January Update

It's been a while since our last update, actually other than our cute little "quote of the day," it's been since Christmas Break that we last did an update.  That feels like it was a long time ago, but I guess 2 weeks isn't the worst!  I guess we were kind of pictured out after Christmas and put the camera and other excitement away for a little bit.  But now we're ba-a-a-a-ck! 

Three-day weekends.  We.  Love.  Them. 

This weekend we were all home on Monday, Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!  We celebrated the big weekend with some time at home.  Seems like we've had a lot of great relaxing time at home lately and we have been loving every minute of it!  We did bust out the camera for a few fun little shots of our peanut and to capture the other highlight of our weekend...

First our little peanut and her little doll, Johnnie.  

 She did awesome sitting and smiling for the camera.  She's a pro at saying "cheese!"

 Up close.

 She looked at the back of the camera after each picture and then would flop back down in the chair as though she were posing for her next photo shoot.  What a little cheese!

 The excitement of the weekend was the purchase of our own Ice House.  Now we are official residents of the state of Minnesota!  Of course we had to set it all up in the family room.

 Anna and Daddy in the ice house, inside the house.  It didn't make it outside yet this weekend, but I don't think it will be long!  At least I hope it's not long, not sure how long we can handle it in the middle of the family room!

It's always entertaining to spend time at home as a family.  Anna never ceases to amaze us.  This weekend we continued working on our counting.  She's a pro at 1-2-3, but has now started going up to 10.  Sometimes she misses 7, or gets too excited and just says 8-9-10! when you ask her to count to 10.  Overall, I think she's going to have it down soon!  Sometimes she even calls out some random 18-14-17 after she gets to 10.  I think she is trying WAY to hard to be like the big kids at Sandra's house! 

Some other Anna updates: 

• She is a big reader.  Some favorite books include:  Eyes, Nose, Fingers and Toes, Moo, Baa, Lalala, Fish Kisses, Mr. Brown can Moo, Can You?, and many many more.  These are just the ones we read 10 times tonight before bed! 
• Still an excellent eater.  She is willing to try everything.  Pickles, olives, spinach, mushrooms, you name it, she'll at least toss it in her mouth and give it a shot! 
• Talking up a storm: 
• Constantly asks where Daddy or Mommy is when one is missing.  At first we would answer, at work, but now, if she asks, we just ask her back and she usually responds "wort."  Although, often when asked, Grandpa and Grandma's are almost always "seeping."  And sometimes even Pascal is at "wort."  Last weekend Daddy went ice fishing, so we practiced all day saying "Daddy's fishing."  By the time he got home, she had that down...so sometimes now rather than "wort," Daddy is off "ishin."  We work on Daddy at bowling, but she doesn't quite get that one yet.  It's confusing because sometimes on Monday's he's at work, then suddenly he's at bowling...come on people! 
• She's getting good at putting 2-3 words together for phrases.  "More" of course goes in front of anything food related.  "Yights on" is a common phrase as well...she loves getting her stool and reaching the switches. 
• She knows most of her body parts, including eye-brows.  :) 
• She knows she can't go outside without her "hat," "bittens," "toat," and "boots."  And once we are out of the house, they don't ever come off.  Even on the ride to Iowa, they had to stay on the entire way.  We can't say she's bad about following the rules! 
• A quick "Do you need to sit down for a minute?" usually solves any tempter tantrum.  She doesn't like to have to sit down, and as soon as she gets to her spot she starts saying "All Done?!" and calms down pretty quickly.  The girl doesn't like to have to sit still...unless we're reading books.
• Coloring and stickers are her favorite past time.  She goes through at least one sheet of stickers a day.  She has already filled almost every page of one of her notebooks she got for Christmas with some sort of beautiful artwork.  She's getting good with her colors too, purple, blue, brown, and yellow are ones she gets right 95% of the time.  Other's she knows the words, but doesn't always match them up with the right crayon. 

I am sure there are many other areas I have stories for, and all day long I think, "I gotta add that to the blog" when she tells me something, does something, etc.  But, there is just so much to keep up with these days, I'm lucky I remember all of this! 

Well, we are back to work, and normal schedules tomorrow.  This weekend we are off to spend some time with wonderful friends and reminisce our college days!  We have many more fun weekends ahead of us, we can't wait for all the fun and excitement!