Master of Disaster

I've been meaning to post this for a couple days, but haven't gotten around to it until now. Anna wanted her Don Will to know how proud she is of his new job...and in honor of that, she'd like to say just one thing....

We love you, Don Will! Congrats!

Visitors, peek-a-boo, and other happenings

It feels as though, over the last week or so, Anna's had an explosion of learning. She's fully laughing now, not just sort of wheezing like she used to. She also enjoys peek-a-boo, "sings" along while you sing to her, and is now doing half circles in her crib (meaning when I lay her down, a few minutes later her head is where her feet used to be). Her Mimi was over earlier today, and she commented that Anna is even beginning to scoot so that she can play with something - evidently, she was working to get at a little squeaky toy on her playmat and was pushing as hard as she could to get over there. It never fails to amaze me how quickly she learns and picks up on things - she's just a little sponge!

This last week, Anna got to meet her Aunt Amy for the first time, which was so much fun. Of course, I didn't get any pictures, because I'm terribly forgetful - but she really was here, and it was wonderful to get to see her. Our friends Steven and Lindi also came to visit this weekend - we did get pictures of them (!), so they're posted below.

I'm also posting a video of tickle time, as well as some pictures of Anna in her new playroom. Jimmy and I spent most of our weekend last weekend working on getting the playroom ready - the best part about it is that it has magnetic paint on the bottom half! We're excited to start teaching her letters and numbers on her magnetic wall.

All About the Hands

The newest development for Anna over the last week have been all about her hands - she seems to have completely discovered how amazing they are, and so they are constantly reaching, grabbing (especially if you have long hair or hoop earrings!), and being gnawed on. A display of her new talents:

We had a wonderful trip this last weekend to Austin and Houston to visit friends and family. Anna was a great traveler, as usual, and we had such a blast seeing Will, Audrey, Keegan, Amy, Jacob, Nate, Zach, Mike, Julie, Chrissy, Emily and Uncle Ken. Unfortunately, Mom forgot to get new batteries for the camera, so we have zero pictures of the weekend! Nonetheless, we really enjoyed getting to see everyone.

More adorable pics of Anna below...have a great weekend!

Rolling Over

I've been bragging about it for 6 weeks, but now I finally have proof - here's a video of our big girl rolling over:



In addition, I'm posting pictures of Anna playing in her Kick 'n Play (notice that her foot is blurred because it's moving so fast!), quiet time with Daddy, a pic of her with her foot (almost!) in her mouth, one of her looking rather surprised, and a sweet pic of her with her Ma. We had a great visit with Ma and Paw-Paw this weekend, and celebrated Anna's first visit to the big town of Rankin.


Finally, here's a pic of Anna on the beautiful quilt made especially for her by Hazel - thank you for the gorgeous blanket!

Saying Goodbye...

Last week, we said goodbye to Auntie M (otherwise known to the rest of the family as Melissa, my sister) as she travels off to Northern Ireland for a year to do mission work with the Presbyterian church. While it's sad to see her go (and we'll miss her immensely!), she is truly following her calling, and we are SOOOO proud of her. We love you, Auntie M!

As a special goodbye, I thought I would post some of my favorite pics of Melissa and Anna today. Here they are:

I'm also posting an adorable picture of Anna in her Bumbo - her second favorite sitting place, behind her Kick & Play bouncy chair. Mommy likes the Bumbo because she looks so cute in it! In addition, there are pics of her with Mimi, Percy and Charlotte, and a video of her hiccupping and what I like to call "pre-laughing" (not really laughing, but sort of wheezing with the same tone of laughing - it's what she does when she's really tickled about something). Enjoy!

Lazy Sunday

Hello all! After sending out emails with pictures attached for the last three months of Anna, I decided it would be easier to just create a blog so that I can update pictures anytime.

Today is Anna's 3 month birthday! It doesn't seem possible that three months ago today we were sitting in the hospital room with her, admiring how soundly she slept. Now she's all smiles and squeals! Below are some new pictures we've taken of Anna this month. No one could ever accuse us of not taking enough pictures of her - this month, we averaged 3 pictures a day :)

As you can see, we've been working a lot on tummy time the past few weeks. She can hold her head up like a champ now, and last Monday she rolled over 11 TIMES in the period of about 10 minutes!

Below is a video of her smiling, laughing and cooing. This is what she and I do about 90% of the day now - how blessed I am! Please excuse the extreme hick accent I have in this video - for whatever reason, my baby talk really brings out the West Texas girl in me.