1st Day of School

It's hard to believe we're already 2 weeks into the new school year. Anneliese had her first day at St. Ignatius on August 17 and things went pretty good. I think her daddy and I had a harder time watching her march off in her cute little school uniform than she did leaving us. She looks so stinkin' cute in her uniforms and we just can't believe that our sweet baby girl is getting so old! Every morning during the first week I had to work hard to hold back tears as I left her in line with the other kids in her class. She is adjusting well and is finally starting to make new friends. The early mornings are still a little rough on all of us but they're getting better. Brandon and I can't believe that we have an awake and happening household at 6:15 in the morning! We have definitely begun a new stage in our lives.

Here are some pics from her first day of school.






As far as Ainsley goes, she's still just hanging out, waiting to make her debut. The doctor said on Thursday that she's not showing any signs of getting ready to come out yet. However, he did say the same thing about Anneliese and next thing we knew, she was here. I guess time will tell.

I'll leave you all with a fun shot of Sally and I from her baby shower a week ago. As you all can see, my belly is quite out there and if you ask me, Ainsley looks like she's ready to come out!



Maybe the next post will be about Ainsley's arrival. One can hope . . .

Love to all!

July Fun

Once again, we've had a busy month. Luckily, things calmed down a bit in July, but I would say it's never actually "calm" around here.

July started off with a nice, low-key 4th of July celebration. Jason and Bludau came to join us for the once again great Buda fireworks. Anneliese did much better this year than last year (last year a train scared her and she sat with her face covered up for the majority of the show). She picked Bludau as her best friend of the day and pretty much stayed right by him the whole time he was here. She watched the whole show, but the noise started to bother her a bit by the end so her ears did get covered.







Anneliese finally got to take swimming lessons during July. I've been wanting her to take lessons at the Y since last summer but just never got around to registering her and making the plans. Since our girl is a total fish in the pool and has no fear we decided we better finally do it. She just completed 2 weeks of lessons and she can actually "swim" a few feet all by herself. She's not quite ready to challenge Michael Phelps but give her a few more summers and she just may be there!





We also took Anneliese to see Dora Live at the Bass Concert Hall this past week. As most of you know, she's loved Dora for quite a while and she's seen the commercials on Noggin (the best thing since sliced bread, by the way!) so we thought it'd be fun to take her. It was really quite a fun show and she really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, we couldn't use our camera during the show so we only got a couple of pics during intermission.

Here she is with her Daddy enjoying a little photo op with the Dora Live poster.


And here she is showing off her Dora coloring book and her Star. She's got on her Backpack - ready to help Dora on the next adventure.


We've also done our fair share of playing and just clowning around this month.


And here's Anneliese's contribution to the photo world - don't you just love the bow in Maggie's hair!


Finally, we've got the rooms completed. Getting ready for Ainsley's arrival meant transforming Anneliese's room into a room for 2. This meant gettting all of the toys out of there to make room for a baby bed. The transition went quite well. Anneliese loves her new toy room (our spare bedroom) and I think she likes having Ainsley's bed in her room too. As you can see from the photo, she's already put her mark on the decorating by loading the crib full of stuffed animals and a baby.





She's going to be a great big sister!

It's hard to believe that we've only got 2 weeks of summer left before I go back to school (3 for Anneliese)! The next blog will probably be a back to school one. Wow, how time flies!

Love to all,
Brandon, Jennifer & Anneliese

Summer Activities

Warning - this post is super long! Sorry - the month of June has been super busy for us so I'm just now getting to sit down and get everything on the blog. Grab a snack, get comfortable, and enjoy . . . :)

Backyard Swimming
At the very beginning of the summer, we bought Anneliese a new pool for our backyard. It's quite fun and she's really enjoyed playing in it. We even had Klayton and Kenzie come over and play in it too.











The Beach
Next up was our family vacation with Mom, Dad and Jason to the beach. Every year that we go, Anneliese loves it more and more. I think she definitely had the most fun this year. The hit of the whole trip was the swimming pool. She literally would wake up in the morning and the first words out of her mouth were "I want to go to the swimming pool." That girl is a fish!









Of course, we all had fun at the beach too.









It's hard to tell in this picture but it's of Brandon and Anneliese flying her kite. You can see the kite in the sky. She had a lot of fun having that flying over us.



Anneliese's favorite part of being on the beach was feeding the birds. All of the sea gulls around the Gulfstream are about 10 pounds heavier now that we've been there.



Thanks again to mom and dad for another fabulous year at the beach!

Being a flower girl
This past weekend Anneliese got to be a flower girl in Cody and Alisha's wedding (they are friends of Jason's who have become friends of ours). We borrowed a dress from Angela (and Ella) that fit Anneliese perfectly. Thanks for letting us use the dress. She looked like such an angel. And she did a fantastic job! She stood where she needed to for all of the pictures (she was actually the only one who cooperated the whole time), walked down the aisle like a champ and just was an all around trooper.









And finally, here's what you get after a month full of so many activities!


I'll close with a baby #2 update: All is going well and we are all trying to get ready for Ainsley Dell's arrival. I've been working hard trying to get Anneliese's room ready to be a room for two and we've transformed our guest bedroom into a toy room/guest room. Both rooms are getting closer to being done but aren't quite there yet. I'll post pictures when they're ready. Now, if I can just figure out how to stay cool in this 100 degree weather, we'd be all set!

If you've stuck around through this whole blog, thanks for taking the time to read the updates on our family. We're looking forward to more summer fun during the month of July. Hope everyone is doing well!

Love to all,
Brandon, Jennifer & Anneliese

Friends

In this crazy world we live in, it's nice to have friends. Especially the kind that have been around for your whole life, or at least over half of it. :)




I got a rare chance to catch up with my 2 closest friends and their families this weekend. Ashley and Mandy, you have beautiful children and I'm so glad we got to see you this weekend. Friends like you are rare and precious.

Happy Belated Mother's Day!

To all of the mother's out there - I hope you all had a fabulous day - you all deserve it! I hope your children made your heart feel as warm and fuzzy as mine did when Anneliese started singing her mother's day song for me. We are all so blessed to have such perfect children in our lives. Here's Anneliese's special mother's day message to all of you:



We love you all!

Easter 2009

*DISCLAIMER* I have had this post drafted since the week after Easter; however, our internet has been iffy at best over the last several weeks so I'm just now getting to actually post it.


Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! We spent the weekend in Hallettsville surrounded by the families that we are so blessed to be a part of.

Easter started out with another fabulous Henke get-together on the Hill on Good Friday. The kiddos had a great time running around, jumping on the trampoline and riding the camo jeep! They got to go on a ride looking for the Easter bunny and while they were gone, that sneaky bunny came up on the hill to hide eggs for all of them. Luckily, they got back before the bunny left so we did get a few pics with the Easter bunny. Anneliese loved him again. Though, she keeps asking who was in the costume. I hope I don't have that annoying kid who figures it all out before they're 5! Anyway, Anneliese got lots of candy and had fun playing with all of her cousins, especially Klayton. Those 2 just love each other!






On Sunday we got to celebrate Easter with the Noskas. Anneliese had a ton of fun playing with Constance! We got to break confetti eggs over each other and then the girls got to do their very own egg hunt. Of course, Anneliese got more candy!





She must have been a very good girl this year because the Easter bunny visited her at Nana's house, Granny's house and at our house. At each stop, she got more candy. Which means we now have more Easter candy at our house than we could possibly eat in one year! She also got a bunch of other neat stuff.




I do think she is the luckiest girl in the world to be part of such wonderful families! Love to all!

p.s. Baby #2 update - We go in on May 13 to find out if we're having a boy or girl! I'll keep you all posted.

Life with a 3 year old . . .

Here's what happens when you leave your 3 year old outside, alone, for 5 minutes so you can vacuum the living room. This is why I don't vacuum more often! ;)