Party Time!

The last few weeks of February were filled with birthday parties Anna was invited to. Well, three to be exact. Her friend Jackson had a Thomas themed party, Hannah had an animal party at the U.P. Children's Museum, and her other friend Hannah had a Dog themed party. Fun times! Anna just loves, LOVES birthday parties. She loves picking out presents for her friends, helping me wrap them, talking about the cake to be shared, singing the birthday song, etc. When I told Anna that the day Benjamin is born, it will be his birthday, she was just very insistant that we have a cake, even if he can't eat it, "He will share with us Mama." Here are a few pics from the Children's Museum. Anna had a blast playing here!

That's my bubble hat!

There hasn't been anything too out of the ordinary going on around here, but we're having fun. Ethan's school/work schedule this semester is pretty much 8-5 with a lunch break thrown in there somewhere. So Anna and I have been trying to fill our days with interesting things, but I've got to be honest, my energy is running low. Ethan takes care of me so well, I can't even begin to explain, that I really look forward to 5 o'clock. Less than 4 weeks left until the baby - whoo hoo! I remember feeling sooooo much better as soon as I had Anna, I'm counting on that happening again. I have a c-section scheduled for the very beginning of April, but I am full term on March 16 so we'll see if I make it til then.

Some of the things Anna and I spend our time doing: Monday morning story time at the library, a Tuesday play group with friends from church, visiting daddy at work, going to my doctor appointments (Anna LOVES the doctors), reading books, doing puzzles - she's getting pretty good, and she loves to help me clean (although I haven't felt like cleaning too much lately, my belly is just too in the way, but Ethan has really, REALLY helped pick up my slack with cleaning. What a sweetie!) We also visit grandmas on a pretty regular basis.

Oh, Anna loves to help me cook. We both have aprons that she insists we wear anytime we make anything, even non-messy stuff. She knows what boiling should look like, what steam is, how to add in "just a bit," and she loves to help stir - which does make things a little messier. The funny thing is, even though we have been spending more time in the kitchen, she still calls it the 'chicken.' As in, "I'll go get a snack from the chicken." She has always spoken so well and enunciated very well that it is just hilarious that she cannot get this word down. Anyway, if we come across an amazing recipe in our culinary endeavors we'll be sure to share it.

Anna and I have been doing little school lessons most days. She loves it! She tells everyone that she has school classes and is always anxious to show them her "school stuff" which is a container of supplies we use for various things. Anna also tells people that I am her teacher, which is sweet and helps me feel like I'm putting my university education to use...even if she's not paying me for it. hehe It has been really great...I love watching her learn new things. It's amazing.

It is so wonderful having all this time with Anna. She is such an amazing girl...so sweet, caring, polite (usually), talkative, expressive, quirky, hilarious, opinionated, serious, fun! I know I am anxious to meet baby Benjamin, but I can't help but cherish this one-on-one time I have with Anna right now. Oh, the picture is of Anna in a bubble bath, to state the obvious. She was just really scared of bubbles for a while, so this is all kind of new for her. She loves making things out of bubbles, like the hat above.

Pancakes with Sparkles

We had a fun Valentines Day this year. Anna really enjoyed it, and almost started pronouncing it correctly by the end of the day. Ethan and I were able to go to my OB-GYN appointment together in the morning, and got to have breakfast together after. The baby's heartbeat was nice and strong. Anna and I made valentine's cupcakes and put sprinkles on them (see the picture). We shared them with some friends and family and Anna kept telling people she had made pancakes with sparkles instead of cupcakes with sprinkles. She really loves to cook/bake things, which is fun and convenient because I've been trying to do more of that lately. In the picture, Ethan is holding the Valentine's card Anna made for him. I got my usual sweet, homemade card from Ethan. I always look forward to that. Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day surrounded by people you love.

A Big Trip

A couple weeks ago Anna and I took a little trip down to Indiana with my parents. Ethan couldn't make it because classes were starting for winter semester. Anna kept telling him, "We're taking a Big Trip" and, "I'm going to leave you daddy." It was so funny. Anna was a really good traveler! We had a fun time celebrating my grandmother's 87th birthday with her (and my 27th!). Anna loved meeting her "new cousins" as she liked to call them and seeing her Great Grandma Hazel again. The first picture is of the cousins, actually second cousins, dancing around Harry and Linda's living room. When the kids needed to let out some energy Linda would start playing really up beat songs on the piano and the kids LOVED it.

Anna's First Sledding Experience:

Anna went sledding for the first time a few weeks ago and she absolutely loved it. We went to a little hill just a block from our house on NMU's campus. She was a real trooper and kept wanting to go one more time even though we were making her walk up the hill herself. Well, a few times if she climbed at least half the hill Ethan would let her collapse onto the sled and pull her the rest of the way up. Anna went down all by herself once. She's so brave!

Christmas 2007

We had some fun Christmas memories this year. Perhaps most exciting - Meghan (Ethan's sister) and Jake came to visit from Utah. Anna was sooooo excited! She just LOVES her Aunt May-May and talks about how much she misses her already. We had a "slumber party" at the Rayhorns on Christmas Eve. We all got matching jamies to wear...too cute!

Earlier we were at my parents for the LaJoice get together. Christmas day was pretty relaxing: eating, visiting family, playing with new presents.

The Rayhorns bought some games and puzzles that we had some fun with. There was an 1,000 piece puzzle, "Television History," that really sucked everybody in. With random people working on it here and there, we managed to get it finished toward the end of Christmas day. Whew!

I love, LOVE the Christmas season. It was fun to have Anna so much more involved this year. She really liked giving other people presents, she just had a little trouble keeping it a secret until they opened it. Hope you all had a very merry Christmas. Enjoy the pictures!