Love and Hugs from Anna

We went to Branson mid-October to celebrate Travis' great-aunt's birthday. The weather was beautiful, the leaves were changing. It was a nice weekend getaway with the family. While we were there, I snuck away with Emma and Anna to go visit my friend Kate and her newlywedded husband Nick. Emma and Nick had a great time chasing each other around the yard, as Kate and I caught up on life and looked at her wedding photographs. And, what was Anna doing? Well, Anna made a friend. Meet Samwise.

I want to feel bad for this poor little kitten, but really, he just laid there and let it happen. Anna would scoop him up and carry him to Kate. Kate would put him on the ground. Samwise would walk about 5 feet away and lay down in a kitty-cat stretch. Anna would walk over, scoop him up, and they'd do it all over again. I know I love getting hugs from Anna, but do you think maybe he liked it too?

Apple Pickin' and Pumpkin Patchin'

So, I realize that these are not the long-awaited birthday pictures that I promised, but since its been 5 months to the day since I made said promise, I figure some more recent pictures are more appropriate. Enjoy!

Travis' Aunt Amy and family go apple picking every year, and this year, I kind of invited our little family to join them. Friday night we drove to Jeff City for a little quality time with Grammy and PawPaw John. Saturday morning we all got up early and caravanned to St. Charles, where the Millers live. We met there, got directions, and then caravanned onward. Because of the recent flooding, we got to take two ferries across the Mississippi River to get to the orchard.

Carson and Gage are pictured here with us. Carson was the ring bearer in our wedding over 6 years ago... He's all grown up now!

Our first big stop was at this cute little roadside place to buy pumpkins. Anna was just in awe over the rows of big orange balls. :-) She had to sit on all of them to find the perfect one.

After we got our pumpkins loaded up, we continued on to Eckard's Orchard. When we got there, we had a picnic lunch.

Then we waited in line to board a wagon, which drove us out to the prime picking spot in the orchard.

Emma was amazed at all the rows and rows of apple trees. And she caught on quickly too - she really loved picking apples. She pulled them off the tree with gusto, then tossed them into the bag with just as much energy. :-)

Anna didn't have quite the upper body strength to pull the apples off the tree, so she enjoyed eating them instead. It was pretty funny - Anna would just sit in a pile of fallen apples and eat to her heart's content. Then, she'd toss that apple aside, pick up another one, and begin again.

Family Photo - three of us posing with our apples, and then Anna - completely oblivious and loving every minute of it!

After we'd eaten as many apples as we could handle, we walked back to the main orchard house. We all shared funnel cakes and drank apple cider - Anna really liked the apple cider! Then, we paid for our treasures, and headed back to the car. Back across the two ferries, back to St Charles, and then straight down I-70 headed for home.

When you figure in the cost of gas in driving all the way to Illinois, food there and back, and then the actual cost per pound of the apples, these were probably the most expensive apples ever. But, the experience was priceless.

Just ask Emma.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA!

I took some cute pictures this last week, that hopefully I'll be posting soon, but I wanted to jump online real quick and remind everyone that EMMA IS 3!!!! This morning, we woke her up singing "Happy Bithday" to her, and she asks, "Why am I not two anymore? Why am I three now?" Such a smarty. And now that she's 3, I guess its officially time to start thinking about schooling. Oddly enough, I have had two people ask me about our plans for preschool already. Yikes. I guess it is time to start thinking about all of that, huh? Lots of decisions to make... Be praying for us and we ask for guidance in this big decision.

Travis asked Emma what she wanted for lunch today. She said Sonic. I love that kid! ;-)

It's been a crazy weekend, and a crazy week is ahead of us...but I'll try to post those pictures soon!

Fun Friday Photos

I haven't posted any pictures lately, because I haven't taken any pictures lately. Oops! But here are a few fun one from the last couple of days.

Emma's latest thing is combing her own hair. She takes her little stool and goes to sit in front of her mirror. She'll just sit there for 10-15 minutes stroking the same side of her head with the comb. Please note that she is combing the SAME side of her head...because that's the only side she combs as of yet. Her seriousness is pretty amusing if you ask me. ;-)

I think she looks a lot like my sister Rosie in the picture above.


If this is what she's like now, what's she going to be like in 10 - 15 years? We're in trouble!!!



"Look, Momma! We're ready for some sun!"
Anna found these sunglasses yesterday and she really did love wearing them. She kept taking them off and wanting me to put them on her over and over.
Good thing she likes them - we've got season passes to the zoo this year, so we'll be wearing our sunglasses A LOT this summer (if it ever stops raining, that is).

These next few pictures are from this morning. Emma is quite the multi-tasking mom. Notice how she's holding the bottle with her face, so she can take a drink. I guess she's learning from the best!

And Anna has becoming quite the little momma herself. And just in the last 24 hours. She has carried around a babydoll with her everywhere lately. Baby and bottle - and off she goes. She sits and feeds her, hugs her, puts her in the swing, and even shares her with us to cuddle with too.

I find this pretty amusing because Emma really didn't get into dolls until she was a little older. Then, once Anna was born, Emma totally embraced motherhood. I guess Anna's just been watching her older sister, because she really seems to know what she's doing.
And of course, she's loving every minute of it.
I am too.