Meeting Baby Kendall

This post is a couple of weeks late, but thus is life right now. :) On July 4, we finally got to meet our new niece, Kendall! She doesn’t live very far away, but for one reason or another it just hasn’t worked out for us to go see her. But my brother and his family were able to make it to Conway for a couple of days.

Anna was so sweet around the baby! She was very interested in her and always wanted to know where she was. She kissed her and patted her gently. She brought her toys. And she didn’t have any problem at all with David or me holding her. This is a good sign!

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Christmas Night Pics

What could be under that big red bag?

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A kitchen!

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Christmas Morning Pics

Anna was so excited Christmas morning to see her present from Nana and Granddad…

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A table and chair set just for her! Isn’t it the cutest thing?

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Happy Girls

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This is my mom with her two precious granddaughters, having a good time!

Trip Part 3: Nana and Granddad’s house, finally!

David’s parents were so excited to have Anna out at their house in Boulder! They secured a crib, high chair, and some other necessities (and a few not-so-necessities) and had a little room set up for Anna.

Granddad and Anna enjoying the view from the deck:

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Some randomness

In an effort to post something on my blog between weekly menu plans, here are some things that have been going around in my head and our home.

I’ve been feeling musical lately. I’ve started trying to practice piano again—not just sit down and play, but really practice and work on something difficult and get better at it. I manage to do this for about 20-30 minutes after Anna’s nap while she’s sitting in her high chair eating raisins and graham crackers. It takes about 10 minutes to warm up, so I only get a few minutes to actually work on something, but it adds up, and I’m making slow progress. I’m working on Felix Mendelssohn’s Praeludium in E minor. It’s a rich, fluid piece, fairly short, a little challenging without being insanely hard. I’m done trying to learn stuff that’s so incredibly difficult that only professional musicians play it, and stick with pieces I actually have a shot at playing well. Maybe I’ll play it for you someday. But probably not. I’m just doing this for me, to remind myself that there’s still some talent buried in there somewhere.

David’s parents visited us this past weekend. Anna doesn’t see them very often, but whenever they come, she warms up to them in just a few minutes and is all over them. How many adults does it take to accompany a toddler to the park? Four. To storytime at the library? Four. None of us wanted to miss out on anything! They enjoyed getting to see Anna do the fun things she likes to do, and Anna loved the captive audience and undivided attention all weekend!

I’ve been trying to get back into the exercise habit. A few weeks ago I heard about the “Miles for Milestones” 5K on October 31 and thought it would be a good goal to work towards. I’ll be satisfied if I finish in 31 minutes; happy if I finish in 30. Now if the weather will just cooperate that day. It’s at 8 A.M. (Why do they have these things at 8 A.M. in the cold-weather months?!? Wouldn’t 10 A.M. or noon be much nicer?) It will be chilly, which is fine if it’s dry, but I’m not running in 40-degree rain. I don’t have the right kind of clothes for that anyway.

I think I want to paint the kitchen and living room. I haven’t told David this yet. Hey, honey, I think I want to paint the kitchen and living room.

Is there any way I can tell you just how enamored I am with Anna? She is one amazing kid. She’s been especially sweet lately. She is such a blessing! She is so funny sometimes. The other day in Wal-Mart we were stopped next to the milk, and she smiled, stuck out her tongue, and went “AAAAAAAEEEEEEEHHH.” I looked up to where she was looking, and there was a picture of a cat on a big sign hanging over the pet stuff. Yep, that’s how she makes her cat noise. I hope I can get her animal sounds on video sometime! They’re too cute.

Labor Day at the Ranch

My brother let me play around with his Nikon D60 last weekend. It takes some great pictures, but at the same time I realized I have a lot to learn. Here are some pics of Anna and her cousin Addie, with their daddies and Mammaw and Pappaw.

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That’s what Nanas are for…

… to let their grandkids do things that mommies and daddies won’t… in this case, push whatever keys she wanted to on Nana’s computer. Anna thought that was great fun! (And congrats to Nana for recently switching to Apple! Yea!)

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After which, of course, Anna insisted on getting on our computer:

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Yep, she thinks she can do whatever she wants to around here!

Too cute not to pass on…

I know most of you don’t know this child, but this is my niece singing and playing the guitar mandolin with her daddy and it is sooooo precious and I just had to share. :)

The Birthday Girl

My baby girl is turning 1! We had her birthday party yesterday out at my parents’ house. My parents, David’s parents, my brother and his family, and Anna’s godparents and god-grandmother were all there. Anna was in a great mood and had plenty of those wonderful Anna-smiles to go around.

And thank you, Jenny, for letting us borrow your DSLR camera for the day!

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