Anna is 9 months old!

Wow, nine months already! Time sure flies! Here's a couple of the latest pictures of my cutie:

In the last month, Anna has learned how to crawl, pull up on things, climb stairs, and clap her hands. She is also the proud owner of a brand new top tooth! On one hand, I am thrilled at all the new things she can do, but then again, I'm not so sure I am okay with her growing up so fast. I can't wait to see what this next month brings!

p.s. don't forget to check back with the slide show of the kids' monthly pictures because I update Anna's each month.

Out of the mouth of Ayden . . .

This morning, after Ayden went peepee in the toilet, he asked for some chocolate in a rather cute way. I was kneeling down beside him, helping him put his undies back on, and he had his arm around my neck for balance when he said, "I want chocolate, ya big fella". Needless to say, he got the chocolate.

First year photos

Ayden

Anna

A jam session

Today, while my Papa was over for a visit, he picked up Eric's guitar and started playing a song for Anna. So of course Ayden had to go find his guitar so he could play along.

. . . and then my camera stopped recording because it was full. Stinkin' camera.

Dancing queen

♫ "You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life. See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the dancing queen . . ." ♫

Anna is crawling!

Anna has been super close to crawling for a couple of weeks. She army crawls, but had not figured out how to crawl on her hands and knees, until today. Well, technically she knee, foot, knee, foots it, which is pretty cute. Anna still has to be enticed to crawl across the floor, hence the remote control.

A double feature

Ayden going through the stages of wanting my camera but not getting it:

Anna's air-swimming act:

So much to catch up on!

Okay, I've been pretty lazy about posting in the last week, so I'm gonna catch you up on what's been going on.

Here is a cute nakey picture of my sweet Anna girl:

On Tuesday, my washing machine flooded the laundry room/hall. Luckily, Eric works for a restoration company that also does water mitigation. The vinyl and underlayment had to come out so we will be remodeling sooner than we had planned. Ayden had a blast while the workers were here! He kept telling them that all the water came from the "toinet". He was also saying things like, "that's mama's broom" and "that's daddy's hammer". He had to gather up all of his hammers so he could help the guys, it was really cute.

Thursday, I took the kids to a local church that, during the fall and winter months, hosts playtime from 10 to 12 on Thursdays and Fridays. They have all kinds of toys including stuff for crawlers, balls, cars, trikes, slides and stuff to climb on, play kitchens, a basketball hoop, and spring horseys. It only costs $1.25 to play and it is so worth it! Ayden was having a great time playing with all the different kinds of toys. He had so much fun that we are going to start going there every Thursday to play.

Here's a fun one of Anna gettin' down an' dirty with her chicken lasagna:

Last night (Friday), Ayden had found Eric's basketball in the garage and brought it in the house to play with. When I called him for dinner he decided that the basketball needed to sit at the table, also. First, he put it in daddy's spot, but was told that daddy needed to sit there. Then, he put it in his own chair, but realized that it couldn't sit there because that was his seat. He decided that it could sit on one of the stools at the end of the table, and sit there it did. About halfway through dinner, Ayden held out a spoonful of dinner in the general direction of the end of the table where the ball was and said, "he need a bite". This is also where the door to the backyard is, so I thought Ayden was saying that he wanted to share his dinner with Otis (our dog), who was at the door begging to be let in. I then proceeded to lecture Ayden about how we are never supposed to feed Otis food from the table. He cut me off mid-lecture and said, "I gonna' share to the basketball!" and he leaned as far as he could toward the basketball with his little spoon held out there for it to take a bite. Being a smart little fellow and very observant, Ayden soon realized that, "he doesn't have any mouth". I was quite tickled!

After dinner, I used a wash cloth and cleaned Ayden up. As soon as he got out of his chair he picked the rag up and started cleaning up his basketball so that it too could be excused from the table.

And now, to all you listeners out there, here's something from that Cool Cat, Ayden Knepprath . . .

Whew!

Eric and I watched my sister's kids Saturday. Boy did we have a house full with a three year old, a two year old, a 10 month old, and an 8 month old!

An act of sharing:

Mean ol' Aunt Misha gives Toby a time-out

"You wanna' play baseball batter?"

Four little tornadoes can make quite the mess

My cutie nephew, Levi

The piano teacher and the student

How many babies can you find in this picture?

A rare moment of playing quietly

Random pictures from the last couple days.

Sizing one another up before the big race

A wonderful display of sportsmanship: Ayden helping Anna with her car trouble

Ayden "helping" dad rake the leaves

One of the first times Anna has pulled up on something. She is not getting to her feet yet, but it won't be long.

This is just plain cute!

A rare moment: I'm not the one taking the picture!

"No photos, please"

Piano prodigy

Ayden, the future photographer.

Any chance Ayden gets he will use my camera to take pictures. I have to remind him to not put his fingers in front of the lens, but other than that he usually takes decent pictures. Here are some that he took tonight while we were playing around.

He actually takes better pictures than Eric usually does, hahaha.

Three blind mice

My sister and her fiance live in New York City. At Halloween they like to dress up and participate in a parade in Greenwich Village (I think that's where it is). This year they teamed up with a friend of theirs and were the three blind mice. They were very popular and were asked to pose for lots of pictures.

Lupe

Saro

Barrett

Our Halloween

My mom is always very busy around Halloween. She takes on the job of making the Halloween costumes for her grandkids and has made such creations as spiderman, superman, batman, and all manner of fancy Barbie princess and fairy dresses. I think she is a glutton for punishment, but she seems to enjoy it even though she usually has to pull an all-nighter or two to get the costumes finished. This year she made an Olympic ice skater outfit for my niece, Jade, and a vampire outfit for my nephew, Laine. I think they turned out pretty cute:

Ayden loves all things piratical lately, so I thought it would be fitting for him to dress up as a pirate this year. His costume was store bought, but super-cute nonetheless:

I thought it would be cute if I was The Man in the Yellow Hat and Anna was Curious George. Anna's costume was store bought also, but my mom made mine. She got a white shirt and pants that she dyed yellow (this had to be done twice because the first outfit was too small). She even went to the trouble of shaping and gluing the felt for my purdy yellow hat (I told you - glutton for punishment).

We showed off our spiffy costumes at a harvest party held at the McCall middle school. There were games and a bouncy house and way too many people crammed into a small gymnasium. Ayden had fun playing the games and getting candy, and Anna and I won a cake at the cake walk. The Man in the Yellow Hat and Curious George were a hit! We got lots and lots of compliments and tons of stares and smiles. It was the funnest Halloween I have had in a long time.

Splash monster!

Anna loves taking a bath! Usually she has to share the tub with big brother Ayden so she doesn't get the splashing freedom that she gets when she is in the tub by herself. Well, today she took a bath while brother was taking his nap, and boy did she ever take advantage of the opportunity. She made a huge mess and had a blast!