Ten on Tuesday

1. Only 2 more days until we leave for California! We are SO excited! I am not excited about flying with Addie though. The last couple of flying adventures did not go smoothly. 3rd times a charm....right????

2. We have been having lots of fun with the Braxdale's (minus Allan) here for the summer! Today we met up at Brushy Creek park for lunch, fun on the playground, and lots of sprinkler pad time. Addie loves Aidan and Ma-Ma (as she says), but is still getting used to having to share toys with them. She is also the biggest mootch! It doesn't matter how much or what kind of snacks I have for her....if Andrea has something (specifically if Maddox is eating something), she wants it. Luckily, Maddox is excellent at sharing.





3. It feels great to finally be back at the gym everyday. We go to cycle, body pump, interval, cardio sculpt, rpm, and Pilate's classes, as well as an occasional run on the trail. It is so much easier to schedule this in the summer, and I hope I can keep up with it some what when school starts back in August.

4. On Saturday, we had the Braxdale's and Hoffman's over for fajitas and drinks. Addie and Maddox decided they did not want to miss the party and refused to go to sleep, while baby Graham slept upstairs like a little angle. Addison finally went to sleep about 11...sheesh! She was still up at 7 the next morning!

5. My mom got A couple of CD's for Christmas last year. One with Elmo and one with Mickey Mouse and friends. They both say her name in all the songs. She gets so excited when we get in the car to hear them. She will request Elmo or Mouse. If I play the wrong one she is not a happy girl. Addie loves to dance and try to song along and act out all the motions to the words.

6. She still LOVES her baby dolls and is constantly dumping out baskets and opening drawers to lay blankets down and make beds for them. She can spend quite a bit of time doing this.

7. Addison now knows how to open doors. I was drying my hair the other day and she was playing in our room. I didn't hear her for a minute so I peeked in and didn't see her. The door was shut so I thought she was hiding under the bed. Nope....she was on the other side of the door! Time to start locking those doors.

8. D updated my phone and itunes for me the other day and I found a few videos of Addie last summer. She was SO little and cute!


9. We need to figure out how to get our videos onto the computer so I can start sharing those.

10. It is suppose to rain here for the next 10 days.....luckily we will be in sunny CA on Friday!

We hope everyone has a happy 4th of July!

A huge, heartfelt thank you to all the men and women (and to their families!!!) who have courageously and selflessly served this incredible country. We are grateful for our freedom every.single.day.

Enjoy a wonderful and safe day with your family!

God Bless America.

Ten on Tuesday

1. We had a great Father's Day celebrating what an awesome dad Derek is! We started out the morning with a walk on Brushy Creek trail, came home and made pancakes for breakfast, hung out in the backyard until nap time, and then met up with Uncle Butch and his two friends from Florida for a loooooong lunch at The County Line. We sat out back while we waited for our table and watched the turtles in the lake....Addie loved them. On the way home we stopped by Amy's Ice Cream and played at the park on the bulls for a little bit. It was such a fun day!




2. Addison is a waster of air conditioning. If she is playing out back she can NOT have the door shut. She definitely likes to keep her options open. She will get very upset if you try to shut the door. There are some battles that I choose to fight....this is usually not one of them. Addie will bring a bunch of toys outside and just sit in the door way playing.

3. Addie has become OBSESSED with Yo Gabba Gabba in the last week. DJ Lance and his bright, furry Shriner’s hat flashed his crazy smile and got my daughter hooked on the baby crack that is Yo Gabba Gabba. When Dancey Dance time comes around, my child is like a Solid Gold dancer. YGG is better than some of the other kid shows. At least it's moderately funny, however weird...and the music isn't half bad. Derek loves the Aqua Bats and their smash hit "Pool Party." Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6CNdlJp9c8

4. I have been drinking green tea like crazy the past week. I can't get enough. I love the Tazo Zen Green Tea.


5. Nighttime this week has been teething hell. Addison is getting her canines and 2 year molars in, so I know she must be in a lot of pain. She wakes up 2-3 times a night screaming bloody murder. I really don't understand why we can't just be born with teeth....growing them is an awful process.

6. Despite her poor sleep habits, Addie has been waking up bright and early, usually around 6:15. I guess she doesn't realize that its summer break and we CAN sleep in.

7. We had a busy but fun day yesterday. Andrea and I hit up body pump at 5:15. When I got home at 6:30, A was up and ready for the day. We went grocery shopping and then she went down for an early nap. Afterwards, Andrea and I dropped the kiddos off at the Y, so we could get some laid back pool time.....which was AWESOME! It felt to great to just lay there for an hour. Later that afternoon we met up with Andrea, Aidan, Maddox, Katie, Sloane, and Finn for some sprinkler pad time at Brushy Creek. Addison was wiped out!

8. Speaking of the pool, my 20 month old apparently thinks she can swim on her own. D and I took her to the pool for the first time this summer a couple of weeks ago. She really did not get that into it and was a little terrified of the water. I was a little disappointed because I had high hopes for lots of pool time this summer. I gave it another shot though a few days later and she was a completely different person. She immediately waned to jump in on her own and wanted no help from me. She was all over the place and LOVED it! The next day I headed to Academy for a bunch of floatation devices....including her very own toddler life jacket that she picked out herself.

9. We have had a lot of people come look at the house lately. I hope someone makes an offer soon. D and I drove by the new lot a couple of days ago and they have started working on the foundation. It makes it all seem like we need to speed this house selling process up.

10. Addie lost her voice last Friday. It was so sad when she tried to talk and no sound came out. Dr. B said it was nothing to worry about though and that it was just a case of laryngitis that would clear up on its own. He was right, judging from last night's screaming session.


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Ten on Tuesday

So apparently I have been lacking once again on this blog thing. Since this week marks the first official week of my summer break, I decided to try to something new. Maybe if I have some type of weekly/daily theme it will make it easier to keep up with my blogging. Here it goes:

Ten on Tuesday

1. This is the first week of the summer that I get to spend with my baby girl until mid August. Gotta love the life of a teacher!

2. The tests results from my surgery came back yesterday.....the tumor was benign...YAY! I do not have to plan out my after-life haunting now!

3. Addison is OBSESSED with Elmo....she must say his name about 1,234,347 times a day.


4. After surgery I got hooked on reading some fashion/beauty blogs which talked about "haul" videos. I think this is crazy that people have this much time on their hands...but for some reason I can't stop watching them. Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU8DJ89fZOs

5. Addie is starting to amaze me with the words and phrases she is learning. Yesterday she dropped her baby doll on the ground and looked at me and said, "No big deal." Then when we left the house she had to say bye to all her toys calling them by name..."Bye Elmo," "Bye Cookie Monster," "Bye Baby".....

6. We are getting so excited for our trip to Cali in a couple of weeks. I feel refreshed every time I go back there and we can't wait to meet the newest addition to the fam...Cousin James!

7. We had a fabulous visit from Aunt Jessica, Uncle Ernie, and Felicity 2 weeks ago. I wish we lived closer! Addie and City are so cute together and it melts your heart to see how much they love each other already!



8. Addison LOVES to dance. Every time she hears music she starts moving her shoulders and boucing her legs. She also knows how to "pop" her booty (she must have acquired that from her daddy). I need to post a video of it soon....it is hilarious. She also loves to sing along to songs...specifically Carrie Underwood's Cowboy Casanova and B.O.B.'s Airplanes.

9. Addison still has her shoe addiction and likes to change her footwear several times throughout the day. Before she left school this summer, her teacher told me that she liked to take the other kids shoes off of their feet and try them on. Kind of embarrassing...I know! She also will point out shoes if they are left unattended and try to swipe them....doesn't matter whose they are. She was constantly distracted in gymnastics because they make them go barefoot and everyones shoes were at the front of the gym. I have a feeling this could be an expensive interest in a few years!

10. I can't wait to spend the summer with Addie and all our friends! I am so happy Andrea and her kiddos will be in Austin....hopefully it will be for more than the summer!

Winter Happenings

So I am not holding very true to my New Years resolution of keeping up with this blog....but resolutions are made to be broken, right?

We have have had an exciting winter at the Hodson house.

We started off the year with a trip to Las Vegas for one of our best friends 30th birthdays. It was a surprise for Allan and he had no idea Derek and I were coming. We had a blast hanging out for a few days....some days maybe a little bit too much fun!












February brought a winter wonderland to Austin for a couple of days, and we had good times playing in the snow and enjoying the cold for a change. We took Addison to Sesame Street Live and the girl LOVED it. She danced and sang along (as best she could) and would not stop smiling and laughing.








We also took our first trip out to Savannah to visit Mae Mae and Password. We had such a great time at the park, visiting the children's museum, going to the beach, and seeing the alligators at the crab shack. While our trip in Savannah was awesome....the plane ride was another story. Miss Addie is not a great traveler. I sure hope this changes soon.




We also had 2 new babies to visit. Our good friends Andy and Allyson, welcomed Graham Black Hoffman into their family, and Sloane Taylor Schwarz joined Katie, Rick and Finn. We could not be happier for them! They are the most adorable babies.

And other big news....Derek and I have decided to put our house up for sale and build in another neighborhood not too far from us now. Addison's toys have taken over our little home now and we thought it was time to upsize. Our house will be listed on Monday, so we have spent the last 2 weeks packing, painting, cleaning, and storing getting ready for our future buyers. Let's hope this process goes quickly.

Fa la la la la la la la late

Sure it's almost three weeks late, but we're off to a new start right? So, what a better way to celebrate with pictures of our Christmas festivities.

On Christmas Eve, we went to our church service, picked up Jim from the airport, went to dinner at Jasper's, and then came home put on our PJ's and watched Four Christmases after Addison went to bed, while Derek and Jeff put together Addison's Power Wheels from Santa (Derek was a very good supervisor for this portion of the night).



Here's Addie sneaking a little peak at her gift from Sanata...she gets excited over any type of box these days!









Addison got us up early on Christmas morning, however she was not up for the paparazzi to greet her first thing.


She was so excited to come down stairs and see some of her new toys from Santa and Mae Mae. She wasn't to sure about the Power Wheels at first, but she was OBSESSED with all her new baby furniture and accessories. Addie spent the entire day putting her babies in the high chair, feeding them, taking them out of the high chair, putting them night night in their cradle, covering them up, patting them, and then doing it all over again. This girl is so spoiled, but she sure does love all her new things.



YaYa, PaPa, Aunt Jessica, Uncle Ernie, Felicity, and Uncle Butch all came over Christmas morning for breakfast. We had so much fun watching the girls play together. They love each other so much!


The breakfast casserole even turned out good this year!

Here is Uncle Butch with his gift from his girlfriend, Octomom....haha

Addie LOVED her new chair from YaYa and PaPa!

And, the adorable Felcity eating some breakfast


Overall, Christmas was wonderful. We got to spend time with the greatest people on earth-our family!