Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Anika's 1st Birthday

Happy Birthday to our little girl. Now I realize I'm a little late since her birthday was a couple of weeks ago, but I still wanted to share her celebration. Here she is on her big day....
She's come a long way in one year.
She is a fun little girl who we enjoy so much and lovingly refer to as Destructo.

Why?

Well, because she destroys everything. She likes to empty ever drawer or cabinet she can get into, which is quite a bit. She is a climber too. Amazing the things she is able to get on top of.

I know we should child proof things, but its not our house and we are leaving so soon. So right now she keeps me busy and gets me to exercise by chasing her around.

She's not walking yet, only a couple of steps at a time ... IF you can convince her to try.
Our drawers are no longer organized, things come out and we just toss back in.
She's obsessed with Brodrick's shoe basket. Pulls it out and throws every shoe out. She could do this all day.
And heaven forbid she gets a hold of a tissue or paper of any sort. She will shred it.

*sigh*

But, even with her destructive tendencies, we still love her to pieces and can't imagine life without her. She adores her big brother, even when he steals toys out of her hands and pushes her over. I guess that's what big brothers are for.

Since we didn't have any real family to celebrate with, we invited some of our Danish family over for a small party.
Here's Broderick and Sanne (our babysitter) helping with the cake. She ate it very ladylike, just a little piece at a time, not making a mess at all .... until she threw it on the floor.
Here's the cake, this is the first cake that I decorated and cut out myself. It was a lot of fun and you could even tell what it was supposed to be. What? You can't tell? Its a dog people!

Here's Anika's little cake:
The Danes liked the tradition of giving the 1 year old their own cake to destroy.

Our neighbors were at the party. Anika loved their baby and kept pulling out the pacifier and gently putting it back in.
Broderick was right there to help her with her gifts, and you can see Grandma and Grandpa Schmidgall made it to the party via skype (on the computer in the background).
Here she is with Kirstine (her danish Grandma).
She loves riding her wheely bug. Her legs aren't quite long enough, so we have to push her around on it.
(hey - more exercise)


She has had quite the first year...

Born in a foreign country, she has already been to 11 different countries. (What?????) She has been such a trooper with all the travel and strange beds, and it is such a tragedy she won't remember any of it.
She has been a healthy little girl too, she has never had to go to the doctor for an illness. (mommy is very thankful for this, since our doctor doesn't won't speak English to me).
Anika, we love you so much. We are so thankful God has given you to us. You brighten our days with all of your smiles and giggles and we can't imagine life without you.

3 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday Beautiful girl!!!!
    So fun to watch you grow through the stories and pictures-
    Love
    Annie

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  2. Oh, how we love our sweet Anika!! Grandma Jane is looking forward to seeing you pull things out of our drawers!!!

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  3. Happy Birthday Anika! What a pretty little girl you are.

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