1 year... and a few months?

 

Anni actually near her 1st birthday

I know, I know... I never made the official 1 year "stats" post.  Her appointment wasn't until a couple of weeks after her birthday, and then I was waiting for a weight check as she had very little difference in her weight at 9 months and 1 year (mostly due, we think, to the long string of illnesses she had).  Those are my excuses, but really I've just had a lot on my plate and mommyhood and my business had to come first.

Miss Anni pulls herself up (on everything, pant legs, corners, etc) and cruises.  She is a smart cookie and definitely has an opinion.  We always claimed she was stubborn, but boyhowdy is she.   So, nope, no walking yet, but she'll get there eventually.

 She talks, babbles, like crazy.  The only words that are recognizable are varying forms of "mommy, daddy and papa", but she likes to repeat syllables... especially "haha".  She and her grandma play the laughing game over the phone.  If you sing her name to her, she'll eventually repeat the syllables in her sweet little girl voice "ahh(n)eee".  She knows three signs, all generally relating to food.  (More, please and all done... although all done has often been used to ask if I'm done vacuuming.  She is signing her version of "more" in the picture to the left.)

She has transitioned to "big girl baths" and cries if she hears the water running and she's not in it.

She dances and I love it.  It's one of my favorite baby things... to see her groovin' to the music :).

She would watch other little ones all day if she could.


Summer is her season. We went to a little water park on our big family trip and she was in heaven.  She practically threw herself out of my arms to get to the water.

She plays peek-a-boo even better than ever now.  She likes to hide behind the bed (preferably on daddy's side... he has the most interesting cords).  Oh, and she loves the bathroom.  It may be because baths take place there, or that she likes to brush her teeth while we do... but I have to shut the door tight if she's playing near there or I'll find her trying to open the toilet.

Official weigh-in was awesome!  20 lbs 15 oz!  That girl gained nearly 2 lbs!!  So exciting.  Now we can officially switch all the way to cow's milk whenever we please and we don't have to worry about stuffing her quite as much and slathering everything with butter.  Speaking of which, I think her eating habits are hilarious.  She likes nearly anything, but all fruit must be shared or you will hear about it.  Today she partook in parts of at least three nectarines.  Love it.  Oh, and favorite new snack we've discovered with this whole deal?  Pirate's booty.  Totally not my thing since I would rather leave cheese than take it, but she and Daniel are fans. 


Her physical therapy evaluation is tomorrow, so hopefully that goes well, in whatever way it can :).

She's growing up.  We're starting to see hints of the little girl edging out the baby.  Her throaty chuckle that comes more and more often is definitely not a baby laugh anymore, but it's the most beautiful thing I've ever heard.  All we want is for our babies to be happy, right?

FOCUS Training... and our family

I have been a travelin' fool the last few weeks... so I need to backtrack just a little to fill you in.  The last you heard from us, we were at FOCUS Staff training.  We had a fun little schedule that worked quite well for us. 

We got up in the morning and ate breakfast with the other missionaries.  Anni loved when we sat with other families so she could watch all of the kids.  She loves other little kids and very frequently lets our her most adorable, "Hiiiii!"  when she sees them.  

Then, while everyone headed to adoration, we would go set up for the head shots I took all afternoon, take a little walk as a family and make sure to get Miss Antonia a nice long morning nap (um, and oftentimes Mommy, too.  I was consistently exhausted.)  Daddy tended to run errands or actually run during those naps.  There is only so much you can fly with... so a few runs to the store were in order for some basics for the week.    

 

Then, it was on to headshots.  As you can see, Anni was quite helpful in getting everything set up.  But really, my dear, darling Daniel was the rockstar that helped me figure out tethered shooting and toted all the equipment around.  He rocks.

Daniel also did a little video shooting, and although the setup is slightly different this is where we shot all the headshots.  (We didn't use a green screen, obviously, but rather the FOCUS blue in the picture of Anni).  It's normally a music room, so the poor choir had to work around all of our stuff for the week. 

And in the afternoon while everyone was in class and we were done?  Anni would be halfway into her nap and I would veg with some netflix and a pillow... unless it was the day I had more photos to take... then I would do that.  Then, Mass with all the amazing missionaries. 

I loved it in there.  It was not only a beautiful chapel, but filled with so many people intent on the same mission.  Plus, there were always plenty of other mommies and daddies trying to keep their little ones in line, so we felt right at home when Anni pitched a fit because she couldn't rip apart a book. 

Then, we had the evening generally for dinner, walking and hanging out.  One night a lovely missionary that we went to college with sat in the room while Anni slept so that we could have some couples only time at the marriage retreat we attended (which was packed full of good, practical info - we loved it!). 

One night we explored the Student Union and found an art exhibit tucked away in back room.  My little art major's heart went pitter patter and Anni's little knees went pitter patter across the shiny floor.  (See her pointing at herself?  Cracks me up.)

 

We found time for our first pigtails ever, for Benedictine connections and to see dear friends and their sweet little boys, oh and of course of Anni and Daniel to come on a photoshoot for those same friends... and wander around a waterfall as they attempt to stay out of the back of my shots :).

Phew.  And to think, I left on a trip only a few days after that.  And we're leaving on another one this weekend.  I maybe, possibly, booked myself a little too solid this month.

Just maybe.

Happy Father's Day!

To my dearest, who is a loving, sacrificing and all-around amazing daddy, Happy Father's Day!

This Week...

This week Daniel, Anni and I are at FOCUS Staff Training so that I can take all the new head shots, Daniel can shoot a few videos, we can have a little fellowship, see some friends that live nearby and go on a little marriage retreat (we are currently on it, but taking a little break to let Anni nap, Daniel run and me do a little bit of work email catchup... Miss Anni expressed her displeasure with the lovely, sweet babysitter this morning.  Guess she's going to go retreating too :).  Good thing she's so sweet!)  Anyway, I'll have all kinds of photos and stories to share, but for today, I'm just going to share the crazy staff picture I took yesterday.  There are 108 wonderful new missionaries!  Last year there were 227, and I'm not sure what the total will be this year (as obviously some move onto other things), but it is a big, lovely family, and I love being a part of it.  They will be on a total of 58 campuses this year (there were 50 last year) - the growth is definitely exciting.  So, without further ado... our 2011-2012 campus missionaries!    

 If you want to play "Where's Waldo", or rather, Where are Daniel and Anni?, I challenge you to find them :).

I honestly think this is the largest group picture I've ever taken.  They're a ornery bunch, but so much fun! 

Fulfillment

As we head into a new weekend, I figured I should take the time out of recovering from last weekend and do a little sharing on it :).  Our little family returned to the land of our college days on the pretense of a wedding and five other photo shoots... all in just 3 days.  Whew.  It was busy, exhausting and fulfilling.  Not only was it professionally fulfilling (I am so proud of some of the images I shot, I really felt like I'm taking some new knowledge to the next level), but on a personal, social level I totally got my love tank filled.  We were blessed to have a friend offer her basement at the last minute so that we didn't have to stay at a hotel.  It was a double blessing of extra time with a former college roomie (and her beautiful family!) as well as a little place to call our own for a few days.  Anni's nap schedule was eternally grateful.  

My formerly stranger-terrified little girl was thrilled with the opportunity to crawl to the dance floor and all over the other little ones rolling around on the floor.  Did I mention my family was invited to the wedding, too?  I LOVE when they are at weddings I'm working. 

 In addition, the wedding was the wedding of a college friend, so a lot of my college friends (and one of my own bridesmaids!) were there... meaning, as soon as I was on vacation Sunday evening, we did a little celebrating!

Flyer's on the river will always bring me back to college days.  We had that place filled and loud!  We were able to celebrate Jessie's birthday and eat some favorite Atchison food.   I can't even tell you how much I've missed some of my college friends, so this was a good time for everyone (plus, I can't resist all the loving Nugget got, girl has got to know by now how adorable and loved she is).
 

And then we moseyed on over to two more of my former roomies' new apartment.  It. is. beautiful.  Seriously, I want to live there.  They are going to decorate it up all cute... I can't wait to see! 

 

And Anni is a huge fan of the big spaces to crawl around in... Lellen kept an eye on her tricky ways.

And don't worry, there was more.  About an hour or two after her bedtime, we took advantage of our one hotel night to let Anni try swimming out.  As she and I walked in, I thought she wouldn't like it, because it was cold.  Lo and behold, this girl is a natural!  She didn't stop grinning, splashing or giggling the entire time.  I'm so glad my friend, Alicia, was there to take a few pictures so I could be in the water with her. 

And, since we were planning on driving out on Monday, you'd think the story ends there... but you'd be wrong.  The next morning we met up with Jess to grab some breakfast and... of course every single place we tried was closed (right, Memorial Day, they should be, but we still didn't plan for it!)  And the little greasy oasis in the desert?  McDonald's!  My friend Amanda is actually a swing manager there, so we managed to torture her a little as more friends randomly showed up.  It was an awesome way to end our trip... and we didn't end up leaving until after noon.

Oh, and Miss Antonia was introduced to the french fry.  She was, erm, a little obsessed.  Good thing we don't eat out very much.  Jess had finished hers and turned them so Anni could get them.  She slowly pulled them out, one by one, and laid them in her own little pile.  Hilarious, a little sneaky, and adorable.

Yep, good weekend.  Fulfilling.