Big mouth baby

Today was Annie's birthday. I'll post about that later, but I decided that instead of getting professional photos of Annie now that she's one, we would just do a photo shoot of our own. We took a TON of photos, and one thing I noticed consistently. When Annie gets excited she gets her mouth WAAAAAY open. Here's a sampling for your viewing pleasure:

Apparently Rachel gets in on the big-mouthedness, too.

A couple more of Rachel thrown in there:

The zoo and other stuff

We went to the zoo again last week and the lion cubs were out with their mom. They weren't pouncing on each other and wrestling like they were last time we saw them, but they were still cute.

Both Rachel and Annie loved them. The mom came over right in front of this window twice and Annie was out-of-control-excited, flapping her arms and feet and squealing. She loves animals.

Of course they had fun playing at the little rest area that has a fake log and a turtle shell to climb in. I love the expression on Annie's face here:

We had fun feeding the ducks and checking out the jaguars and bears and other animals, as always.
Maybe the log inspired Annie--she has found a new fun place to hang out: our console table.

She does it again and again getting in on the big side, and coming out the little hole.

Of course after laughing at Annie doing it, Rachel had to join in the fun.

I often find the girls sitting together reading (or sometimes eating) books. My little bookworms.

A few of our favorite things

Playing more picture catch up:

Annie and Rachel are both WAY in to music. Rachel will turn on her CD player in her room and jump on her bed while listening to her favorite songs for hours on end. And once Annie hears the music start up she's right in there with her, climbing up on her bed (this little climber is killing me!) and dancing along with Rachel. They also both love the piano. Heaven forbid I try and sit down at the piano to practice for 30 seconds--within 10 seconds both girls come running and start pounding away on the keys. But it is nice to have a go-to resource to calm Annie when she's having a tantrum (yes, she's a full-blown tantrum thrower these days. woohoo.).

One of Annie's favorite places to be is on our elliptical machine. Here she is stuck between the two pedals (or whatever they're called).

We move the recliner right next to it to try to block access, but it doesn't always work. And it's become the forbidden, and oh, so enticing place to be. "That which Mom and Dad say no to must be AWESOME."

The other day Annie got a hold of Rachel's watercolors and was very upset when I took them away. Hello tantrum. She was having fun turning her fingers different colors, so I decided to whip up some yummy pudding and add food coloring, and let the girls loose with edible finger paints.

I put down some brown craft paper to "paint" on. It was a big hit.

The last couple of weeks

A couple of weeks ago we had a friend of mine's girls stay over night while their mom was at the hospital having a baby. Rachel was so excited to have a slumber party she didn't fall asleep until a good hour and a half after her bed time. Of course she insisted on sleeping on the floor with them. The other girls had an even harder time falling asleep, not being in their own house, and weren't asleep until after 10pm.

But of course, they were all up bright and early the next morning. Mostly happy and a little sleepy.

Their grandma and grandpa came and picked them up later that day. Rachel thought it was a great adventure.
And Annie discovered a great new place to play:

We had been planning on making Halloween shirts with that friend who had her baby, but as she was a bit occupied after having her baby, we went ahead and just made them. Rachel decided on the design and we went at it. Rachel's has 4 eyes because "I'm almost 4." And Annie's has one, because, of course, she's almost one. They both say "little monster" though on Annie's I really ought to have used a different color to write it. Oh well. I love these cute little monsters!

And other random pictures I found on our other camera :
Rachel decided she and Annie both needed to be chefs, I guess. Rachel took my apron, and Annie got Rachel's matching one.

Annie's rather tame spaghetti face. Last night we had spaghetti again and it was much more extreme--full face and hair, arms up to the armpits and full tummy covered.

Whenever Annie sees Rachel laying on the ground she does her fingers in her "I'm going to get you" action, wiggling them like we do when we are tickling her, then does her version of tickling Rachel's tummy. It's so funny. Rachel and Annie both get a kick out of it.

I'm glad they get along so well (most of the time). They're so cute. Most of the time.

Agua Linda Farm adventure

On Saturday we went out to Agua Linda Farm to check it out. It's got a pumpkin patch, hayride, pony rides, petting zoo, corn maze, hay bale maze for little kids, jumping castle and probably a few other things. It turned out to be a fun trip, though we had to cut it a little short because Jake had to go in to work on Saturday afternoon.

The girls had a good time climbing on the pile of hay bales while Rachel waited for her turn on the ponies.

They also had this tire swing Rachel and Annie both enjoyed while waiting.

Annie LOVED watching the ponies. It was hard to keep her on the outside of the fence.

We snuck Annie in to pet the pony while Rachel was getting situated.

Rachel loved it.

And Annie was so jealous that she couldn't ride.

Family picture in the gigantic tire swing:

The petting zoo consisted mostly of goats, with a couple sheep thrown in, too.

We didn't end up going on the hayride out to pick pumpkins because while waiting Annie got stung by a bee or something (we didn't really get a good look at what it was).  By the time we got the stinger out and some ice on her hand and back out to the hayride line, there were too many people for us to get on the next hayride, and we had to leave to get back in time for Jake to get to work. Rachel did get to squeeze in some jumping on the jumping castle, though. It sure was a fun time.
Annie's hand was a bit swollen for the rest of the day, though it didn't seem to bother her much. You can see her puffy hand if you blow up this picture:

That's Annie doing one of her favorite things. She apparently loves looking at things upside down, and will do this for 15 seconds or so, walk around a little, and do it again and again.

While Jake was at work we went down to the park to enjoy the nice weather while it lasted. Here are my glowing angels:

Rachel taught Annie how to climb up slides.

And Annie loved climbing up the stairs over and over and over.

She also loves going down the slides. And Rachel gets a kick out of catching her at the bottom of the slide, or going down with her in a train.