It's been a little while since we've done an update, but of course, it's for good reason.  We got some sad news last week, Anna's Great-grandmother, my Gram, passed away on Wednesday.  She had cancer.  She was a wonderful woman and we had the joy of traveling to Dubuque to celebrate her life with our family this past weekend.  It was a trip filled with mixed emotions, but it was great to see everyone and share Gram stories.  She will be missed deeply. 

Here's a picture of the first time Gram met Anna. 

We were lucky enough to be able to spend time with Gram both this summer and fall and again just a few weeks ago.  We love you Gram.

So, as I said, a lot has happened since our last post, and I have lots of pictures to prove it.  Anna officially turned 9 months on Monday last week.  We got her pictures taken at Target that day and she did wonderfully.  It was probably our best set of pictures to date!  It was so hard to pick just a few; I can't wait for them to get back on Friday!  Of course, as per tradition, we had to take our own pictures at home that day as well.  Here are some on her 9 month birthday: 

Playing at the trunk....

She's not really that tall...she's cheating...

Standing on the box.

Coming to the edge...

She ran out of box...and now can't reach.

But she has figured out that she must go around...then she can reach the kitty toys.

My attempts at getting a picture of her sitting in the chair.  This one was good, except my knees got in the way.

But most of the pictures turned out like this:

So I tickled her head with a feather, and got some pictures like this:

Then she grabbed the feather.

So I got some cute ones like this :)

Here are a few pictures of one of Anna's favorite games...destroy the Sunday newspaper!  Notice it's nicely piled on the coffee table...

And now Anna will throw it on the floor.

All of it.

And now she will sit and "read" it.

Or tear it up. 

Or throw it.

Or eat it.

She must have found a good article...or a good sale!

More throwing!

And hunting for deals.

And now she is done...leaving the trail behind her.

Just a random picture of Anna and her new favorite snack...graham crackers.

We did have a nice weekend of traveling.  Good weather, good friends, and great family.  Of course we had to get a few pictures of Anna and her cuteness along the way. 

She was so thrilled to be out of the car when we got to Dubuque that she contently played in the middle of the bed with my purse and later some toys for about a half hour. 

She wore her Sunday best on Friday. :-)

She LOVED looking at herself in the mirror...often giving herself "kisses."

What a sweet face.  Tongue and all...

Well, we will have another update later this week with the results of Anna's nine month appointment which was postponed to this Wednesday.  We're taking bets on how long she is...I'm guessing past 30 inches!  She's getting so tall and is SOO close to walking.  She LOVES pushing her little push cart now and tries to walk back and forth from mommy to daddy every day.  She can stand on her own and can usually get a couple steps, but tends to get over excited and lunge at everything, therefore, not having much balance.  We'll keep you posted though, it won't be long before she's even more mobile! 

This week Anna will get to spend a couple days with Grandma F and she is flying in from her visit with cousin Will!  She comes on Wednesday and will stay with Anna on Thursday and Friday while we are at work.  Then Grandpa F will be coming on Friday to visit as well.  It will be a nice weekend. 

Next weekend Uncle James and Aunt Kate are coming up...so we have lots of visitors in our future, which means lots of pictures and stories.  Stay tuned for more excitement.