You have to love the effort....

As we sat in the car for a few minutes tonight after arriving home from CHEERS, Brooke asked me to look at her cell phone(my old one that I gave her after Jeff and I got new ones a few weeks ago.) She has been using it to take pictures with and somehow got sticky food finger prints all over it. I made the comment to her that it was dirty with food fingerprints and left it at that. We went inside and I began to prepare dinner for the kids. I told Brooke and Austin to go wash their hands before sitting down at the table. Austin did and came out and I kept hearing the water run, and run, and run. I yelled to Brooke to turn the water off and asked her what was taking her so long. Her response: "I'm washing my phone off!" (Gulp!) My stomach jumped up into my throat and I ran in the bathroom. Sure enough, the sink was full with soap suds, the phone was dripping with water, and Brooke had that proud look of accomplishment on her face. I quickly took the phone and wiped it off, took the battery out to free it from any water. I then explained to Brooke how we don't wash electronic equipment and the only thing she was to wash was herself. I couldn't be mad because she didn't know any better and honestly thought she was doing a good thing. I mean, what little girl wouldn't want a sparkling clean cell phone?!?!
After all was said and done, the phone miraculously worked, and I was able to laugh about the situation.

A FABULOUS new word and other notables

Last night I was swapping out some of the pics in the frames above the couches on our "family" wall to ring them up to date. When I was doing Brooke's Addison was being very inquisitive and all about trying to help me. I asked her who was in the picture and she kept saying "book" which I guess is her Brooke, but then I told her it was Sissy and asked her if she could say Sissy. Clear as day.....and like 10 or so times she repeated "Sishy". Brooke smiled SO big hearing this and we were in awe. It was such a fun moment to share.

In other notable achievements and things worth documenting on the Addi front:

She can now tell me when she has a dirty diaper. When she smells "BAD" I will ask her if she poopied in her pants and she will look at me, smile and say "Yes" while shaking her head. If she hasn't she will shake her head no. Looks like potty training may be around the corner :)
On the same note you can ask her anything and if she wants to do it she will shake her head yes and if not she'll give you a stern shake no.

She has stood on her own a few times. She can stand up holding on to something but won't let go on her own. We have to stand her up in the middle of a room and let her hands go. She can hold the stance for about 10 seconds or so. She is walking ALL over the house with the assistance of whatever she can find.

She HATES being locked up in her stroller now that she is mobile. Wherever we are she wants to be down and moving about, which can make things kind of difficult.....especially when you are in a store, a bathroom, or in the middle of the mall food court.

Brooke has taught her how to turn her light and fan on and off. So, for instance last night she woke up an hour after going to bed and I decided to check on her and sure enough as soon as I entered the hallway I noticed her room was lit up bright as day. She had turned on her light and was standing in her crib crying. A little bottle and things were all better.(Getting rid of the bottle will be our next milestone.) I must say she is quite proud of herself most times when I walk in there and she is just flipping away at the switches. You can hear her in her room laughing and talking to herself while she is doing it.

She takes a sippy cup of water to bed with her now. This started one night last week when she woke up and was crying and I could hear that she was standing up in her crib saying "dink, dink, dink" I gave her the sippy cup, she took a few swigs and went right back to sleep. I guess she'll be just like her older siblings.

She LOVES making out with Maddux when I'm not looking....I know.......EWWW GROSS are my thoughts too, but she loves to find him and beg for kisses. We are so blessed to have such a great dog who loves our kids!

She can wear her hair up in a pony tail and actually LEAVES it that way. She needs a haircut to make it all even, but I'm not ready for that yet.

She likes to wear sunglasses in the car and likes putting them on her babies even more.

She asks to take a bath and likes to try to put her socks on :)

And as always, she LOVES to eat! She'll try pretty much anything, but if she doesn't like it she'll pull it off her tongue and shake her head no. She has also started using the sign for "more" quite frequently. Its nice to know when she's still hungry.

I truly thank GOD every day for bestowing such a blessing on us! I am so happy we decided to add her to our already wonderful family.

Happy 5th Birthday Brookie Doodle

This year we decided that rather than having a BIG birthday bash for Brooke, we would focus on doing something special and spending time with family. We took a family vacation to Disney where she was treated like ROYALTY and basked in the glory of being able to wear her Happy Birthday pin to the theme parks and having all of the employees and characters wish her a Happy Birthday.

For her actual birthday, Jeff had to work, so we decided to celebrate the night before at Mom & Dad's house. We ordered pizzas and Jeff bought her a Gator themed decorated cake. Monique, Lyce, Kayt, and Mimi also joined us for the celebration. It was a nice little family gathering and Brooke, as usual, LOVED being the center of attention!

I took her, Austin, and Addi to Sun Country on her actual day to celebrate while Jeff was at baseball. She got to wear her new "Birthday Outfit" which she looked adorable in! Danielle and Collin met us there and we spent about an hour or so playing and having a great time. It was topped off with Danielle letting her pick out a new bear to stuff and dress.

Its hard to believe and grasp on to the fact that our 1st born is already 5 and in a few short months will be starting Kindergarten! Time has flown by, but not fast enough to miss the enjoyment of watching our little angels take in the experiences of each and every day, milestone, and achievement as if it were their 1st!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRINCESS BROOKE!

Getting ready to blow out the candles

The loot

Brooke, Mimi, and her new Mimi doll

Her "Birthday Outfit"

Crazy Legs

Well, she finally did it! Tonight while at Mom & Dad's celebrating Brooke's birthday Addi stood on her own for about a minute. Jeff was holding her hands and let them go and she just stood there in the middle of the kitchen floor. We all just watched her with mouths wide open in amazement until she fell on her bum :) It was such a joy to see! She then proceeded to push a little bench all around the house while walking behind it. Geesh! We have several stand behind and walk toys at our house and she's never done anything with them. I guess she just didn't want Brooke to have all of the attention.....even though it was HER birthday celebration....LOL!

Let the Male Chauvenism begin

I'm documenting this so that I can show all of Austin's future girlfriends how he used to refer to his poor Mama :(

My loving and adoring husband has taught Austin how to refer to me as "Jo Mama"
Jeff of course thinks this is funny.......I on the other hand do not!

Just within the past week whenever Austin wants my attention NOW, he refers to me as "Hey Babe"

I mean.......he's only 3! Seriously.....what do I have to look forward to being called in the years to come?

Dog bites, scratches, and scars oh my!

So, yesterday was a typical crazy day in the Cardozo household. My Mom and Dad were heading down to Orlando for the weekend and we were watching their dag, Kramer, for them. Kramer is a little Miniature Pinscher and has the typical demeanor of a SMALL dog. He gets scared and will then defend himself by biting. When we left my parent's house on Thursday night, my parent's BEGGED Brooke and Austin to leave Kramer alone and "NOT GET IN HIS FACE!" We got home from school yesterday around 12:15 and I had to repeatedly remind the kids of Granpi's request to LEAVE KRAMER ALONE. I had to call my sister for a few minutes, so I sat at the barstool to chat and Kramer came over and sat at my feet. The kids were playing on the floor near us and all was quiet. The next thing I knew Brooke was screaming.....and not just your typical scream.....it was BLOODY MURDER......TOE CURLING......screams! I looked at her and her nose was bleeding. Of course she didn't listen to the warnings and got in Kramer's face and he clamped down on her nose. I quickly hung up the phone and rushed her to the Pediatrician's office.....in the POURING rain! We were told she was fine and it would heal on its own, but she needed to get a Tetanus shot to be safe and be put on an antibiotic. If you know my daughter, you know that she is the BIGGEST Drama Queen there is. When the nurses came in to give her the shot it took all 3 of us to hold her down, restrain her arms & legs which she was flailing like Mike Tyson, and hold her still. As soon as the shot was done, she of course was fine! At 4 years old Brooke officially has her first piercing as one of the teeth went completely from one side of her nostril to the other. OUCH!!!! So, here's her mug shot:


Later in the evening the kids were playing in Addi's room until we heard screaming and crying. Brooke was crying that Austin threw a block at her head and Austin was crying that Brooke hit him in the face. Turns out she didn't just hit him, but took her claws and scratched his eye....thank goodness it wasn't any higher.


I of course cut all of their nails right after the incident!

Oh the joys of sibling rivalry :(

In Love With a Superhero

Today after lunch I decided to take the kids for a walk down to the pond by the mailboxes to see if we could find any ducks and feed them some stale bread. Unfortunately there were only 3 ducks and they were all of the way on the other side of the pond, so we threw the bread as far as we could and watched it sink to the bottom.....hoping it would at least make a good meal for a turtle or some fish. On the way back Austin asked me if he could put on his Iron Man costume that he had left behind because otherwise he would have sweltered. This has been THE costume of the week and he literally wears it whenever we are in the house with the occasional swap out with Buzz Lightyear when he's watching Toy Story. Anyway, in response to his question I of course told him that he could put it on when we got back....to which he replied:
"Oh thank you Mommy, I missed him so much!"

Oh what a sweet heart that little boy has!

Winter School Program

Tonight the kids had their Winter School Program, The Teddy Bear Sleepover. Beforehand we went to The Swamp for a bite to eat and thought the kids would enjoy sitting outside and watching all of the foot traffic and cars go by. It was a bit chilly, but we managed to get through our delicious meals! As usual Austin and Brooke had ants in their pants and couldn't sit still so they wandered about the patio area in search of acorns(these were HUGE acorns by the way!) Granni and Granpi had joined us for dinner and we all loaded back up in the van to head over to the school. The kids needed to get changed into their PJ's for the performance, so Granni helped them. I heard A LOT of giggling coming from the back seat and asked what had happened and my Mom told me that Austin had just said to her:
"I can't wait to show my nuts to all of my friends!"
So innocently said, but it sure did get a HUGE chuckle out of all of us adults! Amongst the laughter Austin needed to get his PJ's on so he turned to Granni and said:
"Granni, can you please hold my nuts?"

HAHAHA....its times like these that you just have to cherish and be fortunate enough to remember to tell your kids when they are all grown up. I personally can't wait to share this memory with his future girlfriends....LOL!

Brooke found Daddy and posed for the camera!

This is what he did for most of the performance :)

People can't fly

On the way home from visiting Mimi in the hospital and picking up some Chick-Fil-A for dinner a funny little incident occurred. We had just switched around all of the car seats over the weekend since Addison is now officially a "Big Girl." Per Brooke's request we put she and Addi in the back together and moved Austin up to the Captain's seat in the middle. That ended up being a mistake because all he did was mess with the tv and kicked the passenger seat, which I happened to be sitting in. We were almost home and Austin decided to get out of his car seat straps. Brooke, being the mothering-type she is said to him:

"Austin, you need to buckle up right now! If we got into an accident you would go flying out the front window because you aren't buckled up!"

To this Austin replied:

"Well I don't have wings!"

Jeff and I just started cracking up and couldn't believe our little 3 year old was witty enough to come up with such a response. We were so close to home that all we could do is laugh rather than pulling over to make him strap in. Sometimes the interaction between those two is just priceless!

A Sweet Celebration

The Birthday Girl

Today was Addison's birthday party. We decided to have it at home and keep it pretty simple with finger foods and cake. We invited family which consisted of Granni, Grandpi, Nana, Papa(who flew in for the special occasion), Aunt Neekee, Kayt, & Lyce. Mimi had been admitted to the hospital earlier that morning for breathing difficulties so she was unable to join us. We sure did miss having her there, but know she was with us in spirit! We also invited the Wagner's. Myers' & Smyder's who are always with us to celebrate. Addi got to have a few of her friends from her playgroup there too: Payton & Erik who were joined by their Mommies, Jenn & Allison, and their siblings, Delia & Evan. Just the right amount of guests if you ask me!

We wanted to give her a very girly theme so we went with cupcakes and kept the colors pink & brown. It all turned out so cute!

The "Sweets"

Her giant Cupcake Cake

Cupcakes for the kids to enjoy. Addi had the special one on the top.

The candy station. I painted the canvas for her to match the theme of the party.

Blowing out the candles

She DEVOURED her cupcake!

Capturing the family moment

Happy 1st Birthday Addi Rae

Wow! I honestly can't believe a whole year has gone by already since giving birth to our beautiful baby girl. We are truly blessed to have her in our lives and I am so grateful that Jeff agreed to having a 3rd child when he was content with 2. Who knew a little girl could change our lives so much!

Today we celebrate Addison's 1st birthday and remember the many blessings she has bestowed upon our lives over the past year. This was a rough week as all 3 kids were sick and I have had a terrible sinus infection impairing my normal function level.

Granni came over yesterday and gave her a "Birthday Girl" outfit to wear

To keep things low-key the 5 of us enjoyed a nice dinner out at BJ's and then took Addi to Toys R Us to pick out a special birthday gift.

This is what she picked out, although she was a bit cranky when we tried to take her picture. I guess she was thinking "Its my birthday and I'll cray if I want to!"

We knew that we were going to let her experience cake at her party on Saturday so we improvised and let her blow out the candle on a Little Debbie. Thank goodness Daddy loves his junk food!


I think its safe to say she liked it!

Weeeeee.....

As I'm updating our blog I look over to see this
Brooke is reading to Addi while spinning her in the desk chair(we just moved it into the family room). The funny thing is that every time Brooke would stop spinning, Addi would start whining.
Oh the things that make kids happy!

Aspirations of a little girl

We just got back from a quick trip to McDonald's to get a coffee and 2 chocolate milks. We are waiting for our new bed and mattresses to be delivered so I didn't have a lot of time to venture around the grocery store to get the essentials that we need..........so, McDonald's would just have to do. As we were pulling away Brooke said:

"Mommy, when I get older, can I be a McDonald's girl?"

Holding back my laughter coupled with complete horror, I replied:

"Well honey, I would like for you to have a little bit more aspiration in life for when you are older"
(not that my 4 year old even knows what aspiration is of course!)

Brooke then replied with:
"Well, when I get older and you go to McDonald's maybe I'll be there to give you your chocolate milk"

LOL! I of course immediately called Jeff to tell him about our conversation and give him a little chuckle for the day.

Brooke's room changes again

Jeff bought a new flat screen TV on black Friday for our bedroom, then he wanted to get a king size bed, then I wanted to redecorate our entire room to go with the new tv and new bed. With all of this we had to move out the desk(which now resides in the family room) and the armoire. We didn't have a good place for the armoire so we decided to move it into Brooke's room. We were going to sell our queen bed, but I decided that wouldn't be a good idea since we were keeping the rest of the set in our room. I came up with the idea of moving it into Brooke's room and moving her furniture into Addi's room so she would have a set when she outgrows the crib next year. Now Brooke has a queen bed(complete with new quilt and 1200 thread count sheets thanks to Nana), armoire, and her new Barbie Doll House that Santa left. It looks like such a big girl room now. The only down side is that I bought her other furniture probably 5 months ago(see older post), but it will all be great in the long run because Addi now has furniture and Brooke's room will be the official guest room when we have company visiting. Now all we have to sell is the full size mattress set that currently resides in the garage and comes in when we have over night guests. Can't wait to not have to set up all of that EVERY time someone comes to stay with us!

Addi sits.....we witness!

As Addi's 1st birthday approaches ever so quickly we have been trying our best to work with her on crawling and sitting up on her own. Over the past week she has started her "Army Crawl" and uses it more than her rolling technique(well at least on the carpet anyway) and today while we were in the kitchen putting stuff away Addi had rolled and claimed her spot under my feet at the sink. Jeff came in and told her to sit up and after much encouragement of "come on, you can do it!" with all her might she sure enough went from lying down to sitting up. It looks as though she's going to do some hard core stomach crunches because she goes from directly lying flat on her back to lifting herself up at the waist until she's sitting up. We couldn't have been prouder! I bet we will have a lot to report at her 1 year check-up.