Annaliese is 1!

How did this happen - how is our little Annie 1 year old?! Annie has become quite a little character and is the happiest little girl! She is also a very, very good eater and we have been told that she out-eats the boys in her room at 'school.' She's still being nursed in the morning and at night but is doing well with cow's milk. It didn't take too long before she became a full-fledged walker. She is very good at getting around and we now have to shut doors to bathrooms and the laundry room; we also installed the baby gate. (she does not like having this shut!) Annie is still pretty small - she weighs a little over 19lbs and is 29" long.

For Annie's birthday, we had dinner at home and invited our neighbors, Greg and Holly. They always bring little gifts for the girls because they know they don't have any grandparents living in MN. We had tacos and homemade guacamole for dinner - Annie ate her weight in everything. I made cupcakes for dessert and then we opened presents. It was a great night!

Olivia decorated the cupcakes - you can imagine how pretty they were!

"Sooo big!"

Mmmm.....cupcake!

Birthday girl at school - they celebrated with yogurt!

November update

Okay - I owe you all a huge apology for being so far behind on the blog! November was busy in the beginning with my travels for work but by November 11, I had taken my last work trip for quite some time - it was a really good feeling! I was especially happy that I took my last work trip with my trusty pump - traveling and pumping was a lot of work!

Olivia and Annie both battled ear infections so that was fun....not really. Olivia had to follow up with her ENT and he confirmed what we were fearing - she needed her tonsils and adenoids removed as well as another set of tubes. More on that later.... Duane's dad also came up for a visit and he and Duane went to Green Bay for a Packers game.

Annie turned 11 months old and she just kept getting cuter and cuter and funnier!

"I live with a bunch of crazy people!"

Sadie!

Before we knew it, it was Thanksgiving and Grandma and Papa came for a visit! We have a tradition of going to the MOA for dinner on the night before Thanksgiving. The mall is fairly quiet and nobody wants to cook before preparing turkey and the rest of a Thanksgiving meal. We enjoyed dinner at Tucci Bennuch and Olivia rode some rides - one with Papa, too!

We hosted Thanksgiving with my parents and my cousin and her family - it was a great day! Sadly, we took no photos so I have nothing to share. Duane smoke a turkey and made homemade dressing, along with green bean casserole, salad, mashed potatoes and roasted sweet potatoes. My cousin Cara made a homemade apple pie and I made a pumpkin cake. We all had plenty to eat! Later that evening, after the Farmer family had gone home, my parents got Annie to take her first steps!!! They sat a couple feet apart and would open their arms and have her take 3-4 steps in between them - she did great and "walked" many times that night.

Black Friday is a tradition for me and my mom so we kept it up and went to Rosedale for a day of shopping. We found some good deals but we mostly go to walk around, have lunch, gossip and spend a little money! While we shopped, Olivia convinced the guys to put up the Christmas trees. It was so great to have that started and to have my parents entertain the girls while we finished putting up everything. They even got outside for a little "sledding." The rest of our visit was fun and my parents gave Annie a couple early birthday gifts. We were sad to see them go but knew we'd be seeing them soon for Christmas.