Playing Catch-Up

For some reason, I've fallen pretty behind on the blog lately.  I'm going try to play catch-up and knock out January and February in one post, hopefully in one sitting depending on how long Anna naps today. :) Here are some of the things we've been up to...

I flew home the second week in January to attend the wedding of a dear old friend, Kim Nagel.  Kim, Ashley, and I were an inseparable threesome from 5th grade through 8th grade, when Kim's family moved to Bismarck, ND. I was so excited to be able to attend her wedding after not seeing her in years!  The wedding was in Bismarck, but I flew to South Dakota to spend a few days with my family and then drove to Bismarck with Ashley and her (now fiance!) Dave.  Then I flew out of Bismarck on Sunday...should have been early morning Sunday but due to "controllable mechanical problems" (AKA someone forgot to turn the plane's lights off the night before and the stupid battery was dead!), Anna and I were stuck in the Bismarck airport for eight hours.  NOT FUN!  ANYWAY, besides that, the trip was really good.  And the wedding was beautiful.  I was so glad I could be there!

Anna with Ashley and Dave

Ashley, Kim, and I (and a very tired Anna)

Also in January, Derek, Kyle, and I took a concealed carry permit/firearm safety course.  Derek has been wanting to take the course for awhile now...it was supposed to be his graduation present last year, but we took forever to finally sign up for the class.  It was really good though, I felt like I learned a lot.  I don't know if I'll actually ever carry, but I do want to know how to handle a gun safely!  We've been to the shooting range twice since.  I was really scared the first time...like shaking scared.  But I felt more comfortable the second time and am improving in my aim.

Speaking of classes, I started going to a Zumba class twice a week with my friend, Paola.  It's a lot of fun, and a pretty decent workout.  They really keep you moving the entire hour, and I'm always sweating pretty good by the end!

The first week of February, we went to St. George/Mesquite NV for Kyle's rugby tournament.   It was a nice to just get away for a weekend!  Amanda rode down with us and Karry and Sterling came too, so we had a fun time all together.  Besides watching the games, we had fun going out to eat, swimming at the hotel, and visiting Amanda's aunt and family.  The weather was pretty nice...Saturday was really sunny and we all got sunburned.  Poor Anna's cheeks were all red the next day, I felt so bad!

Valentine's and my birthday were both over President's Day weekend, so we had a really busy but fun 3-day weekend. For Valentine's Day, Trevor watched Anna while Derek and I went to the Sacred Gifts art exhibit at BYU.  I had been to it once before, but Derek hadn't, and I loved it so much that I was more than willing to go again!  We had planned to have a little picnic outside before going to the exhibit, but it ended up not being too warm. So instead we got Cafe Rio to go and ate it in the museum's little cafe, which was closed for the day.  And for dessert, we had Oreo and sugar cookie truffles that I had made the day before.  Yum!

I think they moved the "Love Sculpture" to the main floor, just for Valentine's Day.

I decided to take some Valentine's pictures of Anna in her cute heart shirt from Great-Grandma Lontine.  I tried so hard to get her to smile, but it was a battle just getting her to sit still, even with a sucker to entertain her!

She wanted the camera more than the sucker!

Tears! (She's sad because I wouldn't let her play with the camera.)

For my birthday, we went out to eat at one of our favorite little Italian restaurants on Saturday night.  Then on Sunday, Trevor, Maggie, Kyle, and Amanda came over for homemade pizza and an array of desserts...Amanda made brownies and Maggie made cookies and I still had truffles left over, plus we had the licorice Derek bought me for Valentine's Day and the caramels my mom sent for my birthday.  It was quite the spread of sweets!  I really appreciated the gifts, cards, phone calls, and facebook messages from so many friends and family!

On Monday, Haley came for a week-long visit. She got to see most of our family who live in Utah, attend a couple college classes, go to a Parachute concert, do baptisms at the temple, and watch two BYU basketball games, so I'd say she had a pretty full week. :)  We really enjoyed having her here!

Well, I think that pretty well hits the highlights of the last two months.  We are so ready for March and spring to be here!  It has been in the 50s and sunny the last couple days...we've been going for walks and playing at the park and our tulips are coming up.  I will be more than happy if the snow and cold stay away for good!

Anna makes us laugh

I have some catching up to do on the blog, but I just have to quickly share a couple videos and pictures of Anna just being...Anna.  She makes us laugh every day with her funny quirks and antics!

Anna's new favorite thing is "talking" on the phone.  She actually holds it up to her ear and jabbers away.  It is so cute!  She got her own fancy phone that plays music and lights up, but of course, she still likes mine better. :)

Her dancing has evolved from the little shoulder wiggle/head bop to some serious hip shaking.  It seriously kills me.  I have to be so sneaky about filming her because as soon as she sees the camera, she drops everything she's doing and goes immediately for the camera.

 

After her bath, we usually let her crawl around naked for a bit and she loves it. (She still HATES getting dressed, so it's just easier to let her crawl around and play for a bit while I follow her around brushing her hair and putting lotion on her and stealthily putting her jammies on, one leg and arm at a time and she doesn't even notice it's happening.)  Anyway, she also loves her books and likes to pull them off the shelf and look at them.  And this happened and it was just too cute.

We sure love our gossip-gabbing, groove-shaking, book-loving little girl!