Clean Blankie

Anna would take her blankie everywhere, if we let her.  And, I'll admit, somedays we do.  Taking a bath with her blankie, well, that's a different story.  She always watches as the tub fills up but last night she tossed blankie in and tried her best to climb in after it as she waited for the tub to fill.   Lucky for us, she can't get into the tub unassisted yet, so she just watched blankie sink to the bottom.  This first picture was taken as soon as she got into the tub.  To me, the look on her face says it all.  She knows she's getting away with something.  Sweet, silly girl.

Little Baker

Anna started her baking apprenticeship recently.  So far she has mastered how to properly cover her arms with baking mitts. Wait, what?!  :)  She usually is at my feet in the kitchen and always gets into something she shouldn't right when I have two dirty hands! 

I've got baking plans every day this week.  You may wonder what I have left to bake considering I mentioned that we baked over 20 different cookies a few weekends ago.  Well, the truth of the matter is, I can't eat any of those.  Ha, pretty crazy huh?  Anyway, I have a few dairy free cookies to make this week but more importantly to me are the goodies for Christmas morning breakfast.

Christmas morning breakfast translates to way too much yummy breakfast food in my world.  My mom always had lots of different breads, fresh fruit, egg casseroles, etc for us to have Christmas morning.  Now that Christmas is at my house, I've got some baking to do.  Don't get me wrong, I love baking.  So I'm in heaven.  I made one type of bread this morning and another is rising now. The only problem I see is that I made four small loaves this morning and I'm already down to three! :)

Anna's One! Third and final part.

So for someone who doesn't think you should go overboard for birthdays, we certainly had a lot of first birthday festivities around here.

Anna's third and final first birthday was held during Cookie Weekend. If you are a regular around this blog, you know my family gets together one weekend in December to make Christmas cookies and Butterstolen. We've been doing this for 25 years! We make over 20 different kinds of cookies and split them up between 8 families. Last year Allen and I planned to missed cookie weekend because it was too close to my due date to travel. Little did we know, Miss Anna was going to arrive the Thursday before cookie weekend, so we spent the weekend in the hospital!

Anna's birthday party was a huge hit. Anna made sure of it. She was a total ham and LOVED being the center of attention. If I had not birthed her myself, I might question her being our child. She doesn't like to sleep AND she loves being the center of attention. Who is this kid? :)

Anna received lots of very nice toys and gifts. She was a pro at opening presents this time because she'd already opened numerous gifts the week before at the first two celebrations. She didn't quite get why we didn't let her play with each one as she opened it though.

Anna was pretty neat while she enjoyed her cake. Well, really just the icing and the cookies. While, we know she likes the cake apparently it doesn't compare to the icing or the cookies. She grinned from ear to ear while we all sang to her and was mesmerized by the candle.

All of the party decorations, along with Anna's dress and hat, were courtesy of my mom and one her best friends. They had lots of fun and everything turned out beautifully

As always, the outpouring of love and generosity from our families and friends during Anna's birthday celebrations touched my heart. All three of us are so blessed for each and everyone of you.

Click here for Cookie Weekend Pictures

Click here for Birthday Party Pictures

 

 

The difference a year makes

St. Nicholas Day 2011 vs 2010

Anna's One Part Two

After Thanksgiving but before her actual birthday and cookie weekend, we squeezed in a little celebration with our good friends here in NC.  This time she had a cupcake and made a lovely mess out of it.  She made sure to lick all the icing off first, then she ate the cookies, and then she destroyed the cupcake!

All smiles during the singing of Happy Birthday.

She was by far the messiest at home.

Looking at her new book.

Anna's One! Part One

Thanksgiving weekend was pretty busy for us.  In three days we visited Allen's family, saw my parents, aunt, uncle, and new cousin who were in town visiting Abby, went on a hike with our nephew, did a little shopping (none of that crazy black Friday stuff, that's when we hiked), and celebrated Anna's first birthday.  Anna's first birthday. Wow. She's been here a whole year.  I've included some pictures from her birthday, and you'll have to take my word on the other stuff. I don't have the pictures to prove it.  At least not on this computer.

A look of disbelief, "You really are going to let me do this?"

Reading her new book.

She really liked the icing.

And the cookies.

Here's the cake I made for her.

Daddy's girl

Look at that face!

Time goes by

The days are slipping by here at our house.  (It is probably similar at your house.) I'm mean seriously, I'm planning first birthday stuff.  I hope that some of these moments will stick with me forever.  So that I can always remember the sweet smiles, the playtime, and the tentative first steps that are most likely just around the corner.

Of course, the camera isn't far away.  Ever.  We should name the camera, wouldn't you want to have a name if you were invited to every family event (even the little random ones in the middle of the week)? Hmm, I'll have to think about that.  So this unnamed member of our family, is a huge help to remembering all the moments of our little girl's life.  We are constantly running out of space on our hard drives.  Yes, I said hard drives, as in multiple full ones.  And I'm really not exaggerating about the space issues we have.

Enough chatter.  The whole point of this post is to share a few moments that will stick with me because of the camera. How about the name, Cam?

Anna's first cookie.

Homemade Gingerbread

Playtime under her highchair

Under the table

After taking her picture, she came over to say,
"Hi, Mama.  I love you so much, I just wanna squeeze you."

Treasure Hunt

Our friend turned 7 at the beginning of the month, and we were invited to help celebrate.  So off we went to a local park to gem mine!  The water was freezing but we all had a good time.  Afterwards, we had cake and pizza at their house complete with gifts and singing.  We ordered a cheese pizza with extra sauce and no cheese for me.  It wasn't a typical pizza but it was close enough for this dairy free girl!  I'm so glad we are neighbors again and can help celebrate birthdays as well as the normal days in between.
I was there seven years ago when Clark was born.  I held him when he was no more than few minutes old. I got to witness their family expand from three to four. It was a special day and seems like just yesterday.  I know the next six years will go by just as quickly if not quicker due to the lack of sleep at our house not theirs, and we will be celebrating Anna's seventh birthday.  Eek! Probably shouldn't think about it and just focus on the birthday coming up in a few weeks. 

Here's a link to the pictures from our Gem Mining Trip.

Pumpkin's first pumpkin

After the balloons came the pumpkins for Halloween.  You've seen the costume and trick or treat pictures.  But you haven't seen the pumpkin patch, the carving event, or the pumpkin photo shoot pictures!
So here's the story - we are lucky enough to have a great pumpking patch just a mile down the road from us.  We decided we'd go in the morning to avoid the rush but didn't quite get out the door when we planned. Something about an extra sleepy baby.  We went all out and bought tickets that included a hay ride, a petting zoo, apple cider, and of course a pumpkin.  Anna was really into the hay ride. Specifically the hay.  Weird because she hates grass.  If you look carefully at one of the pictures from the pumpkin photo shoot you can see her trying desperately to crawl without putting her bare foot in the grass.  Oops, I'm getting ahead of myself.  So Anna liked the hay so much she even ate it!  The hay ride was through an apple orchard, past a pond, and ended at a petting zoo.  Anna was pretty interested in the animals.  She even fussed once when our friend holding her moved away from the rabbit cage.  The best part was watching her reach out to touch the animals.  She was all about petting the goats but only on her terms.  When the goats would approach her she would pull her hand back real quick.  After a return hay ride, we were free to roam the pumpkin patch to pick the perfect pumpkin.  I wanted one big enough to fit Anna in but even if she's a small eleven month old she wasn't going to fit in any of those pumpkins. Hmphf.  Maybe next year. ;) We each picked our pumpkins and headed home for naps. 

In the end only, Anna took a nap and it was a pretty awful one.  Apparently, having a fever messes with her nap schedule.  Oh, did I mention the happy playful baby from the pumpkin patch and hay ride had a fever the whole time?  Ah ha, extra sleepy baby explained!! Mom and Dad of the year nominations, right here folks.  After a dose of medicine, she was ready for her close up.  We packed up and headed to our friends.  Another long drive, about a mile in the other direction!  We cleaned all the pumpkins and set up for some pictures.  If I couldn't get her in the pumpkin I was certainly going to get some good pictures with pumpkins.  Again, our sweet girl was a rock star.  She put up with us taking over 100 pics even with the fever and runny nose.  She played among the pumpkins, rolling them around, hitting them like drums, standing up on them.  Basically posing for lots of great pictures!

After pictures, we carved the pumpkins, ate dinner, and waited for dark so we could light our pumpkins!  Finally once it was dark enough, we took some spooky pictures of our creations.  I carved a pumpkin to mimic one of the faces Allen pulled while we were cleaning out the pumpkins - can you tell which one?

Anyway - that's our story in words, and here's our story in pictures.

A Classic Shot

Anna's new hangout. 

She thinks it's just perfect once you get rid of some of the containers.

Balloon Fest 2011

We went to the North Carolina Balloon Fest in October for the second year in a row.  It's an awesome experience to be in and among 50 some hot air balloons as they launch.  Anna was pretty interested in all the balloons and pointed them out to us once they were in the air. 

Balloons!!

a fall trip home

We combined a trip to visit friends and their new baby with a business trip for Allen with a trip home for Anna and me.  It worked out really well except for trying to go to the National Zoo and finding parking in DC. Public transportation was created for a reason.  Anyway, in typical fashion this Postcard is super late but enjoy these pictures from our trip. 

A Fall Trip Home Photo Album

eleven

 

eleven words from the last eleven months

love

pride

beauty

strength

joy

peace

awe

excitement

laughter

delight

gratitude

Trick or Sweet

Anna made it for about thirty to forty-five minutes before she fell asleep while trick or treating tonight.   She was happy to watch all the activity around her, that is when she could see out of her ladybug hood!  She was thrilled with the one "treat" she got - a glow stick bracelet.  When we got home, she even helped us hand out candy.  She also helped me count how many pieces were left at the end of the night.  She took each piece out of the bucket one at a time.  Sometimes even showing me what it was before putting it on the floor.  Such a sweet girl, she loves putting things in and taking things out of boxes and baskets.  Over and over again.  In and out.

Here are a few pictures before we left the house. 

Couldn't get her attention focused on the camera.

The lighting was so nice. I wish we had taken more shots!

I love the expression on both of their faces. Is it disbelief or are they surprised?

First Halloween

Pictures from Colorado

Here are some of those 800 pictures I was taking about earlier.

Picture Link

And here's our Daily Log - if you are interested.

Day one.  Early morning flight.  After sitting on the airplane for about five minutes, five minutes full of touching everything, crawling from lap to lap, pulling up on the seat in front of us, licking the window, putting the shade up and down, we realized with smiles, we are crazy.  Crazy in a wonderful way though.  I’m so happy to travel the three of us.  So crazy or not, we were on our way.  All in all, Anna was awesome on the plane.   We lucked out and had an empty seat in our row which Anna took full advantage of.  We landed in Denver mid day and planned on driving to Colorado Springs to sightsee that afternoon.  We made our way to The Garden of the Gods park to take in the views.  Anna enjoyed the hike from her backpack.  The afternoon light was fantastic on the red sandstone formations in the park.

Day two. Making our way to RMNP.  Allen left us sleeping at the hotel and took some pictures at Garden of the Gods in the early morning light.  We took our time in the morning and moseyed on to Estes Park with a short stop for lunch at the B&B café in Castle Rock which happens to be the oldest eatery in Colorado.   We stopped in at the Falls River Visitor Center of Rocky Mountain National Park.  I spoke with a ranger and came up with a game plan for our visit.  We drove into the park from the east side and saw many elk in the meadows.  One bull elk had close to thirty cows in his harem.  We caught a few minutes of an elk presentation given by a park ranger at one of the visitor centers.  Anna was a little noisy for us to stick around for the whole thing.  Not to mention we were getting cold.

Day three.  Our day started with a drive into the park and along the way there were lots of opportunities for elk viewing.  Both in the Sheep Lakes area and the Moraine Basin.  We parked the car and rolled down the windows to listen to the bugling.   Our plan for the day was to hike to Mills Lake but hiking 5.6+ miles was a little daunting at the altitude and with Anna in the backpack.  So we talked with the ranger and decided that taking the hike to Emerald Lake would give us more bang for our buck.  Less mileage and along the way we would see Nymph Lake and Dream Lake.  The hike was great and each of the three lakes was unique.  At Emerald Lake we stopped and got Anna out of the backpack and rested for a little.  I have to say it was the prettiest spot I’ve ever nursed her.   Along the road to Grand Lake we stopped at the Alpine Visitor Center.  The visitor center is just under 12,000 feet in elevation and has a nice view.  Once past Alpine Visitor Center, the drive becomes pretty boring.  The spectacular views are definitely on the east side of the park.   We had dinner at a local Mexican restaurant in Grand Lake, El Pacifico.

Day four.  We left our hotel early to start the drive back to Estes Park through the national park.  We had marked a few places along the way that we wanted to stop because of different lighting.  We saw a few elk along the road on the west side of the park.  One even had velvet on his antlers still – not sure what that was all about.  We decided to check out the Sprague Lake natural trail.  Since it was a short walk, I decided I would try my hand at carrying Anna in the backpack.  While it is very comfortable, I’m glad Allen doesn’t mind carrying her!  The lake is home to trout which means we were able to watch some fly fishermen try their luck.  Allen saw a small lake outside of the main park border but still national park land called Lily Lake.  We couldn’t check into our hotel, even though we tried, so we decided to check out the lake.  It was similar to Sprague lake in that it was an easy path around a pretty lake.  Anna enjoyed the walk and caught a quick nap in the backpack.  We went to a local BBQ place for dinner called, Smokin’ Dave’s.  It seemed kind of silly to have Carolina pulled pork in Colorado but it was good and the corn bread was out of this world. 

Day five.  Heading into the park for our final day, Allen realized that each time we went into the park Anna had been sleeping.  I was thankful she was taking an early nap this day because her night had been rough.  She was up for about two hours in the middle of the night just unable to settle down and sleep.  Out of all the hotels we stayed at this hotel we heard the most noise from our neighbors, so I was a little worried that they heard our grump-a-lump. But what can you do?  I just focused on keeping her as comfortable as possible and eventually she drifted off to sleep in my arms.  We weren’t sure what we would do on our last day in the park.  Many of the trailhead parking lots filled up quickly and we were the latest we had been heading into the park.  We lucked out and found a parking spot at Glacier Gorge trailhead and decided to check out Alberta falls.  I’m so glad we did because this ended up being my favorite hike.  The aspen trees along the path were simply amazing.  All throughout the park we had see the beautiful yellows, golds, and oranges of the aspen leaves but this hike was the best.  We walked right through a couple groves of trees and it was very pretty.  The falls themselves were nice too.  We decided to swing by Bear Lake on our way back to the car.  The view across the lake was stunning and gave us a good view of where we had hiked the day before.  Up, up, and up!  On our drive out of the park we saw a mama bear and her cubs.  No pictures because they were walking away from the road and it was a madhouse with all the idiots out in the woods practically chasing after the bears!  We did a little shopping downtown Estes Park with a couple hundred other people.  The Elk Fest was going on in Estes Park this weekend and we noticed a very big increase in people in the park as well as the town.  We were glad to be getting out of town that afternoon.   There was a glassblowing shop and studio in town.  We picked out a small glass ornament for our Christmas ornament from the trip there.  Our drive to Denver was a little exciting, first we got diverted by emergency personnel from one road because of an accident, and then the second road we wanted to take was closed as well this time due to construction!  We made it to our hotel in time to watch the Clemson game and see our Tigers win!

Day six. Our flight home was another early one and happened to be Anna’s 10 month birthday.  Whew, where does the time go?  It seems like just last night I first brought her up to my chest.  Sigh, Mamas always wish for time to slow down.  Anna was a little less thrilled with the idea of a three plus hour flight.   She fought sleep most of the time and it took  two of us to keep her happy at times.  As we were taxiing to the gate I caught a glimpse of something white in her mouth.  Her first teeth!!

Soccer Game!

Aunt Abby's team was in town (less than two hours away) so we decided to make a day trip. Here are pictures to tell our story.

800+ Pictures

Do you know who wins between 800 pictures and a very cute little girl?  No brainer, right? Well, we still have all those pictures to go through but here are a few Allen pulled out the other night. Thank goodness we took it easy on the shutter this trip.  Less than 5 days and 800 pictures isn't as bad as it could have been! ;)

When we got there we were a little disappointed with the fall colors.  We thought we were too early for the really spectacular stuff.  But each day we were there the aspens kept turning and it ended up that we didn't miss a thing at all.   Stay tuned for more pictures like these but with the previously mentioned cute little girl!

Testing 1,2,3

As a new smartphone owner, I wanted to see just how easy it is to blog on the go. Basically, I wanted to play with my new phone!

Here's a picture from one of our hikes! Daddy's assistant.

Colorado 1

A (self)family portrait from one of our hikes in Colorado last week. 

More pictures and stories to come!!

A Case of the Mondays

Hope your Monday is happy! :)

Gameday 1,2,3

1. Surprised at how awesome Clemson Tigers are playing?  Or perhaps naptime?

2. Nap through halftime and 3rd quarter.....

3. Celebrate a Clemson victory with Daddy!!