Anna is 1

Our baby is 1 and yes, she's still a baby in many ways.  She's definitely gotten more fiesty lately.  It's so hard having holiday birthdays.  The past bit has been so crazy but thankfully I feel the roller coaster slowing down.  Yesterday was my preschool Christmas party so I'm officially on Christmas Break and Cyrena is after today.  YAY! 

We had a very busy weekend so when Monday came our energy was pretty low.  On top of that I was having some severe tooth pain so I went to get checked and ended up having an emergency root canal.  It was more painful than other root canals I've had so let's just say I was in a less than jolly mood for Anna's birthday.  I tried my best though.  I had already baked a little cake for her then David decorated it for her.  That man is a rock star, I couldn't make it a day without his help.  So without further ado, here are the pics of our new 1 year-old.

So excited to open presents...We got her some felt food, a little people playset, a doll, and some pjs.  I'm trying to force the doll on her and she just gets mad and tosses it in anger. Maybe someday...

We had BBQ chicken salad for dinner.  This girl loves chicken.

David's masterpiece

For these next few pictures, I'm just going to let you see the sequence of events--no explanation needed

yes we are terrible parents and yes she has a little burn blister on her hand...but chocolate soothed all her pains

About Anna:

*She is combat crawling everywhere (since Thanksgiving) and can now get back into a seated position

*She babbles a lot, mostly saying 'dada' but sometimes 'bababa' and 'mamama' And sort of says 'Hi'

*We are trying to teach her not to hit us in the face (her favorite pasttime) but instead use her hand to lightly stroke our face and say "nice, nice" so she mimics that unless she's angry; then she just slaps us....

*She is working on sign language and almost has 'more' and 'all done' down.  Otherwise she just screams in a very high-pitched tone to let us know she's either thirsty, hungry, tired, or bored.

*Her head has gotten more proportional and they said she could stop wearing her cranial band.  We're still putting it on her when she sleeps though because of her flat spot.

*She is already off her bottle and just uses a sippy cup.  But this girl eats a LOT and poops 3-4 times a day--seriously!

*She is a huge flirt and loves to make people smile.  During our ward Christmas Party there was a lot of singing and she stood on my lap squealing and clapping the entire time.  A lot of people were watching her instead of the program.  She also loves to dance.

*She still takes 2 naps, 1 short morning one and a long afternoon one.

*She interacts a lot with her sisters, making them laugh and imitating sounds and squeals.  She has recently discovered their room and loves to crawl down the long hallway to get to it.

We LOVE this girl! 

Anna's 1 Year Stats: 
weight: 23 lbs (78%)
height: 30 3/4 inches (91%)
head: 18 centimeters (68%)

Advent Activities 2011

We've been staying super busy this Christmas Season.  Trying to keep the spirit of Christmas alive amidst the chaos of life.  Here is a list of our advent activities we've been doing and will do.  I haven't been great at taking pictures of them this year but there are a few.

**All activities are subject to change!**
1.  Make a paper chain to countdown to Christmas

2.  Write and deliver letters to Santa in Macy's BELIEVE mailbox

3.  Nutcracker Ballet

4.  First Presidency Christmas Devotional

5.  Christmas FHE "Our Gifts to Jesus"

6.  Bass Pro Shop Winter Wonderland

7.  Clean out toys to donate, color a picture for "color-a-smile"

8.  Wrap presents and make cards for Grandparents

9.  Watch a holiday movie and eat popcorn!

10.  Make a holiday treat (we didn't end up doing this, watching another movie instead)

11.  Make treats for neighbors

12.  Christmas Symbols FHE

13.  Biggest Loser Finale party with friends (way to go John!!)

14.  Drink hot chocolate and look at pictures of past holidays

15. Temple Christmas lights

16.  Christmas Dance party in pj's! 

17.  Ward Christmas Breakfast, Cyrena's birthday party

18.  Stake Christmas Music program

19.  Anna's birthday, Make a gingerbread house

20.  Wrap gifts for teachers

21.  Celebrate Cyrena's birthday

22.  Check out neighborhood Christmas lights

23.  Make ice cream cone Christmas trees

24. Christmas Eve!  Cookies and milk for Santa, sprinkle reindeer food

25.  Christmas Day!

 Oh my these girls can be so naughty....then I see pictures like this...*sigh

 Heading to the Nutcracker Ballet, just me and the girls

 Natalie wanted a picture with all the ballerinas.  Several of them were in our ward so they were more than willing to oblige!

 For Color-a-Smile they colored Happy New Year pictures just in case they didn't get passed out in time for Christmas.  Natalie is getting so good at coloring, Cyrena was very uninterested in coloring at her age so it's strange to see Natalie taking to it this young.

Bass Pro Shop is a must.  The picture above isn't the picture they printed and gave us but it's one we took ourselves.  They really stepped it up this year adding a cool carousel!

 We decorated gingerbread men

 Our PJ dance party

Last month we participated in Operation Christmas Child.  The boxes had to be turned in by November 20th and it always signals the beginning of the holiday season for us.  We found out our boxes were shipped to the Phillipines.

A new era has begun

BEFORE:

AFTER:

This all happened in one day.  We noticed it was loose before school then that night she had played with it enough that when she was getting into bed she just twisted it out--YUCK.  I wasn't sure whether to be grossed out (I have a hard time with teeth) or just cry because she's losing part of her babyhood...

*Cyrena's theory is that the tooth fairy takes the teeth that fall out and then puts them in the babies that are getting new teeth.  Recycling! :)

Thanksgiving weekend 2011

Thanksgiving already feels like a lifetime ago, how does that happen?  We had a good one though.  Here are the highlights.

We went to my cousin's sister-in-law's home for dinner.  Brooke is always so fun to be with, thanks to her for hosting!  Pictured above is my Aunt Lynette with Natalie.  Lynette is my mom's baby sister and my closest aunt.  We lived close to her while I was growing up and we've always stayed close.  It was so great to be with them for the holiday.

Working hard in the kitchen then we enjoyed a wonderful feast.  Of course I lost it during the 'thankful' part of the feast.  I always do, there is just so much to be thankful for.  Afterward the kids roasted marshmallows in the fire pit and we enjoyed pie while the kids watched a movie. 

On Friday afternoon David took us into Fountain Hills for a little hike to the overlook for the actual fountain in Fountain Hills lake.  The girls did well on the hike, no whining, a miracle!  

The girls watching the fountain--it was quite impressive!  Love Cyrena's 'wallet' sticking out of her pocket. :)

Awhile back David won a free night's stay at a resort close to Fountain Hills.  We headed there after our hike and enjoyed pizza and swimming!

We had a breakfast voucher also and it was TASTY.

After the hotel we met up with the family at the train park.  The train park is always a favorite.  In this picture is my Aunt Lynette and Uncle Rick with their granddaughter Claire.  

It was crowded but so much fun to play and visit and eat a picnic lunch with everyone.

This and That

This is a catch-up post of things I don't want to forget!

Cyrena was star student a couple of weeks ago.  We got to keep Clifford for the weekend.  Her eyes are red in this because she was crying about having to take Clifford back to school--she wanted to keep him.  The only way I got her to stop crying was by offering to take this picture of her, Clifford and her poster.

We did a lot of 'playing' with our Halloween candy.  I found Natalie like this one afternoon and David helped Cyrena build a house with hers.  Eventually we let them each pick about 10 things and we threw the rest away.  But it was fun to play with it all in the meantime!

 

 Anna loved rolling around in all of it and making a mess

I love rare moments like this where I don't know where the girls are and then I find them like this.  Natalie got Pinkalicious and Purplicious for her birthday and she loves Cyrena to read to her.

One night during FHE Anna was having a hard time so I had to skip out and start bathing her and get her ready for bed.  I told David he could play pictionary with the girls on our whiteboard for the activity.  Just informal pictionary where they thought of something, drew it and had someone else guess.  Cyrena's drawing is above.  100 points to the person who can guess what it is. HINT: it's church-related and he's not wearing hat...that's his hair.

Normal nights.  Cyrena is circling things in a toy catalog and Natalie is playing Doctor to Anna.  Do you notice something on Anna's head?  She's wearing an infant cranial band.  She has a noticeable flat spot and we're trying to correct it.  Fingers are crossed that it works.  She adjusted to it amazingly fast.

Some 'just because' flowers from David for an overwhelmed mom.  Awwww....

This owl landed in a tree in our neighbor's yard.  There is an owl family around but we hadn't seen them this close up before.  Very cool.

Cyrena bore her testimony for the first time a couple of weeks ago.  She was nervous but did a beautiful job.  She really does have a strong testimony that will serve her well through her life.

Natalie is 3, David is 32!

Our little Natalie is 3.  This girl doesn't ask for much.  She didn't even know she was getting presents until I asked her when she wanted to open them.  "you bought me a present mom??!!"  I volunteer at the school on Monday mornings so Natalie spent all morning playing outside with her friend Taylor--she wouldn't have wanted it any other way.  Afterward, I took her to the store and let her pick out a balloon.  She always wants one so this was a treat.  I think it was her favorite present. 

She had to nap with her balloon clipped to her shirt

David and I couldn't stomach anymore goodies so we had some extra cookies I had made for something else and we put her candles in that.  She didn't eat it, just blew out the candles. :) 

After trick or treating instead of eating candy we dished up ice cream cones....because it's Halloween yet still in the high 80's.  Natalie picked out grasshopper ice cream for her birthday-yum!

Natalie with her new pajamas and her new nightlight.  I was so excited to find this purple Twilight Turtle at a discount store.  We've been wanting to get the girls one for a long time and purple is Natalie's favorite color! 

This girl has grown so much in the past year.  She's still a little spitfire but is so loving, compassionate, and sweet too.

She wants to wear a skirt everyday, takes great naps, her speech has improved, and she has become a much less picky eater.  

Here are 3 of my favorite things about Natalie:

1.  She is super cuddly and gives the most amazing hugs....seriously.

2.  She uses her entire body while she talks; especially her hands, eyebrows, and hips

3. She makes me laugh ALL. DAY. LONG.

Stats:

Weight:  32 lbs

Height: 37 in.

We celebrated David's birthday yesterday.  Now this man definitely doesn't ask for anything for himself. I told him I wanted to bring Paradise Bakery cookies into his work for a treat.  I asked him what kind he would like and he said 'whatever you get is fine'  to which I responded 'don't forget it's YOUR birthday and you're KING today!'  So the girls and I brought some cookies and a Superman balloon into his work.  

 

After work he opened some presents and we headed out to meet up with some friends for dinner.  And for a real treat, David didn't have to do any of the bedtime routine...he got to sit on the couch and watch a nature show while eating an ice cream cone! :)

Here are 3 of my favorite things about David:

1.  He laughs at all my jokes, even the not so funny ones

2.  He is always there for me and the kids

3.  He is steady, dependable, a hard worker, and oh so cute

Happy Birthday to two of my favorite people!!

Halloween 2011

We had a fun and busy Halloween.  The girls had so much fun at the ward party and then again trick or treating last night.  We carved pumpkins Saturday-you can't do it too early in AZ since it's still hot.  Sunday the primary program was AWESOME (if I do say so myself---but really it was all the kids).  That night we headed to the Blounts (David's boss) and had an unbelievably tasty dinner, pumpkin hammering, giant sparklers, and pumpkin bombs.  Really...they made bombs and blew up pumpkins.  No one was harmed and we were all entertained.  The girls love going over there, they'd stay all night if they could! 

I love my little trick-or-treaters.  Supergirl, a cupcake, and a candy corn!