Easter 2012

Our family had a wonderful Easter.  Of course, our baby girl's first Easter was a special occasion, and Ben was very "into" hunting for Easter eggs this year so that was lots of fun! 

Here are our sweet babies!

Ben had a ball hunting for eggs...we did have to fill them all with a treat, though.  The ones at school had candy in them, so that's all he talked about.  I didn't want to see what would happen if all those eggs were empty , so we put M&Ms, Skittles, and a little bit of money as the "treats" in them!

Anna spent most of her Easter napping...

...and relaxing with Grandmama.  It was a great day!

Sweet Sounds :)

Anna is just crazy about all her brothers!  The one that can really get her laughing, though, is Ben.  Whenever he's around, she's got her eyes fixed on him...grinning from ear to ear no matter what he's doing!  Lately, Ben has been such a sweet brother, giving her kisses and hugs, and singing to her when she's crying (always makes her smile!)  Here's a video of him making her laugh.  I could watch it a thousand times!! :)

Muffins with Mom

Our first of many Muffins with Mom at school today! It was tons of fun...Ben ate two sausage and egg muffins, Connery threw up, and then Ben poured orange juice all over his white shirt...HAHAHA!!!! Fun times for all! No, really, I loved it and Ben did, too :). He's already talking about Donuts with Dad next week!!

Anna ~ 6 months!

Time to celebrate Anna's "half birthday"!  (Well, the time was about a month ago, but better late than never on this blog, I guess!) My little baby seems to be growing right before my eyes these days :(  But each and every day is such a joy with her...she really is the BEST baby!  She's never in a sour mood, doesn't cry when it's time to eat or sleep (unless Mama is totally missing the other signs, ha ha!), and is generally smiling most of the time :)  Our little sweetie will eat whatever I feed her, even if she doesn't like it, and has never fussed that I know of over a dirty diaper. 

Anna's quite attached to Mama these days, and pretty much the only thing she'll whine or cry about is if someone's holding her and that someone is not me (ha ha!).  That's OK, though...we're getting tons of time together and I treasure every minute of it! 

This month, Anna sat up on her own!  I still don't feel comfortable leaving her to sit on her own without bonking over, but she's getting better and better each day.  She's especially good at sitting in her bouncey or Bumbo.

It seems like she's getting so big, but actually she just outgrew her 3-6 month clothes and it now in size 6 month and maybe a few bigger ones here and there.  At her six month check-up she weighed 14 pounds, 5 ounces...not quite double her birth weight.  She is tall, though - in the 85%-ile - so I guess she'll be a long, skinny girl! 

We're still nursing and doing really well, but Anna is trying more and more solid foods lately.  She likes peaches, ham and pineapple, and bananas the best; sweet potatoes and peas are not high on her favorites list.  I've been feeding her solids three times a day, and putting a scoop of formula in each meal to give her extra calories so she'll maybe sleep longer at night.  So far, it's working most of the time!  Most nights, Anna sleeps from about 8:00 to about 5:00 a.m. and if she does wake before then, it's only for a paci.  So, not too bad if you realize a month ago she was waking up 1-2 times each night to eat!  Whew!

Although it seems Anna is partial to Mama sometimes, she really does love Daddy-time, too :)  Here they are getting ready to go outside to play with Ben on one of the few chilly days we had last month.

She adores napping with Mark, too...anytime he sits down with her on the couch, they watch TV together for a few minutes and before you know it, she's OUT!

What a joy these past six months have been!  I can't tell you how many smiles Anna has blessed us with - both seeing them on her face and lighting up our faces, as well.  We love you, Anna Boo!

Playin' at the Park

The weather we have had the past two weeks has been HEAVEN!  It cooled down quite a bit over the weekend, so our warm spell might be over :(  So here are some sunny pictures to hold us 'til it warms up again!!  Two weekends ago, we had a fabulous afternoon at Winged Deer Park playing in the sunshine.  I think this is Ben's favorite park to go to...there's everything from rock climbing to slides and swings to throwing rocks in the water at the boat ramp ~ a little boy's dream!!

Anna had fun, too!  She loves riding around with Mommy...

...and we even got a push from brother Ben on the swing!

Got Static?!

Throwing rocks in the lake with Daddy...

High Five ~ Love it!!

Anna ~ 5 months

Ughh, I'm so behind on blogging!  Anna's not 5 months old anymore, but she is changing and doing so much each day, I didn't want to skip over this wonderful month in her life :)  My little sweetie is always smiling, never in a grumpy mood, and really starting to be super curious about all that's going on around her this month.  She is especially taking to her brother Ben!  Maybe because he's another "little" person, I'm not sure...but she just smiles at him, and cranes her neck to see him whenever he comes around.

I think Ben kinda likes Anna, too, but he won't admit it!

Her bigger brothers are crazy about her, and she loves to watch them make silly faces.  Maybe this one looked a little TOO silly, ha!!

Every day, there's something new, it seems!  Her favorite sound to make is "raspberries" ~ here she is blowing some for Mommy :)

She loves riding in the baby carrier....or "the pouch" (as in kangaroo) as we call it. I switched her around to ride on my back for the first time this month since she's getting strong enough now and she loved it even more than the front!!

Anna is still waking up at least once a night to eat, and maybe more for a paci call or two.  Here's her sleeping arrangement.  She's been sleeping like this with the Rock-n-Play in the crib since she got a cold two months ago, and now I'm afraid she's hooked on sleeping all cuddled up!  One day I'll transition her to the crib laying flat, but for now, waking up 2-3 times a night is enough/too much already!

Finally, our sweet girl is growing up too fast already!  She took her first bite of "real" food (Mama's trying everything to get her to sleep a little more at night!!).  It was avocado and she ate it up ~ yippee!!



They say a baby's eyes can change color any time in the first year, but Anna's seem to be getting bluer and bluer...so I think she's going to get to keep them :)  I adore looking at her beautiful blue eyes...reminds me of her Daddy!

Ben v2.5!!

January marked Ben's 30th month, which means he's 2 1/2 years old!  Wow, 2.5 sounds a lot older than 30 months...??  Anyway, Ben is thoroughly enjoying his time being two, and we have loved growing with him as we see what each new day holds.  Sometimes, you NEVER know!!  Ha!

Playing in the snow...he loved eating it!

Hot Chocolate with Mommy after snow play

His favorite show now is Baby Juno.  Unfortunately, it's not on TV, so he watches it on DVD a lot.  It's also on Mommy's iPad, which is a new form of entertainment for him.  He also likes to play Elmo's ABC's and a counting game on there.  Oh, and how could I forget?  Calling Santa.  Yes, in February.  I had an app on the iPad that called Santa and you could "talk" to him and tell him what you wanted for Christmas and it really appeared that he was listening and talking back.  Ben loved it, and still calls Santa every day.  I guess getting ready for Christmas 2012!!

Ben's favorite chore is laundry...but it's definitely not seen as a chore to this little boy.  If I don't save the laundry for him to help me with, there's lots of disappointment around here, ha!  Here he is standing on his stool showing Bunny how to wash the clothes...so cute!

I think Ben is finally warming up to Anna a little bit.  He's always been nice enough, but lately, he's asked me several times to hold her!  Wow!  And he has shared his favorite pal Bunny with her, too, and that's saying a lot!  If my hands are tied for the moment and she's fussing, he'll say, "It's OK, Baby Anna.  It's OK!"

He has his moments, too, though...we are truly right in the heart of the Terrible Twos right now.  Ben's got an incredibly stubborn way about him (where did he get that from??) and is absolutely insistent on being independent in ALL things.  So, this leads to a bit of conflict sometimes when we are in a hurry or something.  As all children do, he tests and tests us on the boundaries we've set for him, just to see what will happen.  Fortunately for me, consistency is a strength of mine (thank you "Strength Finders" we did as a team at Eastman!) so hopefully he gets the same answer each and every time he tests those boundaries!

That's easier said than done, though.  Sometimes Mark or I will come in the room and Ben's doing something odd like eating sugar cereal for lunch.  We'll say, "What's going on?!" and the other one will say, "He got me!  He wore me down and I caved in a weak moment!!  UGH!"  Ha, ha!  It happens!!  Add persistence to Ben's Strength Finder's list!! :)

Last month, Ben attended his first live show!  Sesame Street Live came to Freedom Hall and we went with some of his little friends.

Big Bird was first out onstage.  I was so excited to see his reaction because he had never been to anything like this before!  He watched Big Bird for about 30 seconds and said, "WHERE'S ELMO??"  Ha, ha!!

Elmo balloons available for only $10 (EACH!)



Enjoying the show with Clara, Liam and Sophia

 Mommy and Ben had a fun time watching Elmo, eating pizza and M&M's and dancing.  Afterwards, Ben asked a few times to go back to "Elmo's house" to see him again!!

Anna ~ 4 Months Old

Little Miss Anna had a big fourth month!  We finally both kicked our never-ending colds/sinus infection/etc and felt MUCH better.  At her four month check-up, Anna weighed 11 pounds 15 ounces and measured 25 inches long.  Her weight fell from the 50% to under the 20%, but her height jumped up a few curves to the 75%, so the doctor isn't worried about her growth at all. 

She has been waking up quite a bit at night (STILL!), so we decided to try feeding her every two hours during the day instead of every three.  Whew!  That's a lot of eating!  In fact, she's never eaten that often, even as a newborn!  But what do you know, it worked like a charm the past few nights ~ she's only been waking once around 4 a.m.....Yippee!!

Anna's favorite sleep position.

Speaking of sleep, she is too cute when she's getting sleepy.  She doesn't fuss or anything, as long as she's somewhere comfy like the Boppy seat, and has her left arm free to put on her forehead.  If I see her striking this pose, I know it's time to put that sweet baby in her crib!!  She sleeps like this all the time!

She's really started "talking" more and laughing a lot,which is just the best sound ever!  A day after she turned four months, she rolled over, too!  Anna doesn't seem to mind tummy time as much as some babies, and she's already pulling her legs up like she's trying to crawl....oh my goodness, time is flying by!!!

We don't really have a set schedule "by the clock", but in the past few weeks, I've noticed a pattern where Anna basically gets sleepy about 2 hours after she last woke up.  So, she naps for an hour or two, then is awake for about two hours and we do it all again, all day :)  Then it's time for bed around 7 or 8:00 and she wakes up one more time to eat before midnight, and then hopefully just the once in the middle of the night.  Then it's up with the rest of the family around 6:30 or 7 a.m. to start our day!

Here's a picture of our sweetie without a bow in her hair...Daddy likes the "no bow" look better, saying she's so pretty already, she doesn't "need" a bow :)  Well, I agree that she's the most gorgeous little girl I've ever seen and she certainly doesn't need a bow to be beautiful, but Mama can't help herself sometimes...this girly stuff is so much fun already!!

Anna truly is a precious little girl, and these past four months have been heaven!!  I think a lot about how fun it's going to be to have a daughter, and I hope one day she loves her mommy as much as I love mine!! :)

"It's not Santa....

...it's Santa CLAUS," according to Ben.   Ohhhhhh, excuse me!  Ha ha!!  Ben made sure to keep us on our toes this season, for sure!  We had a wonderful Christmas for lots of reasons.  It was Anna's very first Christmas!  And, this was the first Christmas that Ben understood about "Santa" and looked forward to talking to him and his big visit on Christmas Eve :) 

Ben wanted to put out his favorite Bunny Cookies for Santa, along with the milk, so that's what Santa snacked on this year. 

 On Christmas morning, Ben slept in nice and late (7:30) and had forgotten all about Santa when he woke up, ha ha!!  We reminded him, though, and he couldn't wait to go downstairs and see what was going on!  We were so excited for him to see his new trampoline and kitchen from Santa, but.....

Ben playing with Anna's toys

...what he was most interested in was Anna's toys!!  Probably because they lit up and sang songs :)  After he checked them out, though, he saw his Santa gifts and loved them.  Here he is on the trampoline.

The only thing we could ever get Ben to tell us he wanted for Christmas was an elephant, tiger and alligator.  Sooooooo....Santa did the best he could ;)  Apparently there was a run on alligators in miniature form, so we had to call in a sub.  I think it was close enough for Ben, though, thank goodness!

 We had sausage pinwheels and french toast casserole for breakfast, and around lunch time, Mason and Chandler came over so we had the whole gang.  Anna enjoyed checking all the commotion out and watching us open gifts.  Oh, and wearing her new hairbow that was in her stocking :)

Anna and Ben on Christmas morning

~ Mommy, Daddy, Chandler, Ben, Mason, and Anna ~

Getting Ready...

....for Christmas!!  No, not 2012 (thank goodness!); I'm going back to 2011.  It's not too late to post about Christmas since January's not even over yet, right?!  We had a busy, busy December getting ready for the big day.   We had gingerbread trains to make...

...Christmas trees to chop down (OK, we really didn't chop it down, but instead had the workers with a chainsaw do it for us :)  Ben had a ball picking a tree out and running all over the tree farm.  We even saw a bunny rabbit streak out in front of us!  I had a good laugh because Ben just casually asked to go "get it"...as if that thing wasn't running at lightening speed and would be like looking for a needle in a haystack, ha!

Baby Anna had fun at the tree farm all snuggled up to Mama to keep warm!!

Ben's favorite part:  rocking by the fire.  He personally tested out each rocking chair a minimum of three times.

And finally, we had Christmas cards to send!  The timing of our attempt at this photo - when the older boys were with us, not raining outside, right time of day for good lighting, Anna awake, clothes matching and ironed, soon enough so that the cards could be printed and mailed before 2012, and on and on....just happened to inconviently fall when Ben was tired and possibly hungry.  GREAT.

The first few attempts were wildly unsuccessful.  Apparently Ben didn't want to play "paparazzi" at that time.



 "OK, I'll let you take my picture, but I am NOT sitting where you want me to.  Here's my best fake smile!"

 "I'm leaving."  I love the look on Mason's face...."Darnit!  So close!"  Of course, Anna's being an angel :)

Wait! Come back, we have Skittles for you, Ben!  Well....you see where that got us (see the yellow candy in Ben's teeth below!).  Not the look I was going for, though.

AHHHH....finally!  One decent photo in the bunch!  And here you have our Christmas card photo for 2011!