What's new with Addie

I'm not even sure where to start with this update on Addie.  It's been a long time since I did a post just about her!!! That's what I get for not staying up on my blogging!

Addie is now eight years old and in 2nd grade!  She is full of personality and excitement and love for life.  She is a girl so she is there is also plenty of emotion, sass, spunk and drama as well!  She is silly, funny, beautiful, talented, smart, social and loves to have a good time!  She definitely has the personality of her Dad!  This video shows her personality so well- I originally was taking it of Sam but she totally stole it with her dance moves in the background!

She is a good big sister and has been such a good helper with Sam, and he just loves her! She recently lost her 3rd tooth (first front top one) and the other front top one is getting close!

 

She was baptized in November and we are so proud of her for making such a good choice! Such a beautiful daughter we have!

  

She continues to love to sing and perform and she loves the spotlight.  She sang all by herself at her baptism and her cousins' baptism and in a couple talent events at school.  She practically wakes up singing and pretty much sings anytime she is at home (right now it's constantly Let it Go).  It's probably hard for her not to belt out in song at school and so she has to get it all out when she gets home! She's very good at projecting her voice...sometimes too good! We've had plenty of comments about what a great voice she has and we most certainly agree.  She has been tinkering on the piano and thinks she wants to take piano lessons but I'm dragging my feet because I'm not sure I'm ready for that battle yet!  Here is a video of her performing at a Christmas assembly at school:

She is currently in her 2nd year of participating in Up With Kids and their acting program.  This year, they are doing an adaptation of Peter Pan for their performance.  She absolutely loves it and can't wait till she can be in a "real" play.  She also loves going to plays and is a lucky girl to have parents and grandparents that feed that love!  She's been to a lot of plays in her short life and some really good ones too!
 

She loves playing with friends and being with family.  She also loves to write, draw, bake, craft and sew (pretty much anything creative).  For Christmas last year, Grandma helped her make 21 pillowcases for the whole family.  She sewed and ironed all of them herself.  They have a bunch of other projects she's already done and plenty more in the works! She's always wanting to make things! She participates in art club at school and I'm always finding starts of books and stories and pictures around the house. 

We are proud of how well she is doing at school, bringing home report cards with all 4's!  She loves to read and is currently reading on an end of 3rd grade level.  She is a fast reader too- we just have to work on the comprehension of what she's reading a little more!  It would help if she wasn't reading 10 books at a time (not exaggerating).  Right now I think she just reads to read- not exactly for the storyline.  We're going to work on that this year!!!  She is doing well at math, they are learning their times tables and starting into division!  A lot of things come pretty easy for her but as she's getting older, she's starting to learn that she has to work harder at some things!

We've had some ups and downs with her anxiety this year.  She's still taking a low dose of Zoloft during the school year to help keep things calm and status quo while at school.  We've done a few therapy sessions recently to help her get some more tools for dealing with the anxiety when it flares and it's really made a difference.  We are hopeful that things will stay manageable for her and that she can just enjoy being a kid!  It's been nice to see more of that "sparkle" in her eyes the last year or so. 

We are so proud of her and love her so much!

Spotlight on Addison at 8.5 years old

My favorite food is: Pizza

My favorite sport is: Rollerblading

The best show on TV is: Scooby Doo

The coolest person in the world is: my friend Anna

My best subject in school is: social studies

I'm really awesome at: rollerblading

If I could change my name, it would be: Isabella

My favorite color is: blue

When I grow up I want to be: librarian

My parents are too strict about: using sharpie markers

My favorite song is: Let It Go

My favorite book is: all of them

3 words that describe me are: awesome, cool, cute

When I was little, I used to: say "kitty"

My favorite scripture story is: Ammon and the Lamanites

My favorite primary song is: When I Am Baptized

My favorite season is: Summer

The best snack ever is: cold cereal

The food that makes me want to barf is: sweet potatoes

My best friend is: Lily

If I had one wish it would be: to have a puppy

The best thing that has happened to me this year is: Losing 3 teeth

One thing I want to learn to do this year is: learn how to make a pulley

One thing I need to work on: not talking at school/church

The most important lesson I've learned this year is: Listen the first time (not sure she's actually learned this yet!)

Valentine's Day

January and February are kind of quiet months around here.  Just trying to find a new normal after the busy holiday season and the cold weather doesn't help!!!

Back in January, Addie had been begging us to let her have a party with some friends.  Apparently, we "never" let her have them.  We looked at the calendar and saw that Valentine's Day was going to be on a Friday this year and thought it would be a good reason to have a party! Maybe give a few parents a little break or a chance to get out and it would squelch the incessant asking from Addie! 

We let her invite a few friends from school and a few friends from the neighborhood.  We also let Will invite a friend to come so he wouldn't be bothering the girls or so he wouldn't be bored.  We ordered pizza and had some fruit punch, strawberries and chips to go with it for dinner.  After they were all done eating, we brought out our awesome BINGO game.  Each time they got a bingo, they got to pick a couple treats from the treat jar for the movie afterward!  We just kept playing till someone got blackout.  

 

After BINGO, the girls headed down to the basement with their treats and some popcorn to watch The Princess Diaries and the boys stayed upstairs to watch a movie.   Sam just wanted to be in on the action and we found him in the middle of the girls and also with the boys just hanging out! He was not happy when he had to go to bed and miss out on the rest of the fun! 

 

By the end of the evening, Will and his friend, Collin, were wrestling with each other.  Will thought he was so funny taking his shirt off to wrestle.  If only he wasn't so skinny! We feed him, I promise!

Downstairs, the girls were all playing house in the tiny little play area under the stairs!!! 
 

It was a fun night!

A few other Valentine notables...

Addie had to make her Valentine Box into a Biography Book Report on Walt Disney.  We made it look like Mickey Mouse.  The legs, buttons, tail and feet/shoes were her idea and she even free-handed the feet herself!  It turned out pretty cute! 

 

 

Sam was loving the constant flow of candy and "choco" (chocolate)!  

Basketball

Will's first Jr. Jazz season has come to an end.  He really loved playing and it was so cute watching those kindergartners run around and try to learn the fundamentals of basketball! He had a good coach and we enjoyed participating. 

 

He especially loved playing against his buddy Collin!!! We signed up too late to get them on the same team.  Unfortunately, Collin didn't share the same enthusiasm for basketball as Will did! 

Even though the season is over, he still wears his Jr. Jazz jersey every day!!  He wears it to school, to play, pretty much all day.  He wears it so much that I forget it's not his clothes! Anytime he goes outside or down to the basement to shoot the ball on our little hoop, he has to be wearing his jersey.   Sometimes he even wears it to bed! He was #10 on his team but he would always want to wear his hand me down #19 jersey from a cousin.  I couldn't figure it out until one day, when he was talking about how #0 on his team wasn't very good, but #27 was really good.  We finally figured out that he thought that the higher the number on your jersey, the better player you were! He loves to go outside and shoot on the real hoop as much as he can.  If the weather is warm enough, he'll shoot out there for hours!

Basketball and anything Jazz has become his latest obsession.  He loves watching Jazz games and gets so excited anytime they are ahead of the other team! His favorite player is Gordon Hayward.  The other night, we were talking about middle names and I told him that his was Gordon and all of a sudden, he kind of lit up.  I thought maybe he had made the connection between that and Grandpa Gord (Clay's dad, who he is named after) but nope...he said, "like Gordon Hayward"! He's been lucky enough to go to some Jazz games and a couple player appearance things where he's gotten a few pictures with them!   

 

 

Sometimes even he can get frustrated with how terrible they are playing!!!

Basketball has really helped his math skills! If you put addition in terms of points scored, he can add 2 or 3 points to almost any number in his head!  But if you ask him the same addition number (i.e. 9+2), he doesn't know the answer- it has to be, "if you had 9 points and scored a 2 pointer" and then he can figure it right out! Here is Will showing off his math skills!

His basketball obsession is rubbing off on Sam too! Sam loves to go down and "shoot the ball" with him.  Here is a little video of him talking and shooting!

It is so fun to have him love one thing SO much.  Go Jazz!!!

Clay's Birthday

It was Clay's birthday this month!  Another year older!!!  Thank goodness kids make birthdays more exciting! 

Addie wanted to get up and make him an omelet for breakfast in bed.  Unfortunately, she told it to me a little late the night before so she had to settle for fried eggs and toast.  Since she wanted to surprise him, I didn't say anything but he ended up coming down right as she was heading upstairs with it. It's the thought that counts, right?! 

He decided to take the day off.  Since Addie was at school, we got a babysitter for the boys and went to see a movie, Saving Mr. Banks, while Sam took his nap!  It was so fun to get away and go to a movie in the middle of the day! 

That night, we headed over to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner.  They gave him a birthday crown and a free bottle of sauce to celebrate his day! 

After dinner, he made birthday donuts!  There are a few other people with the same birthday so he took some to them too.   

Happy Birthday!!