I entered a chili cook-off at Justin's office, PGAV, on my birthday and won 3rd place out of 14! It turns out that first place was a woman who used Eleanor Roosevelt's chili recipe. How cool is that? She definitely earned the right to first place! I actually got 2nd place with my same chili recipe at Progress South Elementary school about 3-4 years ago. I was proud of myself:)
I roasted pumpkin seeds for the first time too! Justin and Anna carved their pumpkin and so I used a simple recipe I found online. All I had to do was separate the seeds from the goop, rinse them, pat them dry and coat them in 2 tsp of butter. Then, I spread them in a thin layer on a cookie sheet and lightly seasoned them with Lawry's seasoning salt and cooked them for about 45 minutes. Voila! They were awesome. I wish I could say Justin loved them too, but he swore that because they were pumpkin seeds, they had to taste like pumpkin and couldn't get his mind around that. Oh well, Anna even liked them!!!!
ard. We got some pretty good pics by the marigolds in the front of the house ( i planted those when a friend told me it would put me into labor last June! ) Then by the ginormous mums justin planted a year ago when Anna and I first went to San Diego. Then we made our way to the backyard where Anna made beeline for the reservoir running into the storm drain ! So, the picture below shows what happened next... face first dive into mud! I had to take a picture!!!! She was so cute even though she was crying!
We also made homemade playdough! Fun! I knew Anna would try to eat it, so I figured, if i make it myself, i know it doesn't have lead paint or melamine or whatever china poisons children with... so she had fun with it and actually, still plays with it! I just store it in the fridge! 
Anna now loves to read books and point out pictures as you say the names of things! Here she decided to read a book to her bear on the couch!
I got to participate in a focus group in September for "People who leaned conservative" It was pretty interesting! One girl had absolutely no idea what conservative meant and ended up convincing herself to vote for Obama in the end since He was the "popular choice" in her Bosnian neighborhood. It seemed like the younger voters didn't really care much about being informed on the issues, but cared what there friends were doing. Kind of disappointing. Heidi was in the focus group too and so her mother-in-law Deb watched Anna along with Avery and sent this picture to us via text message to show how much fun they were having!
Trish, Matt and Steph, Jenn and Steve, Amy, Aunt Maren, Sarah, Emily and John Laipple as well as Jim and Gretchen! We were going to wait to share the news of second baby, but everyone wondered why i wasn't drinking champagne... dead giveaway! Ali and Kristin had fun playing with Anna and so did Bema! Anna really got tight with Ape grams though and was reaching for her instead of mom after the ceremony...which she and I missed because Anna likes to talk as much as i do:)
Cousin time! Here's a picture of Logan and Anna, only 6 months apart. Later in June, we went down to Memphis... or more specifically Brighton, Tn for my Mom's birthday. Her liver is in pretty bad shape, so she couldn't make it to Anna's party so we came down to see her. Justin cancelled his trip for the opening at Niagara Falls so he could be there with us. It was a good time! We swam a lot (Anna didn't want to leave the pool) and had a Shrimp boil! Yum!! Also Anna enjoyed watching Thomas videos with Logan and chasing around my parents' dogs Brutus and She-ra. Have fun now, Anna... we will not have pets!!! 
We went to San Diego for our first family vacation in July and had a great time with the Stichter fam! Anna loved the beach, making sand castles with Dad, sunbathing with Aunt Megan and Ape Grams, playing in the waves with Unkie punkies and eating sand! Ape grams was happy to share those memories with Anna since she is a self-proclaimed beach bum:). We also had mexican food in Old Town, breadsticks at Oscars, ate at Islands and Claim Jumper and got to share our old faves with our bffs in STL Marc, Heidi and Avery Sikma:) Anna loved having her best friend on vacation with her. Heidi thought it was funny how the freeway names were all preceded by THE, ie: the 15, the 5, the 8 etc... They also loved churros, which they got to enjoy at Sea World! So fun!! Luckily they sell them here at the Costco snack bar for a dollar a piece! A little bit of home;) We also hit the zoo and In N Out burger and Anna got to share some ice cream and hugs with Grampa! Oh, and thanks Grampa for the cool turtle float! We will have to get one next summer for our house!
