Birthday month, continued

January was a super busy month! Besides Anneliese's birthday, Mandy and Shawn welcomed Lila into the world and I celebrated my 30th birthday!

First of all, Lila Greer Echols was born on January 7. Anneliese and I went to see baby Lila and new mommy Mandy in the hospital, but I did not get one single picture. :( We went to see them again this past week and I finally got a couple of great pictures.

Anneliese was so excited to get to hold Lila. She decided to give her a kiss!

Then she crawled up on Mandy's lap and sang her ABC's to Lila. It was so cute!

We are so happy for Mandy and Shawn and can't wait for Anneliese and Lila to play together!

After Anneliese's birthday, it was time for me to celebrate the Big 3-0! I was totally excited about it because I just love birthdays! The night before my actual birthday, I had a moment of thinking "Oh Lord, I'm 30. I don't feel old but it sure does sound old. Does this mean I need to start acting older?" Luckily, I got over the moment pretty quickly and decided 30 doesn't sound so bad. On Friday, a bunch of us went out to eat and then to Midnight Rodeo to celebrate my birthday and Jeff's birthday. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of Jeff and I on our birthday night (I'm really not good at this picture thing!), but I did get a few great pictures.

Here's the gang at Chili's:

I love this picture because it's with my 2 favorite guys!

And I love these pictures because I'm with a few of my favorite people in this whole world!

And finally, I'll leave you with a few pictures of our very fun 2-year-old!

And a picture of Anneliese with Constance and their Granddaddy!

I'll try to be better about updating more often, but I can't make any promises! ;)

Happy Birthday, finally!

Well, it's February 8 and I'm finally getting around to putting birthday pics on the computer! Ugh, I've been a little behind lately. And then this week I've seen that all of the other bloggers have very recent updates and I figured I better get to it! A little warning - this blog will probably be quite long with tons of pictures so feel free to jump around or come back later. I guess a super long post is the effect of waiting too long to make one. Sorry about that. Here we go . . .

Our sweet baby girl turned 2 on January 17. I have no idea where the last 2 years have gone. All I know is that it is really a stretch (or wishful thinking) to think of Anneliese as a baby anymore. She is turning into such a big girl. Here we go on the tons of pictures . . .

We made cupcakes the night before her birthday so that she could take them to school on her birthday to share with her teachers and friends. Anneliese enjoyed licking the spoon!


Here's what we found when we went into her room on the morning of her birthday to wake her up. I don't know if there's many things in this world sweeter than a baby sleeping with butt up in the air. (I know Mel agrees with me.)


We woke her up early so she'd have time to open a present before she left to for school. Here are the first pictures of Anneliese turning 2. Note, these pics were taken at 6:10 a.m. ;)



On the night of her birthday, we had this great plan to just pick up some chicken nuggets and stay home so she'd have time to play with her new toys and enjoy a cupcake. But then I smoked us out of the house because Jason and I started a fire and forgot to open flue - it's an amusing story if you haven't heard it. Anyway, we had to leave the house to air it out, but we still had time to enjoy a birthday cupcake.


Then on Saturday, the real partying began. We had a little party for Anneliese at Gattitown and she had a great time (and I think the other kids did too)! We all enjoyed the buffet, cupcakes and then of course, all of the games. Of course, it was next to impossible to get pictures of the kids playing games and the ones that I did take were all blurry because none of them stayed still for long in the game room. Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with her!










When we got home, Granny and Grandpa had another surprise waiting for Anneliese. They gave her this really great playhouse to put out in the yard. She and Constance had quite a time playing in it!


Anneliese had a great birthday and Saturday was tons of fun. By the end of the day, we were all pooped! Here's how our Saturday night ended (by 10:00):


I've got a ton of more things to share but this is probably enough for one post. Check back very soon because I'll finish the birthday month soon.

Love to all!

Zachary

On Saturday morning, Zach lost his battle with leukemia. Please pray for his family because they are going to need a lot of strength to get through this time.
Take a minute to tell everyone around you how much you love them and appreciate every second that you have with them because we never know when God is going to call us home to Him.

Merry Christmas!

Before I start my Christmas blog, I have a big favor to ask everyone out there who's reading this. As I type this blog, my 33 year old cousin, Zach, is in intensive care in MD Anderson fighting for his life. Some of you know, he has had several battles with Leukeumia and it's back and right now it's not looking good. Zach, his wife Jill and their 3 young children, Riley, Regan and baby Zach need your prayers. If you can, please take just a moment and pray for them to have strength and healing. Thank you.

I hope everyone out there had a very Merry Christmas! I know that we had a very busy couple of days but they were so much fun and it was great getting to spend so much time with our families!

Our Christmas started off on Christmas Eve morning. Santa made an early delivery to our house and Anneliese was really ready to see what he was going to bring her. When she saw what he had left for her, her first words were "Oh! Oh!"

She's so happy with what Santa brought her (for those of you who heard the story - notice the bear that Santa thought she wanted!)


Tearing in to her first gift (which we let her open the night before).


She loves the Elmo flashlight!




We spent the morning opening presents at our house before heading down to Hallettsville. We made a quick stop at mom and dad's house so that Anneliese could see Mom-boo and open more presents. She got a doll that talks and moves and it sort of freaks us out a little but Anneliese loves it! She has even figured out how to turn it on by herself which is not necessarily a good thing. ;)



Then it was on to Sublime for the Noska family Christmas. We opened more presents and Anneliese had a GREAT time playing with her cousin Constance. Constance was being so sweet and sharing everything she had with Anneliese, even her brand new high heels that Santa brought her!



I think they had the most fun playing "Ring Around the Rosey." Anneliese loves that game and is quite good at singing the song all by herself. I bet they spun around in circles for a good 15 minutes. I don't know how they kept spinning because the rest of us were dizzy just watching them! It was so great seeing the two of them playing together and it kind of gave us a glimpse of what lies ahead with those two! Constance actually said "Hers is going to be my best friend!" I hope they continue to be friends as they grow up. I was so fortunate growing up with so many cousins my age and I love that they are now my best friends. I hope Anneliese will have similar experiences with her cousins as she grows up. Of course, it was also great to see the rest of Brandon's family.



It was then on to my mom and dad's house for Midnight Mass. Anneliese actually went all day Christmas Even without a nap and continued to go strong until the homily during Midnight Mass. She was quite the handful because she never stopped moving for fear that if she stopped she would fall asleep. I think we were all very thankful when she finally did fall asleep!

We woke up Christmas morning and of couse, opened more presents.







Then it was on to Eagle Lake to see the rest of the Noska family and Anneliese had more good times playing with Constance and opening more presents.

This picture was just so cute, I had to share. It was "monkey see, monkey do" with these two. I made Anneliese put her hood on because it was so windy, so of course Constance had to put hers on too.


Finally, we ended our Christmas rounds at Aunt Barbsie and Uncle Roberts' house for another awesome Henke Christmas! I think they get better and better every year and with each year that passes, I am more and more grateful for our great family! Of course, we opened more presents and Anneliese got to play with her cousins. I somehow managed to never take the camera out of the car so a big thanks to Aunt Barbsie for sharing her pics!







Thanks to everyone for all of your love and gifts! We are so blessed to have so many people to spend the holidays with.

2008 already looks like it's going to be a great year. I know there will be a big
2nd birthday around here, a couple of sure-to-be-fun weddings and some new additions to the Henke family! We can't wait to see what the rest of the year brings. Here's to hoping that everyone has a GREAT 2008! Happy New Year!

Love, Brandon, Jennifer & Anneliese

Thanksgiving & football

Well, I some how managed to make it through Thanksgiving without taking a single picture! Of course, we got our fill of turkey, dressing, pumpkin pie and all of the other fixins! And enjoyed spending some quality time with all of our family. In this crazy day and age that we live in, it's sometimes easy to forget all of the blessings in our life. This Thanksgiving, I realized just how lucky we are and that we have so much to be thankful for:

I'm thankful for my wonderful husband. He is so supportive and unselfish and is a great provider for our family. It is great being married to my best friend.

I'm thankful for our beautiful daughter. God blessed our lives in ways that we never imagined were possible when he gave us Anneliese. Every day we learn what true love really is when she looks in our eyes and says "Love you too."

I'm thankful for my brother. As most of you know, he moved in with us last May and we are all lucky to have him around so much. He's been a big help when Brandon travels for work. It has been great having him here and I know Anneliese loves being able to spend so much time with her Uncle Jason. It's great to have a brother who's also your friend!

I'm thankful for our amazing families! We have wonderful parents and Anneliese has so much love for her "Nanny, PaPa, Nana and DaDaDa." Thank you to them for always being supportive and helpful.

I'm thankful for all of our great friends. I'm lucky in that most of my closest friends are my cousins and I know that this is rare. It's so great to have so many people around us in our lives to share in our laughter and tears.

I'm thankful for our good health. I've been reminded recently how fragile our lives are and we are so fortunate to all have our health.

Of course, there is so much more we have to be thankful for, but I won't bore you all with a long list and no pictures.

With Thanksgiving comes another season of football play-offs for the SHS Indians. I am so proud of my dad and there aren't words to describe how great it makes me feel to know that so many people look up to him and respect him. He really is the greatest football coach there is. Once again, he started out a season wondering how good his team would be this year. And once again, he motivated and brought out the best in his football players and the Indians had a great season, ending with a State Championship! Way to go Dad/Pa Pa/Coach Henke and Congratulations to the SHS Indians! Unfortunately Brandon wasn't able to go with us to the game because he was en route to Korea, but he was there in spirit.




Finally, I want to give a shout out to the wonderful elves who helped me decorate our house for Christmas. I am a Christmas nut and have a goal of being the Griswalds of our neighborhood. We're not there yet, but give my elves and I a couple more years and maybe we will be. And I have passed down my love of the holidays to Anneliese, who just cannot get enough of the "Mimi lights and Mimi trees!"




Here's to hoping you all have a fabulous holiday season! Can't wait to see a lot of you during Christmas break.

2 Big Firsts!!

Yes, I know it's been a while since I updated this blog but 1) I said from the beginning that I wouldn't be as good as the other bloggers in our family and 2) there hadn't really been much new going on. ;) However, we had a very busy last few days in our household, so finally, I have something exciting to post!

First #1: Trick-or-Treating
I realize that last year was Anneliese's first Halloween but she was really too small to do any trick-or-treating so this year was technically her first time to go. She got to do a little trial run on the Thursday before Halloween because all of the shops along Main Street in Buda stayed open late for all of the kiddos to go trick-or-treating. So, we put on the "meow meow" costume, painted her nose and whiskers on and away we went.



She really did a great job. She walked up and down the sidewalks saying "meeeoooww" to anyone that would listen and then threw in the occasional "t-t-t" which is her way of saying trick-or-treat.





Then on Halloween night, we put the costume back on and headed over to the Chance's so that Anneliese and Klayton could trick-or-treat together. I think they both had a good time and I know they both went home with quite a load of candy! We had a hard time getting the two of them together for a picture, so this is the best I could do.







It really is fun to see them interact with each other. They don't see each other that often, but they seem to sound a lot alike. I can't wait to watch them grow up together!

Of course, being an elementary school teacher, I get to get in on the Halloween action as well. Every year it's a challenge to come up with a good, creative costume that is appropriate to wear to school. This year, I decided to be "Mrs. First Grade." Thanks to Sally for letting me borrow her Miss Hallettsville crown. And thanks to everyone who voted for me! ;)



First #2: Anneliese's 1st Haircut
I have been saying for a while now that we needed to take Anneliese in for her first haircut but I was reluctant to do it because she didn't have any hair for the first year and a half of her life and I was a little nervous to cut off what took so long to come in. Finally, this past Saturday, I decided we just needed to do it. So we took her in to Cool Cuts at Toys R Us and got it trimmed. They really cut such a small amount off that you can barely tell, but it does look better. And she sat there like a champ! She got to drive and watch Elmo - 2 of her favorite things to do - so I don't think she even noticed that the woman was cutting her hair.

Before . . .


During . . .


And after . . .


Like I said, she did great! She must be a typical girl, because really, is there a girl out there who doesn't like to have her hair washed and cut and fixed for her? I think I say this every other day, but I just can't believe what a big girl she's turning into!

The last batch of Henke babies aren't really babies anymore and they're getting ready to be replaced with a new batch of Henke babies. We can't wait to see all of the new additions to our family!