Anna and Gardening

Anna had her sixth month appointment this week. She weighed 14lb. 12oz which put her in the 24%. She actually started moving up the curve, she was in the 19th 3 weeks ago. The doctor was very happy about that. Her length is 28in. which put her at >97%. I wish I had her problem of being tall and skinny:) Her head measurement was 44.3 which put her in the 89%. Overall she is doing very well. She didn't even cry much for her shots, she must take after me:)

Anna loves reading with her daddy, they try to have story time every night.


I had to throw some pictures of my garden on here. I am so proud of it this year. I did a lot of research on the best way to grow tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, and cabbage. My broccoli and cabbage are almost done and I need to take a picture of them before they got picked. If anyone has any questions on how to grow broccoli or cabbage let me know, because they are kind of tricky. We ate some last night along with some lettuce that I picked and it was absolutely wonderful. All the hard work paid off.




Here is a picture of my ginormous tomato plant. It's like two feet tall already, that's almost bigger than any of my tomato plants last year. All of my tomatoes are doing really well, but this one is doing the best.



Sorry for all the rambling on about my garden, I'm just so happy with it this year. I also picked about a pound of strawberries today so I'm very excited-strawberry shortcake tonight-yeah!!

Sixth Month Portraits

I can't believe my girl is sixth months already. She had her sixth month portraits taken on Saturday. I thought they turned out really cute. She was really happy the entire time which made the picture taking a lot easier. Here are a few of my favorite. I love the one of her sitting up on her own. That is the first time she did it and she looks fiesty in the picture.

Toe Sucker

Some kids suck on pacifiers, others their thumbs, Anna has decided she likes to suck her big toe. I think it's hilarious,

Here she is sucking on her bouncer with her cousins Cindy and Lila.

And here she is sucking in her seat, she sucks on just about everything.


Here is one of her reading with her daddy, I thought it was a cute picture even though she isn't sucking:)

I love my little sucker. She turns six months next week, I can't believe how quickly she is growing up.

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.