Tulips, tulips, and more tulips!!!

The Arboretum is a beautiful park in Dallas that we had heard so much about when we moved here. After our first visit we even bought annual memberships! It's a great place to spend the afternoon and Anabelle really loves to look at all of its beauty. Each season they do different displays but I don't think there is any better time to go than in April for the tulips. Anabelle and I visited there with my friend Natalie and her adorable daughter, Violet. We loved it so much we took Eric back the following weekend! Enjoy the pics!

Tulips!

Anabelle hangin' with her daddy.Practicing walking.

Mommy & Anabelle.
More tulips!

Stop and smell the tulips!

Too cute!

Violet & Anabelle.

Violet & Natalie.

Anabelle's 1st Birthday!

Anabelle opening gifts.

Peeking around Daddy's shoulder.
Having fun with Aunt Carrie.

Friends.

Opening more gifts.

Delicately eating her birthday cupcake.

Having fun! Practicing walking with Mommy.

Hanging out with Daddy and Nana.

Anabelle is 1!!! Her birthday was March 2nd and we celebrated her birthday in Lakeway with friends and family. Eric and I have been blessed this year because of our daughter. We can't believe she has already been with us a year. We look forward to many many more birthdays!!

Anabelle update!

Happy baby!

Eating breakfast!
Mommy & Anabelle!

After dinner... in need of a bath!

Riding her horsey from Nana & Grandpa!

Gorgeous!

Ready for the snow!!

Play time!

Splish slash!

More play time!

Anabelle (the duck) and her friend Violet (the ladybug) on Halloween!

Miss Anabelle is growing and changing everyday! I feel so blessed that I get to stay home with her everyday and watch her grow and change! She just got her first two teeth which is very exciting for us! Some of her favorite things right now are blueberries, music, books (specifically Go Dog! Go! and Brown Bear, Brown Bear), other babies, tomatoes, Yo Gabba Gabba, goldfish crackers, peaches, going for walks, my iPhone, looking in the mirror, clapping, and of course Bailey!

Dallas White Rock Half-Marathon

Me and Eric celebrating post-race!

I have been wanting to run a 1/2 marathon for a very long time and have found many excuses not to do it, but after I signed up for Dallas White Rock 1/2 Marathon (and paid for it) I knew there was no turning back. After 2 months of training, on December 5th I did it! I reached both my goals of running the entire 13.1 miles and I finished in 2hrs 18min 58sec (approx. 10min 30sec miles) which was faster than I expected! It was so fun and I plan on doing a full marathon sometime (in my lifetime, not any time soon). Eric also ran in the relay marathon where he and four other team members finished the entire marathon as a relay! Each person had approx. a 5 mile run and Eric finished his portion of the race with 8 min. miles! Super-fast!!!

Thanksgiving & Christmas!

Anabelle and Aunt Carrie at Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving with her Nana.Anabelle in her Christmas dress.

WOW! The holiday's flew by! We had a terrific Thanksgiving and Christmas in which we spent both in Victoria and Lakeway/Austin. It was so great to see both of our families since we don't get down to Victoria very often. However, we have discovered the great difficulty of travel with a child. Please! Could someone give us some tips? How do you do it!? Our car was packed to it's capacity for Thanksgiving and we had to leave lots behind for Christmas in order to fit our Christmas gifts... I think we're hoping it gets easier as Anabelle gets older :)

Anabelle's first Christmas was very special to us. She got some really great gifts from her grandparents and aunts and uncles and now our house looks like a messy toy store (but in a good way)! Thanks to our families to a wonderful holiday season!

(I'll post more Christmas pics later. They're on a different camera...)

Goodbye Summer.... Hello Fall!

Play time.

Good morning!

Trying out her new "big girl" stroller.

Beautiful blue eyes!

Modeling her new boots.

Ready to eat!

Ready for game day!

Big smile!

Just precious.

Story time with Daddy!

Nap time!

Stylish in her oversized sunglassses (thanks Nana for the gift)!

Anabelle playing with her friend Violet Provenzale!

Ready for church!

Cutie pie!

Anabelle & Mommy at the pool!

Anabelle & Pop!

Anabelle & Grammy!

I just can't believe summer is over! It's sad to see the neighborhood pools closing and all the neighborhood kids are no longer playing their daily street baseball games where the Otto mailbox sits as third base..... ahhhh, the burbs.... But, we are welcoming Fall with open arms. Fall/Holiday season is our favorite time of the year! The weather is cooler and we are finally able to enjoy our neighborhood walking trails.

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Our summer definitely flew by! We certainly enjoyed it in between all of our allergies, head colds, and ear infections. I feel like at least one person in the Otto household was sick at all times this summer but we are all finally all feeling better. Anabelle ended the summer by getting ear tubes which sounds a bit scary but it will be a good thing since she kept getting ear infections (a total of 4 this summer!). The doctor was amazing and she got the minor surgery in the morning and was feeling back to normal later that afternoon.
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We were able to enjoy so many things this summer.....
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We took a weekend trip to Austin in August and were able to stay with our friends Sara, Joe, and 1 1/2 year old Chase. Anabelle got to hang out with Chase and they bonded over their mutual favorite Dora the Explorer. The Harris's got a sitter so we were able to double date for dinner and a Bob Schneider concert! Fun times but we realized how old we are getting when we all started yawning around 9:30!!! We also met lots of our Austin friends for lunch at Maudies (our favorite) and we were so happy to get to see the newest addition to the Penley family, Micah! He is adorable with a full head of beautiful dark hair with natural highlights!

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Anabelle was able to enjoy visits from both sets of grandparents! We took advantage of the hot summer days by going to our neighborhood pool and beach! She went to her first birthday party a couple of weekends ago! We are enjoying Texas football season and getting together with friends for watch parties! And, this past weekend we spent some time with friends in historic downtown Mckinney for Oktoberfest!

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Anabelle is growing so much! She will be 7 months at the end of this week. We can't believe it. She is such a joy and she is such a happy baby. She laughs and smiles all the time and loves playing with Bailey and playing with her toys. She is so close to crawling!! She can "scoot" where ever she wants but hasn't quite figured out how to get on all fours yet. I think she's taking notes from Bailey ;) She has also figured out how to wave! It's pretty darn cute.
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Check back soon for a fall update! :)