When nightly walks go bad...

After spending a total of 15 minutes walking around our back yard Friday night, Ansley woke up covered in mosquito bites yesterday morning. Apparently it's a zoo in our back yard...my bite count is up to around 20. She's got 12 bites between both of her legs and at least 5 on her face. Luckily she hasn't scratched even one so I don't think they are bothering her...I've covered her in anti-itch cream just incase.
So when daddy went to get her dressed for our nightly walk last night she came out in this outfit...that's right, TIGHTS! She looked so adorable but had to be so very hot! It worked but I think we're going to spend time in the mosquito safe front yard for a while!

Prayers needed!

Most of you know our friends Kristen and Brent and their little boy Asher. I just wanted to ask that you keep the family in your prayers over the next few days. They traveled to Duke today where Asher will be having surgery tomorrow morning. Please visit their caring bridge page http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/asherpetersen for more info!

THANKS!!

Nightly Walks...

One of Ansley's new favorite things to do is walk around outside after dinner every night! Here she is in her pjs and chuck taylors...

After doing this for about a week now, she's gone from walking (not holding on to anything) about 30% of the time to about 90% of the time. Every day she walks on her own more and more. She's slow and takes lots of pit stops but I would say within the week, she'll be walking full time!

Happy 1st Birthday to Ansley...(I'm a little late on this one, sorry)

Ansley's 1st birthday cake, made by her daddy!!

We had a little pre-party icing tasting that morning!

Everyone sings "Happy Birthday" as Ansley wonders what is going on!

LOVE HER!!

I totally admit to being a little anal when it comes to cleanliness during mealtime, so here's my little girl trying to not make a mess...

Here daddy, you try it!

Finally digging in!

She got sooo many wonderful gifts from wonderful friends and family!! After opening up everything she decided it was time for a dip in the pool! It was HOT outside!

Here she is with Madeline, Samuel, and Jude...that's really all we could fit!!

I'm sorry for being soo late with this post! I would also like to say THANK YOU to Brent who took a majority of these pictures! I ran around all day in the craziness without my camera handy! Thanks to all of you who came and showered our little lady with many presents and were willing to withstand the heat of the day! Hopefully one day we will live in a house that can hold 40 people!!

When Daddy does a bath....

This is what happens. Not too much cleaning, just a lot of bubbles and play time. It's kind of hard to focus on the task at hand when daddy's girl is having such a good time.

Ansley's newest fascination!

We'll all be playing in the living room and Ansley will crawl all the way to the office, sit and wait for someone to come after her, when we arrive she looks up (Troy's guitars are hanging on the wall)...points...says 'what's that', we'll say 'guitar' and then she does sign language for 'please' until you pick her up and let her touch it. This means she's a musical prodigy...right?!

(notice in the video her favorite new words...'what's that')

Ansley and the kiddie pool (take 2)

I went at the whole process a little different this time and it was more of a success than I imagined it would be!! So here are my steps to helping my little one enjoy one of the most fun things summer has to offer!

Step 1 - put the kiddie pool on nuetral ground, in the middle of all of her toys! Step 2 - add sun, water, and BATH TOYS!

Step 3 - have the dog the dog that actually has a loving relationship with Ansley show her that it's all ok!

Step 4 - encourage splashing!

And within a minute and a half she was in heaven!

I will say that I think being in the bath inspired her to become a hair stylist. She started playing with it and pulling it in different directions...she looked very stylish by the end of her swim!

...her 'do' in the back