Happy Birthday!!!!

Happy Birthday Anika Grace! You are such a blessing to us! We are so thankful for your life. You are our most priceless treasure, and we love you more each day. Can't wait for your party next weekend! Love, mama and daddy

The Zoo!!!!

Tuesday it was a beautiful fall day here. Tuesday is also Brad's usual "day off", so we decided to head to the zoo. We had such a great day! I know the quality of these photos is awful...we decided to take our little point and shoot camera rather than our good camera...but you can still tell we had a lot of fun. Anika LOVES animals. Her favorites were the elephants (just like her favorite stuffed elephant "Ellie" she has at home), and the giraffes. She was completely mesmerized, and it was hard to draw her attention away from them to take some photos. :) She also loved playing some of the drums in the Africa exhibit. It was a much needed day off and it was great to "re-group" as a family and spend the day together after the busyness of the last few weeks. Only one more month until we celebrate a first birthday! Can't believe it!

Happy Friday!!

I LOVE BATHTIME!!!!!

10 months old...

One year ago today we received a phone call. A baby girl was to be born in November, and would we want to be her mama and daddy? Oh, how our world was changed that day. We love you more each day, Anika Grace, and can't imagine our lives without you!

First Concert!

This last weekend Anika got to go to her first concert. A Portland Christian radio station put on an outdoor music festival on Saturday. Some friends of ours won tickets but couldn't go...so they gave us the tickets. We made it in time to catch Brandon Heath and Jeremy Camp. Anika LOVES music. She had a great time being outside and dancing with daddy to the music. By the end of the night it was COLD (fall is definitely coming!), and Anika was sound asleep in my lap. Unfortunately my camera battery died, so I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked, but here's a few. :) It was a fun night!

Spaghetti Sauce...

Last night after church was over, and the kiddo was in bed, we decided to make spaghetti sauce out of all the produce we had cluttering up our counters waiting to be eaten. Garden fresh tomatoes, shallots, celery, carrots, green peppers, and herbs went into the pot....MMMMMMMM....it was SO tasty and made for a great late night dinner. Now I just need to go get some pretty jars for the finished product!

Watermelon

Mmmmmmmm........watermelon!!!! It's the little things that make perfect Summer evenings! :)