Yesterday Addie & I hit the local Dollerama (aka the Dollar Store). We came out with a sackful of items after only spending $8. I was quite impressed. Amongst our purchases was a purse for Addie along with some new headbands. As you can see she was quite excited. Jim and I, on the other hand, starting to feel a bit panicky after we saw the picture....our little girl can't grow up too fast!

Today we went down to the mall in Calgary with my friend Naomi. She has two girls around Addie's age, and she too is expecting a little one. We had numerous sitting breaks and bathroom stops as one would expect from two pregnant women with kiddos, but overall I was amazed at how well we all did. We had a great time and all the girls grabbed a nap during the drive home. Thanks for taking us Naomi. It was fun to be out and about!

After only a few hours of being with Addie, one of our friends commented on how Addie's face is a study. We laughed because we knew exactly what he meant...she is a little girl of a thousand faces!

5 years of long hair + pregnancy hormones + more pregnancy hormones = Chop, Chop, Snip

See mom I really did it. Don't worry it will grow back

While we usually make our annual trip back to Texas and Colorado during the spring, this year we will be staying put here in Canada. With our busy GoodSeed schedule, projects around the house, and of course the arrival of Bam Bam come summer, we deemed it best to postpone any big travel until at least until the fall or so. We try to keep everyone up to speed on our family happenings through our blog, via email updates, and with the occasional phone call. However, we often find ourselves wondering what YOU are up to. So this is an official request for you to DROP US A LINE! We'd love to hear what's going on in your lives. Many of our friends have blogs which we frequent on a regular basis. If you have a blog that you think we might not know about please send us a link!

Contact us here....we'll be waiting.

That is what Jim titled this picture of Addie when he posted it on our flickr site - Cause She Can.

Addison is now 18 months old. It seems like such a milestone given the many changes that happen between a little one's 1st and 2nd birthdays. At a year and half, Addie is already such a "card" as some of our friends refer to her because she is so amusing. This photo reveals alot about her. Even at this young age she knows exactly what she wants and is surprisingly opinionated about what she wears. Her pink Pooh Bear boots are her latest trend. If we go shopping she shows me what catches her eye. She's full of spunk and drama. She is learning so much and doing so many funny things that I thought it a worthwhile effort to try to record some things for us to be able to look back on one day.

• She loves animals and can say the names of most of them as well as the sound they make or what they do such as hop. She can say her colors but can only match them up correctly about 50% of the time.
• She is a food fanatic! She makes frequent requests throughout the day for whatever she is in the mood for and always tells us when it's time for breakfast, lunch, snack, or supper. There is not much she won't scarf down and some of her favorite foods are bananas, kiwi, yogurt, chicken, rice, cheese, and anything sweet such as cake.
• A few of her favorite things to do are read, look out the window for "people" and boss Bandit around. She also loves feeling Bam Bam kick and talks about him often. Another way she passes time is by naming off all her friends and family. If she gets bored while eating, she tells you who each bite she takes is for by saying someone's name before each mouthful.
• We give Addie her Flinestone vitamins because she reminds us daily. I don't know how she remembers! She also prefers to put her drink on coasters and likes to put her clothes away in the laundry bag in her closet at the end of each day.
• She loves to help mom and dad whether it be while we're folding clothes, unloading the dishwasher, or even putting away groceries. She's surprisingly useful even at this young age! She also likes to sit with Jim at his computer and gets excited when he plays music...even dancing around sometimes!
• She has an impressive vocabulary. She mostly speaks in individual words but some of her common phrases include "Bye Bye. See ya!" "Ready, Set Go!" and "Come Bandit, Come!" We do try to teach her things, but I think it's safe to say that she has learned most of what she knows by being extremely observant.
• She sleeps from 8 pm to 8 am and takes a two hour afternoon nap so we are really thankful for her good sleeping habits.
• She loves to laugh and entertain others. She is extremely expressive, making lots of faces and speaking with unique inflections. She keeps us laughing for sure.

Jim and I have discussed going on a 2 or 3 day getaway to the mountains by ourselves before Bam Bam arrives. I think we will try to go, but even while discussing the trip we talked about how hard it would be for us to leave Addie even for a day. We even miss her when we put her to bed at night! Parenthood is awesome! Thank you God for blessing us with such a special little girl.

A friend of ours owns a massage business in a nearby small town. As a thank you for the time Jim spends each week teaching she and her two sons about the Bible, she set up massage appointments for both Jim and I. Mine was today, and I must say massages are an excellent thing for a pregnant woman. I loved every minute of it! Jim's was great too. The masseuse steered clear of his right shoulder and spent some extra time on his other shoulder, neck and arms as these are areas that provide the most relief for someone who spends countless hours in front of the computer.

Jim also went for a follow up doctor's visit for his shoulder. His injury was initially a 3rd degree separation but is healing very nicely. The doctor was pleased with Jim's range of motion and gave him some exercises to do over the next few months.

This same doctor saw Addie yesterday morning after she woke up with a 104 degree temperature. In the absence of any other symptoms, he concluded that she must have a viral infection. She's on her 3rd day of fever so hopefully she's almost better. We spent a good bit of time up at the church both Sunday morning and evening so I'm guessing she caught something then. While Addie seems to catch anything and everything floating around these days the doctor said it was normal for her age. Today she is sporting her purple penguin pjs, pink Pooh Bear boots and a wild hair do; we believe in staying comfy when sick and the boots are her latest obsession

"You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." ~ Plato

I think this quote is quite fitting after watching my mom and dad spend countless hours playing with Addison over the past 5 days. As we drove away from the Calgary airport today, Jim commented how amazing they were with Addie...how natural they are at being grandparents. They are such great teachers! We seriously think her vocabulary more than doubled during their visit! We keep asking, "How does she know that word?" Their patience, enthusiasm, and stamina were so impressive; it takes a lot to keep up with a toddler with as much spunk as Addison. She's like the energizer bunny.

Addie had a blast with her GG and PaPa and misses them dearly already! She asked for them all afternoon and said their names over and over as she drifted off to sleep this evening.

We love you guys! Thanks for making the trip. We had a fantastic time!

This was Addie's first real Easter and with GG and Papa in town, she had no shortage of fun filled events! We had a blast watching her learn how to hunt the M&M filled eggs, but they didn't stay in the basket for long. Here are a few pics from the day.

We haven't posted a blog since late February. I guess we've been busy blowing our noses and taking care of one another. Somehow in the past 3 weeks we have managed to:

• have 6 colds or bugs between the three of us - 2 a piece
• fill 3 prescriptions
• pass 1 kidney stone; it was a nice looking one if I do say so myself Jim and I have browsed pictures online before and these suckers come in all shapes and sizes.
• visit the emergency room 2 weekends in a row
• get Jim treated for an acromioclavicular (AC) dislocation which is basically a separation of his right shoulder joint after what was surely an awesome snowboarding jump went south in a hurry. Yes, he's okay just in a good bit of pain.

All in all we are counting our blessings and grateful we are on the mend. My parents are flying in this Thursday. I'm hoping between now and then we will all manage to stay well and get Jim further down the road to recovery.

When we were expecting Addison we initially called her Squirt just to make it easier to talk about her. Then once we had our 5 month sonogram and discovered Squirt was a girl our friends asked if they could give her a more feminine name. Thus she became Buttercup, a name that she still gets called occasionally.

This time around Jim named the baby Squirt-duex knowing that we'd probably pick a more gender specific name at a later date. When we found out we're having a boy the brainstorming began. First Trevor suggested Floyd. Then Jim threw out the name Froto (like the hobbit from Lord of the Rings). Addie picked up on that one quickly, put her own twist on it, and started talking about "Baby Fro-row" while patting my tummy. I'm sure you can understand why I insisted on a new name in fear that I'll one day have a son that still gets called Fro-row. Therefore, our little guy has been officially deemed "Baby Bam Bam" - something we all agreed on! Much better.

Okay, so my baking and cooking activities have been put on hold since late November when the preggie sickness kicked in. Recently though I turned a corner and started looking through my cooking magazines and books again. The other night I came across a cinnamon roll recipe in my March Bon Appetit and I became obsessed. And I do mean seriously obsessed. Thoughts such as, "I NEED these cinnamon rolls" and "I MUST fill my tummy with some ooey gooey goodness" bombarded me. So Monday I tackled the somewhat long process of making homemade cinnamon rolls in an effort to get my fix. Boy was it worth the time and effort! Big fans of breakfast night, Jim, Addison and I enjoyed Jim's omelets and my rolls for dinner. The recipe makes 18 so we've been indulging everyday since!

I don't have much experience baking with yeast. Usually finding the word "yeast" in a recipe translates to "no way" in my mind, and I flip to the next recipe. Much to my delight, the rolls rose perfectly. I will definitely make these again though I may play with the icing a bit. It was a bit cream cheesier than I prefer. Maybe yeast and I can be friends after all!

Baby dolls or trucks? Cinderella or Superman? Ballet Slippers or Football Cleats? Pink or Blue? Girl or Boy? These were the questions at hand yesterday as we went to Calgary for our 18 week sonogram.

First and foremost, Baby McCulley is looking good all around. At this point the measurements match up perfectly, the baby looks healthy, and the due date is estimated around July 9th. The technicians said our little guy was very photogenic. Yes, Addison is going to have a baby brother! I must admit I was pretty shocked as I was convinced we were having another girl. It was a fun surprise!

Thankfully, we were able to see many great shots of him wiggling around. Here are some of the 4d shots they sent us home with.