Christmas, Part Five

The last, and loudest, Christmas was at Great Grandma Marshall's house. Ru has three brothers, so along with their wives and children and children's children... it makes for a full house! Luckily, as I mentioned in the last post, Anna Kate took a nap from Nanny and Paw's to Grandmas, except that is only a ten minute drive. Then we realized we left something at Nanny and Paw's, so we extended the nap and drove back and forth. This was apparently just the trick, because Anna Kate did very well keeping up with the bigger kids and being passed around!

The lighting isn't great for photos at night at Grandma's, but we did capture some cute moments! Thank you everyone for loving on and spoiling the little miss!

Cousin Kristina had on a lovely necklace... shiny and just right for pulling!

Getting right into the middle of everything! Anna Kate's plaid behind is on the right.

Two goofballs. Avery in the foreground, and Anna Kate in the background. Show-offs!

Hanging out with Uncle Rob and checking out Lucas.

Uncle Brian finally got a hold of Anna Kate, and this time he didn't get the soaker treatment!

(Her eyes tell the whole story... What. A. Day.)

Christmas, Part Four

After a morning nap, we headed to Nanny and Paw's house in Taylorsville for Anna Kate's first traditional Marshall Christmas. We were the last to arrive since someone is starting to mess up her naps and didn't go to sleep right at nine, but no one minded too much. Anna Kate and Avery played while Nanny cooked up a Christmas feast, we had lunch, and then Anna Kate... didn't nap. She threw up in her bed (while the toddler in the room next door took apart her pack and play) and didn't catch a nap until we drove to Grandma Marshalls. Luckily there were lots of toys and fun faces to distract her from total hysteria.

Anna Kate was spoiled again when Avery woke up and we opened presents. Poor girl isn't gonna know what hit her when she doesn't get toys and a crowd next week. Thank you Nanny, Paw, and Aunt Dee!

Oh, Anna Kate found her nose this week. 

Here is Nanny trying to get her to stop sticking her finger in it.

Avery being a sweet big cousin, giving Anna Kate cheerios. Notice, she was wearing a Christmas dress at one point!

Playing with Aunt Laura! 

Since AK didn't nap, we all still had high hopes it might happen and left her in her PJs.

Gigi keeping Anna Kate happy!

Anna Kate cruising over to check out what her cousin Avery got for Christmas.

Avery was not too sure about how this was going to go.

"Here, baby Anna, play with your piano."

She almost got in the mood to unwrap something!

Food! I love food.

Avery explaining to Nanny and Great Aunt Dee that her present was "a house, for painting!". We made both of the girls' great grandmothers a bird house with their hand (Avery) and foot (Anna Kate) prints.

The girls putting Avery's puzzle together. Turns out, Anna Kate is just really good at getting in the way.

Christmas, Part Three

So, I know I said we would have three Christmas installments. I lied. We had Christmas at Gigi and Ru's, Nana and Grandpa's, our house, Nanny and Paw's (Gigi's parents) and Grandma Marshall's (Ru's mom). So what I meant by that was we had three days of Christmases. All of "day three" would not fit into one post.

So number three was Christmas morning at our house. Obviously, I was way more excited than Anna Kate, but she enjoyed the presents we picked out for her so everyone was happy! Based on what she enjoyed playing with at her grandparents houses and Paxton's, we got her a (really cool, if I might add) piano, a "touch screen" phone, her very own ABC book, and some other books and clothes.

Christmas morning, waiting for Daddy to wake up and open presents!

"Opening" her first present. Mark is actually holding her back from crawling away.

"Sweet! A piano!"

"This one is for me too?!"

Loved it.

Baby girl with all of her loot.

Early morning PJ photos!

Daddy and Anna Kate in their Christmas Jammies!

Christmas, Part Two

Part two of Christmas happened on Christmas eve at Nana and Grandpa's house in Mooresville. We headed down for a delicious lunch and some more spoiling of Anna Kate after morning nap time. Thank you to her Rotman grandparents, Aunt Lisa, Uncle Ben, and Uncle Scottie for getting together with us and loving on our baby girl!

Excited about opening a present from Uncle Scottie.

"Yeah, I think I'll just get on in this bag."

"Sweet! A stacker toy!"

None of the rest of our attempts at getting her interested in opening presents were successful.

Aunt Lisa showing me a cool puzzle from Nana! The real star of the show is Uncle Ben, in the background who was very pleased with his "Chase Me Kitty".

Caught.

Best present to this infant? Food. Two thumbs up for little crunchies!

Big fun with Grandpa!

Christmas, Part One

Merry Christmas! We hope that wherever you are, whomever you are spending this time with, that you have a wonderful day and remember the reason we are celebrating!

To kick off your Christmas right, here is our sweet baby girl enjoying her "first" Christmas (of three) at Gigi and Ru's house in Greensboro.

Anna Kate (obviously) wasn't too into this Christmas present thing. Being a little young, coupled with a short nap time, and her first "present opening" at Gigi's was watching Avery rip into a sweet keyboard... we ended up trying our best to entertain Anna Kate, who ended up in the walker with Cheerios while we all finished opening presents and cleaning up. If she had it her way, she would have crawled away from the loud room and down the steps to the toys and her doggies downstairs.

Thank you to my parents and siblings for continuing to spoil our little one... "Rotman".

Presents as big as Anna Kate!

Avery's first present, a keyboard, was well loved by both girls.

"Whatcha got there, Avery?!"

"I'll take over, thanks." (I secretly like that Anna Kate looks like she opened a present. She didn't.)

"It's loud in here, I'm out."

Enjoying her (non-neon blue) bean bag!

Life is so terrible when you're surrounded by toys. So. Terrible.

This happened. Uncle David got little Avery a digital camera. Lots of sub-par photos were taken by our future photographer. And a lot of "cheeses" were said. A lot.

Anna Kate tried out Avery's toys, so Avery felt it fair to help Uncle Mark put together baby Anna's push car.

Uncle David showing Anna Kate how to play with her new duckie puppet.

Post-Christmas festivities, it was magnet time with Gigi. Avery shared what the letters were and Anna Kate tried to eat them. The fun ended with scooping a Q out of AKs mouth with Avery shouting "not in the mouth Anna!"

Gigi snuggles are the best snuggles!

Looks like Laura stole my baby and they are a family of four.

Avery is such a good big cousin, always bringing baby Anna toys and making her happy.

Oh yeah, Anna Kate ate corn. And lots of other table food. What else is Christmas and a grandmas house for?

Walking McWalkerson

Here is the video I promised yesterday of Anna Kate in her walker. We had practically given up on these things, as the one we had she seemed to not enjoy for a long (any) period of time so we left it at Nana's house in case she might enjoy it for a change of pace and scenery, and Avery's old walk-in-a-circle seemed to only entertain her on sunny days outside or in the garage.

But, over the weekend at Gigi's, Gigi pulled out a walker to see if we could keep the little peanut entertained while everyone else was trying to get things done, and with some Cheerio's in her tray she was off! She was really quite proud of herself when she figured out how to maneuver forward and backwards, and insisted on scaring us all when she would drop toys and practically dive out of the chair to get them.

Enough talking, more video. Here is the best video we got of her walking straight across the kitchen...

41 Weeks!

Week 41 has introduced lots of new things... like the words "no", "be careful", and "trouble". Anna Kate has officially moved from kind-of pulling up to full blown, thinks she can do anything, touch everything, pulling up. We have moved the bed down to the lowest point after she discovered she could get to her feet and then refused to nap in order to practice her new found skill. She is currently working on seeing if she can accomplish this feat from a few feet down.

Other than pulling up, new developments include trying a lot of new foods, being very adventurous, and clapping. The new milestones seem to be occurring on a daily basis around here. While it can be hard to catch a smile on camera, she is also getting happier by the day now that she can move to what she wants. We have also discovered that more snacks help our little mover (who loves to eat). At Gigi's for lunch one day she ate an adult portion of a savory bread casserole.

She also discovered how to move forward in the walker this week... video to come. For now, here are her weekly photos, with Daddy's help for smiles!

There's a sneaky smile behind those fingers.

"Hey, what do you have over there?"

Toys are becoming necessary for her to sit still. Unfortunately, they are hard to crop out!