Annie Jane turns 1

Annie Jane's Birth

Our little princess turned 1 today. 365 days earlier we were in the hospital, approached 3 different times to consider going home and letting her come 'naturally' rather than being induced. Their delivery center was too full and they were sending people to other hospitals. They tried to convince me that the induction probably wouldn't work, that I'd be miserable for 36 hours and go home, only to wait for her to come naturally anyway. I'm sure they were pretty frustrated with me...as I was with them for continuing to ask...but when they administered the Cytotek at 3pm (4 hours past the original time) and the 'birthing team' being paged overhead for delivery 6 hours later, I got several comments from the team, "Well, you were the last one we expected to deliver!"...Annie arrived at 9:41 PM.
What a wonderful year she has made for us. Always vocal, she communicates quite well if she disagrees, and is soft spoken if she's content with life. She knows "mom mom mom mom" and is starting to enunciate her 'NO' better. She understands so much. I say she is full of emotion Brian would call it drama...and Ethan occasionally says "Stop this llama drama!" At any rate, we love her to pieces and our home wouldn't be the same without her. Thank you Annie Jane for a wonderful first year.
Here are some great pictures of her first year.

1 month

6 weeks

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

Happy Birthday sweetie! We love you!

We celebrated your day with bumps and bruises. I took the above picture of you in the morning because I didn't know what messes you'd make during the day (on your clothes). You bumped your eye and lip within an hour of each other, matching your already bruised forehead, and by the end of the night you looked pretty hammered.

We made a special dinner just for you: Grandma Hale's Mac n Cheese, green beans and Grandma's homemade applesauce. All of it your favorite things to eat. We then connected with Grandma and Grandpa Hale on Skype. They watched her open presents. We also got birthday wishes from cousins and Grandma Earl throughout the day too.

I made a Hello Kitty Cake for her. I was excited to do a frozen transfer again. I couldn't wait to see if AJ was going to be a 'cake' eater... or refuse it, like her brother, Ethan. He watched me make, bake and decorate the cake, even helped spread the first layer of frosting on before the transfer. (Even still...he didn't have any cake tonight) Annie on the other hand...enjoyed every bite.

Happy Birthday ANNIE JANE! Love you to pieces!

Scolded by the Birds

Since we've moved here, I've been disappointed in our landlady's feeble attempt to provide a 'landscaper'. Two weeks ago Brian and I approached her about some serious overgrowth in our yard and jumped on board when she showed signs of being 'overwhelmed' with the amount of work this place needs. Once we got her consent to 'do a little bit here and there' I buzzed across the street to our neighbors and borrowed some hedgers, clippers, hand trimmers, a hand shovel, rack, and weed pick. Needless to say, we've been chopping out hedges and invasive vines, trimming the ferns, and raking up leaves ever since. Our city allows 10 30-gal garbage cans/week for green waste pickup. We 'borrowed' four from the vacant house next door to help us get the maximum done during the week. One poor orange tree has so many vines wrapped around its branches, I think it affected the production of fruit this year. We've cut many of the vines 'lifelines' but I'm not sure how I'm going to unravel them all.

The birds have been scolding us ever since.

A pleasant surprise came during our wet January weather: our cute little tree in the front has bloomed. It's flowers are about as big as my palm. And instead of shedding petals, the whole flower falls off and lands...without the stem. I took a picture today, there are a handful of blooms, but if you look closely, you can see just how many buds there are. Every day I look out there to see if there are any more. I can't wait until it's in full bloom.

We also learned that our outrageously overgrown bush (which I admit I hated because it looked so ugly) in the front is actually rosemary. Now it's in bloom too and bees are buzzing and I am, in fact, more tolerant of it's overgrowth. Funny how knowledge changes your perspective. However..rosemary or not, chop chop! into something a little more 'groomed'. Rosemary can be cut back (thank goodness) without damaging it...and into topiaries even! That would be fun! It smells really good though when you're standing out there!