Saturday, December 31, 2016

Anna's Weekly Update~ 49 Weeks~ 12.31.2016

 
 
 


It's hard for me to believe that our little sweetie is just three weeks away from turning 1!! This past week brought back lots of memories from a year ago, being very pregnant over Christmas and the thought of a move looming over my head. :) I have to say, this year was much less stressful than last year. :) Anna had a good first Christmas. Given the fact that we don't live around any family, it was a fairly low key holiday week for us, but when we did go places, she (along with the boys) did great! I'm pretty sure she must be teething again (I think I'm seeing white on either side of her bottom two teeth) because she isn't drinking her bottle the greatest and she is having disgusting diapers multiple times a day, sure signs that we should see some new teeth soon. But even through that she still has been fairly happy and plays so nice. She stood up on her own on Monday. We were at a Christmas party for an extended family in our church and I was standing in line to get food and she was a few feet away from me and just stood up all on her own! And she hasn't done it again since! Then Tuesday we were playing and she was standing by the couch and I took the remote away from her and she let go of the couch and took a step towards me to get the remote! And she has not done that again since either! Silly girl.
 
Members of our church were in California over Christmas and sent me a text Christmas morning that it was so cold there with a picture of some frost on the chair outside. So I took this picture and sent it to them saying it was still better than this :). Of course I am the only person in our household who feels this way :)

A family from church gave me some clothes for Anna and it had this adorable Christmas dress in it. And someone (maybe them, I can't remember who gave me what) gave these cute red shoes. So Anna got to be all dolled up for Christmas and I just wanted a cute picture of her. Attempt #1

I decided the headband was a bit much :) Attempt #2
I gave up on getting one of just her. Just to show you what it takes to get a semi decent picture of my children, here you go...
Told Micah he looked like he was choking his sister
 
Jonathan, please look at me!

David, you look scared, Anna is enthralled with her dress

Probably the best we're going to get, at least Anna and Micah look cute (on that note, so I got that outfit for Micah at the thrift store and this was the first time he put it on. I was helping him button his vest and he asked me "Mom, am I going to preach?!" He said Daddy wears black pants to preach so he figured since he was wearing black pants that meant he had to preach :)).

Attempt at taking a family picture in front of the big tree at church. Jonathan, put your shirt down!!

Best we got although Jonathan is still playing with his shirt

Oh don't I look lovely!

And Anna's not looking

Just the kids.. Jonathan looks like he's in pain

No one but David wants to make eye contact with Mom!

Hey, three out of four, we will take it!

Attempted again after church to get a cute one of Anna in her dress

Okay Anna, we'll take it :)

We were taken in for Christmas dinner by a couple from church. Here she is reading a Bible story to the boys. We had such a wonderful time with them!

When we got home our neighbors were just getting ready to do some sledding behind a 4-wheeler in the parking lot so they invited us to join. Here David and I are riding on the sled (you can't tell by the picture, but it was 10 degrees and windy, so, so cold!!)

David eventually kicked me off because he wanted to go by himself :)

Micah and Iris taking a ride

The boys not only loved riding on the sled, but also riding on the back of the 4-wheeler

Our evening service that night got cancelled because of the snow, so we had grilled cheese and sparkling grape juice :)

I was doing something in the kitchen and walked in the living room to check on Anna and found her here :) You can see she feels very sorry that she is doing something she is not suppose to :)

The twins got these video walkie talkies for Christmas, they're pretty fun!

Uh-Oh! Look who is figuring out how to open the gate!!

Micah wanted to be a sheriff :)

Family game night, playing some Uno, which is always kind of funny with Jonathan and David because they just lay their cards out for everyone to see :)

We went bowling one morning

David

Jonathan was too quick for me to get a picture before he pushed the ball down the ramp

They really do love each other (there was a women's bowling league going on and I noticed many of the ladies were watching our boys with smiles on their faces, glad we could entertain them :))


Jonathan gets very excited about knocking pins down

Anna was very good the whole time, letting Daddy and Mommy bowl



After bowling we went to Walmart for the kids to pick out a present with the gift cards they had gotten for Christmas from their Great-Grandparents. Anna didn't find it quite as exciting as her brothers :)

And after that we went to McDonalds (the had gotten gift cards to there from another great-grandparent!) For some reason they decided noon was a good time to clean the play area, so they didn't get to play, but they didn't mind too much because they were excited to go home and play with their new toys they picked out

Anna enjoyed her cheese stick :)

Excited about their new toys. They all picked out very different things, but things everyone could enjoy

I picked out a doll stroller for Anna, I think she approves :)

Jonathan picked out the game "Pop the Pig" which is quite funny, you feel this pig hamburgers and push on his hat until his stomach gets so big it pops :)

David picked out a Hot Wheels track thing

And Micah picked out a Nerf gun

We were blessed with many Christmas cards this year. I always put them on a bulletin board after Christmas, I think I'm going to have to get a second board to fit them all on :)
 
Last night Steve and I went out for our anniversary. It was a perfect 8 year anniversary date. We started with dinner at Outback (using a gift card we got for Christmas :)), then went to Costco for some groceries, then to Kohls for new jeans and socks, and ended with ice cream at Cold Stone (using a gift card Steve had gotten for his birthday :)). Honestly, we don't really care what we do, we just enjoying getting to be together just the two of us (I mean, we love hanging out with our children as well, but it's nice to get to just be us sometimes). :) Here's to many more years together!!
 
I hope you all have a Happy New Year!!!