23 Months

We had a great time playing at the park this morning celebrating Anna's 23 month b-day. It's hard to believe that in one more month our baby (I know I need to quit calling her that) will be 2. Goodness, it goes too fast! It doesn't seem as hard this time though as it was when she turned 1. Anna loved the slide and was able to do it all by herself by the time we left.

This is a great playground as they have different sections of play equipment for all different ages of children.

We have a swing for her at home but no where to hang it so we're going to have to get serious about buying a swing set or finding a tree to hang it from so that we can hear her giggles of excitment at home. This was obviously her favorite thing to do.

Michael was bummed he didn't bring his fishing pole but at least we got to enjoy watching the ducks, even tiny babies, swim. Next time we'll have to remember to take some bread to feed them.

Happy Birthday Grandpa & Grandma Burch

We spent this past Saturday with Daddy's family celebrating Grandpa and Grandma Burch's 80th and 77th birthdays. Anna had a fun time playing with her cousins and all the new toys. She did a good job playing on the car ride there and slept part of the way home. She even took a good nap away from home...YEA! Playing football with Grandpa and Bayli

Grandma and Anna playing telephone (one of Anna's favorite toys!)

Snuggling with Aunt Jenny

Hunting Easter Eggs with Uncle Matt (a few months late but still tons of fun!)

Anna's got rhythm

Yes, we love music in our house and it's no wonder Anna has rhythm...it's in the genetics from both sides. :-) We listen to music daily and dance daily as well. The Wheels on the Bus is probably her favorite song along with This Little Light of Mine. She loves to do the motions to songs and is a quick learner. She often has us laughing with her latest dance moves.

Washing the house

We've had a great time playing outside lately in the nice, sunny weather. Anna loves water, as do most toddlers, so I've been trying to come up with ways to play in the water without actually getting in it. As you can see, she had a fun time washing her house a few days ago. :0)

Off to church...

Sunday mornings are a favorite for us as we enjoy getting dressed in our nice clothes and attending church as a family. We have been so blessed with a warm, caring church family here that have helped us out a lot with packing, moving, and watching Anna so we could work on the house. Pictures of the house will be coming soon. There are a few things left we'd like to get done (hopefully before the end of this month) and then I'll post some before and after pictures of all our hard work. :0)

I don't realize how big our little girl (she's not a baby anymore for sure) is getting until I see her in pictures. Wow, they grow so fast!!

Dressing up is not limited to just Sundays for Anna. She loves to wear my shoes and is even coordinated enough to brush her teeth and walk around in high heeled shoes. What a goof!

Washing the car

As you can see, she's quite the good helper when it comes to playing in water and getting all wet and soapy. :-)

The past month...

Goodness! Where has the past month gone?! Packing, moving, unpacking, organizing, decorating, a garage sale... it's been quite chaotic around here but things are starting to settle down, Praise the Lord, and life is getting back to normal. Here are some pictures and a few videos from the past few weeks-Enjoy! Anna was a good helper when it came to packing boxes. She eagerly threw anything and everything in boxes. :-)

At our new house, she loves to run in our backyard. It's good sized and the trees provide good shade and a home for many birds and bunnies which we love to watch. We've even seen a raccoon prowling around back there.

We put her kitchen in our kitchen at our new house and she plays with it a lot more now. She's often cooking for her babies and feeding them. It's so fun to watch her play as she imitates us more and more each day. We don't even realize the things she notices us doing.

She LOVES to wear her sunglasses everywhere. It doesn't matter where we are, she wants them on!

Her first major boo-boo occured 2 weekends ago while we were sorting through boxes in the garage. She was playing on her John Deere tractor, riding around in the garage and before I knew it, I heard the wheels start spinning rather quickly and realized she was headed down the driveway. Our driveway is a bit steep so she pipcked up speed and away she went with her feet pulled up enjoying every minute of it until she got to the bottom of the drive and the tractor caught on the lip where the road starts and it through her off the tractor into the street. She loves to give us heart failure!! The Lord was watching over her and protecting her because it wasn't more than a minute after I got down there to get her that a car came flying around the corner and could've run over her had I not gotten her out of the road in time. Her eye was swollen shut for an entire day but it didn't seem to bother her. Thankfully her boo-boo has healed up very well with just a small red spot above her eye right now. It doesn't look like there will be a bad scar so that's a blessing as well.

Nasty Weather

It's been so yucky outside this past week (cold and rainy) but Praise the Lord we had a ncie day yesterday and were able to play outside. I took some video of Anna playing so click on the following links to watch. We were taking a walk and she loves to wave at people when they drive by. She's definitely a Tennessee native as she has the warm hospitality of the south. :0) She also enjoyed taking a ride on her John Deere. The forecast looks much better for this next week so hopefully the weather man is right.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! We hope everyone has had a great day celebrating our Lord's Resurrection. We've enjoyed good food and fellowship with church friends. Anna had a fun time finding Easter eggs at church this morning and mommy had a fun time eating all of the candy this afternoon. :0) I wasn't able to get a good picture of her in her adorable outfit but here are the few shots I got of her at least holding still. She wore the jacket that matched her sleeveless dress most of the morning because it feels like winter outside, not spring. Quite the change from Texas last year!

Anna and her buddy, Matthew, are checking out the goodies in their eggs. Click on the "Easter eggs" link above to see her finding her eggs. I think I've finally figured out how to add movies to her blog. Also, the clothes pin clip on the back of her collar (seen in the video) is the way the nursery identifies the kids without them really noticing. Each clip has the child's name and ID number on it and it's also one of the safer ways to identify the kids without using sharp pins or strings that would wrap around their necks.

Lots of Visitors

We closed on our new house last Friday and what a crazy week it's been!! We're updating/changing a lot of the interior of the house so we've had lots of help from our families getting it accomplished. My parents, brother, and nephew all came last weekend and helped us rip the carpet and padding out, pull up the tack strips, and take down the curtains and blinds to prepare for painting. My mom and nephew stayed with us into the week and helped us paint which was such a blessing. We got so much done with their help. Michael's dad is here this weekend helping us put down hardwood flooring and replace light fixtures as well as some other small jobs. What a blessing it is to be close to family again! Their support and prayers are priceless!! The Lord has definitely had His hand involved in getting things done smoothly. We also appreciate the help from friends who've watched Anna this past week. The house is definitely not toddler-friendly right now. We plan to move in the weekend of April 21st so we're working hard to get the house ready. Anna is going to miss having family stay with us. On Monday it'll be back to just boring 'ol mom at home with her. Poor girl! :0) Mom and dad brought Anna a wagon that my sister no longer wanted and she had the best time going for rides in the backyard last weekend when the weather was nice. Too bad it had to turn cold again. She asks to go outside everyday but the wind chill has just been too cold the past few days. Hopefully we'll get some warmer weather soon.

Mom (Grandma) and Wesley defintely got their exercise in for the day!

Anna was so excited to see all of our family especially Uncle Nate. She'll really love having him close next year when he moves here to the same city for college. I see some date nights in our future as we'll have a great babysitter close by. :0)

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.