One of those days...

Yesterday was just one of those days- you know what I am talking about- totally out of control! It all started when I didn't get much sleep on Tues. night, this is a trend in our house on Tuesday nights and I am not sure why, but after a 2 hour "nap" from 11-1 am I was WIDE awake until about 4! Maybe it was something I ate that kept me awake because Anna was also very awake on Wed. (probably because I was so tired!) she only slept 30 minutes ALL day! Believe me I tried to get the child to sleep- no such luck! The vast majority of the day was pretty good, Anna does really well even with no sleep, then we got to dinner time...
I went outside to feed our dog and when I came back in something was in need of my immediate attention, don't really remember, I just put the bag of dog food by the back door and ran to attend to whatever the need was- my plan as to come right back to put the dog food in the laundry room, except I forgot about it. I went about trying to get dinner ready and turn around a minute later to find Anna with a handful of dog food in her mouth!!! She was quite enjoying her snack and I had to fight her to get it back! ;) So I clean up that mess and get Anna in her chair to eat- disaster avoided! Wrong!
Jason was late getting home last night so I decide to brave the grill to cook these awesome burgers that I had made for dinner. Anna is eating dinner so I am spending most of my time with her and just running out to the grill to turn it on, etc. Well, I have the grill heating up and I am bringing my burgers out to put on the grill- HUGE FLAMES! Yes, I have set our grill on fire! I am not sure when, but at some point Anna is finished with dinner so she is out of her highchair and follows me to the back door as I am calling Jason and running to get the grill turned off- so the gas tank doesn't explode! Jason is yelling at me telling me to spray the grill with water from the hose- so I finally get the hose out and am spraying the grill down- the fire is out- whew! I then realize my child is screaming at the top of her lungs, I thought because she was afraid of the fire and smoke, no, I had inadvertantly sprayed the hose in the screen door and soaked her in my haste to get the fire out! I decide to forget grilling burgers and just get the George Foreman out.
Anna is finally in bed and my burgers that I have been waiting for all day are on the George Foreman. AHHH...I can take a deep breath. The burgers are done perfectly and I am sooo excited to try mine, too excited I guess. As I am trying to transfer burger to bun it drops on the floor!! Yep, you guessed it, I picked it up and put it in the bun. No joke! And it was truly the best burger I have ever eaten! Bobby Flay- I will throwdown any day with my new burger recipe! (Just as long as I don't have to use a grill! :))

Potty Training?

Ok, I know some of you may be saying, didn't Anna Kate just turn 1? What in the world is a potty training post about? Well, Uncle Chad and Auntie Shana got Anna a potty chair for her birthday and I had asked her Dr. about potty training because Anna has been telling us for a couple of months when she goes "poo". I thought it was a fluke at first, but literally she only says it when she has gone.
So the Dr. told me just to make her aware of it and she will catch on in time. The past couple of days I have just been putting her on the potty while I am in the bathroom and she reads her books. Well yesterday we had 2 successes! Pee both times and really I think I am just a good guesser at when she has to go, but she LOVED it! I was surprised at how much she was into the potty and then flushing it down the big potty. We are in no way truly potty trained, but she is starting to understand the concept for sure. I will have to post some pics of our girl with her books on the potty!

First Birthday!!

I can't believe our little girl has already been with us for a whole year! She is just the biggest blessing to our family and everyone is absolutely in love with her! I have to say that I am spoiled by our sweet girl.
I feel like we don't have a baby anymore though- isn't that stage supposed to be longer than a year? Anna Kate is walking and talking and is such an independent girl. We counted the other day and she is already saying over 30 words!! Balloon is one of her favorites right now, so we had to have a bunch for her birthday- she loves them! I blame the workers at our Kroger for that- they are so sweet to us every week when we come in and we leave with a Kroger balloon and a very happy little girl. Our days are filled with playing ball, blowing bubbles and reading books. I am so thankful that she loves books! She sits in mine or daddy's lap and truly listens to each page. Sometimes on the 100th time I have heard "book" in one day I get a little weary, but pretty soon I will have them memorized! :)

We went to visit Dr. Holmes for our 1 year check up and our little girl is just climbing up the charts- of course we are still tall- 94th percentile! (Oh to be tall and thin!) She was 19 lbs 6 ozs though, so we stay backwards in the carseat for a while longer. Thankfully she does great in the car even facing backwards- spotting "trucks" keeps her well occupied now and I just have to smile every time I hear her little voice say "truck".

We had family and friends over Sunday afternoon for her party and boy did she have fun! She knew on Saturday as we were getting ready that something was going on, but it was like she knew that she was the center of attention on Sunday and she did not dissapoint! She was amazed by everything and we all had a great time watching her! Below are a few pics of the day... Wearing her hat with GiGi
Tasting her cupcake

I have to say she was still pretty dainty "digging in"

Time Flies...

I have taken an unexpected hiatus from blogging recently. Our real life has just been so full and busy that I haven't had time to sit down and write about it.
We had a wonderful holiday season with lots of family and friends around- although we also missed alot of family this year for various reasons :( Hopefully, next year won't be the same in that arena.
In January, we have been out of our house a lot- we were in Heber for a week and a half while my parents were gone for their 30th anniversary trip- to Hawaii! I am so jealous since we had snow and extremely cold temps while they were gone to the sun and the sand!

Then Jason left us and went to New Mexico for a couple days to redo his Nannie's bathroom following her knee replacement surgery. I am so glad he got to go help, but I know that I am not cut out for single parenting!! We were very glad to get him home last weekend!

Anna Kate is growing and changing almost daily and it makes me sad when I think about how fast time goes. She is extremely close to taking her first steps and I know she will never turn back once she does! She did inherit my cautious bone though and that is what is keeping her from taking off right now- she doesn't like the unsteady feeling of lifting her foot! Give her one finger though and she practically runs around the house! Crawling was never a preferred mode of transportation for her so I think that provides more motivation to walk. I did find out that she knew how to crawl, just chose not to when she crawled to a brush one day. We have only seen it a few times since then, in times of extreme desire! Other than that, our days our filled with "step, step, step"- which is what she says when she wants to walk. Anna is EXTREMELY verbal and will repeat almost anything we say to her! Her favorites are of course, step, dog, and daddy. But there are a host of others to got with those- last night the most important was "Go, Big Ben!" As many of you may know I am originally from Pittsburgh and so the Super Bowl last night was epic in our family. We started working on "go Big Ben" during the playoffs and Anna would cheer with me during the games. Last night she was cheering right along with us- at least for the first half, then she had to go to bed. For those of you who are leary that a 10 month old can say "go Big Ben" -we do have it on tape!!! :) I can understand why you might question it too, but when you are a Steeler fan, you are obviously born one!

Anna Kate has a crush...

With Daddy and the great pumpkins!

Saturday morning special

Daddy was the first one to hold her- and no his eyes aren't just red from lack of sleep! :)

I am convinced our little girl has her first crush. I am very happy to say that it is on her wonderful daddy! I am sure that he is relieved that it is him too! Everyday when Jason comes home, Anna is so excited! I am glad for this fact, but it doesn't end there. As soon as she knows that he is home she has to have her eyes on him at ALL TIMES! If he leaves the room for any reason she starts crying! I think it is sooo cute! Our little girl absolutely loves her daddy and he returns the favor with his own adoration. SO I thought I would post a couple pics of our girl and her first love- we hope it stays this way for a long time! :)

8 Month Pictures

Anna and I went last week and had her 8 month pictures taken... I am going to have a really hard time choosing, but here are a few of the photographer's favorites. You can see the rest at www.kellybittlephotography.com - go to client proofing and the password is annakate.

8 months old

I can't believe that our little girl is 8 months old today! It seems like just yesterday that we were bringing her home from the hospital! She is growing almost daily and her little personality is sooo fun. Anna Kate is very strong willed and she knows what she likes and what she doesn't- lately she has been pushing whomever or whatever she isn't interested in away. You can't convince her otherwise! She knows the word "no" and will stop whatever she is doing and look at you if you say it. Then she smiles really big as if to say "can I if I am super cute?" Jason and I have such a hard time not smiling back, but I will say she listens as long as we keep our straight face. She is the most pleasant child- even when she is sleepy or doesn't feel good. I truly think she is going to skip crawling as all she does now is stand up. I have to admit I wouldn't like crawling on wood floors either! Below are some pictures that capture just a little of her growing personality... Her ugly face- as we call it, but she loves to make it!
Surprise!
A smile with her always present hands- I have never seen a child who loves her hands so much!