10 Months Old on Christmas Day

Yep that's right, every post is about Anabelle :) Anabelle is at a really fun stage right now. She is blabbing like crazy and it makes us laugh so hard. We are so lucky to have such a pleasant girl. Christmas was pretty exciting with a little one in the mix. Not that she had a clue what was going on, but it was fun to buy her a few things and wrap it all up. On Christmas Eve Anabelle was so darling she just wanted to walk everywhere! Of course every time she took more than a couple steps we didn't catch it on the camera, but in the end we caught a pretty good one. I'm sure it will still be a while until she is walking everywhere, but she is definitely trying. She is growing up too fast.

 

 Thank you Shane for picking out the darling Christmas outfit 

On Christmas we woke up and opened presents with just our little family. Anabelle wasn't too interested in the whole thing, but she loved the food that Santa left in her stocking (Santa knew what would get her excited :) Oh she also loved the box that her new shoes came in, and my nail polish. We went to sacrament and listened to testimonies and sang Christmas songs. I loved the spirit that it added to our day! Anabelle liked it too, she didn't stop singing and blabbing the whole hour.

Our stockings and nutcrackers - traditions that we are carrying on from two of our grandmothers. 

After church we headed down to Utah County and started the Christmas festivities and visited all of our family. Here are a few pictures at the Mink's house. Unfortunately, I only used the video camera at the Worley's and the Rowley's later that day.

Baby girl was so excited about the shiny bows on this gift

Coleson sporting the hat we gave him

The day after Christmas we went to my Uncle Brett's house for the Heninger party. It is always crazy and wild! Anabelle trying to get down on the candy, and Shane busy being the best Daddy ever.

 My cute sister, me, and cute cousin Shaylee (No I do not have a lazy eye, I was laughing so hard because we couldn't get one picture without a kid jumping in front.)

 A piñata in the house - the kids went crazy!

Thank you to all of our family for the fun memories and the overly generous gifts. We are blessed to be surrounded with so much love and support. Hope you have a safe and happy New Years!

It's the Most Wonderful Time...

(This post is ridiculously long, random and chaotic... Oh well.)

Something about hats, gloves, coats and babies makes me smile.

 I want to give a quick recap of this month so far.

We started off the month by going to the Utah Symphony Messiah Sing-in with my Mom & John, and Jesse & Dave. I liked going to it at the beginning of the month to help get me in the Christmas mood.

Next on the calendar we hosted a white elephant Christmas party with all or Shane's Orem High Friends. True to form and forgot to take pictures. There were some funny gifts and some crazy laughs!

Then we went to Temple Square with Rogan & Kim and their kids but I didn't have a camera so here are a few phone pics. So pretty but freezing cold! The little one was all bundled up.

 A few other fun things... We also went to the Jon Schmidt and Mannheim Steamroller concerts. Both were really good and festive. We went to The Desert Star Playhouse and saw It's a Wonderful Life for Shane's work party. It was cooky and crazy, but pretty fun! Thanks to all of our babysitters.For the Rowley family Christmas party we got Chinese and all went bowling. Congratulations Kathryne for the high score 172! Shane came in second with 160, and I did terrible... we will leave it at that :)

 Daddy and Anabelle played on Tuesday and I went with all of the Rowley girls to dinner. It's always a good time when just the girls get together ; ) We exchanged gifts and then visited Uncle Dale. 

(sorry Kathryne I don't have the picture with you in it)

Baby Update

As far as the little one goes Anabelle turns 10 months on Christmas. Most of the time I feel as though I have a little girl, not a baby. She loves trying new foods. She loves her fruits and veggies too. She now has two little teeth. She takes about 3-4 steps on her own then crashes. She loves bouncing and dancing to music too. She also claps now and waves goodbye. The other day I was baking sweet potato fries in the oven and she was so excited and going crazy over them. It made me laugh.

 

 She also loves when she can see her reflection in the oven... it's somebody to play with that is just her size :)

We put our tree up after Halloween, but until recently Anabelle didn't really care for it. It's like one day she realized it, and now I cannot keep her away from it. She will play with the ornaments and bells all day long, whipping them around by the string, chasing after them and eating them... And of course it's too cute to make her stop. That's why the bottom of the tree is looking pretty empty. 

Hope you have a very special Merry Christmas. What a blessing it is to remember the Savior's birth, life and ministry at this time of year. I am truly grateful, I know that we have been given the greatest gift of all - the sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ.

9 Months Old & November Recap

It's official, it's been 9 months and Anabelle is now out, as long as she was in! When Anabelle was born I was amazed that she grew from a single cell to a beautiful almost 7lb baby in 9 months. And now I am amazed that she went from a small helpless infant to a playful crawler and wannabe walker in the past 9 months. What a miracle life is. Seriously.

This little boo is not so little any more. Wow she is growing up. She is my very best friend in the whole wide world (not including Shane of course :) We do everything together! She is pretty much my mini me, except that she looks like Shane. I don't know how I could love her any more than I do. Anabelle is a pretty lucky girl, because her daddy loves her so so much. I love seeing how happy Shane is to come home and see his little girl everyday.When Anabelle hears the door open and Shane says, "daddy's home!" Anabelle crawls as fast as she can with a huge smile and peeks around the corner to see Shane. Oh how I love my little family. This is what life is all about.

Anabelle is in the 40th percentile for her weight at 18 lbs 2 oz, and she is in the 72nd percentile for height at 28 inches. I don't remember what her head circumference was but it was the 45th percentile. At this point Anabelle loves walking around the furniture and is constantly trying to walk. She Absolutely loves being outside (even in the freezing cold) She cries when we come back inside. She loves getting into the drawers and is one curiously little bug. Unfortunately bumps and bonks are a quite common. 

 

 I finally finished Anabelle's stocking... boo ya! Thank you Tanner (Shane's Accounting Firm) for occupying Shane for tons of hours so I could continually have a date with this project night after night. It took for ever, but the end result made it worth it. 

 Anabelle LOVES helping with the dishes!

 Our ward had a Fall Carnival and Anabelle got in on the action...

 the fishing pond...

 the blow-up slide...

 cotton candy...

 and bobbing for apples.

 I did some Thanksgiving flowers... Happy late Thanksgiving.

 Lucky us, we had 3 turkey dinners this year. Here are a few pics at the Worley's.

 Colesaw

 Great Grandma and Grandpa Worley

 At the Rowley's... Aunt Kristee with the big three :)

 This month Anabelle discovered the piano, and Oh my gosh I love it! She stands on her tippy toes and moves her little fingers up and down. P.R.E.C.I.O.U.S.