"That Little Devil"

One day, a couple of weeks ago, Addison was in the living room watching a program while I was taking a shower. After I got out, I decided to check on her. When I found her on the couch she had quite a chocolate smudge around her face. When I asked her what she had been into she replied with a nonchalant "nothing". I knew she was lying (where do they learn that?), so I asked her again, with which she replied "nothing", this time a little bit louder and annoyed. I proceeded to tell her that I needed her to tell me the truth and that I wasn't going to be mad at her, and that I just wanted to know. She then started to smile and pointed to the kitchen. I walked into the kitchen and looked around for some sign of mischief. I couldn't see anything. Addison then ran into the kitchen and stopped in front of me, and says, "Don't say bad words to me mom!". What the heck! I paused to figure out what I have said to her in the past that she might consider bad words. I was speechless, and couldn't help but laugh inside. She apparently didn't want to get in trouble at what she had done, and was afraid that I was going to get mad at her. She finally pointed to the cakestand that was on the counter. I walked over to it, and removed the glass cover to find the top layer of icing, from the cake I had made for Brad's birthday, had been scraped away with little finger swipes! I was just amazed that she got the cover off and put it back without dropping or breaking it. What a funny kid! She never ceases to amaze me.

Garden

Last year was our first year at trying our hand in gardening. It started out well, and looked so pretty. Then, in June, it started to get really hot and we didn't water it as often as we should, so the corn dried out (or maybe we didn't pick it on time), the green beans didn't grown enough to can and the tomatoes did o.k..

This year we attempted it again. We decided to plant carrots, watermelon, and cucumbers (random, I know). The carrots didn't come up at all. I think I planted them too deep and too sparse. The watermelon and cucumbers did great. We had cucumbers comming out our ears for awhile and had so much that we gave quite a few away. Addison loved just having me peel the skin and she would eat an entire cucumber by herself. I also, made pickles out of most of them.

The watermelon too, did very well. Altogether we had/have about 10. All in all I would say this was a successful year for gardening. We will see what will come of next year.

Addison's 3rd Birthday

Addison turned 3 years old last Saturday. We celebrated it with a princess birthday party, that she has been waiting to have for the past year. We are blessed to have so many friends that have children close to Addison's age, and that she was able to have them come to her birthday. We are also blessed that we have family close, and that my family was able to come to the party. We ended up having quite a few kids, because Addison just kept naming off all her friends that she wanted invited, including the cousins.
Addison is getting to be such a big girl, and it makes me sad to see her so grown up! She is such a good big sister to Reagan and always wanting to hug her and kiss her. It has been so fun to see her grow up these past three years and watch all her accomplishments, and as so many parents do, we think that she is too smart for her britches! We love you Addison, and we look forward to watching you grow into a beautiful young lady.

Addison, the morning of her birthday, opening her present from G. & G. Nielsen

Just before her princess birthday party
opening her presents durning her party, pictured with cousin Aspen

blowing out her candle

all of the birthday attendees

Tanyard Creek

We have lived here in Bella Vista now for three years and we had heard about this creek, but had never been. Last Friday was our first time, and we don't know why it took us that long to go. The funny part is, that it is less then 10 minutes from our house! We will definately, go again.

Eeeeeek!

We pretty much love where we live, but there is one bad thing about living in the sticks....the bugs and creepy crawlies. Yes, the chiggers and ticks are gross and you don't want to get bit by them, but even worse than them are all the spiders that we have. The other day we found this big guy outside our garage door! In case you can't see the RED hour glass marking, staring you in the face, it's a BLACK WIDOW.


It was dead, (at least we think it was, because it wasn't moving) and I am glad because it was just waiting for the garage door to open so it could go inside and make a nice nest, in say.. the baby stroller or our shoes!!! Even though it was dead I could just picture it jumping out and biting someone, so I wouldn't let Addison get too close.
As I was leaving to go to town I made Brad direct me, so that the tire of the Pathfinder would run it over and smush it to smitherines as I was backing out. Let's just hope that their isn't babies or it's mate running around lurking outside my door!

My house key beside it to show it's actual size

Too cute for words

Addison found Reagans headband and decided to try it on. What a cutie!

4th of July

On the 4th we went up to Missouri to spend it with my family. We started off going to my sister's house to swim in their pool and have a BBQ. Afterward we went to a local park for a fireworks display. It had been overcast all day, and sure enough as we were waiting for the display to start a big storm cloud rolled in. Of course it waited until the fireworks started before the rain came, so we all had to dash to our cars as it downpoured and we ended up watching them from inside our cars. It was still fun and we had were able to get some cute pictures while we were waiting.

Addison with her cousins, Pagelynn (2) and Kailey (4 1/2)

Addison with a sparkler

Addison and Reagan (yes, my baby eats well, hence the chubby cheeks)

from front left- Pagelynn (2), Addison (2 1/2) holding Reagan (3 1/2 months), Kailey (4 1/2) holding Jaden (2 1/2 months)

Back left- Braxton (6), Keaton (7 1/2), Kelsey (10) holding Emma (3 months) and Kaleb (6 weeks)