Leaving Winter Behind

We're happy winter is officially over. I know all my true winter friends are not feeling bad for me because really how bad can a Florida winter be? Well...the two things I dislike are the wind and shortened daylight, which makes spending time outside minimal.

 Sometimes we like to dress up silly for when Daddy comes home.

So we say goodbye to winter and hello to spring!

With the welcoming of spring and longer daylight hours, we now have time for:

Going to the fair

Robert and his parents took Annabelle while I was out of town on business in Utah for my company's Annual Conference.

 First pony ride. She was ready to go.

Robert won and brought home our first pet. He named him Ferris. He was a good little goldfish until we sadly killed him by trying to be good owners and clean his water. Apparently we need some practice on how to do that. :(

 It was a really cool fair with tons of animals.

Going on bike rides

Going to the park

Having fun outside at the Strawberry Festival

Annabelle loves wearing her sunglasses. It's a good thing too because you need them in Florida.

 We saw lots of animals.

She wanted to be right in the action.

One of the highlights from the day was going to free concerts and watching Annabelle enjoy the music. We let her out of her stroller after this video and she danced and twirled while the bands played. Everyone around her was laughing and smiling. She was such a hit that a guy came up to us and gave us free tickets to take her on a few rides. 

Luckily, she was just tall enough to ride two of the rides. 

 Her first carnival rides were the merry-go-round and the helicopter. At first I thought it was strange they had a height requirement at all for the merry-go-round, but now I know why...that was the fastest and bumpiest one I've ever been on. I struggled to keep my balance. HA!

 Ready for take off!

Up, up, up they go.

 And before we headed home, Robert being the good dad he is won little Miss Annabelle a Smurf. I almost had him, but he whacked one more mole than I did. 

There's time for golf practice with Daddy.

 He was prepping for his big guy weekend in Myrtle Beach where they would be golfing all weekend. I told him we were giving him extreme training. If he could focus on a putt with Annabelle running around in the way and covering the holes, he could easily focus on a putt when the time came. Sure enough our training worked out because Robert beat everyone by having the best score of an 87.

 Future golfer.

Wearing spring colored dresses!

 This was her St. Patrick's day inspired dress.

 "Enough pictures and talking already!"'

All You Need Is Love

Last year my best friend from high school, Jenny, got engaged and decided to have a destination wedding in St. Thomas in January. We were honored that they invited us to share in their special day. As you can imagine, it did not take too much convincing to get us there-- especially with baby #2 on the way. We decided this would be the perfect babymoon. Plus, Jenny has been planning this wedding since we were in high school, so I could not miss it!

This was our first day in St. Thomas taking the ferry over to Water Island where we spent five wonderful days relaxing and playing in the sun.

We were sad to leave this sweet little Miss behind, but she was well taken care of by Grandma Fountain.

Best friends reunited. The house we stayed at was beautiful and worked out great. I loved sitting out on the deck and watching the big cruise boats leave port. I was actually with this beautiful lady on a cruise boat like this one in the background nine years ago when I met Robert, which was the last time I was also in St. Thomas.

The guys prepared dinner for everyone on the first night at the house. It was a scrumptious taco bar. Girls took the second night and prepared pasta.

We were truly on vacation and in paradise.

The following day was a girls and boys day out. The girls took a private boat ride around the island and to the British Virgin Islands where I got another stamp in my passport. We had a fun captain who put up with lots of girls all day. My highlights were getting to snorkel with sea turtles and relaxing on a semi-private beach next to multi-million dollar homes. The water was so clear.

The boys went fishing and Robert caught this barracuda. We ended up eating their catches that night, except for the barracuda of course.

 The rest of the time leading up to the wedding was spent laying in the sun, taking golf cart rides around the island, socializing, playing games, eating, kayaking, paddle boarding, fishing, snorkeling, etc.

The night of the rehearsal we reserved one of the two restaurants on the island and celebrated Jenny and Adam's story and love. 

 We were even entertained by local fire twirlers.

 Our wonderful hosts for the week: Mr. and Mrs. Shular. They are so great and fun to be around!

After the rehearsal, we came home for some more laughter and fun.

And silliness.

And a Ya-Ya meeting (a/k/a girl sob meeting) where we surprised Jenny with a scrapbook we made for her.

Then back to the fun. Adam and Jenny decided it was time to try out the green-tinted pool while dressed in their clothes.

Since they did not turn into green monsters, we all decided it would be fun to try out and had a little pool party to end the night.

The big day arrived! 

I loved helping and being apart of putting everything together. Robert was a big help with Jenny's cousin Josh (our roomie) in setting up chairs, the aisle, and rehearsal dinner while all the girls were getting ready.  

A beach wedding, just like she imagined. 

 It was a beautiful and perfectly timed ceremony. After the nuptials, we headed back to the house for a wonderfully catered dinner and reception. 

 This picture hardly does it any justice, but one of the neatest parts about the house we stayed in was that it sat behind this big hill. Every night you could watch the moon rise. 

 In between all the fun, we found time to text and video chat home to check in on Annabelle and Grandma.

 I love this picture because our other roomie, Geraldine, spent the evening of the reception placing stickers on all the guys. Days later we noticed it on Robert's belt.  

Getting ready for the photo booth. 

 The next day was bitter sweet. We got to hang out with these two love birds one final time, but we also had to leave.

It was hard saying goodbye to paradise, but we had a great time and we were ready to come home and see our little girl.

Some of us might have played a little too hard. ;)

All you need is love. 

 Thank you Adam and Jenny for a wonderful trip and great memories!

Annabelle Turns One!

This little cutie turned one last month. It's been so fun watching her grow and learn. We're so thankful for her and the blessing she has been to our lives. We just love her! I can't believe how much she has grown in a year. We love her fun personality, independence, mobility, adventurous, and determined spirit now. We do miss her baby days where we just spent lots of time snuggling.

 To celebrate her birthday, we started the day off with a birthday surprise: 

She was so happy when she saw it, I wish we had that moment on video but we were still in bed. :)
We had fun playing with her before we went to work on her special day:

Later in the day in honor of her birthday she dumped glitter on herself while mommy was not looking. It's hard to tell because the glitter is silver, but it was everywhere!

Later that night after work, we threw her a birthday video party with family from all parts of the country: Georgia, Washington, California, Tennessee, Florida, and Utah.

 The birthday suit.

Her first birthday cake that mommy made her. Chocolate with pink icing. Yummy!

Happy Birthday Annabelle!

She was a little timid at first--not sure what to do with it.

Then she started to get the hang of it...

and well the rest is history.

She seemed to like the taste and had fun playing with it for a bit, then she was finished and we rescued her from her mess. 

Present time. 

We had a great time taking her one year photo shoot as well. Here are a few favorites. 

Make a wish!

Have some fun!

We love you Annabelle and we're so glad that you came to our family. We made it a full year as first time parents. :)