Anabelle's Birthday Parade

Anabelle had a fun party on Saturday for her 1st birthday. Thanks to everyone for coming and showing your love to Anabelle. Thank you Mom for letting us have it at your Preschool building. It worked out perfectly in the gym! The kids made music shakers and party hats, and we paraded around the gym dancing to the music. I must say that Anabelle was pretty into it. It was so darling.

getting ready for the party

the sweet stuff

Parade time - Anabelle looks scared, but she was loving it!

Getting ready for cake - her first experience with sugar! (Well except for the time a few months ago when she bit through a chocolate rapper and I found her sucking that goodness up...oops!)

Oh she liked the frosting, going back for seconds.

She was a little unsure about the whole thing. She mostly kept pinching a little bit of frosting at a time, but she did get a few good-sized bites.

London playing in the mirror

and giving herself a kiss... haha so cute!

Anabelle's newest cousin Adilyn

Let the bubble contest begin!

Sweet little Kaylee

Cute Landon squeeling at the sight of all the bubbles.

I found Anabelle playing under the table stacking some jars. She loves to build towers.

present time

What a fun day and memory to have. Little girl we love you more than words can say. You are moving too quickly from baby to toddler. Every new stage is fun and exciting though. We love watching you learn and grow.

One year older and wiser too. Happy Birthday to you!

12 months old... really?!!

Our precious baby turned one this week. Wow that year flew by. I reminisced all week about where I was one year ago. It's hard to believe that one year ago we were holding our little newborn in the NICU, and now I am chasing her around and cleaning up her messes all day. Anabelle has grown and learned so much this year, and I learned quite a bit too ;-) Thinking back on this year, I am mostly grateful for the opportunity and blessing of caring for one of our Heavenly Father's children. Last week I read the talk in the February Ensign by Elder Cook. I loved it. It talked about how having families of our own help us better understand how Heavenly Father feels about us. His talk is found here if you want to check it out.

This month Anabelle mastered the squat and loves climbing on things. She is constantly getting in the drawers and trying to climb on the furniture. It is so crazy to me that she can get on the coffee table and couches now. She is fascinated with moving big objects. She pushes the stroller and highchair around the house and pulls her rocking horse around the living room. Although she cannot get on the horse yet by herself, she loves to stand on the base and try to rock it. Anabelle is working really hard to help Mommy get some more sleep... right little one?! The last two nights, Anabelle slept for 11 hours straight. Woot woot! That has never happened before. Anabelle discovered jewelry this month. She loves trying on my bracelets and unfortunately she discovered the jewelry drawer as well.

Anabelle is so active and fun. She is going through a clingy stage and won't let me out of her sight. I think we need to get out more and start going to play group. She is so interested in activities, music and play time. I started doing Kindermusik with her at home, it's been really fun. She also loves building and stacking things. I will catch her all the time trying to stack various items. We are working on identifying features and body parts. Her favorite is the nose. It was pretty easy for her to learn that one because mine sticks out so far :) Anabelle loves books and more than any toy she loves my iPhone. When I work in the mornings, I let her play with it to keep her quiet. Now she thinks she owns it! She likes to take the cover off then she brings it to me and says "uh, uh."

Look everybody, I'm 12 months old

Anabelle loves to throw and play with tennis balls

climbing up all by myself

typical day walking around the house, pulling everything out, and carrying "treasures" around

This is how I rock on my horse 

come on horsey, lets go play

We had a fun little birthday party for Anabelle on Saturday. Pictures coming soon. 

Valentine's Day

I'm a little late getting the Valentine up. Anabelle and I just got home today from playing with the cousins. for a few days.

(Unfortunately, Shane couldn't make it. He was busy working around the clock... HELLO TAX SEASON. Thank you Hunny for working so hard! Seriously, you are a champ.)

I stayed at Dave and Jesse's house and watched their three boys for part of the time while they were in Hawaii. In sum, it was a crazy, fun, exhausting, and even more crazy few days! The two little ones (Anabelle and Landon) made it quite challenging at times. (Props to Mom's with twins!) Anabelle learned to rough it up it the boys this week. She pulled out some crazy hair-pulling skills this week ha. Looking back at it, this week could make a pretty funny movie. I locked myself and two of the kids out of the house, with only the 18-month-old inside the house. Luckily, I found a window in the back that I put Casen through. Then Landon had a melt-down-temper-tantrum at the AF Rec Center when I took the older boys to gymnastics. Thank you to the THREE moms that came up to me and offered their help. Apparently it was quite obvious that I couldn't pull it together on my own:) To everyone else who was glaring at me in destain, you will have your turn.

We did have some fun though. Her are a couple pictures off my phone.

 Making Jello cars. (They were doing "hang loose" cause we were sending the pics to their parents in Hawaii.)

Outside playing in the massive snowflakes. They looked like feathers. You can tell from this picture that I was struggling a little... crazy hair, one in pajamas and mismatched shoes, and one without a coat. Hey at least they had shoes on, and most importantly they had fun!

 At the boys gymnastics class. It was Anabelle's first experience at the gym. I think she wanted in on that action.