Little Monster

This week Annabelle discovered that if you yell into a cup it magnifies the sound. She loves it! She spends most of her days yelling into different objects now, so I call her my little monster.

11 months

I know I've posted a lot of videos lately. I think it is the best way for family and friends back home to actually see Annabelle in action. She is now 11 months old! Where does the time go? We have also already lived in Australia for 8 months, which has gone by much faster than I ever would have imagined. I'm really hoping we get to see everything we want to before we move back home. If time keeps going this fast, I don't know if we will =). We do have a big trip to the Daintree Rainforest and Great Barrier Reef coming up in a couple of weeks! For now we've been enjoying some pleasantly nice winter weather. We spent Thursday and Saturday at the beach this week, which was really nice.

Annabelle is getting bigger and more independent everyday. She is an "I will do everything myself" child. She doesn't let us help her do anything, which in some ways is good, but it means we have to be even more patient and wait longer for things to get done. She is standing alone now and is trying to take steps on her own. She is getting braver by the day and makes bigger transitions between objects while "cruising." I really can't believe she will be 1 soon. They really do grow up too quick! Below are some recent videos of Annabelle with her new favorite purse.

Fruit A-Peel

Annabelle loves her fruit! She loves to eat the whole fruit, peel and all. This is of course perfectly normal with apples, grapes, pears, etc. Her new favorite thing is to eat bananas and avocados, peel and all. I looked it up and as long as you wash them, it shouldn't hurt you, it's just not very pleasant to most of us. In most Asian countries, people eat the entire banana. So I guess Annabelle has just decided to adapt to her new culture in Pacific Asia =). Here's a little video of yesterdays incident.

License to Drive

Since our first video was such a big hit I thought we'd try to upload a couple of more =). One is of Annabelle pushing her car around walking, the other is her driving her car backwards. Enjoy!!

Annabelle the Climber

So let me first off explain that Annabelle is shirtless because we just got home from church and were about to eat and I didn't want her to get her dress all dirty. I also didn't want to put a new shirt on her until after she made a mess eating. We don't let her run around like a Mexican wrestler all the time I promise =).

Annabelle has become quite the little climber lately. She even piles things like books up so she can climb onto surfaces that are too high for her to muscle her way up to. Yesterday she discovered she could climb into her stroller (pram for our Australian friends =)) from the couch. So like any good parents we let her do it under close supervision and captured it on video =).

Here's a picture of her in her Sunday dress as well. Enjoy our little monkey climbing away!

Clever Girl!

Having a sick baby is one of the saddest things ever. They feel awful and there is nothing you can do for them that you aren't already doing. Annabelle has had a cold for the last few days and can't breathe well. She made me so sad today when she was not feeling well and I was holding her, rocking her. She kept crying "mama, mama," even though I was right there holding her. She wanted me to make the sickness go away and I couldn't. It was awful!



She has a constant runny nose, like someone turned on a mucus faucet. It's really gross. I try to dab at it all day, but it still runs constantly. It drives Annabelle crazy because it is wet and probably tickles. So this evening Annabelle pulled a roll of toilet paper off the counter top in the bathroom. She proceeded to put the roll onto her arm, like it was a bracelet. She then discovered she could use it to wipe her nose quite effectively. She wore it around wiping her nose and tearing off pieces along the way. I thought it was hilarious! It was great for me because I no longer had to worry about her wiping her nose all over everything. What a clever little girl and she isn't even 1 yet =).

Proud to be an American (even if we are called ex-patriots =))

Happy 4th of July!!! Today is always a very special day to our family. Dave and I started officially dating on the4th of July 7 years ago. It is also the annual celebration of Fourth of Dimaya in Las Vegas. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a giant fireworks show put on by one of our friends, Brian. Every year it gets bigger and better (though I'm not sure they can top last year, but I'll bet they'll find a way =)). We are so sad that we can't make it this year, we always have so much fun with the Vegas crew. Dave is really going to miss being a part of the pyrotechnics team. Maybe next year......

We celebrated the 4th of July here in Australia though. We attended a celebration put on by the American Society of Sydney. There wasn't a picnic, bbq, or swimming, but there were other Americans and fireworks. We ate some food, socialized, and watched the fireworks. Annabelle was scared of the clown (who wouldn't be), but got a balloon animal out of it, so she was happy. She also got to color and watch her first fireworks. She was really excited at first and would say "oooooo" and point at them. Then she just sat back and enjoyed the show. It was very cute. It was strange to experience the 4th of July in the winter. It was much cooler than last year's celebration in Vegas. The cool thing was it gets dark so early that we watched fireworks and still made it home by Annabelle's bedtime. It did however make us miss home even more today. The 4th of July in Australia, even among fellow Americans, just isn't the same.

We are so grateful to be American citizens. Even though we don't live in America right now we still enjoy the blessings we've had by living there and by still being citizens. We are a little offended to be referred to by the government as ex-patriots. We spent all morning listening to patriotic songs and dancing around our living room. We're dressed in red white and blue, we have American flag stickers, and we watched fireworks. How much more patriotic can you get? ;) Seriously though, America is a great country. I know when you live there it is easy to pick out all the flaws our country has, especailly during the hard economic conditions that currently exist there. It isn't until you leave and go to other countries that you realize how wonderful America is and how lucky you are to be a citizen there.

We also want to take the time to thank all the service men and women who fight for our country. You do a great service to us all and we could never thank you enough! You sacrifice more than we could ever imagine. I also want to thank their families for all the sacrifices they make so their sons, daughters, wives, husbands, mothers, and fathers can defend our nation. It is people like you that made our country what it is. Without you, we wouldn't have such a wonderful, beautiful, free land to call home. Our thoughts and prayers are constantly with you. Thank you!!!

We appreciate Australia as well and the opportunities that living here has afforded us. We're grateful to the people who have been so kind to us and helped us adjust to living here. We're grateful for the freedoms we have living here. Even though there are great things about Australia, even things we will miss when it is time to move home, it will never be America, it will never be home. God bless America and all of her people! WE LOVE YOU!!!