My goal is to keep up with my blog so that I am better about writing down the everyday stories. Anna is such a character and I love seeing her personality come out more and more.  She is talking a lot these days and is my little buddy at home all day.  She says the funniest things sometimes.  Like the other day  we were eating roast for dinner and I am guessing she saw me cutting it before I brought it to the table because just as we started eating she said "Can I have a big sharp knife, please?" She was entirely sincere but Scott and I could not help but laugh at the request.

We had a lot of fun celebrating this crazy little two year old's birthday.  Like most holidays in our house, it was celebrated over a couple of days.  Friday was her real birthday so we decided to get McDonald's for dinner, a happy meal of course.  Then we gave her her present from us after dinner. This was her reaction:


 
That is the most fun we have had giving Anna a present so far.  We brought it out as she was finishing dinner with a huge blanket draped over it and she jumped down from the table running and squealing.  I am so glad we got it on video.  She pulled the blanket off and immediately started playing "kitchen".   I also made her this little apron she is wearing in the second picture.  Months later this is still a favorite among her toys.  She loves to cook things for Scott and I.  My favorite is when she imitates me.

Anna:"mom, do you want milk or juice?"
me: "um, juice"
Anna: "how about milk instead?"

She never lets me have juice, I think she is trying to get back at me. She also loves to make "fry sauce" I work a lot of Saturday mornings and while I am gone Scott likes to make a big tray of nuggets and fries with fry sauce.  He likes to include her in making it, so I often find her making her own fry sauce.  I need Mayonnaise, ketchup, and garlic powder. Then she adds "not a lot though, just a little bit tastes good." (referring to the garlic powder.)

So back to the rest of her birthday.  Saturday we had a family party for Anna.  We did a bakery theme this year because Anna is known for her sweet tooth and it also fit in with her kitchen and apron present.  It was fun to make all the sweets and decorate more this year.




She had a blast having all the family over and getting so much attention.  She really loves spending time with family.  I am so glad that we live close so we can see Scott's family often at least.

 
 Anna was spoiled for Christmas! This is a picture with all of her toys (including from Grandparents), I tried so hard to get them all in plus have her smiling but it was impossible because she kept moving on her bike and her toys would fall over, so this is the best I have. 
 This is just another picture of her on her new trike from Scott's parents, she is still getting the hang of it but her favorite part is definitely the bell.
Since we found out we were expecting in November we decided to tell our families with stockings in December.  I made a fourth stocking except I cheated and didn't actually sew the top part, just pinned it.  I am doing red for girls and green for boys so I didn't want to actually make it until I knew what I was having.  It proved to be prophetic though.  I actually was convinced I was having a boy until just before the ultrasound just because this pregnancy has been so different than my pregnancy with Anna.

Anyway we invited Scott's parents over and just had them hanging like this to see how quickly they would notice.  It only took a few minutes :) and then I sent this picture to my family in an email only telling them that I sent them an email of the stockings that I made.  It was kind of funny because my mom took the longest to find out because she wasn't checking her email.

We also got an awesome camera for Christmas from Scott's parents so I am hoping to be better at taking pictures.  I guess I have been better at taking pictures just not posting them, one step at a time.

I have never pretended to be the most dedicated blogger but seriously making it to 28 weeks without even mentioning it on my blog is kind of ridiculous.  And then you would think that I would actually have a decent picture to post but no this is it folks!  Scott and I tried about ten shots but this is the best I got so we will have to live with it and try to get a better one next time. 

Overall, this pregnancy has been easier than my last with Anna.  I was not as sick at the beginning.  I am even proud to say that I made it through my whole first trimester without throwing-up!  It was a goal of mine, of course it was a goal of mine last time too and that did not work out! My second trimester was awesome.  I honestly did not even feel pregnant and now that I am in my third I am starting to feel large and uncomfortable but I think I am mostly scared because I know how much bigger I am going to get in the next 12 weeks! 

My due date is July 29th and we are so excited to meet our second little GIRL! I am so glad Anna will have a little sister so close in age, sisters are the best! I think she will be a great big sister too although I am sure that I am in for big changes with two kids. 

I am still planning on posting about Christmas and Anna's birthday so hopefully it will not be so long before I am posting again!

To start off our Halloween season we carved some pumpkins. Everything has just been more fun with Anna this year. She really got into all of our traditions and this was no exception.


This was Anna's first look inside a pumpkin (below). I thought her face was pretty awesome and I am glad I caught it. Although she was very interested in the whole carving process she did not like the feel of the "guts". We were trying to get her to help us pull them out and she just made this face like, "that's gross guys"

We had to have a snack while we carved of course. I found this wonderful Apple Nachos recipe on Pinterest. It is apple slices with melted chocolate and peanut butter drizzled across. I actually added walnuts after I took the picture too. This has become a favorite treat around here.

And the finished product! Scott carved the bigger one and I did the smaller one. Anna had a little baby pumpkin that we decided not to carve. We let it stay in the house and she loved carrying it around. Halloween night we were supposed to head down to Scott's parents for dinner and trick-or-treating but things did not exactly work out as we had planned. We were on our way to Utah county with everyone else in rush hour traffic and Scott was pulling some jerky lane changes (do you see where this is going?) I was busy trying to occupy Anna by supplying her with books to look at since we were trying to make the longer drive without binky's for the first time.

About 15-20 minutes into the drive, just as Scott had made it all the way to the HOV lane, I looked back at Anna just as I saw a little puke come out, kind of like a spit up. I turned to Scott and said, "I think she just threw-up a little bit, that's weird" But then she continued to throw-up and it was really bad as you can imagine or maybe have even experienced the car puke yourself. But, this was a first for us and I was kind of freaking out especially if you recall what we had been through earlier that month. Scott kept asking how bad it was and all I could say was we have to pull off, we need to get off the freeway.

Luckily I brought a change of clothes for her since I knew we would be late coming home and I had a plastic bag and a lot of wipes. So we were able to do a quick clean up but then we had to head back home to really strip down the car seat and clean the car. We were sad to miss out on hanging out with family but we didn't want this to ruin our night all together so we gave Anna a bath and watched her for awhile, decided to try feeding her and she seemed fine. We determined that she must have been car sick. And I no longer offer books on the drive to Scott's parents in case you were wondering.

We took her trick-or-treating in the neighborhood behind us and she really enjoyed herself. She would say trick-or-treat in the tiniest whisper and we could rarely get her to say thank you before she turned and headed for the next house. I was surprised at how quickly she picked up on the strategy of the whole thing.
After a lot of last minute deliberation and a trip to the dollar store we decided on making Anna an old lady this year. It wasn't quit the cute fairy or princess costume that you might expect but I have to say I think she turned out pretty cute and we got some pretty good reactions from people. She even kept the glasses at the end of her nose all night.


Here is the proud old lady, a few curlers short but a lot of candy gained. Overall it was a fun and memorable night!

Get ready for a ton of pictures. I am obviously quite behind so here is my attempt to document what we did this summer in one really long post.

Liberty Park:
This is one of my favorite parks in Salt Lake. We went a few times this summer, there is just so much to do there and Anna really enjoys it.

We are on a Ferris Wheel here. Anna wasn't sure if she liked it or not. She would get really excited at times and then grip mine and Scott's hands for dear life at other times.

Dimple Dell Park:

4th of July:
My Birthday:

I had a great birthday this year. Scott is always so creative and thoughtful when it comes to birthdays. Seriously, he is way better at picking things out for me than I am for him. He always spoils me and makes my birthday special. I can't believe I am 24. I am officially starting to feel old. I'm not sure what it is but I think it has something to do with watching my baby grow up. The only pictures I got on my birthday were these shots with Anna. What a little sweetie this girl is!



This is what Scott did after we got back from my birthday outing. He took me to dinner, shopping and then dessert. And since it was my birthday he spent the whole time chasing Anna around while I enjoyed relaxing. So he was pretty exhausted when we got home :)








Glen's Wedding:

We were able to go down to Arizona for my little brother Glen's wedding. It was so good to see everyone again and to get to know our new sister-in-law a little better. They are such a cute couple.
Just the siblings. We got to spend some good time together with just the kids and our parents, which is a pretty rare thing. We enjoyed some dance-offs and good laughs. We sure do miss living closer to these guys.

Jackson Hole, Wyoming Trip:
We were able to go to Jackson Hole with Scott's extended family which is always a good time. I need to get more pictures from this trip. I really didn't take enough to document all the fun we had. We got to go whitewater rafting which was so much fun. I have always wanted to try it and what a beautiful place to go!


Random pictures that I had to include:

Anna's First Hair Cut:



The Park:
I wanted to take some pictures of Anna at the park because she enjoyed it so much this summer! We have a great playground within walking distance so we spent a lot of time there.


Growing Up:
Anna started going to the nursery in our church officially in July. Just before she went in, she was starting to get the hang of praying, or at least being reverent during prayer. I just thought this whole learning process was so sweet, I had to get a few pictures. She tried so hard to keep her eyes closed but you could tell it took so much effort.

The day I took her into nursery and was about to leave, they were having a little lesson and began with a prayer. She looked back at me with her arms folded and squeezing her eyes closed as best she could as if to say "Look, mom, I can do it!" I had to try really hard not to cry as I left her that day. I think apart of me was sad that she was growing up and apart of me was just so grateful to be this sweet little girl's mom!