The Beach

It's starting to seem like all we do is go on vacation! I swear most of the time we're boring homebodies immersed in chores, work and the daily grind. There have just been several "too good to pass up" opportunities this year. The latest was a week in the Outer Banks of NC with our 4 best friends and a house right on the water. The 6 of us have done everything together the last three years except go on vacation so who could pass that up!

I am posting these in no particular order since blogger and me have issues with posting pictures. One of these days I'll figure out how to cut and paste them in the order I actually want but until then....

This is the view off our back deck, and the beach was that secluded almost all the time. We were really lucky to have the last house on the street with an abandoned golf course on the other side so we really enjoyed the "private beach".

The nice thing about being that close to the water was coming back to the house for naps while everyone else could stay out. Well that and getting to snuggle and fall asleep to the sound of the waves.

Addy and Aunt Kristen, the worst spoiler of the bunch :)

Most of the week saw Addy in nothing but a diaper and a head full of tousled beach hair. It's a good look for her!

Loving the sand.

The funny thing is we put her down on the sand the night we got there and she screamed bloody murder. But then for the rest of the week we couldn't keep her out of it. A lot of us got a mouthful of sand thanks to Addy's exuberant throwing and a good stiff wind.

Playing with Uncle Lance...

And then crawling like heck when a wave would come in.

By the end of the week she was letting waves wash up to her neck and over her head a couple of times but that first day she was pretty cautious.

The first morning she was so excited she threw herself off our bed and got a wicked rug burn by her eye. That was actually the first of three times that she jumped off the bed. Some people just never learn

Her favorite place in the world. Anything is better if you're on Daddy's shoulders

You cannot imagine how many shots I had to take before I got one of her wearing sunglasses. She can whip those things off her head faster than you can say "take the picture"

Uncle JJ cheesing

Daddy looking stern and failing miserably

Mommy and Addy. You can tell who the picture taker in our relationship is since this is one of perhaps 12 of the two of us.

Such a beach bum

I just fell in love with her beach hair.

Daddy and Uncle Lance cheesing as well. Sadly a whole week away and no pictures of Aunt Jess. I don't know how that happened since she's normally more than happy to pose for a picture. I promise she was there and even uttered the funniest line of the week

"I hate the kite, the kite is dead to me now" And trust me, she meant it :)

Daddy and Uncle Lance buried and then made a sand car around Addy. You can kind of see one of the "wheels" in this picture. It was quite creative but Addy was "helping" so it lost it's car shape pretty quickly

Taking a walk and no one to disturb us as far as the eye can see.

It's incredibly hard to sit back and let your kids eat it in front of you. I know it's part of the whole parenting process, and letting them figure things out for themselves but still. Thankfully I think she learned her lesson about crawling full speed down a slight incline.

And she's a tough kid. After we washed all the sand out of her mouth and ear she was raring to go again

Who needs toys when you have Uncle JJ's blackberry?

One last "cheesing it" picture of Addy, Daddy and Aunt Kristen in the car.

I wish we had gotten a picture of everyone together but it's tough to get three couples and a toddler to stay in the same place long enough much less find someone brave enough to suffer the 37 false starts while one or all of us makes a goofy face. One of these days we'll grow up but not anytime soon

As always you can see a lot more pictures if you click on the link "Ayden's Pictures" I just didn't feel like captioning 15 pictures of Addy throwing sand, no matter how cute they all were.

A good cause

I don't normally push products but this was to good not to share. By buying one t-shirt you can feed a child in the Buduburam Refegee Camp in Ghana for a year. Whenever possible Nate and I buy products in which a portion of the proceeds will benefit someone else and this one is so close to home since I spent most of high school driving through and visiting Ghana.

Obviously the baby in the picture ISN'T Addy but you can be assured she'll be sporting her own version soon. That and the "War is Poop" shirt :)

http://www.tinyrevolutionary.com/this-shirt-child.html

Photo Dump

I'm just going to do a photo dump. We leave for a week at the beach tomorrow and frankly I am to lazy to come up with post theme's and title's

Addy is pulling up and creeping on anything and everything. She'll stand unassisted too, but not on purpose. She'll get involved with something and not even realize that she's not holding onto anything. As soon as she does she sits down with a sign of relief that she didn't die. She's cautious like her Daddy!

See she'll pull up on anything. Even Mommy's knee. Notice the attractive blue knee brace? That's right, the fall while skiing resulted in a detached ACL. So guess who gets to look forward to knee surgery in July!

G'day Mate

As much as we miss Wednesday there's one thing that we could have lived without. Every time we turned around Addy would make a break for the kitchen.

Why you ask?

To eat dog food out of the bowl of course!!

At least she was polite and waited till Wednesday was done.

She was so proud of her pigtails that day. It was the first time I could scrape enough hair together to make two and she spent all day checking herself out in the mirror and fiddling with her hair

These USED to be put away in a basket. Once again you can't turn your back! She is quick!

Uncle John this is just for you. Our best friends, JJ and Kristin, got her a bunch of balls for her birthday. Out of a volleyball, basketball, softball and tennis balls my baby wanted to play with the soccer ball most

GOOOOAAAAAAALLLLL

We've been spending a lot of time outside while Nate works on the yard. Not that nature particularly appeals to Addy. She is more of a techie.

Cameras, phones, remotes, keyboards. That's more her style right now.

She's actually called several people AND taken a couple of pictures already. But strangely enough she only takes pictures of herself. Vain little toot :)

Just a cute little girl, slathered in sunscreen, posing yet again. She's started putting her hand on her cheek and tilting her head to the side when she wants something. It's literally impossible to resist!!

San Diego

In March, after several months of good luck at work, I won the Dell Circle of Excellence Trip. Since we had JUST gotten back from the ski trip Nate couldn't get off of work. So my best friend Jess and I got to have a nice, all expense paid, girls week to San Diego! This was the view of the skyline as seen from our balcony. You can't actually see much since the blue water, blue ski and blue haze over the city all blend together.

This is directly below our balcony. All throughout the grounds were these beautiful hidden gardens.

Once again I forgot to take the camera charger and was only able to take a few pictures before it died. This parrot at the San Diego zoo was one of them. He was loose and flying around. I thought it was the coolest thing I had seen until....

We got off the tram tour and this guy was standing it front of the stroller parking. There was no zoom on this. I was literally standing three feet away. Jess and I were dancing around, screeching "Do your tail! Do your tail" People were starting to stare (as often happens when we hang out) but who cares. Our antics were rewarded....

By THIS!! So cool :)

We also had an amazing run in with a koala eating bamboo but the camera had died by then. Bottom line - San Diego is awesome. I could move there in a heartbeat. The weather, the people, the flowers and trees, the hot beach stone massage AHHHHHHHH

Sweet!!!!!

I can't believe it! After posting last night that we had lost Addy's birthday pictures I came into work this morning and found a couple on my other laptop! What luck

This was about the most awake she was all night. Poor baby, in the video she is whining most of the night. Also not being a fan of chocolate the cake was a bit of a let-down. We basically smeared that on her face so we could get the required, first birthday, cake face picture.

The cake was the best part. I found a coloring page on PBS online, printed it out and voila!! Okay I said voila like I actually made that. I meant voila, I took it to a cake designer who did a fantastic job making it look just like my awkward attempts to describe what I wanted. All in all it was a good birthday, Addy got lots of fun presents and most importantly got TWO parties with all her favorite people in the world

Sad News

I have two bits of sad news. For starters, inexplicably, we have lost Addy's first birthday pictures. We have lots of video (that we are unable to load onto the laptop) but no pictures. I don't know what happened but there it is, no birthday photos as promised. For anyone that happened to be there, I will be raiding your pictures and stealing them.

The second news is even sadder. Our dog, Wednesday (think Addams Family) has left. She frequently got out of the fence, no matter how many times we would patch the hole, but always came back at the end of the day. It was not at all uncommon to come home to her sitting on the front porch waiting to be let in. A few weeks ago she just never came back. We think someone snatched her. She was so sweet and friendly and was very popular around the neighborhood. Poor Addy misses her the most. For the better part of a weekend she sat in front of the door yelling "Da Da Da" over and over. She was a great dog, so gentle and playful with the baby, well trained, despite Nate and I and was our first "baby"

Wednesday, I hope wherever you are you are getting plenty to eat, have a good pillow to sleep on, are getting lots of ear scratches, and have the odd chance to munch on a dirty diaper, that was always your favorite!

50 Odd Things

I got tagged today and while I never fill these things out and post them I am ridiculously bored at work. So the three people that read this blog are going to have to suffer through this one :)

1. Do you like blue cheese? Yes, I swear I could eat poop if it had a blue cheese crust

2. Have you ever smoked heroin? Are you kidding me? What kind of question is that? Of course not! I don't have a death wish.

3. Do you own a gun? No. Nate desperately wants one for "our protection" but I am terrified that I'll wake up one night for a pee and get shot. Not that I don't trust my man but he does tend to get a little jumpy when things go bump in the night

4. What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic? No flavor, just good ol plain Diet Coke

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Terrified! Going to the doctor for me almost always means they will find something they've never seen that has a 1 in 1 million chance of happening. Ever heard of auto immune hemolytiuc anemia? I rest my case.

6. What do you think of hot dogs? As long as they are covered in chili, cheese, mayo and onions I'm a fan

7. Favorite Christmas movie? White Christmas, although its not really Christmas until my Dad has made us all sit through a viewing of "It's a Wonderful Life"

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Orange juice and then coffee, always in that order

9. Can you do push ups? Yes but not a lot of them

10. Age? 28

11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? My first engagement ring. Nate couldn't afford a fancy ring when he proposed so he got me a plain band with diamonds. Some months later when he could swing the ring he wanted he bought it and proposed again. I used the first engagement ring as my wedding band since it had such a great story and such sentimental value

12. Favorite hobby? Can sleeping count as a hobby? I need my doctor recommended 8 hours a night!

13. Favorite Actor? Gerard Butler. A big strapping man with a Scottish brogue, be still me heart

14. Do you have A D D? No but I'm married to someone who does

15. What's one trait you hate about yourself? Squinty eyes that disappear when I smile.

16. Middle name? Caroline

17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment
I can't wait to go home and see Addy
I forgot to take anything out of the freezer to thaw this morning
I really hope that they tell us who is in the coffin on LOST tonight

18. Name 3 things you bought yesterday/today.
Milk
Diapers
Sippy cups


19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink?
Iced Tea
Coffee
Orange juice

20. Current worry? That the bubble will pop. Things are going scarily well right now and I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop

21. Current hate right now? The guy who sits behind me at work. He doesn't have an inside voice so I'm listening to him scream about a storage cluster and he farts. A lot

22. Favorite place to be? Home

23. How did you bring in the New Year? Hanging out with "the Gang"

24. Where would you like to go? Everywhere!! I can't think of a place I wouldn't go if someone handed me a ticket

25. Name three people who will complete this? None, I'm not mean enough to do this in an email and then force other people to delete it.

26. Do you own slippers? Yes. And I love to shuffle in them. What is it about slippers that make me shuffle?

27. What shirt are you wearing? A baby blue Henley, it was clean

28. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? No, I sleep really close to the edge of the bed and with satin sheets I'm always mortally close to sliding off the side of the bed onto the floor

.29. Can you whistle? I can but I don't. I tend to whistle through my front teeth (thanks Dad!) so I look like a beaver when I do it. Very unattractive

30. Favorite color? All shades of blue

31. Would you be a pirate? In a heartbeat! When I was pregnant I used to dream about being a pirate every night. I miss those dreams, it was a swashbuckling adventure every night

32. What songs do you sing in the shower? I sing along to CD's. Right now its Jack Johnson and "Across the Universe" soundtrack. I'll have to switch out soon though before Nate goes postal

33. Favorite girl's name? Chloe. I begged for this to be Addy's name but Nate maintained his veto rights for 9 months. (don't get me wrong I LOVE Addy's name) 6 months after she was born Nate turned to me one night and said "You know the name Chloe is really growing on me" ARGH!! To little to late!

34. Favorite boy's name? Jack, and thankfully one of the only names Nate and I agree on. If we have a boy it'll be a no-brainer.

35.What's in your pocket right now? My debit card and hair rubberband

36. Last thing that made you laugh? Nate singing old DC Talk songs last night. I almost wet my pants when he threw in the corresponding dance moves

37. Best bed sheets as a child? I don't think I ever had character bed sheets. Maybe that's what's wrong with me!!!

38. Worst injury you've ever had? Right now its a tie between breaking my elbow at 25 getting throw off a horse and tearing my ACL two months ago on a ski trip. I have a feeling both of those are going to twinge when it rains the older I get

39. Do you love where you live? I like Nashville. It's a great city but it's been three years now and I'm starting to get the itchy feet

40. How many TV's do you have in your home? 3

41. Who is your loudest friend? Tippie, no contest

42. How many dogs do you have? 1 named Wednesday. The cutest little lame weenie dog you've ever seen!

43. Does someone have a crush on you? Half of my customers. Although they are all IT nerds who never see girls and have NO idea what I look like. I'm just the perky girl on the phone who fixes their problems

44. What is your favorite book(s)? Harry Potter series, Little House on the Prairie series, Sex Lives of Cannibals. Honestly I can't pick a favorite. I love to read, anything anytime.

45. Where were you born? Forth Worth TX

46. What is your favorite candy? Skittles

47. Favorite Sports Team? Tennessee Titans

48. What song would you want played at your funeral? Bohemian Rhapsody. That song has been present during all the best moments of my life and nothing can shake a bad mood faster than belting out every word while headbanging. I not only want it played at my funeral but everyone has to sing along too

49. What were you doing 12 AM last night? sleeping

50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? It's trash day, thank goodness cause the garage is starting to reek