Addie is 17 months old!

Well, our Addie is 17 months old! It just seems so strange that we have another little girl running around the house. Although Addison is still our baby, she is quickly growing out of that stage! She loves food, playing on the swingset (she can climb up the big slide!), throwing balls around the kitchen, brushing her teeth, wrestling with Daddy, and she LOVES to find fun places to hide her toys. It is not uncommon to find her toys in the washer (it is a front loader), dryer, drawers, cabinets, and really anywhere she can reach. We always get a laugh when we have to empty the washing machine before we can use it!

Her words are coming along too. Although it may be a while before she says Payton! Her every day words are Mumma, Dada, nite nite, nana (banana), baby, and she is so cute when she tries to say please and thank you! We just love her little language. A lot of which right now is just babble!

This girl really knows what is going on too. She still sleeps with her pacifier and a little blanket. We will tell her "Addie, go put your bun bun (her little blanket has a little bunny's head on it) and pugger (our word for pacifier) in your bed. And there she will go and shove them through the slats of her crib. Last night I had her pjs and a diaper on the ottoman in the living room and I asked her to bring me her clothes. She grabbed the pj's and her diaper and walked right over. That is strange because she does not like having her diaper changed lately! She has a stong will though. She knows when she is doing something she shouldn't, but when we say "Addie, please stop that honey." She will just starting doing whatever she is doing faster in hopes to get more time in before we pull her away from it! This really frustrates Payton when it is the TV controls Addie is messing with! Payton and Addison really have started to play together. Although usually that involves Payton dictating the play and Addie following along. Payton will get mad when Addison is done, but that baby with just get up and move on. No worries for our Addie!

Oh dear...

Well, I have officially become an eBay junkie. I realized that I had WAY too many books. Several of them are series. So on I went to put some on eBay. When I got my first bid I was just giddy! It is just crazy. I never realized the world of "junk" that people are trying to sell! No wonder it is such entertainment!

Top 5 CDs

So, I'm in Michigan for work and am trying to kill some time this evening while sitting in the hotel. I was thinking about my favorite CDs and was wondering if anyone else knows what their top 5 CDs would be if they could only keep 5. There's no particular order, just music that I could listen to over and over if they were the only CDs I had.

Here's my list

• Radiohead - OK Computer
• Pearl Jam - Ten
• Natalie Merchant - Ophelia (I bet you didn't see that coming)
• Pink Floyd - Delicate Sound of Thunder (Live double album)
• Del Amitri - Promotional compliation CD I got at winter carnival at Tech. It looks like Hatful of Rain: The Best of Del Amitri has some of the same songs.

Honerable mention:

Metallica - ...And Justice For All - This was one of the first two CDs I ever bought. The other was Great White ...Twice Shy -Both with ellipses, how weird!

Def Leppard - Hysteria - I think I wore the tape out

Bob Seger - Greatest Hits

Athenaeum - Radiance

There isn't anything too new but I don't listen to music the way I used to. Plus I think that its harder to find an entire CD that you want to listen to. A song or two there, but not the whole CD. Case in point: I just bought the Weezer Red album and other than Pork and Beans and Troublemaker I don't think the rest of the CD is all that good. I've only listened to it a couple of times so maybe I'll learn to tlike the rest of it. I really liked the Blue album.

I'll probably come up with a few more honerable mentions once I get home and look at what I have.

Vacation to the UP, and our busy week

Well, we were in the UP at the lake for the week of the fourth of July. The girls each decided that it was time to get a stomach bug and each took their turns on different nights. Addison was first and she vomited from about 7pm until 4:30am. We were SO exhausted that next day. Payton was a little quicker moving past the vomiting, but she was up every hour for quite a while. She didn't bounce back as well. The day after she woke up sick she just laid on the couch and watched TV. She didn't even ask for food or drink and she didn't ask to go outside either. We had to force her to take sips of juice and water. Unfortunately that was one of the best weather days we had.

But the girls did enjoy the boat regardless. No kicking and screaming from Payton this year. She was begging to go for a boat ride. She even went into the lake with Brian a couple of times. The water was quite chilly, so we were quite impressed. We went to see my parents who were camping nearby as well. We went to a parade and Payton got a TON of candy. She loved that, until the fire trucks... they were a bit too loud for her.

This past week Brian had off before he starts his new job tomorrow, so we (really me) decided it would be the perfect time to finish our landscaping. We had done the front and one side of the house 2 years ago. The local nursery drew up a plan for us so we just basically finished around the back of the house, around the deck, and along the garage. Between the both of us we got most of it done. We just need to put a couple pavers in, landscape fabric and then next weekend we will have the rock delivered. It looks SO good. I will get out there and take photos soon. Brian did a lot of work this week. And only one minor sunburn:) He also put steps off the back of our deck. It is just awesome!

Payton is also doing swimming lessons every night for the last week through this Thursday. She is really doing well too. So with vacation, the yard, swimming and smooshing some time in with friends we are quite tired! I have been working a lot more recently too to cover vacations at work. I don't mind, but our house was suffering. I spent yesterday morning scrubbing the place down. And don't even get me started on the laundry!