Pumpkin Birthday Party

Happy 1st Birthday to Annika!  We hosted her birthday party in our apartment the Saturday before her actual birth date.  It was great to be able to have my dad and step-mom in town to help us prepare for the party and relax the next day.  I had no idea that a child's party would take so much planning and energy!  I thank Pinterest for food and decoration ideas.  It was Kyle's idea and creativity that provided us with a home-made pinata.  I anticipate that this will be a birthday tradition.  We appreciated the friends and family that were able to come and celebrate this milestone with us.  We would have loved to be able to invite more people, but it gets a big tight in our apartment!  Having 9 children and accompanying parents was quite the full house for us!  It was fun to have the kids in costumes, even if the costumes didn't stay on for very long.

Great sign, courtesy of Annika's Aunt Jessica.

Quite the active bunch.  I especially liked Indy as a monkey and her little brother as the banana :)

Playing with her big cousin Brett.

Yummy food with a pumpkin cake, cupcakes with black cats on the top, and plenty of snacks.

Family picture with our pinata.

Annika only wanted to eat the chocolate cat from the top of the cupcake.

We had plenty of help for opening the presents.

Annika loves her cousins!

12 Months Old!

 12 Month Stats

Weight:  18lb 8 oz (10th-20th percentile)

Height:  29.5 in. (75th percentile)

New skills: Walking on her own across rooms in the house, FINALLY being able to get to a seated position from her tummy, squatting down to pick things up (on her own!), saying "go","duck", and signing "eat", "water","please", "thank you", puckering her lips to give us proper kisses :)

New foods:  At daycare, Annika is trying what the bigger kids are having for lunch.  Over the last couple of weeks, she's eaten roasted pork, a variety of root veggies, beef stew, and more.  She also likes egg, toast, and always loves to have yogurt.  She enjoys the fresh foods we make and refuses to eat most of the we offer food from baby jars.

Firsts:  Visit to the dentist went really well and Annika let him look in her mouth. We had our first couple of baby-sitters (students at a local college), so we could go on dates :)  We went to a Halloween party with lots of other babies. She loved picking out candy from our basket and seeing costumed kids on Halloween.  Of course, her 1st birthday party!

Big Happenings:  We switched to a new daycare so Annika is now 2 minutes from work, instead of 20-30 minutes.  This makes my mornings and afternoons so much easier!

Biggest Surprise: Annika will have a new cousin in May! Congratulations to Kyle's younger brother Joel and his wife Jessica.