What a Year!

Whew, 2010 was a busy one for us! It's hard for me to remember all the way back to last January when Erin was mastering walking, we were moving her to her new bedroom, then Ansley turned one and we had a big snowstorm. Then was February when we went to visit newborn cousin Jimmy in Boston. After that was a business trip for Bob over St. Patrick's Day and our laid-back Easter with the smallest egg hunt and best Easter bunny present ever - the plastic slinky that has brought hours of entertainment. She and I went to Concord to see Great Grandma and Grandpa H., then we went back for Logan's fun birthday party. Erin went strawberry picking, then on May 18th, we welcomed sweet little Anna Kathryn to the world!

Things really got interesting after that - Daddy went to England for work, cousin Jimmy came to visit, and we had a really busy summer just trying to get by on little sleep while entertaining Erin and keeping Anna happy/fed/napped, with trips to Concord here and there (including checking out the ImaginOn library in Charlotte). Our days were filled up with trips to the park, library, grocery store, and the couple attempts at the pool that failed miserably. Anna got baptized on August 14th, and then we had lots of fun at the beach with Grandma F.

We put our house on the market just before Labor Day. 3 weeks later, it sold, and we hunted for our new house. October was full of house repairs and packing, picking out pumpkins at the pumpkin patch, a trip to the State Fair, and Erin's 2nd birthday on the 23rd, complete with Elmo cupcakes! November 17th was the big/stressful day of closing on both houses. We moved in, unpacked, went to Concord for Thanksgiving, and came back to finish unpacking and get ready for Christmas. We managed to squeeze in a trip to the Natural Science museum among the Christmas prep, had Cookie Fest in Concord, and of course as much outside time as the weather would allow!

It was a great one, but I for one, am hoping for 2011 to be more relaxing, just as fun, and filled with long nights of sleep! Bella agrees - all this change has worn her out! We couldn't have done all this without our wonderful family and their help along the way...so thanks, everyone, and an early Happy New Year to everyone!

Christmas!

We had a great Christmas extravaganza this year! It started with 3-1/2 days in Concord where we had lots of fun with all the family on Christmas Eve and also at Sausage Fest at cousin Logan and Ansley's house on Saturday evening. Then, it snowed! They got about 5" in Concord, but the roads were fine by lunchtime on Sunday, so we got back Sunday afternoon, in time for Uncle Tom, Aunt Pam, and Jimmy to arrive for 2 nights.

We had lots of fun having company staying with us, and Jimmy is just so cute. He is a busy crawler, and Anna liked watching and learning from him. She is now starting to try to get on to all fours! Bob and Tom got to go to a Hurricanes game on Sunday night, and Bob really enjoyed that. Monday night, Grandma and Grandpa F. came over and we did Christmas again! It was lots of fun, and we all enjoyed some pizza from a very busy Pizza Hut. We didn't get any pictures while Tom and Pam were here, so I'll have to "borrow" some of Pam's pictures.

In the middle of all this, Bob, Erin, and Anna got yet another yucky cold, but they are all feeling better now. Erin also got a new tooth on her top right, and we think the top left one is right behind it. So, she got an extra Christmas present!

Now, we are happy to be back to normal and are enjoying all our new toys and books! We're also celebrating the Wolfpack win last night at the Champs Sports bowl. Thanks to everyone for a wonderful Christmas!

7 months old!

Sweet Anna is 7 months old today! She is doing great and we just adore her. She now wears 12 month clothes, can sit up unassisted and rarely falls over, and she has just started being able to lean over to reach for toys and straighten herself back up. She prefers to be sitting on the floor over laying or standing the saucer. She will roll to get around, but doesn't really like to do that. We also just graduated her to Erin's big car seat (due to outgrowing the baby carrier) and got Erin a 3-in-1 car seat/booster combo. The switch has been met with mixed reviews from both girls. We are sad to be saying good-bye to the "sleep in the carseat" days, but are oh so happy to not have to lug that awkward carrier around with us. Now, trips to the store will be more challenging - Erin will have to walk, or we'll have to find carts with 2 seats! We've taken our double stroller to Walmart and Target, but that doesn't have a lot of cargo space. Perhaps Mommy will need to make more after-bedtime grocery store runs for awhile.

Anyway, Anna is such a delight - she's such a happy girl, and loves to have attention at all times. She shows us that dimple with each adorable smile, and we sure do love to get those smiles out of her! She eats 2 meals now - lunch and dinner - and also can feed herself cheerios or puffs at an alarming rate. We are practicing cups of water, but I don't think she's actually gotten any water yet. We have not begun the switch to formula...I can't decide if/when we are ready for that. It's hard to convince myself that paying for formula is justified since I am the one feeding her all the time anyway. But, we'll see. After recovering from a rough cold and getting 2 teeth (another milestone this month), she has now recently been sleeping 10-11 hours at night! FINALLY! She'll go from 7-8pm to 5-6am, which is of course early, but I am not complaining one bit. Naps are still not that great, but I know she will get that straight eventually. She definitely requires more entertainment now, and is not happy with the same old toys all the time. She's also not as easy to hold because she wants to grab EVERYTHING. She's been a busy girl this month with lots of changes!

What else is new with us? I feel like I have been slacking on the pictures and blog lately. We have officially been in our house for a month as of yesterday. It feels like home now, and we LOVE it! The girls and I went to Concord this week for Cookie Fest and had a great time. We are excited about Christmas and seeing all our family!

Happy Thanksgiving...a little late!

We hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! After a marginally successful sitting for family pictures on Tuesday, we headed to Concord on Wednesday. We had lots of fun there with everybody. Daddy even hit Ikea on Wednesday (he is brave) and got storage shelves for the playroom and the office. We came back here on Friday and continued to unpack/clean/arrange things. We are so excited and relieved to be settling into our new home! That's about it from here...the girls are doing great, and even Bella has decided to cooperate and finally eat her dog food where we have put it in the laundry room. What more could we ask for?!?