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.