Leaves!

After we got home from the pumpkin patch, Anna Kate and I went across the street to play in the pretty yellow leaves for a little while. I'm SO glad that we did, too! This weekend, I noticed that most of them had already fallen off their branches. I'm so glad we didn't wait even a few more days because I love the pictures we got and of course the memories I made that afternoon. It was great to roll around in the yellow leaves and just be silly together. I love this girl...

Pumpkin Patch

We took Anna Kate to the pumpkin patch at Sauvie Island last Sunday. It was a beautiful day - perfect for this kind of outing. Here are some of the better pictures we got. Some of them are very similar. I just couldn't decide which one I liked the best. :)
What is this I'm sitting on??












So you call this a pumpkin, Daddy? You call me a pumpkin. I just don't see the connection...

These are some of Mama's favorites.


The pumpkin patches back home just don't quite look like this...

If you look VERY closely, you can see the peak of Mt. Hood towards the left-middle side of the picture...

And if you look at both of their faces ... you can tell that Anna Kate is Robby's child. Exact.same.expression.

SO behind!!

(I love this one because I get this look at least 20 times a day ... "Mama, won't you please pick me up?!")

I am so behind on updating with pictures from the summer. Now I really have my work cut out for me because there are so many pictures to go through. I have a lot of ground to cover from my mom's trip, to our month of "firsts", to Nana and Daddy B's visit, and the few pictures that I got of our trip to Alabama to see Robyn and Vernon that Auntie Robyn didn't get on HER camera.

Until I can get my act together, though ... if you'd like to see the latest pictures of Anna Kate, please visit Auntie Robyn's blog as she is on top of things and has not only posted great pictures but has also narrated Anna Kate's time there. Man! I wish I was that gifted. I have yet to even finish writing my birth story. Yeah - good luck to me trying to remember all the details I was hoping to capture on paper!! :) Robyn already has two posts and says she has six days worth(!!) ... so visit often.

These are just a few more of my favorites (so far) from Auntie's blog...

6 Months

I'm catching up! Anna Kate turned 7 months yesterday, but I never posted pictures of her during her 6th month.

We lovingly refer to this as our "Texas hat" as there are few times we see babies up here with such superfluous hair accessories.


















We've had a wonderful 6 month! Anna Kate is such a delight to be with. She is definitely a people person - LOVES being with her friends. She is full of laughs and seems to get tickled at things more each day. She is starting to share her opinion more freely as well. :) It is so fun to watch her little personality unfold.

She has two bottom teeth that keep getting cuter as they grow taller. I think she may be working on some of her top ones, too. She is getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth a lot. I don't think it will be too much longer before she is crawling! Just yesterday, she finally figured out how to sit back up after she falls over. This thrilled her to no end. I feel like I could see the little wheels turning in her head as she worked to figure it out.

I absolutely LOVE being her mother and feel so incredibly blessed and lucky to be able to stay at home with her. She fills me with life and laughter. It is such an experience to ache with love for someone.

We will host Mam (my mom) at our house next week and we are SO excited to see her!!! Perhaps I'll be better at posting with pictures from her visit. :)

5 months old

For Auntie Robyn:



Our camera is on the fritz, so we've had to take pictures of Anna Kate with our computer this past month. These are some of the hightlights.

She weighs 18lbs 12oz - sorry to tell Avery that she is not shrinking. :) She has been working on her "tricks" for this age - rolling over and over and sitting up. She's getting stronger each day - it really amazes me to watch her grow and learn each day. I realize babies accomplish these milestones everyday all over the world. I've even witnessed them day in and out with other children. But as they say, "It's different when they are your own." Every little milestone is a small miracle. A little gift from God to remind you what wonderful/amazing creatures we are. I think we'll start cereal this coming week as she is watching me like a hawk with each bite I take of my own food. When I've not been paying attention, she has almost relieved me of my meal and helped herself to it. She's got some cat-like reflexes that girl. :)

We had a great Easter. (Amy and Amanda have pictures of her in her dress - just waiting for them to send them to me.) We went to church and then ate lunch with the Wilson's. Afterwards, we met up with other friends from church. It was a really wonderful day - bittersweet to say the least. We were surrounded by people we love - can't think of a better way to spend Easter.

Anna Kate and I are going on the youth retreat with Robby next weekend. We'll see how it goes! She has grown a little weary of her car seat in the last week or so.

Robby's birthday is on Tuesday. I'm not sure what we'll do yet. Last night we ate at Fire on the Mountain (a wings joint) with friends and had them over for dirt dessert afterward. I'm sure we'll continue the celebration on into Tuesday. Love to all.

Kisses until next time ...

Appointments and Birthdays

Anna Kate had her 4 month old appointment last week and the results...

26 inches long (97%)

17.2 lbs! (97%)

Are you just as surprised as she is?
We were!! (Although our muscles have been telling us that she is that heavy for a while now.) :)

She assumes she is big enough to escape from her swing now ...


Anna Kate helped me celebrate my 28th birthday this year. Last year for my birthday, I didn't even know she was on her way yet. It was weird to remember that while I was holding such a big baby.

This is the deliciously decedent chocolate cake that Robby ordered for me from one of our favorite places, Silk Cafe. He also took me to see "He's Just Not That Into You" and to eat dinner at Outback Steakhouse. Yummy!

Anna Kate and I played with the camera while we waited for Robby to wake up. (He had to preach the next morning and stayed up super late to finish his sermon so he could hang out with me all day.) He's a keeper!

Texas Trip - February '09

Well we've been back from Texas a couple of weeks now. Anna Kate and I were able to go and stay for 3 weeks while Robby got to be there about 12 days. We feel so blessed from our time there. Anna Kate got to meet many of her great grandparents and loads of aunts, uncles, and her cousin Avery. Needless to say - we had a WONDERFUL time showing her off and introducing her to our family and friends. We were so happy to be able to see many friends while we were there. Unfortunately, it was impossible to see everyone. Before Robby came, I was able to go to a few events at LCU's Homecoming - but didn't get a single picture from that day! Hopefully, it won't be too long until we are able to visit everyone again. I felt like our 3 weeks was just the right amount of time. I felt like we had time to really just BE with people - especially our families. We tried to be careful not to over-schedule our time so that we could enjoy ourselves rather than running around like chickens with our heads cut off. I was pretty good about taking pictures at the beginning of our trip, but got progressively worse the longer we were there. Here are some of the pictures I got on my camera. My sister got some great shots. A lot of you have probably seen them already, but for those of you who don't follow her blog, I'll post some of those in a few days.

Avery wrote this greeting for us in our room at my parent's house.

Avery and Anna Kate:




Anna Kate with Mam and Granpappy:


I love her face in this one. :) so grumpy. haha

with Auntie Robyn:

I love this picture because Robyn looks so pretty and AK looks so "deer in headlights". :)



With Uncle Gabe and Aunt Jillie:


We actually got to spend the night with Gabe, Jill, and Avery, but I didn't get any pictures of our time there. :(

With Tracy and Andrea:

With Grandmother and Grandad:


4 generations: Bobbye Mimms, Jill Moudy, Lynsey Wells, and Anna Kate Wells


With Gramps and Grandy: (We didn't get a generations picture here) :(


Bula, Grandy, Janet, Carolyn, and Anna Kate


In Fritch with Nana and Daddy B:




With Auntie Em and Uncle Chris:


4 generations: Robby Wells, Anna Kate Wells, Bob Wells, Robert Wells
With Grandpa Wells and Ebbie:

With Carley:
Jennifer and Gary:
The McKinney's: Jennifer, Kayla, Ashley, and Jon

With Adam Crawford:
Brynn and the biggest taco ever:We actually got a really good picture of her with Kent and Brynn, but in my haste to make more room on the camera, I accidentally deleted it. (Sorry guys!) :( I did manage to NOT delete the picture of the giant taco though (which was my aim instead of the one with you guys and Anna Kate.)