Project 30: April 7, 8, 9, 10

4-7-12
Tradition
Dying eggs. With Grandan. What could be better?


4-8-12
Perfectly Imperfect Moments
Crying in her chocolate-covered Easter dress. But the picture-perfect photo? Not what matters. Especially on this day.

4-8-10
Discovery
Who knew California strawberries could be bigger than your hand?

4-10-12
Wonder
Anna's first hot air balloon sighting. She had no idea there were ballons THAT BIG!

Christmas Part 1: Church, Family and Fun!

Christmas Eve 2011 was fairly fun and fairly chaotic!

Dad, GrandDan and Uncle Saeth got this girl ready...

In her Christmas pretties.

We met up with them for Christmas Eve services at church. Anna was so cute! She sat nicely on her uncle's lap for most of the service.
When the lights dimmed for "Silent Night" she started singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," which is the song she associates with darkness. She was in complete awe of the candles and the singing and clapped heartily when it was all done.

Back at home, she found presents to be good fun.

Especially the "Band in a Box." Turns out, she likes maracas:

She wanted to play with, wear and read her gifts:

Christmas morning was wild and crazy withy lots of people, presents and more presents. The wagon was a favorite:

And the cousin sweetness? {{melt}}

Anna loved opening gifts...even if they weren't hers.

Her cousin's hamster cage system was interesting!
And, being her Father's daughter, she LOVED the Santa hat. In fact, she loves Santa in general. Well, everything but the real guy.

She generally loved the day...

And so did her Grandpa's.

Christmas 2011 Part II: I have an AWESOME family!

Our celebrations continued long after the holiday.

For the first time in 3 + years, almost all of my cousins got together! We had fun when we were kids, of course, but turns out we have a BLAST as adults!

Here are the three girls with Grandma:

And my cousin, uncle and Michael.
He fits right in.

Turns out cooking for 20+ people isn't easy...

...but is lots of fun!
Here are all but one of the "greats." Anna isn't good at sharing and stole the doll from the girl in purple very first thing. sigh.

Riley is so cute! And he takes photos at my house because I shamelessly bribe him!

My dad and his bros!

And us grand kids behaving:

Here is grandma with her grandsons and great grand kids:

And, of course, the whole group!

We tend to be very, very serious.

After the big family shin-dig, we had some "like family" friends over.

The mama is one of my oldest friends. Here are our babes playing:

I didn't catch it on camera, but they each held an end of the blanket and played "peekaboo" with each other. It was too cute. Other than that, they stole each other's toys. That's 1 year old's for ya!

These two were some what uncooperative in their photo-taking:
The toy-sharing. Anna stole the one in Jackson's hand moments later.
Sigh. Fun times, though. And lots of good memories!

Santa When You're 1

So Anna does this really cute thing where she says, "ho, ho, ho" andpats her belly when you ask her what Santa says.

Every time she sees an image of him.

So we thought there was a chance she would like him. Sit on his lap long enough for a photo.

We were wrong. This is as close as we could get without panic, shrieking and terror.

Oh, well.

'Twas a Month Before Christmas

'Twas a month before Christmas and Mama felt like a louse
for already friend’s Christmas cards were adorning her house.

The props were arranged on the set with care...

In hopes that the subject wouldn’t be a bear

She in her red taffeta and I in my jeans I was ready to capture
All the beauty that Christmas means.

For a photo of the toddler I would try to take
Hoping my sanity I would not forsake.

Visions of smiles, full of sweetness and delight
Went spiraling down in a tantrumy-plight.

She cried and said up, and no and wouldn’t do what she should
Wouldn’t even play with the cones from the pine wood.

When from my lens I heard her feet patter
I looked up to see what was the matter.

Turns out her escape she decided to make.

Off of the photo set she did take

Everything but the photo was catching her eye.
All this Mama could do was sigh

The pantry!

The Boxes! The chair!


She did play.
On Oggy, On Oggy! Darn dog was making her day!


Running and screaming and having a ball…
(perhaps in baby talk saying, “I’ll dash away, dash away, right down the hall!”)

Though it’s the season of jolly, fun and St. Nick
I probably won't get the perfect click

Then I heard her sweet squeal as she tore out of sight.
And I thought this spirited blessing is Mama’s Delight!

"Great" Aunt and Uncle

Spring break brought a visit from my Uncle Doug and Aunt Sue! This was her first time meeting Miss Anna...though Uncle Doug was able to come spend some time with us over the holidays.

Anna had a ball spending time with her Great Aunt and Uncle.

They were the best guests.
They cooked delicious dinner.
They watched Anna while I worked.
They stayed with her while we ran errands.
And they loved to lounge around, drinking coffee and playing with the baby.
You know, our favorite past time!

Uncle Doug took several great photos that I copied off his camera.

This particular weekend, she was really starting to use her thumb and forefinger
to grab a specific, small thing. She was supremely focused and said thing
always ended up in her drooly jowls.

So cute.

We enjoyed a couple of great, lazy days...

Catching up and swapping stories.

(lots were about my favorite cousin, who has yet to meet Miss Anna. Yes, she's holding
it against him. Bzzzz)

So glad they spend some spring break with us!