What have we been up to?

Let's see! A couple weekends ago we went down to Springfield because Pete had a legal class to attend. Had supper at D'Arcy's Pint. If you ever find yourself in Springfield, please stop by this place and try one of their delectable horseshoes. What's a horseshoe, you ask? Well, unless you are from central IL, you have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about. This will explain everything you need to know about horseshoes.

I thoroughly enjoyed the chili cheeseburger one and Pete had the supreme.
Here's Amarah trying to sneak a bite of mine:




















And here's Pete's monstrosity:















The kids and I hung out at the hotel while Pete was at his class. Addison entertained himself by jumping on the couch.




















Then we headed to my parents in Virginia for the rest of the weekend. We had a nice time getting to see my parents along with my brother, Joel and his fiance, Amanda and their 2 kiddos. Here's Amarah and Addison with their cousins Sierra and Austin:















We've been hanging around the house lately. It snowed like crazy Saturday night/Sunday morning. Hopefully this will be the last of the snow for awhile. It is spring, right?

Addison has been an absolute joy as of late. The age that he is at right now is so much fun! He is so curious about EVERYTHING! He is spelling words and wanting to know what those words mean. He continues to talk 24/7. I think we are in trouble when he starts school.

Amarah is approaching 5 months. She is rolling all over the place! I'm sure it won't be long before she is crawling. You can tell she wants to so bad. She's got a big brother to keep up with!

She has been overly fussy lately. We think she is teething but have yet to actually get visual confirmation. This has all been very rough on mommy. Addison was a champion teether. Aside from the constant stream of drool coming out of his mouth, you would never know he was cutting teeth until you saw one sprout through.

Amarah is a different story. She is drooling like a rabid dog. Her hands are constantly in her mouth. She is extremely fussy and not nursing well. I'm starting to wonder if Lake Forest Hospital has a money back guarantee!

This coming weekend we are headed to Pete's parents to celebrate Easter with them. We are looking forward to that. I'm sure there will be more pictures to come! Stay tuned...

Our little ham!

Who needs Pledge for dusting when you've got Addison's bum?!

No longer in denial

Ok, I am officially coming clean. I have an addiction. I am seriously addicted to Ben and Jerry's Karamel Sutra ice cream.

There! I said it! Now I am no longer in denial.

I hope by coming clean that I have stopped at least one person from picking up a spoon and trying this scrumptious, er...I mean terrible, evil concoction.

Oh sweet Karamel Sutra! Why can't I quit you?

Addison's Quote of the Day

Me: Addison, can you come give me some lovin'?

Addison: No I can't, because I don't have some.

Addison's Quote of the Day

"I love rain, it's my favorite kind of water."

4 month checkup

Amarah had her 4 month checkup this morning. Pete and Addison tagged along for support. I'm proud to report that she is above average on weight, height and head circumference. She now weighs in at a whopping 15.8 pounds and is roughly 25 inches long. The poor girl had to get 5 vaccinations today, 1 by mouth and 4 injected (2 in each leg). You would think it would get easier watching your child get stuck with a needle but I tell you it doesn't. My eyes well up with tears everytime I see that face ball up after the first needle stick and wait for the loud screech soon to follow. She was a trooper though and was completely wiped out after that. Here's our growing girl at the doctor's office before that mean nurse lady came in and ruined her morning!
















Now if only I could find some Miracle-Gro for her hair...

She's rolling!

Happy 4 months Amarah! And how did our baby girl celebrate being 4 months old today? She started rolling! I heard her screaming bloody murder in her crib so I went to check on her and she had rolled from her back to her tummy and did not like that one bit.

Later this morning, she was playing on her activity gym and I was lucky enough to capture her rolling from her tummy to her back Check it out!





Congratulations baby girl! We are so proud of you!! And just in time for your checkup tomorrow!

What's in a name?

So I happened to be looking over the top 100 baby names of 2008. You can find that list here.

Go ahead and look. I'll wait...

I am most displeased by #9 on the female side. Thank you very much Grey's Anatomy! I blame you for all of the girls that will be in my son's class sharing the same name as him. I had that name picked out way before your show was ever thought up.

It was back in high school. I was sitting at Lanphier Park in Springfield watching the IHSA state baseball playoffs and there was a team there by the name of Addison-Driscoll. Ever since that day, the name Addison has been stuck in my head.

Fast forward say 7 years to Pete and I sitting around our first apartment in St. Louis, talking about what we would name our kids. I blurted out the name Addison Dace.

I came up with the middle name after having worked at a daycare for a year. There was a boy there who's first name was Dace and I thought that was a pretty sweet name. I also like somewhat unique and interesting names.

When I became pregnant in 2005, we knew that if it was a boy, his name would be Addison Dace. There were no backup names or girls names picked out. When we did receive confirmation that it was indeed a boy, we hosed his room down with blue paint and Addison Dace it was!

Now Amarah was a different story. We didn't even start talking about names until we found out she was a girl. We bought one of those lovely baby name books. I must have looked at that thing as many times as there were names in the book. We considered Keeley, Braelyn, Rylan, and Afton. I loved the name Olivia but it was just too common for me.

We had to come up with a way to narrow our options down. The list of names was just too overwhelming and we didn't have any clear front-runners. I was still waiting for the name to just jump off of the page and say "pick me! pick me!"

I finally said to Pete that we should just pick another "A" name. I've never been one for having a trend when it comes to naming our kids but it was the only way I could think to narrow the choices down. We both agreed and I started scrutinizing any and all "A" names.

Finally I came across the name Amara. I said it aloud to Pete. He liked it. I liked it. And that was it! Now the hard part was over. On to the middle name. We both thought a one syllable name would work best with her first name. I mentioned the name Jade. Pete didn't like it. I mentioned the name Grace and we both liked the sound of it. Plus, it went well with Addison Dace.

I will admit that I had a hard time getting the middle name Jade out of my head. For awhile, everytime I said her name in my head, it was always Amara Jade. And I had to keep reminding myself that wasn't right.

So now we had a name for our baby girl, but everytime I would type it out in an instant message to Pete, something just didn't look right. It just seemed liked something was missing. I decided to add an "H" onto the end of Amara and the rest, as they say, is history!

I don't think you will be seeing Amarah on the top 100 anytime soon, and that's perfectly fine with me!