A Week in the Life...

I don't live close to my mom. I haven't since I moved away my first year of BYU to live in the dorms. I always pictured my married life with children being close to family. It hasn't been that way (at least not yet - a girl can hope, can't she?); we're going on 7 years here in Virginia with no big changes on the horizon.

Besides the free babysitting, the Sunday dinners, the shared holidays and all that comes with living near family, I most of all miss seeing my mom every day. I wish, frequently throughout the week, that I could call her up and we could meet for lunch. I wish we could do mundane things like run errands together- pick up dry cleaning and run to Costco. I wish I had her eye close by to tell me if the new seat covers will match my kitchen. I wish...

But although I don't have my family close by every day, I think we do a pretty darn good job of flying out to see each other throughout the year. My mom flew out this last week to be with us on her Spring Break and we enjoyed a perfectly boring, albeit normal, week in the life of the Manns. She wanted to live "a week in the life of my daughter." And live it she did, from doctor's appointments to babysitting to Costco runs to park outings to hair appointments to never-ending chores. But we had a FABULOUS time doing it together...like we always do.

A few highlights:

If you've never been to DC during the Cherry Blossoms, put it on your Bucket List. It is pure beauty, plain and simple.

Happy St. Patrick's Day from these sweet shamrock sisters!

Grandma arrived this morning from Arizona, followed by a fun lunch out, then a shamrock scavenger hunt for the girls. They found rainbow clues all around the house and finished with a pot of gold in the front yard. They loved it! (Well, Makenna loved it, Addison mostly loved diligently following her big sis around, chasing after the clues.)

Addison's 2!

My little one turned 2 this last week. What a big girl she is! We had a low-key, but fun, day on Monday.

Our awesome home teachers brought over their family's traditional birthday cake for her, a pink popcorn cake covered with M&M's (we all got a small cavity just looking at it).

She opened up her birthday cards in the morning that she got in the mail. I'm not sure that she knows what money is, but she knows we all got excited for her and told her she's rich.\

Makenna and I took our little lady out for lunch at Chick-Fil-A. They both had fun playing in the play area and getting ice cream with pink birthday sprinkles.

That evening we had a little family party and Addison opened up her presents and devoured her funfetti cake with rainbow sprinkles.

Aren't these bunny ears too cute? Gigi sent them from Arizona and Addison thought she was all that for the rest of the night.
Makenna helped me pick out Addison's presents. She raked in with the kitchen appliances (she adores every aspect of food- namely, eating and playing with it).


We love this girl so very much! She is a light in our family, always making us laugh at her silly jokes. She is learning to share with Makenna (and vice versa). Whenever Addison heads to the pantry to sneak a snack, she always sneaks an extra one for Makenna. It's too cute to get upset about. She isn't a huge talker yet, but she's learning new words every day and repeating lots of things. She loves spotting big "rucks" (trucks) on the road, pleading for a "bite, bite, bite" of something, and calling for "daddy" and "mommy" unrelentingly.

She also loves playing with her big sister (they're taking an airplane ride here while I mop the kitchen floor). Makenna's a good sport and lets Addison play doll house with her.

Her 2-year stats are:

Height: 35.5"; 90%
Weight: 29 lbs.; 78%

Seems pretty incredible to think about in comparison to this...

We love you Addison! Happy birthday, big girl:)