Annaliese walking

It is finally working for me to upload a video. Here is Annaliese on December 8th, about 2 weeks after her birthday, practicing her walking skills. As you will see, one way we would get Annaliese to practicing walking was to throw things across the room for her to go and get. Basically, fetch. She loves to carry her clothes around after I change her. Sometimes she even puts them on her head and walks around the room giggling. Such a silly girl! I haven't been able to catch that on tape yet, but I'm working on it. In this video she is carrying a onsie and fetching her socks. She is walking much more now, but still takes tumbles especially when she gets going too fast. When it is more convenient, crawling is the preferred method of transportation. And of course, she is always barefoot in the house. Annaliese does NOT like shoes or socks! This is turning out to be somewhat of a problem now that winter is here. Thank goodness for footy pajamas and boots!

Sitting on Santa's Lap

We took Annaliese to see Santa and as you can see, she was NOT a big fan! I don't think Santa took it personally, though. We did get a cute picture of all of us with Santa and Annaliese was much happier in that picture, because I was holding her and not Santa. Grandma Marlene has that one on her camera. For now, you just get to see a very unhappy little girl on Santa's lap. And we were such BAD parents because we just kept snapping pictures. I still think she looks cute, even with her sad face! :-)

Annaliese's 1st Birthday

Annaliese had her first Birthday on November 26, 2008. We had 2 celebrations. The first was a small celebration on her actual birthday and the second was the day after on Thanksgiving with the whole family. Annaliese enjoyed every single minute of each celebration. She loved eating cake, loved opening presents, and loved putting the bows on her head. I baked her cake and Chris designed the butterfly and decorated it. I was pretty impressed with how it turned out! Good job Daddy! We had so much fun! Annaliese's cousins, Lilah and Mia, even got to help open presents on Thanksgiving. Mia and Annaliese practiced walking together too, thanks to "Aunt" Alana. Shortly after, Annaliese began walking on her own. First just a few steps here and there, but now she is taking lots of steps all over. It's so cute to see her walking around the house. I can't believe how fast our baby girl is growing up. We are looking forward to Christmas to open more presents. Annaliese loves the pretty paper!

I LOVE my big brother!

Annaliese was playing peaks and looking SO CUTE under her bib. Look at that smile! She is such a flirt!

We were so excited when Gabe called us and told us he was in town. They decided at the last minute to hop in the car and drive down. He came to visit us just about every night while he was here. They are leaving again on Sunday and won't be back until the day after Christmas. As you can see, Gabe had long hair one day, and came over the next day with a brand new haircut. Doesn't he look handsome?! We LOVE his new look and so does he. Annaliese loves him to pieces either way. She was so happy to see her big brother. He got lots of hugs and kisses!

Soooo HANDSOME and soooo CUTE!

Pumpkins!

We sat Annaliese in the front yard and surrounded her with pumpkins. I started snapping pictures and ended up with some really cute ones. These are just a few of the many that I took that day.

Halloween!

Annaliese wore her pumpkin shirt from cousin Lilah to the sitter's house during the day. The girls, Annaliese, Lilah and Mia, were the 3 little pigs later that evening. We visited the family to show off their cute costumes. They really were the cutest 3 little pigs EVER!