Daddy's Little Helper

Annaleigh loves when Daddy works on a project, and loves to help even more! Projects she has helped complete so far:

Baseboards

Putting bumpers on the car

The list may be short, but that may be because all of her “help” makes each project take a bit longer than intended.

What do you mean, "Bath time?"

This is what happens when Annaleigh helps plant flowers.

Easter

We did the usual Easter stuff this year – Church, family dinner, and for the first time an Easter Egg hunt. Annaleigh was so excited to be outside (as usual) that she didn’t notice that there were colorful Easter eggs to find. Once she noticed the eggs she was psyched.

After finding each egg she wanted to stop and eat the snacks that were inside (mostly fruit chews, with a couple of jelly beans and M&Ms). It took a long time to find the six eggs that I put out – maybe next year we’ll try for a dozen!

So if you haven’t heard yet – We are expecting another baby on October 26th! AJ and I were very excited when we found out, of course and we were lucky enough to have AJ’s parents in town when we told our families the good news. We went out to dinner at one of our favorite local places, and before our meals came I changed Annaleigh’s shirt to her “Big Sister” shirt. My mom saw her when she came out and said, “That’s a cute shirt,” but must not have actually read it since she said nothing else after that! Finally Kathy asked what it said and when we stood Annaleigh up, both of our moms figured out what was going on. (Both my dad and John were still clueless until we finally spelled it out). Needless to say, everyone was thrilled!
As a result of this new addition we are desperately in need of a new house – we have only three bedrooms, and AJ’s guitars need a safe place to sleep too, so in addition to a new baby, we will hopefully be moving into a new home as well. We are sure in for a lot of changes this year!

Lions and Tiger and Bears, Oh My!

It was great to be off over spring break! AJ and I got a change to take Annaleigh to the Austin Zoo, somewhere we have never been before. The Zoo is mostly rescue animals, and started out as a sanctuary/rehabilitation center. It was neat to see how the animal enclosures have been worked into the Texas landscape - it is a lot less manufactured that other zoos that we have been too - especially the Buffalo zoo, right in the middle of the city! Annaleigh was not in the mood to ride in her stroller, so we ended up pushing my purse and her diaper bag around, while trying to keep up with her! She loved the chickens and peacocks that roam free outside, as well as the birds and monkeys - I think that she was attracted to all of the noise that they made. One of her favorite animals was the pigs (so exotic) since they were near the edge of their pen and so easy to spot. I think that we may need to get one for our house too.

My favorite part - watching the tortises eat rrrreeealllllyyy sslloooowwww.

Super Bowl & Tub time

While the adults watched football, Annaleigh and Braden had their first coed bath. Annaleigh was not sure at first why some boy was in her tub, but she warmed up a bit by the end.

Snow Day!

Two inches of snow is no biggie in NY, but here in Texas we get a snow day! The day that we brought Annaleigh home from the hospital (Christmas Eve) there was a tiny bit of snow, and that was the last time that she saw snow. When we saw our white yard, we couldn't wait to get her outside! She was not sure what to do at first but once she saw how our feet made prints and she got her hands on some snow she was thrilled. Since it doesn't usually get too cold here we don't have winter boots or snow pants, so after she started to sit on the ground we had to come in since she was getting wet. It was great to get a day off from work and to have an unexpected day at home!