Singing to the b-day girl

These videos are for you, mom. Now you can feel like you were there...

first cupcake

Singing happy birthday and eating the first cupcake. I really thought she would go to town on this, but things are never as you would expect. Her party was a lot of fun.
This was my favorite part :)

Our crazy, beautiful ONE-year-old girl...

Anabelle sure is growing up, and has a very rambunctious personality. Here are some pictures of how she livens up our home

She loves to carry this moose around the house, hugging it all the while

Mike went in to get Anabelle up from her nap, and this is what he found...she had somehow managed to wiggle her little arm out of the onesie!
She's an eating machine, and pretty messy about it, too



Now, on to the festivities!
Here is what the invitations for Anabelle's birthday party looked like :)
(yes, I did make them) and her banner
The birthday girl!
Friends who came to party with us

Opening presents, with a little help from her friend Taija

She loved her presents, especially these two in the picture. The raggedy Ann doll is from Grandma and Grandpa Lewis, homemade. Mike and I gave her the pink car in the background.


Licking all of the frosting off. She was so dainty about it, kind of surprising. She didn't even finish the cupcake, which was carrot cake. But, as you can see from the pics, she enjoyed it.


"Hey, where did everybody go?"

Just kidding, this was a few days later when she was taking that balloon with her everywhere


Anabelle and Arcee showing each other some love.

New niece!

My sister Laura had her second baby the other day, beautiful Emma Rose. Her birth story is amazing, so if you haven't read it already, feel free to read it here and look at some beautiful pictures our our new niece! Congrats to Laura and Alex, and to Graham (who is now an older brother).

Christmas in Utah

We had a great vacation to Utah over Christmas and got to spend a lot of time with family. It was a blast!

Here's Anabelle as she came out and found her present the morning we left for Utah. We celebrated our Christmas at home a few days before. She was soooo excited when she saw it and went right over to it. She still loves it.

Christmas morning at my parents' house
Logan, Ryder, Anabelle, me

She wasn't sure what to think about the snow. She only lasted a few minutes outside before she was freezing and ready to go in.

Santa!

This is Anabelle seeing Santa for the first time at our ward Christmas party last night. She was cute. He was very intriguing and Anabelle wasn't sure what to do, but I am happy to say that at least there were no tears.

Our party was a lot of fun. There was food, skits, and music. Mike pulled together a hillarious skit for the elders quorum to do and it was a hit! Go Mike!

Freezing snow? Don't really miss it.

So I looked on Utah State's website this morning, and my condolences to those who live there. -10 degrees! Aaaahh! We are still experiencing a stifling 84 degrees. We went on a walk this morning around 9:30 and it was way too hot. But I am enjoying the climate change. It's kinda fun to try a winter without snow, although very different. Mike was just saying last week that he is totally thrown off by seeing palm trees decorated with Christmas lights. Somehow it just doesn't quite seem like Christmas like snow.

I'm not just trying to brag about great weather or anything; sadly, this was the best thing I could think of to blog about. Since I've been sorely slacking lately, I thought I would just share my thoughts :) Happy Holidays!!