Anna's 1st Birthday!

Wait, wait, wait! How can Anna be one year old?!

Her first year has brought to my attention how quickly time goes and how babies are not babies for very long. Anna is now considered a toddler! To make me feel better and cope with the "loss" of my baby I will still call her baby until she walks. Or maybe until she drives.

August 25th was a Sunday so we got together with friends and family that night  for dinner, cake, and presents. Heather and Trevor were kind and opened their house to all of us since ours is clearly too small. They even make two cakes for us! (coconut and yellow cake with ganache)

 Anna has a love for stuffed animals so she gets very excited when she sees this giant lion of Addie's. I had to bring it up for her birthday!

I love the thumb suck and hair thrilling! She does this all the time. 

Daddy with the birthday girl

and mommy

 Anna was a great sport and enjoyed everything. Except for the fall out of the high chair but she quickly recovered from that.

She seemed a little surprised that we were all singing and looking at her but she remained happy. I gave her a little taste of the frosting and once she realized it was sweet and delicious, and that she was allowed to touch it, she went to town. We didn't have to stage any frosting on her face- it was all her work!

singing happy birthday

We got a smile there!

 She was enthralled with the candle and wanted to touch it.

No so sure at first

I love that she looked up at me. I felt like she was saying, "Are you sure this is ok mommy?"

Dive right in!

 Macy was helpful and fed Anna some cake. 

After cake we opened presents outside. Anna didn't seem to understand what was going on. She did like tissue paper and empty bags though. Macy was very kind and helped Anna unwrap the presents.

We were so grateful for everyone who could come and to those who gave presents. Anna received a lot of presents from people out of state. It means a lot to me when people take the time and make the extra effort to benefit my children.

The next day was the Big Day! Anna was able to sleep in and didn't really like that I went in with a camera to take a first-picture-on-her-first-birthday shot. I guess a bright flash in your face isn't the first thing you want when you get up. At least I sang her happy birthday to make her feel better.

Macy would sing Happy Birthday to Anna all throughout the day. She was excited for Anna too. Anna getting presents and not her was a little rough though.

eating her 1st cheeto

 We had a lazy morning and made sure Anna went down for a nap at noon. Sadly she had her 12 month doctors appointment at 2 p.m. Anna did great despite being tired and measured a whopping 16 lbs 13 ounces- still the 2nd percentile. She is 29 inches long- the 50th percentile. After getting a few shots, and recovering from those shots, we went to Target so Macy could pick out a few toys for Anna's birthday. We decided on a xylophone, Sesame Street "smart phone", and a play remote. All have been fun but the smart phone is the clear winner.


I took some birthday photos of Anna and also some pictures of her with her new gifts. I sent thank you's via email so I could show the givers how cute she is in their outfit or with their toy.

Aunt Stacie's dress from Africa

dress from great G&G Francis

Book from aunt Heather

This is half smile half squinting from the bright flash. 

Dress from Grandma & Grandpa Seymour

Aunt Jill picked this outfit out.

Macy wanted to make silly faces.

She's already reading!

Although Anna shows no interest in walking she does babble and talk a lot. It's been so much fun having her sweet personality in our family. She has shown us love and has taught us more about love. Every time I see her (or even a picture of her) I want to pick her up, squeeze her, and give her lots of kisses. Anna is a calming spirit in this house that can be filled with tantrums and noise. She is so precious and I can't wait to celebrate more birthdays with her.

Ok, maybe I can wait. Stop growing up so fast Anna!  I love her more and more with each stage of life and whatever stage I'm currently in is my favorite. Anna gets cuter and sweeter by the day. We all love you tremendously Anna!

I can't believe it!

Ja and I checked the mail on our way in from our 8 year anniversary date and you won't believe what was there! My wallet!! Someone mailed it back to me with everything still inside! Ja was right. This gives me more faith in the character of people. Sometimes I feel like there are no honest people but this proved me wrong! I was so grateful our prayers were answered. I had to write her a thank you letter and paid for her postage. I even put a card in about the DC temple Visitor's Center. I had to do my job as a ward missionary.

A spontaneous visit to DC

Ja had a meeting downtown yesterday and I decided to take the girls and drive down with him. We had nothing to do and keeping them in the stroller while walking can be easier than keeping them happy at home.

We dropped Ja off at some office building on M street in between 18th and 19th streets. The parking meter stopped charging at 4 pm so we parked and were off for a walk.  

For some reason Macy said she had been there before and got an ice cream cone there. She hadn't so I'm not sure what reminded her. There was a McDonald's across the street so I caved and got her a cone. 

I noticed we were only a few blocks from the White House. I had the girls in the stroller and off we went towards Pennsylvania Avenue. I noticed Anna reached into my purse that was in the stroller basket and pulled out my wallet. I contemplated taking it from her but decided to keep an eye on her instead. Next thing I know Anna is emptied handed! I search my purse and stroller to no avail! Anna must have dropped my wallet, but how did I not notice?! I immediately turn around a retrace my steps all the way back to the car, twice. I asked a few restaurants if anyone turned in a wallet. I was upset with myself for letting Anna play with my wallet especially with her history of tossing things out of the stroller. 

I was stressed out having lost my wallet in DC. I was sure I would never see it again. Luckily my phone was still with me so I was able to call and have my credit cards cancelled. Which, by the way, American Express is great with. I called them around 5 pm and I had my new card by 10 am the next morning! After canceling my cards I wasn't as stressed and we continued our walk over to the White House. 

We passed a guy selling flowers on a corner and Macy insisted we but some. I had no money since I didn't have a wallet but she assured me daddy did. I asked who she wanted flowers for and she said they were for me and grandma. So sweet. 

We finally made it to the White House and Macy was a little confused as to why we couldn't go inside the house.

Macy scaled the length of the fence. 

We walked to the little park across the way to eat a snack and to let Anna crawl around. As soon as I put her down she was off! It's funny that she chose to crawl to an old tree stump. 

Macy noticed the ducks and we fed them pieces of ritz crackers. Anna was ready to crawl into the pond and grab a duck. Macy more timid and didn't like it as the ducks started getting out of the water and come towards us. 

The ducks get pretty close!

Macy was calling out to the ducks saying, "yodel le he hoo!" She put her hands up to her mouth to amplify her voice too. She was sad she couldn't put her feet in the water. It was gross and full of duck droppings. 

Anna really wanted to hold those ducks! You can see in this picture she was doing her give-me-what-I-want yell. I had a secure hold on her otherwise she would have crawled right in.

Just look at that longing look. She was so alert and ready to spring on a duck if he wandered too close to us.

We had a leisurely walk back to the car to meet up with Ja. As I got closer to the car I noticed a pink slip on my windshield! It was a parking ticket! The reason why the meter stopped charging at 4 is because you can't park there from 4-6:30. I knew our parking spot right in front of the building we wanted was too good to be true. I didn't see any of the signs because the signs were up the street from my car and behind us. Next time I will pay more attention! 

By this point I was really flustered and stressed. I lost my wallet and now I have a $100 parking ticket! I was mad for even coming downtown. Ja was late coming out of his meeting too. I was planning on just sitting in the car waiting for him to come out but I had to move my car. The third strike of the night was the car was almost out of gas! I had to drive all around because there are no parking spots in the area during the hours of 4-6:30. I was so worried about running out of gas with two screaming girls who are hungry and tired. I found a very rare gas station in DC but I didn't have my wallet to pay for the $4/gallon gas! Ahhh! Frustrating. All the while Macy is still crying/asking to buy flowers because she sees the flower stand every time I drive around the block. 

Finally 6:30 rolls around and I was able to find a parking spot and $20 in the center console of the car! I  figured I would take the girls to McDonald's which was 500 feet away while we waited for Ja. I get the girls out and look up and it's Ja! What a great surprise! Macy was right and he had cash so we walked down the block to buy her (or me?) flowers. She picked some bright orange sunflowers. She insisted on carrying them to the car. She had to hold them with two hands straight in front of her because the stems were very long. It was a cute sight. 

We were able to drive all the way home and didn't run out of gas. Ja wasn't mad that I got a ticket and he was so sure I would get my wallet back some day. He told me to look at the type of people walking the streets there- business people. He said they will mail it back to me. He's always a calm reassuring voice in a time of chaos. Let's hope he's right.