Goodbye 2012!

So many exciting things have happened since the last time daddy updated everyone on what we were doing.  First of all, I turned THREE!  It was so amazing and I finally got to chew bubble gum for the first time ever!!!  We went to Chuck E Cheese with Aunt Robin, Uncle Brian and Cousin Amy and had so much fun.  Mommy and I played basketball and I think I'm going to be as good as Aunt Andrea some day! Then I rode the giant clock about a hundred times and ended up giving my favorite mouse a huge hug.

It seemed like my birthday was barely over when we celebrated Christmas.  I love Christmas, it is one of my favorite holidays with all of the lights, good food and, most of all, the CANDY!  Buddy and I had about a thousand presents under the tree and I made sure to help him unwrap each and every one (because he mostly just tried to throw up on everything).  I've got the best unwrapping technique ever, because I can really throw that paper out of the way. 

We made a special birthday cake for Jesus and got to sing him happy birthday with all of the cousins.  I also got to make some yummy cookies for Santa and he ate all of them when he came!  He must be a really hungry guy with so many presents to deliver.  We had such a good time with all of our family, I can't wait to do it again next year!

We ended the year with my Team Umizoomi birthday party!  I got to invite all of my friends, and it was the best!  Mommy made some tasty cupcakes and had lots of neat decorations with Milli, Geo and Bot.  We had so much fun making shape belts and playing, I'm so glad that all of my friends could come over and celebrate with me.  I even got to wear my special Geo t-shirt for the big day!  I know mommy and daddy seemed really stressed out getting everything ready, but it was a perfect day.

Well, I guess that just about sums up the end of 2012 for us.  It was a hectic month but so much fun and we had so many good times together as a family.  Plenty more has happened in 2013, so far, but I think daddy's going to have to save that for another day.  Happy New Year everyone!!!!

Turkey Lurkey Day!

Daddy's already falling behind on keeping up with things, but I'm making him at least give a Thanksgiving status update. We got to go down to Uncle Kevin and Aunt Valerie's again this year and it was so much fun. Last year, I couldn't really keep up with my cousins too well, but this year I was right in the middle of everything! I'm so good at going up and down stairs now. Mommy and daddy still think that I'm going to fall down and bonk my head, but that only happened once (outside of the few times my cousins were pulling me down the steps).

I sure did have fun playing with Grant, Vanessa, Alaina, and Zachary all weekend. I'm still a lot smaller than they are, but I'm sure I'll catch up with them one of these days! We sure ate some great food at Uncle Kevin's. I had the hugest plate of turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn and rolls for Thanksgiving dinner and I ate the whole thing! It was crazy because I ate more than some of my older cousins. Guess daddy's appetite is rubbing off on me....

After we ate, we got to take some pictures with the whole family. Daddy acted like this was a really big deal and got out a fancy camera stand and made everyone look a certain way. He took like a thousand pictures until he had the "perfect" one. The cousins and I thought he was way too serious and gave him our best silly faces to prove it.

We also got to see Aunt Robin and Uncle Bryan for our second Thanksgiving dinner in two days. That was awesome because we got round two of wonderful turkey dinner (fried this time). Also, Aunt Robin bought me a cute dress. She's always spoiling me rotten... I did get a little jealous, though, because she bought Brantley a stuffed doggy that is huger than the stuffed ducky she bought me when I was little. Mommy acted mad and said something about not having a big enough house for those kind of toys, but I think she can move some of her clothes or something so buddy and I can have a sweet new animal to lay on.

Mommy and daddy talked a lot about something called Black Friday. I'm not sure what that is, but it sounded like they might get up really early in the morning to go shopping, or something. That didn't really make much sense to me, because I know the stores are open all day, but sometimes adults do silly things. Fortunately, Pa wanted to go bowling, instead of shopping, and that's what we got to do. It was so much fun and I almost made a strike!

I had so much fun with all of my cousins, I can't wait to see them again at Christmas. I'll bet we'll have even more adventures this time around. I guess that's about enough excitement for one night. I sure hope dada gets the pictures right with this one, so you can see how much fun we had. Can't wait to see what he puts up!

Addie

Weekend of Adventure and Other Interesting Goings On...

I know that mommy used to work really hard to keep everyone informed about what was going on in my life, and she did a great job of it when she had time. Unfortunately, she got really busy with school, because she wants to become a nurse and then she had baby brother in her belly FOREVER! He needs a lot of holding and cuddling and attention, and that doesn't leave her much time for hanging out on the internet longer than about five minutes at a time (thankfully, Facebook doesn't require much of a time commitment each day!).

And so... dada finally decided to help mommy out and take a stab at updating everyone about my wonderful life (and now Brantley's, too!). He's not nearly as funny or creative as mommy but he does seem to have a lot of time to spend on Apple-Bee (the name of our iPad, for the uninitiated) so he should be more than qualified to post periodic updates, at the very least. At some point, I'm going to make dada introduce everyone to my baby brother, Brantley (or Buddy, some nicknames just stick), but he's going to have to start out slow. And now, on with the show!

Mommy and daddy gave me a wonderful surprise on Friday by taking me to see Busytown at the JCCC theater. I thought the Huckle and friends were only cartoon characters, from watching them on Netflix and seeing them in books, but they are REAL! Mommy did such a good job getting us tickets on the front row. I kept yelling "hi!" at Huckle and Sally, and they waved back at me!!! We had a great time, but I think Brantley had more fun watching the colorful spotlights and snoozing. His loss I guess! :)

On Saturday, mommy had to go to school, so buddy and I hung out with daddy all day long. We got to go grocery shopping and bought some neat snacks from a company named Hostess. Daddy seemed to get all excited and nostalgic about them, saying they were going away. I'm not sure what he was talking about, but they sure do make delicious cupcakes. And their chocolate Donettes are the best (don't tell mommy, but I had four of them for breakfast)! He told me he has something called Twinkies that he's going to let me try. If they are anything like the other treats, I'm sure I'll love them! In the afternoon, I helped dada put up our Christmas lights. They are so pretty! I tried to climb up on the roof with him, but mommy said that was a bad idea so I held the ladder, instead.

Today was another busy day for us. Mommy had school again, so buddy and I went to church with dada and then ate lunch with Pa at Pizza Shoppe. I love pizza! I was so tired after we ate that all I wanted to do was go home and take a nap. Unfortunately for mommy, I decided that I'd rather play in bed instead. I don't think she was thrilled.

We got to celebrate Thanksgiving with our church tonight and it was awesome! We ate turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans and, best of all, chocolate mousse! Daddy ate pumpkin pie, but I love chocolate. It's my favorite!!! I have a new best friend at church and we sat at tables right next to each other. We had a lot of fun dancing and chasing each other around, I can't wait to play again at Sunday school!

I guess that's about it for my busy weekend. With no nap, I'm super tired and just ready to go snoozy. I think I'll lay in bed for a while, with my flashlight, and read a few books. A perfect end to a perfect weekend. Good night!

My first trip to Chuck E Cheese

This week was mommy's spring break at school so we got to go on a little road trip to Springfield, MO to visit my Aunt Robin, Uncle Bryan and cousins (Amy, Marcus & Max). It was a 4 hour drive, just the two of us so I behaved really good so mommy didn't get stressed out. I'm so nice! :) We had a fun, fun time hanging out with the family and eating lots of yummy food. But my favorite part was our trip to Chuck E Cheese. Here are some pictures from my first ever visit...

I got to meet the real mouse himself - Chuck E Cheese. Pretty sure he knew I was coming so he made a special trip to see me.

He knows how much I LOVE DANCING, so he played some jams and I showed him my moves.


I cleared the whole floor of kids, they couldn't keep up with me.

My cousin Amy played with me on the slide. I love slides, can you tell?!


Oooh, I also got to meet Barney! He was so nice, but really quite, just kind of sat there and smiled.


My Aunt Robin took me to see the Chuck E Cheese band but they scared me a little bit, I didn't want to get too close.

I also got to play lots and lots of games. Here is me and mommy playing a shoot em up spaceship game. Don't tell her but she wasn't very good at that game!


My favorite part though was playing (cheating at) Skee ball!


I just need to get a little taller so I can actually put the balls in the holes with points.

We collected enough tickets that I got to get a super cool blow up crown so you can now refer to me as Queen of Fun!

Well Hello Stranger....

I know it's been a while, a LONG while! Most all of you know this blog, while I wish I was better at it, is last in line on the priority list of daily/weekly things to accomplish. I always update Facebook with new pics or random thoughts (from my phone) but logging into a blog and copying and pasting pictures and then having to manually rearrange them b/c they are inserted wrong or messing up the text portion just gets to me like biting down on a piece of aluminum foil with a mouthful of fillings - I avoid it at all costs! (please, if you have never tried biting a piece of aluminum foil or gum wrapper and you have metal fillings - DON'T - unless the feeling of electric shocking pains running through your entire body interests you!)

However, today the clouds parted and the sun shined down on my face (more like slapped me in the face) - for today I discovered MOBILE BLOGGING!!

Now hopefully I can post anytime, anywhere when I have a free minute or two... you know like when waiting at a doctors office, riding in the car, sitting on the toilet. The fun part will be when you're reading new posts to decide exactly 'where' they were written. Ha!!

Until next time....
Addie's Mom (AKA - Alaryce)

My Time in the Slammer

Dear people reading this blog -

This past weekend (Memorial Day weekend to be exact), I was charged with a UTI and Kidney infection and sentenced to 3 days in the slammer (AKA hospital). Who knew I could be such a deceiver of illness, I mean I acted just fine for mommy and daddy - just ran a low grade temp for a couple of days.

Then after they took me on a 6 1/2 hour drive to Garden City, KS - I decided I would let them in on my little secret - that I was really sick. They thought we would go to court (AKA the ER) and get off with minor virus and be sent home with the fine of a prescription. No sir! After multiple witnesses (labs, xrays, other tests) the ER doc said we weren't going nowhere! So off we were carted to the cell I would spend the next 3 days of my life in, along with mommy and daddy.



Mommy and me after my sentencing. Our sad faces.












My new jail cell.












They even made me wear an inmate uniform!!!

But I'm a tough cookie, ain't no prison gonna hold me down.



I can still touch my toes, even with a 105+ degree temp!



I can one-hand feed myself even with my left arm all taped and boarded up for the IV. (Mommy and Daddy called it my broken winglet) (Check out my 4-pack in the back ground!!)



And even though they took almost everything away from me, I still found stuff to put in my mouth and eat!! Suckas!!

Luckily, I did have some visitors which made my stay go much faster! Didn't get pictures of them all, but here are some....





While it wasn't so bad b/c we had a great Sheriff (Doctor), we did miss the family reunion we went to Garden City for. After I got out and all charges were dropped, I did finally get to go visit some family who hadn't met me yet. I sure am glad to be feeling better and back home though.

Later my peeps!
Addie 'The Sicko' Maturey

Things that make you go - Mmmm!!

You know, I had this idea of what it would be like when we introduced foods to Addie for the first time. What will we feed her, when, will it be in the new highchair, what faces will she make, will she even like food?? Well, after stiff ol dad said we couldn't do solid foods until she was 6 months I thought I had plenty of time to read as much as I could on what the best first foods are and make an informed decision - which I decided it was probably going to be avocado.

Unfortunately for Addie she had been suffering bouts of constipation and we tried multiple things to relieve her discomfort to no avail. However there was one option we hadn't explored - FOOD!! So we bought that girl some prunes and in simple Maturey family fashion propped her in her bumbo on the coffee table and let her go wild. I thought - Prunes, GROSS!! - but to my surprise she loved them! She did so good, it's like she's been eating for years. We would say 'bite' and she would open her mouth when the spoon came to her lips, swallow most of it (of course some came back out), and then lean forward for more. I, of course, didn't do so hot. Who knew how messy it could really be. Really most of the food on her face is from me missing her mouth than from her spitting it out and drooling.

She only got to have the prunes a couple of times and then back to boring old milk all day. She will be 6 months in a couple of weeks and I've already stocked the pantry with yummy goodness for our new adventures of eating. Hopefully when the veggies in my garden grow I can make her some homemade baby food.


































PS - PRUNES STAIN!!! :(