Annalisa's 1st Birthday

Birthday cake:

An outfit from Bowmans:

 

A doll that Irma crocheted:

Annalisa loves dolls:

At the Bowman's house, she sat on the ribbon from her present. It was just so cute:

A cute skirt and jacket from Irma and Jerry: 

At our house, opening presents:

They seem to be enjoying it as much as Annalisa:

A touch and feel book called "That's Not My Dragon".  It's a really cute book.  I actually gave it to Anna a couple weeks before her birthday, but Katie and Elayna wanted to give her presents, so they took some of the toys Annalisa really liked, and wrapped them up for her to open. They were so excited and cute about it.

 My parents with Annalisa, in the beautiful purple dress they gave her:

 I put Annalisa's hair in 2 pigtails, and it is so adorable! I loved how this picture showed her hair AND her happy smile.

We all love Annalisa so much. She is such a joy. She is smart, and happy, and loves her sisters so much. She has 2 teeth on the bottom, and 2 teeth that just came in. She has just started walking, and trying to talk, a little. She understands so much! When we ask her if she wants her bottle, she will stop crying. If I tell her to go somewhere, or find someone in the house, and tell her where they are, she usually can find them. She knows that if anyone is putting shoes on, they are going outside, and she wants to go too! She has this funny noise she makes that means "I want".  Kind of a "Uh" sound. She just does it over and over, while pointing, until she gets what she wanted, or we distract her. She uses "Da" for Mom, Dad, Katie, Elayna, pretty much anyone she recognizes. I put her on a swing, and now she is an avid fan. She loves to look at pictures of people she knows. We love you Annalisa!!

Home Improvements

In August, we had a bad windstorm. It took a lot of our shingles off. It was suggested that we talk to our Home Owners Insurance. They sent out a claims adjuster and our insurance sent us a check. We had a roofer come give us a bid. To have the entire roof removed and new shingles put back on was pricey. But the roofer did a bid with just putting new shingles over the old ones, which he said would still last 40 years. That bid was just under the amount of the check the insurance sent us. So, we got a new roof for free!! (Our Homeowners only went up about $100 per year, so it worked out well)

Old roof (ready to be re-shingled):

I

                 New roof:

 

This kitchen faucet was really cheap when we bought it a couple of years ago. It felt like it would start breaking soon (I'm sure I just wanted a new one, so I was imagining it) so Ryan replaced this faucet:

With this new faucet!! It has a nice brushed finish, so it looks clean most of the time. Plus, it has a sprayer, which I had declined on the old faucet, because I didn't think I would use it. Well, this time I got one, and I don't know how I cleaned without it. It is great.

Since we (Ryan did all the hard work. I just ordered what I wanted) were replacing faucets, I got a new one for the kid's bathroom. This old one was really hard for any child to turn on, and I got tired of having to turn it on and off each time someone went to the bathroom.

So Ryan put this new one in. It is a lot easier for the kids to use. The handle has a tear-drop hole in the handle, and it has a brushed finish that is easy to keep clean. The only disadvantage is that the temperature control is not very fine. It seems to be hot or cold. Oh well, next time...

This is our bookshelf. I painted it yellow years ago, and we keep the girl's books in it. It didn't have any dividers, so the girls couldn't really see what books they had. Which meant we read the same 4 stories over and over because that's all they could see. I was complaining to Ryan about the books always falling on top of each other and all leaning one direction or another. He came up with this fabulous idea. Put dividers in! The girls can now see all the books and it makes it a lot easier for them.

Our old shutters were a pale gray blue color. Which looked fine. I wanted a change, and so we got some dark blue ones instead.

When we took off the old shutters,we found lots and lots of wasp nests. Yuck. Left side of the window:

Right side: (if you click on the picture, it will get bigger and you can see them better)

But this is the final result, and I think it looks nice. Ryan says he can't tell a difference, but he was still so great to put them up and put sealant around them so no more wasps can build nests back there. I think the new shutters brighten the house a little.

This is a new curtain I put on the kitchen sink window:

This is the back wall of our walk in closet. It has some drawers and misc boxes piled on top of them:

I painted some shelves a beautiful deep purple, with white trim:

And I painted the knobs of the dresser the same purple:

This is the new and improved closet.A little color makes everything better.  :)

I'm not sure why I felt I needed to do all these changes. All of the sudden I just felt like things needed to be different. And then Spring came, and I don't worry about the inside of the house as much. I do have a list of things I want to do when it starts getting colder this year though...
Ryan has been great through all these projects. He is always willing to step in and help when I'm at the end of my rope. My hero!

First half of May 2012

This was taken Mother's Day morning. They are all so beautiful!!

Katie has lost 2 teeth.

Ryan commented that the 2 teeth Katie has missing, are the only 2 teeth Annalisa has:

And of course, we had to get Elayna's pretty teeth also: 

Katie has decided that she wants glasses. She has been asking for them since about last September. Her vision is fine, but she really wanted them. (her cousins Abby and Hannah -same age as her- got glasses for their vision, so she thinks she needs some.) I finally gave in and got her some: 

I noticed Annalisa crawling into this magazine rack and had to take a picture. How cute!: 

Elayna has such a cute smile:

 

This is our new van. A 2006 Honda Odyssey.  It is really nice and roomy. It has lots of fun things like: power doors; sunroof; individual air control for driver, passenger, and 4 vents in the back; 6 disc CD player; stuff like that. I'm sure we didn't need all those things. But it is fun to have them.  :) We were also able to put almost half down in cash, so we won't have to pay for it forever.  

April 2012

This is from when Annalisa was just a teeny baby. Isn't it such a cute picture?

When we were at the Bowman's house, I was holding Anna and asked her if she wanted to go. She smiled and waved bye to Jerry. Then I asked, "Do you want to stay with Grandpa?" She very emphatically shook her head no, and pointed to the door.

Anna has decided my iPhone is for her. Anytime I pull it out, she smiles, and comes for it, giggling and laughing because I pulled this wonderful fun toy out, just for her. She really likes to see herself in the forward facing camera. She really likes to hold it also. Luckily we got a warranty on it, so I'm not too concerned if she holds it. As long as I can still see her. :)
This is how she looks when she is just about to grab the phone:

I think I spend 90% of the time Annalisa is awake closing doors so she doesn't get into the stuff in all the rooms, and rescuing books. We have foolishly kept the books on our bookshelf, because I don't know where else to put them. She loves to pull them off the shelf, one at a time, until there is a large pile all around her. (Because I'm busy doing something else) 4-6-12

Annalisa called Ryan with FaceTime today. She loved being able to see and talk to him and hear his voice. She waved to him, and then she stood by herself for at least 5 seconds. She was concentrating so hard on Ryan that she stood without realizing it. 4-11-12

We took the girls to a Chinese buffet place. This was Elayna's plate. She had lots of different types of food on there, including suishi.  She at least tried it all, although she didn't like it all.  :) 

This was Katie's plate. Not quite as varied, but they are both really good eaters. 

Cousin Kylie came from Arizona and got baptized here so she could be around most of her cousins. Notice that Katie and Kylie have the same dress, just different colors. That was pretty fun for both of them. :)

Annalisa and Jessica have the same pj's! 

I trimmed Katie's hair, in the hope that it would make it easier to comb through. I think it helps. I had to put Annalisa in the high chair so she wouldn't crawl around in the hair on the ground. 

Me-I think you may be sick.
Elayna-Why? Cause I have the bad coughs?

Elayna and Katie got some bandages, and proceeded to cover their arms and hands with them.  Funny girls. 

Irma went to Mexico on a Humanitarian visit. She brought back these Mexican dresses for the girls. Annalisa wasn't very excited to take pictures. Can you tell? 

The two happy girls: 

The unhappy one, very mad still: 

Finally, they all were happy and smiling: 

Katie lost her first tooth on April 1. She was so excited!

March 2012

Annalisa is completely done nursing. I'm a little sad, but it is nice to be able to wear more clothes, and not worry about her being fed when I'm not there. She is 10 months old. 3-4-12

Sometimes I think we speak a different language at our house. Some examples:

What do you want for breakfast? 
Circles--> Honey Nut Cheerios
Squares--> Frosted Mini Wheat Squares 
Snowflakes---> Frosted Flakes

Lello-Yellow (Katie and Elayna both say this wrong)
Mushmellos-  Marshmallows
Alonely- Being alone and lonely

Annalisa will say "Hi Da!" when she sees someone she likes.

Elayna was crying, so I asked her what was wrong, and she said, through sobs, "When Katie grows up, she won't live in this house with us!!"
Then I tried to explain that they would both be older. Katie asked, "Elayna will be, like 10, when I leave the house?" 3-4-12

I was driving Katie to school, and she sang me this song. "Oh Mom, your eyes are a beautiful blue. When we go out and see people, the people all say..., your Mom,  your eyes are a beautiful blue."  What a sweetie.

Annalisa folds her arms for prayer. I hadn't even gotten to the point where I was holding her arms in place, she just noticed that is what we do, so she started doing it also. She will also fold her arms if it is quiet and she sees someone with their arms folded. Even if they are just sitting on the couch, talking, and there is a lull in the conversation. She's so observant.

Elayna sings while playing, eating, talking, walking. Her life is like an opera- there is always a soundtrack playing for her. 3-8-12

I went to check on Elayna in the night. She woke up enough to say- "I want to marry Grandpa Jerry, but Grandma Irma already did. I really want to!" 3-18-12

I told Elayna that Grandma Paula would cry if Elayna didn't give her a hug. She looked at us both, laughed, and said, "No! Grandma doesn't cry!". 3-18-12

Annalisa will balance on her toes and her fingertips, trying to stand up. She has let go and actually stood by herself a couple of times this week. Only for 1 or 2 seconds, but you can tell she is doing it on purpose.
She loves being outside and following her sisters. She has started to point at what she wants, ... or wants to look at, ... or go to. She does it a lot. Annalisa loves baths. She hears the water running while I'm changing her clothes, and she starts wriggling and smiling and laughing so much I can barely get the clothes off her. Then as soon as she is in the water, she stretches out her arms as wide as she can, and pulls them back to her tummy very quickly. That's an action she does when she is excited. It splashes lots in the water, and she loves it.  3-21-12

This morning, I was doing Katie's hair for school. Annalisa was playing in the bathroom with us. Ryan called for her, so I started saying, "Where's Daddy? Go find Daddy." After I said that 3 or 4 times, she crawled to me, pulled herself up to her knees on the stool, and impatiently said, "Da!" (I'm right here!) I laughed and said, "No, I'm Mom. Go find Dad." She left and went straight to Ryan. She's picking things up so quickly!  3-22-12

When I was outside with Annalisa, she pushed herself to a bent position: feet on the ground, hands on my knee, and pushed up to a standing position. She stood there for 3-5 seconds. She looked so happy and proud of herself. 3-27-12

Elayna can spell her name by herself now. She can also write all the letters in her name, in capital letters.

Katie was just standing outside my bathroom door today. Usually I know when she is there, but this time she really startled me!    We signed her up for Teeball, which will start in May. She'll drop gymnastics when it starts. Then she is counting on joining a dance class after her birthday.

Annalisa is getting to the point that she is sure she should be eating my food. Not the same food. My food, off my plate.  She's eating about everything now. Not peanut butter or eggs yet, but she likes yogurt and pretzels and fries, etc. 3-29-12

We left Annalisa's pacifier at my parent's house, accidentally, so we decided she was done with it. She hasn't been using it much anyways, so we figured it is a good time to stop. Of course, we forgot to tell anyone, so when Irma gave Annalisa a pacifier, I guess she was really happy.  3-30-12