Annalise's first christmas

Annalise's first Christmas was one we spent making many special memories.

December began with her first experience of rain (yes, we live in San Diego and her first experience with rain was at almost a year old). She loved helping me hold the umbrella handle.



We went to Home Depot and chose Annalise's first Christmas tree - not too bushy, not too skimpy. After we brought it home, Annalise enjoyed staring at it in wonder - a giant tree in the middle of our house! Decorating it was fun, but there are a startling number of ornaments that, although structurally and asthetically attractive to babies, are not actually built to be baby resistant. We loved explaining to Annalise the meaning of Christmas and some of the ornaments we hang to celebrate Jesus. Perhaps next year she'll understand a little more.



We enjoyed our tree all week. Then we were horrified to discover that it was dying (a trifle prematurely). Who knew that Home Depot had a Christmas tree return policy? Here we are choosing our second, and much more robust, Christmas tree.



We enjoyed an early Christmas with my parents. Annalise discovered how to pull gifts out of gift bags. I fell in love with her Christmas dress - can she wear it again next year?



We also did our own "Christmas morning" at home on Dec. 23rd before we left for San Jose. Annalise's gift was a cozy coupe we found on Craigslist, and she loves it! Notice how the bottom 1/2 of our tree lacks ornaments. That's because throughout December Annalise would walk over to the tree, pull off an ornament, and I'd hang it higher above where she could reach. The end result - a half-decorated tree.



We spent Christmas in San Jose with our family there. The visit was unfortunately punctuated with doctor visits for both Annalise and I who had been sick for a ridiculously long length of time and started getting worse (ear infections and sinus infections can do that). Dave also managed to contract some other type of flu, and we successfully contaminated all of our family - our extra special Christmas gift to them.


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone! We are praying that this year we will give more of our lives and selves to the wonderful God we love and serve.

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.