Ready to hit the beach!

For a special treat we got a little pedicure yesterday. Anna-Kate is THRILLED with her new toes!!!!

Rain, rain, go away....

We are leaving for the beach tomorrow morning. We've been looking forward to this for months!! Dumb Gustav and Hanna. They better stay away! Weather looks like there is no threat of hurricanes, but the forcast is dismal--rain almost every day. Please pray it will go away. How awful to be crammed in a little condo with the kids??

In other, more uplifting, news. :) The kids and I have had a really fun week and stayed really busy this week. Lots of little trips, playdates and today we went to the zoo. It's becoming our new thing to do on Fridays. We were looking at elephants this morning and Anna-Kate asked about his teeth. We have been talking about tusks (on elephants and walruses). I asked her to "say tusks. tu-skkkk". She replied: "no mommy, that too hard for me". Seriously? So later I was tucking her in and said, "when you wake up tomorrow, you know where we're going?". "THE BEACH!" she screamed. I smiled and said, "I sure do love you Anna-Kate". Her response? "Oh thanks Mommy".

For those who care to keep up...Ryan has been really constipated the last few days, but finally seems to be clearinghimself out. I've felt so badly for him--he's just been out of sorts all day--hardly napping. Which, if you know what a sweet, peaceful, laid back kid he is--you know this is not the norm. So sad.

I'll try to blog from the beach and post pics, if not--I'll post next Saturday. :) Happy Labor Day!

New sayings

In reference to Poppy's clock (the grandfather clock that my dad built):
"It's working!" (every 15 minutes when it bongs--every time she was awake for it...as opposed to it being broken when it isn't making noise).
"How work Poppy?". Dad then tried explaining weights and pulls and such to her. She then said, "no Poppy, no". As if she knows...

"I did it!" She actually says this a lot, but this specific time was when we were driving to the zoo and about to get on to the highway. She is referencing that she buckled her seatbelt...as I had failed to do so. That's right, mother of the year.

When I asked her if she needed to go potty before going down for her nap:
"No, I already went today". Oh, right, that once daily thing called going potty...

When asked if she helped make Daddy's birthday cake:
"Yes, and it's so delicious!" That's right, we are modest about our achievements.

We have been stressing that disobedience (etc) makes not only Mommy said, but also Jesus. So I asked her if she needed to go potty, she said no, then about 15 minutes later she had an accident...I was peeved. All I said though was, "going pee-pee in panties is so gross. Mommy is so sad that you didn't make it to the potty in time, but you will next time, right?". She looked up at me with the saddest look and said, "Jesus so sad too Mommy?".
OK, so I felt bad that I had ridden her with guilt, but at least I know she's listening now, huh?

Addictions

So, of course, Chris and I would say we are addicted to caffeine. He takes his in the form of either coffee or diet coke. On occasion I'll have coffee in the morning, but my vice of choice is diet dr. pepper. Yum. It makes me feel warm and tingly just thinking about the caffeinated, carbonated goodness.

My latest (or longest running, depending on your way of looking at it) addiction, though, is the Olympics. I have always enjoyed them. A fond childhood memory is watching hours of olympic coverage as a family...pulling a card table in front of the tv and watching tv during dinner (Oh! The horror!). So, this continues...every 2 years I spend 2 1/2 weeks glued to my tv. You know it's bad when your two-year-old says, "Oh. A Mommy show on again?". Hmmm. Hopefully she will learn to love it as I do. I had her shouting "go USA" the other day. Chris and I have enjoyed cheering for Phelps and the other swimmers, and Nastia and Shawn and the other US gymnasts. What a national pride booster! :)Though swimming and gymnastics are favorites...I've found myself watching most anything. Marathon? Yep. Water polo? sure. I draw the line at horse riding though. Horses don't get medals and jockeys (is that what they are?) don't deserve one any more than Nascar is a sport in my opinion.

In Anna-Kate, however, I've created a monster. When she was sick a few weeks ago I gently tickled her back while she laid in bed. Harmless, right? Evidently not. Not a day goes by that I don't hear, "I need my tickles on my back Mama", and for extra clarification she turns her back to me, lifts up her dress or shirt and says, "right here". OH NO! :)

Happy Birthday Chris!

One quick hilarious conversation before I get to my birthday post. Anna-kate takes her nap at 1. At 2 she was still talking in bed, so I went up to tell her to lie down and go to sleep. I go in and she's sitting in bed with about 6 books (that weren't there when I left). She is not allowed to get out of bed. Period. So I asked her if she had gotten up.
AK: "No Mommy".
JH: "Are you telling Mama the truth?"
AK: looks at the floor then whispered, "no".
JH: "I am happy that you told Mommy the truth, but you get pops for getting out of bed, remember?"
AK: "No need pops Mommy, Jesus already popped me."
JH: Trying not to laugh..."what? Jesus popped you?"
AK: "Yes, then he gave me a kiss on my mouth".
As I was almost crying trying not to laugh, I managed to say that if she got out of bed again it would be big pops and I got outta there!

On to Chris' birthday. Anna-Kate and I made Chris' favorite--a chocolate cake with chocolate icing. This was her first cake to "make" and she loved it. Well, it was fine, she really love licking the beater.

I know, bad mommy for raw eggs, but it's a rite of passage......bake a cake, lick the batter.

Here she is holding the mixer:


Her first lick:


The after:


Happy 28th Birthday Chris!

Back to school....

So last Tuesday was Anna-Kate's first day at "school"...aka Mothers Morning Out. She goes to a little Baptist church on Tuesday and Thursday from 9-1. The original goal was to give me one on one time with Ryan, but already I can see how good it is for her and how much she LOVES it! I about cried on the first day. She looked so grown up and was so excited. She got a little clingy when I dropped her off, but saw her friend and ran in without a problem. Thursday, we walked in the building and she took off for her classroom. I had to follow her down the hall to get a goodbye kiss!

So independant.

I've really enjoyed the time with Ryan. He is such a happy baby that I find it's easy to stick him in the jumperoo and devote more time to Anna-Kate--who continually asks for it. If there was a soundtrack to my life it would be, "I read book with Mommy; I see my Mommy; I hold Mommy's hand; I sit in Mommy's lap; I play with my Mommy". It is precious, and I try so hard not to tire of it...I know it is such a short time that she will want to be constantly snuggled. However, it is tiring. But I digress. The time is wonderful for Ryan and I have really enjoyed seeing his sweet little personality come forth.

On the way home today she was talking about Miss Penny (teacher) and her new friend Ansley who was sad because she missed her mommy. Then she said, "but I tell her 'it's OK Ansley, she be back soon'".

First day of school:


In her classroom with a friend when I picked her up:


Not a great picture, but with her new backpack. She LOVES it, and wore it for about an hour yesterday and today when she got back until she got in bed. :)


Not to be outdone, Ryan is studying up....

Ryan Eats!

Ryan ate his first solids today at his 4 pm feeding. It went OK I think. :)
Here he is awaiting his first bites of milk and oatmeal (all clean...):

The first bite:

I love this picture. He is looking at me with such trust even though he totally wasn't feeling the cereal:

Covered in his dinner. Look at those bright eyes! :)

Appetizing, huh?

New pictures

I thought the kids looked exceptionally cute on Sunday after church, so I snapped a couple of pictures.
Here is Ryan wearing an outfit of my brothers:

Here is Anna-Kate holding Ryan...her new favorite thing ("I hold Ryan mommy, I do it").


This last picture is of some bloomers I monogrammed for a friend of a friend. Any interest, just email me (either in outside stuff, or me getting bloomers/burp cloths, paci clips, bibs etc and monogramming for you). I'm starting to take in some embroidery and would love your business. :)

Our anniversary...a little late.

So as part of Chris' anniversary gift to me, he gave me tickets to see Bryan Adams in concert. I know I'm the only person who still likes him, but I do--and it was super sweet of him. :) He also got tickets for the Crabbs to join us. We both got sitters, and headed out a couple of weekends ago. We hit up Uncle Julios (Mexican food) for dinner, grabbed Brusters (yummy icecream), then got to the concert a bit late. Unfortunately, Bryan Adams was opening, so we missed about half his show. We still had a great time though.

Here we all are eating dinner (Jonathan, Chris, me, Leigh-Ann). The steak fajitas are awesome--fresh tortillas and yummy fresh-made guacamole! This is actually where Chris and I went to dinner for Valentines Day, just a week before Ryan was born.

While the bands were changing sets there was about a 30 minute "intermission" of sorts. Always prepared, I whipped out a deck of cards and we got a few hands of Spades in. I'm happy to report, the girls won the game!

As part of my gift to Chris I got him tickets to see the Braves and Cardinals play this past Monday. We went to Turner did hotdogs, pretzel, icecream...the whole nine yards. We had a great time! What irony that we both got each other gifts for a function at the end of July when our anniversary is in the beginning of June!
If I had a penny for every time someone said, "so you brought your better half..." to Chris... (notice the hats).

We had such fun together--it's a treat to get to date my husband! He's a pretty great guy I think. :)