Picture Day

Well today we woke up, walked 2.4 miles and then went to the park. Annabell really enjoyed it and the overcast today made the weather really nice. She then went down for only a 45 minute nap because I had to get her up and ready for her 1 year old pictures. Oh my goodness, she was so cute. We got some great photos. Her walking has really improved! She continues to amaze me with how much she is learning. She now knows what i mean when I ask her where something is. She also understands "sit down", "let's brush your teeth", "turn off the light" and a few more. She was climbing all over the lego table they had at Portrait Innovations. I really recommend this place. They are SO patient and did wonderfully with Annabell. They take the BEST pictures and it's really not too high priced. She also learned how to sit down in the little chairs all by herself. She has had some practice using her dad's old rocker chair from when he was a kid. G-ma helps her in it and rocks her...it's adorable. Well after pictures my friend Wheetay aka Amanda came to the Gulf Coast Shopping center and shopped with us. We more window shopped than anything but before I knew it 4 hours had flown by! Annabell had been such a good girl I didn't even notice. So when we finally got home she was exhausted and hungry. She had a bottle and then started to eat her dinner. Her eyes were heavy and I started to smile because she was so cute when eating her peas. She loved them by the way, anyways, she started to laugh when she saw me smile...it was hilarious so I grabbed the camera and got a few minutes. I also have some video of her getting her first birthday card. It was from her great Uncle Rob and Aunt Blake. It's long but shows her walking some. Well here are the videos, love y'all!

Family

Well this is a week of Family to say the least. We just welcomed our newest family member, Briana Marie Zachritz (Josh and Adrienne's first addition to their family). She is beautiful and is 8lbs and 6oz and 20 and 1/2 inches long, born at 10:02am. Her mommy did wonderfully during labor, and daddy did too! We are so happy for them. You can see Josh and I really see a lot of Adrienne though, blond hair and full lips are all mommy's, but the dimples are so deep and pretty, they look just like daddy's! Well here are some pictures!... Annabell liked looking at Briana, but will probably do better when she is more rested, it was her nap time so she was a little fussy. She tried to grab Briana a couple of times, so I had to hold her away, she doesn't realize her own strength sometimes. Annabell got a little jealous and I had to pick her up while holding Briana a couple of times...but it's something I'm trying to expose her to a lot since she will have a little brother soon. Well, today we also picked up my sister Sarah and her boyfriend J.W. today from the airport! I'm so excited they are here and have a ton of stuff planned, but only 1/2 the energy. ha. Tomorrow we are all going to bible on the beach with Brad's Youth Group. Annabell LOVES the water, and will be completely spoiled by her aunt Sarah. She already has had Sarah's attention all day. We took her to Hog body's (restaurant) for a early dinner and Annabell tried her first pickle! She LOVED it and gets that love honestly from her aunt Sarah who can eat an entire 1/2 gallon of pickles in one day! Now we are home, Annabell's in bed, and I'm waiting for Brad to get home from a long day at work. He is so wonderful, he works SO hard so that I can stay home with Annabell. We both agreed it was best for our family, but I never knew how hard it would be for him and I'm truly grateful that he works so hard for me and Annabell (and the son on the way). He's a WONDERFUL DADDY and HUSBAND! Anyways, here are some pictures from today! Love y'all! (p.s. I look HUGE in the picture with my sister, but I THINK that it was the clothes and pose...haha...honestly!)

ah-ha!

Well today has been a busy and productive day. We got up early and went to my bible study where Annabell cried the entire time (almost) from the bedroom where all the kids play or are watched, while I studied the word with the ladies in my group. It was a very good study today! Anyways, Annabell was brought out at the end of the study, her face blotchy red like her moms when she cries, and sniffled for about 5 minutes straight because she worked herself up so much. After she calmed down and ate some breakfast all the other kids headed out to the living room and she began to play with them! It was hilarious, she was walking from one place to the other, and then throwing herself on the furniture, diving into the furniture is more like it. We then went to the bank and the mall for some quick errands. When we got home she napped, woke up and and ate and then napped some more. Finally around 5 we headed out to the park and played while her daddy painted the guest bedroom (some touch ups before my sister Sarah gets here). We then played in the house and then played some more outside...she LOVES walking in the grass! Needless to say after her bath she was pooped out and went right to bed. She had a long day of playing, here is some video of the bible study play time. Love y'all!

Happy Father's Day

Well today was Brad's first Father's Day. It was a nice day. We went to church and Brad was there working early and then gave the communion sermon. He did wonderfully! Also, Annabell was is very playful spirits today! She had the Zachritz family all there to play with her today! Uncle Josh is going to be such a great daddy soon, he played with Annabell non-stop today! She was laughing and crawling all over him. She also got excited and started practicing walking very well from Josh to G-ma, back and forth. She did it for a while until she became tired...it was so cute. She also enjoyed playing on her aunt Adrienne and looking a the baby belly! It was very cute. G-ma took her to the park as the dads rested and watched a movie, the "bucket list", which was pretty good! Uncle Josh brought some music over and Big Pop and Annabell danced for a while, she really enjoys dancing and you could see it on her face. She will be one in 2 weeks! I can not believe it! My baby is growing up! She is eating so many things now I can't even keep up with her, but she LOVES watermelon! Well Annabell made her daddy a card and coupons for his first Father's Day. He's already trying to cash in on them! Ha. The day ended with Annabell being so pooped out she was ready to go to bed, and Brad giving her a big kiss and thanking her for making him a daddy! He is such a wonderful daddy, anyone that sees them together notices how she lights up when he walks in the room. Today G-ma (we call Peggy g-ma right now because she wants her grand kids to give her the name she will be called) was giving her a bath and she asked "where is daddy?" and Annabell stood up and started yelling for her daddy "dad!" She also did that at dinner tonight when she couldn't see him for a second while sitting at her highchair. She is so in love with him and he is so in love with her! It's wonderful to see! Well here are some video from today! Love y'all!

Water fun

Annabell had a pretty good day yesterday, she played at the park for about an hour and was pooped out from trying to follow all the kids. She slept from about 11:20am - 2:20pm! Because she slept that long I didn't put her down for a second nap. I'm not sure if her second nap is disappearing or not, it could be our schedule lately, only time will tell. Because she is sleeping so long during the day she isn't wanting a 4th bottle at night, this has been two days in a row and makes me a bit nervous. But her regular food consumption has picked up, so she might just be weaning herself, since she is in her independence assertion phase! G-ma came over yesterday and played with Annabell for a while. Annabell has now learned how to ride her lion, she loves getting on and off of the lion. She pushes herself but it tends to be backwards. I didn't catch much of that on video but I did catch her getting on and off. Well G-ma and Big pop bought Annabell a pool for the yard. She loved it! I blew it up today (by mouth which took forever but was worth it) and plugged in the hose. She was apprehensive at first but grew to love it and even enjoyed the sprinklers. She is such a water bug, and loved the fact that she could climb in and out of the pool which made our nice new pool very grassy and dirty! ha. Well here is some video of her playing in the pool! (please ignore my annoying woohoo noises, haha) Hope all is well! Love y'all!

Bunny Ears and Park time!

Well today was pretty uneventful. Annabell woke up around 7:30am and we played until around 9:20am (she was fussing as if she was tired). So I laid her down and she slept for 3.45 hours! I couldn't believe it. So around 1 pm we went to the park and I took her lion toy with us so she could practice walking on the pavement. She loves chasing the older kids around and even if they aren't paying attention to her she thinks that they are playing "chase" with her. It's pretty funny. So I help her go up and down and all around the park. She was so tired and hot from playing so much in the sun that she didn't fuss a bit when leaving. I think she was happy to drink some cold water when we got home. It took her about 1 hour for her cheeks to turn back to her normal color because they were so flushed from the heat. Well I found an outfit that she is wearing for her pj's tonight...she outgrows her pj's so fast! I believe it was Mikayla's when she was a baby. It's a bunny eared outfit and adorable....Annabell was trying to take the hood off constantly but got use to it eventually. Don't worry the ears came off for bedtime! Oh and Annabell is constantly trying to establish her independence. She no longer lets us feed her a bottle or very much from the spoon. She wants to do it herself. The only problem is she gets tired and tends to not lift the bottle high enough to feed herself. Tonight she slipped off my lap and proceeded to prop her bottle on a toy to feed herself...i caught it on tape for a split second! I also have some video of her playing in her bunny suit and at the park today. Well I hope y'all have a great day! Love ya! HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPA! LOVE ANNABELL!!!!!!

playing in the rain

Well the rain has started in Fl. Annabell is fascinated by the rain. We were walking home from the neighbors house and it started to poor. She thought it was weird at first and then started laughing with me encouraging her. Here is a picture of her after the rain. Well let's see. We went to her Aunt Adrienne's baby shower today, who is having Briana, due on July 1st. It was fun and Annabell had a blast crawling and walking every where! She was constantly moving and did not get a second nap today because she was so excited and we were so busy today. She didn't even get to bed until a little after 8 pm (which she normally goes down around 7pm) because we ran out of milk and I had to take her to the store with me to get some. She is now on Cows milk! Organic whole milk to be exact. She had no problem with the transition which started this morning. It was actually by mistake since we ran out of formula and that was all we had at the time, but I believe she is close enough to 1 to start on cow's milk. She was so good for being so sleepy, she even went willingly to her aunt Adie and G-ma, she sought them out and reached out for them. She has started to understand things a bit better. She completely gets the word "no" now and will push the limits sometimes but knows not to most of the time. She also knows where the playground is at the park and fusses when we are leaving the park because she knows she is done playing there. It's not a huge fit though, she just squirms and whines until I get her in the stroller and then she is calm. She says mama a lot more now and seems to practice saying it while carefully moving her lips to make the "m" sounds. Lately she has not been as interested in her books as she is normally, but I'm trying not to force reading, per the advice of a book I read. They say all babys choose when they'll be interested in something. She IS interested in climbing everything and moving as fast as possible at ALL times. She talks a ton too, and loves music and singing. She loves to play her maracas, piano, and her musical toys. She is pretty good at them too. I talked to Christy Goodlet about piano lessons for her (not now but soon) but she didn't recommend them until around 1st grade. She also has a huge interest in swimming. All the ladies at the pool say that she'll be in the Olympics for swimming..ha. That would be great but I try not to put the cart before the horse. ha. Moms always see the best in their child though. For example right now I think she is a beautiful musical, swimming genius! hehe. We are so blessed. It amazes me how one intentional hug from her, which she will do now, can make my day. Well I hope y'all enjoy the pictures...Love y'all!

Stay with G-ma and the Bahamas

Well Brad and I went on our very first cruise! The best part was it was for FREE! Our company (YTB) sent anyone that was a full time pastor on a cruise to the Bahamas, no strings attached! It was wonderful! We ate a ton, swam in the clearest water I have EVER seen, road a scooter and nearly crashed 2 times! ha. (long story). And really enjoyed our time together. The most difficult part of the trip was that we had to leave our 11 month old (just turned!) in the states. It was hard to do but she had a wonderful time! She stayed with her Big Pop and G-ma. They bought her a tons of toys to play with, took her to the zoo, and much more. So when we came back, and she saw us, she looked at us very confused for about 1 minute and then started to cry (first time since we were gone!). It was as if she realized that we had left her just then. Brad and I both agree that they must of kept her so busy that she didn't notice us gone and then put it together once she saw us again. It took about 10 minutes for her to calm down, but once she did she was fine. She LOVED the gift we brought her back! She is always trying to play with the Maraca's that my father bought me when I was a kid (from Mexico). So we bought her some from the Bahamas...she LOVES them. Also she had a wonderful gift from her aunt Michelle and uncle Matt, it was the ABC's book by Dr. Sues! I love those books and was excited she finally was reading it with me. She loved it too, and the hardback was wonderful for her to practice flipping the pages! Thank you! Well here are some pictures! hahahaha. Love Y'all