Monday, December 31, 2012

Christmas #2

Welch/Johnson/Kranz Christmas in Greensboro.  Liz did such an amazing job with the food ALL DAY LONG!  The kids had a blast playing with Emma and all her new Christmas toys.  Liz even pulled out Emma's play table which Anna immediately wanted to get her hands on the minute we walked in the door.  The kids were spoiled one more time with tutus, trains, talking dragons, critter house accessories, pirates, books, spelling games, a castle, and some Pooh friends.

Silly Play Time

Gifts Galore

 Dinner was AMAZING.  
Plates are from our Great Aunt Emma, whom cousin Emma is named after.

"Cousins are forever friends
whose hearts are bound together
by the love of a family..."
~unknown
 
Thanks Liz and Bill for waiting to celebrate with us.
You all made it especially relaxing and memorable.

Friday, December 28, 2012

14 months

Anna is so darn sweet and she just makes you want to squeeze to pieces.  Her Pop Pop calls her "Gumdrop".  
She certainly had a busy month on her feet.  She is officially cruising and transferring like a champ.  She knows the stairs are off limit so she is a lot sneakier about getting to them, always checking behind her to see if anyone is watching.  She antagonizes us to get us to chase her across a room.  Anna definitely loves to use her push toys to get
  
She is a little water bug.  My approach to bath time is to stick her in the back of the tub and let her play until the other kids are clean (a good long time), then I wash all her soft slippery parts before wrestling her out of the tub. 
Anna's ability to communicate with us is so much fun.  She points to and says "doggy" and attempts a bark at anything that is not a bird, monkey or duck.  She loves hugging and kissing everyone and everything.  She climbs up our legs and says "mamamamama" when she wants us to hold her (clearly I confused her somewhere).  She knows Mommy, Daddy, Ate, Ax.  She is learning the parts of her body - but her belly button is her favorite.  She is still good about saying thank you and we are working on please.  She says "All Done" when she is finished eating.
Play time is a blast.  Mostly she wants to be involved in whatever the kids are doing which is a mixed blessing.  We have found some ways around this challenge by filling Kate's shopping cart with animals and dolls for her to load and unload or doing projects up high while she plays under the table. She loves playing in the kitchen cabinets and filling containers with her snacks like she sees Kate doing all the time for all her "girls" (i.e. stuffed baby bunnies).  She is mimicking us more and more like putting bottles in her baby's mouth, combing her hair, trying to put on her socks and shoes, adding accessories (bows, necklaces, hats, scarves), writing, reading books.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

More on Christmas

In addition to having special Christmas memories for ourselves, we are so happy that our kids will grow up having memories of their family gathered at Christmas.  Here are a few scenes from the day's events.
 
The Kranz Cousins
 Picnic for Kate's Bunnies
Max and Pop Pop putting together pirates
Mimi, Kate, and Daddy playing with the critter house
Mimi and Roman
Anna playing with her picnic basket from Roman
Jenny, Roman, Andy
Uncle Matt admiring his new toy - a helicopter
Aunt Anita visiting from NJ
Roman and Anna - besties
Max and Kate  getting their Christmas Present from Mimi and Pop Pop
Roman and Aunt Anita
Checking out Matt's flying skills
We were blessed to be surrounded with so much love and joy.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Christmas 2012

WOW, what a whirlwind of excitement.  Each year, I do not think it can possibly get better but it does...and this year was certainly no exception.  

Kate's flurry of excitement and visions of sugarplums and reindeer dancing in her head were in full force Christmas eve. She was constantly looking out the window and listening for bells and assigning people jobs to do in case she spotted Santa and his reindeer.  Unfortunately, I found her Christmas morning totally disappointed because she thought she stayed awake all night and Santa never came...  Thankfully her dreams of a critter house became a reality and she was in a world of pretend the rest of the day.
Max was is explanation and gift making mode. He had explanations fr how the reindeer and Santa might land on the house and come down the chimney and how Alphie gets to and from the North Pole.  He was constantly cutting, pasting, painting and wrapping gifts in his playroom.  Christmas morning he so excited and focused on building his pirate ship with Uncle Matt and Daddy.  Once that ship was ready, he was huddled over it for hours talking to himself, explaining to others and pretending to be the captain.
Anna has no idea what was going on but she tunes in to the excitement and joy from Kate and Max and follows their lead whenever possible.  She seemed to understand that Max's pirate ship was off limits but Kate's critter house was perfect for pulling up on!  She was is heaven holding her new little baby, eating puffs, and using a new sippy cup while the kids opened gifts.

We are truly blessed!