Sunday, November 27, 2011

Fun

We have been having lots of fun playing with Anneke lately.  She catches onto things quickly and makes us laugh!  It's a great time!  Here are a few pics:
 Playing with Daddy and the puzzle.
 Snuggling after she woke up from her nap today.  She's become a good "couser" (sp?  I have no idea how to spell that....but it means cuddler in Dutch)
 She's a climber.
 The Christmas Tree was a surprise this morning.  She did well today, only pulled off one ball and this soft snowman.  She likes looking at everything and occasionally swats at things!

 I told her to look at Daddy and she saw the camera and posed like this!  Crazy kid!
Our big girl!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Little Miss Chatterbox

We have almost survived our first "both of us being teachers and writing report cards" season.  By almost I mean--I'm done, Dave's not.  So a few more days and hopefully life will be back to "normal".  We've already declared next weekend as a "no-schoolwork-allowed" weekend.  Hopefully we can get some of our Christmas stuff up! 

Anneke, on the other hand is doing great!  She is growing so much and learning so much, it's really unbelievable!  She's totally catching onto things we do and wanting to do them too.  And I have to raise the bar with my cooking efforts now because she wants to eat everything we eat.  So that means trying to get supper ready and Anneke-appropriate quickly so she can eat with us.  A couple of the latest things:
~She's learning to say "please" in sign language
~She loves her stuffed animals and is almost always carrying one around
~She's been playing with her cars and making car noises as she drives them around
~She says "woof, woof" when she hears a dog
~She's got hilarious new sounds effects (I'll have to try and post a video later this week when I have time to let it load....)
~She still loves reading her books and watching Baby Einstein/Praise Baby movies (we've also tried a Veggie Tales or two....)
~She can climb the stairs on her own and get back down
~She's practically running everywhere--yesterday she walked all the way around the block!
~She's learned to "talk" on the phone and everything is a phone, including the calculator!  And after she babbles for a minute on the phone she does this hilarious little click of her tongue.  It's priceless!
~And she's growing like a weed!  I had to wash the 24-month clothes this week!

Enjoy a few pictures (we haven't been very diligent with the picture taking lately...)


Thursday, November 3, 2011

This is what "determined" looks like:

"I will feed myself!"
(What you don't see in this picture is me holding the food jar and my hands also covered in food!)

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Visiting the Farm

Grandma and Grandpa babysat for two days this week while Dave and I were at the teachers' convention.  They took Anneke to see Uncle Matt's cows.  Apparently she was a little scared and would not pet them!  Here's some pictures:




Sunday, October 23, 2011

Autumn Fun

Dress-up Round 2--Our "Charlie Brown" child.

 If ya can't ride'em, push'em!
 Fun in the leaves.






Saturday, October 15, 2011

Growing Up: Reading and Dressing Up

Our baby is growing up!  Here are a few pictures to show what she's been up to lately.
She loves the chair she got for her birthday from Uncle Matt!  And is really enjoying all the new books she got!

 And here's an example of some of the heavier reading we've been doing with her.  (For those who can't read the title it's "The Hobbit".  Tom, we're getting a lot of use out of your book!!!)

 And today while I was sitting on the couch she brought over her red shoes, wanting me to put them on for her.  Once those were on she went back to get her winter hat.  So I guess dress-up is the next stage!

Monday, September 26, 2011

Birthday Bash

Our beautiful little pumpkin has turned ONE!!!!  We had a small birthday party for her on Saturday; here is a small montage of photos from the day.
 Balloons and ribbons were quite a hit!


 She got to spend lots of time with Grandma and Oma!

 A cupcake....looks interesting.  But I don't really like it.....

 Opening gifts:  She was more interested in the tissue paper and in climbing on the colourful boxes than with unwrapping the boxes.  Once they were unwrapped, however, she loved playing with all her new toys!  (I thought it was about time Tom and Sarah made it on our blog!)

 Here's our big girl! 
Anneke, you have brought so much joy to our lives!  We love watching you grow and learn new things.  We are so blessed to have you in our family!  Thank-you for all your smiles and hugs!  We can't wait to see what exciting things the next year will bring!  We love you as big as the sky! :)  ~Mommy and Daddy