Let's Rodeo San Antonio!!!!!!!!!!

On February 11th, we took the kids to the San Antonio Livestock Show & Rodeo to see Keith Urban. This was Josh's second Rodeo performance, but obviously, Addie's first show. Given her sensitivity to loud noises, I was a little nervous about how she'd react. At first, she did fuss a little bit, but she was soon enamored by the lights & sounds...and animals :-) Thanks to Mike's boss, we had AMAZING seats in a lower level box!

Our little cowboy....HOWDY Par'ner!!!

We took Jamie Armstrong (one of Mike's engineers) and his fiance and soon to be step daughter with us.  It took Addie a little while, but she warmed up to Jamie & watched the rodeo from his lap some.  Adalida (Jamie's soon to be step daughter) really liked playing with Addie and of course Addie loved the interaction too!

Josh loved watching the rodeo, but got upset when the bucking broncs would make a cowboy lose his hat during a ride.  He even shouted out at one of them "That's NOT nice!  You need time out!"

Before the concert started, Mike ordered some popcorn for the kids to snack on.  Even though this was a matinee performance, Josh started to show signs of being tired.  He had a busy day.  It began by celebrating Reese's birthday that morning.  In all the excitement of the rodeo, he didn't get a nap at all on Saturday!










By the time the concert started, Addie had crashed out...she only got a short nap while we drove to the AT&T center from the birthday party.  Ironically, she slept pretty peacefully through most of the concert...well, up until Keith Urban came into our stands to sing!

Keith Urban performing on stage

Midway through his performance, he jumped the fence & climbed up into our stands.  He walked right past us and sang about 10 rows above us!  After he sang, he signed his guitar and gave it to a girl standing behind him.  Then he walked right past us again while greeting his fans.  It was a pretty good experience!

Addie is 9 months old!

Addie turned 9 months old on February 3rd!

She is starting to smile & grin more at people, but also starting to show some signs of stranger adversion too.  She's also easily overwhelmed when a lot of 'new' people are around and sensitive to loud noises. 

Addie is 'talking' a lot now...saying "Da Da" and "Ma Ma" and "Ga Ga".  She's also signing some.  She'll sign "milk" with her hand while she's nursing, "more" with her index finger & palm and "all done" by waving her hands over her tray when she's full.  It's amazing to me how babies can communicate with us :-)  She's still drinking her milk from bottles at school...and holding them all by herself, but we're still trying sippy cups to make that transition a little easier in a few months.

 
Addie loves to play on the floor with her toys and she's getting up on all fours a lot now and rocking back & forth! Not crawling yet, but has mastered the 'launch, stretch & reach' tactic to get what she wants. She's also trying to pull up on her knees holding our hands. She's learning a lot from her big brother & she'll be running around like he is very soon   :-)

Addie has 6 teeth now...those top middle ones finally came in!!  She's got a nice gap too...hopefully she won't have any crowding issues like Josh does.  We can hope that only one of our children will need braces, right?! :-)

Addie had her 9 month well visit with Dr. Fitch too.  She weighs 14 lbs 14 oz and is 27" long.  At this same age, Josh was 15 lbs 3 oz and 27" long.  Even though Addie didn't grow as much as he had hoped during the past 3 month time period, Dr. Fitch is encouraged by her development and said "positive growth" is what's most important & we achieved that!  He also checked her iron, which is perfect!  That means we don't hae to supplement anything.  She can keep on nursing and eating solids too.  She eats pretty good...still prefers fruits over veggies, but we're still giving the veggies to her (mean, aren't we?!) :-) Dr. Fitch gave us the go ahead to start giving her what we eat (minus the 'choking' foods, shellfish, nuts & milk)...so that's helpful for me.  I can just puree up what we're eating for dinner!!

I have a feeling her 10 month blog will have a lot of new developments since she seems to be changing so quickly these days!

Addie is 8 months old!

On January 3rd, Addie turned 8 months old!  She's a happy little girl, but already has an opinion about things!  She makes us laugh with her grins.  She loves to clap along to "If you're happy & you know it, clap your hands".  She is very attentive to her surroundings & tries to watch everything, including Josh!!!  She gets so excited when she sees him...that just melts my heart!

Addie is still a great sleeper & sleeps 11-12 hours each night.  She is still taking 3 naps at home (on the weekends) but not at school.  The morning & mid-day naps are typically 2 hours each and the late afternoon nap is about an hour long.  At school, she's lucky if she gets an hour nap, most times its two 30-minute naps...so she's a little fussy and tired in the evenings.

Addie is eating more & more foods.  She's got 3 teeth now and working on #4.  She's got the two on the bottom and one of her eye teeth on the top.  #4 is the other eye tooth...no signs of the middle top teeth yet.  Seems weird to me, but the pediatrician said every child is different, so we'll just have to wait for the middle ones to push through.  She really loves sweet potatoes and would eat applesauce and bananas at every meal if we offered it to her!  She gobbles those up.  She's not a huge fan of broccoli or black beans, but she'll eat them. 

Addie is trying really hard to get up on all fours and when she does, she'll do a little rocking back & forth before falling back on her belly.  She moves around a lot in her crib though by rolling around.  It won't be too long before she's mobile!

Christmas 2011

This Christmas was really fun!  Just warning you...this is a picture heavy post!  Josh was SO excited to visit Santa and sit on his lap.  He was very helpful in decorating not only our tree, but helped MeMe decorate her tree as well.

Putting the angel on our tree at home :)

Helping decorate MeMe's tree

December is always a very busy month for us!  Mike's company Christmas party, Christmas with Granny Hudec, Grandma Pilcik and both our immediate families.  It can be a bit overwhelming at times, but I still LOVE the joy that comes with Christmas!  To add to the 'pot' a little this year, I volunteered to make kolaches for Mike's customer treats/gifts (10 dozen of them)...BUT we survived it all and have some great memories to remember from Christmas 2011.

First, we had Christmas with Granny Hudec on December 10th.  It was in Angleton, TX this year at my cousin's house.  The kids had a great time running around in the dry creek bed and Josh loved playing on the swing set.  Instead of buying gifts for everyone, we started doing a little gift exchange several years ago (like White Elephant).  This year each family was asked to bring whatever they could fit into a quart size mason jar.  Some of the contents were candy, cookie mixes, batteries, & markers.  Everyone was pretty creative with their 'fillings'.

The following weekend on December 17th, we had Christmas with Grandma Pilcik.  Again, the kids had fun playing outside, watching the cows and playing around the fish pond (and feeding the fish).  We took a generational picture...4 generations of Pilcik women :)

Me, Grandma Pilcik, Addie & Mom Hudec

Then, on Christmas Eve after we went to the Children's services at church, we put out some cookies & milk for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer.  We also hung Santa's special key on the backdoor (since we don't have a fireplace). 

Santa's helpers had a lot of work to do after the kids went down for the night!  It was cold & drizzly, but we got it all done!



It took us about an hour, but we did it & tested it out to be sure it was safe :)

Santa came!!!!



Full stockings...

The BEFORE...

  

Santa's note to us

Christmas morning, Mike & I woke up before either of the kids (but we didn't mean to)...guess we were more excited to see Josh's reaction than he was to see what Santa brought him :-)  In any case, I started on breakfast.  When Josh came out of his room, he was very surprised, but the first thing he mentioned was "Addie got a stroller!"  He didn't even notice the blue bike that he'd been asking for.  Finally, after scanning the 'loot' he noticed it and wanted to ride it immediately.  So, he did!

 

Opening presents!!!  Josh was VERY much into opening the presents this year and what was in the boxes (not just the boxes themselves).  Addie LOVED the tissue paper!

The AFTER...

 

The kids' Christmas gifts in a nutshell :-)

After we cleaned up, we played with our new toys, ate some lunch, took naps, then got ready & drove back down to Rosenberg for Christmas with Grammy & Poppy's (my parents) house in Rosenberg, TX. Josh got to bring a few of his toys with him, but we knew he'd have more to play with the next day :-)  The kids always have a good time when they get together to play and this Christmas was no different!  Josh & Addie love spending time with their cousins...Taylor, Bryce & Ethan!!

Josh playing the "wise man" part

Addie meeting her new friend "Howdy"

And last, but certainly not least, after the first of the year, we celebrated Christmas with MeMe & Grandpa (Mike's parents) in Conroe, TX.  This year we choose to do a more casual approach...late lunch/early dinner & I think it worked out great.  The kids were able to take a nap and were recharged & ready to go when everyone showed up!  Josh & Addie were both 'hamming' it up for the camera!

He is such a cheese!!!!



If you're happy & you know it, clap your hands!!!

As you can see, Christmas was busy and all over the place, but we had a great time & wouldn't trade any of it for the memories we created!!

Catching up...

Okay, I admit, I have not kept up my "blogging" duties to keep documenting our memories for all to read :)  Sadly, work has gotten in the way of my personal time...I HATE when that happens.  In either case, I have a lot of catching up to do in terms of blogging...counting back to before Christmas. *Sigh*

Stay tuned....and be patient as some of the posts may be slightly out of order.  Hey, at least the memories are getting logged for us to remember!!

If you're happy & you know it....

CLAP YOUR HANDS!!!

  This morning I got Addie on tape clapping along as I sang (and I use that term VERY loosely) "If you're happy & you know it".  She was so excited & animated about it...she had pretty good timing too! 

Visiting Santa

We were invited to personally meet Santa & Mrs. Claus at a friends' house. Josh was SO excited to talk to him, but we were curious how he'd react once he saw them in person. We shouldn't have been curious...he took right to him! Addie, on the other hand, didn't warm up quite as much!

Josh climbed right up on his lap...Addie pinched her eyes shut when we put her on Santa's lap & started screaming! Santa asked Josh what he wanted and then Josh had a memory lapse. He kept repeating "I want...um...I want...um..." over and over. He was in a daze...it was pretty stinking cute! He finally got around to telling Santa that he wanted monster trucks, a blue choo-choo (AKA Thomas the Train), a blue dress and a blue bike.

Addie, Ethan, Taylor, Bryce & Josh with Santa & Mrs. Claus