Christmas 2010

Last year at Christmas my most vivid memory of Annaleigh was that she screamed like a banshee every time we set her down to try to get a picture of her. This year she was so excited to check out all of her presents. Present opening took a long time since she wanted play with each present as she opened it. Eventually I got to open a lot of her presents, otherwise we would have been unwrapping until the new year.

The monster and her presents:

Happy Birthday Baby!

I know I say it each month, but we can not believe that Annaleigh is already one year old! We have had the best year watching our sweet pea grow up, and the changes have been tremendous!

This month Annaleigh has gotten very fast. She loves to run towards things she knows not to touch (dog food, toilet paper) and laughs hysterically when we catch her. Annaleigh is also in love with the cats and will follow them down the hall yelling. She also lays on her tummy to look under the bed for them. Luckily the cats are fast and Annaleigh has not figured out how to sneak up on them yet.

Annaleigh will eat just about anything that you put in front of her, and has a special love for spaghetti, pizza, and fruit snacks. She has three teeth, two on the bottom and one the top, with the second top tooth on its way. We are also lucky to have a great sleeper- about 12-13 hours at night with a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon.

We have been so blessed!

12-22-2009

The Zilker Tree

Last year AJ and I went to the Trail of Lights at Zilker Park with the hope that some walking would make me go into labor. This year there was no Trail of Lights, but we still had a great time taking Annaleigh to see the big tree and spin under it. Neither AJ or I have done this before - I was a bit to big an uncoordinated last year - but we finally got to see what all the fuss is about. Here is a quick video of what you get to see as you stand under the lights and spin:

At first Annaleigh wasn't sure what was going on - she couldn't figure out that she needed to look up. However, once we had her lie in our arms, she was thrilled! She got a bit unhappy whenever we tried to stop, and every time we sat her up she would try to lie down again. The best part was when we set her on the ground - she could barely walk two steps without falling down!

Santa fail.

I would love to post a cute picture of my kid sitting on Santa's lap, smiling for the camera. I really would. However it is not to be.

After going to the Domain and spending 45 minutes walking around trying to locate Santa (including a call to my dad to check online since my phone is still in the ice age) we finally found an elf at Toys'R'Us to let us know that we were in Phase I of the Domain and Santa was in Phase II. (Seriously, what mall has Phases?) We loaded Annaleigh back in the car and headed over to Phase II and found Santa. And his line of kids waiting to get terrified by the fat man in the red suit. After hemming and hawing about whether to bother with a picture that was going to cost AT LEAST $25!!!!!!!!! we waited in line for another 45 minutes. Annaleigh was surprisingly calm and patient with all of this crap. When we got to our turn AJ sat on the chair with Santa and Annaleigh was fine. Smiling, laughing as Santa tickled her. As soon as she was handed off to the big man all hell broke loose. She looked up and started screaming like she has never screamed before. There was no getting her back. Santa was the thing that nightmares are made of.

The thing is the pictures were hysterical! Santa looking at her a smiling, her looking at him and screaming. However, $25 is a bit much for a screaming baby picture. Oh well, maybe next year.

Party Time!

We celebrated Annaleigh's first birthday on December 19th, she had a great time opening presents and smashing cake everywhere!

Cupcakes for our little cupcake.

Annaleigh liked to open the presents, but was easily distracted by the paper that she ripped off. Each piece had to be inspected and tasted.

She loved the cupcake, especially the candle!

Playing with her kitchen.

This is a race track that spins cars around and shoots them out. Annaleigh prefers to think of it as a jungle gym.

Dutch and Emory are glad that she has a new tail to pull now.

O Christmas tree!

We finally got around to getting a Christmas tree on December 17th, though we weren't sure it was going to happen - we like to support the charity groups that have trees each year, but they were all closed so we had to go to Home Depot. Not quite the tree shopping experience of my youth, but it was cheap!

Annaleigh enjoyed the trees, though she wasn't sure what the point was. She likes the tree much better with all the fun decorations that she can remove each day.

Puppy Love

When we first brought Annaleigh home the dogs were not bothered by her too much - a little crying and some yummy poop smells - she had both pros and cons.

There are still some pros and cons in their opinions:

Pro: Throws food of high chair
Con: Plays in dog food and throws it on the floor

Pro: Still makes awesome poops - In the house!

Con: We still have to poop outside.

The dogs pretty much ignore her still, but every once in a while Annaleigh wants a puppy snuggle. Luckily Dutch puts up with it.

A seriously good dog.

Swing Swing

This kid loves to swing! Her hands were like icicles when we left the park, but I think she would have stayed for hours.

11 months

This month Annaleigh has been perfecting her walk - Butt out. Tummy out. She can really get moving and loves to hide from whoever is on baby patrol. She is developing quite an opinion too, and she lets you know what she likes (or doesn't)! She likes to feed herself, especially in the morning, she likes to drink her milk before eating anything and she dislikes anything that is neatly put away. (clothes, dish towels, Tupperware, her toys... these things are immediately thrown off of selves, out of drawers and baskets.)

This is the only picture she would be still for. I think she wanted everyone to get a good look at her tummy.

If these don't make you smile...

Apple juice in the tub...

...almost as good as a glass of wine.

Musician in the Making

Halloween!

When I decided to make Annaleigh's costume for her first Halloween I thought it was a great idea to make a spider costume, that way when she crawled around she would look just like a creepy crawlie. However, I didn't think that 2 days before Halloween she would decide that crawling was no longer the thing to do! None the less, she was too cute in her Halloween costume, though she refused to wear the little black hat that went with it. Instead we went with the orange bow to let everyone know that she is a girl spider.

It was a challenge to get her to hold still for any pictures - we had to settle for a bunch of blurry ones instead!

Checking out the pumpkins.

Our first year as a three-pumpkin family!

Hockey Night

I was way psyched when I saw that the Sabres would be playing the Dallas Stars in Texas this year, and was even more excited when my parents got AWESOME tickets to the game. Chris, Sarah, AJ and I drove up to Dallas the day before Halloween to watch the game. We had diner at the Hard Rock Cafe, which always makes me feel like a tourist, and walked to the arena. As much as I love HSBC Arena, the Dallas Stars arena is gorgeous - It even has a huge screen outside on which we could watch the World Series while waiting to get in.

We were impressed with how many Buffalo fans there were. We even got a pretty good chant going! However, all the Buffalo pride in the world couldn't have helped the Sabres. Didn't someone tell them it was my birthday? The 4-0 shutout was a bit of a downer, but we still had fun. It just means that the next time the Sabres are within driving distance we will have to go to the game to watch them redeem themselves.

At the Hard Rock

At the game - while we were still smiling!

Lalime doing what he did all night - nothing.

The Great Pumpkin

Though we went to the pumpkin patch in Temple before Halloween, we decided to wait until closer to the actual holiday before we bought pumpkins. You northerners would not believe how fast a pumpkin will rot down here, as we discovered our first year in Texas when we woke up to pumpkin mush on our front porch!

Annaleigh once again loved the pumpkins, and got to pick out her own little pumpkin for the occasion.

Pumpkin Farm

A week before Halloween we went to Silo Christmas Tree Farm in Temple with the Kruger's for the pumpkin patch and fall activities that are held there each year. We had a great time with the kids - both Braden and Annaleigh had a ton of fun. We went on a hay ride, paid $3 to feed some goats (crazy considering we know two goats that would love to be fed for free) and checked out all of the pumpkins. It was a lot of fun, and a great way to get ready for Annaleigh's first Halloween.

Someone loves the pumpkins.

Stephanie, Braden and Dustin on the hay ride.

Our own little goat chowing down on some hay.

Annaleigh was unsure about the goats. After my extensive experience with goats, I don't blame her.

Every time we see Braden I am impressed with what a good big brother he is going to be - he loves to share!

This is Annaleigh's new "excited" face. She is crazy.

Rock On

10 months!

This month - once again- has been full of changes. Annaleigh has been "cruising' along the couch and coffee table for a while now, but this month she started to take steps all by herself. She is still pretty wobbly, but she is quite proud of herself! Crawling is still the favored mode of moving, and I think it will stay that way until she can walk faster than she can crawl. If you haven't noticed yet, she has two bottom chompers, and keeps sucking in her top lip like the top gums are hurting. I think it will just be a matter of time until she has some top teeth too. (I will be glad when AJ stops singing that annoying "All I want for Christmas" song too!)

I think one of my favorite things that she has started to do is crawl to someone to pull herself up on their legs. She looks straight up at you with the cutest face - who can resist picking her up?