Christmas Day

Merry Christmas! We hope everyone has had a safe and happy holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus. We've spent a lazy day at home in our PJ's playing, eating, and napping. Anna came down the stairs this morning to the Christmas bells ringing (a new tradition we're starting) and then tore into her gifts. It was over sooo quick! She's definitely made lots of progress in her unwrapping skills compared to last year. :0) She's not moved very far from her dollhouse today and even had to put on her sunglasses as the sun was getting her through the windows in the living room but it didn't bother her enough to make her move. Enjoy the pictures and lots of love to you all!

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Belly shots

We're growing! Anna's growing taller and Mommy's growing wider. :0) We're at 28 weeks, just 2 1/2 months to go. We start going to the doctor every 2 weeks now and mommy's getting more and more uncomfortable. It seems much harder carrying this second baby compared to carrying Anna but I've heard that's just how it is...harder with each pregnancy. Or maybe we just forget what it was like before?!

All dressed up

Here we are in our Christmas best! Anna loves to get dressed up and do her hair pretty. She likes mommy to use the curling iron on it (she actually threw a fit yesterday b/c I wouldn't curl her hair!) although, silly girl, she has her own curls. We still add a few just to please her. I'm thankful she's a girly girl and lets me do her hair although it's really not an option. :0)

Christmas Activities

Anna has had tons of fun playing with the Christmas "window stickers" as she calls them. I had pulled some out of my teaching tubs for her and then Grandma brought her some and she has been very well entertained getting them just right. Anna has really enjoyed playing with our nativity set this year. It looks very delicate and pricey but it's actually plastic and it wasn't too pricey because mommy got it after Christmas 6 or so years ago for 1/2 price. She's very gentle with it and is learning what each piece means. The nativity was always my favorite part as well as a child. It was like a fun dollhouse that came out of the boxes for a month every year and I loved arranging all the people and animals just like she does. We've also been doing an advent calendar that Anna faithfully reminds us to do each night. I've not captured any pictures of it but she loves peaking under the next tab. I wish I could find a more toddler friendly one though so if anyone knows of one, we'd love to hear about it.

Anna's Lullaby

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Beethoven Jr.

Anna's been singing entire songs since she turned 2 and I've tried numerous times to catch it on video and finally was successful this morning. She loves to sing, loves to go to choir practice at church with us, and knows our Christmas cantata music just as well if not better than we do. :0)

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Building a Snowman

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When daddy got home from work yesterday, he went out to shovel the snow off the drive from the previous night before we got freezing rain on top of it last night and of course Anna was right on his heels. She was so excited to build a snowman! It's finished! Anna's first snowman or should I say snowgirl? This is what happens when a little girl burns lots of energy playing outside... :0)

Snow Jubilee

We were so excited to wake up to our first snow of the year this past Wednesday. We celebrated by making cookies and then going outside to play. Anna kept calling it the "snow jubilee" as she has a book about snowmen and the story talks about how the snowmen play outside together and have a snow jubilee. Anna couldn't wait to get outside! She dug her snowboots out of the closet first thing in the morning and had to wear them inside until we could go outside. We played outside for an hour although she only liked to play where I had shoveled and cleared the snow off. I think she was afraid of falling in the snow and not being able to get back up. Our faces were bright red and wind burnt by the time we came inside but we had lots of fun!

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Physical Therapy

Anna's been walking on her tiptoes since she was 18 months old and in October we started physical therapy to help her come out of it. She had a check-up yesterday with the PT Miss Vicky whom Anna calls "Miss Bicky" and she's making good progress. A typical 2 year old is supposed to be able to bend his/her foot back 10 degrees and when we started, Anna's right foot would only go back 2 degrees and her left would only go back 4 degrees. In the past 6 weeks she's gained 4 degrees on each side so we're now at 6 degrees on the right side and 8 degrees on the left. Miss Vicky said to continue doing her daily stretches (like in the picture above) and she thinks she'll come out of it just fine. Yea! What a relief that we don't have to put leg braces on her!