Chatter Box

Can't believe our girl is 21 months! I know I say that every time she turns another month older but gosh, time flies! She continues to say new words and phrases everyday. We love hearing her talk and repeat what she hears. Here are a few of her favorite phrases: "I be back", "I stink", "You sit down", "Go to church?". It's obvious some of the phrases are those she hears often. She loves to holler at people (and the neighbor's dogs), "Hey you!", when they walk by our house or at the neighbors when they're working in their yards. She'll then say, "How you?". She's also been telling people her name is Nate when they ask her what her name is. She's in love with her Uncle Nate and when we ask who she is she'll say "Nate" and then giggle. She definitely keeps us laughing and entertained even when we're not supposed to be laughing sometimes. :-) She's doing well learning her manners saying "pease", "tank tou", and "welca" at the right times. She picked those up pretty quickly. Our most favorite thing to hear her say is "I luv lou" for "I love you". Nothing brightens our day more than hearing her yell that when we put her to bed. It definitely makes us forget the toddler struggles we have throughout the day. She asks to go outside often and plays so well in the backyard. We're going to miss the fence once we move in a few weeks.

Pink and Purple

Pink and Purple are Miss Anna's favorite colors (imagine that of a girl). She can idenify pink and purple just about everywhere and gets blue correct 50 % of the time. It's amazing how quickly children learn at this age. Seems like they say something new every day.

"Mommy Anna"

Anna loves to dress up especially in mommy's high heels. She can walk in them pretty good as well. She also likes to play with purses and has great taste, always choosing a Vera to carry. :0) She's definitely a girly girl.

She's almost mastered the diapering task. She practices numerous times a day on her baby dolls. We've even caught her putting diaper creme on them. Yikes!! She's also the pro at using wipes to "clean" them off.

Warm Weather

We've been so blessed with some nice days of warm weather lately and we're loving it! Anna ran around the yard last night like a wild woman who'd been caged up for months and was finally set free. As you can see from the pictures, I couldn't even get her to hold still for 2 seconds to snap a picture. I'm sure she slept good last night!

Anna's baby stroller has been getting lots of "exercise" the past few days.

Playing at the park

We went to a local park this weekend and had a good history lesson. It was nice to get outside and enjoy the fresh air, although it was a bit cooler than we thought. Anna enjoyed climbing on the monument and walking all over the park. She's definitely an outside kind of girl. :0)

20 months

Turning 20 months old means getting 20 month molars and Miss Anna has been quite cranky lately due to the new teeth coming in. What a relief it will be when teething is overwith!! Fussy days, restless nights, low grade fevers, very yucky diapers...goodness! It's not fun for any of us. But, Praise the Lord for her teeth and her age appropriate development. She's a very healthy girl and a wonderful blessing!

Lasagna, Shoes, and Hats

Three of Anna's favorite things...lasagna, shoes, and hats!

Playing with Uncle Nate's shoes, they're almost as big as she is! Playing with Grandpa's boots

She picks this black velvet hat and these navy blue shoes to go with everything she wears. She loves to dress up in anything she can get on. I was proud of her for getting the shoes on all by herself, however, they're on the wrong feet. She's such a goof sometimes...providing us with lots of laughter! :0)

Friends

This is Anna's buddy, Matthew, just 3 months younger than her. She talks about Matthew daily and gets to play with him at least 2 times a week at church in the nursery. My parents were visiting when he was at our house and loved watching him dance. He's definitely got rhythm! :0) He's so much fun and thankfully he and Anna play very well together.

First Haircut

This isn't the best picture but if you look at how long her hair is in the picture above and then look at her hair in the picture below, you'll see how much I cut off. Her hair in the back was getting stringy looking so we decided to trim about an inch off. It looks much healthier now and will hopefully continue to grow in thicker. Thankfully she still has her pretty curls. We were worried that if we cut her hair her curls would be gone but they bounced right back. :0)

Making Cookies

Obviously these pictures are from a few weeks ago but I've been wanting to post them and am just now getting to it. Anna LOVED making sugar cookies!! We might've had more sprinkles on the floor than on the cookies but they were definitely yummy to eat and it was a fun way to spend the afternoon.

Daddy's Helper

The past two weeks have been a blur! The "Blizzard of 2007" kept Daddy at home a few days and then lots of appointments this past week have just kept us very busy. We've found a house we really like so we're signing the paperwork on it tomorrow night, Praise the Lord. It needs some updating but we love the location and layout of the house. Below, Anna is "helping" Daddy get set up for a meeting. Thankfully he could still work from home via cell phone and computer while stuck at home in the snow. :0)

More Snow

Lots of shoveling (mostly by daddy) awaited us this morning as we looked out the window to see 17 inches of fresh snow.

Snow pile as tall as our mailbox

Snow drifts are so fun to play in.

Sledding on piles of snow is fun too. You can barely see the top of one of the bushes peeking out beside Anna in her sled.

Daddy thought he needed to try sledding down the snow drifts as well.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's to everyone! It is a wonderful day to be thankful for our loved ones, but most of all for the love of God. Part of my devotions this morning had a great reminder... "long after the cards and flowers are forgotten, there is love from God's heart to ours" and it's always there no matter what we say or do. It's unconditional, what a blessing!

Happy Birthday to Daddy!

We celebrated Michael's birthday this past Wednesday. Anna was quite impressed with the candles on his cake. He loves Marsh grocery store cake so now that we're back in the midwest, that's what he got. I am so blessed that God chose him to be my husband and Anna is a very lucky girl to have a daddy who takes such great care of her.

This is daddy's favorite way for Anna to wear her hair. Quite the cute little pony tail! (She's cheering for the Colts while watching the Superbowl in this picture)

Snowy day

We were so excited to get outside and play! Anna's first time getting to use her new sled

She ended up falling backwards while on her way down the small hill in our front yard.

She went to "help" daddy shovel but wiped out instead.

She DID NOT want to come inside although her cheeks and nose were so red they had to be cold!

Let me out of here!!!

She ended up calming down when daddy let her play with his sock hat or should I say "toboggan" for all you southerners. :0)

Don't you love her outfit? She's quite mismatched but I was layering her up in whatever was warmest like mommy's wool socks that go clear up to her thighs.