Addy 18 Pictures for 18 months!

Spencer just posted such a sweet post about our little girl. I am happy he wrote that tribute to her. He is so good writing how he feels and I know someday that will mean a lot to Addysen. So now here is a little bit more from her Mommy!
















Here are a list of most of the words she says. I am sure I've missed some but this gives you a pretty good idea of how fast she is growing up. I can't keep up!
1.ball
2.binki
3.thirsty
4.drink
5.blanket
6.yes (uh-uh)
7.bye bye
8.thank you
9.cracker
10.cheese
11.car
12.please
13.pooh (bear)
14.poo-poo (diaper)
15.hi
16.Amen
17.banana
18.apple
19.popcorn
20.batman
21.argh (pirate)
22. stinkey
23.chair
24.baby
25.Logan
26.Dada
27.Grandpa
28.Grandma
29.Mama
30.it's mine (wonder who she learned that from :-))
31.no
32.all gone
33.peek-a-boo
34.tissue
35.eggs
36.hot
37.cold
38.move
39. up
40.says animal sounds
-dog
-cat
-monkey
-cow
-frog
-fish
-horse
-sheep
-lion
41.sings songs ---primary song-- "I wont, I wont"
twinkle, twinkle
Christmas song--Chipmunks sing "ALVIN"(Her and Logan loving yelling his name.)
ABC's (we sing that to her when she brushes her teeth and she tries to sing along
Once there was a snow man
If Your Happy and you know it
42. she loves books--she reads/sings--"roll over, roll over"
43.apple
44. HO! HO! HO!
45.pretty
46.oatmeal
47.I love you
48.Mickey
49.nose
50.eye
51.hat (Just today I was putting her in the car and she said "hat, hat" I looked at her head and realized that her hat fell off and she was pointing to it and saying "hat, hat". It is incredible how fast she is learning to talk.
52.Jesus
53.reindeer
54.stop (while holding hand up)
55.WOW
56.candy

Addy stats:
31.7 inches 46%
25.6 lbs 66%
19 1/2 inches head 92%


*Addy loves to run her dirty hands after she eats thru her long hair!
*She would read books all day long.
*Only show she really watches is CINDERELLA....she loves it.
*Addysen loves to take baths. You say the word and she is trying to take her clothes off and has beat us into the bathroom.
*She loves shoes anytime anyone new comes to our house she always tries on their shoes. She can even get her own on.
*She has feed herself with a spoon and a fork for so long but now she is getting to the point where she wants an open cup....she loves it. She eats anything and everything. She loves a sausage patty, it gets her so excited. For the longest time she wouldn't eat apples but just within the past couple weeks she is loving them and asking for them.
*Something that I think is adorable and super fun for her little life of experiences. People in Korea give a little bow when they say hello or when we pass. Addy now she will say hi and tilt her head forward! I love it.
*She loves her LOGAN! He is so sweet and good to play with her and read to her. She loves it when he is dressed up as Batman....she says "Batman" in a deep raspy voice. Cracks me up.
*Addysen sleeps from 7:30 pm to 6:30-7:00am. She takes 2 naps a day...wondering if she is giving one of them up soon? But for now one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
*She is learning new words everyday and putting them together into sentences. It is awesome. I love being her mommy and appreciate all the love and joy she has brought into our family.

Addy-Bri

Our little princess, you have passed your 18 month milestone. I still remember the day that I found out we were having a daughter. I was excited then but I never could have known how crazy I would be over you. Addy, you are just like your mother in that you exude happiness, your little smile warms our apartment, and when I hear you let loose those chuckles that come from deep inside your belly, I can't help laughing myself. I love the sound of your little feet pattering their way up and down the hallway.
I love walking in the door after a long day at work to see your smiling face and your arms reaching up for a hug, and how when I go to give you a hug you smirk and run away screaming:). I love your personality and the way you have figured me out in such a short time. You know just which buttons to push, and you know I can't ever tell you, "no", and that I will do just about anything to make you happy.
I love your kisses and your hugs. I hope you never get tired of giving them cause I know I will always need them.
I love you baby-girl! I can't wait to see what else you have to bring for me to fall in love with.

Puzzle No.7

Another puzzle down, unfortunately we lost a piece to this one, right smack in the middle.

Oh Christmas "NAMU"

We started planning this year for our Christmas tree about the first week of November. Since our family started, we have tried to get real trees. When we lived in Utah, we had some beautiful fir trees that were very full and gave off a wonderful smell. We had a fake tree our first year in Maryland but we were out of town most of December and so we would not have been there to enjoy it even if it had been real. The last two years in Maryland we found some pretty good trees at Home Depot. Though real trees are a bit of a mess with the critters that come it with them, the needles and the sap, there is something magical about a real tree that at least for me, brings back great memories that managed to turn our small apartment into a cozy winter cottage every year. It is possible to get a real tree in Korea, the scouts sell them on base. Our problem was how were we going to get rid of it after Christmas. Our apartment is very picky about trash. You have to separate all of your metal, glass, paper, plastic and food. everything that does not fit into those categories, belongs in a special garbage sack that you have to buy at the little store at the base of our apartment building. If you want to throw away something large like a household appliance, you have to make an appointment with a trash collector, and pay them to take it away. I had nightmares trying to visualize a way to get a real tree out of our place, into an elevator and into the trash room. I contemplated cutting it into small pieces and putting them into the proper bags to dispose of the tree... no matter what I thought of, the solution did not seem rational. So we began our hunt for a fake tree. We finally found one we liked at the Costco by our church. It has ends on each branch that look like real needles... however it was not pre-lit. For those of you that don't know me, I take lighting my tree very seriously (almost to Griswold proportions). As a kid up till after I moved out, I would decorate 2 or 3 trees a year, and these weren't just ordinary trees, they were the Cottrell family trees (8 feet X 8 feet X 8 feet of treacherously prickly pinion pines) They were lit with thousand of bulbs each, and I am not talking about puny LED twinkle lights, these were 3 inch bulbs "for external illumination only", heat your house, lights. For weeks after the task my arms would be covered in sap and puncture wounds. But the magic was all worth it. We did not bring any lights with us to Korea and the PX only sells lights that plug into 120V outlets, at the wonderful price of $14 per 60 bulb string of cool LED bulbs. Luckily we were shown the way to a Christmas market in down-town Seoul that sold strings of 480 lights for the equivalent of about $8. I bought a string of 600 white lights and 8 strings of colored lights. I meticulously wound around each branch it took about a week. After putting on the 5th string of colored lights, the 3rd string shorted out so I had to take it off and replace it. When all was said and done there was a grand total of 3,690 lights on our tree.
We have a few new ornaments, each of the kids got a teacup for our Disneyland trip in February.
Addy also got a care bear ornament, and Logan an Optimus Prime ornament.
We found this Tinkerbell ornament at the PX and thought it would work as our angel equivalent.
Here is the finished product. It has a nice shape and all it is missing is the smell.
To celebrate, we inflated a couple of air beds, made some popcorn and hot chocolate, watched a couple of Christmas movies and slept out under the tree.

Logan (Hair & Puzzles)

Logan & Addy practicing writing ABC and drawing pictures.
I love this face. I am sure many of you have noticed Logan's hair is getting longer. I hate cutting it super short in the winter and that is about the only length we know how to cut it. Logan has been asking Spencer to please cut his hair for a while. Yesterday morning he said "Mom, Dad didn't cut my hair!" I said "Well buddy do you want me to just take you to one of the ladies to cut your hair"? Logan said "No, I am going to give Dad one more chance to see if he understands what I'm saying."
I was laughing so hard!
Bri asked me the other day what is Logan doing with the peace sign by his face? This is big in Korea the little kids do this a lot.
I figured we should display Logan's cool puzzles that he has been working on too! :-)

Jingle Bells

They love playing with these Little People and bells.
She loves singing "Jingle Bells" with Logan and shaking her bell!
This face of hers I could eat her up! I love that smiley, smirkey face.
They love each other so much.
Crazy kids that I love! I am feeling behind and can't keep up with all the pictures I am taking but here you go.
I love these two monsters a ton.

Addysen going to Nursery 1st time

I can't believe my baby is 18 months old. She is getting so grown up, so fast. She was able to go to nursery last week for the first time. When I first took her she was so excited seeing all the toys and kids playing she didn't give it a second thought. (I didn't attach her binki because I am sort of a germ freak and didn't want it to be dragged around, other kids getting it etc. So I gave it to the nursery leader as a just in case. Plus she doesn't need it all the time.) Well I came to check on her again after teaching our Sunday school class and she was a screaming wreak and no binki in her mouth. My sweet little girl doesn't know how to calm herself down without the comfort of the binki. I tried to motion to them to get the binki but it wasn't really understood. So I just went in and got my little baby, gave her the bink and she settled down right away. I felt terrible, I should have just given it to her to begin with. They had another little boy that cried the whole time and they think that set her off after a while.
So this week when I tried to drop her off at her class......I opened up the door and she started to wine and clutch onto my shirt. I couldn't even do it. I don't want her to be sad. So we will just give her a little time and try again. What can I say "She loves her mama!":-)
These pictures I took after church her first day of nursery. She took out the binki in the first picture and posed...you can see the progression.
Well here it is her first experience of nursery.
Here you can see how much she loves those binkies!
I about died when Addysen sat down at the table and put two binkies in her mouth. It was adorable and she thought she was pretty funny.

Early Presents

The night we got our tree up and lights on it, Santa sent us an email saying he had an early gift for Logan & Addysen to hang on our tree. Then Rudolph over heard Logan talking about how Santa could get into our new house without a chimney. He said he could park the sleigh on our roof and come thru our high rise window. So Rudolph was thankful for the tip and brought Addy and Logan some new Rudolph pj's.
The next morning they were really excited to find the presents. It is so fun to watch Logan get so excited for Christmas and any traditions. Spencer and I both really love traditions and so it is fun to see Logan falling in love with them too. He is a happy kid.
We went to a Christmas store here in Korea and Logan was so thrilled to get him and Addy a little tree for there bedroom. Decorated it all by themselves.
Logan was pretty impressed with his skills!


Then they both decided to try on the tree skirt.


We are having a blast getting all ready for Christmas. It is sad, this year Armando was planning on coming again for Christmas but then had to have knee surgery. We will sure miss him but hope he recovers fast so he can come next year. Meanwhile we are loving the warmth and spirit the Christmas tree gives us. Our countdown candle, with scriptures, songs, Christmas movies, hot chocolate.....having fun!