pocket Olympus. It's shockproof and waterproof! So she can slobber all over it and drop it all she wants and it will still take pictures. It was a great purchase for sure. For the record, she also has a toy camera that's pink and lights up and makes silly noises...but she always prefers the real camera when given the choice.

Shopping with Grandma

Adeline and Grandma Cheryl cozy-up for a hug while Christmas shopping at the mall in Missoula earlier this month. I can't believe it's almost Christmas ! ! !

Indiana Thanksgiving, final part

Peek-a-boo baby. We joined Laura and Libby for school lunch one day.

And the food wasn't all that bad!

We also enjoyed a varsity girls basketball game while we watched Sam play in the pep band.

Hands-down Adeline's FAVORITE part of our Indiana trip was climbing up the stairs. Pictured here Libby and Laura cheer Addie on while grandma supervises. Addie would climb up to the top, get carried down and then go right back up. We don't have stairs at our house so this was serious fun that could not be passed up.

It's good to have cousins.

Giggles, fun, more giggles. Repeat.

Oooooooh

One of Adeline's favorite things....a warm fire at grandma and grandpa's house in Greybull. Pictured here she warms up in front of the fire in her diaper, too cute.

Birthday wishes

A very very Happy Birthday wish to Grandma Cathy today!

Indiana Thanksgiving, part 3

Thanksgiving Day...Addie's full tummy after dinner at left...and at right, the look on her face after taking a 2 1/2 hour nap after the meal!

Laura didn't waste any time in finding her Black Friday deals.

Uncle Tim and Grandpa John put the final touches on the turkey.

The best part of Thanksgiving....Family. From left, Grandma Cathy, cousins Maddie and Shana snuggle up with Addie before dinner.

I LOVE this photo of Laura and I cooking. Five-year-old Libby took this photo....and might I add a good job to Libby! Perfect composition for such a young photographer.

Oh big group family photos are the best! We took about 7 shots and Addie was looking at Grandpa John in all of them! Baby girl loves her grandpa.

Learning to walk

JD plays some mellow guitar as Adeline cruises along the couch.

Indiana Thanksgiving, part 2

JD's family lives outside of Leo (which is near Fort Wayne) and it is flat.
Flat flat flat. And it's farm country. Yes, we even saw Amish ladies driving their horse-drawn buggies.

Cutie McCuters Adeline loved the walks we took. The first day we were there it was 60 degrees...back in Montana on the same day it was -10.

Uncle Tim and Grandma Cathy push Addie back to the house.

The Anglin family raises chickens and boy did Addie love them. I however did not love peeling fresh chicken eggs to make my deviled eggs on Thanksgiving. Good thing Tim warned me and we bought a carton of store-bought eggs as backup.

Indiana Thanksgiving, part 1

Adeline looks for the latest issue of Sky Mall on our flight to Indiana for Thanksgiving. She just loved the extra room of the first row.

Grandma Cathy made for a wonderful travel partner...us three girls flew out early and were later joined by JD and John. Adeline's first airplane trip was very smooth. She loved to people watch, look out the window, sleep and play peek-a-boo with passengers behind us.

Addie tells the Denver airport how excited she is to see the family in Indiana.

Dad the weatherman

JD and Addie measure the snow on our back deck. We measured around 9 inches of snow that had accumulated Thanksgiving week and up to now. Gosh I love living in Montana -- we are so fortunate to live in a place with all four seasons -- and winter is the best one!

Peaceful photo

I made this image a couple weeks ago while Grandma Cathy was reading a colorful nursery rhymes book to Adeline. They were cozied up by the fire in Greybull. Addie loves loves loves to read.
Next to bath time and her kitties...reading is one of her favorite things.

11-months-old

Adeline, JD and I enjoyed the fresh snow today...not too long and we'll be celebrating her first birthday!

Giving thanks

On this Thanksgiving Day I am thankful for my famiy. I am married to an amazing man who loves me and provides for me AND we have a wonderful, healthy daughter. The Lord has truly blessed me through them. I am also thankful for the food on my table, that I am able to be a stay-at-home-mom, my health, mountains, technology, freedom, our cats, clean water and time well spent with my family and friends.

Snow snow snow

Last week JD set our rain gauge on the back deck...we walked outside this weekend and found this. More than just rain...a TON of snow!

Learning Fast

This past week Adeline started feeding herself. Puffs, small pieces of bananas and sweet potatoes, those kinds of foods. It's just too cute watching her learn. I love how she experiments with picking up the food with her mouth...then her hands.

Out for a walk

JD shot this beautiful photograph of Adeline and I while out for a walk down Sagebrush Lane in Wyoming.

First Words

Grandpa John shot this video of Adeline playing recently at his house in Greybull. When you listen closely...you can hear Addie say "ball" and "kitty"

Great Aunt Linda

Adeline and my Aunt Linda share in some fun during dinner out a couple months ago in Choteau, Mont.

Orange balloon

Sitting on Dad's shoulders with her balloon.

Site redesign

Something fresh and new for Life with Addie...a site redesign. I've been thinking about it for a couple weeks and after I put Adeline down for bed tonight I whipped this out. Hope you like it as much as I do.

My vote counted

Youngest voter in precinct eight.

Happy Halloween

For Halloween we dressed Adeline as a lobster in a pot.
Oh my gosh was it a success! AND it only cost $1.

First, we got the idea from JD's sister Stephanie, who saw the costume last year while I was pregnant. Second, we borrowed the lobster pot from JD's parents (who boil seafood on a regular basis) Third, my parents helped buy and design the material. We took a lobster costume meant for an 18-month-old baby, cut it up and I hand-sewed pieces and parts onto a red onesie sized to fit Adeline. (Although she is 10-months-old, the outfit was a 6-month size.) It took five nights of sewing and a couple fittings. The only thing we had to buy were the red socks for $1. To make the costume complete I dressed as the chef and JD wore a lobster bib. Pictured above, bib-wearing JD pushes Addie in her stroller downtown for some tricks and treats.

We were a hit around town with people stopping us to take pictures, comments of "best costume ever" or "that is the cutest" and even "can I post a photo of you guys on Facebook?" We also won a loaf of bread for best costume at a market downtown during the little kids trick-or-treating event. Top photo at left, Gov. Schweitzer hands Addie a full-size Skittles...GO ADDIE bringing in the candy for mom and dad. And bravo to the gov for handing out full-size candy.

Not only did I have fun making the costume for her, Adeline LOVED wearing it too. She could crawl around with ease and hardly pulled on her tentacles. We dressed her up four times over the course of the week for appearances and parties. In the above photo Grandma Cathy holds a sleeping lobster after a long day of Halloween play.

Happy Birthday Ashley

Sending warm birthday wishes to my dear friend Ashley!
Pictured here, Ashley and Adeline cozy up during a visit to Bozeman earlier this summer.

October 28th

Today Adeline is 10-months-old.
Every day it's getting closer to one year...and then closer to her sixth birthday...and then she'll be a teenager...and then she'll be getting married...okay sometimes I get ahead of myself. For now I remind myself, she's just a growing baby girl.

Today also marks one year since JD and I started this blog. We have enjoyed sharing photographs and stories from our lives with all of you. And it's been fun recording them in blog fashion. Here's to another year -- who knows what we'll see in the coming posts...Adeline taking her first steps...her first birthday...camping trips...a new puppy...a trip to the ocean...a baby bump...okay now I'm really getting ahead of myself.

A teepee all her own

The summer of 2010 was quite a memorable one. Grandpa John built a teepee for Addie in his backyard just outside of Greybull. It's an 18-foot diameter Sioux style teepee, so it can hold the whole family.

Grandpa John and JD trace Adeline's handprints on the door of the teepee in the above photo. John hand-painted the inside and outside patterns and drawings.

Night and the teepee go well together. Rick fills the air with mellow guitar while Stephanie, Cathy and John lounge by the inside fire...JD rocks it by the outside fire.

Experiencing the teepee is complete with an overnight stay. Two large cots and sleeping bags make for a cozy night. Adeline surely loved it. She slept better that night than the whole weekend we were in Greybull. We awoke with a hint of campfire on our pajamas and cold noses.