Swiggin' Soda

A video of Annabelle playing w/ a pop can (and getting her first teaspoon of pop). Believe me this will NOT become a regular habit for her. But it was funny that she really liked it!

This was taken at Josh's Uncle Dan and Aunt Donna's house on Thursday night. Notice they both have on their Packer's jerseys! ;-)

Trimmed Tree

Well here is our finished product! It took a lot less time this year to decorate it than last year because last year we had to go out and buy all the lights and decorations! We were done by 4:30pm. We watched the Polar Express at 8pm, but because of the busy day Annabelle actually went to bed early! Maybe next year she'll get to watch it with us!

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Monthly Milestones

I don't know why I didn't start this sooner, but I've decided at the end of each month that I will write things that Annabelle can now do!

So during her 10th month she:

- said, "Ma, Ma" (finally!) :-) I was a little jealous that it was always, "Da, Da, Da!" My favorite memory this month of this is when she woke up one morning and was calling us, "Ma, Ma, Ma, Da, Da, Da!" I felt like she really knew what she wanted!

- started to blow kisses although not always at who we asked her to blow them too! She always seemed to just want to blow kisses to boys!

- started dancing. She loves music and whether laying, sitting, or standing will take any opportunity to dance!

- loves the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the Disney Channel. It is her favorite show. When she sees Mickey she gets really excited and then when the music starts she begins to dance!

- can climb the whole set of stairs in our house. Obviously, she still needs us behind her making sure she doesn't fall!

- will drink her formula from a sippy cup. I am not always good about remembering to give her the sippy cup, but when I do she will drink from it! I need to just gradually get rid of all of the bottles!

- shows affection to her baby dolls. I think all the hugs and kisses we give her are paying off! It is so cute to see her pick up her doll and just hug and kiss her!

- eats those dissolvable puffs. I think she's actually been eating these for more than a month at daycare, but I am so nervous about her choking that I just started giving them to her. She loves them and smiles REAL big when I give them to her! It is like she is saying, "THANKS, MOM!"

- About two weeks ago she'd say, "UT" and then I'd follow it with, "OH". And then last week she said, "UT-OH!" Although more than just when she drops things! :-)

- knows what the word, "NO" means and also has object permanence! When we take something away from her and say, "NO" we are usually met with a DRAMATIC cry and then her never ending pursuit to find the item that you took from her!

- can point to her baby dolls eyes when asked, "Where are the baby's eyes?"

She was 21 lbs this month and I'll have to measure her to figure out the inches :-)

Tree Tradition Turmoil

Last year we bought and decorated our tree on Friday, December 1st. That night Polar Express was on TV, and so as we were finishing it and eating dinner we thought how cool would it be to find and decorate our tree next year when they show Polar Express. Well, today is the DAY! We have Polar Express set to TVO at 8pm, and so we went to search for the tree this morning.

I love traditions. Now that we have a child, I am more into traditions than ever before because I want her to grow up like Josh and I did with a lot of great family traditions. So last year when a family from our church recommended a Christmas tree farm where they have a Santa Clause, hot chocolate, and a wagon ride to go find your tree I thought this would be the perfect tradition to start with Annabelle! The rest of the story will be told through pictures!

Ready to go!
After driving 45 minutes we finally see the sign!

So we follow the gravel(really dirt)road and we basically pass it. It was this little red hut with two guys waiting to take you on a wagon ride to get your tree. We asked where Santa Clause and the Hot Chocolate were but they said they only are on SATURDAY! (NOTE: We tried to call in advance to see when they were open and how much the trees are but couldn't find a phone number, even information didn't have a phone number--this should have been a SIGN to not go!)

So back in the car we go! After all I want to start this tradition, and we were determined to find a place where we could!

So we went to another one that we passed along the way.We actually saw several trees we liked, but there was no one there to help us! So we left! We decided just to go back to the same place that we went last year, which I guess in a way is tradition, not quite the one I was hoping for though. On the way back we were so hungry so we stopped at Subway (Thanks Mom and Dad ;-)

This place is just on the side of the road. But at this point, now 2 hours later we were were happy to have finally found a tree! The guy helped Josh strap it to the roof and we were quickly on our way!

It was so windy when we got home that as Josh was undoing the rope it almost fell off the car! Finally, we are home with our beautiful tree! It is a White Fir!

Birthday Blast

Happy Birthday Annabelle

We celebrated Annabelle's first birthday in Maryland! Can it possibly be a year already? Well, not really a year yet, but close. We will celebrate with the Wilson side of the family on her actual birthday, December 31st. It has been such a joy raising a daughter. She brings so much happiness to our home. It is truly hard to imagine what life was like without her! We also sense the huge responsibility spiritually with her. We pray that she will come to know Jesus as her Savior at a young age and will enjoy serving Him!

The theme of her first party was "Flip Flops." I made a flip flop cake and had flip flop favors! It was fun watching her dig into the cake. She quickly realized that it was easier to eat the cake with no hands! What a joy she has been to our family! Daddy and Mommy love you Annabelle Grace!

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Annabelle with the Peters Boys!
They are wearing their Steelers hats we got them for Christmas!

Mom provided Fondue for the party!

Bath time after the party
Is she expressive or what?
Chris's birthday was November 21st,
so we had a party for him also!
All the grandkids, but Joshy, are in this pic!

Joshy and Annabelle are ready for the ARMY!

Thankful Thanksgiving

I was so thankful to spend Thanksgiving with the Kovlak side of the family. I have not seen my entire family since June! Annabelle has grown so much since then and it was so great to let her get to know all of her cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. We were extra blessed to have my Uncle Manny, Aunt Colette, and their two daughters, Katheryn and Julia, who I have not seen since my grandmothers funeral 5 years ago! It was a blessed time!

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Plenty of Potatoes

Anyone who really knows me, knows that I love MASHED POTATOES! So for thanksgiving I offered to bring some home grown Michigan Potatoes! Check this out!

Look I am as tall as the potatoes!

These are big potatoes!

I don't think we will run out!

Michigan vs. Ohio State

Since we live on the border of Ohio, our church is split when it comes to Michigan vs. Ohio State. So we had a party for the teens at the church to watch the game. I'll be honest I didn't get to watch much of the game b/c Annabelle was more interested in playing. :-) But the teens had a great time watching the game, and as you will see playing with Annabelle!

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Cool Car Seat

This is Annabelle's Birthday Gift! We got it in the mail today and I couldn't resist some pictures with her! A couple of things attracted me to this particular car seat. First of all, I love that it is brown and pink. Secondly, she can be in this up to 100 lbs, which with all the crazy car seat rules for kids she'll be in this until 7th grade if we want her to be! Thirdly, I love that I can remove the padding and wash it if I need to, and I am thinking with these toddler years coming I am probably going to need to do that once or twice..or a thousand times. :-)

I love the colors and leopard print!
Wow this is BIG!
I think I have room to grow!

Creative Captivity

Annabelle really loves to crawl, but we want her to be able to play by herself. We try to put her in the pack n play a little bit each day, but she is starting to outgrow it. So yesterday I called Once Upon a Child, a store that sells gently used items. I've been calling for a couple of weeks asking if they have any play yards, and they have not. Well yesterday we tried again and they had one and it was for the PERFECT price! Afterwards Josh and I looked up the price of this on amazon and it is going for $99 brand new with only 4 of the pieces. Annabelle's has 8 total pieces, which would have cost about $200 and we paid less than a 1/4 of that price! She loves it and now we feel good about having a safe place for her to crawl and explore!

This is just a pic we took of Annabelle the other day!
As you can see she is holding 2 pacifiers and would
alternate all 3 in her mouth! It was so cute!

We put it in our bedroom, since our

bonus room has to be heated separately.

College and Career

Last night we went again with the College and Career Bowling to the Christian Family Center. We had 8 total people and exactly 4 guys and 4 gals, so we decided to have a battle of the sexes! The men won both games, but we girls came pretty close the first game! Here are some pics of our night!

Annabelle helping me choose a ball!

Josh serving the Pizza to Andrew and Sheila

Mommy and Annabelle

Josh and Jordan

Kayla and Annabelle

Sheila and Dave

Weekend with the Wilsons

Josh, Annabelle and I went this past weekend to Clarks Summit to visit the Wilsons and the extended family. We were suppose to go a couple of weeks ago to celebrate Grandma Mosher's 80th Birthday and Grandpa Mosher's induction into the BBC Sports Hall of Fame, but it was right when Annabelle was at her worst with that awful cold! Here are some pictures of our weekend.

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