Little Lila Boo

Little Lila is finally getting much bigger! I'll write a more detailed post when I haven't just written five others and it's not midnight.  Let's just summarize with things are finally much much better.  I'll write a detailed post on the ups and downs of the last two months and her little hospital stay and month with a yucky tube in her nose.  She is a much happier baby now who is sleeping in her own bassinet, eating a little summer squash, sitting up by herself, and almost crawling.  She has two teeth now and hit sixteen pounds this week!! Hard to believe she was still ten something seven weeks ago!

First day home from the hospital.

Favorite toy.

                                    

Tried to get a pic of the two bottom teeth with no luck, but check our her long eyelashes.

This is what happens the last week when I actually broke eye contact and she could see that I was there but not interacting with her.

This is why I hide in the kitchen when she is in the living room not daring to make eye contact.  She looks like the pictures above until she sees me and realizes she is not being held.  Then, instantly crying and kicking.  Apparently six straight months of being held has it's consequences.  Who knew?

Dance Recital

Anna had her first dance recital on June 9th.  There were a lot of rules and drama surrounding the preperations for the dance recital and I was starting to regret having her do it until the day of the program.  She rocked it up there on stage and completed the whole dance.  When she came running back stage she looked up at me and could hardly contain her excitement.  She said, " Mom, that was so awesome!" She couldn't wait to get back out there for her tumbling number.  Totally worth the money and prep  :) I do think we'll try the more low key gymnastics route this next year and see how that goes.  Her routine was done to the splish splash I was taking a bath music.... I did take some illegal video of the performance but I have no idea how to post that

Seven Years old

Jackson turned seven last month and I feel like he aged about a year in the last two months.  He seems SO seven years old all of the sudden and let me tell you seven feels a lot older than six.  I also feel by the way that it significantly ages me instantly to say that I have a seven year old. We did a split shift family day with Kurt taking the kids up to Monkey Joe's in the morning and I took them out to Panera for dinner and then shopping with Jackson's birthday money.

I just wrote a post last month about Jackson so not a whole lot has changed.  He is an incredibly sweet and sensitive little guy who would do anything for his sisters and loves to make everyone happy.  He loves to read and is zipping through third grade chapter books. I'm so proud of this little guy and happy he is the leader of our little troop.

July Fourth

 For the fourth we got to do something that we have never been able to do since we moved here, which was all spend the day together! It happened to fall on Wednesday which is Kurt's day off and Dustin was able to take the day off.  We all went the the Pinehurst parade where the kids caught candy and ate ice cream. We came home for naps and then went to the Donahue's for a bar-b-que and firework show on their street.

Love that big boy missing a tooth smile.

 I've discovered that I have a over the top ridiculous fear of children and sparklers, I finally had to stop watching because I was annoying even myself with all my comments of reminding everyone to be careful and still.

The ever important cherries while watching fireworks.

It was a great family day and I'm very grateful for all the freedoms that our family enjoys in this beautiful country.  I know we take much for granted every day, and it was good to reflect on the blessings we have.

Rainbow Party Bonanza

 Happy Birthday Anna-Banana!! Anna has been in love with Rainbows for close to a year now so I started planning her party at least six months ago hoping to keep her interested in rainbows since I had already pinned at least 20 items relating to this awesome party theme. I didn't have to work at it though because her love of rainbows is still going strong and she loved all the rainbow hoopla making sure I had everything in the correct ROYGBIV order.  The party went great even though the temperature that day topped 105 degrees.  The activities were scratch off rainbow art, making rainbow bead necklaces, painting outside, and using markers and then spraying it with water, and eating way way too much sugar before lunch time.

The rainbow candy bar

Cupcakes to go with the gigantic cake because I cannot seem to plan appropriate sized food for a party without having leftovers for two weeks.

Individual dunked ice creams on a stick.  

Rainbow cake!

This was from the morning of her birthday the next day.  I can't believe my little girl is four!

Some things that I love about my big little girl are:

That she has made the phrase "I love you in my heart" a regular saying in our house, followed closely by " I love you in my... foot, hair, nose, belly button, and ever popular bum-bum"

What a good listener she has been lately and that she constantly uses the phrases "Yes, Ma'am or Yes Sir" or "Sure (Shoo-were) I would love to!"

She has started using the phrase, "Everybody knows that."

Anna and Daddy have a thing going where they silently say I love you in my heart by pointing to her eyes, crossing her arms over her heart, pointing to each other and then their heart.

For a while she had one doll which had to be wrapped in a weird washcloth secured by a large paper clip thingy in a very specific way which had to be redone ten times a day.

Anna has begun to really get into pretend play and has fallen in love with my little ponies, her dollies, and some play animals specifically a mommy and baby cow.  She makes cute voices for them and I am sometimes slightly worried by how stern and sometimes mean the mommy seems to be in most of the scenerios.

Her long beautiful hair that I may never be able to bring myself to cut.

She only talks to Lila in a high pitched sing songy voice and gets super excited if she gets a smile or a laugh.

She wants to ride on Kurt's shoulders everywhere she goes and he lets her a very high percentage of the time including when mowing the grass, going to brush her teeth, going to bed, etc...

And some not as loved... she lets the cat out every time she opens the door.