Easter

Yes, I know, it's been almost 2 months since Easter! I've tried twice to get this Easter blog up but every time I get on the computer Anneliese comes up and wants to look at pictures and then it's the end of the blog work! Plus, we haven't had a weekend at home since I don't know when. I'm giving up on the commentary and letting the pictures tell the story.



















A good time was had by all on the Henke Hill, as usual!

On Saturday, Anneliese got a special treat from Grandpa - she got to ride on a school bus! She's been wanting to ride a school bus since she learned how to say bus and she finally got her wish! Thanks, Grandpa!







On Easter Sunday, we celebrated with Brandon's side of the family and Anneliese got to hunt eggs with her cousin Constance.







Finally, when we got home on Sunday night, Anneliese got to see what the Easter Bunny had left for her. She was very excited about what she found!







Hopefully, with summer coming, I'll be able to update more often!

Easter preview

Anneliese had an Easter egg hunt at school today. I'm glad she got to practice a round because her egg hunting skills leave a little to be desired. I think those boys on Henke Hill may run her over tomorrow!

Her class had a visit from the Easter bunny. And can I just say that my little girl was the only one in her class who wasn't afraid of the Easter bunny! She marched right up to him and crawled up on his lap for a picture.



Then it was on to hunt for the eggs the Easter bunny left for them. This is why she's not too fast at this game - she likes to stop and show me everyone that she picks up!



She did speed up a little and ended up with quite a load of eggs!



Hopefully she speeds up a lot tomorrow so she can keep up with all of those boys! Happy Easter, everyone! I'll try to add more pics soon. Love to all!

Spring Break

Let me just start this post off by saying that I had this entire thing typed and ready to be posted when I somehow deleted the whole thing! And of course, this darn thing is so good at saving every minute or so, the last draft was completely blank. UGGGGGHHHHH! Oh well, her we go again . . .

So, another spring break has come and gone. If anyone knows where the time goes, can you please try to get it back! It seems like I just went back to school and now I'm on the downhill slide towards summer. Not bad when it comes to having a couple of months off, but not so good when you're trying to savor every moment with a 2-year-old.

We decided to stay home and do a couple of things in Austin this year. Our fun started on Thursday afternoon. We took Anneliese to Zilker Park to ride the train. The park has a small train that takes you around the park and Town Lake. She loves trains and had a blast riding it. She still says daily, "I ride choo choo." I forgot to take a picture of her on the train. Oops. But I did get a couple of shots of her playing on the playground before the train took off.

We then took her to the rodeo so she could see some of the animals. That girl was in heaven!

First, she rode a pony. She thought it was really funny when the pony started talking to her. Ask her and she'll tell you what that pony said. ;)

Then it was on to the petting zoo. I thought she might be a little scared of the animals, but she grabbed the cup of feed and went up to every animal that would let her get close. She kept scooping up the mulch off the ground trying to get the animals to eat more. She had no fear . . .

. . . until this llama tried to eat her hair. That freaked her out a little, but it didn't last long.



After she survived all of the animals, she got her very own ice cream cone! She loved getting to carry it around and of course, made a complete mess of herself. But that was okay because she looked adorable and had a great time!



On Friday, we took her to see her first movie (well, technically, not her first movie because she went with us to see a movie when she was a little baby, but the first one for her to watch) - Horton Hears a Who. All week long, all we heard was "ephalant movie? yeah?" (she's working on her elephant pronunciation!). After she ate an entire hot dog and watched 15 minutes of previews she says, "Go bye bye now?" And I thought that this wasn't going to go well and I was getting a little bummed because I really wanted to be able to see the whole movie. Well, she composed herself and watched the first part of the movie, slept through the middle and woke up in time to see the end. I'd say it was a successful movie experience! I've got to be honest, I'm excited that she's getting to this age because now I have someone to go see the "kid" movies with me!

Then came the weekend and what a weekend it was! Jason, Missy, Corey and Constance along with Brett and Jason's friend Whitney came over for a little pre-Fiddlers' Frolics barbecue. Needless to say, the weather was BEAUTIFUL on Saturday. Anneliese and Constance practically played until they dropped. They were running in and out of the house all day, playing with every single toy Anneliese has.

Here's Anneliese having a little pre-party drink, preparing herself for the fun about to begin.



She decided to practice her frown for a minute.



We were practicing our washer throwing skills to prepare for the weekend. I guess Anneliese has one too many sips of juice (she must take after her Uncle Jason).



Unfortunately, I was too busy having a good time on Saturday, so I forgot to take pictures. I did get one picture during one of the more quiet times that Constance and Anneliese had.



And perhaps, some of us had more fun than the others. This was at about 9:30 Saturday night. It'd been a long day!



To his defense, he did get back up to play a couple more washer games. Of course it took a few yells, pushes and kicks to get him there. ;) Brandon and Jason C. did a great job on the brisket and Jason cooked some really good beans so I think we're ready for barbecue cook-off season to begin!

Check back soon for an Easter update!

New Toy!

For Anneliese's 2nd birthday, we decided it was time for her to have a swingset. After much searching, we finally bought one! Of course, then we had to wait for a weekend with nice weather for the boys to get to work. Well, a few weekends ago was the perfect weekend! Anneliese and I went in to Hallettsville so that I could help dad with the Jr. High Track Meet (an annual tradition). While we were there, my fabulous husband and excellent brother got to work on the swingset. It took them most of the day on Saturday and a couple of hours on Sunday, but the outcome was well worth all of the work because Anneliese was SOOOOOO excited to see her very own swing and slide in her very own backyard. I think we're in for a lot of fun this spring and summer!

And I'll leave you with a few of her "2 Year Old" pictures. Once again, JC Penney's did a great job!

Happy Easter, everyone! I'll try to update the blog with an Easter post before the summer! ;)

p.s. If there are any bloggers reading this who can tell me how to get spaces between my pictures, I would appreciate your help.

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!