Annabelle, 9 Months

Our hearts are full of Annabelle and we love her 

more and more each day!

{Star qualities at 9 Months}

: You still love to play with remotes and cell phones

: You went swimming for the first time in Ann Arbor Michigan at the hotel and loved it

: You still have no teeth

: You scream loud when you want real food

: You want everything that Mom and Dad are eating, we call you our little moocher

: You went on your first airplane ride to Michigan, on the way there you had a hard time, but on the way back you had your own seat so you were an angel!

: You are still breastfeeding 3x a day

: You like to stick your fingers in cups and play with the water & ice

: For some reason you like to suck on lemons

: You love to go on swings

: Mommy painted your toes pink with glitter

: You like to play the "open/close" game with everything that you can

: You love smoothies from Mc Donald's

: You like pulling out all the dvd's

: You can scoot yourself across the couch


: You had so much fun driving the golf cart in Michigan, you like to be at the steering wheel on any vehicle


: You love it when dad plays "squirts" with you in the bath with your animal toys

: When you don't want to stand anymore you plop on the ground and do this little model pose where you put one leg straight out and the other leg crossed over (Grandma calls it your beach pose)


: You are starting to take more interest in your books and will turn the pages and babble like you are actually reading them


: You love to use the dish washer to stand on and pull things out of it


: Mommy loves hanging out with you because you just make her laugh all the time


: You think Mom is a Mrs. Potato Head and are constantly trying to pull off her nose, mouth and eyes


: When it's bath time you stand up by the tub and get so excited


: When we call your name you crawl to us now


: You think it's so funny when Dad puts his head on your tummy and you can pull his hair


: You are like a human vacuum and eat everything off the floor, you especially like carpet


: You have the cutest personality, you like to sneak off and do naughty stuff and then look back and smile knowing that you're going to get caught


: You always pick something up off the floor and like to crawl around with it in your hand


: Lately you've been having these hyper moments and you just giggle at everything


: You think it's funny when Mom or Dad are in the kitchen stirring something


: You like to drink out of your sippie cup and then hold it to the side of your chair and wait til we look and then you and drop it on the floor, this makes you laugh so much

: Your first word was Mama


: You are a very stubborn baby and only do things on your time


: You had your first taste of meat this month and it was some coconut chicken, you really liked it


: Your new favorite thing to eat is graham crackers

Michigan {Part 3}

We did have a small fridge in our hotel and bought a little bit of food but unfortunately still ate out a lot.  I remember Jeff got this organic peanut butter at whole foods and it was yummy, we also had everything bagels with vegetable cream cheese a lot too and cereal.  Back then I was still breastfeeding Belle and only giving her solids.

We did try a new place we hadn't been to before called Panera Bread, and it was divine!  It's similar to Paradise Bakery but I think better.  I had their turkey sandwich with avocado on their homemade bread and it was delish!  We of course couldn't walk away without purchasing some of their pastries.

Peony Garden:

Another tourist site that someone mentioned we must also see was the Peony Gardens at Michigan University...the beauty there was honestly breathtaking!  We found ourselves surrounded by lots of unique flowers, tall and abundant green trees, and the other beauties of mother nature.  They had many trails that you could take and just walk around.  We could have spent all day there.

Hey there grumpy baby...

Belle is now famous for this scowl face that she makes...she does it all the time!  Especially if I tell her no or not to do something!  We call it her squinty eyes!!!

So, after walking a bit on one of the trails we came to this big open wide field where people where just playing soccer and hanging out!  Everything there was just so well taken care of which definitely made it prettier. Tons of people passed us who were just running the trails.

She loooooooooves her Daddy!

Frankenmuth:

One of the last places we visited on Sunday when Jeff finally had a day off was this little town called Frakenmuth.  We found out about this place from a lady who owned one of the laundry mats that we had to use because we were running out of clothes to wear.  On the day we decided to go it was pretty hot so we didn't stay long but walked around.  It was a cute little German town with lots of places to see, places to shop and different cheeses to try!

"I want this pretty princess dress Mommy and I'm not going to let you put it back!" 

We were going a bit craaaaaaazy while we were there though because all we wanted was to sample a good original german sausage, but they were no where to be found.  Jeff and I decided that one day when we are retired we will move there and open up a stand that sells sausages...we could make bank doing it!

The other funny thing is that we were getting hungry and wanted to try a restaurant that we had never been to before and everyone kept telling us that the Bavarian Inn had great food.  So, we went there and it was a bit pricey but we decided just to stay because we didn't want to walk around anymore trying to find another food place.  We sat down and started looking at the food around us on the other tables and it honestly looked like cafeteria food...bad idea we thought so we politely told the waitress that we had to go and left! We then remembered the laundry mat lady telling us there was this other place on the way home that was sooooooo good and we should stop there for dinner...well we found it and from the ghetto looking outside we didn't want to go in and waste anymore time.  The place looked more like a trucker stop too. We ended up at Outback Steakhouse which is one of our fav's and always delivers tasty food.

Golfing: 

Poor Jeffrey did put in some long hours at work and they even made him come in on a Saturday.  We also lugged his golf clubs with us all the way to Michigan in hopes that he would have time to play and thankfully enough someone from work had invited him out to the course.  Belle and I went with because when the weather is so nice and cool we wanted to take advantage of it.  Boy oh boy...did she LOVE the golf cart!  We pretended to let her drive it around and she was in heaven! It was so cute watching her get so excited!

Living out of a hotel for 2 weeks was waaaaaaaay too long for us so it was pleasant to get back to good ol' Arizona!  Thank you Michigan for all the lovely memories, fantastic weather and family fun time!

Michigan {Part 2}

Our vacation continued with Jeff still having to work a ton while we were there, but still trying to squeeze in any fun things that we could!  I know Annabelle and I just enjoyed being around different scenery, so even staying at the hotel all day beat staying at home in Kingman where there is not much to do.

Ann Arbor Hands On Museum 

One of the sites people at work told Jeff to check out was the Hands On Kids Museum in Ann Arbor.  It was downtown where the University of Michigan was.  Super fun place with lots of things for the kids to do.  I could tell things were still eye catching to Belle even though she was only 9 months old she still wanted to get her little hands on everything!  We love to watch her learn and take interest in new things.

 Jeff drove about 20 minutes each day on his way to work in Chelsea Michigan.  The proving grounds here in Yucca have only 6 engineers and Jeff is one of them, but he said he definitely felt like he got lost in the crowd over there because they had thousands of employees at this other location.  He was able to meet some great people there and learn new things and make connections that hopefully we can use to our advantage in the future if other employment opportunities come up!

Chelsea Teddy Bear Factory

They had a Teddy Bear Factory in Chelsea that we heard about and also ventured out to.  It was neat to learn this history about the teddy bear and how they were made.

This place was perfect for Annabelle because her nickname from us is Bear, she got it from when she was a newborn and we would always put little bear beanies on her.

Supposedly this is the "LARGEST Teddy Bear" in the world!

 

Fancy Homes in Ann Arbor

When we were bored and just wanted to get out after Jeff got home from work we would just drive around and look at all the different fancy houses!!  They were gorgeous and so wealthy looking!  Don't you just ever look at another house and just think..."what would it be like to live here even for a day??" All of these homes were in Ann Arbor near the University. The violets and greens and other colors from the different trees just blew me away...simply stunning!

Why can't you knock on random strangers doors and ask to tour their house?  Let me tell you...it was tempting!  To be continued...