Animal Farm

A few weeks ago we went to the animal farm.  Anna had a concerned look on her face the whole time.  But she did seem interested, just very cautious.  Here are some pictures from our trip.

 

 



In the same farm that the animals were there was tractor ride and a sand pit as well!



 

Please notice that in none of these pictures does Anna have a full smile.  She looks like she is considering a smile in the picture where she is with the turtle, but, she decided against it.  She just wanted to take everything in.  Even with the tractor and the sand pit.  All in all I think she learned a lot, she may even enjoy animals one day.  And hey, she was willing to help me feed the calf so that's got to count for something right?

Anna's Birthday Party

Anna's birthday party started out by greeting our guests.  In attendance at the party were Fiona, Kieran, and Ewan Steers, our neighbors Alice and Tony, and Grandma and Grandpa Mudgett, and of course Mommy, Daddy, and Anna.

 

Anna was ready to greet her guests with her party hat on

 

We had tons of decorations

 



We started off by unfortunately having to move our tables from outside into the living room as it started to rain.  Then we had a feast!  We had bbq chicken taco salad for the adults and tacos for the kids.  Anna got her favorite shredded cheese and re-fried beans.  Next, we had some time to chat and play

 

after which Anna opened some of her gifts.

 



[flv:http://teammudgett.net/blog/media/video/openingbabydoll.FLV 320 240]

[flv:http://teammudgett.net/blog/media/video/playingwithgifts.FLV 320 240]

She received all kinds of great gifts including a handmade quilt from Grandma Mudgett, a tea set, a glowing bouncy eyeball, her very own set of keys and cutlery, and a great toy.  She also received several great outfits, a swim suit, sippy cup, CD and DVD.  The neighbor down the street saw her decorations for her party and even brought her a card!  And her friend from two doors down got her a book.  What a great day!

Then it was followed by delicious strawberry short cake

[flv:http://teammudgett.net/blog/media/video/happybirthdaytoanna.FLV 320 240]

[flv:http://teammudgett.net/blog/media/video/eatingmycake.FLV 320 240]

 



And Finally we had to say goodbye.   But, we didn't open all the gifts yet, there is no reason why the a birthday has to end just because the party is over, right?

Happy Birthday to You!

As per the tradition started by Denise...

Dear Anna (at one)

We cannot believe it has been an entire year since you were born! We love watching you each day as you learn and grow. Your personality is coming out so much! We love you more than you could possibly know or understand (well, maybe you will one day, with your own children!).

You Love to eat Strawberries. It is really hard to call it eating as you are the only person I have ever seen that can actually drink strawberries whole, it is a site to behold. You also love to eat anything on mommy's plate, even if you have the same food on your own high chair tray! You really love it when you get to eat a pear (I give the whole thing to go you and let you go at it!)

You are becoming very brave and outgoing. You will now go to anyone who interests you. You LOVE other children. You don't shout to get attention, instead you try to get peoples attention by smiling and laughing! I have never seen such a brilliant way to do it, and boy does it get results!

Daddy gave you the nickname of Boca which has stuck as so many of your other nicknames have come and gone. He used to worry that you didn't know Anna was your name because we called you Boca so much! But you do know your name and no matter what we call you, we love you sooo much!

We go to swimming lessons once a week, which you absolutely love! You love the songs and especially the water! The first time you went under the water you were a little less than 6 months old. To this day, you have never once cried going under the water. You can push yourself off the side of the pool from sitting and are prepared to hold your breathe and go under the water! What a clever girl you are! After swimming every week we take a moment to sit and have a digestive biscuit before we head home. It is a great tradition!

You also love to go to baby signing. They sing so many songs it is great time! You get to be tossed in the air which is one of your favorite things as well whenever they sing the “Hokey Cokey” or “the Grand Ole' Duke of York.” You learned your first sign when you were 8 months old. You started signing “want”. Then you learned the sign for nursing. You know how to sign finished now as well. You are just starting to sign sleep as well. What a quick learner you are!

Some of your favorite toys are your train that your aunt Emily gave you for Christmas last year. It has balls that go around and it plays music. It also drives around the room. Your favorite book is an animal book that Grandma Helen got you for Christmas as well.

You love to go outside and get very excited when we put on your pink crocks and put you on the ground and let you hold our fingers and walk! You love to go to the park and your favorite part is the the baby swings. You don't get scared to go high (the higher the better) we know when you want to go higher because as the swing slows down that is when you stop smiling, when you go really high is when we get a laugh! You start to cry in protest when we try to take you out.

One of favorite games to play are peepbo (peak-a-boo) behind your sun hat. You just started playing one day when we were in the car. I was sitting next to you and next thing I knew you had begun playing it. You would hide behind your had for quite a while before popping out too! You played for at least 15 minutes the first time. We had a great time! You also love to play chase Daddy. In fact, you love to do anything with daddy, he has the best games! Every day we sing “I'm so glad when daddy comes home” when he arrives home from work or when we pick him up from the bus stop. We always pick him up whenever we can and the bus driver loves to see us there as well! She says that it is such a great way to come home! We wait for daddy because we don't want to wait one extra minute before we get to see him. The first thing you do everyday when you see him smile, get very excited, reach for him, and take his lanyard and work ID right off of him!

You love your mum as well. You enjoy seeing what she is doing at all times. You love to help vacuum, wash the dishes, and clean the doors or baseboards. You also love to help with the laundry (which most of the time consists of taking the dirty clothes out of the washing machine or throwing the clean clothes on the floor). When you are playing you always come over for hugs and cuddles and when its time to go to bed, no one will do but “mama.” When you get sad she is the one you seek after as well! You sure make her feel important and loved!

You have some friends that you like to spend time with. You love going to see our neighbors Alice and Tony who always bring out a white bowl with a few treats in it for you (usually some biscuits!) We go and see them about once a week, or once a fortnight at the least. They are great fun to play with. You also love playing with Fiona, who was the only person who you would let watch you when you went through your separation anxiety from about 4 months to 9 months old. You still love it when she plays with you and babysits you. You also love playing with her Kids. Keiran can always make you laugh! Ewan is great fun as well.

Recently, it has come to our attention that you might be quite a “girly girl”. We bought you a sun hat for the summer and at first you always took it off your head. Now you keep it on (unless you need it to play peepbo) and love to look at it in the mirror. You also used to take your headbands off right away when I put them on. Then, I showed you how you looked with it on in the mirror and now instead of taking it off you just reach up and proudly touch it (although sometimes you do still take it off, you try to put it back on as well!). We recently also found it necessary to purchase some shoes for you. You have a pair of pink crocks and a pair of white church shoes. You love to play with them. You also like it when they go on your feet (although I suspect this is mostly due to the fact that it means we will be going outside rather than for a fashion statement.) The last clue you have as to your possible blooming love for accessories is that we just bought you a pair of sunglasses. You love to put them on. You always touch your nose once they are on, get a huge grin and start sniffing through your nose, it is very adorable. You love to look in the mirror with them on.

A few weeks ago you took your first steps! Yell on your way to toddler hood. You don't actually walk too often without a lot of encouragement. You prefer crawling for the time being. Walking is still a bit scary. But you are doing very well, you can walk about 10-15 steps in a row! Very impressive!

Your are gorgeous and people even stop mommy on the street to tell her. They warn us to watch out when grow up because you are going to be quite the looker! We think you are adorable and so do many other people!

When you were only a couple months old, we would take turns feeding you in the middle of the night. Mommy would nurse you to sleep then you would wake up around 1am and daddy would take you downstairs, give you a bottle and you both would sleep in a recliner. Often, both of you would fall asleep before you finished the bottle! It always makes daddy so happy when you would snuggle up with him. He loves it when you would fall asleep with him.

If you were ever sleeping in the bed and woke up before daddy, you would pat him on the head until he got up! You were just too excited to start the day and play with us!

We love you so much. You are such a wonderful blessing in our life. We are always very grateful to Heavenly Father for sending you to us.

Anna, we love you so much and always will. We want you to know we will love you no matter what and that you can always come to us for help. We are so excited to get to know you even more as you grow and develop and we really look forward to seeing your personality blossom over the next year.

Happy Birthday Anna!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy!

   Anna in the Hospital

   Anna on her blessing day

    Our American Girl

   Larger than life in Holland

   In the Tulips of Keukenhoff Gardens



 One of her most favorite activities!

I also wanted to remind everyone of this film, its one of our favorite memories...

[flv:http://teammudgett.net/blog/media/video/roar.FLV 320 240]

Homeless...um, I mean one home less

Today was THE day.  Our house in Maryland is finally sold to some awesome buyers buy the way!  Our friends who had been living in the house told us how great they were when they met and I really wanted them to get the house because they really seem to like it for all the same reasons we do.  I do have kind of mixed feelings.  It was a great experience while we were there and we learned a lot.  It was really neat to live in a home that was 100 years old and to be part of the history in such a cool area.  And now the house is in fabulous shape too!  I sure wish I could have lived there when it was finished.  But, that being said,  we are so grateful for the blessing of selling the house!  This means that we are almost completely out of debt.  We have a few more things to take care of, but by October, we will be there!

In other news...we are going to Paris!!!  I know, not out of debt and going to Paris!  But, hey!  We came out here in large part to travel and we are celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary, going to see the Tour de France, staying in an awesome hotel that we got on Priceline, and doing all the Paris stuff.  We are VERY excited!  What better way to celebrate an anniversary than to spend it in the most romantic place on earth (well, we are going 4 weeks after our anniversary, but close enough!)

Needless to say, today has been a blessed day.  We are offering many prayers of gratitude.  Also, stay tuned for another post tomorrow, Its Anna's birthday!!!!!

My poor baby!

Yesterday Anna was pretty sad most of the day and wanted to be cuddled.  She also wanted to nurse a TON!   I wondered what was wrong.  Then last night when I was putting her to bed I thought I would feel around to see if her tooth had come through.  Well it had, she now has 8!  While I was in there I decided to see if anymore were coming out.  What I felt lead me to believe I found the cause of all the trouble.  I felt what I think is 5 teeth, including molars all coming at once!!!!!  On the bright side I guess she won't have to go through too much longer of getting teeth, but having to do it all at once cannot be much fun!

Happy Father's Day!

Today is Drew's first Father's day.  I thought I would post a few pictures of some things he and Anna have done lately, the first picture we have is of Drew and Anna in Holland looking at the Tulips

 

Next, we have Drew and Anna on an Easter walk 

I also wanted to share some photos for my own father.  This next one of Drew and Anna reminds me of the countless hours I spent with my dad in the recliner.  Dad do you remember those days?  

Next, we have our version of dad's smiley face with the man peering over the wall, its not exactly right, but we worked hard at it and you get the idea...

I also thought I would share a few photos that I thought were just cute.

This one is from Anna's second trip to the fair (her first one she was just a few weeks old an slept the whole time).  This picture is of her on the merry go round and she was quite nervous.  This is the only shot of her looking outward toward Drew, she was very interested in the things happening inside the ride.  She really didn't know what to make of it all.    

Also, I wanted to show you how cute Anna is with her water table.  I know you think it doesn't get sunny here very often, but it really isn't all that bad.  Look how green our yard is too, rain does good things!  

Next, to celebrate Fathers day we wanted to share with you few moments that happened just a few weeks ago.  This is fatherhood in action.  Anna's first steps.  This was the day after she took her very first steps, clearly she is very proud of her accomplishment.  Check it out!

[flv:http://teammudgett.net/blog/media/video/annawalkingfathersday.FLV 320 240]

This one is a bit shorter, but I think it is just adorable.  It isn't exactly walking it is  more like...um, falling with flair.

[flv:http://teammudgett.net/blog/media/video/fallingiwthflair.FLV 320 240]

So, to all the Father's out there HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

One small step... and time for some celebration!

Well the big day finally came.  That is right, yesterday, our little "baby" took her first steps.  I would yet say she has transitioned all the way into a walker or should we say toddler yet.  She managed 2 steps about 4 times.  She was very proud of herself.  But, her balance is quite off still.  So I think official walking is still quite a ways off.  I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see anymore steps for several weeks, but it is quite clear they are coming!  Congratulations little one!  Hurrah for Anna!

In other news the count down for our house closing is neigh at hand.  Two weeks from Friday and we will officially no longer be home owners!  You know what else happens two weeks from Friday?  We are going to be having a little party, not to celebrate the sale of the home, but to celebrate the birth of our daughter!  That's right, Anna is turning 1 already!  It is so hard to believe that she is going to be the big 01!

For her birthday party we have a few things planned, we are going to have some Mexican food, with some fat free vegetarian re-fried beans.  One of Anna's favorites.  We are also going to have strawberry shortcake in honor of her favorite food of all times, thus far, Strawberries!  We also have some party games picked out as well.  We are going to play two of Anna's new favorite games.  The first one is telephones.  We are all going to sit in a circle (grandma, Grandpa, Mommy, Daddy, possibly even uncle Dan if he is town, and a perhaps couple of friends).  Everyone is going to sit with a phone of their own and we are going to "talk on the phone" with Anna.  She just started playing this game, she made it up herself and she LOVES it!  We are also going to play hats, which is a game that is played as follows.  Everyone sits on the floor with a hat and we play "peak a boo" or "peepbo" depending on your country of origin.  We are also going to open gifts!  Anna is going to be getting alittle Animal farm and a baby doll from mom and dad.  Last week I also went to a fair and won a raffle so she is going to get some really cool books as well.  I also think that Dad is going to purchase a bubble machine for her.  So we have quite an exciting party planned.  There may even be a balloon or two involved, she has had one and is quite a fan!

So, we are really looking forward to the next few weeks.  Not only do we have such a great Friday coming up but Daddy's first Fathers day is just around the corner.  The Thursday after Anna's birthday is our Anniversary 4 years already!  The Saturday after that is the 4th of July (which for some strange reason the base is celebrating on the 27th?  It has something to do with the fact that nobody wants to work on the 4th and putting on the event takes work.  What a strange concept, isn't that what they would be doing anyway?  Oh, well, we will get to have two celebrations because of it!