Tea Party

Anna's tea party.....simply awesome.

Photo Shoot

A few weeks ago, we took Anna to get her 2 year and Christmas pictures taken at the Picture People (love that place)!  Here are most of the shots.  Since I borrowed =) them from their site, I can't get them any larger.

This one cracks me up.  After she threw all of the petals, she insisted that we had to clean all of them up immediately!  Here is collecting the petals.

Anna Loves Noah.......

...but does Noah love Anna?  

Honestly, I could not ask for a better 11 1/2 year old Siamese cat.  He definately tolerates all of Anna's love!

First PB&J

Anna has loooong been talking about peanut butter.  How she ever learned of it, I am not quite sure because while we like it, we don't eat a lot of it.  I probably buy at most two jars a year and I usually just use it for baking.  Anyway, since she turned 2 she has had peanut butter ice cream and peanut butter cookies.  Last weekend I gave her a PB&J for the first time and she has talked about it ever since (although one time she called it peanut butter and jellyfish).

Lovin' that PB&J!

Decorating Tree #2

Last Monday (I am a little behind on posting), Anna and I decorated our real tree with my glass ornaments.  Before we started we talked about how the ornaments could break easily and that we needed to be really careful with them.  Annalise was very gentle while decorating (I am glad that we practiced with our other tree) and kept telling me that we had to be very careful. =)  We also had a talk about how once the ornaments are on the tree they must stay on the tree and she has done an awesome job with that too (she does like to remind me and the cat that we have to leave them on the tree)!  Love that girl!

 She was very serious about her tree decorating!

Santa Claus

Yesterday, Annalise attempted to visit Santa Claus for the first time ever.  She has been talking for weeks that she "has" to talk to Santa.  What I don't think she realized though was that talking to Santa usually involves sitting in his lap.  Anna was not game for that -- no surprise.  Yesterday when we were at the mall after getting her holiday and 2 year pictures taken at the Picture People, Annalise noticed the kids waiting to see Santa and again, asked to talk to him.  So, we got in line.  While in line it occured to me that I never actually asked her what she was going to tell him that she wanted, so I asked her what she was going to say to Santa when we got up to him.  Anna replied that she was going to say "Merry Christmas!".  I informed her that he was probably going to asked her what she wants for Christmas, and again I got the "well-duh" tone, and the answer, "presents".  I said, "But what presents?"  She replied, "purple presents".  Fine.  Purple presents. So we waited longer.  Finally it was our turn and Anna immediately wanted me to pick her up.  We walked up to Santa and Annalise whispered really quietly that she wanted her purple presents and she did tell him Merry Christmas.  I then asked her if she wanted to sit in his lap, which she didn't.  Santa talked to her for a few seconds and I asked her again is she wanted to sit with him.  She didn't answer so I put her on his lap.  She freaked.  Scared. To. Death.  Oh, the look of horror on that poor girl's face.  Needless to say I scooped her up, she immediately stopped crying and gave Santa a high-five and a "thank you" for the coloring book.  Honestly, I didn't think she would even talk to him so I guess the visit went better than I anticipated!  The whole rest of the day Anna kept saying that she "cried at Santa".  Maybe next year she will sit with him!

Decorating Tree #1

Since we bought our house 4 years ago, we have been decorating two trees each Christmas.  We put one in our living room and one in the family room.  It started because I wanted to do a themed tree with only glass ornaments but yet we had so many other ornaments from over the years.  Many of the ornaments that we have I had since I was a child, Stan had since he was a child, some hung on my grandmother's tree each year and some are from a Great Aunt of mine who traveled around the world.  Needless to say we didn't want to get rid of those ornaments even though I really just wanted to switch to glass.  So, we decided to have a real tree in the living room with the glass ornaments and a fake tree in the family room with all of the "other " ornaments.  This way we also have a place to put any ornaments that Anna makes some day and any that we get as gifts. Today after we got our real tree (see below), Stan went to work and Anna and I decorated the fake tree.  It was so fun decorating with her!  She got so excited with each little ornament!

 She really concentrated on putting the ornaments on the tree!

 The bottom of the tree looks cute because Anna has clumps of ornaments together, some even on the same branch.  Notice the wreath she just stuck the branch through the hole and didn't even use the string hanger!

 This also made me laugh when I noticed it.  The snowman ornament is hanging off of the arm of the Cabbage Patch Kid ornament!

 Any ornament that made noise was a favorite of hers.  Here she found a little bell.

 Putting the bell on the tree.

The finished product.  On to tree number 2 either tonight or tomorrow night!