Thursday, April 3, 2014

Latest Happenings

Here is an update on what we've been up to on a daily basis over the last few months.
We'll start with this cool little girl.
Annabelle loves being outside and is even starting to grow some hair. I was able to put one curler in it!
Annabelle went through an "I love my Glow Worm" stage and played with it almost every day. It was really cute to watch her interact and snuggle with (or bite) her toy that Aunt Lori and Uncle Jason bought her.
She likes to walk to and from the elevator now. Here she is on her way back from church in this picture.
She loves to play with all of her toys and puts the ABC magnets on the fridge. 
She really likes to find nooks and crannies to sit in.
Her drawer works too.
Some days she tries to be super cool like mom and help out at work. Good thing I kept my college laptop around after all this time.
Really though, she's spends most of her time while I'm working watching Baby Einstein and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
She's a whirlwind of destruction and likes to show off her skills. Just today she broke one of my glass pot lids by throwing it on the floor while I was cooking. It shattered into tiny little pieces everywhere and she clapped.
Don't worry, Annabelle the Climber is still in full force.
Unfortunately, her new favorite spot is the table, which makes life very difficult when eating or trying to do anything near the table.
We were able to visit with cousins in February when my brother and his family came to Walt Disney World. Annabelle liked snuggling and sitting in the boys' laps even if they really did not want her too. :)
Annabelle is starting to make new friends. She likes to play with other kids no matter how old they are. One of her friends is Emily.
 We're not so sure if the feeling is mutual yet, but she's warming up. 
Emily seemed to do alright once we got Annabelle to stop mauling her. :) They are 5 months apart in age. Annabelle is the older one, but Emily weighs more.
She's our little social butterfly.

Moving on...
Robert is Associate Counsel now. He is very busy at work these days and is spending more time on trademark and corporate governance issues. 
He's been enjoying his calling as Young Men's President, getting better on the grill, and continuing to be Annabelle's little playmate.
 As for me, well...I'm spending my days chasing a little critter around the house, working full time from home, and just getting bigger each day. I've reached 26 weeks in this pregnancy, which means it's almost third trimester time.
 I feel very blessed because this pregnancy has been identical to my first, which was very "boring" compared to most pregnancy standards. I like to eat, but I don't have any cravings to report. I feel well enough to bike ride and go on walks, but I definitely get tired easily and feel like a slug compared to my normal self. 
The baby is doing well and is kicking a lot, probably because his big sister is always sitting on him.
I've decided to go with a VBAC if all things go well toward the end of the pregnancy, so keep us in your prayers.
Mainly, we're all happy, healthy, and soaking up our time with Annabelle before we start our new adventure in July. 

28 is Great

In March I turned another year older.  
 My birthday fell on a Sunday, which is fun because you get to celebrate all weekend long. To start off the celebrations I told Robert I wanted to go for a walk on the beach Friday evening after work. 
 It was a perfect evening. 
Annabelle loved running around and playing with all of the seashells.
Robert had to work most of the day on Saturday, so I spent the day playing outside with Annabelle and shopping at Target. We went to the park and pool. When Robert got home we watched a movie, Thor: The Dark World.
On Sunday, the day of my actual Birthday we celebrated by going on a walk, with Robert cooking dinner for me (yummy), video-chatting with my family, and opening presents.
To cap off the celebrations, we had Root Beer Floats, one of my favorite treats!
 
27 will be a year I'll never forget as I transitioned to life as a mother and all that it brings emotionally, physically, socially, and professionally. Not to mention, going through it all again as I became pregnant with our second baby. Overall, it was a wonderful and blessed year. I have so much to be thankful for and I am grateful to experience and grow in new ways. Here's to having another good year.

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!"'