Four Months

Annie is four months old. She is doing great. I don't have her growth stats yet because we've been too sick to get her in for her four month appointment. Her hair looks more red every day and her eyes seem to have settled to a blue-gray color. She is sleeping through the night from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. She loves tummy time and can hold her head up very well. She has been rolling over from her back to her stomach for about three weeks now. She loves to smile and laugh and has a great new belly laugh that she does when she is surprised or gets tickled. We're still having great success with nursing and she still only eats breastmilk. We're hoping to introduce solids soon. Her latest achievement is blowing raspberries. Her favorite toys are her hands and feet. We love you Annie-Annie-Annie!

Pretty Little Lily

Puna sent Lily a child's make up kit for Valentine's Day. The lipstick is her favorite. Mommy has to hide it or else we end up with a very made-up little girl. She loves to put it all over her face. Please don't send us any more lipstick Puna!

Crystal Hot Springs

Before leaving Utah we stopped at a place called Crystal Hot Springs. It was a cold winter day but we didn't feel the chill at all out here. The water was fantastic. Lily had so much fun swimming. But she did learn the hard way that you should not swallow the water. She got a mouthful and it made her really sick.

The nice thing about this place was the different pools. There was one that felt cool like a swimming pool and there were others that gradually increased in temperature. I don't like hot tubs or saunas so it was nice to escape to a cooler pool when I started to feel warm.

It was hard to get a lot of pictures because of all the steam. We will definitely come visit this place again.

Treehouse Museum

For President's Day weekend we made a trip to Utah to see our cousins and grandparents. Lily had so much fun playing with her cousin Jasmine. For a special treat, Grammy and Grampy Hall took us to a place called The Treehouse Museum followed by lunch at McDonalds and then a trip to swim at a hot spring.

There was so much to do and see in the museum. Our cousins have been there before so they took off running and we didn't see much of them again until it was time to go home. Lily was a little slower in her exploration. She was a little overwhelmed by all the things to do. We only saw about 1/8 of the whole place. We loved how interactive and clean it was. And there are things to do for all age ranges. We will be visiting this place again so we can try the rest of it.

Lily was initially excited about riding this horse, but got scared once she was up. Here is her cousin Drake showing us how it is done.

We got to "milk" a cow. Lily thought this was so cool. It is set up to squeeze out water when you milk it.


At each exhibit there are puzzles and books. Lily spent a lot of time with the train puzzles.

She also loved the baby exhibit. You could dress up like a doctor and give the babies a checkup. You could weigh them, feed them, change them, and put them to bed. She didn't want to leave this one.

Until Grandma showed her the drums. Lily kept calling them "dums."


Her favorite thing by far was the fire engine. She thought it was a train. She loved the clothes to put on and she took a turn "driving" it. She spent most of the time at the museum here.


And she looked so cute that we let her stay as long as she wanted!

Valentine Cookies Part II

We finally decorated those valentine cookies. I put them in the freezer because we all came down with a serious case of the yucks for a few days. I gave Lily one cookie and matching M&M's to accessorize with while I started to *sparkle* some of the cookies I had just frosted. She was not happy. For her, this cookie day was all about the *sparkles* and she wanted to do it herself!

I gave her whatever decorating tools she wanted and let her have fun. Here she is showing you the EMPTY bottles of colored sugar (a.k.a. *sparkles*).

When we ran out of cookies for my little cookie fairy to *sparkle* I pulled out some graham crackers. She kept busy with these for over 1/2 an hour.

Here she is telling me that her *sparkles* are all gone. I kept scraping them off the counter and refilling the bottles while I worked on other cookies.

Some of our finished product. All the *sparkle* cookies were frosted by Mommy and touched with magic by Lily. What a fun morning. Thank you for bringing your own *sparkle* to our family Lily Bug!

FROSTY!

We decorated "Frosty" this morning. Lily was so excited. It was hard to get her to hold still for the pictures. I love how she is giving Frosty an adoring look in the photo below. This girl is nuts about snowmen.

Valentine Cookies

We made Valentine Cookies today while Annie was sleeping. Lily had a blast. She cried when we ran out of dough. She was a great helper (read: mess maker)! And yes I know her face is messy. We had to act fast while the baby was asleep and I didn't notice the messy face until we were done taking pictures. What's a mom to do?





Lily is a little obsessed with Frosty the Snowman. She sings the song all the time and wants to watch the movie every day. Mommy finally hid the movie so Lily couldn't find it. Of course we had to make a "Frosty" out of cookie dough. We even tried baking one. We'll decorate it later.



As a finishing touch, Mommy spelled Lily's name with cookie dough to use up the remnants that had been overworked by little hands. Lily was so excited. She didn't want to eat it so that Daddy could see it when he got home from work.

The kitchen is such a mess now. We'll probably wait until tomorrow to decorate our heart cookies so that Mommy can recover and clean up today. Have a happy Valentines' Day!

Big Girl Bed

Lily is now sleeping in a big girl bed. Annie has left the cradle and is sleeping in the crib. Lily stays in the bed all night and loves to jump out first thing in the morning to come and find us. She is growing so fast.

Like My Papa?

The consensus among the Hall family is that Annie looks like her Papa Wanner. The consensus among the Wanner family is that Annie is all Hall. I think it is still too early to tell. To me she looks like both of her grandfathers. And I think that is awesome.

Our always happy girl

Annie is such a joy. She is always so happy to see us and be with us. She laughs at Lily. People always love her hair. She is a great eater and sleeper. We are just delighted to have her in our family. It is hard to capture her smile on camera because she is afraid of the flash. When she hears the camera beep she looks surprised or concerned. You'll just have to take my word for it that she is one smiley baby.

February 3, 2011 - A Day in the Life of Lily

There was nothing special about yesterday's date. I just felt like it would be fun to follow Lily around with the camera to journal how she spent her day as a two-year-old. First thing in the morning, she loves to drink milk.....and wear bows in her hair.

Then we sat down to read a new book from Grammy Hall.

Every day at 8:00 a.m. she sits down to watch Curious George on PBS. She decided the trampoline would make a good seat this morning.

After cleaning up, getting dressed, and playing with Annie we drove to meet Daddy for lunch. Lily was more interested in staying out in the snow. I had to bribe her with an elevator ride to get her out of the frigid 3 degree weather.

Waiting for the elevator to meet Dad and have lunch.


Enjoying a walk on campus with Daddy.

More playing in the snow on the way back to the car.

This is how she looked after her nap. Grammy made this pillow - which is now a hat.

Enjoying some computer time with Mommy while Annie sleeps. This is a new favorite website where she can build a snowman and make it sing.

Afternoon snack!
Some self portraits while Mommy was feeding Annie. Notice the red stains from the popsicle in all the following pics.....

Play time with Mommy and Annie. Lily loves to push this snail across the floor.

Manicure time! I have found that Lily will let me cut her fingernails if I paint them after they are cut.
Lily would not hold still to model the "magic sparkle" polish - so here is a pic of Mommy's fingers.

Wearing every single hair bow we own. I was trying to get her to stay on the potty so I let her hold a mirror and put in the bows. I just love her expression in this one.

Daddy came home and we had dinner. Then Lily and Daddy had some one on one time playing blocks.
Post bath.

Lily likes to be efficient when brushing her teeth. One toothbrush for each side of her mouth.

Finally.....bed time! Good night!