Updates

We had Anna make her own Advent wreath.  She obviously doesn't understand Advent yet, but she had fun making it! 

 

We have an children's Advent Activity book and one day the activity was to make an angel ornament.

Our good friends came home for Christmas.  We hadn't met their son Matthias yet, he was born in September (on my birthday!) after they moved to Pennsylvania.  So here are the birthday buddies :-)

 Anna got her first drum lesson from her Uncle Joey :-).  She was watching intently!

 

Anna loves presents.  But she doesn't know they're supposed to be opened yet.  So instead she enjoys pushing them around... 

 And since she's walking now, carrying them around...

Oh what fun it is to crawl under the tree...

And here's a picture of Anna with her first pigtails.  Her curls are now long enough to get into pony tails.  I still have quite a bit of practicing to do to make them look nice, but looking at her face, you can tell she thought they looked pretty cute! 

And in just two days, our friends Jon and Justine and their son Theodore (our godson), as well as our friends David and Stephanie and their son Matthias are staying with us for our 3rd annual New Year's party.  I know, it's not New Year's yet, but we had to do it when everyone was in town.  But since Advent is the Church's New Year, it works, right? 

Anyway, last year at our New Year's party, the three of us women spent a lot of time talking about infertility and the struggles, as we were all in similar boats.  Little did we know at the time, but God had three very special babies for us.  Stephanie found out she was pregnant very soon after that.  And Justine a month later.  And we got Anna a month later!  So by March, all three of us had babies either in the womb or in our arms.  What a wonderful blessing to be able to celebrate the end of a fantastic year and the birth of our Lord with such great friends and their beautiful babies! 

Words cannot express how blessed we feel to have Anna this Christmas.  We cannot wait to celebrate with an abundance of family and friends!  And we especially remember Anna's birthmom and keep her close in our prayers and thank God for her each day.  I'm sure this time of year will be challenging for her and I cannot express enough how much love we have for her.

7 Quick Takes (8)

 

--- 1 ---

Anna's trying to be like her mommy and overachieve... Yup, she hit 90th percentile for both height and weight!  At 21 lbs and 29 in., she's getting all A's!  We had her 9 month well check yesterday and her doctor was surprised when she saw Anna walking around the room.  And equally impressed when she asked if Anna has tried a sippy cup yet and I informed her that she in fact loves her sippy cup and has totally given up her bottle for a cup (Anna made it very clear this week that she does NOT want that silly bottle, but definitely wants her formula out of a cup)! 

Okay, maybe that sounds braggy, but I'm just a mama proud of her baby girl :-) And so very happy to have a baby girl to be proud of!

--- 2 ---

And to continue my proud mama moments, this morning Anna figured out how to stand up without the use of furniture or anything, just in the middle of the floor.  She's been trying for a while and finally figured it out this morning!
 

--- 3 ---

We meet with our caseworker this afternoon to start the process for Adoption #2!  I'm really excited!

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Anna is like deathly afriad of people sneezing!  What is with that?  If we sneeze, she screams...  I don't know how to avoid it, it's kind of a weird fear to have! 

--- 5 ---

I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful Catholic moms.  Who, feast days/solemnities like yesterday, always get together to celebrate.  We went to McD's yesterday and let the kiddos play.  Anna and Luke love keeping up with the big kids, they're fun to watch!  I love being surrounded by friends who have the same beliefs and values that we do!

--- 6 ---

My youngest sister turns 20 this weekend.  That makes me feel incredibly old.  I don't so much notice that I'm getting older, I feel the same on my birthdays as I did before, not older.  But when my younger siblings turn "old" ages?  That's a totally different story!  Happy Birthday Baby Sis aka Aunt Julie!

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Well, #7 was going to be a few cute videos, but they don't want to load again, so I'll just say Happy Friday and I hope everyone has fantastic weekends!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes (6)

Thanksgiving is a beautiful time of year and one of my favorite holidays. I have so much to be thankful for and I don't want to ever take it for granted!  So here are my Quick Takes:

Thankful Style

 

--- 1 ---

My wonderful husband who unloaded the dishwasher and folded the laundry this morning before I ever got out of bed just so I could spend more time snuggling with my baby girl.  And who is always thoughtful and always selfless.  I couldn't ask for a better husband.  I am so blessed to be married to such a wonderful, strong, hardworking, sensitive, sweet, kind, loving, caring, serving man.  And seeing him as a daddy has melted my heart and makes me love him even more (if that's possible :-)!

--- 2 ---

My dear sweet Anna.  She is just such a joy in our lives, she's everything to us!  I can't imagine our lives without her.  She is so fun and full of energy.  I love the way she crawls up to me, grabs my face, and plants a big wet kiss on my mouth.  And the way she crawls up to daddy just to give him a hug.  And the way she manages to give a beautiful smile, just when you need it.  And the way she plays with my hair when she's falling asleep.  And the way she giggles when I play peek-a-boo with her and lights up when I walk in the room.  I could go on and on and on...  I am so blessed to be her mama.

--- 3 ---

Anna's birthmom who gave us everything.  I can't help but feel sad for her when I think about how joyful we are to have our daughter this year for the holidays and how much I know it will hurt for her.  My prayers are always with her and I can't express my gratitude for the selfless gift she gave to sweet Anna.  And I'm overall thankful for the gift of adoption.  Both as an option for birthmoms who want to make the best choice for their babies and for couples like us who choose to grow our families in this way.

--- 4 ---

Our extended families.  We're so blessed to live in the same town as both of our parents and all of our sibilings (other than the two away at college, but this is till homebase for them).  They're so supportive, loving, and caring.  We love spending time with both families and we're so glad Anna gets to spend so much time with her grandparents, aunts and uncles.

--- 5 ---

The gift of marriage and the wonderful example of our families in this holy sacrament.  I'm thankful for my grandparents (almost) 60 years of marriage.  Jeremy's grandparents who had been married for 60+ years when his grandma died.  My other grandparents who had been married for 50+ years when my grandpa died.  My parents 27 years of marriage.  Jeremy's parents 28 years of marriage.  Our 3 years of marriage.  We are so blessed to come from such wonderful examples and to be able to raise Anna in that environment.

--- 6 ---

Awesome friends.  I feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many fantastic friends.  Especially for the Catholic moms that we hang out with a few times every week.  They're wonderful people and since most of them have 3+ children, it's great to be able to learn from them.  I can always get advice and ideas from them as well as share joys and frustrations.  I'm thankful they're so accepting and that all of their kids are so wonderful.  I'm glad Anna will grow up with these kids and have so many wonderful, holy friends as well.

--- 7 ---

My home sweet home.  I'm thankful I have somewhere to live and that God has blessed us with my dream home.  I'm thankful for cozy neighborhood we live in and teh neighbors that surround us.  We are so grateful that we had the opportunity to afford this home and have room to adopt lots more children :-)!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Family date night

Boy am I glad the good days outweigh the bad days!  Napping seems to be the key componet for me the babies. 

Tuesday was rough, but yesterday consisted of a trip to McD's to play with friends. 

Playing with ribbon off of my sister's wedding gifts.  I told her I'd always take free ribbon!  I love to make bows.  Apparently its good for something else too!

Really good naps.

Lots of smiles and laughs!

And family date night!

Wednesdays are designated as "date nights".  Usually this means that Wednesdays are left open with no other activities.  We eat a dinner together (which happens most nights, but ALWAYS on Wed.).  We usually go somewhere as a family, whether it's to the mall to just walk around, or on a walk, picnic, park, store, wherever, just to get out.  Then when Anna goes to bed, Jeremy and I watch our two favorite shows (which are on on Wed).  It's the one night a week we sit down to watch TV.  We enjoy watching our shows together and simply hanging out.  We usually stay up late talking and although we sometimes regret it Thursday morning, it's so nice to have that time set aside uninterupted.

So last night was one of our family date nights.  We went out for dinner (a big luxury around here).  We went to our favorite little cafe, Cafe Italia.  They have authentic, from Italy, food and its amazingly delicious.  The guys in there know us and although they didn't have gelato last night, we always get some of the straight from Italy gelato.  They're currently moving to a new location (bigger, more seats) to accodate the demand so they'll be closed for a month.  We wanted one more peek of the cafe as it was.  It was really nice and Anna enjoyed the bread big time!  And they gave her some free biscotti to munch on (and more to take home) because they just love seeing her!

Then we wandered around the mall and bought Anna her Christmas present.  It's really early, but it's something she can use now.  It's a little walker/ride on toy.  I had coupons and store credit, so we got it for just $8!  And she's enjoyed it a lot!  And we're going to wrap up the box to put under the tree since she loved the box more than the toy!

Then we went to Confession and Mass at the Newman Center.  We came home, put Anna to bed, and enjoyed our time together!

It was wonderful and just what I needed!

Wedding Weekend

We started off my sister's wedding weekend with guests.  I've mentioned them in the last few posts and it was SOOO great to see them!  Here is a picture recap of our weekend!

From left: Gracie, Anna, Katie, Joey.  Anna thoroughly enjoyed all of the attention.

From left: Joey, Gaby, Gracie, Anna, Katie.  I don't think she got enough attention this weekend!

From left: Me, Joey, Gaby, Gracie, Maggie.  Here I am beating them all at Mari.o Ka.rt

Katie and Anna playing

While I was playing Wii with the big kids, Jeremy was playing "Dinner Party" with the little kids in the playroom.  He really is the best husband and dad ever!

This is our wedding day "before" picture.  We had a little drama that morning with our little flower girl.  Anna woke up with her eye matted shut and she'd been coughing for a few days.  So while I got my hair done, Jeremy, in his tux, took her to the Dr. (who doesn't take walk-ins on Sat but felt bad for a daddy and his clearly sick baby, in a tux, on wedding day).  She had pink eye (the bacterial kind, from her clogged tear duct) and bronchitis (from her allergies settling in her chest).  So after some meds she was just fine and was a perfect angel all day long!  And we made sure she wasn't contagious!

Us and the Seidel family!

Our family!

Daddy and his droopy eyed daughter!

Anna and Katie dancing!

The wedding cake I made for them!

She got very clingy as bedtime came and went.  But as long as she was in my arms, she was a happy girl!  And she was grateful to be out of the dress and in her comfy pjs.

And here's her today, after 12 hours of sleep, she's fully recovered and ready to play!

We are so happy for Sara and Kel!  It was a beautiful wedding and I can't wait to see the photographer's pictures!  We had so much fun and it's so wonderful to see a marriage begin!  Lots of prayers coming your way Sara and Kel!

Friends and Family

My sister gets married tomorrow!  Yay!!!!

And its so great to have our dear friends in town staying with us.  They have 5 children and Jeremy and I used to baby-sit them when they lived here.  They've sinced moved 8 hours away to the very cold state of Minnesota. 

We haven't seen them in a year and a half due to snow storms, flus and babies.  The kids are SOOO BIG!!  Why do they have to grow up so fast? 

It's been so fun to see them, talk to them, catch up.  They'ved loved seeing Anna, especially little Katie (7).  She said she's Anna's new friend.  She was so excited to play with Anna while Anna took a bath last night and she got to read her bedtime stories with Grace (9).  I remember reading them bedtime stories not that long ago.  Now they can read them to my daughter...  It made me tear up a little bit! 

It's just so great to see them.  Our home is filled with girly chatter (they have 4 girls and a boy).  And Joey (11) can't get enough of chatting with the guys and seeing his buddy Jeremy!  Gaby (14) and Maggie (12) are so big now with Gabs in high school and Mags in jr. high!  Gaby will learn to drive in January because she'll turn 15 in dec! 

Not only do we get to spend the weekend with them, but all of our family is coming into town!  We've seen family a lot this year with weddings and 100th birthdays, and we're so excited to see them all again!  We are so blessed to have such wonderful families.  It's always a blast!! 

We're so blessed!

Family/6 month/Adoption pictures

We had our family pictures taken on Anna's Adoption Day.  The girl who has taken all of our pictures for us is a family friend, is a senior in high school, and is amazingly talented with a camera.  We'll have to plan all of our future photo sessions around her school breaks when she goes away to Franciscan!  Here are the favorites:

Bath, Bears, and Crawling

Anna LOVES bathtime!  Especially the part where she gets to play with her daddy!  She doesn't so much like the combing out of the hair part!

Daddy and Anna ready for the first Bears game of the season!  Grandpa got her the Cutler jersey!

Ready for the game in her football stance!  I wish we could take credit for the appropriate pose, but she does it all the time!

Always ready to eat!

Snuggling with Mama when she didn't feel well.  She doesn't handle drastic weather changes very well...  Neither do her mom or dad...

6 months old and she figured out crawling.  She's very determined!  This was short distance, the next video she goes across the room!  It's easier for her if she doesn't have pants on to slip on the carpet... Although she's had to get good at it with pants on this week, it's been chilly!

Outdoor weekend

*Sidenote: The pictures look funky, I'm not sure why, they're fine on my computer but blogger is doing something funny with them.  I'll try taking them off and putting them on later today...


So the weather has been 100% perfect here for about a week or two!  So we've spent a lot of time outside.  Specifically this weekend.

After a rough week, all I wanted was a family weekend.  The 8 month old I watch during the school year started back last week as his mom started school.  I watched him back in the spring, but he was still pretty little.  And then he spent the summer home with his mom, which was so nice for them and a nice break for me.  But now he's at a rough age to be seperated from his mom all day.  He just doesn't understand and it's a hard transition for him.  I feel so bad for the little guy, and for his mom who I know hates to leave him.  He's cried a lot and consequently, it's been equally as hard on me. 

So this weekend, we left work behind, and had a blast enjoying the great outdoors.  We started off by taking Anna to the local zoo with the free passes we had for doing the library program.  She loved watching the animals and even missed her morning nap without caring because she enjoyed it so much!  Here are some pictures from the zoo:

Getting ready the night before, in her giraffe pjs with her two favorite friends!

Wallabys!  It made me miss Australia!

Checking out the tiger with daddy!

Watching the sea lion get fed

The petting zoo was closed that day, but the goats stuck their head out and the child with no feat pet them anyway!

Then after the zoo we went to the park which is across from the zoo.  Anna got to swing, play in the water at the splash park, and sit on the slide!

That afternoon Anna took a 3 hour nap and we enjoyed dinner with my family because my sister goes back to school this week!

Then yesterday (Sunday) after Mass we drove to a local State Park.  It's where we went on our honeymoon and we've made it a point to go every year since.  There are lots of hiking trails and picnic areas.  It was a gorgeous day, like 78 degrees with a little breeze.  Perfect for hiking.  So we started with a picnic lunch.  Then we did some hiking.  Jeremy wore Anna in the Mei Tei and couldn't believe how comfortable it was!  Anna quickly fell asleep and enjoyed the hike.  Here are some pictures from our hike:

Picnicking with daddy!

Very old tree stump.  Jeremy and his dad and brothers used to come hike all of the time and they always took a picture with the giant stump... so he felt obligated to take one with Anna!

Picture at lover's leap!

Lots of stairs to get to the actual Starved Rock.  Anna was asleep pretty quickly!

Being a ham for everyone, there were lots of people sitting on the bench across from us and she ate it up!

She loves her daddy!

We then came home, had homemade pizzas for dinner and enjoyed watching Anna try to crawl.  She's almost there, it will be very very soon!  We need to do family weekends like this more often...  It was absolutely wonderful and reenergized us all for our work week!

And as a side note, Anna sadly grew out of her 3-6 month clothes (seemingly overnight) and I spent naptime this morning putting them away... It's sad to see her get so big so fast... So a week short of six months and she's moved on to the next size!