Anna and Calvin

Anna celebrated her first birthday yesterday with all four of her grandparents. It was a great day – lots of big smiles and visitors and fun new toys. You can see a few pictures of the big day in this birthday album. You’ll also find a couple of pictures from when we went up to look at bald eagles on the Wisconsin River.

Anna’s Birthday Album

The day started with Anna’s first birthday pancake – my Mom always made Carrie and I a pancake shaped like our new age on our birthday. Anna gobbled up her “1” before we could even put syrup on it.

After a good nap, Anna’s grandparents arrived with a bunch of fun new toys, and we also opened gifts sent in by Aunt Carrie and Uncle Eric, Helen and Claire, and Anna’s great grand parents. Anna seems to be getting the idea that a big bag full of tissue paper probably contains something good.

Of course Anna got her first taste of cake & ice cream. The cake actually wasn’t all that exciting to her, but the ice cream was a big hit. After a couple of tastes she buried her face in the bowl and licked it clean.

We even got a visit from our friends the Schuks, whose daughter Melina showed Anna how to use her lady bug scooter.

It was a really fun day; we were so happy to have all that love in the house. We’re lucky to have all of you great people around! Now on to year two!

Here are just a few pictures from Anna’s first Christmas: Christmas, 2012 Album . We stayed with Anna’s Grandma and Grandpa Parrott in Iowa for a few days over the holiday, and then visited G&G Ryan the following weekend. We also got to spend a lot of time with Jon and Rae who drove in all the way from New Jersey.

Anna had a really good time on both trips, and did very well with being away from home. She’s been sleeping and eating a lot lately, which makes us wonder if she’s in another growth spurt. She has also finally started growing her first tooth!

Anna will turn one year old in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned for pictures of cake.