Halloween 2016: Rosie the Riveter

I'm clearly a little (okay, a lot) late to the game here, but since I was on my unintentional blogging hiatus around Halloween, I never got to share these sweet photos, and how could I not? After all, this blog is a space for me to look back and reflect upon, and if I didn't have these pictures later on, I'd be devastated.

Yes, I have them elsewhere, but I do plan on turning these posts into a nice book for Annabelle to have one day - maybe for her high school graduation? We'll see.

Anyway, without further adieu, I present to you my Little Miss Rosie the Riveter!

Can you believe how itty-bitty she was just one year ago?! It's crazy how time flies. I miss her being this teeny-tiny little kitty cat! 

We got a pumpkin for Annabelle to paint this year. We thought she'd love it. She did not. Total failure. At least it's cute... but homegirl was ready for bed. The timing just didn't work out. I wanted Dan to be there too so he could see her... and I NEEDED him there because hello mess. But he got home late from work, and by the time we had dinner, it was bed time, and we made her paint a pumpkin first... she was not pleased. 

But she DID love reading her brand new Daniel Tiger Halloween book in her super adorable Halloween jammies from her Great Meme! 

We did a little pre-Halloween event at the nature center here in Wichita Falls, and since Annabelle got this Supergirl dress for a dress-up outfit for her birthday, I couldn't resist putting her in it for her costume for this event... I was Supergirl once upon a time as well, and I just had to make a comparison collage! ;-) (Yes, I had WAY more hair than she does...)

Halloween 2015 (a chocolate chip cookie) versus Halloween 2016 (Rosie the Riveter). My, how she has grown!

Major Catch-Up / Life Lately

Hey guys, remember me? I used to blog consistently over here, but now that my baby is over a whole year old, she is into literally everything, and it's tough to get enough time to shower and eat, let alone blog.

I soooo miss this space and the fellowship with my blog friends, though. I want to try to be better. No promises. No guarantees. But I'm going to try. Even if it's just one post a week... that's still better than none, right?

I am thankful that I am friends with so many blog friends on Facebook (or at least follow on Instagram) - it makes it a bit easier to stay caught up with everyone!

Waaaaay back in September, Annabelle turned one. For her birthday, Dan and I decided that we weren't going to buy her a gift since she doesn't need anything... so we decided to start the gifting of experiences tradition with her. We decided that her first trip to the zoo was in order, so that's what we did! Living two hours to the closest zoo makes it tough to go all the time like some of my friends and their kiddos do, but we had a fun little weekend trip to Dallas, and she LOVED the zoo. (She has since been to the St. Louis Zoo and the Tulsa Zoo as well! She's a zoo-hopper, I guess! We created a monster... she is hooked on them!)

Annabelle and I drove up to Kansas City at the end of September because I was a bridesmaid in one of my best friend's wedding. Little Annie got to spend a couple nights with her Grammy and Great Meme while I was busy with wedding festivities. They fed her lots of ice cream, and she had a blast. She's now looking forward to seeing them again TODAY!!! (for the first time in seven weeks! Woo!) 

We did find out that she's a chips and salsa junkie just like her mama... see below. :) 

While I was in already in Kansas City, Annabelle and I drove across the stat to St. Louis to see another one of my best friends, Michelle! We had to meet little Huxley, who was born in July. We had a blast catching up in person rather than via Skype, and we took the kids to the zoo (and to eat food... lots of food!) It was so great seeing so many friends during my trip to Missouri... but I was SO glad when we made it back to Texas. There's just nothing like your own bed, right?! 

Phew! That was a lot all at once... sorry! It feels great to be sharing again, though! :)

(Since I'm still WAY behind, I have a few more catch-up posts coming before I'm back to normal... sorry in advance!)

Life Is Crazy... But Here I Am!

Time flies when you're... not blogging? Well, anyway, I can't believe two months have passed by since I was last writing in this space.

My life is so crazy right now keeping up with a crazy toddler. She just goes, goes, goes all day, and when she's napping, I'm trying to catch up with house work, making dinner, or just sitting down in peace for a few minutes.

I really do miss this space and the connections I've made through blogging. I can't promise I'll be regular and/or consistent on here, but I do plan on "coming back". I really do. I want to try to schedule a few posts and just see where it takes me.

I know the first couple will be some major catch-up posts, so be on the look out for those!

I hope all my blog friends are doing well. Thank goodness for social media and being able to stay up-to-date with most of you regardless of my absence from the blog!

I'll write more soon - hopefully! :)

Twelve Months: Annabelle

One year old. My tiny baby is ONE YEAR OLD. I'm not even sure I understand how this happened... it seems like just yesterday, I was finding out I was pregnant... and the next thing I know, nine months had passed, and I was delivering her... and now 12 (!!!) more months have passed, and she's already a toddler and no longer a little baby. Life sure isn't fair that way. 

We celebrated Annabelle's birthday two days early over Labor Day weekend so family could be in town. It was small since nearly all of our friends were traveling for the long weekend (they don't get many breaks in pilot training, so when they have the opportunity, they take it!), but it was so much fun anyway. Little Miss enjoyed all of the attention, getting to be outside, and of course her cake and ice cream. 

I think we created a monster, though. She now loves sweets. Oops. 

The next day, we all went swimming in the hotel pool that my family was staying at. Annabelle just loves being in the water, so we knew it'd be a fun birthday activity for her. She loves her whale, but she also loves trying to dive out of it. Little Miss Independent just wants to do everything on her own.

After swimming, we went to Braum's, where her great grandma got her some blue birthday cake ice cream - her first time eating ice cream at a restaurant! She loved it and kept diving in for more with her mouth open.

Dan and I had an unexpected date night after all of that since family was around to watch Annabelle. We had a fun time, but then I realized how upset I was that I didn't get to put her to bed myself on her last night as a little baby... so we snuck into her room when we got home so I could take a picture of her last sleep before she turned one. Look how peaceful and angelic she looks. Aww. And that was her last night in that size of pajamas too - she's now fully into the 9 month size there! My sweet tall girl. 

When she woke up, we had a little balloon party in bed! Dan helped me blow up all the balloons the night before, and she was so amazed at them. I don't think she'd ever seen one, let alone played with one, before. She loved having them around, and we let her play for about a half hour (supervised, of course). Her little face is filled with such joy! 

Before her grandparents and great grandma had to leave town on her birthday morning, we took Annabelle to Cracker Barrel for the first time, and she really enjoyed it. She ate SO MUCH FOOD (which she totally does now - she eats constantly all day long... I have no idea how she's so small!) and waved at every single person who walked by our table. She's such a flirt. 

I can't believe that in one year, she's gone from the teeny tiny baby in the center to a big(ish) one year old! Time sure does fly once you have a sweet baby to spend all your time with.

I won't be posting monthly updates anymore because it seems like overkill now. I really wanted to record her first year with as much detail as possible, though. Thanks for following along as I did that! I will still share about Annabelle, of course, and post lots of pictures... and I'll probably make an update post about her every three months or so. 

Eleven Months: Annabelle

If you follow me on Instagram, you DEFINITELY know my sassy babe is a whole year old now... yet I somehow never got around to blogging her 11 month update, and in true Type-A personality fashion, I just can't let is slide by and skip straight to the 12 month update... so you can expect to see two Annabelle updates in a row on here before I can move on, and for that, I apologize. At least she's cute.

This month was an exciting one full of lots of travel. We road-tripped to Branson, MO to see Dan's cousin get married, and although it was a very quick weekend trip, it was really nice to see his family, and Annabelle of course enjoyed all the attention! She did NOT do so great in one of our hotel rooms (the one in Tulsa) - we had a VERY long night. But the rest of the trip was fun. A separate weekend, we drove down to Austin to visit a friend who was in town there, and that was another whirlwind trip. We also drove back to Kansas City at the end of the month, and Annabelle spent her very first night away from her mom and dad just one week before she turned one! She stayed with her Grammy and Great Meme, and she slept through the night for them - WHAT A STINKER!

Other events this month include going to see the Budweiser Clydesdales on base, watching a TON of Olympics on TV, going on walks to the park, reading books (upside down, of course), and playing in the front yard while waiting for Daddy to get home from work. 

Annabelle is nonstop energy, and we parents wish we could bottle it up and use it when we need it. It would be far more effective than caffeine, but for now, that's all we have, so it'll have to do. She just runs around all day long, and she gets distracted easily, moving on from one toy to the next. I think we need to do some serious cleaning up of the toys so she isn't overwhelmed with so many options all the time - I read about putting various toys in separate storage type boxes and pulling out a new one each day for a week (and rotating through them) so kids will actually play with all of their toys, so we may try that soon. We'll see! 

Annabelle was wearing size 3-6 months and 6 months clothing during her 11th month of life - she's tall, but she's a string bean for sure, so she wears smaller than average clothing (except footed pajamas since she's so tall). Her feet are still itty bitty - she's in a size 2, but they're way too long for her. She needs the size 2 because they're pretty chunky, though. 

I'm still so flabbergasted at how quickly time flies by. 11 months went by in a FLASH, and I can't even believe it!