How many . . .

licks does it take to get to the center of an orange push-up?



I don't know but Jason and Anneliese are sure trying to find out!

HUGE First!

Last night, we had a very HUGE first! Well, I don't know if it was huge for Anneliese, but it was certainly traumatic for her mommy! She slept in her new "big girl bed!"

Anneliese's granddaddy made a toddler bed for her cousin Constance and she has outgrown it and passed it own to Anneliese. I painted it last week and then yesterday we made the transition into her room.

Her room before . . .



(Thanks, Jason, for finding the picture!)


The transition . . .





(Look at the mess we uncovered when we moved the baby bed! Bye, bye storage space.)

And, finally, her room after . . .





I don't know if this was traumatic for any of you other mothers out there, but for some reason, this was really hard for me and I cried. I guess it's just one more piece of concrete evidence that our baby girl is growing up!

I'm proud to announce that she slept successfully in her new bed all night long and she is currently taking her first nap in her new bed! So far, so good, but I am not naive enough to think that we're home free. I'm sure that we still have a few challenging nights and naps ahead of us. But at least we're off to a good start!

Homemade Ice Cream!

This past weekend was Father's Day and we finally got to enjoy a weekend at home! For the first time since Mother's Day we had absolutely no where to go, which was exactly what Brandon wanted for Father's Day. I know he enjoyed just being able to hang out at home with Anneliese. I hope all of you fathers out there had a happy and relaxing Father's Day!

Again, I didn't do so well with pictures of our fun at home. The only ones I got were of Anneliese enjoying some very good homemade ice cream that we made on Sunday. Brandon had two requests this weekend - watermelon and homemade ice cream. Easy enough, right?

As you can see, Anneliese greatly enjoyed the ice cream!





(I apologize for the naked shots, but she had just finished eating watermelon and I quickly learned that if you want to save the clothes from being stained for life, it's easier to let her eat it naked and then hose her off!)

Summer Nights

Just another reason to love living in Buda during the summer - on Thursday nights they have free concerts or movies in the park! We tried to go to a few last summer but they kept getting rained out. Obviously, that is not happening this year! Last Thursday, we finally made our first one. The Grahmanns, Nauerts, and Whiteds joined us and it was a great time! Anneliese had a great time playing with Conner and Jon and the grown-ups enjoyed a few cold beers, visiting with each other and listening to great music. The Casey Donahew band played and if you haven't heard of them, you should look them up because they are quite good!





I didn't do too well with the pictures, but hopefully we'll have many more fun summer Thursdays to come!

Just for Grandpa

One of my favorite memories of growing up is shucking corn with my dad. Of course, I absolutely hated it at the time, but now I appreciate and love the memories of shucking the corn and the time it meant Jason and I got to spend with mom and dad.

Anneliese may not get the chance to have these same memories because I don't see her mommy and daddy picking, shucking and putting up corn so this is as close as she's going to get!





I know Grandpa will appreciate these pics more than anyone!

Summer Fun

Yay - it's summer time! I made it through my 4th year of teaching and am ready to enjoy another summer with my sweet little girl!

Thanks to Mom-Boo, Anneliese got a new swimming pool for the backyard and we filled them up and enjoyed a little water time this past Sunday. We all had a great time!







We can't wait for the next chance to play in the water! As hot as it's been, it shouldn't be far off.

Funny Story

We had a first a couple of weekends ago - Anneliese locked Jason and I out of the house . . . with her in it!

We were all hanging out outside on our back patio. Anneliese was going in and out of the house, as usual. At one point, she closed the door and pulled the blinds closed. Usually not a big deal, but if she was going to be in the house, I wanted to at least be able to see her through the windows. I got up to open the door and it was locked! Can you say "PANIC!" Of course, all of the other doors were locked and my car was in the way of being able to access the house through the attic.

While I was panicking, Anneliese was just hanging out, eating chips, playing with her toys and watching us through the window. Jason was doing a much better job of staying calm and trying to talk her through unlocking the door.

We kept seeing her push one chair at a time into the kitchen. Finally, we saw her head pop up above the counter. She just wanted to dig in the candy bowl! Once she had the candy and wanted us to open it for her, it was much easier to get her motivated to unlock the door.

Luckily, we got back in the house (after about 30 minutes of mommy having heart attacks!) without any major emergencies happening. Anneliese just wanted to eat her Kit Kat!

Here's what we found in the kitchen when we got back in the house:



Brandon pointed out that twice now when only Jason and I have been at home we have almost burned the house down and allowed our 2-year-old to lock herself in the house. I pointed out to him that maybe he should just be home more. ;)

SHS Picnic

Memorial Day weekend brought another tip to Hallettsville and another SHS Picnic. Anneliese has been to a few picnics, but this is the first one that Brandon and I have been to in almost 3 years! Time just seems to fly by!

Anyway, Anneliese had a ton of fun playing in the moon walk, fishing in the fish pond and riding the train! I think she would have jumped in the moon walk all day long if we'd have let her!