Friday, May 01, 2009

Our family is expanding...

It is with much joy that we declare that we have "outgrown" this blog, and its time to move on to another blog now that our family is expanding. We want to keep up with both Anna and Kate's adventures at our new site for both girls. Please come visit us there! (And, please forgive the general lag in updates these days...we're still adjusting to our new "schedule" as parents of two...)

http://annaandkate.blogspot.com/


Little painter

In anticipation of Kate's arrival, Anna and I went to the local pottery place and did a little painting. Anna painted a monkey for herself, and a little piggy for Kate...such a good big sister! We were also able to get Anna's "three year" handprint plate made...amazing how big her little hand is getting! I'm afraid we're going to have to upgrade from the salad plate to the dinner plate for next year's handprint!

Monday, April 27, 2009

Happy Birthday Daddy...


...from your girls! We love you very much!!
(P.S. Please ignore the terrible picture of me...I had been planting flowers in our flowerbeds all afternoon...it was just the only pic I had of all three of us...)

Spring fling

Daddy and Anna had fun decorating brownie bites at the Spring Fling at Challenger Park...

In the bluebonnets


For whatever reason, Anna has been somewhat obsessed this year with me taking her picture in the bluebonnets. There is a field of bluebonnets outside of her school, and every day that I pick her up she insists on me taking her picture there. Most days its with a pretend camera, but on this day I actually had my real camera with me so got an actual shot. I was hoping to get a picture with she and Kate in the bluebonnets this year, but I'm afraid we may have missed our window...oh well...its been a kind of crazy last few weeks so I guess we have a good excuse :-).

Egg hunter

Hunting eggs was definitely a popular Easter activity with Anna this year. While she's not quite to the age yet that we're getting creative with hiding them, so thought running around and picking eggs up out the grass was a blast! The top picture was taken at her MOMS Club egg hunt, and the lower picture is her hunting with her school friends. We definitely got some mileage out of her Easter basket this year...

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Happy Easter!

Ok, so we're a week and a half late...we were a little occupied on Easter this year...:-).

Anna was completely in LOVE with the Easter bunny this year, so was none too upset to have multiple opportunities to have her picture taken with her favorite rabbit.

The top picture was taken at the mall (I succumbed to the temptation and paid the outrageous price that they charge to have your picture taken at the mall...Anna just loved him too much for me to say no!), and the bottom is from the Easter party at Anna's school.

We hope everyone had as outstanding an Easter as we did!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Big sister!


As many of you know, Anna became a big sister on Friday, April 10th! She welcomed her new little sister, Kate Amelia, to the family at 3:16pm. Anna has been doing an amazing job as a big sister--bringing Kate toys and giving her lots of hugs, snuggles, and kisses. She's even "helping" with diaper changes!
We've been a little behind in blog postings, but I'm going to try to get caught up in the next few days. After I catch up, we're planning to switch to a new blog for both of the girls...more on that soon...

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Big sis in training

We took Anna to a "Super Siblings" class this Saturday to help her get ready for Kate's nearing arrival, and she had a great time! They learned all about what babies eat, what they can play with, how to hold a baby and support their head, etc., etc. I think Clint and I appreciated the refresher as well...ha! Here, Anna is learning how to swaddle a baby. If Kate is anything like Anna was as a baby, this will be an invaluable skill...that Anna LOVED to be swaddled! I think I finally stopped swaddling her when she was about 10 months old because I realized that it had reached the point of ridiculousness...

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Build-a-bear

Especially since I know our carefree "mommy-daughter" days are likely coming to an end for a while pretty soon, I've been wanting to do some special activities with Anna in these last few weeks before Kate arrives. (Does that sound like I think our life is going to end when Kate gets here?? I don't mean it that way at all...I just know that things will definitely get more complicated for a while...:-) ). Yesterday we went to Build-a-Bear so that Anna could make a bear for her to give Kate when she's born. We of course also made something for Anna--she picked out a beautiful white seal as her "friend". Above you can see her putting the stuff in Kate's bear (dubbed by Anna as "Care Bear"), and then giving him a hug.

After Anna finished stuffing the animals, she went and gave them a bath. She thought that was the greatest! We followed up our animal-building morning with a lunchtime trip to Chick-fil-a and the Great American Cookie Company (a special treat!), and a visit to the Easter bunny. We had a great day...

Monday, March 23, 2009

Country cousins


Anna and I went on a little adventure last week during Spring Break, and went to Caldwell (Grammie's hometown--to the land that she was raised on) to meet up with my family. Anna had a blast in the country with her cousins!

She and Natalie seem to have struck up a special bond during these last few visits (her birthday and the trip to the country). I think they're finally old enough to really "play together", instead of just play beside each other.

Ok, I'll admit...my sister and I are raising a bunch of city girls! Their idea of "roughing it"--eating Cheetos out of the back of Grammie and Bucko's car.

Anna did have her first experience with crossing a barbed wire fence. Mommy was WAY too big to get over or under the fence, so Aunt Kel helped her across and did the rest of the hike with her. Thanks Aunt Kel and Bucko for taking her the rest of the way (and thanks Grammie for staying back with me!)...

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Taking a dip

While the weather is certainly warming up here in Houston, we're still not quite to "pool season" yet. But, the heated hot tub seemed to satiate the need to swim for Anna and her cousins last weekend. Forgive the photo quality--everyone was having way too much fun to stop and look at the camera...

Thanks again to Grammie and Bucko, and Kel, Syd, and Nat, for coming to visit us last weekend...we had a great time!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Jump around

Ok, we have one last birthday wish and posting for Anna...yesterday was Anna's 3rd birthday party at a local "bounce place" called Jump N Jungle. We had a blast! We had originally planned her party for her favorite park, but the weather in Houston yesterday was terrible (rain + 40 degrees...that's FREEZING), so made a last minute reschedule to a drier, warmer option.

This place ended up being a great alternative! They took care of all of the real-time logistics like setting up the room, getting pizza and drinks for the kids, serving cake, etc...a big relief given that I'm about 13 months pregnant.

And, the kids seemed to have a blast! The pictures aren't the best...turns out taking pictures of a crew of 3 year olds jumping and bouncing around in close range requires significantly greater photojournalistic skills than I possess. Oh well...these may be blurry, but they capture some of the joy!

We attempted to take a "group photo" of all of Anna's friends, but had some lack of cooperation from the party attendees. Oh well...this was as close to a quorum as we could get...

Friday, March 13, 2009

An evening in the rainforest

Last Saturday, after our full day of birthday celebrations, we decided to conclude the day with a trip to the Rainforest Cafe in Galveston to celebrate Anna's birthday. We had attempted to go the night before on her actual birthday, but she had a bit of a tummyache so we decided to wait for her to feel better.

She had such a blast! She loved all of the animals, and is still talking about the "dancing gorilla", the "butterfly...she's so cute!", and the mama and baby elephants. While the Rainforest Cafe admittedly has a bit of a "theme park" quality to it, it was just perfect for a birthday celebration. Its amazing how much more fun places like this are when you see them through the eyes of a child!

They even brought Anna a birthday sundae and sang her a Happy Birthday song. They had talked about asking her to get on the table and act like a gorilla (great...that'll be a fun habit to break at home...), but I think they saw her slight timidness and decided a song and candle were probably celebration enough! Happy Birthday, our little monkey!

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Birthday-palooza


Anna had a fun-filled Saturday yesterday making her rounds on the birthday party circuit. She started the morning with an indoor pool party for her friend Ava. Mommy opted to not exhibit her now whale-sized tummy by getting in the pool, but stayed on the sidelines for photo ops of Anna and Daddy. Anna loved spending some time swimming and then having a yummy lunch with the birthday girl, Ava!

After the pool party, we headed to a "jumping" party for her friend Kara. Anna has definitely turned over a new leaf when it comes to these bounce houses! We went to a party at this same place a few months ago and Anna spent most of the time being held by Mommy and watching the other ones jump. Well...she decided her days of being a wallflower were over, and we basically had to pry her from the jump area when it was time to go have pizza, cake, and ice cream with her friends. She's growing up!
We then finished off the day with a family birthday celebration for Anna at the Rainforest Cafe...pics from that coming soon...

Friday, March 06, 2009

Happy Birthday, sweet Anna!

Happy Birthday to our little doodlebug!! Anna had a fun day today, starting with a birthday serenade and presents at home this morning, a trip to the donut shop on the way to school, and then a fun school day with her friends. We had thought about keeping her home today, but Fridays are the most fun school day filled with Tumblebus, show & tell, and her school birthday party. So, she was pretty insistent on going today!

Above, she parties at school with friends, a birthday hat, cupcakes, and ice cream--what could be better? Below, she shows her favorite birthday present (a magic wand with Sleeping Beauty--her favorite princess--on it) to her favorite Christmas present (Monkey). If only I had known that the $4 plastic wand was going to be the hit of the birthday...could've saved us a lot of money!

We love you Anna Banana! We can't believe its been three years since you first blessed our lives...

Monday, March 02, 2009

First braids


Last Friday was "Go Texan Day", so I decided to take this as a good opportunity to attempt to braid Anna's hair. Between her hair's general shortness and thinness, and Anna's wiggliness while I fix her hair, I've never tried braids before. But, she was excited about looking like a "cowgirl", so was pretty patient with the braiding adventure! You'll have to forgive the crookedness...we'll work on straightening them in future iterations...

Saturday, February 21, 2009

When the cat's away...

...the mice will play! Daddy had to go to Denver for work for a few days this week, so Anna and I were on our own. We took full advantage of the opportunity to break all of the rules--of nutrition (one day did actually consist of donuts for breakfast and McDonald's for lunch--what?!?), personal hygiene (who needs a bath?), and bedtime routines (we had a "slumber party" in Anna's bed one night). While we missed Daddy immensely, we did have a good time!

Monday, February 16, 2009

Cat in the Hat


The Cat in the Hat paid a visit to Pottery Barn Kids today, so we decided to venture up into the city to see him. Anna loved him! While she looks mildly scared in this photo, she actually thought he was a hoot!


She also enjoyed a little reading (and snuggle) time with her friend, Zachary, who went with us (with his mom, my friend Rynee).

It seemed like a little harmless toddler snuggle time until the shot above. I'm not sure how I feel about Anna sharing a small chair with a boy who's drumming his fingers, licking his lips, and looking mischevious...hands off my daughter!!
Soon after this photo, Anna proclaimed that Zachary was her Valentine. I guess she was wooed by his fancy toddler moves...sorry Owen...


Saturday, February 14, 2009

Lots of love

Happy Valentine's Day! Anna shared the love with one of her most favorite people, her teacher Ms. Monica, at yesterday's Valentine's party at school. Anna was awfully excited that she and Ms. Monica had on matching shirts...she pretty much thinks Monica hung the moon! (To put it in perspective, her prayers before dinner recently have been "Thank you for this food....and for Ms. Monica"...at least we know she's happy at school!)


She also shared some love with her Valentine, Owen. They both proclaimed each other to be one another's Valentine. Given that we know that Owen comes from "good stock", we can't say we're complaining. :-) Anna is a fickle one these days though...she did come home from school a few weeks ago and proclaim, "Mommy, Owen's a boy. And he loves me very much. But, I don't love him back." Oh well...I guess he's found a way to charm her since...

Monday, February 09, 2009

Little sister ain't so little...


We had our "fetal growth" ultrasound of Anna's new little sister today, and she looks great! They said everything looks healthy (and she's still a girl, so no repainting the nursery for us...ha!) From the ultrasound, she actually looks a lot like Anna did at this stage...maybe they'll favor each other!
They did say that she's measuring larger than they expected at this stage (by a few weeks), so they're thinking she'll come earlier than originally expected. My original due date was April 21st (has moved a few days earlier over the course of the pregnancy), but now they're saying she's measuring as though her due date would be April 4th. Whoa. While I'm generally not wild about inductions, my doctor said today that if she's not here by April 10th then he'll want to induce me to up the odds that I could have her naturally without a C-section. Lower chance of C-section? Sign me up for that induction! Hopefully she'll make her debut before April 10th, but if not, that's probably the day!
I of course am a bit apprehensive about "why is she so big??", but the ultrasound tech and doctor were both very comforting that its very normal and nothing to worry about it. They apparently did not get the memo that it is my job to worry. Constantly.
I'm sure Anna will be excited about her new sister arriving a bit early (that is, til she gets her and Anna realizes that this new baby thing is maybe not quite as exciting as she's gotten into her head that its going to be!) Anna's been really cute recently...wanting to buy gifts for the baby, and talking about when her sister gets "bigger and bigger...and she can take a bath with me...and when she's even bigger she can sleep in my big girl bed with me..." and on and on. She's going to be an amazing big sister...

Sunday, February 01, 2009

First field trip

Anna went on her first school field trip this past Thursday, and had an absolute blast! They've been studying penguins in school all month, so went to the Aquarium at Moody Gardens to check out some macaroni and king penguins (among others!) for themselves. While the kids loved all the things they saw at Moody, they were just ecstatic about the penguins, and were giddy when the penguins swam up to them. Above, Anna's getting some face time with a macaroni penguin with her friends Ava and Kara.

Almost as tall as a King penguin (but he's still got about 10 lbs on her...)!

Here's the whole gang, as close as they were going to get to a group photo.
The kids not only thought the Aquarium was exciting, but thought the adventure of getting to ride a school bus on the field trip was almost as cool! Mommy had to miss this field trip, unfortunately, because of an unavoidable conflict at work, but Daddy had a wonderful time accompanying Anna on this trip. Hopefully we can both make it to the next one!
A BIG thank you to Anna's teachers and director for putting this together! Its pretty unusual for them to let classes with kids as young as Anna go on field trips, but they went out of their way to arrange for special logistics and approval so the kids could see the penguins they'd been studying. It was a wonderful time!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Life just needs a little balance...

As I think I've probably noted in previous postings, we have had so much fun over the past few months doing Little Gym. While it was theoretically supposed to be a "mommy and me" activity, my sickness with this pregnancy often resulted in Anna and I skipping our normal weekday time for Little Gym and Clint and her doing it together on Saturdays. So, fun for the whole family! Anyway...Little Gym has come to an end. While we had entertained the idea of signing her up for another semester, her interest in it seemed to have waned during the last few weeks, and she had become extremely adamant that she wanted to do "Tumble Bus" at school instead. So, remembering who's the boss, we of course complied...

She started Tumble Bus (which is basically a smaller version of Little Gym on wheels that comes to her school....but "cooler" in her eyes because she gets to do it with all of her school friends, and does it "by herself" without mommy/daddy) last week, and is completely obsessed. Her wanting to do this by herself is actually a little blessing for mommy too...trying to do Little Gym being 8+ months pregnant, and then with a newborn, was going to be a unique challenge this spring! Let's hope the interest in Tumble Bus sticks around...

Anyway...a few shots of her last day at Little Gym...



Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Big girl bed!

We are excited to report that Anna has officially transitioned to her "big girl bed"! We were attempting to let her stay in her crib until she demanded to move out or started climbing out on her own, but realized with her size that she might be in 4th grade before that happened. So, we decided it was time to go ahead and make the move. She decided she wanted to move into a different bedroom of our house and leave her old room "for the baby" (which logistically was a huge blessing for us...thanks Anna!). So, Daddy spent some time over the Christmas holidays getting her new room painted and furniture arranged, and Mommy followed up with some decorating, and we decided last weekend it was time!

She's done really well with the move. We've certainly had a few nights of waking up in the middle of the night, and even a few nights of moving back to the crib for a few hours, but she's solidly in her new bed now, and loving it! She told me the other day "I'm done with the crib for good now. I want to be in my big girl bed ALL the time." Done.

The photo above was from the first day she napped in her new bed. I went in to sneak a picture when she was first starting to wake up, and she caught me! I asked her to "pretend" to be asleep for the picture, so she closed her eyes but still waved. Oh well...close enough.

The first night she slept all the way through the night without waking, we celebrated with a trip to the donut shop the next morning! Rewards for Anna and Mommy...

Saturday, January 10, 2009

It's That Time of the Year

Alright, Clint here. That unflattering picture of me from New Years has been at the top of the blog for too long, so I believe I'll bump it down a notch.

As you can imagine, there are many viruses going around Room 4 of the Childcare Center this time of year. Just before Christmas, Anna got hit by one and wasn't feeling good for a few days. Here's a pic of our little patient. Blue's Clues + lemonade + cereal + Teddy + blankies seemed to be the be the best way to treat this particular virus.

Friday, January 02, 2009

Good-bye 2008, hello 2009!

We rang in a very Happy New Year with a trip to the Houston Children's Museum. They have an annual "countdown to noon" for the kiddos, complete with New Years crafts, float-making, and a big brass band parade. They even have a ball that drops at noon! We did it last year as well, and had a blast! We think this may be an annual tradition. Here, Anna is waving a the "Wild Thing" (from "Where the Wild Things Are")...sorry for the sleepy eyes...this is photographic evidence of our dire need for a new camera...

We also enjoyed face painting--Anna reciprocated the favor of Mommy painting a heart and flower on her cheeks, and gave Mommy a makeover as well...


...and a little grocery shopping at the "Farmer's Market". Anna was thrilled to have her own grocery list and basket, and get to check herself out...