So BIG...

(notice Anna's outfit from the 2008 Masters Golf Tournament, thanks Vic!)

For the past several weeks I have often glimpsed over at my daughter and realized she is no longer a baby. Her features are changing almost daily and her baby face is starting to mature. Today is one of those days that I looked and saw a little toddler and not so much a baby. Not only are her physical attributes changing but the way in which she interacts and communicates with us is changing daily. She is such a joy to be around. She is ready to master walking but she just isn't ready to release her grasp on our hands. She will even reach for our hands to indicate she wants to take a stroll. I am thankful she feels safe with our grip. May it one day be a perfect illustration of God's hand on her life. Our little Anna is full of life and very expressive. Two things that she will often do that bring us much delight is when she sees someone or something for the first time, not necessarily for the first time ever, just the first time in the last few minutes she literally just gasps for air and ooohhs and ahhhs. It is almost as if her breath is just taken away. Secondly, Anna has the art of pointing down pat. She points at anything and everything and of course points as she gasps with delight at what she has discovered. When we get her up from her nap, she will point to the doorway as if to say, "I am all done with this room, let's go play." Of course this is only after we have pointed at the letters of her name that line the wall of her crib. She is such a curious little person and wants to inspect everything. She is very aware of her surroundings. She isn't discrete (I have to say she gets this from her mommy). She will stare down strangers in a minute that come into her line of view. We can just see her in a few years taking her food to eat with the table next to us. Anna is also feisty like her mommy and has a lot of spunk. As we walk around the house when she gets to an item, such as one of her toys (instead of walking around it) she will kick it or try to move it with her foot. Looks like we might have an athlete. Anna still loves music and we will catch her swaying to the music when she hears a tune. Often I will be in the kitchen and will peek in on her in the den and she will just be bobbing up and down on her knees to the music of one of her toys. Anna can easily entertain herself, often this includes entertaining herself in her crib. We will often go and get her from her nap and she will just be going from one bumper to the next playing with the tassels and talking away. These are just a few things that are Anna to me at this stage of her life. Anna Catherine Sasser we surely do love you and are enjoying this new stage of toddlerhood you are entering.

Almost here...

Anna began celebrating her birthday a little early this weekend. Here she is modeling some of her presents. Her favorite part of the gifts-the tissue paper, the cards and the envelopes. All three provided entertainment for quite some time. We can hardly believe we will be celebrating her first birthday in less than two weeks. How did our little baby girl get to be so big?!

"I have called you by name,

you are mine." Isaiah 43:1

We truly believe that Anna is our heavenly Father's and thus this Sunday we dedicated her to Jesus.

We are so thankful that we are blessed to be her parents here on earth but we know ultimately she is His. We pray one day she will seek Him and find Him with all her heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)

Celebrating with family!

Giddy Up Cow Girl!

This is a phrase we almost say daily to Anna and on Saturday she finally was a cowgirl and went to her very first roundup, a birthday roundup with lots of other cowboys and girls! Anna is a mover and a shaker and thus the reason for using the phrase often. She loves to bob up and down. Anna kept moving as we headed downtown Saturday evening to celebrate Greensboro's 200th birthday. She spent the evening dancing as we enjoyed dinner outside with good friends as her "uncle" Benton's band played behind us! She even got to hang out with the band before and after the concert. Anna kept us entertained at dinner as she waved her hands in the air. You would have never of guessed we sat outside for dinner for close to 2 hours. Anna was perfectly entertained and content in her booster chair. It was a fun Saturday being Anna's parents!

Busy...

PLAYING!

Springtime!

Heading to work...

Somedays Anna is the driver!

And other days she is just the passenger!

Stealing Kisses...

Daddy stole a few kisses while grilling our dinner last night!

Three's Company...

As many of you know, Anna loves her bath time. It has been a highlight of her day since she was first born. She even enjoyed her first sponge bath. She has always been enamored by running water and the fact that she can actually sit in a pool of water is a treat each and every night. For a long time Anna would bath alone. But for a while now Tommy the turtle has been joining her for her bath each night. She looks for him when she is placed in the water. Rarely does he leave her sight or hands for that matter during the entire bath time. However, Daphne is not so lucky. She is an over sized duck, whom Anna loves too but only from a distance. Daphne also inhabits the bathroom but rarely finds her way to the water. Instead she only sits on the edge of the tub and watches as Anna and Tommy splash around. You see, Daphne sometimes gets invited to take a dip but as soon as Daphne submerges herself in the water, Anna realizes Daphne is a little too big for the tub and three's company. Without fail when Daphne joins Anna in the bathtub our little one gets upset. She often asks for Daphne and tries to have a happy heart when Daphne joins her in the water but Anna just feels a little too crowded. Daphne, maybe when Anna starts taking her baths in the big girl tub you might be asked to join and will be able to stay for the entire bath. Don't loose hope, soon you might be in the water instead of on the ledge looking in.

These days...

We have had lots of people to comment to us about Anna's ability to say "bock." So I figured I would share with you a few more interesting accomplishments of Anna's. She keeps us entertained. Here are just a few...

• One day at the end of January Anna was looking at herself in the fireplace doors as she played on her Leap Frog Table. All of sudden as she was bobbing up and down to the music she began to clap. Although she clapped that day in January it wasn't until recently she started clapping when you clap. She gets a huge grin on her face when you clap and begins to clap along with you.
• Anna has been cruising around furniture for a good while now. She will pull up and walk along our couch or along the ottoman. However, the minute we would take her hands she would plop down on her knees and begin crawling. I think she just knew she could get there quicker if she crawled. But about two and half weeks ago she decided she was ready to start mastering walking and now she loves to take our hands and cruise around our house. She makes multiple laps at a time. She also loves to go cruising on her own with one of her two walking toys.
• Just today Anna was playing with a toy, holding onto our ottoman when all of a sudden I looked over and she was standing there with the toy without holding onto the ottoman. She had complete control and balance. She stood alone for several seconds.
• Now that Anna has "bock" down we often will show her the clock and go "tick tock". She just laughs and then tries to repeat what we are saying. It usually ends up with her just spraying us a good bit as she tries to to get "ttiick" out of her mouth.
• For some time now Anna has been saying mamamama...just like that, one drawn out word. So we have been practicing dada. For some reason when practicing we would always say, "hey daddy" well now instead of dada she say "heyda" one word. It is too cute.
• As you might have already of guessed Anna really likes to imitate what we are doing. This morning I was on one side of the ottoman and she was on the other. We were face to face. I would make a sound with my tongue and then she would make the sound. She loves to click her tongue. I would shriek and she would shriek. We had a good time just laughing at one another, making silly faces.
• And finally something that makes both Kevin and I as well as Anna laugh almost every night is when we have our nightly game of TAG! For months now (pretty much since Anna started crawling) she loves for us to chase after her. She starts out crawling in one direction and turns back (just long enough) to see if you are coming after her. We get on all fours as well and go after her. We make loud sounds with our hands, so she knows we are coming. When she hears us pounding on the floor she puts her head down to crawl even faster. When she knows you are close, she will often just stop right there and fall face down to the floor and begin laughing. She does this in anticipation of knowing once we get her we are going to flip her over and tickle her. If she knows she can make it, she tries to get to a wall or door or even the gate we have up between the kitchen and den, anything she can pull up on and grab hold before we get her. It is almost like they are base. Kevin and I just laugh.
• As I am writing these I just thought of one more (I am sure I could think of many more but these are just some of my favorite and newest tricks she has mastered lately). Anna loves textures. She loves to feel with her hands and rub things. Just in the past few days I have caught her rolling from front to back and back to front and doing her hands (as if making a snow angel when on her back or swimming breast stroke when on her belly) as she feels the carpet or even the tile kitchen floor. Yes, yesterday she was rolling on our tile kitchen floor. Finally I had to pick her up once she banged her head twice. Although it did not phase her I couldn't stand to listen to the clang.

Since I know that pictures are worth a thousand words I will try posting some recent pictures of these things soon!