Success!!

Although I have always been somewhat crafty and into scrapbooking I never have done much sewing. It was with great shame I realized that at 15 months old Anna had no draperies (just blinds) on her window (what a horrible interior designer - don't tell TL). I looked around and didn't find anything I loved but eventually found a crib sheet at DI that was just what I was looking for. So I brought it home, cut it up and pinned the hems then ran into a problem. I don't have a sewing machine. What kind of Mormon girl am I?! Anyway, last week I found a gently used one on KSL Classifieds. So I spent Saturday getting them all sewn and hung. In doing that it got me excited and now I am thinking of all sorts of sewing projects I could do. I just have to find the time to do them.

Anna loves to read! She likes to start her day off with a couple (or four) books and continues through the day. Of course this involves Mom or Dad reading them to her. Monday morning I walked in on her "reading" the Ensign.

She has found her pockets. Today she walked around with her hands in her pockets.

She always brings a smile to my face.

Merry Christmas!

We had a crazy week and a half traveling to celebrate the holidays. We flew to Portland on Christmas Eve morning and spent six days with Matthew's family.

While in Portland Anna decided going through trash sounded like fun. I am still not sure how she got the TP rolls on both arms. Anna enjoys playing with shoes and found Grandpa Seely's shoes to play with. We flew back to Salt Lake on the 30th and went straight to Idaho Falls to spend four days with the Shurtliffs. That was wild and crazy times with all of the family there. Who needs presents when you have a bag of bows? The three girls all got their own firetruck and had fun playing with just one. Anna plays with hers all the time at home. She has almost worn the first set of batteries out already.

Anna with Jerika (Vance's baby)

Anna with Kindee (Reese's baby)

At Thanksgiving Shane and Julie announced they are expecting a baby (their 2nd) in August and over Christmas Quinn and Emily announced they are expecting a baby (their 3rd) the first part of July. The Shurtliff family continues to grow.

I think it went well....

Today I took Anna for her first visit with Santa. She reacted like I thought she would...cried. Santa must have thought I was upset because he tried to comfort me saying next year would be better. I thought it was funny and hadn't expect anything different.

You should see the other guy....

Here is Anna's beautiful eye. Doesn't it look like she has been in a fist fight? She has had a rough week. It started with four days of the stomach flu involving throwing up and diarrhea. That was fun for everyone. Then there was the pinching fingers in a closet door, hitting her head on a corner of the fridge, hitting her head on the corner of the wall, and getting her hand stuck in a block container (raccoon syndrome - didn't want to let go of the block but couldn't get hand out with the block). This didn't hurt but it made her mad and me laugh. :) To finish the week off she got an eye infection - hence the picture. The good news is it is looking much better today. It has been a weird week because usually she doesn't get hurt. That is the fun part of getting older and finding your way in the world.

Happy Halloween!

Here is a little snapshot of our Halloween fun.

Here is Anna and I dressed up for pack meeting.

This is Anna and Matthew carving pumpkins. Actually this is as close as she got. I stripped her down to avoid any stains but I wouldn't have had to since she didn't get close to any pumpkin.

Happy Birthday Anna!

Anna turned one last Thursday (the 15th) but we celebrated on Sunday with family members who live in the area. Anna was a little overwhelmed by the 20+ people singing happy birthday to her and as you can see it brought her to tears.

She opened presents from family and had help from Mom and eager cousins to get it done.

But as you can see, by the end of the night she was our smiling little princess again!