Addie turned one a week ago. How time has flown! I can't believe how old she is, that she has been a part of our family for only one year. It feels like she has always been here.

We love her so much. Her vocabulary has exploded. She can say: mama, dada, papa, grandma, bubble, bottle, fish, juice, bath, this, that, Jesus, dog, duck, did it, hi, bye, Jenna, Jamie, Jacob. She knows the signs for food, please, more, and potty. She shakes her head for no. She knows what a dog and cow say. She knows what a fish does with it's mouth. Her understanding surprises us everyday. She will follow our commands, only when she wants to though. She folds her arms to pray, though it only lasts a few seconds.

She has such a fun personality. She loves stuffed animals. And I mean absolutely loves them. She doesn't have a favorite one, she just loves them all. She gives them hugs, cuddles, pats, pets, and says "ohhhh" when she cuddles them. She has to sleep with several of them, and will wrap her arms and legs around them to cuddle.

She loves to share her food, prechewed and everything. Though sometimes you get lucky and it is a dry cheerio. She sometimes makes a game of it, feeding mom and dad her food.

She likes feed herself with a fork and spoon, as well as drink from regular cup. She's not good at any of these things, but she sure tries.

Her favorite food is strawberries. Her favorite animal is a dog. She loves dogs so much. If she's sad and you want her to feel better? Show her a dog. She cheers right up and does her coo.

She has a toy car she rides in, and she much prefers that to the stroller. She has a little toy stroller that she loves to push around. We think she blames the baby doll when it gets stuck, because she takes it out each time.

Addie loves to wave, and everything. Cars, airplanes, people, animals, anytime someone says the word "bye". It is so darling. She has made so many strangers' day by waving at them. I hope she keeps this up.

She loves to dance. Any music, doesn't matter, she's dancing. I was on hold today and she danced her heart out to that hold music. She gets the biggest smile on her face anytime she hears music.

Adelynn gives the best hugs and cuddles. She runs up to you and gives you a quick 2 second hug, and it makes your day. It makes your whole week to know that little girl loves you back.

We are so blessed to have Adelynn Jane as part of our family. We love her more everyday, and we can't wait to see her grow.

Jaron and I just got back (alright it was a week ago) from a fantastic western Caribbean cruise. It was our last hurrah before going to medical school.

We left our precious girl in the care of Jaron's parents. And as much as I know she was excellently cared for, spoiled, and we got some alone time we needed, I don't think I want to leave her again anytime soon. It was so hard!! I cried more times that I would like to admit. And one day we were trying to skype her and having internet issues, and I thought I was going to lose it. I wanted to see my little girl! We were able to skype eventually and all was well.

Now that I made it sound like it was a miserable trip and all I did was miss Addie (although we did miss her every second we were away) we had so much fun. We ate too much, spent too much time on our private balcony, talked for hours and hours, got some amazing pictures, and enjoyed experiencing other cultures.

We went to Haiti, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. Fun fact, my dad served in Cozumel, Mexico on his LDS mission years ago, and we went there! We went to the Tulum ruins, which my dad also toured. Our tour guide was LDS and named Moroni, and my dad knew a family who were all tour guides at Tulum and all the sons were named Moroni....needless to say we got some wheels turning in our heads...it's possible my dad knew our tour guide! We will never know though, because we didn't find out about the Moroni's until after we had left. But still a way cool story.

At Grand Cayman we went snorkeling, and got burned as bad as you can imagine. Actually, worse than you can imagine. It was almost go-to-the-emergency room bad. Passing out, nausea, dizziness, pins and needles, giant blisters...you get the idea. Even now, a week and a half later, we are still suffering. And yes, we did use sunscreen. Next time though, I think we will skip the sunscreen and just go with long sleeve swim shorts and pants. And we are being serious. We will go to great lengths to not get burned like we did again!

We saw some amazing fish while snorkeling in the reefs. We also went swimming with giant rays, and that I think was Jaron's favorite part. Sting rays swimming all around us, between our legs, over our backs, completely surrounded. It was a really cool experience.

Addie is doing great. She is an excellent walker and I should say runner. She loves her new freedom. She can say "bath", sign "more", got another tooth, can wear her hair in pigtails, discovered the joy of slides, and can drink through a sippy cup. She is growing up too fast! She turned 11 months last Saturday, I can't believe where my little baby has gone. She's a little girl now!

The view from our balcony...we were very spoiled.

At Tulum.

Also from our balcony. Got a really neat shot of a storm that was rolling in. 

So long time no see!

We just got back from a trip to see my family in Ohio. It was a busy trip: we picked an apartment, toured Ohio State, and welcomed Alden home from his mission. Also in those two and a half weeks, Addie learned turned ten months old, learned to walk, got her first tooth, and learned to say "dog". Busy trip!

It was wonderful spending that time with my family. Addie got to know my parents and family better and met Alden for the first time. She also discovered she likes lollipops, courtesy of grandma Hilton. We are even more excited now to go to Ohio State for med school. We felt really good about our choice to go there; it was nice to have confirmed what we decided out of faith so many months ago.

Addie and her cousin Ivan took lots of wagon rides together.

Addie is a big fan of wagon rides.

Addie makes the best crocodile tears! Oh that poor little girl, just look at that face! What broke this little girl's heart? She got put down so mom could take a picture of her Uncle Alden and the Stake President after he was released from his mission. 

A four generation picture!! Addie's great-grandma (my mother's mom), Addie's grandma (my mom), Addie's mom (me) and the princess herself. I am really glad we got to take this picture of 4 generations of women. What a treasure!

Alden and Addie bonded quite quickly. Might of helped that Alden had glasses and Addie loves glasses. 

But in Alden's own words, he quickly became "best friends" with his niece and nephew after returning home from him mission. And those little guys do adore him.

Grandma Hilton and her two grandbabies: Ivan and Addie. Ivan is 6 months older (almost to the day) than Addie is. It is so fun having them so close together.

Aunt Sarah and Addie on the piano. 

Family pictures. Have everyone but Elliott, Kristina's husband, who is deployed. We haven't been this close to all being in one place since my wedding.

A very reluctant cousin picture. Ivan wanted to play with the dogs and Addie didn't want to look at the camera. But in this picture they are both holding still, not crying, and looking in the general direction of the camera. And when taking pictures of babies that equals success.

Hilton grandparents and the two grandbabies.

And of course, my beautiful family!

I sure do love these guys!

After a very long car ride, Addie needed some spoiling. Grandma and papa Hansen brought out some bubbles. Addie loved it and became a happy girl again.

Spoiled baby, huh? But she deserved it. Eight hour in the car in three days, plus lots of hours in a backpack. For a very mobile baby that's a lot of time not being allowed to move! And oh boy, she let us know she was not very happy about it in the car. But overall she was a very good little girl. Not that we will take her on a long car trip again soon...but she did very good for a nine month old.

We went to Bryce Canyon over Easter weekend with Jaron's parents and sister Jenna. It was a lot of fun! We used the backpack again that my parents got for Jaron and Addie.

This is her long suffering look. She wasn't too happy about being in the backpack, but not enough to fuss about it. Just look grumpy.

It was very very cold. And the Saturday morning was just too cold to hike, so we drove around the park and stopped at each of the lookout points. And even then....Addie had to look like a little Eskimo baby. It was in the low 20s and windy, making it feel about 0 degrees. Even with how pretty it was we did not stay long to see the pretty views. As a mark of how cold it was, Adelynn did not fight us with all her layers.

Poor thing, her cheeks got all chapped from the wind. And it was one of the few times she was upset about getting out of her car seat instead of getting back in

Even with the freezing weather, it was a fun trip. It was our first family vacation with a baby, and first car trip. She was very good in the car, even if she was very vocal about how she absolutely did not like being left in the car seat for four hours straight.

Happy Easter everyone!

Happy Easter from this cute little bunny!!

We sure love her!!!

We went hiking this past weekend, up Adam's Canyon, which is about ten minutes from our house. It was the first hike Addie had ever been on, and we were so excited to try out her hiking backpack that my parents gave Jaron for his birthday last year. Adelynn did amazing. She never cried, she actually never even fussed. She was able to nap some, didn't pull Jaron's hair, and was able to stay somewhat warm the whole time. And all this is especially amazing because what we thought was a 3 or 4 mile hike was actually a 7 mile hike. But it was very fun, and we loved the backpack!

It was very cold. We actually didn't do the whole hike because the path turned into ice, literally. We could physically go no further. We watched this guy brave the path and he quickly came sliding back down. We wrapped Jaron's jacked around Addie like a scarf. All you could see was her little face poking out. So cute.

I fed Addie cherrios for part of it, and Jaron says that was his favorite part because he could hear Addie going "num, num" in his ear. That's what she does now when she think something is especially delicious.

Overall it was a very fun hike!! The backpack was a hit, and Addie was so impressive, we are so proud of her.



Addie can feed herself with a fork!! It is so darling! If you slide some food on it, she will put in her mouth and then hold the fork back to you for more!

Adelynn updates:
-She is nine months old now, turned that on Monday. It's insane how fast the time has gone.
-We are doing better on sippy cups. She is also more willing to feed herself a bottle too. We're working on this independence thing
-She says "num num num" when she likes what she's eating. We don't know where she got it from, none of us taught her that, but it is so cute! She also bangs her hands on her tray when she wants more. And grunts and grunts and grunts. She is very impatient.
-She loves to be walked around. She has also taken a few independent steps between mom and dad. We were all going crazy. Won't be long now until she's walking all over by herself.
-Night time has greatly improved. It is like night and day difference. It's funny, want to know what the trick was? A stuffed animal. She just wants something to cuddle in the night! And we were doing everything in every baby book, everything online, everything the doctor said, everything we've ever heard, and nothing was working! Then one desperate night I threw in her stuffed monkey and she didn't wake us the rest of the night!! I still keep shaking my head, because that is all it took. And everything we've ever read or heard tells us NOT to put anything in her bed with her because it can be a smothering hazard. Well, I think a small, tag-less, stuffed animal is worth the risk, especially if she is starting to sleep through the night. And mind you this is the 9 month old who is almost walking and already trying to climb out of her crib. I think she's strong enough to pull the animal off her face if she can't breathe.
-She discovered grass for the first time this week. It's finally getting warm enough here to take her outside. She thought it was the coolest thing in the world, and kept trying to eat it. She would pat pat it, discovering the texture. She also loved walking on and it and feeling it with her toes. That's my girl, loving the feel of grass on my bare feet.
-She loves bubbles. She's not quite sure what to do with them, but she follows them with her eyes and tries to catch them, though most of the time they are out of her reach.
-She dances to music. It is so darling.
-She can shake her head and clap her hands and dance at the same time. I'm very impressed, because I'm pretty sure I can't do that.
-She crosses her feet all the time, and has been doing it since birth. I'm sure you've seen it in the pictures I've posted. It is so darling and gets us every time.

Crazy Hansen update: This whole moving to Ohio thing is starting to seem more and more real to us everyday. We are looking at houses, thinking about parking pass at the University (that's a no, $800 a year!!), planning the move up there, who we are going to ask to pack the truck...it's crazy. Addie is growing older and we are going to medical school. Since when was a college graduated married (almost) military medical school wife with a 9 month old girl? I don't know either.