Sydney requested that we go back on the Disney cruise for Halloween this year. Sadly, this wasn't a possibility, but we still went out with the neighborhood kids. It's always fun trying to juggle a new baby's schedule with little outings, but Addison is a good sport. Baby girls first Halloween!!
Happy first Halloween Addison!
Thinking it would be funny to have a pic of Addison confusing Chris's nose for uhm....Mommy. Instead, he forgot that his face was on camera and he looks all dopey. Haha. Plus Addison knew better and refused to play along.
Coming in anddddddddd......she'd back away!
Time to go trick or treating!
Syd insisted that Chris dress up in his Bears jersey. Mommy wore her Wonder Woman shirt again. That thing has gotten a lot of use!
Syd and the girls
The gang....are at least as many as I could fit in my lens
I just like to test out this new camera in our darker areas of the house. Extra bonus is that I have an adorable little model to help me test it! Not sure what we'd do without the jumperoo. She adores it!
Chris is not very happy about his new yearly pumpkin carving duties. Alas, he had a choice between taking care of Addison or carving pumpkins, so he chose to test out his creative side. Carving pumpkins is extremely tricky out here in Arizona. It's disheartening when you spend HOURS carving a pumpkin only for it to shrivel into a prune by morning. I've tried applying fancy chemicals that swear it keeps your pumpkins from dehydrating. Nothing works. This year we tried the pumpkin shaving route. It was not nearly as easy as one would thing. On top of that, they just don't look as nice. Syd had fun and that's really all that mattered. We roasted some pumpkin seeds, which everyone refused to eat except me. Addison got shoved in a pumpkin and absolutely HATED IT!! Man, Syd's photo was cover worthy! Expect the unexpected. :)
My adorable little pumpkin carver. She was so excited to design her giant pumpkin
Hard at work
Work in progress
Chris loving every minute of his bat creation. I figured since I carved the pumpkin next to Syd's first photo in a pumpkin, it was only fair for him to carve the one next to Addison. He wasn't a fan of this idea
Yes, I've been almost exclusively using my iPhone as my camera. Life is crazy and I'm just happy that I used something during the crazy months of Addison's early life.
Addison is growing so fast, and so is her big sister, Sydney. While in one moment you feel the need to fast forward to when you will be able to finally sleep through the night, in the next you realize how fast these moments of being needed will fly by. Addison has been holding her head up like a champ from almost the beginning. It feels like I was just holding her in my arms for the first time after being able to keep all those kicks and jabs to myself for the longest time. Now suddenly my baby is growing so fast before my eyes. I'm so grateful to have such beautiful and healthy baby girls. God is definitely good.
This was Addison's first Halloween, and unfortunately, if you're born as my child, there's a few traditions that must happen. One is that I must dress my child up in a lovely costume and second, I must stick them inside of a pumpkin. Sorry, it just has to be done. Thankfully for Addison, I didn't stick her in a pot like I did her big sister. Addison got off with some absolutely adorable mermaid shots that make me want to just eat her up.
It just wouldn't be pumpkin picking if we didn't go to Buckelew Farms! This is never an easy an adventure with a little baby, but it's one that must be done, nonetheless. Nap time or not, we were on our way to the farm to get our pumpkins. It's a good thing Addison is a dream of a baby. She whined just a little on the hay ride out to the patch and then I got her off to sleep. This was the first year that we weren't absolutely dying of heat. Syd of course, wanted the largest pumpkin she could possibly find. Poor Chris was left to carry all these huge pumpkins by himself.
Syd's annual photo
Along with her collage of yearly Buckelew photos
Addison's first one
Syd reeeeally wanted to get a chocolate or caramel covered apple. We needed to keep her focused this year since we had the baby with us. First stop was the craft tent.
It's a good thing she can't read yet
Trying to figure out who she wanted to pet first
The miniature pony won
When you gotta go, you gotta go
Now it was time to board the wagon and head out into the patch
Addison was ready for a snooze and had no idea what was going on
Right after Joseph and Glynis' wedding, Gigi fell ill. At first we thought she had a bad reaction to the food and next we thought she might've gotten the flu. One trip to the emergency room and they sent her back home rather quickly telling everyone she was fine. She remained ill, and I called to check on her. She actually told me she was starting to feel better. But she wasn't. Dad took her in again...to another hospital and after some tests we learned that she was in the final stages of colon cancer and that it had likely spread already. They found some large growths in her colon, which were causing her to have issues with going to the bathroom for quite some time. They operated on her to remove them, and at first, she was bouncing back from the surgery almost TOO fast. That's just like Gigi though. She was by far the toughest woman I've ever met. No matter how much pain she was in or how tired she was, she never complained. She could barely walk or use her hands due to arthritis, but she made me some chicken noodle soup right after I had the baby. She called her nurse and asked her to take her to the store so she could buy the ingredients to make it for me. She told me a long time ago that she just wanted to see Addison be born. She knew she didn't have much longer to live, how she knew, I don't know, but it was important for her to meet Addison. She prayed so very hard for me to have this healthy baby and she wanted to see her sweet face for herself.
She was doing so well after her surgery that they moved Gigi to a rehab facility. Unfortunately, this is where things took a very fast turn for the worst. They removed all of her IVs and she very quickly became dehydrated. She went from cracking jokes and making her usual funny comments to barely being able to keep her eyes open. I went to see her and I could barely sit next to her without crying hysterically. All my life, she was always there for me as a second mother. Her and Papa made it to our school functions, took us for weekends, were there for every holiday. She even was my nurse after I had surgery...washing my hair for me and helping me at all hours of the night just a few years ago. She spent almost her entire life caring for other people on a constant basis. If you ever popped over to her house unexpected, you'd always find her dressed, makeup on and hair done. House was ALWAYS perfect. Her reason was that she never knew what her day would hold and who might stop over.
She was sent back to the hospital and recovered slightly from her severe dehydration, but there was major damage done to her organs that they could not fix. While in the hospital, Sydney brought her a bracelet. This bracelet was from a set that Grandma bought from her to help make items for sick children. Syd had given the bracelet to Gigi, but it was a little too big and she asked Syd to make it a little bit smaller. Somehow, Syd lost the bracelet and was beside herself over it. She searched and searched and searched. Finally, she found it after literally MONTHS of looking! Syd made the bracelet smaller and made her a few other smaller ones to go along with it. Gigi immediately put the bracelet on when Syd gave it to her at the hospital and never took it off ever again.
At this point they decided that Gigi was NOT going back to the rehab facility, but instead, it was time for hospice. She had the most beautiful room there and it felt like home. I was also able to bring Addison to see Gigi and this was the first time throughout this whole process that I had seen Gigi light up. Gigi had a very strong bond with Addison, and I know in my heart she's watching her from upstairs every day. She was very excited to see the baby and had been asking to see her over and over. I wasn't comfortable at the time bringing her to the hospitals with so many sick people because she was just too little. This place, I was comfortable and I'm very glad brought her to visit her one last time.
Hospice told us that Grandma was doing better there....so good that she had to move to a longer term facility! That was pretty exciting news and we even talked to her about what she would need when she went back to her house. She gave us a funny look when we talked about that. The look that says "I'm no dummy, I'm not going back home." Within a very short time of being at the new care center, she took a very quick turn for the worse. So quick in fact that my Dad called me on a Friday night to tell me that she would probably pass over the weekend. I was going to rush there on Friday night to see her and he told me it would be fine to go the next morning, that she had a few days in her left. Sadly, I received a call very early the next morning from Dad saying that she had passed early Saturday. This was just like grandma. She didn't want people making a fuss over her and she wasn't big on goodbyes. She liked things done her way and she left this world with dignity and on your own terms.
Gigi lived an amazing life and was the rock of the family. She held her head high during all the hard moments of her life. Losing her mother, her infant child, her brother, her father, her husband and then slowly losing every single one of her friends. She had been sick for quite some time and refused to ever tell people. In the hospital I was very tired from not sleeping because Addison finds it fun to not allow me to sleep....ever. I'm working full time, caring for the kids as soon as I pick them up at 3 pm and then waking every 2 hours at night. I was exhausted and I asked Grandma how she did it. How she cared for two young boys, kept the house perfectly clean, cooked all the meals AND on top of that cared for her sick father. She told me it's just what she had to do. She would bathe the kids and then walk her dad down the back stairs and bathe him in the basement. Then she'd go back upstairs after putting him back in bed and clean the house and start the meals. She had no other choice, that was her life and she loved it. She was never the grandma that wanted to cuddle on the couch and be sentimental. But she was always there for us during every important moment in our lives. She was always calling you when you were sick to see if she could make you some food or if she could do anything for you. She was the perfect Grandmother and although I know she was ready to leave this earth, selfishly, I wasn't ready to say goodbye yet. The world just doesn't feel the same without her. I now know that I have an angel upstairs looking out for all of us, especially my girls, but most days, I just wish that I could see that angel again. I miss you everyday, Gigi. Thank you so much for everything you did for me every day of my life, loving me and especially loving my kids so much. Every time we popped over, you always had something special for Syd. Then made her a snack (she loved when you made her buttered bread) and always gave her cookies and other goodies. You made my kids and myself feel very loved and taught us more than you'll ever know about life. I am truly honored to have been your granddaughter.
