Almost one

So I thought I better update the summer of Annaka before she hit the 1-year mark...wowzers! Here goes nothing:

See that thing in her month? Yeah, that pacifier or binky or whatever you like to call it...well take a good look, because this is the last picture of her with it in her mouth. Yep, it is gone, at 10 1/2 months we weaned her from her pacifier...Dad did a great job and I'm soo happy we took the week or so to do it! She doesn't need it now and has learned to self-sooth to sleep and calm herself down...plus, from this picture you can see that she loves books, those do a great job whenever she needs a little R & R.

While I taught swimming lessons Dad was hard at work all summer long putting down new floors, landscaping the backyard, and organizing all his boxes...Anna loved to "help" him out too...

Good girl Goose, way to take a load off Dad :)

LAKE POWELL TRIP:

Annaka's first time to Lake Powell! SO much fun. Had a few hard times with the schedule of things as we were trying to load up and shop (how do you get around that?) but once we got out on the lake she was great! Loved the sand, the water, being outside, riding on the boat, jetskies, and even wakesurfing...I'll have to get some pictures from my dad (grandpa).

First dip in the lake-half naked of course.

On the trip she found her toes...can you blame her, having to sit in her carseat all the time she found something to entertain herself with.

My sister did this and took pictures on my phone...she thought she was pretty funny, but I'm pretty sure Annaka liked it too...yummy fruit snacks.

The drive Annaka did really well. From Vegas to St. George she did great, I can't even remember what she did, so must have been good. From St. George to Powell and back she (me and Kirb) had it made, Becky and Brady got to sit in the back with her and entertained her the whole time-thanks guys:)

Annaka, aka: Anna, Anners, Angel, AnnEka, Annie, Munchkin, Missy, AND GOOSE :)

It has been 2 whole months from the last time I posted anything, that’s one way to put into perspective how fast Annaka is growing up. Here’s a quick sum up of what Annaka’s been up to over the past 2 months!
She has become a lot more mobile. She pulls herself up onto everything. The first place she learned to do this was right where her toys are...from the picture you can see what she likes to do when leaning over her toy box-just pull all of the toys out. I think it's only the beginning of this because in nursery the kids still love to take the boxes of toys and throw them all over the ground (:S)

This picture is one of her first times pulling herself up, she was grunting and groaning.


A friend I have here let me borrow her walker and it has been heaven sent! Can you tell how much she loves it???

FINALLY, we found something for Annaka to sit in during meal times! It was just $5 at a yard sale and it does the job.

She loves to get messy (one attribute she did not get from her dad). If we give her bananas or anything soft at all, it never ends up in her mouth, but all over her hands and tray! Crazy munchkin!

Summer has been fun, we get her in the water as much as we can (which is NOT enough) and she loves it, every second!

We love our Goose!

Title of this post: I thought I'd mention just a few of her nicknames.

Big shopper

Over spring break we got our tax return and decided to do a little shopping! I don't know if it's sad to say or not, but I finally put Annaka in the shopping cart without her carseat and it was pretty funny... Not sure about it

Ok, I think I like it

Yeah, this is pretty fun!


Hey, no hands!!

Man, this is the life.

Love my captions?? :)

My superhero baby

These were taken before Spring break, which was before Easter, so it must have been the end of March and I just never have put them up, but thought she was pretty funny. Annaka's out of her bumbo, and into a space saving highchair of sorts...found at a garage sale for $5, but we are still in search of a real highchair...

Perfect Park Days

In Vegas you got to take advantage of the perfect park day weather...like it has been for the past week or so...But it does get pretty crowded at the park, especially those baby swings...But I finally got Annaka in one just the other day and boy did she love it! Way fun, so we are going again today, and maybe I can get better pictures, because these ones are from my phone!

Sunday Walk

A few Sundays ago Kirb and I decided to go down to the wetlands park for a walk...and while we were walking we might as well take some pictures of our little lady...This is what we got:

our porcelain doll :)

My camera is NOT the greatest for professional pictures, but it does the job and we got a few good ones. (7 months old)

Loving the Hot Tub

When I was in St. George last I was able to take Annaka in my parents hot tub and work on some swimming skills. We cleaned the hot tub first and put the temp down to around 97 degrees so it was like a big bath tub. We did all the fun stuff I usually do when I teach parent-tot classes and also the harder things for most babies (i.e. going under water and floating) To say the least, Anna LOVED it! I had TONS of fun, she made me laugh so much with all the faces she pulled and her babbling, squealing and laughing.
She's all smiles!

Annaka is "scooping" her arms, and I'm making sure I'm modest (which wasn't always the case wearing my sister's cute swim suit)

What a good little floater...this was her 3th day of floating, sort of getting the hang of it, but far from floating on her own...we'll get there before your 1 for sure!!

This was one of the first times Annaka went under the water...no big deal, right. (Just to explain: the humming is a way of giving the babies a cue that they are going under the water and it's also a way to teach them to blow bubbles out their noses)

This is on the 3rd straight day of swimming and Anna is already learning to "get ready" to go under water, I was laughing so hard...sorry. Watch her face... I wasn't going to put her under water we were just going "up and down" as part of the "circle game" is what I call it when I teach but how cool is that! She had only been under 6 or 7 times before.