Part 2: Christmas Morning!

What fun we had on Christmas morning!  Ben was REALLY into the Santa thing this year, and Anna just knew by watching him that something good was coming!!

So sweet, waiting at the top of the stairs...

 

 Oh, my goodness...how precious!!

 

 

The first thing Anna played with was a Minnie Mouse toy...imagine that!

Ben got a cool train table and a marble run...

 

Chandler helping Anna ride her new hobby horse :)





 Mason and Ben, checking out the new marble run, one of Ben's most favorite toys.

 Best Day Ever:  Minnie AND Mickey!!

We stumbled upon a gumball machine and thought the kids might like it...it was definitely a hit with ALL ages :)

 And....the aftermath of Christmas with two toddlers and two teenagers.  Whew!  Can we take a nap??



Christmas 2013, Part 1

Hopefully "better late than never"...what a blessed Christmas we had last year!


Anna performed in her very first school program! No butterflies here! :)

Ben had a great time singing, too...

 

 

Grandmamma and Grandaddy came to see the show.

 

These two (and their mommy!) love crafting, so we did lots.  Decorating gingerbread people...

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got the felt tree and ornaments from last year back out, and it was a hit again :)

 





 

Something extra special we did was make cinnamon ornaments.  They smelled so good on the tree!  We took one to our favorite neighbors, Jeff and Betsy, and they were thrilled to have one :)

 

 

Of course, we had to go to the mall to sit on Santa's lap.  I love that they have the same one every year!  Anna was NOT a fan, but after two tries, made it long enough to get a good picture (actually a fluke - I do not recall her smiling at all, ha!!)  Of course, Mommy and Daddy were all of two feet away, and she wanted to be like big brother....well, maybe next year :)

 

 

 

Ben told Santa he wanted a dinosaur.

 

When we visited Meme and Pop for Christmas, we got to go to a special lunch with Santa.  Again, Anna was having none of this.  She agreed to stand as far away as possible from Santa while holding Ben's hand for a quick photo, but no more.  After lunch when we were leaving, though, we all got a good laugh.  From a safe distance with Pop holding her, she yelled at Santa, "MINNIE MOUSE, ELMO!"  Just making sure Santa got that wish list before we left, Ha Ha!!!

 

 

The whole gang!

 

Anna loves dessert buffets

 

Finally, here is the photo we used for our Christmas card this year.  Thank goodness one photo was good out of the fifty I took, ha ha!!

 

 

School Pics ~ 2013

I love school picture time!  Here are my babies, getting bigger and cuter every day!

Ben, Age 4

Anna, Age 2

 Melts my heart!!

Take 2: Anna's 2nd Birthday

Well, I'm not sure what happened with that last post - all pictures, no words! I guess that's what happens when tired Mama is working on the blog at 11:30 p.m. :). Oh well! Here are a few words to go with those birthday party pics!

Anna had an Elmo birthday party this year.  Elmo is her favorite these days...even more than baby dolls.  So to greet her guests, we made this Big Bird to stand by the door, welcoming everyone in.   

Other random Sesame Street props:

Her favorite ~ Elmo balloon wreath. She would point to Elmo and say "Anna", then point to Cookie Monster and say "Ben".  I don't have a clue why, but she pointed to it and smiled a lot, so that made me happy!

Giant Elmo / chevron birthday cake.  I loved the little lamp post on the side.  I wish I could say I made it, but I did not ;)

 

Our baby is TWO!

These brownie pops were Anna's favorite, even more than the cake.  I must have found ten of these, randomly scattered around after the party with the icing licked off, brownie still intact.  Culprit:  Anna Banana.

I had the best time making these favor buckets.  After the party, everybody picked their favorite Sesame Street character and filled their pails with goodies from the buffet ~ bouncy balls, Gold Fish, pinwheels, silly straws....you would have thought they won the lottery, ha!

Down in the basement is where all the fun was to be had....Abby's Dress-Up station was a hit, even with the boys!

We also made a Cookie you could feed cookies, and Oscar's Tattoo Parlor.  Anna and Ben had at LEAST eight Sesame Street character tattoos on their arms when it was all over!

Cake time!

Somebody had a great day!

The whole gang! (Almost....impossible to wrangle every single toddler, ha!)

We love our Anna Boo so much....there are just no words for how precious she is to us!  Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!!

 

Anna-Boo is Two!

Last month, our sweet little Anna turned two.  She is precious as precious can be, honestly!!!  She's always such a happy girl, and so loving.  Anna copies everything Ben does, and they love playing together (most of the time)!

She has 16 teeth, wears a size 2T, and says 35-40 words.  At her two-year old check-up, Anna was 90% for height and 50% for weight.  Little girl sleeps so well, from 8 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. with a two hour nap after lunch.

Waiting on Ben to get a haircut...always so happy and smiling!

Anna is a big Daddy's Girl, and misses Mark so much when he's at work during the day.

She's getting "into" fashion these days.  There is only one certain style of hair bow (in any color, though) that she prefers to wear - and most of the time she wants all five that we have in her hair at the same time! 

Anna is a great snuggler...if she wakes up early, she will lay in our bed so nice and sweet until time to wake up, and even fall back asleep sometimes.  I love those days!

So beautiful, she melts Mommy's heart...

A few more things about Anna at age two:

~she likes to cook in her pretend kitchen and take care of her baby dolls - feeding, bathing, and strolling them.
~not very into TV right now
~says "Whoa!" every time we go over a bump in the car!
~still needs a baby gate for the steps
~new favorite word DOP = stop
~refuses to sit in her highchair anymore! She likes to have a chair like Ben's now.
~she loves school, and you can tell she feels like such a big girl being there (like her big brother!)

Birthday Girl going to school!

Summer So Far ~ 2013

I really can't believe it, but school's starting back soon!!  Our summer has flown by...thank goodness it's not over yet ;)

Ben and Anna (and Mommy!) have really loved how the weather has been so pleasant.  I don't think there has been one day that I thought, "Ugh, it's too hot to go out and play."  So we have been outside a LOT.  Up until we went to the beach, their new (homemade out of a Rubbermaid bin) sand table was their favorite thing to play with.  After the beach, sand = old news.  Ha, ha!

Cousin Hank, along with Aunt Anne and cousin Max, came to visit and we had a ball!  Matching outfits were found for the boys and that seemed to multiply the fun by 100! 

Hank and Ben

Chandler was in lots of baseball tournaments this summer.  Here they are cheering him on. (Well, actually constantly climbing bleachers and raiding the cooler for ice to play with, but that's ok!)

 

Although it hasn't been to hot to play outside most days, it has rained a lot this summer.  So, we've found some fun indoor things to do.  Ben thought this "no mess" finger painting was cool...two paint colors, baby oil and waterbeads all sealed up in a bag taped to the table.  He squished it around for almost an hour!  Anna wasn't as impressed, so he squished hers around, too. 

 This might be my absolute favorite picture of Ben and Anna together of all time....Happy 4th of July!!