Wisconsin is lucky enough to have a gourmet jelly bean factory!! Ok.. so jelly beans aren't my favorite but it was a lot of fun to go with some other Mom's and take our kids to see the short little tour. It Really isn't a factory per se just a shipping building and candy store. The tour was mostly videos depicting the way they make the Jelly Bellies and some history behind the family owned business. My favorite part was the testing table where you could test out all the flavors!! They don't just make Jelly Bellies either, they make fruit snacks, chocolates, and candy corn... Who knew? Well I tried some flavors that were shall we say interesting? "Baby Wipe" flavor being the most enjoyable while still tasting inedible. They had pencil shavings, vomit and black pepper, which I was not brave enough to try. I'm surprised no one has come up with a "SNOZBERRY" flavor yet. Addie seemed to enjoy herself although she had no idea what was going on, she loved to eat her Jelly Belly hat which was probably her favorite part of the whole experience. I wonder if they make their hats taste like banana flavor and that's why she liked it so much!! Just Kidding.

Thank You Becca for the cute bows for Addie!! They all are so adorable, I still can't believe you made all of them!!

Addie absolutely loves strawberries,so one day I stripped her down and let her go at one which was so adorable to watch.


The weather turned hot this last Friday getting up to 85* so we decided for our date we would take Addie to the park and let her enjoy the good weather. We set out some blankets and she played so well in the shade of the trees. It was so fun to watch her perk up at different sounds, like motorcycles, the Shwann man truck, and even a cool breeze was something different for her. She also had two new experiences in the playground. She got to swing which she loved and Papa took her down her very first slide, which I'm not exactly sure she liked. Mitch got a slide burn which he's showing off in the picture, and I KNOW he wasn't happy about that, you can't tell through the smile on his face though.

Addie celebrated her 6th month birthday a few weeks ago (sorry about the slow post about it) Well she went to the pediatricians for her checkup and some more shots and she was a trooper. The first shot she didn't even flinch, the second shot she didn't start to cry until the nurse took out the needle and she soothed right down afterwards and was happy the rest of the morning, which was amazing. Of course in the afternoon she got cranky cause her legs hurt but she slept it off with a good 3 hour nap, which gave momma time to read. Thanks Addie!! Mitch and I celebrated her 6th month birthday with... da digga da... A BATH!! Ok so it wasn't an extraordinary day but we did sing to her and we got a cute picture with a foam 6 on her forehead!


At six months she weighs 15 pounds 3 1/3 oz and is 27 1/8 in tall!! She has only been sleeping about 5 hours on average at a time at night so the pediatrician recommended we try to help her learn how to self sooth which has been brutal for me to listen to her whimper and cry but it seems to be working!! She can put her self to sleep now for naps and bedtime and is sleeping about 7 hours now which is awesome!! Mitch and I can hardly believe she is already half a year old, she continues to surprise us with the new things she is learning and we can't wait to see what's next for her!!

We were so blessed to hear the words of the Prophet and the Apostles this past weekend during the 179th Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Mitch and I especially enjoyed Elder Hollands talk abou the last days of Christ's life and ministry and about his atonement and not being alone. We also enjoyed the two talks on temples by Elder Bednar and Elder Gary L. Stevenson. The messages of "you are never lost when you can see the temple" and "Only the home can compare with the temple in sacredness" were such powerful words. May we all take a spiritual walk through our homes and make them as clean and orderly as we can, to make it a place of safety and worship, and as close to the temple as we can.
Mitch and I would like to thank all of our friends who joined us for a pre- conference get together and for the wonderful food everyone brought to share. It is so wonderful to have such great friendships while we are all so far away from family.

Mitch and his group from Marquette Dental School got to go to an 3rd grade elementary class this past week to teach them about dental hygiene. They learned how to brush properly, the parts of the tooth and Mitch taught them about what kinds of foods are nutritious for your teeth!! He really enjoyed himself as you can see in the pictures. Mitch is thinking of going into pediatric dentistry so this particular project got him very enthusiastic about that specialization. He is always thinking about how he could better communicate with kids about better hygiene and how he could relate more completely with them. He said he was surprised that most of the kids didn't even know where cavities come from. He would be happy to tell you anytime what exactly a cavity is and where is comes from, just ask!

For awhile now Addie has been sitting like a little tripod, with her hands on the floor and her little tushy as the third point of contact, but the last week or so she has been trying to raise up her body to an upright position.She would get up to about a 45* angle and would fall forward again, or would throw herself with so much force backward that she would topple over.So I just let her keep practicing and lo and behold she straightened her back yesterday and sat up so well that I just had to get it on camera! She's been practicing this skill ever since, now she just has to get a little more balance so she can do it for longer periods of time!!