The girls...

Now this picture does my SWEET new camera justice! I snapped my twin nieces, Meredith on the left and Catherine on the right, pushing Anna around on a toy tractor out at Nana and Papaw's house. Those girls are great entertainment!

Why must this be fun?

Anna was being a pain today, but for a small amount of time while eating, she was happy. Probably only because I was serving avocado for lunch, her favorite. So while she smeared green slime all over everything (which stains if you don't treat it right away!!), I snapped pictures with my SWEET new camera. The pictures don't do my SWEET new camera justice. I have some more where I have all the settings right. If anyone needs some pictures taken, I'll gladly take them for you with my SWEET new camera!

In her element!

We took Anna to an art show a few weeks ago. It was a friend of ours who was graduating from Tech with his degree in Studio Art with an emphasis in Jewelry. He had his BFA show, like the one I had to have to graduate (only much bigger and better! ) I had helped out with the show all week and we were really looking forward to the big night. I sort of volunteered to photograph the event and had been up there most of the afternoon helping set up. My husband brought Anna up to the show. Her hair wasn't really fixed...he brought a pink clip so I could do it when they got to the show. He also selected a rather random pair of shoes, her furry boots, for her to wear. I'm sure if I would've put something better for her to wear out where he could find it, she might have looked a little better. :) Anyway, Anna absolutely had a blast at the show! She naturally could care less about the hundreds of strangers walking around or the very expensive art on the pedistals all around her. I'm so glad that she didn't knock anything over. She would just walk up to someone, stop right at their feet, look up at them, then look back down and step on their toes, then walk to the next person.

If you'd like to see any of Andrew's artwork, he has his own website! Not the kind of "jewelry" you're probably thinking of... www.andrewsartstudio.com click the tabs at the top of the site.

Miss Blue Eyes.

This is the picture I'm putting on the Christmas card. I usually make the cards by hand, therefore there aren't very many to be sent out. I'm lazy and don't make a ton of them. So here's your very impersonal e-card! Sorry... but Merry Christmas! You can't really tell, but her eyes are blue! I finally figured that one out.

Snow Day

We got between 4 and 5 inches of snow yesterday. I didn't get Anna out in it to play until this morning. I knew the snow would stick around since they predicted another very cold day today. So we waited until the sun came out...like that made a difference in the temperature. It was still very cold. I think in the mid 20s when these pictures were taken. Anna's first time to play in snow. I believe the last time she saw it was when she was only a weeks old, so needless to day, she could cared less. This time was definitely different. She ran right for the snow as soon as I put her down and of course fell face first into a small drift. She jumped back up, started digging, eating, and throwing the snow. It was great. She, of course, then headed for her slide thing that was covered in snow. She attempted to climb up the side, but the zip-lock bags I had rubber banded around her ankles to keep her feet dry caused the climbing to be rather difficult. The fun didn't last long. She finally figured it out. She also didn't really have a water-proof wardrobe so her sweatpants were instantly wet or had snow caked all over them. We lasted as long as we could out there. About until the battery on the video camera died and I had exhausted my angles for pictures.

Not a dull moment.

You can't really tell by the picture, but Anna is putting green beans down her shirt. Somehow she also got her hand wrapped around and through her shirt.

This is yet another time Anna is playing in her toy box. She's doing her favorite thing, "reading" books. Check out the cleavage on that plunging neckline! She didn't get that from my side of the family! Ha!

Climber!

Like I said in the last post, Anna is a climber. A serious climber! She's been one since she about the time she started to crawl. This girl's got some balancing skills! I blame it on the fact that I let her climb on and occasionally fall off of just about everything. She's got to learn, right? But she rarely falls, and if she does it's no big deal. These are just a few different things she likes to climb on. Even if it's a book laying on the floor, she thinks she needs to stand on it. I guess if it gets her off the ground, even just a few inches, she's there. You can see why the outdoor "rock climber" thing we got her for her birthday fits her well.

Turkey Day!

We had a great Thanksgiving at Nana and Papaw's house. We had it all...turkey, ham, that cheesy broccoli and rice stuff, cranberry sauce out of the can (my favorite! for real!), and of course, Nana's famous dressing. It's not stuffing since it didn't actually go into the turkey. Just thought I'd clear that one up for those of you who don't know. Ha! Anna had a little of everything. She liked the dressing the best I think. Well, the dressing and the endless flow of Diet Coke. As soon as she heard the sound of a can opening, she immediately found out who had it and started saying, "bite?" and "MMM!" Aunt Jenni and Nana gave in every time and gave her several sips of Diet Coke. She also put on an apron of mine that I had when I was young and helped with some cooking. ...sorta. Those pictures are in my brother's camera. Therefore, I probably won't ever see them again. Ha! We also had a mini-dress up session before we left. Anna always brings me a pair of her shoes so I can put them on her. She is SUCH a girl. The ones she usually chooses are these boots her Grammy gave her. She loves them. She also puts anything resembling a necklace over her head and wears it around. On the other hand, she is definitely a tom-boy. She climbs on everything. She'd rather be standing on something that puts her a few feet off the ground than anything else. And if you give her any type of ball, she's happy. She's definitely my daughter! Scary.

Eight teeth.

Anna is learning how to brush her eight teeth. i got her a little pink toothbrush and showed her how to do it. She usually just chews on it and attempts to "brush" while she's in the bath tub. The toothbrush has been used as many different thing besides brushing her teeth. Things such as using it as a "paintbrush" after she spit up on the kitchen floor. Nice... Of course it was thoroughly cleaned after that incident.

Favorite Foods.

More pictures of Anna eating... Here are a couple of her favorites. Avocado and corn on the cob! Well, the avocado has a long time favorite and the first time she had corn on the cob was this summer after Nana and I picked fresh corn to put up. Anna hasn't had it in a while definately remembered that it's got to be one of the best things on earth!

Where does she learn this stuff?

I certainly didn't teach her this. For a while now, Anna has decided that a better way to eat is to just suck the food directly from the table or highchair tray. Hey, if that's the way she'll eat her peas, so be it! Like the peas smushed on her nose?

My First Tantrum (in public).

Yesterday, Anna and I had our first mother-daughter fight in Old Navy. I know, what a place for the first "in public" one! I mean, we've had our moments where we'd like to kill each other, but they have always ended after only a few moments. This time was different and I am SO glad I don't have pictures to share. I'm sure all of you who know me are thinking, "was it really that bad?" Well, just think about that time you were in some store and heard a screaming kid for what seemed like forever and thought something along the lines of, "where is that kid's mother?" or, "why won't that kid just shut up?" (or maybe that's just me thinking that...) This time it was Anna and me; Anna being the screaming child that is. :) She wanted to stand up in the cart and I wouldn't let her. Even with her strapped in, she still twisted around and freed herself. I just kept pulling her out, unclipping the thing, setting her back into the seat, then clipping her back in. She of course, did NOT like any part of that process. She kept hanging on for dear life to the back of the seat so I wouldn't flip her back the right way, bucking back and forth like a psycho, etc. Many of you can picture the scene perfectly. In the end I definately won the battle. I sure wasn't going to let her win! She eventually just gave up the fight, slumped over, and cried a very sad yet still pretty pissed off cry. A nice woman who seemed as though she had had a few kids herself, although was alone, began talking to Anna and got her mind off the situation. She probably could see the look of contentment and victory in my eyes as I stood there while Anna cried and knew there had been a fight. So, eventhough it was one, thus far, of the most humiliating experiences I've had with her, I was proud of myself in the end.

Fun at Nana and Papaw's!

The past couple of days were spent at nana and papaw's house. Anna loved the wide open spaces and thought it was awesome to be able to roam around in the vastness of the country. Of course, like the "pumpkin patch chase" pictures, she refused to look at me when I called to get a good shot. There was just too much to look at and explore.

Another lazy day.

Anna decided that instead of unloading the toy bin then playing with the toys, she'd just unload and get into the toy bin. This has been a new found discovery since we've gotten a different storage solution. It was also very cold on this morning and when i opened up the front door, it was instant fog on the glass. Anna thought that was pretty cool and a great drawing surface. And we, of course, needed a googly eyes picture.

Happy Halloween!

We went trick-or-treating at Anna's dad's office yesterday. Anna was the first one there so she got lots of attention. We had to teach her that she needed to put the candy into her sack instead of just unloading it onto the floor. She walked around to each office, peeked around the corner, then would start emptying the candy bowls, piece by piece, onto the floor. Once she learned that the candy goes into her sack, she got a little coaching from me... "Put the gold wrappers in!" (which were the Twix, Snickers, etc.) Once she got some candy she sat down with Dad and had a sucker. She thought that was awesome!

Next stop was to my sister's house. She and all of her rug rats and some other friends and their kids also came over to trick-or-treat around the neighborhood. Anna had about enough of the bumble bee costume by then, but she was still tolerating it. I had to get a picture of her bending over.... We had a good time.

Pumpkin Patch Chase!

A few days ago Anna and I went to a pumpkin patch to take some pictures. It wasn't a "real" pumpkin patch and I felt bad for just using their "scenery" for a photo shoot and not actually buying anything. I'm sure they get that all the time, which makes it ok. Right? I plan on going to Nana and Papaw's house soon. We'll go to the real pumpkin patch for more pictures (mainly for scrapbook purposes) and I'll have a bit more help with making the shoot more successful. As you can see in this patch, Anna refused to sit in one spot for any amount of time or even look at me when I called her. She thought that this place was a free-for-all playground and there were no boundries...as if that's any different from any other place. Ha! So most of the pictures are from behind her as I'm chasing her down. After looking at the pictures and thinking that the trip was a total loss, I realized that they really captured the essence of the adventure. Which was mainly just a goose chase.

We have arrived!

Ok, since I obviously have WAY too much time on my hands and since everyone else seems to have one, I've decided to create a blog. I know... I probably won't update it very often, but I suppose I'll attempt to for at least a little while. I've enjoyed looking up friends and family blogs and it seems to be fun.

Anna just turned one on the 13th of October and we had lots of fun at her birthday bash, even though it rained the entire time. We were forced to stay inside and Anna was inevitably isolated from her new outdoor play set that my husband and I (along with family that pitched in) got her. She got lots of other great (indoor) toys that she loves.

Here are some pictures of Anna playing outside on a nice day.

Let's catch up a little.

Here are some pictures of Anna's birthday parties. Yes, she had more than one. Anna's dad's office was generous enough to throw her a little cupcake party. One of the secretaries brought her orange cupcakes with Halloween decorations and Anna dug right in. We had to wrap her legs in paper towels so there wouldn't be orange icing everywhere. They also gave her a Dora Halloween book. She had a blast.

The other pics are from her party at home. She got so gross after (sorta) digging into her cake that we just stipped her and put on other clothes. I think she was more interested in putting the icing in her hair than in her mouth.