Play Date

Anna and I had a great Saturday morning playing with Nichole, Josiah, and Adalyn. Great friends!

I love this last picture - how precious! Josiah was making Anna "grass soup" as an "appetizer."

Jenny Got Me

Tuesday night, when I came home from work, Jenny told me that Anna started saying something new at school. "Oh yeah, what's that?", I asked.

"The F-Word."

"What!!?!!? Are you serious?"

And with a straight face, Jenny looked me in the eye and said, "Anna walked right up to her teacher and said F--k. They had to write her up for it."

My heart sank and I immediately wanted to run up to all of the fathers of the children in her class and punch them in the face for teaching my sweet, innocent little girl to use such horrible language. I actually got a little ticked off.

Jenny started laughing. Jerk.

The new words were actually her teacher's names.

Library and Park!

Fun Saturday with Anna - she is a tangled, crazy ball of energy these days! I am thankful to have a nice children's library and safe parks so close to home!

Notice the new outfit?! Oh yeah ... it was her THIRD of the day. Thank you, explosive poo and spaghetti for lunch, I LOVE doing laundry!

Anna's Halloween Party

Anna's teachers at school planned a Halloween party for the kids and invited parents to attend. It was adorable!

Boo Dey

Boo Dey for two reasons: 1) It's Anna-Boo. 2) The Bengals lost.

Fun Video

Today Anna let me put her hair in pigtails for the first time - I about died, she looked so cute! Here she is eating her lunch, showing off her mad spoon-using skills. Listen closely and you'll hear her say applesauce (or her version of it), cup, Hi Baby, and bye-bye. She's also started saying bowl, ball, nose, and puppy, but those will have to wait for another video. Truth be told, she's also started saying the dreaded no, but I'm going to pretend she hasn't for a little while longer. Ignorance is bliss, right?!?! Where did our baby go? Who is this smart, spunky kid running around our house? She sure is a hoot!

The Weekend

Jimmy, Anna, and I have been really enjoying our last few weekends at home together. Although traveling and visiting family is fun (and necessary), so is having quiet, at-home, just-the-three of us time. That's what the last few weekends have been all about. We've gone to a farm (where Anna took her first hayride and picked cotton), a fall festival, a park, had a backyard picnic at her new picnic table, and lots of fun -albeit quiet - adventures.

This Saturday started off with pancakes, which Anna promptly learned how to dip into syrup.

Followed by play time. These days, play time consists of lots of "chasing" Mommy and Daddy!

Then we got ready for an outing to a nearby park. Anna decided to "help" me pack our lunch by camping out in the fridge. This is one of her newest favorite places to sit. *Don't worry, grandmas - I know this is dangerous and am very watchful ... she can't open the door herself ...

Notice the new ponytail?!?! I'm trying my hardest to try and tame her mane!

We enjoyed a picnic lunch, followed by much swinging, sliding (by herself!), and climbing around on the jungle gym. Jimmy and I were following Anna around the whole playground ... she knew just what she wanted to do! It's so fun (and terribly frightening) to watch her feel brave and excited over the freedom her increased mobility gives her. She was EXHAUSTED by the time we left and took a second nap in the afternoon (giving Mommy and Daddy time to work on sealing the driveway --- something we'll share photos of in another post).

What could be a better way to end a fun day than with her first cookie?!?!

Here she is tossing back her milk at her picnic table this morning before church.

This is the pumpkin Anna painted at Nichole's house on Friday. Nichole had asked to keep Anna on Friday so Josiah could have someone to play with. They had so much fun! Nichole was so sweet to have planned a fun art project for the kids. Anna likes to point at the pumpkin's nose (which she knows how to say and identify now!).

Finally, here's a cute picture of Anna and Jimmy from this afternoon. She's been in the habit of taking Jimmy's hat off and putting it on herself. Today Jimmy got her Reds hat and put it on her; she thought it was so cool to match Daddy. She wore her hat during our trip to the grocery store and kept it on the whole time (that's unprecedented for our girl!). She got lots of smiles at the store ... pretty cute.

All that to say, we've been loving our low-key weekends. It's been so fun to really have some consecutive weeks of good, solid family time. I feel like Anna's blossoming into this really fun "kid" --- she's hilarious and loves to get laughs out of whatever crowd she's around. It's nice to have these quiet weekends to soak up every second of what I know will be another fast year!

Love and miss everyone!