ten thousand to none

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Love Grows Best in Houses Just Like This: Apartment Life

Well, life is all about phases and when they pass I tend to be somewhat sad..even if the phase was one I didn't particularly enjoy :). Such is the case with "the apartment."

When we decided to build a house, we figured we'd sell ours, then live in an apartment and save as much money as possible while our house was built. Sounded good at the time and, in hindsight, 7 months went by pretty quickly.

We had our share of annoyances: moldy windows, SUPER loud upstairs neighbors, that sort of thing.

But we also had a time of living so close that I think we experienced things we wouldn't have otherwise. There is an older country song about how love grows best in little houses, and one of the lines is, "...and if we'd had more room between us, think of all we'd miss. Yes, love grows best in houses just like this."

In the 7 months in our little house, we got and assembled our first bike...

And quickly learned to ride it downhill at top speed.

We started carrying a purse to church and daycare and came to appreciate sparkly shoes.

We played in the rain in our favorite rain gear...

read to our dolls...

...and took on new toy obsessions.

We learned that a sand volleyball court is about as fun as it gets...

and watched our baby go from a blip on a screen to a definite bump.

We started exercising choice in clothing...

sometimes that choice being simply none.

We colored the endless sidewalks with our chalk and observed the neighbors pumpkins.

We celebrated birthdays...

..and went from sleeping in a crib, to a big girl bed.

We chased balls in the tennis court wth our puppy and friends...

...and learned you only need certain accessories.

we did pre-Christmas crafts...

...wore Christmas dresses...

...and celebrated Santa's arrival.

We moved in with a 20 month-old and a tiny fetus...

and out with a 27 month old and bursting baby bump.

Precious memories.

Especially the weekly sprinkle donut. :)

Monday, January 28, 2013

Omaha Thanksgiving

Wow! Well, uh, it's been almost 4 months since my last post occured. I kind of stink at this whole "blogging thing"! It's been busy around these parts lately, but I wanted to Journal Thanksgiving.

We often go to Omaha for the holiday as that's where my in-laws are from and most of their family lives. It's a 50+ people affair, so it's fun, crowded and hectic. But super fun to see everyone.

This year, we decided to stay through the weekend with some special peeps from up north. Anna was only a little excited to see them:

We entertained ourselves by sprinting from indoor exhibit to indoor exhibit at the Omaha Zoo. It's such a fun place. Anna went nuts for the aquarium.

And the penguins...and the monkeys...and the desert...

They also have a great science museum. The kid is a sucker for a carousel and I think she rode this one at least 4 times.

The musem had an TV green screen. I had deja vu... Anna hammed it up! Perhaps another future broadcaster??

We spent a fair amount of time around the hotel. Michael got a hankering for pizza buffet--he and dad took part. When they returned I just had to note that my 7 mo pregnant belly and dad's pizza buffet belly were about the same size!

Grandan and Anna took their fair share of swims....

And generally enjoyed lots of fun time together! What a great weekend.

Thankful, indeed.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Anna Turns 2!

Well, earlier this fall, our sweet girl turned 2! The parties were numerous, as were Mama's tears (how on EARTH can my darling baby girl be two? TWO? wasn't she just born the other day???)

Anyway, we started with a small "just Mama, Daddy and Anna" party.

She was able to get her feet wet in the whole "gift opening" thing:

Oooh. This present thing is kinda fun..

And was super excited about her presents.

The next day was her actual birthday. We had a party at Grandpa and Grandma's house, due to the fact that our tiny apartment isn't condusive to gatherings :)

In true, two-year-old "Anna do it all by herself!!!" form, she needed

to put on her own party hat. Pretty cute stuff.

But nothing topped the moment when everyone sang "Happy Birthday" and she got to blow out two candles. She was simply mesmerized by the attention and moment. Darling. Absolutely darling.

She had a BALL decorating cupcakes, playing "pin the sprinkle on the cupcake", playing in the ball pit and just generally hanging out with her cousins and friends. Everyone seemed have a really good time.

The next week was party #3 at daycare. She and her friends there ate cupcakes and opened gifts. The biggest hit of the day was the suckers I used to anchor the Elmo balloons that were her party favors. All of the kids LOVED them.

Finally, Anna's last party came when her Grandan and Nannie B came to visit. By this time, she was well-versed in how parties, cakes, candles, singing and presents went! She was super excited to decorate her cake with Nannie...

And then, get to have everyone sing to her while she blew out her candles!!

Finally, the last round of gifts was perfect fun...and a perfect celebration of two years with our girl.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Babykins- Week 24

Baby is growing, growing, growing!

Feeling lots of acrobatics...so many that when we went to the Dr. and she was checking

Baby's heartbeat, Babykins was leveling one-two punches at her

heart-beat monitor thing.

She got a kick out of that.

I guess those long legs are coming in handy!

(yeah, not sure what's up with the make-up or hair...must have been the end of a looong day!)

From the Mouth of our Babe

We're having so darn much fun with this 2-year-old. She is sweet and funny and, in our biased opinion, incredibly smart.

But the thing that's the most fun right now are the funny things that she says.

Some of our favorites:

"Hold you, Mama, Hold you!" (when she wants to be picked up)

"Tank You, Daddy" when he does something for her.

"Be NIIIICE" in a growly voice, she she thinks someone needs scolding.

"Sweet Goka home??" Wondering if our neighbor, whose license plate is 'SwtMoka" is home. She becomes very, very upset if the answer is no.

"Daddy? DADDY? Michael!" When trying to get dad's attention

"O-KAY" in a happy, sing song voice when she wants to do something.

"Oh, yes" when she's really happy about something. Similar in tone to "Oh, no!" when she's troubled.

"Hey, Over There, Be Quiet!!" when she heard a baby crying

She loves the color orange (very handy this time of year), and loves to sing. She often lays in bed singing at night for good 45 minutes after we put her down. Her favorites are "Wheels on the Bus" and "Twinkle Twinkle" (aka "Up Aboves"). She's also learned the ABC song, but tends to only sing that one in the bathtub.