Photo with Santa

Apparently Santa is a little scary? Poor baby. You can see the progression in these three photos.

Millstone to milestone

Dave and Tracy, remember when....

...Annalise dropped her 1am feed? Sometime around the very beginning of December. She now only wakes around 3-4a. Bed by 6:30ish, up at 7ish. Praise the Lord!

...Annalise had the longest cold, cough, runny nose ever? Started weekend before Thanksgiving and is still lingering a month later.

...Annalise went down in her crib for a nap awake and w/o crying for the first time? Today. 12/17/09

...Annalise's first jump? 12/16 (while dancing, of course)

...Annalise went for an entire night without a feed for the first time? 6:30 - 5:45am 12/16/09

walking

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, Annalise took her first unassisted steps, and then decided to call it quits. But as you know, our little girl isn't one to give up so easily and took a few more steps about a week ago. With greater confidence, she went from a few steps to totting all over the place through this past week. Just a matter of confidence, really.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year we have so much to thank God for: health, family, our new home, and his constant provision. We are especially grateful for Annalise and thank God everyday for her. We know that it is only by his grace that we are able to enjoy and love our loved ones. It's weird to think that last year at this time I was pregnant and we were fervently praying everyday that God would take care of our baby. Here is what she looked like last year at this time: http://ourfungirl.blogspot.com/2008/11/genes-really-do-work.html

You can also compare Dave and my baby pictures to her now! Who do you think she looks like?

Photo Session

We have really wanted some professional photos of Annalise and our family for quite some time, and we have a fabulous friend, Janelle, who is an unbelievably good photographer. We did a photo session with her on Friday, and she already sent us a couple photos so we could see how they came out. Can you believe these!?! They are absolutely phenomenal. She has such a gift. We will always treasure these photos of our precious baby.


I think she looks like a little fairy in this photo.

What Annalise does while I'm at work . . .

So, as some of you know, I'm back at work full-time and Annalise spends two mornings a week being taken care of a long-time friend of mine, Sonja, who has a baby one month younger than Annalise. This has been a huge blessing since Annalise adores Sonja and her two kids. When we arrive in the morning Annalise smiles and gets very excited and begins looking around for her friends. One day I brought Annalise to Sonja's and she and Charlotte were dressed in the same outfit, which was especially amusing since we didn't know they had the same outfit. We didn't manage to take photos that day, so we had to redress the "twins" and take photos on another occasion. Aren't they darling? You have to admire Sonja's baby-care-taking and photo-taking talents considering these are photos of two rapidly crawling and distractable babies plus a 3-year old and she took these by herself.

Our little Anna bug

Tonight Annalise went to our church's harvest festival. She was our cute little ladybug. We topped off her outfit with Dave's - who was a bug catcher with a net.


At this age costumes and parties are really for the enjoyment of the parents, and we did enjoy it immensely. She played a little bit with some of her baby friends.

Fall Fun

This past weekend we celebrated the advent of fall with our first family trip to the local pumpkin patch. Annalise particularly enjoyed beating a rhythm on the pumpkins.

Here she is playing her pumpkin drums.

The trip included a small farm animals "petting zoo." Annalise particularly enjoying petting the pig. She's a farmer's great-granddaughter at heart.

We brought home a nice large orange pumpkin for Annalise's continued enjoyment at home.

Annalise and the Chocolate Factory.

Did you know our little girl is actually an Oompa Loompa?



At her 9 month Dr. check she measured 8th percentile in height and 60th percentile in head circumference. She's a stunning 26" tall and 17lbs, 2.5 oz. If you've seen Tracy and I, then this should be no surprise that she will have no future in basketball. Clean bill of health all around. Praise God!

"Oompa, loompa, doopty doo...."

Remembrance Day

Today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. Many people don't know about it, but it was brought to my attention by a friend who lost her beautiful baby boy. Prior to Annalise, Dave and I went through two miscarriages, and I think that having a day to remember lost babies is wonderful.

Here's the website: http://www.october15th.com/

Perhaps today you could pray for someone you know who has lost a baby.

Thanks.

-Tracy

Just a little note from Anna.

Hello there!



Don't be sad that we haven't posted in a while.



We just moved...



and we're getting things cleaned up and sorted out.



So standby...



Because we'll be back soon.

Lock up your boys, look who's on the move!

Yes, we've been neglecting the blog.
Yes, life is kind of busy. (always seems that way?)
Yes, we know you want to see more.
Yes, she's getting soooo big.
Yes, lock up your boys because someone's starting to crawl!

The most beautiful thing

Whenever she sleeps, we look at her and comment how she is the most beautiful thing we have ever seen.

Annalise goes to the beach

Annalise went to the beach for the first time, and she seemed to enjoy it. Actually her day went just as usual, only in a different location.

She played with her toys and drank water from her sippy cup.

She ate Mommy's sunglasses.

She laughed at Grandpa.

Grandpa, Mommy, and Daddy went surfing.

Grammy hung out with the baby.

Annalise explored the ocean a little bit.

Then she ate dinner.

A good time was had by all.