I love that I can put most of her hair into her pigtails, so cute.
She's also very sneaky we have learned. In nursery she has earned the nickname of "The Thief". She won't ever directly take a toy from another child, but if she wants it she will follow them around the room and the moment they set it down she snatches it and runs away. I don't know what to do, technically she's waiting her turn? She also likes to hide her toys as well as Mom and Dad's things under and in the couch and other weird places. 
I was so excited to try out my new triffle bowl with a Fourth of July dessert. Sadly it did not turn out how I would have liked. The store was completely out of fresh strawberries and blueberries so I had to use frozen, the jello did not set and the cream cheese messed up the whip cream. So in the end all the layers ran together and it was kind of a mush. Oh well, I learned some helpful hints for next time. But at first it looked pretty!
I was so excited to try out my new triffle bowl with a Fourth of July dessert. Sadly it did not turn out how I would have liked. The store was completely out of fresh strawberries and blueberries so I had to use frozen, the jello did not set and the cream cheese messed up the whip cream. So in the end all the layers ran together and it was kind of a mush. Oh well, I learned some helpful hints for next time. But at first it looked pretty!
We had a fun time with Kenric and his family on July 4th and enjoyed a yummy outside dinner and some fireworks. Anne loves playing with her cousins but did not enjoy the fireworks at all.
Luckily we live in Utah so all of our Independence Day celebrations were on Saturday or Monday. Here is a shot out of our back window of all the hot air balloons that took off early Monday morning.
In Orem they had a really neat presentation and display that taught about Ellis Island and what being a citizen of this country means. We learned quite a bit about immigration and became "citizens" again through a fun process and swearing an oath. Very cool.
Sorry these are all kind of out of order for when they happened on Monday, but you'll get the general idea of what we did. Monday night we invited some friends over for watermelon and more fireworks! Anne and her new buddy Maija had fun playing together in the pack and play for a little while, then Anne tuckered out and went to bed before the fireworks started, which was probably a good thing.
I know, not the greatest fireworks picture. We actually had some pretty big and impressive fireworks but the one I decided to take a picture of was tiny. Haha, oh well.
This was actually a week before the 4th but oh well. We marched in the Children's parade which Anne had a lot of fun being in. She loved pushing her patriotic car and waving to people sitting on the sidewalks.
After a while we let her drive.
So back to Monday....we went to the Freedom Festival which is just a few blocks from us in downtown Provo. Anne loved the boucning house and the musical performers. Mom and Dad liked the yummy Hawaiin food and the free mini massages.
Early Monday morning we enjoyed watching the parade which was a wopping half a block from our house (which is a good and very bad thing, the night before tons of people campout on the street and stay up alllll night which keeps us up all night, which we did not enjoy) but the parade was awesome! Anne loved waving her little flags and waving to the horses. She also loved the marching bands and the big puppy balloon.
This was actually at that Ellis Island display.
The week following the 4th, Zac took a thursday off of work and we went camping! We went to American Fork canyon this time just to change things up. That canyon is soooo beautiful and we were reminded how lucky we are to live in a place where beauty like this is so accessible and so close.
Our campsite was near a stream which Anne loved to play in. It was really cold but she kept wanting to put her feet in it.
Anne is such a good camper. As soon as it's dark she goes right to sleep and sleeps through the night.
Hilarious. I turned around and saw her doing this while I was making breakfast.
As soon as we got our campsite packed up we drove down the street to hike Timpanogos Cave. We knew it was going to be a mile and a half hike, but we didn't know it was going to be to the top of the mountain! Mom and Dad got a very good workout and Anne slept the whole way up :)
The caves were amazing! The mineral formations were so pretty and it was really neat to learn the different ways that they formed. Anne kept saying "Ooooo" when I pointed to something.
This is to show how close to the top of the mountain we were. I thought about taking one looking down, but that freaked me out too much so I decided this was safer.
So we've decided on a name for our new little girl. Rachel America Thatcher. Rachel just because we really like the name. America is for my great-grandma Ona America Draper and I think my great-great aunt America Morgan Clark as well. We feel like there is a lot of meaning in her middle name, not only for who she is named after but for all that we love about this country. All the blessings that we have and what a chosen land it is. It made listening to all the patriotic songs the last couple of weeks have new meaning :) So this picture is entitled, "Rachel hiked a mountain" :)
After hiking we took Anne to a nearby reservoir and ate lunch. She of course wanted to play in the water. It was also very cold however so we waded instead. Thank goodness for the fun new water shoes Aunt Jennifer sent her. She was able to walk around in the water on some pretty knarly rocks and be just fine. She kept wading deeper and deeper and by the end was soaked from all the splashing. We're glad she had a great time. We love our little water baby.
Anne is not a huge fan of coloring with crayons but she loves playing with my blush brushes, so I decided to change mediums. I showed her just one time how water coloring worked and she was a pro. She has painted the coolest looking pictures that I forgot to take pictures of....oops, next blog. But she loves it way more than coloring and could do it for hours.
At the Children's Parade.
Bouncing room fun.
Fun at the reservoir.
Luckily we live in Utah so all of our Independence Day celebrations were on Saturday or Monday. Here is a shot out of our back window of all the hot air balloons that took off early Monday morning.
In Orem they had a really neat presentation and display that taught about Ellis Island and what being a citizen of this country means. We learned quite a bit about immigration and became "citizens" again through a fun process and swearing an oath. Very cool.
Sorry these are all kind of out of order for when they happened on Monday, but you'll get the general idea of what we did. Monday night we invited some friends over for watermelon and more fireworks! Anne and her new buddy Maija had fun playing together in the pack and play for a little while, then Anne tuckered out and went to bed before the fireworks started, which was probably a good thing.
I know, not the greatest fireworks picture. We actually had some pretty big and impressive fireworks but the one I decided to take a picture of was tiny. Haha, oh well.
This was actually a week before the 4th but oh well. We marched in the Children's parade which Anne had a lot of fun being in. She loved pushing her patriotic car and waving to people sitting on the sidewalks.
After a while we let her drive.
So back to Monday....we went to the Freedom Festival which is just a few blocks from us in downtown Provo. Anne loved the boucning house and the musical performers. Mom and Dad liked the yummy Hawaiin food and the free mini massages.
Early Monday morning we enjoyed watching the parade which was a wopping half a block from our house (which is a good and very bad thing, the night before tons of people campout on the street and stay up alllll night which keeps us up all night, which we did not enjoy) but the parade was awesome! Anne loved waving her little flags and waving to the horses. She also loved the marching bands and the big puppy balloon.
This was actually at that Ellis Island display.
The week following the 4th, Zac took a thursday off of work and we went camping! We went to American Fork canyon this time just to change things up. That canyon is soooo beautiful and we were reminded how lucky we are to live in a place where beauty like this is so accessible and so close.
Our campsite was near a stream which Anne loved to play in. It was really cold but she kept wanting to put her feet in it.
Anne is such a good camper. As soon as it's dark she goes right to sleep and sleeps through the night.
Hilarious. I turned around and saw her doing this while I was making breakfast.
As soon as we got our campsite packed up we drove down the street to hike Timpanogos Cave. We knew it was going to be a mile and a half hike, but we didn't know it was going to be to the top of the mountain! Mom and Dad got a very good workout and Anne slept the whole way up :)
The caves were amazing! The mineral formations were so pretty and it was really neat to learn the different ways that they formed. Anne kept saying "Ooooo" when I pointed to something.
This is to show how close to the top of the mountain we were. I thought about taking one looking down, but that freaked me out too much so I decided this was safer.
So we've decided on a name for our new little girl. Rachel America Thatcher. Rachel just because we really like the name. America is for my great-grandma Ona America Draper and I think my great-great aunt America Morgan Clark as well. We feel like there is a lot of meaning in her middle name, not only for who she is named after but for all that we love about this country. All the blessings that we have and what a chosen land it is. It made listening to all the patriotic songs the last couple of weeks have new meaning :) So this picture is entitled, "Rachel hiked a mountain" :)
After hiking we took Anne to a nearby reservoir and ate lunch. She of course wanted to play in the water. It was also very cold however so we waded instead. Thank goodness for the fun new water shoes Aunt Jennifer sent her. She was able to walk around in the water on some pretty knarly rocks and be just fine. She kept wading deeper and deeper and by the end was soaked from all the splashing. We're glad she had a great time. We love our little water baby.
Anne is not a huge fan of coloring with crayons but she loves playing with my blush brushes, so I decided to change mediums. I showed her just one time how water coloring worked and she was a pro. She has painted the coolest looking pictures that I forgot to take pictures of....oops, next blog. But she loves it way more than coloring and could do it for hours.At the Children's Parade.
Bouncing room fun.
Fun at the reservoir.
The cold stream. She actually liked going in the water and kept asking us to go in it, we're not torturing her.
