Anna's First Birthday Party!

NEW PHOTOS POSTED (see bottom)!

Yesterday, we celebrated Anna's 1st Birthday! Because her b-day falls on February 29, we've decided that we're going to celebrate the big day on the closest Saturday until she's able to have a say-so of her own!

We had a great time at the house with family, and captured some video that we want to share. She had a great time, as did the rest of us, so enjoy the show!!

Here are some shots of the birthday girl herself on the big day!

Mishbucha

A new word for me: mishbucha - meaning extended family. My cousin of some flavor through my mom, Harry, and his wife, Sherry, stopped in for a visit Tuesday night from Louisville, and selected our very own Annabanana for his half past seven project. Inspired by a similar project that was mentioned on NPR, Harry and some pals take a photo at 7:30 pm every day. So after a faboo dinner at Figo, Harry made this little snap.

If I did this correctly, then you can click the picture and see the larger view and other half past seven pictures.

We had a great time visiting with this pair. We only met for the first time at a family reunion in San Diego about 8 years ago. The reunion was to celebrate the 60th wedding anniversary of my grandmother's cousin, Sydel, to her wonderful husband, Sam. Sydel sadly passed on, but here is a hilarious pic of Sam with my mom's cousin's husband on an earlier 7:30 pic.

For those of you who don't know, my mom was an only child, so most of my relatives on that side are cousins. Well, needless to say, we met this side of the family and totally fell in love. Here's a great picture of Harry and Sherry that I stole from their website (see link to the right "Ramblings of an Incontinent mind!"). Their son lives very close to my mom in Pensacola, so they've been able to visit a bunch over the years on their way to see their gorgeous grandbaby.

Tiny dancer

OK, the sound is awful, but it's so cute I couldn't resist. I'm sure dadoo will take some professional grade video, but in the meantime, here's my tiny dancer!

Lukas' 1st birthday party

My friend Lenee's son just had his first birthday, and Anna was among the honored attendees. We learned that Anna likes hotdogs and Brunswick stew that day. She had some cupcake, but it's not like we didn't know already that cupcake would go over very very well.

There was much cuteness to be witnessed, especially when Lukas decided he didn't want his hands to be covered in icing anymore!

Piglet!

I don't think I was quite prepared for our little fluffernutter to have mommy's appetite! Thanks to Auntie Eli, we have photographic evidence.

Breaking News! Anna walks!

So, it seemed like just an ordinary night at the Fowlkes house... Thursday, dinner, food in hair, diaper changes, etc.

And then...it happened. Anna decided that today, Feburary 5th, around 7pm, she wanted to go for her first REAL walk. Her official and widely observed first steps occurred on Super Bowl Sunday, but this is her first stroll!!

After the initial shock and pride, we grabbed the video camera and caught our daughter walking...quite a moment for her and her parents. Decided to leave the soundtrack as is so you can hear Mama and Dadu's reactions.

Enjoy! We sure did.

St. George mementos

We celebrated the freezing temperatures in Atlanta and MLK holiday by getting out of Atlanta and heading to warm and sunny Florida. St. George Island, although not totally sunny and warm, was beautiful and just what the doctor ordered. We lounged around, played on the beach and generally had a great time with the fam.

Anna trying to start her career in photography by taking the camera from mommy.

Carter pulling Anna around the living room - too bad we couldn't get this on video, as Anna was laughing her hiney off! She LOVES her cousin!
And here we have Thomas and Park taking a house oyster shot. Yes, there was an oyster in the shot.
And here we see Thomas and Park regretting that decision.

Later games included can you eat 10 crackers in a minute? Uh, no is the answer.

Copyright Violations

So, I've been caught.

Twice now (Facebook and YouTube) my video of Anna Behind the Scenes at the mall after visiting Santa has been taken down due to a copyright violation of the song 'Foggy Mountain Breakdown' by Flatt & Scruggs.

Now, on YouTube, you can say 'well I am not making any money off this, it's a video of my daughter at the mall, it's a home video, no harm intended, sorry' and they'll usually let you keep it up. Facebook does not give you that option.

And neither does Flatt & Scruggs.. these guys are serious about protecting their music. Anyways, I re-edited the Anna behind the scenes video to another song, which hasn't hunted me down and informed me I've violated anything a this point.

All I know is, Anna is really cute, and the video could have no music and all would be fine, but it just adds that little something.

Blogspot has not notified me of anything yet, which is cool, but I may get a notice, so in that case, here is the video with new music.

Visitor from Nebraska

Last weekend my friend Grace escaped the bitter Nebraska winter for an Atlanta respite. We didn't see the sun once, but considering the weather was ~40 degrees warmer, I think it was OK. Grace is a friend from Malawi attending school in Nebraska. YIKES. Can you even imagine that transfer?

So we took her for a little tour of indoor Atlanta. Hopefully, we can bring her back in the spring for some actual southern sun...

Grace showing us how it's done in Malawi!

Outside of the aquarium with wee Carter.
Inside the tunnel!

Now this picture would be farther away if my arms were longer!

Anna Behind The Scenes!

As promised, the 'behind the scenes' footage of Anna at Phipps, following her first meeting with Santa, has arrived. She seemed to really like the mall..... uh-oh.

Enjoy!!

Anna Meets Santa!

Continuing on with the Santa theme, we managed to capture some video of the Anna/Santa meeting at the mall... She did great at her first ever visit to the big guy... enjoy!!



Stay tuned for 'Behind the Scenes' footage of Anna as she navigates Phipps...

Really, how much cuteness can you take?

The amount of time available for blogging during the holidays is greatly diminished. However, given the need to feed the demanding public, here are a few pics of some recent cuteness.

Anna's impression of the cutest baby in the world:

Carter's impression of the cutest toddler in the world (Anna looking on in awe):
Oh yeah. Nearly forgot about that guy!

Mommy and daddy even get in on the action:

Stay tuned for more adventures in cuteness!

Now THAT'S funny

You can even get the t-shirt, a Christmas MUST for one and all, at http://www.snorgtees.com/piberational-p-563.html.

Anna really wants to walk...

...and this is her new way of getting closer to doing just that!  Anna likes to grab onto knees and practice walking!  She is propelling herself and making progress.  We've also seen her stand on her own (without the benefit of tables, people's legs, couches, the fridge, etc.) a couple of times for a few seconds here and there.  She's getting close!  Here are some shots of Anna on the move, using Dad as leverage...

We're just getting used to her crawling, so we're not quite sure we're ready for full on walking!

An announcement

Anna has something to say.

Anna loves to play in her "doggy bed" (a soft-sided kiddie play pen on loan from Pete & Katie).

Anna does not always get to play in her doggy bed.