Merry Christmas

Anna had a great time Saturday and Sunday. Thanks to everyone for all the gifts. She woke up Sun with Kayli (the cabbage patch kid) and her first words were "my bear". Kayli even went to school today! She loves everything. She also got a remote control train set Sun from Jerry and Tammy and trust me its a big hit. She got out of bed today and got all dressed, as soon as she saw that train she started playing with it! Anna is having a great time and I am trying to explain to her she had to leave the remote at home so it would be with the train. She finally went and put it back and got ready to go! Thanks so much to everyone.

I just love this pic, if only I could get me comp to edit the red eyes out! Its a different program then I usually use.

Anna and Grandma

Tractor

Anna got a Gator for Christmas from Grandpa Rick and Grandma Judy. I know Christmas is not here yet but Anna was so happy when she saw it in their garage so we had to let her take it for a ride. It did not take long for her to figure out how to make it go!

Jingle Bells

We finally put up our Christmas tree, I was not looking forward to keeping Anna from bugging it but she is doing great and says "no touch" "I see" and "my barbie tree". Anna had the job of taking everything from me and handing it to Josh. She loved helping, check out the princess hat daddy got to wear! What a good sport he is.

She also has a dancing Santa great grandma gave her. Last night we lined up her friends so they could all watch Santa sing Jingle Bells about 50 times! Thanks so much Great Grandma.

School Pics

"I Big Girl"

Anna is getting so big now and doing lots of big girl things. This includes my favorite of using the POTTY! She is doing great. Anna has been in big girl panties since Thanksgiving! She even went to Walmart in them. Yesterday I sent her to school in her Dora panties and she was so proud so was I when I picked her up and learned she still had them on. I asked her if she was good and she said "mommy I big girl" "I potty"! How great is that. Now I am just hoping this works and we don't have to do pull ups any more except for bed time. She picks out which panties she wants every morning and is usually very happy to put them on! Looks like my goal of having Anna potty trained before baby arrives just might work out! Go Anna, she makes me so proud everyday. You never know how proud your parents are of you in life until you become a parent yourself!

Take me Daddy!

This is Anna standing in Josh's lunch bucket, I think she wants to go with her daddy to work!

It has a flap that opens in the top which she climbs in.

"Push Please"

Anna's cousin Savannah gave her a baby doll stroller. Anna has had so much fun with this silly thing. She gives "a ride" to her babies, frog, and anything else she thinks should get in.

Sometimes pushing around babies/animals is just no fun so look who gets in then. Anna and she sits and says "push push please" the girl loves for us to push her around in the stroller. I don't think the thing is going to last long! Daddy gets pretty wild with it and Anna just laughs the whole time.

Trick or Treat

We took Anna and Caleb out to Trick or Treat Friday. They both had a great time, and told everyone "Thank you"! Anna even told a few people "Your Welcome". Now every time she sees the bucket she says a piece. We all had a great time.

Photo Free Friday

Sorry to all we missed the big Trick or Treat. We had big plans and Josh worked hard to get everything we needed loaded in the car and pick me and Anna both up early. He even thought ahead and had milk for Anna on the way home to go to sleep with. He had extra clothes and all kinds of good stuff packed up. So we started on our way to Liz's for some pizza and treats! We were over 1/2 way and stopped at a traffic light we I turned around just in time to see Anna get sick and catch most of it with a blanket. We stopped cleaned up and headed home. Sorry we missed all the fun, maybe next year! Today Anna is home with Dad and she felt much better this morning.

Bath Time

It seems we might be starting to turn a corner when it comes to the bath. In the last week Anna has been better about getting in the tub. Some days she runs back saying bath, bath, bath trying to get her clothes off. Others she tries to take mine off so I will get in with her. Some nights after getting in and getting her hair washed she will start screaming mommy mommy and wants out! It is not as bad as it used to be so we are hoping in another week or two she will be happy the whole time. Josh bought her a basketball hoop for the tub and the first day she had it she did not want out. That was awesome. Notice the lack of water in the tub, Anna did not seem to. She simply said bye bye water and went on playing. I wish all baths went as well as that one did.

Chocolate Covered

Anna had her first Lindsey's Bakery chocolate covered cream filled donut! I think she likes them as much as her mommy does! If you have never had donut from Lindsey's or some cake, you really need some. They have the best stuff! Why did it take me so long to share this joy with Anna? We don't have them at home usually just at work, so I took one home for her. Check out Anna below she is also chocolate covered.

Pumpkins

Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Tammy got creative with their pumpkins this year. Check out the faces on the pumpkins can you guess who they are?



Did you figure it out? Its Anna and Ceridwyn! I take this as a hint they miss the girls.

Splash!

Thursday night we watched Caleb and Makayla while their parents went to the funeral home. The kids had a great time, crappy reason to have them over though! The three of them ate, played and laughed. Josh and I also laughed at them and ourselves. Getting 3 little ones ready to eat was very funny. Everyone wanted the food now and it was all hot! When dinner was done everyone went off to play, sometimes alone and sometimes with each other. Caleb wanted to watch a movie. All three of the kids wanted to sit on Anna's little couch.

Makayla

It started getting late so it was time to move the party to the bath tub. What a party they had too! Anna still screams at bath time, but not when friends join. Makayla likes to lay down in the tub with her head under water. Caleb he is a splasher! It was a great night and lots of fun.

Jammin

This is so cute I had to share. Anna discovered Grandmas IPod. She holds it to her ear and listens to the music. Don't even try to attach it to her ear, she wants to hold it. She also takes it around and lets everyone else listen.

My Big Girl Chair

Anna got a new chair yesterday! She is so proud to sit in her big girl chair, and tell you big girl! Josh got it all ready and put it on our chair and before he was finished Anna wanted in. She was very happy about getting a big girl chair, no more baby chair (highchair). I am glad to be able to put it away until the next kid needs it. They are wonderful but can be quite a pain too! Plus Anna likes to climb on it, which leads to falling. She has been eating at the big kid table at school for a few months now, which means a small chair she gets in and out of alone. They tell me she has only fallen off a few times but never cries just gets back up and starts eating again, not much gets in her way if she is hungry.



I was busy making supper potato soup and honey baked ham when I looked over to see Anna in her chair saying hungry, eat, hungry! So as you can see I had to hurry things up so she could have her dinner. After finishing her dinner she worked on daddy's grilled ham and cheese then mom's potato soup! I think she kept eating so that she could stay in the chair.



Where has time went my baby is so grown up. The older you get the faster time goes and once you have children wow it flies!

Happy to be in my big girl chair.

So big!

A Purple World

Anna lives in a purple world, everything is purple! Her favorite color, her pants, her shirt, and until lately the school bus! We often pass a bus in the morning and I always ask Anna what color is the bus? It took me a week of saying the bus is yellow, the school bus is yellow, the color of the bus is yellow or some other version! She finally got it, now when I ask her what color is the bus she says yellooww! I was so happy the first time she said it! Everything else is still purple!

Anna in Daddy's shirt

Snickers

Anna discovered Snickers this morning! That's right I said this morning before going to school. While cleaning out grandmas bag, a morning tradition she found a Snickers. Grandma kindly said "take that to grandpa and tell him to put it in his pocket for later". Anna made her way to Grandpa but instead of giving him the Snickers she looked at him and said "a piece" when she got no response from Grandpa she came my way and looked up with those big blue eyes and said "a piece"? So I figured what the heck, she already ate Lucky Charms and some Teddy Grahams so why not. With that I opened it up and handed it over. Anna loved Snickers, she ate some then decided she was done and took it to Grandpa like she was told to start with. So call me a sucker my child at Snickers for breakfast. This goes along with the pizza she had earlier in the week for breakfast, because when I asked her what she wanted she told pizza. Don't worry look at all the food groups that covered! Pizza is my favorite breakfast too so I can't tell her no! At our house leftovers seem to be preferred and Anna is catching on!

Anna is also talking like crazy now. When you ask her whats your name she says "Anna"! How cool is that she is learning so much. She is getting good at picking out shapes thanks to Lisa and Carla at school and animals sounds which we all do with her.

On another note Anna does not want to take a bath this past week. As soon as she is naked she runs the opposite way of the bath and screams and cries. If Josh is home she yells Daddy Daddy, like he is prince charming coming to rescue her! She screams most of the time in the tub, even if I get in with her. Does anyone have any suggestions to get us past this. Nothing bad has happened in the bath one day she decided not to get in and now at bath time its on! Any ideal? Please I am desperate for help on this matter.






Don't mind the date on the pic, my cameras a few years behind! Maybe I will remember to fix that some day.

The Wheels on The Bus

The Wheels on the bus is one of Anna's favorite songs. We have a movie she loves which plays The Wheels On The Bus. The kids in the video have motions they do and Anna does them, she also gets a little crazy and makes up her own. The video you she is what happens most of the time when the song comes on the TV. Sometimes she is a little calmer then this and sometimes if you can believe it she gets even funnier! This is such a fun time watching Anna grow and change!

Sorry we have been MIA for awhile we lost Internet due to the wind storm and today is the first day we are back online. What did we do with our time before we were all so connected?

ONE

That's right I am happy to report we saw 1 baby and heard the heartbeat today. Baby is due on Grandpa Jerry's birthday! Anna will gladly point out where the baby is right now. She has been practicing her role as a big sister with the baby dolls. She feeds them, gives them a bottle, and puts them on the potty! Looks like we will have a lot of great help when the baby arrives. Back to Anna next time.

Great News!

Josh and I are very excited to share the news Anna is going to be a big sister! I am not due until the end of April, but we can't wait. As for Anna I am not sure she is ready to share mommy, but she loves babies. We did not plan on letting everyone in on the news this early but it seems people are figuring it out. Partly because I have been getting sick a lot, and partly because if you ask us if we want more our big smiles give it away.

Anna's big girl room is complete. We don't plan on making the move for awhile but she sure loves the room and the butterflies! She also says purple. Daddy did a great job with the room. I am sure Anna is going to love it.

She is growing so fast and adding words to her vocabulary all the time. Some of my favorite new words, mulk, please, dirt and hug! Usually when she says hug someone is getting a big one! It is so amazing to watch her grow and learn. It really makes one stop and think of all the things we take for granted in life! She is amazing and we are so blessed to have her and a baby on the way. We will keep you all post.

**Liz the book was for Courtney!

Cool Shades

This is my new favorite picture of Anna. It was taken in the car, which is a surprise to see her so happy. For those of you who don't know Anna is not usually very happy about riding in the car. This has been a battle since she was about 6 months old. A friend gave her a sucker and I sat in the back with her so she could eat it. You can see Anna was having a great time in the car eating the sucker and sporting her cool shades!

The Offical Stats

Anna had her 15 month visit today. If went well until the nurse came in with the shots. She screamed until I picked her up after 4 heartbreaking shots!

Her offical Stats

31 inches tall 60th
22.6 pounds 40th
Don't know what her head measured but it was 40th

So still tall and skinny!

Putt Putt Golf

I know you all think we are crazy to attempt putt putt with a 15 month old, but we did. It was a lot of fun. Anna did very well. She let us help her hit the ball and took it all in. Maybe she will be a golfer? I just hope she is better then her mom was. She did not hit anything except the ball or anyone with the putter. She did help us all get better scores. She would hit first and then chase her ball so Josh and I usually had a hole in 2 because Anna picked up all the balls and put them right in the hole. Then when all 3 where in the hole she would help daddy collect them and off to the next hole we would go.

Enjoying daddy's soft pretzel before putt putt

Modeling the new hat daddy picked out!

We also made daily stops at the play ground!