Toys, Toys, and More Toys!

Annabelle's birthday party was what I consider a success. Lots of children, lots of food, and lots of fun. Annabelle refused to nap on this day, so she was functioning on no sleep. All things considered, she was remarkably well behaved for the intense amount of excitement and suger, combined with the fatigue I know she was experiencing.

Rather than post all the pics from Annabelle opening her presents...or rather, *us* helping Annabelle open her presents, I figured I'd just take pictures of Annabelle playing with some of her new birthday presents. I think this makes for cuter pictures, since the actual gifts weren't always visible in my "unwrapping" shots. The first few pics are from Annabelle at her party, and the rest are taken over the next couple of days...I just snapped a picture as I caught her playing with one of her new toys.


Her adorable Pooh cake:











Such a sweet smile!














Annabelle loves to suck on the lemons from Grandma's iced tea!















Grandpa cuts the birthday cake:















Wow! A birthday cake that moonlights as Play-Dough!




















Gabby's friend, Tiffany, gave Annabelle this ball for her birthday. Annabelle loves it!

















Aunt Joanie and Cousin Tristan gave Annabelle a "Learn and Laugh Book" and a "Learning Purse", both of which Annabelle loves!





















Mommy and Daddy gave Annabelle a "Fairyland Playhouse" and an "Enchanted Castle". There's nothing better than getting lost in a fairy tale:




















Annabelle loves to sit on the scooter that her friend, Wesley, gave her. She can't quite figure out how to ride it yet, but sitting on it is just as much fun (for now!)






















Richard and Jimmy gave Annabelle an "Activity Walker" that makes all kinds of cool sounds and plays tons of different songs!



















Annabelle loves to push on the lion's nose because he sings when she does. Grandma and Grandpa made a great choice with this gift!





















Annabelle looks so pretty in one of the dresses that Aunt Wendy sent from North Carolina.

Annabelle's Birthday Dinner

On Annabelle's actual birthday (not the day of the party) we all (hubby, Gabby, parents, sister & nephew) all went out to Mama Fu's Chinese restaurant for dinner. It was a fun night that we all really enjoyed. While we were there, the waitress found out it was Annabelle's first birthday (yes, we told her!) and she offered a piece of chocolate cake to Annabelle. This was Annabelle's second cake for the day and she enjoyed it every bit as much as the first one. What a mess she made! I am *STILL* trying to figure out how to get the chocolate out of her high chair!

It's Fun to be One!

My little girl is officially one year old! I can't believe how fast this year has flown by! I just brought my little princess home from the hospital yesterday....how can she be one already?!? Wow! What an incredible year this has been! I took Annabelle out for her one year portraits and it went so well. The photographer insisted that I bring a cake along and just let Annabelle dig into it....so I did! It was a lot of fun watching her with this cake (her first one ever!) She didn't know what she was supposed to do with it until I put a small piece in her mouth. She figured out the rest all by herself! The day before was big sister's 16th birthday, so we did some double portraits as well, just to mark the occasion.

Will Somebody Please Slap Me.......

......if I ever even *THINK* about having double back-to-back birthday parties again? We had Annabelle's first birthday party and Gabby's Sweet Sixteen party (two milestone birthdays nonetheless!) this past weekend (Annabelle's on Saturday and Gabby's on Sunday) and I am totally exhausted (as well as broke!) All in all, though, it really was a fun weekend......just a bit much for one weekend. I would have preferred to have had these parties on separate weekends, but my sister and her 5-year-old son (whom I haven't seen since he was 3 months old!) came to visit for a week, and we wanted both of them to be here for both parties. It was nice to see them again after five years. Time really is too short to spend it so far away from our loved ones. Hubby and I are already trying to figure out if we might be able to make it over there to Georgia (where they live) next year for a visit. I love road trips, but have never taken one with an infant before, so I'm not sure how that would work......but I'm trying to figure something out.

We had Annabelle's party at Chick-fil-A. All in all, there were 9 other children there (if you include my older daughter and her friend, who sometimes act the same age as Annabelle & her friends, there were actually 11 children there!) Two of the children showed up 10 minutes before the party ended, but it was nice that they came. Annabelle received SO MANY wonderful gifts, most of which are battery operated (thanks a lot guys!) Up until now, Annabelle has not had a single battery operated toy. That's not necessarily because I have anything personal against battery operated toys, I've just always opted for the non-battery operated ones for some reason or another. I guess I always suspect, somewhere deep in the back of my mind, that battery operated toys are more likely to break.....or just suddenly stop functioning when the batteries die. The second scenario is not necessarily a problem unless I have no spare batteries to replace the dead ones with. Determined not to let that happen, I carefully checked all the toys to see what size spare batteries I should keep on hand. Wouldn't you know it.....every single one of these battery operated toys requires a different size battery! Go figure. Hmmmmm, perhaps *that* is the reason I have yet to purchase a battery operated toy for Annabelle?

Needless to say, I have dozens and dozens of pictures from this past week. With my sister in town and both birthday parties, it has been kind of a week-long holiday for me and I am currently working on bringing myself back down to reality. I am going to post some, but not all (There are WAAAAAAY too many!) pictures from the parties, as well as some misc. photos, but I am going to post them all under their own separate blog entry. This way, I can stop this entry here and not worry about it turning into 4 pages of rambling nonsense that nobody wants to finish reading.

Ersatz Binky!

OK......here is what happens when Annabelle is "deprived" of her precious binky. She takes the binky cover and...... VOILA! Ersatz binky! I almost fell over laughing when she did this! :-)

Standing On Her Own Two Feet!

My baby is standing! She's not walking yet, but it's very obvious that it's going to happen soon. She will stand and attempt a step (she doesn't actually make the step yet, but I can see one leg moving in place while the other remains still.) She has attempted steps in the past, but never while she was able to stand on her own. The steps she attempted were while whe was holding onto something (a chair, the wall, etc) and simply let go as she was taking a step. Now she is standing, so I can't wait for that first step! She still has not yet demonstrated that she can clap. It looks like we are going to totally bypass that milestone! She doesn't wave anymore, either, but at least I know she can if she wants to. I still can't believe she is almost one year old! The absolute best method of measuring time is to actually watch a child grow. The time slips by so fast. Don't blink or you'll miss it!











My poor little angel has a dipaer rash that I simply can't get rid of! She's never had a rash that I couldn't conquer in a day. This pesky rash has been around now for 4 or 5 days, with no sign of leaving. It's actually only a small spot in a very localized (and very sensitive) area, but it is dark red and blistered. Wiping it makes it bleed. I have air dried it and purchased the finest and most expensive diaper ointments and powders that I could find, but it is still there. It's not spreading, but it's not clearing up either. If anybody has any ideas on what I could do, I would be most grateful!

I ordered birthday cakes today! Annabelle's first birthday party is next Saturday, July 19th, and Big Sis Gabby will be having her Sweet Sixteen on the following day. It's going to be a hectic weekend, that's for sure! I joked around with Gabby that I was going to make them have a double birthday party and that the theme this year was going to be "Elmo". She didn't find that very funny! Anyway, I decided to go ahead and do a Pooh themed party for Annabelle and Gabby, of course, will have a Sweet Sixteen theme. The cake I ordered for Annabelle is absolutely ADORABLE! It's called "Balloon Ride" and features a basket with three real balloons coming out of it, and miniature stuffed Pooh characters in the "hot air balloon". The cake is blue with clouds and a rainbow "painted" on it. The picture (in the baker's book) was stunning, so I'm hoping the reak cake will turn out just as amazing. Naturally, there will be photos plastered all over this blog when the time comes!

For the past two years, and up until last month, I have had a very nice online photo album with all the pictures I had been taking around here. Not just pictures of Annabelle, but of the whole family, the area, our outings, etc. Well, the site that was hosting my album decided to make some changes that I didn't like, so I reluctantly cancelled my subscription, and now I am left with no photo album. I was about to go with another company, but they sent out an email shortly after I made up my mind to sign on with them, informing everybody that they were "going belly up" so to speak. Well, that stinks for me because I haven't found another site that I like. So I am considering expanding my blog somehow to include more of the family pictures that my far-away friends and family can view. I haven't figured out how I'm going to do this yet, but the wheels have started spinning. I have also decided to move my homeschooling blog over here to blogspot so I can keep everything together. This is mainly for my benefit, but maybe somebody else can benefit from my homeschooling notes as well. That would be great! I'm planning on getting that up and running (here) soon, as soon as I have time to move it all from the other account to this one. Hopefully it will be before Annabelle gets her driver's license!

FourthFest Celebration

It hit me today that this, the Fourth of July, is Annabelle's last holiday before she turns 1 year old. She has gone through one complete year of life and it overwhelms me to think that this is still just the beginning! What an INCREDIBLE blessing she has been to everyone in our family. Sometimes I wonder what I ever did to deserve such an amazing gift from God. Then it hits me: I have done nothing to deserve this precious little angel, yet God has chosen to entrust her upbringing with me anyway. That's grace in its purest form.

For our Fourth of July holiday, the hubby, the girls and I went up to our church for our annual FourthFest.....complete with BBQ, ice cream, and fireworks. The weather couldn't have been more beautiful and it was a great opportunity to just relax and mingle with friends. Annabelle seemed to really enjoy the change of scenery although by the end of the night (as the fireworks were starting) she was getting a bit cranky. We stayed way past her bedtime, so it's no wonder she was so tired. As tired as she was, though, she behaved like a champ! She was neither impressed with nor scared of the fireworks. She didn't really pay any attention to them at all...she was more interested in the rocks on the ground. We tried sitting in the grass, but Annabelle let us know in no uncertain terms that she didn't like the grass. So we were left with sitting on the concrete and it took every bit of energy I had left to keep Annabelle from putting handfuls of rocks in her mouth.

While we were at the FourthFest, Annabelle ate a popsicle for the very first time. What fun that was! I couldn't get her to hold the stick, so she just grabbed on tight to the popsicle and just chowed down. There was popsicle juice dripping everywhere and it took me forever to get it off her! It was a hilarious sight to see!


Annabelle enjoyed sitting on the curb "like a big girl".











Here she is, NOT enjoying the grass!












Sweets for the sweet:
















With big sis Gabby:











The music was great too!













A fantastic fireworks show ended the night. The fireworks were MUCH better than how they appear in the pictures! :-)