Anna's on the move

So Anna turned 5 months old on Sunday and decided she wanted to start moving around. She had been rolling over for a couple of months now, but she finally figured out that she could keep on rolling over and get to new places. It's fun to see her brain finally start connecting the dots:) I laid he down on her blanket and this is where she ended up,

now she needs to learn how to roll the other way:)

She has also discovered that her feet taste yummy. I didn't see it, but Mark said she was sucking on her foot last night. This is the best picture I got of it.


Anna accomplished yet a third milestone this week, she started eating rice cereal. I was little nervous about trying it, but she absolutely loved it.

Here she is in her high chair getting ready for the big event.


Here is the first bite.


She insisted on holding the spoon and feeding herself. We couldn't give her a bite without her holding the spoon.


And here she is all finished.


She had so much fun. Mark and I couldn't feed ourselves until she was all done, because she kept wanting more to eat. She is growing up so fast, it's fun to watch all of these milestones happen.

As for me, I've been out working in my garden. We got a lot of stuff done this past weekend when it was so nice. Here is my garden, I'm proud of it this year, it is doing really well.




Life has been busy, but it has also been a lot of fun. I'll keep you updated on all of Anna's accomplishments.

Moab and other fun stuff

Last week Mark, Anna, and I went to Moab with my friend from high school and her husband. We had so much fun. We explored Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and Goblin Valley. I don't know which place I liked more, they were all so much fun. We needed more time down there. Anna hated being in the car, I think the 5 hour drive down scarred her for life,







but she loved hiking around in the front pack.



We had a lot of fun and are definitely going back to this area. Here are some more pics for you to look at.

Goblin Valley State Park






Arches National Park










Canyonlands National Park




Dead Horse Point State Park


Mark and I love the National Parks, we hope someday to visit them all(except the ones in Alaska). So far we have six down and about 50 more to go. We highly suggest making a trip down here, it was a lot of fun.

Gone before its time

Here is the latest from the past couple of weeks,
We attempted to take Anna's 3 month portrait instead of going to a photography studio, here is the result,

I liked it, and that's what's important. The biggest problems we had was getting her to smile when we put a camera in front of her face and getting her to keep still. We will probably get her six month professionally done, but I'll take a crack at it before we take her in to see if I can do it.

I also received a calling as our primary chorister. I am so excited for this calling. I love teaching music to children. It is a little overwhelming right now because we have 90 kids in our primary, but hopefully in a few weeks I'll start being more comfortable with it.

Mark and I went to the Utah Symphony last night and heard Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky. It is a beautiful piece. It was the first piece I ever played with an orchestra when I was 13 and holds a special place in my heart. I was tearing up at the end. It would be wonderful to play with an orchestra again, but it's also wonderful being a mommy. Maybe someday I can play again, but for now I'm happy listening to great music and raising Anna.

Recently Anna has started sucking on EVERYTHING. We got a front pack and put her in it, within 2 minutes it was soaked. She loves sitting in it and sucking, she fussed when we took her out.

She is also giggling up a storm. The other day I was tapping a spatula against a pan and Mark was standing next to me with her. She just started laughing and wouldn't stop. Every time I tapped my spatula she giggled. I love making her laugh. Anna also had her four month check-up. She is doing great, but her weight is falling off. She weighed 11lb.11oz. which is in the 14%. She hadn't gained anything in 2 weeks so we need to start supplementing her with formula. Other than that she is as healthy as can be.

And on a slightly depressing note, I was watching t.v. Friday night when it made a flicker and died. Mark wouldn't believe me when I called him, he thought it had a lot of good years left, but after examining the patient he deemed it dead. It was bought in 1994, so it lasted a good 16 years. We always said that we would let this t.v. die and then buy a new one, we just figured it wouldn't happen sandwiched between us buying a new car and going on a vacation. We'll get a new t.v. eventually, I'm just not sure when. So for now this is what I have to watch,

It is such a pitiful sight, I can barely read writing on it from my couch. It is the 13 inch t.v. my parents bought in the mid 90's to go in our kitchen. On a positive note, Mark says it has really good picture quality.

I hope everyone has a great day!

Giggles, Giggles, Giggles

Today, I put Anna in her high chair and sat down to eat lunch. I was taking a bite of food when she just started laughing at me. It was soooo cute. She giggled for about five minutes for no apparent reason other than to hear herself giggle. I was laughing my head off. I think it was the cutest think I've seen her do yet.

She loves her high chair. We sat her in it for the first time yesterday and she was amused all through dinner. I think she likes feeling like part of the family. Don't worry, we're not giving her solid food yet, we just wanted to include her at dinnertime. Sometimes she holds her spoon:)


This is her with her first present from the Easter Bunny.


We had a quiet Easter. I was mastering the Art of French Cooking with Julia Child and made french cuisine. Well I don't think I mastered it, but it did turn out very well. We had Chicken Breasts sauteed in a brown butter sauce, stuffed tomatoes, and garlic mashed potatoes which used 30 cloves of garlic. They were very good and the garlic wasn't over powering at all. It is a fun cookbook to use because she actually teaches you how to cook instead of just giving you the recipe. We watched a wonderful conference and had a nice Easter dinner.

Anna's Blessing and other stuff

It's been awhile since I last blogged and now that I'm sitting down to do it I realize a lot has happened over the last two weeks.

I'll start with Anna since I always talk about Anna:) She is rolling over fairly well from her tummy to her back. I think the only reason she does this is because she hates being on her tummy.I was trying to take pictures of her on her tummy and I think I blinded her with this one.



She also went through a grumpy period for about two weeks. I finally took her to the doctor and he said she had acid reflux. Because of this her weight wasn't going up like it was supposed to. I started giving her zantac and feeding her an extra ounce of formula every time she ate and now she is as happy as can be. I kept trying to take pictures of her during this time and she always gave me a grumpy face. This is one of her grumpy pictures, but I still think she is cute:)



And believe it or not, we actually bought a new car!!! We've only been talking about it for four years now. I told Mark we had to buy it by May because I wasn't going through another summer without AC in my car. He finally caved:) It is a 2007 Hyundai Sonata with only 30000 miles on it. We got it for a really good price.

For those LOST fans out there, can anyone else see the symbolism of our cars?

Anna was also blessed this last weekend and we had a little party afterward. Everything went well, she didn't cry during her blessing although we were very worried that she might. She kept giving us a grumpy face through the whole opening song. She did very well and even decided to smile for some pictures afterward.

Anna also giggled for the first time. I wasn't home to hear it, but Mark said it was hilarious.


Well that is about it for us. I'll try to update more often:)

Daddy's Fashion Sense

The other day Anna had a blowout and needed to change her outfit in the middle of the day. Mark took her upstairs to change her and this is what he came down with,

I believe this is proof that Mark doesn't have a lot of fashion sense. I guess I need to supervise the changing of clothes from now on:)

Smiles and Tears

Sorry it's been awhile since I've been on here. Life has been pretty good. We finally put Anna in her own room the other day. It was so hard for me. It was harder for me than it was for Anna, she fell asleep right away. I cried for an hour. It's good for her though, we were waking her up in the morning. Now she sleeps for 8 hours:) This makes me very happy. She is growing up so fast.

This is her nursery, it's mostly done. There are still a couple of pictures I need to hang up and some boxes of stuff that need to be put away, but I'm almost there.

Nemo and Anna are starting to bond. The other day when she was on the floor Nemo came and sat next to her. She was so fascinated by him. Nemo even reached out his paw and put it in her hand. I didn't get that on camera, but they were still looking at each other when I finally got the camera out.

The cats are adjusting well to Anna. They have started cuddling with themselves because I don't have as much time to cuddle with them. They didn't do this that often before, but now it is a nightly ritual. I'm starting to find more time to spend with them, but I can tell they still miss their attention.

Here is Anna smiling at Mark. I still can't get her to smile for me when I have the camera in front of my face, but I'm getting closer.

This is her in her blessing dress. We are going to have her blessed at the end of the month. I love getting her all dressed up.

My weight loss is continuing to go well. I lost 1.5 lbs. last week. I am so sore from yesterday, I did 45 min. of personal training and then an hour of Jazzercise. It feels good to work my muscles. I also got out on Saturday and ran a mile! I have never been able to run very far and I'm usually bored, but I felt like it was easy for me this time. I also had my mp3 player going which helped with the boredom. It felt so good when I was done.

Mark and I are also looking at buying a new car...woohoo! I have been wanting another car for several years now. We have had one car for going on 8 years and it was 6 years old when we bought it. It will nice to have a second car. We are looking at getting it within the next month or two. I'll put a picture up when we get it.

Sorry for rambling on so much, I hope everyone is having a great day!