It's Halloween!

We had so much fun today. I was just wondering to myself who had the most fun. I can't decide between Anya, myself and Dwight. We started Halloween day by going to a party for all the families in the mom group.

Here is Anya dancing...

She became a bit fussy towards the end of our time there. However, it was great to get out and see our friends on Halloween.

After a nap she was ready to party again. We decided that we would try out trick or treating this year. We played, ate dinner and got her dressed up again to head out. We only hit up about ten homes but we walked around the whole circle in our development.

Anya was thrilled with the idea of walking around the neighborhood at night. She didn't get the concept of trick or treating but she did say thank you every time she got a treat. :)

This last shot is my most favorite picture from today (maybe favorite picture ever!)...

Look at her smile and lollipops. She held these two lollipops on our walk around the neighborhood. She didn't put them down once. It ended up helping out because her hands were full and she couldn't pull her hat off!

I'm in love with Halloween and having this family to share it with.

I hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

On Friday afternoon Anya and I brought these pumpkin muffins into Dwight's work for a visit. I had her dressed up in her Garden Gnome costume and we went around passing the muffins out to Dwight's co-workers. We also had lunch there. :)

Tonight Dwight and I carved out pumpkins.

Here is mine:

Here is Dwight's:

Don't worry. His pumpkin was sick, but Dwight made him a toilet lol..

Happy Halloween 2010!

More pictures to come of our darling daughter in her costume. I will make sure to take some good ones tomorrow. We have a children's Halloween party to attend in the day and we will be taking her out for her first trick or treat experience in the early evening!

foliage walk

A couple weeks ago my sister and I brought Anya for a walk. I wanted to post pictures from our day but I completely forgot. We headed to a local park that used to be a zoo years ago. We remember going as children so it was kind of neat to see that it has been turned into a beautiful area to visit.

Counting by Mississippis

There is a song called Ten Mississippi by They Might Be Giants. I have noticed that Anya tries to sing along. She furrows her brow while trying out the different voices. The voice of the lady at the end cracks me up because Anya really gets into that one.. two videos:

Miss Independent

Anya is definitely showing her personality and independence much more. She doesn't want my help with anything. She wants to decide what to do and where to walk. I know that this independence is a great thing but it can make things a bit difficult at points. Good thing that Dwight and I agree that our little cutie can only get away with so much. We understand that the patterns that we allow today will impact her behavior tomorrow. That said, we can still have fun and be silly. We sat and ate (a delicious Tuscan chicken meal) dinner last night while she screamed her head off to get down. She hates sitting at the table. She would much rather run around. Well, too bad. She finally stopped and ate. I'm glad we stuck with it.
Her spunky personality is definitely going to bring us some challenges but also so many laughs.

the many faces of anya

Halloween play date

Every Wednesday morning the "May babies" get together for a play date. This week was our week to host. We lucked out since it is the week of Halloween. We had the kids wear their costume and we had pumpkin muffins waiting for them. :)

Here are the cuties.. Kayla as Minnie Mouse, Camden the monkey, Meredith the ladybug, Anya the Garden Gnome and Kai the Koala. It was very hard to get them to sit together and I cut Kai out of this picture a bit. Right after this picture Anya lunged forward and others started to lose it as well lol. There will be better photos coming from the other cameras in the room.

This next photo is of Leigh and her daughter Meredith. Leigh is due in February with another girl named Caroline. Anya LOVES Leigh and sits on her lap often..
Here is Camden with a photo of my sister and myself at my wedding. Anya brought it over to him and he is such a good boy to listen to her and hold it.. :)

Anya loved dancing in the kitchen. Kayla joined her for a bit too.

Every Wednesday I have a smile on my face for the rest of the day. It is so nice to see these wonderful women and children.

bluegrass festival

Over the weekend Anya attended a bluegrass festival. It seems that she enjoys a variety of music including bluegrass..

She really enjoyed seeing my friend Danielle's dog, Roxy. :)

a years growth

I stumbled across this picture last night.
Taken almost exactly a year ago..

Look at those cheeks!!
She was such a little baby!
Look at her now.. turning into a little girl. No longer a baby, although still my baby. I have a toddler and I feel like I blinked and the baby was gone.


This girl is vivacious and silly. She dances and makes funny sounds just to be funny herself.
She isn't a baby anymore.. but this is even better.
I have a sneaking suspision that every day will do just that, get even better.
Being a mom is the best time of my life.

Happy 17 Months!

We spent our morning celebrating 17 months at music class. Anya LOVES it!

I am so proud of our funny little girl. She surely is social and she is always making me laugh. :)

New carpet smell

Cool girl..
Traffic jam on the way home..

New carpets!! I have been dreaming of this day for a long time ;) I despised our old carpeting... and finally we have nice new beautiful carpets, hooray! Here it is before we moved furniture back. We also had our stairway and upstairs hallway done. I also spent a week painting the walls in the living room.

Fall festival

Yesterday we headed to a festival at a local mountain. Every year we make sure we can make it here. We met up with friends and family. It was a great time. We took out our hats and mittens for the cool fall day!

some more dancin'

bumps and bruises

Over the weekend Anya had a bad spill and she bumped her nose quite hard. It was the scariest day in parenting so far. She is okay and the bruise is slowly healing. You can see it in some of the photos.
Anya is obsessed with owsye (outside) and asks to go out even when it is raining and/or cold. I will have to invest in some warm winter gear for this child! :)

Her other new obsession is the dishwasher. She wants to sit on the door and play. She is a daring little one. I am worried that we will be having an array of accidents in our future with this girl around.

She is such an independent lady. She wants to walk by herself.. climb by herself..

There have been times where she doesn't want to sit in the stroller or grocery cart. She is such a big girl that she wants to walk.

Here she is walking on the outskirts of the playground. She said, byebye, to me and walked away... hehe.