Anna-8 months

Well, I realized that we did not have a ton of pictures of Anna's 8th month, and once again, I am behind on getting this post up:(  I did want to get up some of what I did take as well as share that the biggest milestone she reached this month was learning to crawl!  She took off about a week before 8 months.  This has made us much busier parents as we are chasing 3 around now! 

Anna did spend the night at Auntie KK's for the first time as well, but we did not get any pictures:( 

Here are some pictures of her 8th month...

Go Anna!

She loves being able to get around.  She never was much into rolling over so this has been fun for her to be able to get around all over!

She is so sweet!

Anna always has plenty of help from her sisters (whether it is wanted or not!).

She looks so different with her hair in a little ponytail!

A smile showing her 2 bottom teeth which is all she has at this point

Fun in the Snow!

We just got a week of lots of snow!  We have been waiting all winter to get some snow so that we could go play in the snow with the girls.  (Last winter, we didn't get much snow to speak of so we were really hoping we would get something to play in.)  Well, we got about 12 inches from a Wed.-Fri. snowfall, and then the following Monday-Tuesday, we got another 4-5 inches or so.  It was so beautiful to see falling and just covering the ground.  We spent lots of time getting the girls ready to play outside and then playing outside with them.  SO MUCH FUN!  Here are some pictures...

Watching the snow fall!  The girls were super excited!

All three girls ready to go outside.  It sure does take awhile to get all the snow suits on, but so worth it in the end to see the girls have fun.  I went to my mom's house the first day of snow so that I could take Megan and Emily out while Nana watched Anna, but we had to take Anna out for a little bit to take pictures!

Anna's first time in the snow, and she was not too excited at first.  Her gloves fell off and her hat was in her eyes...poor girl.

This is much better when I can see!  What is this white stuff?

Just taking it all in....

As soon as she touched the snow, she started crying again.  It was just so cold for her little hands. 

Emily loved just sitting on Nana's porch her first time out in the snow this winter and just eat the snow.  The girls LOVED eating snow!

Emily eating the snow again, and Megan is digging in the snow. 

Where are you Emily?

A very common scene during the snow storm as Tim cleared a few driveways with his snowblower.  He was excited to use this snow blower as it was his first time using it since purchasing it two years ago.  Unfortunately, it broke a couple days in:(

The snow tasted so good.

Poor girl could not walk in the snow as it was just too deep.  I had to carry her around our backyard!

Making snow angels

"Emily's" snowman...made by mommy

Megan actually pretty much made this by herself other than me helping her fill in between the snowballs.  She found some snowballs that were more like snow chunks by the mailbox and stacked them together...working smarter not harder!

It was much easier walking on the sidewalk than in the snow!

The snowmen

Megan went outside during the girls' naps one day and just enjoyed walking on the snow.

She looks so tall standing on top of the snow piles.

Valentine's Day

 Obviously, everyday, we should show our love to our family and others, but I find it very nice to to have a holiday like Valentine's  Day to really concentrate showing love to my family and doing some extra fun simple things together with them.  I think it is a good reminder to really show our appreciation and love for others.  Here are some picture of Valentine's Day!

During Emily and Anna's nap time, Megan helped me with the dishes.  She LOVES washing dishes!

Then after the dishes were done, we started up making pizza dough together!

Since it was Valentine's Day, we made heart shaped pizzas.  We made few tiny ones so the girls could each decorate their own pizzas.

Emily putting on pizza sauce

Megan putting on her pizza sauce.

Spreading cheese on their pizza

Their little pizzas they made.  The two with black olives are supposed to be smiley faces:)

And of course, after they had made their pizzas, they got to enjoy eating some cheese!

Tim and Anna...what a picture! Tim had just woken up from sleeping to watch the girls make their pizzas and was still a little tired.  And poor Anna, she had a little ponytail the day before, and her hair was just sticking straight up all day.  Her mother should have taken the time to at least wet it down...Still a cute picture of both of them!

Anna's first Valentines Day and her heart shaped crust!

I love this little Valentine...she is so sweet!!  Her hair is just too funny!

After the kids went to bed, we had a little date together with...

...some cherry cheese cake and Code Red Mountain Dew.  I bought Code Red Mountain Dew to go with the pizza for Tim as he loves it (and I enjoy it too)!  The girls had strawberry milk to go with their pizza!

We did the normal making Valentine's cards as well.  We also got to skype with G & G Armstrong after our evening meal which was fun for all of us.  The girls got Valentine's treats from both sets of grandparents!  I love my family so much and am thankful for this fun little holiday to remind us to show our love to our family and others as well as do some extra fun things!

Special Memories with Seelys

So this post should have been written a LONG time ago, but obviously wasn't.  I thought about just crossing it off my list of posts that I would like to write, but I just can't do that.  These are memories that I want to have journaled down somewhere for us all to remember!

My sister, Karis, her husband, and 3 children have been away for 4 years being missionaries in Africa (well, 1 year in France at Language school).  Starting this last summer in 2012, they started their first furlough as missionaries.  I was so looking forward to seeing them again.  Dan had never met any of our kids, and Karis had just met Megan who was just 9 months at the time.  I had dearly missed my sister and just couldn't wait to have long talks and lots of laughing.  I was SO excited that the cousins would have an opportunity to play together for basically the first time!  4 years is just so long to not be able to see the ones you love so much. They have been able to be in Kansas for a couple weeks at two different times, and I did all I could to spend as much time with them as possible. 

The first set of pictures were of the fun memories we made all the way back in July 2012when they were here a couple of weeks! 

4th of July was so fun to spend together.  We all wore red/blue shirts. That morning, we took the kids to a 4th of July parade, then hit up the thrift shop to get some red shirts that some of us didn't have!  Then a trip to our local grocery store that was giving away free hotdogs and drinks!  We bought some fun fireworks and the kids enjoyed doing the small ones.  Dan gave us a good show at night with his fireworks.  Such a fun day for us all!  As you can tell by the picture, the girls were so excited with the fireworks.  They looked so cute in their little jean skirts and red shirts!

So fun to be together as sisters again.  I LOVE MY SISTERS!

A little movie after the fireworks were done.  Such intense faces!

Lots of cuddles for Anna Faith who was just maybe 4 weeks old!  Krista is with Anna.

A trip to Red Robin to enjoy my mom's birthday!

Some game time with the older cousins!

These two were too funny and a little mischievous!

Yes, they got away with dancing/singing on the beds here it looks like!  The girls loved being together...and Emily was very happy to be a part of the group here!

We enjoyed having the kids over at our house a couple of times.  Fun times on our swing set!

 

 

The second time they have been here on this furlough is they were here in December about 3 weeks I believe.  We filled these weeks full of activities! 

We enjoyed playing outside a lot as it was very nice weather for December.

The 2 E's!

Making some kind of soup I am sure!

Craft time with Auntie KK!  She provided some fun craft where they painted rocks.  The girls loved it!

Decorating Nana's tree that Dan found at a Goodwill! Super nice tree!

Such concentration!

We made Christmas cookies and let the kids help put in the ingredients.  The kids enjoyed this and while it took a lot longer to make the cookies, it was well worth it!

Everyone got into the action!

Tim getting in on the help.  He rolled out the dough.

Decorating the cookies

We got to meet up at Opies to eat with some of our family from my Dad's side.  It was a fun time to see everyone.

Enjoying my grandparents' famous swings!

Grandpa took us on a fun trip out in the pasture.

One night, we went to a tree lighting in Wichita...another fun first experience for all of us.  We enjoyed eating at Spangles before the lighting of the tree.

Enjoying some fireworks at the tree lighting

The cute cousins

Ended the night playing different games in our church basement

We enjoyed a fun day at the zoo together. 

Megan was so excited to have her cousins and best friend at the zoo with her!

I turned 31 when they were here, and they made me some cupcakes to celebrate.

Auntie KK had all of us girls over to her house for pizza, movie, and a craft!

Grandpa and Grandma Varner came and visited!

Karis, Karen, and I went on a shopping trip and took all the kiddos.  It went pretty well with all of them!

Enjoying an early Christmas before Dan and Karis had to leave.

Very special time as G & G Riffel were able to join us with our Christmas celebration.

A very cute picture to end on!  So sweet!

I have thoroughly enjoyed these two different times of seeing my sister and her family.  I believe we will have one more opportunity to see them again a couple of weeks before they go back to Africa.  I love the Seely family so much and am so thankful they are obeying the Lord's calling in going to Africa.  I miss them so much when they are gone, but I so treasure the times I get to spend with them when they are home!