Atlanta or Bust!

Last weekend we took Anna Dixon to the Atlanta aquarium. We headed out Friday after lunch, and stopped by Ikea (one of our favs!) once we got to town. Then we checked into our hotel and were a bit concerned that the room was TINY and there was no bathtub. But figuring we would just make do, we headed on to dinner. Tommy and I like to eat at local restaurants when we travel and found the most precious family owned Greek restaurant in Buckhead. It was delicious and the staff/ family loved AD. They brought her hummus, rice pudding, and a sucker before we left. After walking around the Virginia Highlands area of town (another fav!), we headed back to the hotel. Well I never knew my  bunnykins was such a creature of habit, but she did NOT take to her new surroundings very well at all. After continually struggling to get her down in her pack 'n play, we finally got her to go to sleep in bed with us about 4:00 a.m. She tossed and turned back and forth between me and Tommy for the rest of the night. Saturday morning we decided it might be best to cut our trip short and head home after the aquarium instead of staying another night.

Even though we were all exhausted, we had a great time at the aquarium. It was so child friendly, and AD loved running from window to window, going down the whale slide, and crawling through all the tunnels. In fact she loved the tunnels so much that we couldn't get her out of one and Tommy had to go in after her! She wasn't too sure of the dolphin show at first, but I think she really liked it in the end. I was impressed with how long she lasted considering how little sleep she had had. Despite our abbreviated stay, we all had a good time...and I think we are going to do a couple of trial runs sleeping in the pack 'n play before our beach trip at the end of the summer!

"yay ikea!"

"bye mom and dad"

"okay i'm coming out"

all tuckered out

A Dirty Mouth!

Anna Dixon has a not so clean mouth these days. Lately she has been running a low grade fever on and off with no other symptoms, and I'm guessing this is why...The other day we found her face down in Sadler's water bowl drinking the water! THEN the next day...Tommy walked into the bathroom and found her giggling as she swirled her pacifier around in the toilet!! YIKES! I'm going to have to keep my eye on my adventurous yet not so sanitary bunnykins!

cause two paci's are better
than one...don't worry this was
 taken pre toilet incident!

Easter Fun!

Anna Dixon had a busy Easter season. Her good friend Anna Holt invited her over for lunch, an Easter egg hunt, and some bunny cake Palm Sunday weekend! Her playgroup had an egg hunt Easter week. And, the Easter bunny also left eggs in our front last Sunday, but AD could not quite make it through Easter lunch and went down for her nap just before dessert. Her cousins managed to find all the eggs without her though! Actually despite all the Easter fun, AD was not that into hunting eggs. I am sure next year will be quite a different story. Her favorite Easter treats were definitely her two new purses. She got one from the Easter bunny in her basket and one from Bibi who came to visit last weekend. She is really into the cell phones and the fake lipstick that came inside them. It will be a lot of fun when AD really gets into the Easter Bunny (that we forgot to take her to see...ooopps...although based on her visit with Santa Claus that might not have been a bad thing).

But, what will be more amazing is when she fully understands the awesome love, ultimate sacrifice, and amazing grace given to her by her heavenly Father. I hope that one day she will truly comprehend the gravity of her sin and that Christ bore her sin on the cross and conquered sin and death through His resurrection. I long for the day when AD is not only my precious gift from above but she is also my precious sister in Christ...now that will be something to celebrate!


For now here are some pictures of this year's Easter fun...

enjoying some cake
after the big hunt!

all her playgroup friends

not sure about
 the bunny ears

Batgirl in Pink

Anna Dixon's cousin, Samuel, turned 5 a couple of weeks ago. I can't believe he is that old! I remember the day he was born. The other weekend he had a super hero birthday party at the park, and everyone dressed up as their favorite super hero. AD went in a homemade batgirl costume...pink of course. It was a beautiful day, and we had a blast and played hard! She loved the slide, climbing the stairs, and playing with all the fun little gadgets on the play ground. AD is officially walking on her own. I just love looking up to see her toddling into the room! It is bitter sweet, though, I feel like we will be celebrating her 5th birthday before we know it.

Trip to the Zoo

Tommy had President's Day off last week, so we took our first family trip to the zoo. Tommy has been with Anna Dixon, and I have taken her too, but all three of us have never been to our hometown zoo together. In fact, we are anticipating so many more trips to the zoo that we bought a zoo pass. It will save us a LOT of money over the next year. AD seemed to really enjoy it, although she was a bit unsure when the spider monkey came up to the window and sat down right in front of her. She was a bit unsure of the gorilla too...not a big monkey fan I guess? Our hometown has a great zoo! We didn't even make it all the way through before it was time for lunch. We ate at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants close by. AD loves guacamole and rice and beans. As we were finishing up lunch all the sudden she leaned down took both of her shoes off and put them on the table. It was very random and pretty hilarious! We have a picture of it below. She is definitely our cute little mess and always making us laugh. That's all for now. It has been raining here all week...definitely looking forward to some sunshine and round two at the zoo!

Happy Valentine's Day

I had a great Valentine's day yesterday with my sweetie and my little angel! Since Anna Dixon's birthday is in December so close to Christmas, we decided to spread gifts out this year. So, we gave her a grocery cart filled with groceries and a copy of Lady and the Tramp for her Valentine's gift. She loved the grocery cart yesterday morning, kept pulling the groceries in and out, and pushing it around with "Larry the Lion" in the baby seat. Unfortunately, yesterday afternoon it tipped over on her and scared her pretty bad...she hasn't touched it since. Oh well, in a day or so she will forget about "the incident" and be back to playing with it. Last night I made Tommy's favorite meal, eggplant parmesan, for supper. Anna Dixon had spaghettios for her Valentine's supper. For dessert I made chocolate covered, strawberries, bananas, and graham crackers. AD enjoyed the bananas and crackers very much as evident in the pictures below. I hope you all had a wonderful V-day as well!

butter anyone?

off she goes

beautiful flowers from Tommy

best cracker ever!!

11 Month Photographs

Anna Dixon turned 14 months on Monday! I love watching her grow, but I wish I could make time stand still. I just realized I never posted some of the photographs we had taken of her a few months ago. So, here they are...