Thanks for Birthdays!

We were estimating that Anna's birthday will fall on Thanksgiving once every 4-5 years. We're so lucky that it happened for her first!!! Several days before I kept thinking,

"Exactly one year ago right now, I was snow blowing the driveway."
"Exactly one year ago right now, I met with our realtor"
"Exactly one year ago right now, I started having contractions"
"Exactly one year ago right now, we drove to the hospital in a blizzard" and so on....
I can't believe it's been a year! Holy cow!

We've all done a lot of GROWING in that year. Anna has stayed healthy and happy most of the time. Her hair has grown in thick and dark, her eyes have stayed brown, she just sprouted her 8th tooth, she babbles like crazy, and she just loves to see everything going on. If she hears music, she'll even start dancing! She has developed a curious, but cautious personality.

We spent her birthday at the cabin eating a wonderful Thanksgiving feast. Afterwards I wrote on a chocolate pie and stuck a candle in it. I always imagined what it would be like to see Anna devouring her first birthday cake. Messy hands, cake all over, frosting in hair... but the closer it got to her birthday, the more I knew it wouldn't happen. She's just not like that. She ate all of her pie, but it had to be FED to her! How disgraceful! She's just too dainty, I guess. She had a better time ripping open her presents. We were so lucky to have BOTH sets of grandparents and plenty of cousins there. We love you Anna banana!

Family Pictures

Leaves

Back in September, leaf rakes were on sale for $5.
What do we need a rake for this year? Our trees aren't big enough to drop significant leaves.
That doesn't mean our neighbor's GINORMOUS cottonwoods won't. I think every single leaf blew into our yard and left theirs spotless!
To Walmart we go!
Bevan just wanted to buy a leaf blower, but I explained to him that hand-raking burns a few more calories and builds a little more character (it sounded like Calvin's dad).
I bought the largest rake they had and went to work. Anna kept watch, modeling a borrowed "Ralphy suit" we're trying out. Midway doesn't have yard waste recycling and I forgot to buy leaf bags, so when our regular garbage can filled up, I just piled the leftovers directly upwind from the vacant lot next to us. It's not OUR FAULT the leaves blow where they do!

Mother of 6?!

We spent the good part of last week in West Jordan watching Nora and James' kids. They have 5 (including a baby) plus my 1 equals a house of craziness! It was fun to have Anna interacting with her cousins and getting used to the noise. She LOVED it! Addie was so good with her and that was such a help to me. We stayed pretty busy playing "Sorry", watching Hulu, and getting the older kids to various activities and play groups that Nora had planned for them. Bevan showed up Friday night and just added to the fun. We even got brave enough to take them all to In-N-Out. It went surprisingly well, but now I know why we never went out to eat when I was little. "Why is there nobody sitting by us?" Anyway, Sunday night rolled around and the real parents arrived home. It really was a good time, and it made me appreciate the fact that babies usually come one at a time. Thanks for the fun, guys!

Halloween!

We couldn't decide if Anna should be a little cow or a bunny for Halloween. Why not both? Great idea! We went to a trunk-or-treat Saturday night put on by our old ward in Francis. It was good to see old friends and for them to see Anna. She was only a month old when we moved so I felt like I we owed it to them. Trunk-or-treats are definitely the way to go: ten minutes = bucket of candy! Of course your volume is limited, so I prefer the old fashioned way.

On Monday we carved our single pumpkin. Our front porch is being remodeled so there isn't room for multiple pumpkins. Am I the only one that didn't know there were templates for these things?! I had to actually come up with a face ON MY OWN! Totally boring. After Bevan got home from work, we went to dinner at the Timp Freeze, since it was it's last day of the season. Closed for winter? CRY!!! Oh well, it's probably for the best, especially for the bod. We then hit up the local neighborhood is search for some more candy. This is the best idea ever: take an infant trick-or-treating! They answer the door, you make the baby hold the bucket, and they think it's so cute they give you triple candy! It was so fun! We did give Anna a few dum-dums, but that was all since we didn't want that candy rotting her 6 teeth. He he he. I'm sure that next year she'll be more aware of her candy and she'll be the one sharing with us. It's hard to see them grow up.