Swimming

Scott came back to watch a swimming lesson & snap some photos! These two kids love the swim class! Jumping in is THE favorite, but Annabelle also loves to be thrown up in the air & splash in the water on the way down (only to waist deep people - don't worry!)

Here is Avery & Annabelle our master swimmers!
And here is Annabelle - she loves it - if you can't tell!

The Zoo

We had a great morning at the Denver Zoo! With nothing on the schedule (yipee), and warm weather in the forecast. We packed up the stroller and walked to the zoo for the morning! Scott & I got some great exercise, & Annabelle took a little snooze on the way there so she would be fully rested for the animals! It was super cute, I think this is the first time she has really seen the animals and man did she love it! She was smiling, pointing and shrieking with joy the whole time! It was hilarious! We loved it! It was if she was saying "did you guys know they have animals here???" or "So this is why you have been bringing me here for the past year!" On our way back we stopped at our neighborhood market to grab some sandwiches - yummy! And then headed home so everyone could catch a LONG nap! A perfect Sunday if you ask me!

So here she is with the polar bears (my absolute favorite zoo animal from my childhood - I have stories, but we will save those for another day!) They were right up by the glass, and she LOVED it!

This way next!! I want to go see what animal is over there!

Fishes are cool!! Looks like it might be time for a trip to the aquarium as well!

In awe of the sheep!

I really didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked, because I was truly enjoying the experience of the zoo through Annabelle's eyes! She was really amazed by all animals!

One of the many reasons we LOVE Denver!!

There are many reasons to LOVE living in Denver, but this is definitely one of them...

These pictures were taken at 9:30am today -

(There are so many possible captions to this picture but clearly Annabelle is ready for Spring!)

And this one was taken at 3pm today - no joke the grass was even dry!
Snowing one minute / 60 degrees the next! LOVE IT!

Thank you

Annabelle has really mastered the sign for "thank you" which is so cute. Now when she hears someone say "thank you", she quickly shows you the sign, which works well when I am there to give her the cue!

We keep learning signs & it is super fun every time she picks up a new one!

Door to Door Delivery!

100% organic (only because they will not let you take ANYTHING when you are prego!) & super cute! I think she should get paid to advertise for them! :)

Just realized that most of you will probably not know what the heck I am talking about right now... shortly after I headed back to work from maternity leave, I was introduced to this great company that delivers organic fruits & vegetables weekly. We get a box every other week, and I love it! And as you can see Annabelle likes the box (she eats what comes in it as well!)

Walking

Yep that is right, Annabelle took her first official step on Friday, but really just one. Tonight we got her to take 4 steps between us. She is still in that really cautious stage, but she is extremely proud of herself when she makes it four steps.

Here is some video...but keep in mind this was after we enjoyed many attempts and by this point she was sort of taking a step and then falling into me - which was also fun!

Cruising the block

It was another nice day here in Denver so when Scott came home he said we should bring out Annabelle's car & cruise the block!

This picture is just sort of funny. It was an accident picture but I keep staring at it because it is kind of cool! I wish we weren't in the shade of a big tree but I still kind of like it. Maybe it is just because I took it! :)

Breakfast at the Iten's

This is a shout out to all the mom's out there.... HOW DO THEY DO THAT??
I am by no means "neat" when I eat. My stained shirts can attest to that - but how do you get so much food on your face? Scott seriously thought she scratched her forehead later in the afternoon, when I explained it was just the raspberry filling from the cereal bar she had for breakfast.

Happy Love Day!

I had to share this picture because it is SO ANNABELLE! She loves books and she will sit in a pile of them and just flip through the pages. Now that she has her new chair she brings a couple over and "sits" & "reads" to herself. Adorable!

Of course this is SO ANNABELLE as well! Hee hee
She was upset because she saw a bottle of milk. If anyone has witnessed this, it isn't pretty. You would think by now she would know if there is a bottle of milk in mommy or daddy's hands that it is for her! It still (usually) makes me laugh.

Happy to be Home & a New Chair!

So I have to say even though we had fun in the mountains - I could really tell that Annabelle was happy to be home! We all changed right into comfy clothes and spent the rest of the day lounging in true Iten fashion!

Scott & I didn't get Miss A much for the holidays (or her birthday for that matter) this year, because we figured she would get a ton from family & friends (which she did.) I did however get the insert for this chair last summer and in early December I decided that it would be the ideal time for her to have it. So Scott & I went to Pottery Barn Kids together to pick out a slipcover that we both thought would be perfect for Annabelle. Well we picked it out but I really wanted it monogrammed with her name and PBK wouldn't do it because they only monogram a maximum of 8 letters! How stupid is that? Great! So it took me two months to get this over the place I take stuff for monogramming (yes I have a place!) But finally we were able to unveil it to Annabelle and man does she LOVE it!

Standing on the furniture already! I think jumping comes next!

First Donut & Sledding

Our Saturday in the mountains was a little rough! Annabelle was still not feeling 100%, and we had to switch condos so she missed her afternoon nap! Deadly combo! But she got an excellent nights sleep and was ready to go on Sunday. We packed up the car and went to get a donut for breakfast! She of course loved her first donut (blueberry was an excellent choice!)

This is a picture of packing up the car - she is getting so big! She just climbed right up on the luggage cart.

After a donut we had enough energy to hit a sledding hill! Here she is going down the hill with Daddy!

This might be a new favorite picture! Even thought it was overcast, I love that you can see the mountain in the background, and Scott must be discussing with Annabelle what a great ride they just had!

After a few runs we just pulled her around in the sled at the bottom of the hill

Back at the car, striping off a few layer for the ride home!

Daddy's Basketball Game in Summit County

Scott's team was playing Summit County so we decided to make a weekend of it! Annabelle & I spent the morning together and got packed up. We went to lunch with some of my girlfriends from work, and then off we went up to Breckenridge. We got us all checked in at Grand Timber and made it just in time for tip off! There wasn't a ton of people in the stands so she got to run around a bit, and she loved being in the bleachers right behind Daddy's bench. At our home court we sit across the gym from the bench so she can't always see Scott through all the players and action. She shrieked with joy every time she noticed her Daddy, and he of course loved hearing her in the stands!

I can flirt with older boys when Daddy is busy with his team! :)

GO WARRIORS!

Watching a little of the game!

Eye & Ear Infection

Well this sure made me feel like a bad parent!! In January Annabelle had some sniffles, a cough & a round of the stomach flu. Because of all the illness, she had been randomly getting up in the middle of the night for various reasons, but usually because her cough would wake her up. Since we felt bad that she wasn't 100% we let her come sleep with us the rest of the night (I know, I know this is not a good idea.) Well I finally thought that she was on the mend, so we wanted to get back to her sleeping though the night in her own bed. So when she woke up at 4am, Scott checked on her, and I said "lets just turn off the monitor, she will cry herself to sleep and then hopefully we can break this habit." So that is what we did. Annabelle was super groggy in the morning, but we both just figured she had cried longer than we thought she would (remember we turned off the monitor.) Well we got her ready and out of the house, she slept all the way up to Noelle, which isn't totally out of the ordinary. I told Noelle the story and warned her that Annabelle might take an extra long nap. Well by 10am Noelle was calling me, Annabelle's eye was all swollen!! After calling the doctor, watching her for two days & two doctors appointments, it turns out she has eczema and she probably rubbed it into her eye causing a nasty eye infection that spread to both eyes and turned into an ear infection. Have you ever heard of such a thing?? My poor baby!

This is what it looked like before it got really bad - just her right eye.

Not sure you can really see this on the blog, but this was when the right eye was really bad - but notice she is still smiling! You have to love that about kids!

And the close up - in both eyes - and this wasn't even the worst of it, but I think you can see she definately had an infection. She is going to hate me some day for posting these but this is part of the reason I have been such a bad blogger! As you can tell from these photos I was focused on Miss A. After two rounds of antibiotics, she finally is back to her old self, which is wonderful. Many more posts to come!

Super Bowl Sunday

We went to the Thomas house for Super Bowl '09. Annabelle got to play with Dillon & Avery and we sort of got to watch the game. Annabelle loved going up their stairs unfortunately she still doesn't know how to go down! The 3D glasses were fun for a moment, but mostly it is always more fun to play with other kids toys!

Annabelle & Dillon cooking!