Christmas 08' in TN

(Annabell wearing her carry-on Braves bag)

We went to Tennessee for Christmas this year and had a great time. Annabell did really well on the plain until we were delayed 4 hours. Which changed us from arriving at 630pm in TN to 1130pm! ugh. She was so tired, she eventually fell asleep on Brad's lap. She did really well considering the circumstances. When we got there her aunt Kari made a palate on the floor for her to sleep on (since the pack-n-play was at her friends house), and she slept GREAT! I was so impressed because she never has slept anywhere besides her crib or pack-n-play. She didn't even get up off the floor until she saw me peek at her.
The next day we took the kids to see Santa. Annabell got a beautiful dress from her Papa and Sharon. She was happy to wear it since she loves dressing up.
Her and Mikayla played a ton together. Annabell ran around trying
to tackle KK and KK would tackle her back! That is why she is such a tough little girl! She also loved wearing KK's key ring around her neck like a necklace. I had no idea that she loved jewelry so much.
Well once we got to the mall Annabell ran around looking at the fish at the Bass Pro Shop. They had a great display of trains and toys for kids. Finally she got a chance to see Santa and wanted nothing to do with him. I couldn't even peel her out of my arms! So I was in all the photos.

After that we ate dinner at the mall's food court and the girls held hands on the way as you can see. Once there they rode the merry-go-round with their aunt Sarah
and then again with Papa and Sharon.


And then Christmas morning came. Annabell LOVED opening gifts. But she would open one and then want to only play with it as you can see with her crayons. She had a lot of fun though and was ready for her nap afterwards! Papa spoiled Annabell and so did her aunts. She even got a special gift of going to Chuck-E-Cheese from Sarah.

We had a great trip. Annabell got to also meet her aunts Patty and Jackie, uncle Danny, cousins Hailey, Josh and Laura for the first time. She had fun playing with all the kids. There was a house FULL of people. The scariest part of the night was when everyone was there and dusk was just setting in and the doors were open because it was in the 60's that night. We had just seen the kids running around and Brad and I thought other people were keeping an eye on them while I fed Ford and Brad was talking with the guys. Then Brad came running in saying he couldn't find Annabell. That was very scary considering my dad lives off a semi-busy road. All of a sudden him and Will ran around the house and found her behind the detached garage. SHe climbed down the VERY steep steps by herself. Then made my heart drop! So scary but I praise God she was okay, just playing by herself for a few minutes. Anyways, we left of Saturday and the flight home was a long one. 1:55pm-930pm! The kids did great. Annabell even had her own seat on the last flight.

Sunday when we got home we after church and hearing Brad preach for the first time we went home and had Christmas with Big Pop and G-ma. As usual they went crazy on gifts! Here is a video of Annabell seeing her big gift from them after waking from her nap!

Christmas church service

Annabell has been doing so much lately. Today at our Christmas church service she began to sing all the songs with us! It was so cute to see her join in. I love the heart of children, so innocent and pure. She brings so much joy to us! Annabell has also started to JUMP a lot. She learned how to 2 weeks ago at the library. I just forgot to blog it. She loves jumping while dancing now. She has also learned to turn her head away from me when I have the camera. Not to happy about this one. But she's just trying to assert her independence...so she can have that one for now. She did get a few cute pictures this week though while looking at the camera. She has said a few more words: jump, ready, more, papa and I'm sure I'm forgetting some more. Yesterday we baked cookies at G-ma's for our annual cookie bake day. It was a lot more difficult this year since Adrienne and I both had babies to tend to while trying to bake. Big Pop did great...one kid playing toys, one in his lap and rocking the Ford in his car seat with his foot! ha. We got a lot done considering. I think I gained 20 lbs from all the tasting though. After that we took Annabell and Ford to see the Christmas lights at a local BIG display in Briar Cliff. Brad use to go see this display when he was a kid so it was neat to take Annabell there to see it (Ford stayed in the car and slept; G-ma was watching him, don't worry). Here are some photos. Love y'all!

p.s. Annabell LOVES putting the underwear that I just folded from the laundry on her head, it's so funny. She'll run around screaming with in on her head, here is a few photos.

Every Step and BEST SIGN YET.

Annabell is always observant of everything going on, especially of me and Brad. She loves to do what ever we do. When ever I put on make up, she wants to also, if I'm cleaning she also wants to. For my birthday on monday I was dressed nice to go out to dinner and a movie with Brad. It was a great time, I put on heals for the first time since Ford was born. That gave Annabell an opportunity to see me walking in them. She loved the noise they made on the wood floor. As soon as they came off she put them on. Walking around in them in her diaper was adorable.

Well I am excited to say that Annabell has learned to sign 'Jesus'. This makes me so happy because I feel like she is starting to recognize his name. We sing songs read books and pray with and about Jesus. So she hears about him a lot, but as many other Christian moms know, you really hope and pray they truly understand how wonderful and loving HE is. So for her to sign his name (pointing at the nails in each hand) is a big step.

She has officially moved to only ONE nap! ugh, and it's only 2 hours usually. I miss the days of 2 long naps! But it gives us more play time together, especially when Ford starts taking two long naps, which I hope eventually happens once he's on a routine.

Here are some pictures of Annabell on the train at the mall. I forgot to put these when I wrote about Santa Clause. She loved being on the train! The little kids with her took 'care' of her while she was on the ride. It's funny how kids 2-3 years older see her as a little baby and want to tend to her every whim...which she LOVES by the way. She always wants them to hold her hand! Too cute. Well we love y'all!

So much to catch up on...

Well I have so much to catch you all up on it ridiculous! I need about 6 arms and was only born with two, so since I have no time, the blog is starting to suffer! ha. The sad thing is I am starting to think in terms of blogging...'oh, that will be great to tell...or this picture needs to go on the blog', etc. It's sad really. ha. Anyways, we put up our Christmas tree last Sunday with Annabell. It actually took us 2 whole days to finish between taking care of the kids and trying to get us altogether while the kids were awake, but finally it came together. Annabell had a blast helping! The part she liked the most was playing in the tree box. Yes we still have a fake one, we'll probably use a real one starting next year when she can help daddy pick one out. She loved seeing all the decorations too. She has only broke one so far! ha. She got a time out for that one. Speaking of which, time outs are starting to be very effective for Annabell's learning. She's had only 3 so far, and quite spread out too, but they seem to grab her attention well enough for her to think twice before doing whatever she did again. As for the decorating she also liked putting up the little plastic decals on the windows. These have proven a great joy for her this year...she will walk over and take them off to put them back on. Very cute!

Annabell is taking more and more interest in Ford. She lays next to him during his belly time. I was trying to get a picture of how well he holds his head up (which I couldn't get that time) and she came and laid with him and watched him try with a huge grin and encouraging squeals.
The two pictures above in the pretty dress are of Annabell at church last Sunday, it was especially windy and she loved every minute of it. She was running around with a class that was playing outside. I love her eyes. The dress is compliments of G-ma, of course :)...she spoils all her grand kids!

Well Annabell has really taken an interest in starting to communicate more...or I'm just starting to notice more. This morning she said, I love you and 1,2,3! We say 1,2,3 when she is going to jump to us and so on, but this morning she beat me to the punch and yelled 3! and then leaped toward me. So I said, 1,2,3 and she copied me. I love hearing her voice! Also, I said "say I love you" and she said I love you! I was so surprised. Here is some video of her putting money into her piggy bank. we cleaned out our cars and had a ton of change, this kept Annabell busy for a while because one of her favorite things to do is to sort...anything! This gave me an opportunity to explain what each coin is. I don't think she cared though, ha. (in the video you can hear Ford 'talking' a little)

Annabell LOVES shoes. She has been trying to put my shoes on for months now and always brings me shoes to put on her, her brother, Mima, and whom ever else is willing and ready. I caught her putting on one of my shoes and tried to get it on video but only caught a little of it. Also in the picture she is wearing my shoes, though you can barely see it.
We went to the library again today. I checked out 3 books that actually talk about Christ at Christmas, they seem rare to find these days. I hope she will know what Christmas is all about. We have a few things that we are going to start her doing early on to keep her focused of the meaning of the season. Hopefully they will all work. Well tomorrow starts off our Christmas party spree. We have one every weekend until Christmas, and we are hosting two for different reasons. Also with the new year getting closer we are closer to introducing Annabell to a toddler bed and taking away the binki. The binki will be the hardest...they put her right to sleep at night, so I am waiting until the new year to do these two things seeing I will have to probably wake up a lot to comfort her. And since I'm already up so much I'm hoping Ford will be sleeping through the night by then...we'll see. Annabell has also started to tell us when she is going #2. This is a good sign that potty training isn't too far off. I was told about a book, teaching to potty train in one day. I don't know if that is the right title but it's something like that...i need to get it, maybe I'll look for it at the library next week.
Sorry for all the video...it's for those who love to see Annabell in her everyday action. Love y'all!

Thanksgiving 08

Happy Thanksgiving! We went to G-ma's and Big Pops for Turkey day to celebrate all of our blessings! We got started this morning around 5:45 am when Brad's alarm went off for our 5k walk, the Turkey Trot. We got the kids up, piled into the car and made it there about 10 minutes before the gun shot. We had the double stroller and were walking with our friends, Todd and Stefanie Babb and their son. It was a lot of fun and motivated both families to start to train for the Edison Parade 5k, but this time we want to run. Like I said it was fun except for some hiccups with the kids. To start, just as the race started Annabell turned and looked at us with blood all over her nose. Apparently she rubbed her nose and pulled off a scab from her newest face injury (falling at church while trying to run with the big kids). So people were coming up to us with great concern saying, your daughter is bleeding! But we couldn't do much...I tried using some wipes, but one of the ingredients was salt and just made her bleed more and cry. So we had to allow the blood to dry and form a new scab while walking. It was also cold, which was nice for the walk, but Annabell's face got a little wind chaffed. So she didn't look to good by the end, but she loved the race. She liked seeing all the people walk around her. And since she loves 'people watching' she stayed occupied. Half way through the race Brad took off with Annabell since I had to hold Ford for a bit to calm him down (which made me walk slower). He took our double stroller with just Annabell in it and was weaving through tons of people! After the race we got in the car and had coupons on our window from McDonald's. So we headed there for breakfast on the way to G-ma's house. Brad got a mcGriddle, but didn't get much of one of them because Annabell wanted a little taste, which ended up eating nearly the entire thing! This was just the beginning of her eating! She literally ate all day! She took one nap today but there was too much going on for her second nap, so she was a fussy baby at dinner time. Oh I forgot to mention the Macy Day parade. Most of you know I don't allow Annabell to watch TV, but I broke the rule today because I wanted her to see the parade, and what a treat it was. We watched the beginning when the Rockets were dancing and Annabell began to dance with them, so cute! She was mesmerized. Well, anyways, her G-ma asked her to stay the night tonight so she is having a sleep over there! She loves playing there.
A couple things I forgot to blog this week:
We went to the library for story time, which is great because they also do dancing and some creative activities. This week they learned Vegetables to put into the pot for soup. She loved putting the felt cutouts onto the board. She is probably the youngest kid in the class but does great!


(listening at story time)


Also we went to the park yesterday and Annabell went on the tallest part of the jungle gym and began to put her legs on the first part of the bars and slipped through, she was stuck. So I had to climb up with Ford in my hands and get her out, I was able to snap a picture first!
Annabell has also acquired the name Monkey from me. She is always climbing, dangling, and jumping around! But if I didn't know she will probably be 5-9 to 6 feet tall when she is older I would say she is going to be the next Olympic gymnast! ha ha, ok I might be jumping ahead, but she is one flexible and innovative little girl. The other day she did a back bend while goofing around with me, and the yesterday she did a somersault completely on her own, we have never shown her one or encouraged her with one ever. She simply put her head on the floor while standing up and rolled, it was hilarious. She thought so too so she kept on rolling! Very cute. I tried to capture it but the memory chip wasn't' in the camera I had yesterday so I tried to catch it today, but it wasn't really the same, yesterday it was perfect and today she was goofing around a bit, I still put it video for your enjoyment! Oh and I attached a picture of Annabell and I so you can see her nose and mouth. She fell at church this past Sunday, and bloodied her nose and then ate some pineapple on Tuesday at bible study and her mouth began to break out! She had a tough week! Love y'all!
P.S. I'm grateful for my children and family! How blessed I am!