Annika 6 Months

6 Months. Where to begin. Annika has been in our lives for the past 6 months! I know people say this a lot but it's so true. Being a parent is the most rewarding yet hardest thing I've done. I can't believe how quickly she has grown up! I look at her every day and say, "aww my baby!!!" Literally, I say that everyday. I try not to but I can't help it. I look at her and want to cry because I feel so overwhelmingly in love with her. I want to cuddle her sweet little self ALL DAY LONG! 

I think what's even crazier to see change, is who I am and who Curtis is. For 6 months now we have been parents. And to be a parent, we have found, you have to sacrifice A LOT. More so than I think either of us were really prepared to do, but it is 100% worth it. We have both had our moments of sheer panic wondering what we got ourselves into, but in the end we have started our little family and it's amazing. We may not sleep anymore (at all), or go out as much, or spend as much time on our hobbies, but right now we are doing exactly what we want to be doing. And that's spending time with our beautiful little girl as much as possible, and watching her grow and learn! 

Annika is truly the perfect baby in my humble opinion. Ok not perfect, she doesn't sleep much, BUT she is getting better. So here's what is going on with Annika at 6 months old!

* All Smiles - she is the happiest baby, and loves people and getting out and doing things, seriously she's all smiles

* Eating Solids - she starting showing signs of wanting food around 3 months so we started her at 4 months and she LOVES food. Maybe even more than me, which is saying something. She's so good at chewing, or gumming, whatever you want to call it. I'm so proud

* Sitting up on her own - this one is newer and it's crazy! She will sit up and just look around and play with her toys and it blows my mind. It's causing problems with her eating though - she can't get the bottle right when she's sitting up, she's learning

* Talking - she just baby babbles all day, and will laugh randomly. I can only assume she's telling us some great jokes

* Spitting - I always said I would never teach my child to spit, but.....it's so cute!!! and she thinks she's hilarious. You can tell how proud she is of herself everytime. I love it. 

* Dancing - this girl LOVES it when you dance with her or sit her down and dance around her, I hope she's always like that

* Sleeping better - She goes down for naps really well, they usually last about 45 minutes and then she's ready to go! Bedtime is getting better, she now sleeps for 4 hour stretches which was way better than the 1.5 hour stretches she was doing until about two weeks ago!

* Grabbing things - She is one wiggly baby! Always reaching and grunting trying to get her arms to reach a little bit farther. She wants to grab anything and everything and often zones out just starring at something and then starts laughing and reaching for it. 

Here's to learning new things and growing like a weed! Love you little miss Annika Jan!

Please stop growing up.

Easter

We had a great Easter this year, I was excited to make Annika her first Easter basket knowing she was probably too young to care. Come to find out she was VERY excited for it adn really enjoyed pulling out each thing. I may have teared up a bit, because she's my baby and was just so dang cute! I also didn't know what breakfast to do for Easter so we did the classic bunny shaped pancakes :) 

 

We went to church and then off to my parents house for a very delicious Easter dinner! I truly love being able to spend my Sunday's with family, and was especially reminded of this blessing while sitting in Church that Easter Sunday. I'm so grateful for the gospel, and their emphasis on strong families. 

Annika also got to enjoy a little Easter photo shoot taken by her wonderful Anna Harrison of course! Here were the adorable results. And yes, we did take these at her bedtime so she has very sleepy eyes :)  

And of course we had to take to take pictures of her with her cousins because they all matched! The amazing dresses were handmade by Anna's Sister Erin. It was so sweet of her to think of Annika and make one for her too. Truly I'm surrounded by amazing family. 

Curtis' Graduation

Guys, Curtis Graduated!!! This is VERY exciting news for our little family. Having Curtis in school has not been the easiest on anyone, especially him. When we got married he had the hard decision of going to online school, switching his major, and losing a bunch of credits. It added almost another year I believe of school for him. Working, going to school, and a new born baby was a lot to balance and i'm so proud of him! He has learned A LOT, and I can tell that he actually enjoys doing what he studied (even if he didn't enjoy the homework :))

Even little Annika missed her daddy. There were some nights where she just wanted him so she got to sit on his lap while he did homework.

But those days are finally over, and we are beyond thrilled! He didn't want to walk, mostly because we would have to go to Rexburg, and he didn't even know his teachers or classmates since it was all online. I still wanted to celebrate and show him how proud of him we all were. I will admit that I failed a little and the weekend really snuck up on me! But I still think we had some fun with family :) 

Curtis' parents and his brother and his family were able to come down for the weekend. It was fun hosting them in our little apartment :) For real though, I really enjoyed that! Friday night was just dinner and games, Curtis' dream come true. Then Saturday was our day of fun! His mom had brought down this amazing cinnamon bread so we started out with a great breakfast! Then it was off to top golf. 

I had never been and it was a lot of fun! I want to go back now that I have a better feel for the place. Poor Annika was SO sick, she had a fever of about 101-103 for the two days leading up to Saturday and all day Saturday. She was a champ though and enjoyed the extra cuddles she got from the family :)

After golf we went back to my parents house for games, again Curtis' dream. We made burgers and hot dogs and some cheesecake. Curtis was lucky enough to have his Mom bring down some huckleberries she had so that we could have a huckleberry topping. It was delicious!

We played all sorts of games and our neices all helped me make and decorate a graduation hat for Curtis out of construction paper. I know, we are so fancy :) 

In the end it felt like a perfect day. The entire week after both Annika and I were sick so poor Curtis had to take care of us, but I'm really glad that we had that day to celebrate his hard work! Now, let the job hunt begin!

Welcome Warm(er) Weather!

Despite the dreary rain that has been happening the past few days, I'm still getting so excited that it's been warm out! I decided that having a baby right when it starts getting too cold to go outside is the absolute worst. My poor baby didn't know what warm sun light felt like! Until recently :) We took her outside to play on a blanket, and she loved it, but was also sick at the time so she was grumpy. anyway here are some pictures of her (one day I'll learn how to edit my photos so the dark ones aren't so dark :)) Mainly I'm obsessed with my baby, and I just want to take pictures of her all the time because she changes so much every single day! 

The "why are you crying??" face

And then Curtis' family came down for a visit, so we spent some time at Antelope Island :) Annika DID NOT like sitting in the sand. I think it was mainly because she was tired from waking up too early from a nap but man, she was very unsure about the whole experience. I did manage to get a good one of her laughing while in her daddy's lap though :) 

She could easily be a model

Don't you dare put me back down there!

Her life is pulling the bow out of her eyes

You can kiss me all you want, I'm not going to be happy