Happy Anna Grocery!!

Last week was Granny & Papaw's anniversary so when we called to wish them a Happy Anniversary John couldn't quite get the words straight and kept yelling "Happy Anna Grocery!" over the phone.

So this February 28th, 2010, I think about what I was doing six years ago today: marrying my sweetheart/best amigo/favorite person to hang out with and be silly with...

So much has happened in six years.....

I wonder what God was thinking when He created you

I wonder if he knew everything I would need

Because he made all my dreams come true, when God made you

He must have been thinking about me

He must've heard every prayer I've been praying

Yes, He knew everything I would need

When God made you, yes He did

When dreams come true

When God made you

He must've been thinking about me

-Newsong

Happy Anna Grocery, Kyle!

XOXOXO -me

My Little Running Man

I took a Leisure Learning Photography class last Saturday to help me learn more about using my camera. It was an all day commitment but I really enjoyed it and definitely thought it was worth the $50 to figure out my complicated camera a little more. I had plenty of "a-ha!" moments...."so that's what that button is for!"

I've been trying to practice a few things here and there. This really isn't one of the assignments but John and I were playing outside and I realized he would actually smile at me when I had him run towards me as I shot pictures of him. I put the camera in "rapid-fire" mode and shot this running sequence of him. He thought this was so fun so we did it over and over. When I look at the pictures in a slide show it's like one of those animation-type flip books we used to make when we were little....uh, or at least I used to make them out of Post-It note pads....

I especially like the Michael-Jordan-esque tongue hanging out to the side.

Pictures!

Happy 1st Valentine's Day Anna!!!!

EEEEEEE!!!!Brushing my teef...my four teef!

Make sure to get the back....

Enjoying cousin time! John (2.5 yrs), Anna (10 months), and Sadie (5 months)

Anna: Your cheeks look so chubby and yummy, Sadie. Can I take a little bite?

Sadie: You get one. inch. closer little lady, and I will knock you into next week.

I like this picture for the pose with the hand on the fence. We look so classy, don't we?

Hey mom! I'm going down the slide!

Anna at 11 Months

So my Baby Anna is almost 11 months old! I can't believe we'll be celebrating her 1st birthday next month. Time has just blown past. Here are some things that Anna is doing these days?

She is crawling very fast. She was cruising for a while until she realized she could get to her destination faster if she crawled to it.

She is very curious and loves to people watch

Anna loves to do what her brother is doing

She gets a fiesty woman's temper when she is playing with or doing something and someone (ahem, her brother) interrupts or tries to "help". Her motto is: "I can do it myself, thank you" accentuated by a piercing scream that tells you to BACKOFF.

Example: Just yesterday all of us were sitting on the couch and Anna was playing with the Melissa and Doug latches puzzle board. John tried to participate and open some of the latches and Anna locked some crazy eyes on her brother and started shaking and grasping at the puzzle and dare I say growled at John to get his mitts off her puzzle. Kyle, John, and I all looked at eachother like "what was that display of force all about?"

Anna loves to dance to music. She does this funny shoulder shimmy to the beat. Must be the 1/4 Latina in her. And just today she started clapping her hands with my aunt to a Spanish nursery rhyme that translated means "Little Butter Tortillas"...YAY! Who doesnt' love butter tortillas....that would make me clap too!

She loves to eat little cut up pieces of real food now which is making my life muuuuuch easier.

She loves crawling with something, anything in her mouth. She looks like a little puppy roaming around the house with random objects in her mouth.

We recently gave her a toothbrush with toothpaste on it and were surprised that she knew exactly what to do with it. Well, I gues she does put everything in her mouth anyways.....

She loves meeting up with her cousin, Sadie, for story/sing-a-long time on Wednesdays (when we make it!)

She is a little apprehensive of new faces these days

She makes the saddest little pouty face you've ever seen when something scares her or someone hurts her feelings

She loves trying to reach for John's hands in the car while we're driving somewhere. They look so cute back there holding hands and laughing at each other. It's the little things that make a mommy happy!

Nasty Bookshelves - RIP

Another reason for me being scarce these past few weeks is that the house has been turned on it's head for the past 3 weeks. It's dRiVIng mE cRAzy! I can't stand the disorderliness (is that a word?)

It all started with the decision to finally get a TV mounted over the fireplace. You'd think that would be no big deal but you would think wrong. These are the bookshelves before (the fireplace in the middle is cropped out of this picture)

So you see...when we remove the TV from the current location we're left with a huge, ugly, gaping hole that really can't masquerade as a decorative shelf or anything else. The only solution was to redo the bookshelves on either side. So this was a major undertaking.

After three days of banging, demolition, drilling, pneumatic nail gunning, sawing, dust, paint fumes, a freezing house (since windows were wide open lest we suffocate), and sparse naps for the wee ones while all this was taking place, it is all DONE. And now we have respectable-looking bookshelves and cabinets. Praise the Lord forevermore.

Here are the new bookshelves....

But, wait...ugh! too plain! too white! hmmm....

since I can't leave well enough alone I must add my little touch to them....I must gLorify them. I took a deep breath and declared to Kyle: I have a plan and I'm going to glaze the cabinets....and I'm gonna do it TONIGHT and no one will stop me.

So last night after 3 hours and a tremendous buzz from paint thinner fumes that almost prohibited me from sleeping I had this:

I am quite sure I lost more than a few brain cells from those rags dipped in paint thinner BUT those wonderfully antiqued little crevices are so worth it. Is it OK to love a good glaze job? Oh, Glazed Cabinets, will you be my Valentine?

A kind message to the ugly black stone fireplace surround: Watch your back....I've got you in my sights and your days are numbered now. The only thing standing between me and a nice-looking wall is you and your ugly face.

Canton and Other News

Oh, it's been quiet on the blog here but don't let that fool you....it hasn't been so quiet in real life.

Last weekend I went on a girls trip with my pals, Emily and Kim. This was my first ever girls only trip since having kids and, boy, was I hot to trot! Kyle kept John while my mom kept Anna. On Friday the girls and I headed out for First Monday Trade Days in Canton, TX. Pretty much Trade Days is a once-a-month gathering of vendors selling wares for home, kids, garden, furniture (anything you could imagine). Think Nutcracker Market but BIGGER! We were in heaven.

Unfortunately for us we underestimated the weather report. 40 degrees and sunny seemed manageable with a heavy sweater and boots. But as we were getting ready on Saturday morning the news reported that the temps with wind chill were more like 17--oh, and it was cloudy drizzly. We even saw a few light snow flakes. Yeah, the sweaters weren't cutting it so we hightailed it Wal-Mart to buy jackets and gloves and as we arrived on the Trade Day grounds we noticed almost every single woman wearing those wool knitted headbands with a knitted flower on them. You guessed it, we all bought one too. It was the uniform that weekend. Sooooo bitterly cold! But worth the precious company and conversation that moms don't usually get to have when wrangling toddlers...

So blame it on the weather or the lack of sleep from rearranging items in my house, I got terribly sick last Wednesday with a fever of 103.7. Not good. I had flashbacks of Kyle's spell from pneumonia that had him down for 3 weeks and was a bit worried. Thankfully I bounced back in a few days.

In other news, the kids are great. Anna is crawling and cruising. I'm just waiting for her to start taking some steps although, in reality, I really can wait for that. She's got a spunky little personality but thankfully, after two straight months of ear infections, we haven't had any more issues. The ear infections were turning her spunky into just plain funky. The little lady was quite a screamer for that time period.

OK, gotta run...I promised John I'd play some puzzles with him and he is presently trying to body-slam Anna!