I love my little girl!

Although I don't always look as cute as Anessa in the pictures, I sure do love her and I do cherish the moments we spend together. She is a sweet girl.

Anessa helping wrap grandpa Al's birthday presents!

So Helpful!

My dad's dad passed away several years ago. I originally took these pictures because I thought that Anessa was just being cute. She is cute. But just now as I am posting and I titled this post "So Helpful" I thought about my grandpa. He was always teasing us and making us laugh. If we were cutting cake, he would come over and ask if we needed help while he jostled your elbow so you couldn't cut. Or if I was putting my hair up, he would come and do the same thing, always claiming it "help." He was a good man who lived simply and taught the gospel by the way he lived. So here is Anessa contributing her "help" to the carpet cleaning. What a sweet and gentle reminder. Thanks Anessa.

Toddler bed and one trying night

I got the whim one day when Mike was out helping someone move, to convert Anessa's crib into a toddler bed. The bed is designed to do this, so it wasn't that major, just loosening a few screws and then putting a few in different places. I was very pleased and got the little bed made all cute and Anessa was thrilled. Mike came home and we showed him. This is all he said "Good Luck." I started to question my hasty conversion, but figured it wouldn't be a big deal. It wasn't a big deal until Anessa went to bed that night. She just kept getting out of bed! I am not sure what bothered me more, that she kept getting out so neither she nor I got good sleep or that Mike knew how it was going to be. Anyhow, the next night was better and now she usually sleeps pretty well unless the wind wakes her up. I guess in the future I should probably not be quite so hasty or be prepared for what will come.

Bring on the Summer Dresses and Sandals!!

Aunt Bri sent this dress to Anessa and so we tried it on. She had fun dancing and twirling around.

Rough Housing

Every family needs a little rough housing every once in a while- I guess the family proclamation calls it wholesome recreational activities :-) Here is some of ours. Anessa loves to sit on daddy's shoulders while he runs around the kitchen, through the hallway, living room, and into the kitchen again. She laughs and has a great time. I, on the other hand, don't enjoy it nearly as much. I love her laughter, but I get nervous with these kinds of things, especially when her daddy asks "We have enough room to clear the doorways, right?"!

A collage

I randomly take pictures. Sometimes Anessa looks so cute, I just can't resist. This time she does look adorable and I thought that Mike was asleep. So I got up on the counter to take a picture of my handsome husband and turns out, he wasn't asleep. Still handsome, just not sleeping. So these random pictures are just for fun.

Bite Me!

Recently I bought two bags of apples (one of those buy one get one free specials) and all the apples in the bags are very small. Because they are so little, Anessa thinks they must be for her. I like that she likes apples, it is certainly better than some other things she could like. Mostly I like that she has to hold it in her hand and bite it. If I slice it, she gets angry and won't eat the slices. So I let her hold the whole thing. She doesn't like the peel and leaves a little trail of apple peel wherever she walks (very annoying) but she sure is cute!

Laundry Queen

Anessa loves to help me with the laundry. She enjoys putting the clothes in the dryer and she also enjoys pulling her laundry hamper to the laundry room. But by far, her favorite job is to push the clean laundry in a basket to my bedroom, where I fold the laundry on top of the bed. She is so adorable when she is doing it, I just had to take a picture to share. The picture really doesn't do justice for the amount of effort she has to use to get the basket into my bedroom. She grabs on and then pushes with all her might, her little leg muscles flexing for all they are worth. It is cute. And best of all, I don't have to carry the laundry from the laundry room to my bedroom!

Apron strings and old fashioned things

Whenever I was growing up and I read some story or heard something about kids pulling on their mom's apron strings, I always thought of it as kind of cute, in an old fashioned kind of way. I also thought that aprons were old fashioned and never wore them. Recently I realized that my shirt supply had started to dwindle. Not that I don't have that many, but my "wear out of the house shirts" were diminishing. As I thought about why, I realized it is because when I cook, I am very messy. I always end up with splatters of this or that on my shirts. Usually they come out, but when they don't, I add them to the large collection of "house" shirts. So I have become apron crazy. I actually enjoy wearing them, except for one thing. Anessa thinks it her duty to pull on the strings. All these years I believed it to be an old fashioned kind of cute. Now it is a new fashioned kind of not so cute. One time would be cute, but when I can't get the strings undone from so many knots I have tied to keep Anessa from pulling them, it is bothersome. These pictures take apron string pulling to a whole new level. This is mommy as a horse apron string pulling. And this is a new fashioned kind of cute. Ok maybe just for right now because I haven't put my apron on yet today. :-)

Baby Food

Anessa thoroughly enjoys unloading the diaper bag. The other day she was blissfully unloading when she came across a small applesauce type container of baby food. I don't even know what kind it was. She tried for a while to get it open and finally came and handed it to me. I asked her if she wanted to eat it and she ran smiling to her high chair. I checked the date and it wasn't expired, but Anessa is way beyond the baby food stage. She got her teeth later than most kids, but still, she is way beyond that. I opened it up for her and gave her a spoon. She tried a few bites, but pulled classic faces that unfortunately I didn't get pictures of. I did get pictures, however, of what happened after she figured out that baby food isn't that good!

Osh Kosh Tough

A while ago I was helping my mom clean out a shop at her house (which we didn't get finished, but oh well) and we came across big sacks of baby clothes that my mom had used for Jayme. It is hard to believe that Jayme is already 14. I remember when he was born. I was 14. He is growing up into a fine young man. He is great. Anyways, I was going to say that in the sacks of clothes I found this pair of overalls. I thought they were cute so I brought them home for Anessa. She looks adorable in them. Jayme was adorable in them. Some things never change. And they are tough. I am curious to see how long they will last. So far they are holding up great.

A little "hooray" shout for Osh Kosh BGosh and their "tough" clothes!!

It's official- Anessa is no longer a baby!

Anessa went to Nursery last Sunday. I think most moms look forward to nursery for the fun of it, then don't want it to come because that means their baby is growing up, and then can't wait for the time to come because the "I'm cute and cuddly and will sit still and be adored" phase has past. For me, it is a little of everything. I teach primary and so didn't spend a great deal of time with Anessa after sacrament meeting. Mike, however, got to walk the halls, chat with other dads, chase Anessa up and down the cultural hall steps, and endure(or enjoy)the hour of sunday school. Then she got to sit through Relief Society with grandma. Now, I don't think Mike will miss his sunday school hour with Anessa (ok maybe just a little, for the chats with other dads and the adorable laugh that Anessa has when you chase her), but I know grandma will miss her hour of Relief Society with Anessa. As for Nursery, Mike said he just took her in, she went to play, he stayed for a minute and left. Grandma went to change her diaper and took her back and she didn't cry at all. Now when I went to pick her up after church, I opened the door to the nursery and this is what I saw:
Anessa sprawled out on the floor, having a screaming, kicking fit. I was surprised. The primary chorister had told me during church that when she went in to sing with the nursery, Anessa was not crying, but doing good. Probably not sure what was going on, but not crying. So I walked in to a major fit. Looking confused, I asked the nursery leader what was the matter. She said that Anessa just barely started crying and that they had told her that I was coming soon. I guess she looked around, didn't see me and then the fit began.
While I am glad that Anessa wanted to see me and I am a little sad that I didn't get to take her to nursery for the first time, I certainly don't want her to have a major fit just because she doesen't get what she wants right when she wants it.
Oh well. At least she didn't cry during nursery. And yes, I must just deal with the fact that she is no longer a baby.

Christlike Love

Each time Anessa sees her friends, they are all so happy to see each other. I love it. We spend a considerable amount of time with these friends and Anessa doesn't go to nursery yet, so these may be the only friends her own age that she has. I was just thinking about our last few experiences together. It seems that one always bites or pinches the other and tears follow. Then, almost instantly, it is forgiven and they are the best of friends again. How wonderful.

I think I have a lot to learn from my daughter and her little friends. If only to forgive so freely and quickly and to forget the incident all together. I am prone to prolonging the heartache or pain associated with any uncomfortable experience and harboring negative feelings when someone has truly offended me. Maybe this is one of the many reasons the Savior says we must become as little children or we cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven.

Wii American Idol Singing Adventure

Growing Up

I can't believe how big Anessa is getting. She is so much fun. Here are a few fun shots of her most recent happenings. I don't know why, but she was facinated with a sauce pan. She also loves this hat that grandpa got for her. How fun.

Not as hard as I thought

Ok- so posting a picture isn't as hard as I anticipated. I will post a few more from the holidays. We really had a great time. Due to weather and flight cancelations out of Chicago (for my sister), our holiday spanned two weeks instead of the traditional few days. It was very fun. Anessa met her cousin Calder for the first time (and so did we) and we enjoyed a lot of snow for our area. I did not however, enjoy shoveling the snow and enlisted help from our parents. How great to have family close by!

Holiday Fun

Contrary to popular belief, this blog did not start and end the same day. It is, however, a bit difficult to find time to do this. I will attempt to post some holiday pictures, but we'll see how it goes. Hopefully it works. If not, I guess you will know we had a really great holiday and that I am a bit computer challenged.