My New Favorite Picture...

doesn't it just make you smile?

Eleven Months

This cute boy is eleven months today.  I could go on and on about how much we love him, but I think I've mentioned that before...

He loves:

*Blankies (none of my other kids have really been attached, but Ryan finds great comfort in snuggling up a blanket....I love it!)

*Blueberries-and pretty much any other fruit, but blueberries are his current favorite.  He downs a bowlful like you wouldn't believe!  Gotta love those anti-oxidants...

*Watching us play "Just Dance" on the Wii.  Ryan gets his groove on too.  He can't help but bounce up and down and wave his arms to the music.  Sometime I'll post a video.  It's pretty darn cute!

*Any other kind of music...he loves to bang on the piano and play with the strings on Anna's guitar.

*Tackling and "wrestling" with Nathan.  Boys will be boys... :)

*Playing peek-a-boo...anywhere with anyone...

*Going up stairs...we're still trying to teach him the "down" part.

*Playing outside.  What baby doesn't???
*Playing "escape artist" and finding his way out of the seat belt thing that holds him in his little seat that hangs off of the counter (no matter how tight I make the straps.)  Yikes and double yikes!  We will be taking that down...

Love you, Ry's. 

Eleven

Well, it's about time I post about my little girl turning eleven.  Whoa....it's going to take a while for me to get used to saying that!  We had a fun birthday celebration at the cabin (on the 4th of July) with a gooey chocolate dutch oven cake that was DELICIOUS (with some homemade vanilla ice cream on top...yummm....)

I could go on and on about this sweet eleven-year-old, but I'll keep it short.  Anna is such a blessing to our family.  She is such an amazing daughter and older sister.  I always dreaded my kids getting older.  When Anna was in Kindergarten and Aimee was a cute little three-year-old and Nathan was a baby, I wanted to just freeze time and go on like that forever.  But I'm so glad it didn't (otherwise Ryan wouldn't have ever come along!)  I never thought that having older kids would be as fun as it is.  We are buds (most of the time, anyway....unless I'm making her do chores:) and we love hanging out together.  Anna especially loves "one-on-one" mother-daughter time.  It's very cool...

I also love that Anna is developing her own interests and talents.  I can't tell you how many hours I've spent in years past worrying about what classes she should be in, what sports she should play, what she should do with her time, etc.  (Me, worry?  ....No!)  I didn't want to push, but I didn't want her to miss out on anything either.  Well, all of the sudden she has become her own person and sets goals and works hard to accomplish them.  Again, very cool.  She has so many talents, and it is fun to see her discover and develop them.

Her latest favorite thing was a Drama Camp she did last week.  They were performing "Grease Jr." and Anna tried out for and got the part of Sandy (the lead!)  She was pretty excited.  Here are some pictures of her performance (there are a ton...these are for you, Mom & Kim!)

This is Anna with the cute girl who played Rizzo (Sandy's rival...)  Anna said she was too nice to play a mean girl!  They got to be pretty good friends...

I'm so glad she got to do this.  What a great experience for her.  Good job, and happy 11th, Annalyn!!!  We love you...