High Fives

My Little Mermaid

This is how I found Anna this morning. Her legs were both stuck in one side. She's a little mermaid. Maybe she's trying to tell me what she wants to be for Halloween.

Home Sweet Home

Anna and I just flew down to the deep south to visit my family for a week. We had so much fun! I love my family so much. It was a great trip. We did lots of shopping, eating out and watching chick flicks. It was really nice for my family to get to see Anna. Here are a few pictures from this past week.

This is the day I left for the airport packing a few last minute items. Anna did great on the plane trip. She was never fussy but instead smiled and babbled at everyone around us. She is super friendly to strangers. Thankfully we had an empty seat next to us for her to explore. It would have been very difficult without it because she is so wiggly. She loved looking out the window as you can see.

We went to my brother's new house that he just bought in Atlanta. It is beautiful. It was really fun to see them. This is a picture of my mom and my aunt chatting it up in the kitchen.

Anna LOVES Aunt Kellie. Kellie is really good with her. I can't believe how beautiful my little sister has become. It was fun to spend time with her.

This is how much Anna loves Kellie!

One night that we were there, Kellie had a cross country meet. I've never been to one, and it was awesome! We were cheering her on and yelling for her. She did great too! It was really cool how encouraging the crowd was. Everyone gave tons of enthusiastic yells for every runner. The first place and last place runner got the same amount of cheers. I know I'm emotional, but it made me cry. It was a cool experience.

Here is my beautiful and sweet Mom. I love her so much. She is way too good to me. We had a good time together.

My grandma turned 84 on Wednesday so we went out to celebrate. It was really fun. This is my Aunt Gail, Aunt Carol and my cousin Anne playing with Anna. Anna LOVED them! It usually takes a while for her to warm up to people she doesn't know but not them. She loved them from the start.

The restaurant put a sombrero on my grandma and brought out some fried ice-cream and sang 'Happy Birthday' in Spanish. It was fun.

This is Anna at Applebees having a ball. She kept us quite entertained.

Anna and Mommy. :-)

Aunt Kellie and Uncle Bryan.

Anna really warmed up to my brother Bryan. "He's just so sweet."

It was a great week but I missed my husband very much. When I saw him and gave him a big hug, my heart just filled with love for him. I'm so glad that we get to always be together. He got cuter since I left him too. Anna and I were very excited to see him.

The trip really pooped Anna out. She was exhausted. Doesn't she look adorable though?

She's really growing up!

Anna turned 8 months old this past week. She is more beautiful than ever. We have so much fun with her. She is learning the fun of a good chase. She sees us coming, squeals and then takes off as fast as she can crawl. She is starting to "cruise" around the furniture too. She holds on and walks around the table to get what she wants.
She loves to eat as many bananas as she can put in her mouth. If we put five little pieces in front of her, she shoves every bit of it in her mouth at once and her cheeks puff all up. It makes her look like a little chipmunk. It's pretty cute. These are a few of her 8 month pictures. Enjoy! Don't you think she looks like her daddy!?

Roar if You're a COUGAR!!!!!!

Go BYU!!! The BYU Cougars had their first football game of the season and beat the #3 team, Oklahoma. We were SO excited that it came on ESPN so we could watch it. This is Anna practicing her growl for the game. We sang her the fight song several times throughout the day.

If you know us, you know that we only go a few days without wearing some kind of BYU attire. Game day requires all family members to be dressed in blue, (or pink if you're Anna).

We made some yummy cougar cupcakes in blue and white. They were very festive!

We had some of our friends over to watch the game with us. It made it way more fun having them there. The game was awesome!

So, my birthday was this week and it was a GREAT day. Josh made me breakfast in bed and bought me some beautiful corning ware dishes. We had a great set but lost it in one of our moves. I was, to say the least, very upset about losing them. So, he surprised me and got me a gorgeous new set. It's really nice to have nice dishes to serve dinner in.

That afternoon, I was at my friend's house doing some crafting with all of the girls and they surprised me and had brownies and ice-cream and sang happy birthday to me. It was great. Those girls are just amazing.

Finally, that night, we went to The Cheesecake Factory and enjoyed a delicious meal together as a family. It was wonderful. The food there is just great and I really love the atmosphere. All in all, it was a great birthday!

Unfortunately, this has become quite the tradition. She is impossible to pry off the table. We just laughed.

Josh also got me a breadmaker, which I love. It's great and makes having homemade bread so easy. We love it! I love the aroma of homemade bread. It makes me feel domestic without having to do all the work.

Happy Birthday Diana!

I just wanted everyone to know that today is my beautiful wife's birthday! I am so grateful for such a wonderful, thoughtful, considerate person to spend my life and eternity with. She is my best friend and I love her so much! So everyone, wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Climbing on Up

Sorry for all of the videos but I couldn't resist. Anna has learned to crawl up the stairs! I guess it's time for a gate. She really does seem to do something new everyday. Life is much busier now and much more fun!