Anna's Weekly Update- 48 Weeks- 12.24.16

 

 

 As you can see, Anna loves to stand. She stands by anything and everything. She does not, however, like to stand on her own (she's leaning up against the wall here). She really can, if she's not thinking about it she will stand on her own, but if she thinks about it she quickly drops to the ground. She also loves walking behind things. My guess is it won't be too long before she's standing and walking on her own. Micah started walking at Anna's age to the day, it was one day after he turned 11 months which is what Anna is today. I really had thought she'd start walking before Micah did because she started crawling a month or so before he did, but that just goes to show every child is different. Not that I'm ready for her to walk. I feel like once they start walking the baby stage really is over and I'm just not ready for that, I like to think of her as my little baby (although she really was never a little baby :)). She seems to be starting to want her bottle less, not always finishing it which tells me she's getting close to not needing it (another sign that she's about out of the baby stage :(). I'm excited about the prospect of not having to wash bottles every day, but it's really starting to hit me that my baby is almost 1!! Okay, I'll stop getting sappy and sentimental :).

My little cutie in her Sunday best!

She really is such a card at night after the boys go to bed and she gets mommy and daddy all to herself.

 

Monday marked the end of my 4 week challenge. I was amazed at I looked at my before and after pictures what I was able to do in 4 weeks! When I started my 3 week challenge back in July one of my goals was to get rid of my "spare tire" that three pregnancies (including a twin one where I carried 11 1/2 pounds of baby) had given me. Well, after 3 challenges (19 weeks) of challenge I finally can say my "spare tire" is gone!! Now to keep it gone! :)

Thanks for all of your encouragement! It's been a quite a journey!

 

It was pretty cold out the beginning of the week so we spent lots of time playing in the house. This couch was given to us when we moved to Michigan 7 years ago. I don't think the people who gave it to us anticipated the joy it would bring to our children :) (or how incredibly durable it is as they like to use it as a trampoline).

 

 

Anna has become a pretty good stair climber, I'm sure it helps that she has such great cheerleaders cheering her on

We had a Christmas party at Coffee Break this week and at the end all the Little Lambs came up and sang for us, it was so cute!

We had an ornament exchange as part of our party. I had the last steal and I had decided I would only steal if someone opened up a music or baking ornament, this was the last one opened, I definitely stole it :).

 

Speaking of baking, I did lots of it this week. I love being able to bake yummy things to give as gifts. I made Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough cupcakes and Devil Dog cupcakes for Micah's teacher and bus drivers...

And then cake pops for Micah's class. My family is getting used to me making things that aren't for them :) Every time I make something they say "do we get to have any of those?" :). I did make enough that they could each have a cake pop

I got to go to Micah's class and help him make a gingerbread house for his class' Christmas party

He was very proud of the back of his house which he decided to put a face on

The front looked pretty cool too

And then I got to stay and have lunch with him (French toast sticks, yum, yum!). So fun to be able to do these things with him!

And then I got to witness what it takes for these kids to go outside to play. I grew up in California, when the bell rang for recess, you just ran outside and started playing. When it's time for Micah and his classmates to go to recess, they have this long process of putting on snow pants, snow boots, hats and gloves before they can go outside. And if you forget to send any of that with them, they have to just stand on the sidewalk and watch everyone else play. 

 

Remember how I said she likes to stand by anything and everything? :)

This silly guy insists on picking out his clothes and putting them on. So even though on this particular day Steve had already brought clothes up for him to wear, he went and got these instead (when asked why he said because he wanted his pants with pockets so he can put his hands in them :)). And then he put his shirt on backwards (guess he thought those buttons go on the back). Oh my silly David!

It didn't really ever warm up a ton, but the boys didn't care, they wanted to play in the snow!

Anna getting a ride from Jonathan

We had a Christmas dinner with our neighbors and the kids decorated big gingerbread men

Not sure what he's so scared of

Not sure why he's pulling this face (my children take great pictures)

Finally a good picture :)

So I wanted to take a picture to show how excited they were about the presents. I took this picture and looked at it on my phone and it kind of freaked me out. Because if you look at this picture, you think that's Micah and David, because that's such a David face. But I took the picture and I know for a fact that it was Jonathan standing in front of me, not David!! Crazy twins!!

We went out to eat for our family Christmas party last night and they had this big chalk board the kids could draw on while we waited for our pizza to come.

They also had a game where you moved bugs around with a magnet underneath, David though this was a pretty cool game.

Enjoying our pizza

 

Traditional family picture in front of the Christmas tree before we open presents

And finally, present time!!

Micah was pretty excited about his new watch

I don't know who's more excited about Anna's new Little People's Dollhouse, Anna, the boys, or mommy :)

I was pretty excited about the new boots I got from my parents so I wanted to take a picture to send to them, so I asked Micah to take it, I guess he didn't think my head was a necessary part of the picture since what I wanted to show them were my boots :)

Someone from church gave us waffle mix as a Christmas present, so we all got to enjoy yummy waffles for breakfast this morning.

 

I hope you all have a very Blessed Christmas!!!