Party!

Anna's birthday fell on a Saturday, so we partied on her actual day. Our neighbors have a son who is 11 months older than Davis. For his first birthday, they made the big red "1." We used it for D's first, and knew we wanted to use it for A too, but I didn't want to paint it. So...ladybugs won!

Getting ready. Nana and Grandpa gave her the dress for Christmas. Aunt Vasha made her bow, but didn't even know about the outfit. It just matched.

A little pre-party snack.

God bless her. She ate while we opened her presents. :) Clearly that "pre-party snack" helped. Ha!

See? Still eating! 

This one is kind-of blurry, but made me laugh. My babies get their love of frosting from me!

I don't exactly remember why she was crying. I did something she was not pleased about.

But she recovered quickly and went right back to eating.

This one was waaaayyyy to into the cake to pose for my camera. :)

Happy Birthday, Anna!

I can't believe she's 1! My last baby isn't a baby anymore...she's a toddler! And, she is an absolute JOY! She is smart and sassy, and there is so much personality in that tiny body. She is a "big girl." We took her bottles away before her birthday (and she lost a little weight at first...almost a pound!), and she started WALKING. I wouldn't have classified her as an official "walker" at the time...she would still drop and crawl when she was in a hurry. About a week after her special day, she was only walking everywhere (but she is darn clumsy. Poor baby comes by that honestly. Sorry, Sister!)

She says: Mama, Dada, Bubba, more, uh oh, hi, bye, up, down, out, Nana, whoa, yay, and back (as in move back). She will imitate just about any word or sound we ask her too. She can tell you the sounds cows, chickens, and roosters make. She knows where her belly button, hands, feet, hair, nose, and mouth are. She follows directions, and answers yes/no questions.

At her 12 month check-up, she was 29 inches tall (41st percentile), and weighed 19 lbs, 8.5 oz (45th percentile). Perfect!

Waking up a big one year old...and happy about it!

Daddy love...

...No make-up Mommy love.

December 29, 2011; 12:35pm

December 29, 2012; 12:35pm

Still 12:35. :) I certainly thought it was fitting that my little bottom-less pit was eating at her "birth minute."

She was completely uncooperative for my "sign pictures." Age appropriate.

Uncooperative, but willing to "show mommy" what she was holding.

Oh how we love our sweet baby girl. She is Mommy's "princess," Daddy's "AL," and Davis' "princess, owl, Anna WeeWee (LeighLeigh), Sister, and Sissy." Poor baby will answer to anything! :) I've said it before, but she is the bookend our little family needed, and we couldn't love her more!

Extra's

I had a few extra pictures between Christmas and Anna's birthday. Since they didn't "fit" anywhere else, enjoy!

For my SB mommy friends, no, he cannot ride that tricycle. He can only reach one pedal at a time, and has a hard time keeping his feet on them. We're working on it. The physical therapist said there were some adaptive things we could buy that would attach to the pedals and then velcro the feet in place. We'll order it as soon as he can reach on both sides at the same time.

B took this one day while I worked. The neighbor's son has a broken leg, and Davis with his "hat" is just too cute.

Making Anna's birthday cake!

The LAST bottle. She didn't really care. I had slowly been cutting her bottles out in the weeks/months earlier. The only one that remained was the one she sometimes had at breakfast 

The night before Anna's big day, the first party guests arrived!

Up next: Anna's Birthday!!

Christmas

Since I'm so far behind (again), all of Christmas is here in one GIANT post. Grab a snack, you'll be here a bit. I would imagine only a few will make it to the end. :)

One of our Christmas celebrations was on Brandon's birthday, so we took a moment to sing to him before opening presents.

The only present she really opened.

The juice box is plastic and came with a cabbage patch doll. Anna was not convinced there wasn't something in it.

The best we got of all 4 of them.

This little cutie helped me take lots of pictures. :)

  

Gammi and Papa got the boys megaphones. 

D was not upset, just waking up from a short nap.

This one didn't open a single gift. Everyone around her was ripping paper like crazy. She just watched and chomped her cookie.

See? :)

All these gifts...

...and this in the living room...

...and D is playing with this old penguin game that he loves so much. :)

Yes, she was really that excited about the purse.

LOVE this one.

No one is crying = Success!

Aunt Vasha did good with Buzz. D LOVES him!

We went home and spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with just our little family. We all loved it. And we MAY all of stayed in our jammies all day. :) It was Anna's first Christmas, and Davis was sooooo excited about all things Christmas. Since Thanksgiving, anything associated with Christmas was either called "Merry Christmas ____," or "Happy Birthday Jesus ____." For instance, all lights were "merry Christmas lights." All desert type foods were "happy birthday Jesus cakes/cookies/etc.

My beautiful princess on her very first Christmas Eve.

Making "Happy Birthday Jesus" cupcakes. He was sooo excited.

Milk and Cookies...check.

Making sure they are fit to eat.

Santa Came! 

Making sure Santa ate the cookies and drank the milk. He left part of a cookie, so D thought it would be ok if he ate it.

Again, to busy eating to open presents.

Singing Happy Birthday to Jesus. 

Anna's first snow! She LOVED it!

My boys made snow angels...love it.

Watching Charlie Brown Christmas one more time.