Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Cozy Cousins

My sister moved to a home over near Skyline High School.  Their new home is beautiful!  They have an awesome yard and live in a neighborhood that makes us jealous - it is the part of town that Oliver would love to live in!  Addison and I went over one day last week to play and help unpack.  Addison and Aiden love each other and had fun chewing on toys and taking them from each other.
 
 
Addison and her cousin Kyle have a long history of reading together (remember these fun days).  Kyle is getting big enough that he is now reading stories to himself and anyone else that will listen.  He chatters away and loves to point at the pictures and tell you all about what's going on.  While we were over for a visit, Addison couldn't pass up a chance to hear Kyle's great story (never mind it's the IKEA Expedit instruction manual - it's the imagination that matters)!
 
I love that Addison is so close in age with her cousins and that her cousins aren't moving out of state anytime soon!  I can't wait for warmer weather adventures and hopefully another visit from Nana soon!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

The Maiden Voyage of the Diaper Sprayer



***Pictures not for the weak stomachs***











We have been doing cloth diapers for awhile now and we are loving it! I'm loving that there is less waste and that they are hassle free. I'd say that I'm loving the savings in our wallet - but the start-up costs are nothing to bat your eyes at. For now, I'm using our monthly diaper budget to get us started, stocked and operational. Currently, I'm coordinating a co-op cloth diaper purchase so let me know if you're interested.

Oliver and I installed our diaper sprayer on Monday night. It looks exactly like the sink sprayer that pulls out next to the faucet on some kitchen sinks. I was waiting all day Tuesday for Addison to "do the deed" so that I could test it out (yeah, I'm weird and yes, it's funny the things that make parents so excited!).

Here is her diaper after her BM.
Here is the installed diaper sprayer - it has a handle that you turn to turn on the water flow and adjust the pressure.
Here is the diaper post sprayer action. Now it just goes into the pail, through the washer, hangs to dry and back to Addison's cute bum. No staining, no mess!
In other news, we have also been using the sprayer to rinse our her adjacent bath tub after bath time. I rinse her toys and the soap residue and it's working great!

Sitting In The Crib

Addison crib is becoming more than a place to sleep...in fact she has been a horrible napper lately! Once she starts pulling herself up we are going to have to lower her mattress!
I put her in her crib standing at the edge and she just giggles and smiles and thinks it is so fun to stand and then sit at the edge of her crib. During her non-nap yesterday, she kicked her mobile until it came on. She is just getting so big...
In other news, Addison is learning to wave. She waved for the first time Saturday, March 19th - and mostly waves at her mom. She also smacks her lips like her mama and loves for you to repeat her back and forth and back and forth (started March 13th). And, she is cutting her top two teeth! Her gums are swollen and bulging and those teeth should cut through any day. I'm hoping that when the teeth come through she will start napping again. She isn't fussy or feverish and doesn't have any other teething "symptoms" (none of which are medically verified, but moms swear by them anyway). Also, if she doesn't stop biting her mom we may become a bottle only family because I can't get her to stop.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Happy One Month Anniversary!

I can't believe that Emily and Taylor have been married one month and three days! While this tribute and summary are late - we think of them often and hope all is going well.

Once upon a time, this handsome man,
and this lovely, happy girl
were set-up on a blind date. Three years of courting, camping, dating, enduring haggling, moving and loving lead to this blissful day of eternal promises.
Here's a complete Hansen family picture - a very rare occurrence! (Thanks to no one - I was sticking my gut out to support Addison because no one was nice enough to tell me I was looking ridiculous - consequently I look bloated/fat in every wedding picture because of my stellar posture. My mom says it's how all mom's stand so I have been stalking other blogs to verify - and it is true - however, it doesn't make me much happier with the way it all turned out.)
Emily's flower arrangements were done by Oliver's aunt and they were gorgeous. I was supposed to take one home - but it never made it to our house. However, Oliver's mom just used some of the flowers for a baby shower this past weekend and they were still gorgeous and looking fresh. She stored the extras in the garage and they kept beautifully!
In case you thought we would let a day pass without taking a ridiculous number of pictures of Addison - don't be fooled - here are a few of the dozens we have of her that day! She is such a happy girl.
Yes, in case you were wondering, Oliver is still cutting off heads in almost every picture he takes.
Someday, when I put all our pictures in a digital scrapbook, I will crop our little family shot and it will look hundreds of times better - for now, love us from a distance!
Here is the wedded, happy couple.
We wish them all the best on their new adventures. They are still living in Seattle, working, going to school, teaching school and spending as much time together as possible. We hope to see them soon and pray for their happiness and success often! We love you both!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Carter's Advertisement

Do you like my new Carter's outfit? I want to be a model for them...unfortunately I chewed on the tag upside down. I think there is enough brand recognition that most of you can still recognize who I'm advertising for.
Oh, and I want everyone to clearly see my two teeth! It was the first picture my mom was able to get that shows my teeth. It was taken February 18th.

The Night Before the Wedding

My aunt Emily chose pink and gray as her wedding colors. My mom bought several different dresses to match the color scheme and when Emily came to visit over MLK weekend picked my dress. My mom returned all the other dresses and hung my dress for the wedding in the closet.

The night before the wedding arrived (Feb 17) and my parents realized that I had never tried on the dress to make sure it fit. Here's me giving it a try and luckily it fit perfectly! I'm going to wear it for Easter too!
My mom took part of the day off work and we went up to my grandparents house for a family dinner the night before the big day. I had a lot of fun meeting Emily's family and playing with my Uncle Taylor who I don't get to see very often. I went to sleep at grandma's while everyone visited and then I played with grandma for just a few minutes before it was time to go home. I love playing at my grandma's house...she has fun toys and everyone loves to hold me and play with me.

Oregon Girl and Other Randomness

I love my food feeder thing. My grandma bought it for me and I use it everyday! My mom puts things in it while she's making dinner and I remain entertained and happy for a long time. My favorite thing to eat is honeydew melon. When I am through - there is nothing left in the netting. I love about any kind of fruit and I love chicken dipped in tomato sauce. What a great gift!
I'm an Oregon State Fan! My parents aren't big sports fans - just the Olympics and the World Cup - but my Nana loves Oregon State. It is where my grandparents met. The rivalry between the Oregon schools is much like the rivalry between the U and BYU...so I'm an Oregon State Fan through and through!
The day I modeled my Oregon clothes is also the day that my Valentine's package came in the mail from Nana. I got a cute new outfit, but you can see my favorite part was the letter she gave me...I ate it all up!
Pictures taken 2/12 and 2/16.

Swinging at the Freezing Park

This is the first time (February 12) that I went on an excursion sitting upright in my stroller without my car seat. It was freezing but the sky was blue so we decided to go out to a park at Daybreak that backs up to the lake.
Really pretty huh?
I did well in the swing and I love to swing. My dad was making me giggle - I only last about 5 minutes before I was frozen through.
So it was a short excursion, but a lot of fun!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Attacking Plastic

I know that you usually see really cute close up pictures of me...but my mom is insisting on revealing my newest hidden talent. I started on my pink play quilt but I was really curious about my swing. My mom was doing dishes and so my squawking was going unnoticed. I had to take matters into my own momentum and I threw myself around and around until I got there.
It was a very neat piece of plastic, but when I pushed myself up to look at it the swing kept coming straight for my face and whacking me! I was trying to hard to chew on the swing and it kept knocking me in the face...
Needless to say, my mom stopped doing the dishes to save me from the attacking monstrous plastic!

Now, I won't go explore anything and I am still content to roll from back to front and that's it. I won't roll from front to back for my dad when he get's home from work. I won't roll across the room for him nor for my grandparents. I'm not a performer and I only secretly roll while no one is watching. My sneaky mom has evidence but even she doesn't see it happen that often. I'm such a tricky little girl :)

Left Unattended

My mom left me in my high chair. I was just sitting nicely chewing on my spoon. I LOVE MY SPOON!
Before you knew it - I knocked my food container on the floor - I'm so clever!
My dad's first reaction was to start cleaning up the mess and shake his head at my mom because she left me to my own devices. My mom's first thought was to go get the camera! So here's my first food mess, my mom tells me and my dad that it surely won't be my last.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Bum Genius

Addison received her first shipment of cloth diapering supplies in the mail today! Mom is ecstatic and dad is a little apprehensive...we are switching to mostly cloth for several reasons which if you really care about I am happy to share, but for now we thought you might like to see our baby model in her first cloth diaper.
Pretty stylish huh? We ordered several varieties, brands, styles and sizes on some great sales. I can't wait to see which we like the best!

Monday, March 7, 2011

7 Months

Addison is 7 months old today! We can't believe how fast the time has passed.
This is one of the new things that she is doing and we think it is very endearing. She lays her head down on the ground when she's tired...we also think that it is helping her to roll from front to back.
She is so busy and loves to get anything within her reach. Just today she rolled across the living room (which is the first time she has actually gone somewhere) to get to something she wanted.
She still loves paper! It's a great way to help pass the time during sacrament meeting...we're sure that's why they print programs in the first place!
Another new thing that she has started is letting you know when she doesn't get her way...she does not hesitate to express herself and she is a girl that knows what she wants.
But, as soon as she gets it, she is content as can be. We are so blessed to have a happy, healthy, growing girl!
As of today's home measurements...she is 25.5 inches long and weighs 18.8 pounds. (I thought her car seat was getting heavier.) She has been having so much fun with her dad at home this past little while he has been looking for work. She was really sad when her dad started his new job this morning which meant that she had to go back to daycare (well - dad was really sad) but we are grateful for the blessings that have so freely and frequently come to our family!

Also, I know that I am SO behind in my posting, but our home laptop died and the other is being used almost exclusively for CPA Exam studying...so we're hobbling by while we wait to have the money to buy a new one. Thanks for your patience!