Look who's TWO!

Crazy as it seems, we now have a 2 year old in our house! Annaliese's birthday was much more casual than last year, in part because of the craziness of our life at this time and in part because I am just tired and didn't want to plan anything big. That does not mean, however, that we didn't spread out her birthday over at least a week! 

The birthday fun started with a visit from Grandma Kelley last weekend. She came to help us pack (more on that in a later post) and, of course, to see little miss Annaliese again. Annaliese quickly caught on to the whole concept of opening presents!

 Showing off her new shoes!

Thank you hug for Grandma!

 Grandma also brought along a gift from Auntie Sarah, Uncle Jon, Reed, and Kieran

Annaliese is a HUGE fan of the tunnel!! 

The birthday festivities continued with a trip to Washington to see Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks...we had to check out their new house, celebrate Thanksgiving, and have a baby shower for Auntie Kelsey and we thought now was a good to time for it all! (Again, a future post will be coming with more pictures from that trip!)

Thankfully Grandma H. was on top of things, so I was able to make Annaliese a birthday cake and we had a special birthday dinner. 

 Apparently we didn't really get any other pictures:(

On Monday, which was actually Annaliese's birthday, she was pretty worn out from the travels home the day before; and I, unfortunately, had to work for most of the day. But I was home in time for dinner; while we were prepping the food, Annaliese picked up the beaters for the mixer and said "I want to bake." Since there wasn't much in the house, our baking options were very limited, but I did find a package of instant pudding that she could stir (that was her second request!), but it was pistachio flavored and she was not impressed by the green color! In fact, she wouldn't even try it!

 Opening her package...it's an adorable little purse! As soon as she saw the tissue paper wrapping, she kept saying "It's cute. It's cute!" And today she's been walking around with it over her arm! Thanks Mark and Penny!

 And Grandma Kelley and Grandpa Jay sent a box as well...with this fabulous puzzle! It's also been a big hit!

A big thank you to everyone for helping to celebrate Annaliese and the precious little girl that she is! We are constantly amazed at how she is growing and learning new things, how her personality is developing, and how she is so quick to laugh and smile! We are truly blessed to be her parents!!

Trick-or-Treat!!

This is the first year that we decided to take Annaliese out trick-or-treating. And...it's actually the first time that I remember ever going trick-or-treating! We started out by meeting Auntie Jenn, Holden, and Jenn's mom in the village of Arroyo Grande. They had it set up where you could walk from store to store and trick-or-treat at each store. It was pretty busy and rather unimpressive, but we were glad we checked it out!

 Getting ready to go

 Minnie Mouse

 Our first stop was at church...she got her first piece of candy and sat down and ate it while we waited for Auntie Jenn and Holden to arrive! She was fascinated by all of the different costumes!

 Holden "Biker-dude"

 Annaliese has been into trucks lately so she was pretty excited to get close to the fire truck. She was a little nervous about the fireman lifting her inside, but thought was all smiles when she grabbed the steering wheel!

We headed home to meet up with Kyle who was going to join us for the evening activities. There is a neighborhood near by called The Berries which is rather well known for trick-or-treating. There were tons of people there! The people who were handing out candy were camped out in chairs outside their houses and it was just a constant stream of people. At the first few houses, Annaliese was a little hesitant about going up to the people, and needed to be holding my hand, but it didn't take long for her to get used to the idea. Pretty soon she was running up to them! 

 Fed-Ex employee Chuck Noland and his friend Wilson...with Minnie Mouse:)

(from the movie Castaway)