Spring is here!

Anna received a handmade, cedar swing for her birthday from Grandma and Grandpa Pike and Dave hung it up in the big tree in our backyard this past weekend!  The weather is finally warming up and Anna can now enjoy this awesome gift!  She loves her swing - it's hard to get her out of it!  We have been enjoying it almost every day this week!  Here are some pics!

Anna is now "walking" with the help of toys, furniture and helping hands from mom and dad.  She is a pro at climbing on furniture and could win an Olympic gold medal in speed crawling! She is a big girl now and hates baby food - she wants real food!  Despite having just one tooth, she manages to gum things pretty well! She loves going on runs with me and play dates with her friends!  We go to story time at the library with our friends Suki and Sahanna as well!  We are so excited for warm weather and try to get outside as much as we can!  

Anna's 1st Birthday, Take II!

We were so excited Anna turned 1, that we had to have two parties!  So the weekend after Anna's birthday, we invited all of our good friends over to help us celebrate at our house!  

Anna's buddy, Jon Paul, with his Mom Beth, and our friend Priscilla

Emily and Rich

Time for cake.....again!  This time, she was a pro!

Anna got lots of great gifts!

Anna had a great time celebrating her birthday again!  We were so glad our good friends could celebrate Anna's special day with us!  We love you guys!

Anna: 1 year old!

Anna celebrated her first birthday this week!!  As I have said in my previous posts, time is just flying by.  It seems just like yesterday Dave and I were handed our new baby girl in the hospital.  It's been an amazing year!

Anna celebrated her first birthday by getting her first tooth!  She is crawling all over and pulling herself up on whatever she can.  We practice walking to strengthen up those thigh muscles!  She started eating more solid foods - hotdogs, toast, pasta.  She can gum just about anything, but I am still making her pureed baby food.  

We had a family party for her this past Saturday and are having a friends party for her this coming weekend!  She had a great time!  The festivities began at 2:00pm.  My parents were nice enough to host as our little Broad Ripple bungalow couldn't accommodate our large family.  The day was filled with family, cake and candy, pink lemonade and balloons and our theme was butterflies!  It's always great to get the family together and I am so glad that so many could make it for Anna's special day.  We are so blessed.  

Anna's invitation!

The birthday girl and her dad!

Me and my baby girl!

The goodies!  I put together the frames with photos of Anna throughout the year including every photo I took once a month of her on the couch with her teddy bear (as seen on this blog).

Aunt Carolyn and her boyfriend, David flew from D.C. to celebrate!

Grandpa Pike playing the "Happy Birthday" song for Anna on his bagpipes!

Mom/Grandma Pike with Great-grandma Wuensch!

Grandma and Grandpa Anderson

Time to open presents!

getting ready for cake!

cousin Maddox

Great Aunt Laura

Cousins!

Great Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Rick

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Wuensch

Great Grandpa Anderson

Cousin Toni and her boyfriend Matt

Anna trying out her new toy!

The party was a success and Anna made it through the whole party!  She fell asleep in Dave's arms and slept for about an hour once we got home.  She had a big day!  

On Anna's real birthday (Monday), I made her butterfly pancakes - which she loved!  She ate all three of them!

She loved playing with the balloons

We treated Anna to dinner out - Anna enjoyed some fish and some (really tiny pieces of) steak and - you can't celebrate a first birthday without some ice cream! 

When we got home, we sang Happy Birthday and had a few more bites of her cake from the party!  She was full of sugar at this point and decided at bedtime that she needed to celebrate a bit longer - 11:30pm bedtime for the birthday girl!

Make a wish!

I wrote a few words for Anna as a toast to her at the party, but of course got a bit choked up.  So here is what I said: Anna,

 In just one year, our lives forever changed; we found more courage than we knew we had and felt a love we never knew we could; and we truly earned the world's greatest titles - Mom and Dad!  

We love you Anna!  You make our lives so full and our family complete.  Happy 1st birthday baby girl!!

  

Anna: 11 months old!

Our little Anna is 11 months old!  I cannot believe our little baby will be celebrating her first birthday in a few short weeks.  

The pictures from this month weren't that great - Anna caught her first cold (I was really hoping she'd make it a year without getting sick, but 11 months isn't bad!).  She wasn't feeling good when I took these pics, but I wanted to keep up the monthly picture-taking tradition.  She was a trooper!  

Anna is all over the place - as you know, she is crawling and her new thing - she pulls herself up on everything!  The couch, the ottoman, her bed rails, her toys, the furniture and the baby gate!  She will be walking in no time! 

I opened Anna's door to get her up from her nap and was surprised to see her standing up all by herself on her bed!

Anna like's Sprite just as much as her mamma!

Here's a pic of Anna I captured the other morning - she knows how to give the Peace sign!  Not sure where she learned that!

We are currently preparing for Anna's first birthday and I will be sure to share pics from the big day! 

Anna: 10 months old!

Anna is 10 months old!  She is crawling all over the place!  She has even started pulling herself up on things and loves to stand on the couch!  She is very vocal and "talks" all the time.  She is into everything and we are constantly finding new things that need to be baby-proofed! 
Here are more pics from this month:

Our little cutie is as active as ever!  It seems like she really wants to walk but isn't quite there yet!  We are excited to have found out that she will have a girl baby cousin to grow up with!  We are so excited to meet baby Davis in June!