Addison JEAN!

For those of you who don't know where Addison got her middle name, it is from my Grandma Jean. Grandma Jean was one of the most special people I had in my life as a child. I can't remember ever having a boring or bad time when Katie and I were with her. She really was the best Grandma and best friend a little girl could ask for!

I can remember going to spend the weekends with her and Grandpa John and always having a craft project to do. I especially liked the summers when we would spend a whole week with them. Dad had his work route through Colusa and I remember packing a picnic lunch and meeting him at the park one time for his birthday, we had made his favorite bologna sandwich and lemon cake. It was fun to see dad once a week and be able to stay with Grandma and Grandpa. It was always a fun filled week too! We would garden in the front and back yard planting flowers, we would be able to catch and keep baby frogs, pick lemons off the lemon tree out front, go across the street and feed the birds each morning and try and learn Grandpas special whistle, go to breakfast at Clark's and get hot chocolate with whipped cream. We always had the same waitress Linda who would make sure we never ran out if whipped cream! After breakfast we would take the "long way" home and drive through the wildlife refuge. We were alloud to go into Thrifty and pick out all kinds of office supplies and play "office" all day long. It never seemed to matter what we wanted, we got it! When the Swans man came we got to pick out what kind if ice cream we wanted and would get to have desert each night with grandma and grandpa.


Kate and I would do craft projects all day long learning so much from Grandma Jean, we both learned how to sew from her and sewing is something that we both still enjoy doing. I can never just sit at my sewing machine and not think of Grandma.
My favorite times were when Dad would go fishing with Kate and drop me off to spend the day with Grandma! I got to be spoiled all by myself! Grandma taught me how to make lemon marange pie, green bean casserole, jell-o pretzle casserole, pot roast, and all kinds of other yummy dishes!
She really was such a inspiration to me and I still think of her everyday. She was truly the best Grandmother a little girl could have ever asked her. I remember one time it snowed when I was staying a week with them over Christmas break. I made a snowman from the little bit if snow that had stuck to the ground. This snowman was about the size of a corn cob lol. And I got to keep it in the freezer! Lol

I also remember the Christmases we had at their place! Grandma loved to give gifts for Christmas, she had a list of each gift that she had gotten and each gift had a number on the wrapping paper that matched the number on the list. I'm pretty sure she slept with the list so that nobody would peek at it! Everybody got spoiled rotten with soo many gifts and they all had to be given in a certain order. It was so fun! The finale gift was always money wrapped in a clever way. The "Sterk" way! This is one Sterk tradition that I'm happy to say Dad and Mom have continued to carry on and they have become very clever with their puzzles as well!


It was always a thought in my head that my little girl would have her name. This past weekend Josh and I took Addison to her first Relay for Life and we did a special lap for Grandma Jean and lit her luminary on the way around the track. We also lit one for Grandma Sanders too. Grandma Sanders was a great Grandmother too and we shared many special times with her and Grandpa Sanders too. I will have to write a post about her also.

I wish more than anything that Grandma and Grandpa would have lived long enough to meet Joshua and see me get married and have my own little girl. I know they are looking down on us everyday. They were the best Grandparents! And I know that they would have been the best Great Grandparents to Addison too!

There are so many memories of Grandma Jean and all of them are fun and heart warming to think about. I hope that one day I will be as great as a mother as she was to my Dad and Uncle Bill and...a LONG time from now I am able to be just as wonderful of a Grandma as she was to Katie and I.

3 Months!

We are shocked that 3 months has gone by so quickly! I don't think time has ever flown by so fast in our lives before. It's funny that when you are a kid you hear your parents always saying that you were growing up to fast, I guess it takes becoming a parent to really understand how true that statement is.

Mae Mae calls her the "little fashionista"

Addison is now sleeping in her own room! It was a hard transition for me but she did great! We moved her bassinet in her room when she was 10weeks old and figured that she would adjust to being in her new enviornment before we moved her into the crib. Then at 12weeks we moved her to the crib and she has done great in there! It's funny when we wake up in the mornings she is laying in the opposite direction of which we laid her down to bed in. She's quiet the little squirmer throughout the night! Of course with every little squirm that I hear on the monitor I turn on the video and stare at her hoping that she's not waking up to be fed at these wee hours! lol.


Addison has her daily routiene that we stick to most days! She likes to sleep-in just like her Momma and Daddy! Which we both love! But it always seems like on the weekends or Josh's day off that she doesn't sleep as long! We usually are up around 7:00a.m. for a morning feed and diaper changing and then she goes back to sleep from about 8 til 9:30-10a.m. Once in a while we still have the really early wake-up either at 3a.m. or 4:30a.m. I sum those up to growth spurts! Once I get Addison back to sleep at 8a.m. I am up for the day to try and get something done around the house with my hands free! Usually laundry or cleaning the kitchen. Then I get on the treadmill. By the time my work-out is done she is wide awake with a big "Good Morning" Grin on her sweet little face. I get her out of bed and feed her. Then it's play time! She loves to lean back on my lap and "talk"!

This is my favorite time of day with her! We play on her play mat, do tummy time (which she hates), read books (her favorite is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!!), play with Molly and walk outside to play with Zoe for a little, do some more reading with her in the bouncer playing with her hanging toys, and sing! She really likes music a lot! I think it's because I was in my sewing room always listening to music while I was pregnant with her that she likes to hear my voice :). And of course she's an Adele lover! That was my number 1 playlist to listen to on Pandora when I was pregnant! Although I remember her always kicking and flipping when I would listen to N*SYNC...Maybe I will listen to them tomorrow ;) ...So after a fun morning filled with so many activities she's hungry and tired! I feed her and put her in her swing for a nap. This is when I get my shower! It never fails as soon as I am out of the shower and starting to do my make-up and hair I start to hear her fuss. Somedays she will put herself back to sleep and if she gets back to sleep it means I have atleast another hour! Most days she's a great napper!

 Addison always wakes up so happy from her naps with great big gummy smiles! Then it's time for her to eat again! This girl really likes to eat!!! and again we have more play time! By now it's about 2p.m. and Josh will be calling from his lunch break to check in on us and about once a week he will come home to have me cook him something. And squeeze in a few extra moments with his girlie! Then we usually head out on our afternoon walk to the park or just around the neighborhood. This week we have been meeting cousin Sophia at the park on her new "motorcycle" we walk a few laps, watch Sophia play on the swings and slides. I can't wait til she is moving around more and playing with Sophia! They will be so cute together!

Then we will head home and start thinking about cooking dinner. Addison is holding her head up well by herself so sometimes while I'm preparing dinner I let her sit close to me in the Bumbo and she really seems to like to watch what I'm doing.

Once Josh gets off work its "Daddy and Addie Time" ( so cute that he calls it this). He will take a shower and then he can't wait to get his hands on her! He will usually take her out to the back yard and listen to music, water plants, play with Zoe, and sing to her. It works out perfect that I can cook dinner and they get their special time together. We havn't mastered how to both eat dinner at the same time, so I usually eat quickly first then start a bath for Addison and Josh will eat his dinner. After bath we get her in her jammies and swaddle. She loves to be swaddled tight! Then its one last feeding and I put her down for the night.

Tuesday nights Josh and Uncle Jake have their church softball game in Live Oak, so we head out there and watch them play! Addison seems to like being there and will either nap in her stroller or Grandma Fran will hold her and walk around looking at all the trees! We definitally have an outdoor girlie! She's always so calm when we are outside looking at all the sights to see!

The next day it all starts over again...and I love every second of it! She is such a sweet little baby and we really cant believe how fast she's growing up!

My First Mothers Day!

I was so excited to be able to be apart of the Mothers Day celebration for the first time this year! I can't help but remember last year when I was hoping to be pregnant and putting on a smile to get through the whole day. Little did I know we were pregnant already! So this year is extra special!
We had a busy weekend planned with visiting both Mom's and celebrating our little family too! We went to Josh's moms on Saturday night and had a BBQ where Josh and his Dad made deer burgers. (and turkey burger for me!) and it was delish! We spent the evening out on the back patio it was such a nice night out and we sure enjoyed our time together and I know that Grandma Fran and Grandpa enjoyed their time with little Addison! Uncle Jake has been quiet the babysitter the last two times we have gone up there she has fallen asleep in her car seat and he watches her inside the house til she wakes up and he will take care of her til I steal her away! I went upstairs to check in on her to see if she had woken up yet, and sure enough she had. Her Uncle Jake and Uncle Glen had her watching the NBA playoffs with them! So cute! Trying to make a sports fan out of her early! ( probably not gonna happen guys, she's a momma's girl!) It was such an enjoyable evening!

 Sunday Morning Addison let us sleep til 8:30!! It was a great Mother's Day gift from her!

Josh prepared a overnight sausage breakfast casserole for brunch at my parents house. Matt prepared a coffee cake and I must say these two guys really do know how to cook it was a delicious brunch. We had a relaxing time there listening to Mae Mae and Grandpas stories of their trip to Cabo! It was a great time and I was thrilled to share the day with my Mom and Sister!

Joshua spoiled me too! He gave me a Infinity Diamond Band! It is absolutely beautiful! I asked for a bird feeder and got diamonds! I know I'm the luckiest momma out there to have such a great husband!

I just love being a Mommy! She is such a sweet little Mommy's girl! God has blessed us so much!

First Easter!

Addison had a fun filled day for her first Easter! We started the morning out rather early to make sure that we had everything we needed to get through the long day that we had planned! She got all fancy in her first Easter dress! She looked absolutely adorable!

We headed down the street to pick up my parents and drive to Colusa for the annual Easter celebration. When we got there the Easter Bunny had made a stop and Addison and Sophia had a egg hunt! (Sophia actually collected all the eggs and then split them with Addison!) She got lots of coins and Josh and I got the candy! We will have to get a piggy bank for her soon! Addison also got her first Disney movie, Bambi to start her collection!

We then headed out to Colusa. Everybody was so anxious to see Addison and hold her. She once again got spoiled with a new dress and a stuffed bunny rabbit. We had a huge egg hunt and I put Addison in the stroller to collect eggs, we were slow moving pushing through the grass and only collected 2 eggs! She did great the whole day! It was a busy fun filled day! We are looking forward to celebrating next weekend with The Hogue's!

1 Month Birthday!

Addison, we can't believe a month has passed already it really seems like just a few days ago we were headed to the hospital! We are so excited to see you growing a little each day, even though we want you to stay little and snuggle in our arms forever we are also excited to see what new thing you will be doing today or the next day. We almost have some smiles out of you! You give Mommy the sweetest little sleepy grin when we get up in the morning, and you think Daddy is so funny when he tickles you! We are both still learning eachothers schedule, you like to eat all the time! And you are so good with your nights ( most of the time) last night you must have know how tired we were from the night before, because once you finally fell asleep at 10pm you slept til 3:30am! We were so happy for the sleep but we woke you up to eat and change you. Everyone keeps telling us to never wake a sleeping baby, but we want you to eat and be healthy so we wake you up for now.
You hate your tummy time, but we can already see that you are getting stronger each day with it. You have been holding your head strong since you were born and it's just getting better and better. You like to follow the sound of our voices with your eyes. When Daddy comes home at night he is anxious to get cleaned up and hold you and I think your just as anxious to see him, your eyes get really big and flow him around the room. I just love to watch your daddy and you together. We can't believe how much you have changed our lives so much in just a month and we are so thankful that God blessed us with such a sweet and precious gift.

2 weeks!

We sure can't believe that our little girl has been with us for 2 weeks already! And she's already changed so much!
The first week home we had major help from my Mom, she took the week off of work and was able to help with the housework and cooking us dinner and grocery shopping for us. All the things that we thought we would have time for and didn't she was able to do for us and it was such a big help! We even got some good naps in while she was here which were much needed! Josh's parents were also able to help on the weekend, so neither of us had to step in the kitchen til Wednesday after Josh went back to work. He was able to be home for about 10 days which was wonderful. He has stepped into fatherhood perfectly!
Addison has made it so easy to adjust with a new baby at home. We were dreading the nights, but she would actually let us sleep for about 5 hours at a time if we wanted to, but we wake her up every 2-3 hours to feed her. The days are the hard part, I hear that's she's just like her father was and wants to be held and eat all the time. So I don't get hands free time until we get a visitor or Josh gets home. But we are both loving parenthood so far!
Addison had her first photo shoot when she was 1 week old. The photographer had said that with every shoot the baby will poo and pee atleast once, we were anxiously waiting on a poo for about a day since the dr still had us keeping track of all these things. Well she had her set up naked in one of the cutest little tea cups and Addison was giving the sweetest little smiles, sure enough she was also leaving a great big surprise in the bottom of this tea cup.I can't say the photographer was too happy about it, but Josh and I were and the picture turned out to be our favorite of all that were taken.

She's Arrived!

We are sure you all know by now, Addison Jean Hogue was born on February 26, 2012 at 6:23am weighing 8lb7oz and 21 inches long. After being told that I would be induced on Sunday morning, I was getting nervous about the contractions and having to be on pitocin. Josh and I were praying that I would go into labor on my own, and our prayers were answered. About 3:30am on Saturday morning, I woke up with contractions and just let Josh sleep as I stared at the clock to see how close they were together. They were getting more painful and closer together so at 5:30am I decided to get in the shower I woke up Josh and let him know that I was in labor, his response was "really, are you timing them" I told him that I was pretty sure this was it! After my shower I laid back down and started timing. The contractions were getting close to 5-7 min apart. I told Josh to go into work and finish up what he needed to in order to have the following week off. He left and I laid in bed continuing to time the contractions. We were on the phone with eachother every 30 min. I called him at 9:00am and told him he better come home because the contractions were now 4-6 min apart. He came home checked on me, and got in the shower. He picked up around the house and started packing the car with our suitcase and the camera bag. At 10:43 He decided to eat a sandwich and as soon as he was opening the fridge I was getting out of bed to use the bathroom, and GUSH! My water had broken! I just stood there by the bed, in excitement and fear...This is REALLY it! I yelled at Josh,
"I think... yep...my water just broke!!" he came rushing back "are you serious?!" Josh called Labor and Delivery, and let them know that we would be on our way in, and the nurse told him that there were no beds available and that we could wait it out at home for about an hour. Josh started "nesting" as I would call it, and cleaned up the kitchen and bathroom. And I just stayed in bed til
it was time to go. We hadn't called any of the family yet to clue them in on what was going on. So I called my mom while Josh called his. They were both shocked and excited to hear the news. I tried calling my sister 2x and didn't get an answer so I called Matt, and asked to speak to her. She got on the phone and I said "don't you know I'm 9 months pregnant" she said "yeah" and I said "my water broke we are leaving for the hospital!" she didn't believe me as I had previously been pranking our mom for about a week every time I called her house mom would answer with anticipation in her voice. So I told Katie about the mornings events! We let them all know that we would keep them updated but there was no need for them to rush to the hospital.
We got to the hospital at 1:00pm. They gave me a room in the post pardum wing and hooked me up to the monitors. Checked me in and we waited it out continuing with the contractions for a few hours. Once they moved me into labor and delivery around 4:30pm. I continued to breath through the contractions Josh was such a great coach, watching the monitor letting me know when they were peaking and when they were starting to go away. He would rub my back and massage my shoulders trying all that he could to keep me focused and calm. I hadn't decided if I wanted the epidural or not. The nurses told me that if I didn't start to have more contractions closer together that I would have to start the pitocin. I had heard that this would make my contractions closer together and stronger, and I was in so much pain already that I didn't know how I would handle the pain. So I told the nurses that I wanted to progress as much as I could on my own then get the epidural and then after that get the pitocin. So that was our plan...Around 7pm I got I.V. pain medication and that didn't help with the pain for more than just taking some edge off. I worked through as many more contractions as I could. The nurse came in and told me that the anesthesiologist was in the next room and could come in to give me the epidural next. I said okay, as long as I was progressed enough. I was so I got the epidural and was sooo nervous to have the needle in my back. I was trying to focus and breath through that as best I could. It actually hurt less than the I.V. The pitocin started next and the contractions did pick up and they got stronger. But I didn't feel a thing!
Josh called the family and told them all that they could come down to the hospital at this point it was close to 10:00pm. They all came in and checked up on us. I started to have problems with my blood pressure because of the epidural and was put on oxygen and ephedrin. Things would smooth out and then drop again. But Addison's heart rate stayed normal.
And now the real waiting game began! The nurses periodically cheked in and checked my progress and things were still moving a bit slow so they upped the pitocin and let me "labor down". It was 3:30am before I began pushing I pushed for 3 hours before the nurse called the Dr. When Dr. Nordeen came in they had already informed him that I was not progressing quickly. He left the room to change into his scrubs after mentioning plan B...But they didnt say what plan B was. So as he left, the nurse slightly mentioned C section. I looked at Josh and he looked at me and we were both so scared and after all these hours of labor, I was not going to have surgery. I pushed 3 more times with a lot of determination, and was able to progress just enough. When Dr. Nordeen got back into the room, he was willing to let me give it a few more tries before we would have to move to the operating room. He hooked up the Kiwi Vaccume and with one more push she was Born! After 27 hours of labor! That part of it was way faster than I thought it would be and I was so happy that it was all over and so overwhelmed with the whole experience, I can't even describe the excitement and joy that Josh and I both felt. It was the BEST moment of our entire life!
God has truly blessed us and continues to do so everyday!