the baker family

My six year old may be smarter than me...

2011-10-07T23:13:00.002-04:00

Jackson said to me today as we were enjoying some ice cream, "I think kids may be smarter than adults." Hmm, I asked him why he thought that and he said, "Because, we are in school and know lots of things and adults aren't." I explained to him that we all used to be in school and then gave myself a little pat on the back by explaining to him that Mommy had lots of school and college which was even harder school. He did not seem convinced and thought for a second and then said, " Well, then tell me something you know." I wasn't sure what he was going for and frankly felt a little put on the spot. "About what?" I asked. "How about some things that I don't already know about bats?" Umm, I was in trouble. " How about that they bounce sound waves off of objects so that they no where things are as they fly in the dark?" "I already knew that." I thought that was pretty good and had nothing else. He proceeded to rattle off a list of little known facts about bats being the only mammals that fly, the foods they eat, etc... "Well you do know alot about bats but adults know lots of stuff about other things too," I told him. "Like what, tell me something you know?" I don't know why but I could think of nothing relevant that I could possibly know. Jackson decided to fill in the topic, "Why don't you tell me something about elephants?" I stared at him blankly feeling dumber by the minute. "How about how they are the only mammal that cannot jump?" Oh. He then said, "I think maybe it's that adults used to be smart when they were in school too but that you guys forgot all of that stuff you learned because it was long ago." I could only agree with him. Next time I'm going to through some multiplication tables at him to level the field a little.

Anna's first day of preschool.

2011-09-08T23:08:00.004-04:00

Anna had her first day of preschool today and was hamming it up for the camera. Kurt had to make her just hold her lunch box and smile for one picture. Anna was not at all nervous about going today and has been asking ever since Jackson started when she could go back to school. I asked her various questions about her day when I picked her up. After a few she told me "Mom, I'm tired, I really don't want to talk about it anymore, why don't you tell me about what you did at work today." Um, ok.

No it's not twins. Yes I'm 22 weeks pregnant

2011-09-08T22:44:00.006-04:00

My best friend Ella convinced me that I would enjoy looking back and having a good laugh about how gigantic my 22 (23 tomorrow) week belly is. Let's take a look at the difference three weeks makes shall we?! Here's a picture at five months ( I actually looked back to make sure it wasn't a four month picture and I was mistaken. I wasn't.) which would only be three weeks ago tomorrow.

Let's fast forward a measly three weeks for a shot at 22 weeks 6 days.

Um yeah, ignore the horrible picture late at night in my jammies and direct your eyes to the eight month pregnant belly stuck on someone who is only five months pregnant. You can feel free to laugh and drop your jaw, I myself could not stop laughing at how ridiculous it was when Kurt was taking the picture. I have officially decided from this point on that I will be lying to strangers about the due date which I have now bumped up to around Halloween. I'm hoping that will put a lid on the comments for now. After that point I will have to go with the lie of having twins which will be the only plausible explanation and will keep people from the most annoying question ever asked a pregnant woman, " Are you having twins?" with the unbelievably inconsiderate follow up, "Are you sure?"

Summer Bucket List 2011

2011-09-05T10:45:00.005-04:00

The first day of summer Jackson and I sat down and wrote a summer bucket list of the stuff that we wanted to do over the summer. I'm very glad we did because there were many times I didn't want to do stuff because I felt so sick but the fact that it was on a list compelled me to do so. There were many times that Kurt asked, are you sure that you want to do that and I would reply, "It's on the list, we have to." Kurt has since decided he should really start using my obsession with completing lists in his favor for things he would like to be doing. The need to cross off things on a list led to a really fun summer even with all of the throwing up and feeling exhausted on my end. Here's the list and then I'll do posts of the things which I have pictures for.

The List
lake beach
zoo
beach
game (Jackson's must on the list, x-box not board games)
sleep in
campout inside
roast hot dogs and marshmallows
outside movie night
get new flowers in front yard
go to a carnival/fair
make ice cream sandwiches
go to Monkey Joe's
go to Marbles Museum
pool
campout outside
Christmas in July

It was a pretty good list and we accomplished all but going to the zoo and sleeping in. I told Jackson I wasn't giving him credit for sleeping in unless he slept until 8. His response was, "Mom that's never going to happen, we slept until 7:30 at the beach, you better take that it's the latest we've ever slept." I should count it but 7:30 really isn't sleeping in for the summer. I, on the other hand, definitely met this criteria numerous times thanks to my sweet husband who gets up with the kids pretty much every morning. I guess pregnancy does have some perks.

For the items with no pictures, camping out inside and outside was done by the boys and ended up being soggy outside and more fun watching movies from laying inside of the tent upstairs. We went to the pool a few times with friends and had a great time. Jackson definitely did his fair share of gaming on the x-box especially during sleepovers on Friday nights with dad and Saturday mornings. I think I have at least a few pictures of everything else so, I'll post those in separate posts.

It was a great summer and went by way too fast. It was one of the best summers I remember and we did more family stuff together than we have in years. There is something about having a kid in school that defines summers in a different way and makes them feel a little more magical. It was one of the hottest summers on record though, so I couldn't be more ready for fall.

First day of School

2011-09-05T10:08:00.003-04:00

Jackson started First Grade this year which was considerably less traumatic (for me, neither was traumatic for Jackson) for me than last year. It was no big deal this year except for being sad to part with him all day long. Jackson got one of the teachers this year who moved up from kinderdarten last year due to so many first graders. He is still in the Kindergarten cove area and right next door from last year, so not much of a transition. He is doing great so far and catching up on sleep on the weekends with three hour naps :)

Anna-goo

2011-07-31T13:49:00.007-04:00

Here's a few pictures of Anna from the last few months....

This is how the painting activity began
And this is where she went with it after about 2 minutes unsupervised... this is Anna after about two minutes unsupervised seated at the table at any point. About two weeks ago I watched her smear yogurt all over her dining chair with a spoon, climb up on the chair and squish around in it. She then came to me and said, "mom, I have yogurt all over my bum." When I asked her why she said she spilled some on herself and it was an accident. When I replied that no she didn't, I was watching her, she then said, "Oh, you were watching me? I did it because it was fun, sorry mom". That conversation perfectly represents Anna, logical and can make a mess in any situation. She also told me yesterday when I asked her why she wrote on the table with smooshed blueberries, " because I'm little and I don't know better". She's going to be trouble. She can wiggle her way out of anything with exact wording, "but you told me not to sit on the table, I'm not sitting on it I'm standing on it." I have to be very specific and cover all my bases with her.

First taste of cotton candy, messy and sugary and blue. Anna's heaven. "Blue Please" is the most common saying in our house which Anna says like this "Ba-loo, Pah-leese" in a very southern accent.

Anna started dance and loves it. She started to want to dance after discovering Angelina Ballerina. Her favorite part is tap and of course twirling in the skirt.

All dressed up with no where to go... Anna is into dressing up and princesses. Her favorite game these days is Pretty Pretty Princess.

She is a walking contradiction of a girl who loves to be in a big dress everywhere she goes but is messier than any of the boys after playing outside for about 10 minutes. And we love her for it :)

Anna's first and only haircut thus far, a little trim to even up her baby hair. It just keeps curling up and doesn't seem like it ever grows!

Baker number 3

2011-07-31T12:39:00.002-04:00

Well here's the first pregnancy pic.... 12 weeks pregnant.

The kids are super excited and ask to see the pregnancy app on my phone all of the time to see what the baby looks like now. Anna will ask to kiss my belly and says good morning to the baby daily. The coolest part of the whole experience is to see it through the kids' eyes. Jackson would ask every morning, in the beginning, to see my belly and when it was going to get bigger. He also asked at one point if the baby was always going to look like Mega Mind. Both kids are hoping it's a boy and as of now (17 weeks) we aren't finding out what we are having at the ultrasound next week so we'll have to wait a while to see. This pregnancy has been a bit of a rough one and I have been much sicker than I was with Anna. This of course makes mre irrationally think that this must be a boy since I was so sick with Jackson. I'm sure that it really is just different with every preganancy but since we aren't finding out what we are having I'm clinging to any clues I can (can you tell how excited I am about the not finding out part?). In my dear husband's defense I did agree to this before I got pregnant then quickly decided the instant I saw a positive pregnacy test that I had to know as soon as possible, it's not his fault that I'm a hypocrite. I guess I can wait until December if I have to.... "if I have to" being the key phrase!

Christmas break at Nana's house

2011-07-30T11:03:00.006-04:00

First time ice skating. True to each of their motor abilities, Anna was able to skate basically on her own and skating with Jackson was like a full body workout which landed you on the ice approimately every thirty seconds. They both loved it though. It was freezing but so fun.

Anna wore the smallest pair of skates they had, they were adorable.

Playing at Crown Center after...

The most fun part of this trip was playing Dance Central for hours with Brittany and then laughing hysterically at my mom playing it and somehow beating Britt. I cannot seem to find the pictures of that yet.

Christmas 2010

2011-07-30T10:32:00.009-04:00

A pictorial entry to remember Christmas by since it is July and I have six months to catch up on...

The night before Christmas...

The aftermath...
We had a great low key Christmas this year. It was just us Christmas morning and it was really relaxing and nice. It was really fun to have both of the kids really into it and excited for Santa. We had some friends over for Christmas eve and played corny christmas games that I played growing up. It was great. Jackson said his favorite part was eating gingerbread cookies and Anna said it was opening her presents. My best part of Christmas came a day late...

It definitely counted as a White Christmas in my book and will probably be the closest we will after have. I think ended up with around 10 inches if I remember correctly. It was awesome, it snowed all day long.

Anna banana

2011-02-25T22:39:00.002-05:00

Last night while giving Anna a bath she quietly whispered, " Can you help me please" while trying to pull up the drain in the bath. I asked her if she needed help and she looked at me slightly annoyed and said, " I wasn't talking to you I was talking to my hand". She then went back to pleading with her hand to help.

No more catching up

2011-02-25T22:36:00.002-05:00

I've decided my problem with keeping up with the blog is that I get overwhelmed when I get behind and then the whole blog becomes aversive to me because I feel like I have to go back and catch up on everything that has happened. From here on out I'm going to post when I have a chance and let myself of the hook if I miss stuff. Some posts are better than none at all right? I'm hoping this will change my aversion to the blog and help me to stay more current. I guess time will tell.

"Why is it always all about Anna?"

2010-11-28T11:51:00.005-05:00

This is a draft that I wrote in November so that I could be ahead of the game and post it on Decemeber 1st. Ahh, so much for good intentions. Here is the post anyway....

This is the unfortunate comment that I heard Jackson mutter yesterday and sadly it's somewhat accurate these days. Anna has discovered the joy of being classically two years old and she loves everything about it. Don't get me wrong I love this girl to pieces but I never experienced anything like this with Jackson. Anna is definately a bit of a drama queen. Here are some examples of what Anna has been up to lately:

Anna is constantly torturing Jackson and her favorite game is to take a toy from him and run for her life, this is followed by screaming and very dramatic tattling about how Jackson tackled her and took her toy. I have seen it too many times to be fooled.

As much as she is always torturing Jackson Anna loves him to pieces and her world falls apart if he won't play with her or do what she wants him to do (fortunate for her he is very easy going and will most likely give in and do what she wants to do). Lately she has taken to calling him Jack which Jackson does not appreciate. This has resulted in her using it nearly all of the time now. "Come on Jack", "Let's go Jack" "Jack where are you?" all followed with Jackson saying "Don't call me Jack, my name is Jackson".

Anna has her sweet moments and has not wanted to play by herself. She uses the sweetest face possible while asking "Mommy you want to come play with me?" If I hesitate she immediately follows with " Come on Mom. I'll hold your hand." and the very irresistible, "Come on honey, come on."

Anna's favorite things to play with are her many Minnie Mouse figures and her cupcake and tea set. We have a minimum of three birthday parties a day around here.

Anna is nearly always naked at home. I chase her around throughout the day making her wear at least underwear. When I asked her today where her clothes were she said "I not telling, I no like clothes." When I asked her why she said, "I no like underwear I like to be naked".

Anna figured out on her own how to use her little potty as a stool and climb up on the big potty to go. The fact that I no longer have to clean out a gross little potty ten times a day is awesome. Anna is big about her privacy and if I try to check on her she will tell me to "Go away" and will climb down to shut the door on me.

Yesterday Anna climbed into the bottom of the round part of one of our bar stools and said, "Look I'm a Anna pie"

Some popular Anna phrases:

"I ALREADY did" (caps are necessary to the phrase)

"You no help me I do it by myself."

"I need my Minnie"

also not really a phrase but hours straight of only meowing and pointing with what look like paws as she crawls around pretending to be cat. This is a bit of a problem at church and Walmart.

She will now comment on her own "There are no kitties at church?" when we walk in.

"Anna crying".... followed by the explanation of why she was crying

This leads into the most maddening thing that Anna has been doing the last week which is not sleeping. Anna had strep a little over a week ago and so naturally every time she cried I went in and cuddled her or got her water, etc... Well after two days of this Anna decided there was no reason to sleep in her crib when she could be cuddling on the couch. I was undecided how much was learned behavior and how much was something internal still bothering her until two days ago when I asked her if she was going to take a good nap for mommy and she thought for a moment and then said, "No, Anna going to cry alot" to which I ignored and she followed up with "Anna no like to sleep in my crib I want to cuddle with Mom". Time for an intervention. Two days of no going in after she was laid down and she slept through the night last night.

Another One Bites the Dust

2010-11-12T21:59:00.004-05:00

Please listen to this entire song. Then listen to it again. One more time. This is what my entire trip dropping Jackson off to school and back sounds like.

He heard this song on the radio one day and loved it. Kurt in a moment of unknowing foolishness told him that he owned the CD. This has resulted in a Queen obsession from both of my children. Jackson is specifically obsessed with this song and wants it on repeat. He asks with real concern who is dropping him off and picking him up at school this morning and would act heartbroken if I was not taking him. This did great things for my Mommy ego until the day I did not have the CD in my car and he had no intrest in me or my vehicle. Anna out of sheer desperation to listen to something else while in the car has begun to request "Rock You" and "Bicycle" when she can't take Another One Bites the Dust one more time. There really is nothing funnier than hearing your two year old sing the lyrics and sound effects to Bicycle and Another One Bites the Dust. I'm not sure how long this will last but I guess I should be glad it's not the Wheels on the Bus or the Itsy Bitsy Spider on repeat.

First Day of School

2010-11-09T10:10:00.003-05:00

I just took a look at the blog, then hit refresh because surely my last post was not really in August. Yep. Surely it was. I also happened to notice in one of those August post I promised to be better this fall. It's technically still fall so I'm not a liar yet. Here's the beginning of the five or six posts I've been meaning to write which should redeem me and remove me from liar status.

Here are some pictures from the first day of Kindergarten for Jackson...

He did great and only Mommy cried.

I thought I'd at least get a few tears from Anna, who just went straight to the baby and waved goodbye like we were old news.

Post number one. Done. I promise to make the others better, it's a start right?

Goodbye summer...

2010-08-25T00:23:00.003-04:00

Looking through all of these pictures has gotten me overwhelmed. I realized I haven't posted our trip home, our family vacation and many more. I think I might be done updating. Here's one last look at summer. If you've noticed a theme,yes, Jackson is always in his pajamas. He loves them. Even when sunbathing.

Anna's B-day

2010-08-25T00:04:00.009-04:00

The quick pictorial run down of Anna's birthday. I placed the boring pictures of my party prep first so that you will have to look to get the pics of Anna. Lots of prep for 4 family member guests. Still worth it though. The candy bar...
yummy cupcakes and super yummy strawberry shortcake cake.
I thought the biggest hit would be the swim baby, but it really has been the cupcakes and the 5.00 walmart tea set which if you have not seen it and have a girl from the age of 2-8 you should really check out. It's very cute and porcelin and has polka dots and is seriously five dollars. Regular price. Not on sale. Ok, there's my tea set plug, even Jackson gets in on the tea parties.

The night before Kindergarten

2010-08-24T23:47:00.004-04:00

It's not a good sign if Mom is crying the night before Kindergarten starts, but it's who I am, I can't help it. I read today that there are two different back to school moms. The ones who do a dance of freedom in their empty house and the ones who make up fake dentist appointments and pick their kids up early because they miss their kids so much. I'm definitely the latter. I just wanted to write a quick note to you Jackson to tell you how much I love you and that I can't believe our five years at home together have gone by already. I know you will do great in school and will love to learn and make a whole new set of friends. I love how sensitive and cuddly you still are and hope that it never changes. I love that you still want the same nigh-night songs that I have sang to you since you were born and that you beg for twenty more seconds of cuddling nearly every night. I love how silly you are and that you love to tell secrets that are 80% of the time telling me you have to go potty or something else completely non-secret related like the following from last month: "Put your bathing suit on and take a hot shower," "Wrap a towel around a pine tree," and "wrap your hair around your face." I love that you make instant friends everywhere you go. I love being your mom and am happy and sad that I have to now share you with a whole new world. You'll still always be my baby boy.

Yes. I took a picture of my son laying in his bed the last night before he was officially a Kindergatener. I already admitted to being that mom. I'm not apologizing again.

So I took the summer off...

2010-08-23T00:29:00.001-04:00

Apparently I don't blog in the summer. I have no idea where the summer went but I know we did a bunch of fun things. Here follows the quick lame version of bunches of pictures and events. More to follow in the next few days. I promise to be better this fall.

Homemade finger paints

2010-08-23T00:14:00.007-04:00

At some point this summer we made homemade finger paints and the kids went to town on the back porch. I really have no idea when. I'm going to say Julyish...

We started out on paper which became a full on fingerpaint body massage...

which landed them carried directly into here...

End of the summer beach trip

2010-08-22T23:57:00.005-04:00

My friend Jen and I decided to forsake all sanity and take all of our kids together to the beach last weekend and stay overnight in a hotel with all of the kids piled in. It actually went amazingly well with the only bummer being my children's inability to sleep in. Anna was up bright and early at 5:45 but it was one day so we survived. And considering Anna slept in the living room area with us we had to go to bed by 10:30, which hasn't happened in about 3 months for me, so I was well rested. We cheaped out and brought all of our food only spending 5.00 on ice cream for the kids. It was definitely worth the 120.00 it cost us both for two days of beach fun.

Burying your kids in the sand is fun. I'm serious. This was almost the best part of the trip for me, I'm not sure why...

Fourth of July

2010-08-22T23:34:00.006-04:00

Here are some pictures from the fourth of July. We love our simple fourth of July's which include root beer floats and then playing on the golf course until dark and watching fireworks.

And of course plenty of cherries while watching fireworks.

Jackson being Jackson

2010-04-10T23:54:00.002-04:00

Have you ever seen such a cute picture in your life? Jackson was made to be an oldest sibling and most days he just loves Anna to pieces. He really is very tolerant of her seeing as she tortures him and he is never the instigator.

When it snowed in February Jackson and I went for a walk at 11 pm by ourselves and it was so fun. We took pictures of our footprints and walked until Jackson said, "Mom, how long are we going to walk, I'm cold, let's turn around."

Every time I look at this picture I giggle. He is such a goofy kid. Still sporting the red hat.

Jackson loves for us to take pictures together, or to be in pictures at all. He has recently begun prompting me to take pictures of cute moments.

* Jackson was on Spring Break this week and we had so much fun hanging out this week. On Monday I took him to see How to Train a Dragon and then out for ice cream. It was so fun as usually Daddy gets to do all of the fun stuff with him.

* Jackson is just so 5 lately, and I don't really know how else to phrase it. Most of what he says these days makes me stare at him and try to figure out how he suddenly got so old.

* Jackson told me the other day that he doesn't want to get any older, that he doesn't want to grow up. It went like this. "Mom, I don't want to get any bigger, I just want to stay like this."

"Why don't you want to get any bigger?" "Because, I just want to stay like this... well, maybe five, yeah just stay at five, well, I guess six. yeah just six not any bigger." Trust me, if I could make that happen I would. He has repeated the request a couple of times this week.

*Jackson and Daddy have weekly sleepovers and Jackson can stay up later than Daddy every time. He loves it and knows the countdown until the day they are having one all week.

*Jackson came home almost crying twice last week from school, the first time was because a kid wouldn't accept his apology for an accidental hit during soccer and the second because the same kid who is his best friend at school told him he " wasn't in love with him". This caused Jackson many tears about the fact that his friend was not in love with him and that they weren't friends anymore. All was resolved the next day when it was as nothing had happened. Jackson is so kind-hearted and sensitive, I shutter at the thought of Kindergarten. I have an almost physical anxiety attack nearly every other day at the thought of Kindergarten night on April 27th.

Anna being Anna

2010-04-10T23:10:00.003-04:00

Here are some recent pictures of Anna. Anna loves to paint and asks to do it by saying "color, milk".Anna's first taste of "ice cream" (It's soy but it still counts). She liked it but didn't seem to think it was anything special.

It's hard to tell but she has on three tu-tu's here and a pair of fairy wings.

Another favorite combo: reindeer antlers, shiny Chinese paints, and fairy wings.

Loved this picture as it captured the look she gives when excited about something. It's usually reserved for when we are putting the "animal" DVD in which is the new obsession, but this picture was taken at the zoo when she saw a turtle swim by.

Looking pretty after church. She better be glad she is pretty, she is a nightmare in church lately, often requesting timeout. Darn, what do you do with that. Not so effective.

Comfy in a laundry basket watching "Animal!" which is the Old McDonald baby einstein.

Looking good in her new five dollar Wal-Mart summer dress. Sometimes it's actually worth it to go to Wal-Mart.

Some other Anna updates include:

* She loves Mickey Mouse diapers(night time) over Elmo and gets so excited to put them on at night.

* She has taken to calling me Monique and even when I ignore her and prompt her to say mom or mama she will say it and then tack on "Nique" or "Moknee" as soon as I respond.

*She loves to tease Jackson to get him to chase her and will swipe toys and take off to get the game going then get scared by Jackson being mad and run for one of us.

* She has discovered the word no, but says it like "Mo". She says it with force then gets shy and kind of nervous and does a specific nervous face she usually reserves for unfamiliar people who try to talk to her. She looks up every few seconds to see if you are still looking at her.

*She is in the habit of asking for her morning banana but doesn't really want it so she peels the whole thing takes a bite and throws it on the living room rug. Daddy loves this.

*She is combining lots of words into cute little sentences and uses no fillers of jabber piecing together with only words she knows.

* We played in a new big beach ball sprinkler this week and she came running crying telling me she got milk in her eye. I told her it was water and not milk, she turned around looked at it and said "oh" and stopped crying immediately.

* We got a little baby set from a friend that has a high chair attached to a little changing station and pretend bath. It came with a little diaper bag full of food and bottles. She played with it for about 4 hours the first day and just loves it. She loves her babies more than anything and feeds them and comforts and kisses them.

*Our conversations usually end every night when I am laying her down, with her asking to go for a walk in the stroller and take her baby. "Walk, mama, stroller, baby" I always tell her we will try tomorrow and when it was raining alot she would then respond "raining?" and I would tell her yes or no. Usually now I say we will try tomorrow. Tonight I told her yes Anna, we did today. She was quiet for a minute and then said "Morrow."

Easter

2010-04-10T22:38:00.005-04:00

It should say Easter that almost was. I guess the kids don't know the difference, but our easter was lame. I started throwing up Sat. late afternoon and continued until about midnight. Needless to say, the fun easter egg scavenger hunt to find your basket was replaced by a basket hidden in the oven and fireplace.

Anna's expression says it all. Why do we eat these things? They really aren't good. She looked grossed out every time she took a bite, yet every few minutes she would try another. She ended up eating the heads off of the whole row.
We canceled dinner and I still have a huge ham in my fridge. Daddy still took them to a easter egg hunt at the resort complete with a giant Easter Bunny.

Am I the only one who finds this "tradition" bizzare? I don't know if I ever actively believed in the Easter Bunny but I had a conversation with my husband this year about being surprised that people tell their children that this giant bunny was bringing them their baskets. Kurt said my childhood made him sad (due to the very logical thinking, not holiday parental neglect),and he asked me what I thought he did. I replied that I thought he was just kind of the mascot of Easter. I mean really doesn't that make more sense? He is a giant life sized bunny with weird huge eyes and a bizzare get up that usually contains somesort of bowtie or suspenders.

Really? Who started this?
My kids are way too trusting and loved him up. Patrick gave the appropriate response.
Anyway, that was kind of a tangent but here are the kids looking cute.

They ame home with at least one hundred eggs filled with assorted cheap candy and fillers. These items were sorted and are still sitting above our fridge.

And this picture is from the Friday before Easter when Jackson came home from school and took a nap. I laughed so hard I could hardly quietly take a picture.

Then and now

2010-04-10T22:08:00.007-04:00

Here are a couple of pictures we took at the zoo and the comparison from a year ago.

Ok, ao this proved alot harder than I thought because I have no idea how to format pictures on here other than my large and down the middle usual. So, basically you get the point, this years pictures on the left and last years on the right. And then just because he's cute...

I'll be back soon

2010-03-24T22:06:00.003-04:00

Here's a quick post about a few things I didn't want to forget about the kids right now.

*Jackson will constantly ask me to get something for him or tell me he can't carry something because he is "full of hands". I stopped correcting him after the first time because it reminds me that he is still little and I love it.

* Anna is so independent all I hear all day long is "Anna!!!"(the three exclamation points don't due it justice, she is serious!) and "Anna do". She recently went so far as to try to pat her own back and hum the song I sing to her the last two nights.

*Anna is obsessed with blue because she has learned to label that color consistently and now wants everything to be blue.

*Jackson is obsessed with the new found joy of playing Daddy's video game and we have used this to our advantage to use as a reinforcer for staying in his room quietly until 7. Our life has changed, enough said. If only Anna was into the XBox.

Ok, the computer is about to die and I am too lazy to go get the cord... that's all for now a real post, or many real posts to follow soon.

Finally some snow

2010-02-03T11:47:00.004-05:00

We finally got some snow here in NC. It was actually some sleet, ice and snow. This of course caused everything to come to a grinding halt in the world of North Carolina. No church Sunday and no school Mon, AND Tues(high of 45 with rain that day) and of course a delay in the morning of Wed. Poor Jackson hasn't been to school in almost a week. We did have fun though playing in the snow and having a sleepover with Kaysha and Patrick overnight Friday night.

I love this picture because it reminds me of the one from last year when we had snow. If I knew how to link to that blog I would.Jackson flying down the driveway backwards on the fastest sled which was a heavy piece of plastic that covers a quilt or pillow when you buy it. That one was the best, other ones we tried were a box folded up and Anna liked the storage container.

Racing down the driveway... Jackson got a headstart.

Fun.

Anna: version 1.5

2010-01-17T20:55:00.018-05:00

I meant to get this post done when Anna turned 18 months, but I'm still within the same month, so that's pretty good for me. Here are some things about Anna right now:

She has recently become obsessed with what she calls "baby, gorilla" which is one of those "Your Baby Can Read" movies that has words and objects and of course babies and gorillas. It is the first thing she has ever attended to on TV and I have to say I think it's awesome. Twenty minutes of no one hanging on your leg is priceless. She requests it the minute we: walk into the house, get her out of bed in the morning, touch the remote, or basically make eye contact. She claps her hands and runs over to her rocking chair to climb in as soon as we start to put it in.

She knows about 11 body parts and can say 8 of them. She loves labeling them on you and will not stop until she runs through the whole line of them on you.

She is obsessed with playing with spices and will shout for them as soon as I get the container out. Not really sure why, she just kind of holds them.

She loves hats, but really she loves skirts and the diaper covers that come with dresses as hats much better and has one or two on more days than not.
She loves to be naked and is getting better and better at getting all of her clothes off and this includes her diaper. She can no longer wear zip up jammies to bed. This all started about three weeks ago when we forgot to turn the heater down on her space heater when we put her to bed. I heard her cry around 4:30 and then being the attentive mother that I am I realized around 5:30 that she was still crying. I went in there and she said only "water". Poor girl, it was probably 95 degrees in there. I gave her a sippy which she downed, turned off her heater and then put her back to bed. It was still pretty warm in there but not horrible. She cried for about 10 minutes and then it was quiet. When she finally woke up at 8 I went in there and she was completely naked laying down. Poor girl had to strip down to avoid heatstroke, but impressive problem solving don't you think?
She loves to talk and labels everything. This is our conversation in the car,
"Mom, Mom, Mom" "What Anna" "baby" (she's holding a baby)
"Mom, Mama" "Yes Anna" "hat" ( the baby has a hat)
"mom" "what" "milk" (also has some milk)
"mom, mom, mooommm"
"What Anna" "hi", "Hi Anna" "hi"
It's cute 4 minutes in, not so much 40.

She has to kiss everyone at least twice before bed, even if they are not family or even if she doesn't know who they are.

She has discovered the thrill of the tattle and will run into the room to tell me "Mama, Jackson, head" or "Jackson, baby" ( he hit me on the head, he took my baby).

She has about 15 babies and stuffed animals and two blankets that she insist on sleeping with every night, I've had to slowly hid them because she was running out of places to sleep. They are all usually on the floor by the time we come get her.
She can say her name really well now and labels everyone just so she can say her name and get praised. She has also begun to use the term "Anna's" when she sees something she wants or wants to make sure no one else gets.

She is a big tease and will take a toy from Jackson and take off running because she loves nothing more than to be chased. (Preview for the future...?)

Anna LOVES to throw things away and will yell "away" at you if you try to throw her diaper, orange peel, or dryer lint away with out letting her do it

Shoes have been very important to Anna since she was little, she loves them and has very specific ideas in mind on what she should be wearing. These two are her current favorites, never worn matching, always one of each. These shoes are both size 2, she has freakishly small feet.
Anna loves wipes and will play with them forever, she will hold one the enitre time in Walmart wiping the cart. She also chased Patrick around the house last week because she spotted his runny nose, went and got a wipe and chased him around the house yelling "mose!" at him.

Anna told her first joke two weeks ago and was also one of her first two word spontaneous phrases, it went like this. Anna tooted and I said, "oh Anna that's stinky" She looked at me pointed and said "Mama, stinky" this of course got a big laugh from Mom and Jackson so then she proceeded to label Jackson and I as the culprits.

Ok, I know that is way more than anyone cared to read about my little Anna, but this way I will remember it all in 6 months when she is a completely different person.
She really is a doll and we just love our "Anna-goo" to pieces. She is nearly always smiling and still as easy going as she was a year ago. I can't believe my baby is becoming a toddler.

Christmas

2010-01-08T20:30:00.013-05:00

Here is the it's almost too late to even post, post for Christmas. In my defense we switched internet providers and for some reason it will not let me upload pictures. Everytime I try it knocks me off and then I have to reconnect and try again and again one picture at a time... ok I feel my heartrate rising just writing about it. Hopefully this will be resolved soon, in the meantime, here are the pictures I could get to load.

Jackson's much anticipated green lightsaber and star wars jammies set to go with. He spends 3/4 of his life in jammies so this was a good gift to receive.

I love the true to life reaction of Anna opening her doll from Santa. As soon as she got the wrapping off she said "off" to get the box off. The baby has a bottle that makes sucking sounds and then cries when the bottle is taken off. She loves it and pats her saying "ahh" and telling us to "hug" her whenever she cries.

The tutu's I made were a big hit and she said"on" the minute she saw them. As soon as she had one on she cuddled her baby and kept insisting, "All done, eat" every time someone would open a present or give her one to open. She was done and wanted to get to her favorite pastime, eating.

It was a great day and so fun to have a Christmas morning with two kids who were excited to open gifts and get into the whole Santa part of Christmas. Jackson even set out carrots for the reindeer the night before and insisted that we not only set them outside, but in a bowl in the middle of the yard because,"The reindeer can't come inside and the sleigh won't be able to fit on the porch for the reindeer to reach the carrots". So true. Ahh, writing the blog makes me excited for next year already :)

Christmas cookies

2010-01-04T21:53:00.010-05:00

Making Christmas cookies with the family. Now outdated pictures of us making cookies.
This picture is of Jackson's first cookie with a full go ahead on the sprinkles. After I "encouraged" him to use less sprinkles, or "killed Christmas" as Dustin put it by reigning in the sprinkle use, it was smooth sailing from there.

Our Pretend Christmas

2009-12-16T14:23:00.004-05:00

The day after Thanksgiving we flew home to Nana and Papa's house for our "pretend Christmas" as Jackson called it the whole time. The kids were angels on the two plane rides down and I thought to myself, this trip is going to be a piece of cake, I should travel with both of them by myself more often! Apparently they were just sucking up for all of the non-sleeping they were planning once we were there. Anna was the worst and once she figured out that I couldn't let her cry and wake up the whole house she was up every hour and would calmly lift her arms stop the I must be ready to die screaming and say up as soon as I entered the room. Aww, how quickly behavior is shaped. Once we were sleeping at my Mom's house three nights later and she had a good dose of cry it out, she was much better and slept to a nice late 5 am every day :)

We did have a blast at my mom's for pretend christmas making gingerbread houses, opening gifts on pretend Christmas morning, and playing with lots of cousins. Anna loved Nana and Papa and would yell for Papa anytime she heard him coming only to be picked up and held for an instant and then want back down. They did get in some good cuddle time when Mom and I went to the movies and she decided she wasn't sleeping in her crib. Jackson hardly said two words to me the first few days that we were there he was so busy playing. It was great to hang out with my family and sister, but only made me miss my family more. I'm still pushing the North Carolina is a wonderful place to live, but so far no one is biting.

Although we missed Daddy and were sad he had to stay at home (I'm sure he was too, all that free time and endless hours to sleep in total silence can be such a drag), it was fun to get to spend lots of time with two of my friends with out worrying about him being entertained. (Love you though hon) We spent the night with Stefanie Nilson and Jackson played with his buddies Micheal and Savannah, and Anna loved the dress up chest and endless supply of dolls. I also got to spend not nearly enough time with my dear friend Ella. Everyone should have a friend who you can talk to about nothing for 3 hours straight and then call back twenty minutes later with something you forgot to say that no one else would care about. She is that person and I hate that we live so far apart. Anyway, we tackled some sewing projects together and mainly watched our children while chattingMan, she really loves dolls.

Dressing up for the first time in Savannah's drees up clothes was a big hit too! She can play rough with Jackson, but she is definately a girlie girl.

It was a great trip and went by way too fast!!!

Thanksgiving with Grandpa

2009-12-15T23:12:00.003-05:00

Here's some random and somewhat lame pictures from Thanksgiving day. Kurt's dad came to visit us for the week which was the first time he has flown in almost 20 years. We are so glad he made the trip and loved having him.

Notice the Thanksgiving friends on in the background, we watch them all every year.

Jackson and Anna loved spending time with Grandpa. Especially Anna who by day two was reaching out of our arms to be held by Grandpa and bringing him toys and books all day so that he would pick her up and look at the book with her. She definately loved her Grandpa.

First Time Cooking with Mom

2009-12-15T21:55:00.003-05:00

Anna is still little enough to sit in her bumbo and she loves to, so I put it up on the counter and we made some banana bread together. She loved it and so did I. I'm sure this is the first of many cooking experiences together.

I'm not a bad mom, we don't use eggs because of Jackson's allergy :)

This began Anna's obsession with spices. She now goes crazy and says her approximation of spices everytime she sees me open the cabinet. I don't really know why but she loves to hold three at a time and walk around with them and put them in and out of things and roll them around. I couldn't find garlic salt the other day and Jackson found it for me in the living room coffee table drawer. Thank goodness for his memory, if he sees something one time he does not forget it!

Halloween, better late then never

2009-12-13T10:02:00.003-05:00

A picture is worth a thousand words right? I'm trying to catch up on two months of posts so, here's some Halloween pictures. It was fun, Jackson ate a lot of candy much to my dismay, and Anna had her first taste of candy, a lollipop and a tootsie roll (Kurt says it's her first taste that I know of). We had a red M&M and Anna Banana.

Let's Catch up... October events...

2009-12-13T09:39:00.003-05:00

Ok, so I haven't posted forever. October was an eventful and busy month, so I'll post some pictures from the main events and do a quick catch up. I finished my masters classes that I had to have for my board certification (insert sigh of relief), had a birthday...

went on a long overdue (as in we haven't been away together in 9 years since our honeymoon) two night stay at Myrtle beach. A special thank you to Kaysha and Dustin who watched our children for two and a half days so we could enjoy our weekend together. It was glorious. Runs on the beach, late night dinners and movies, trying desperately to sleep in knowing we could but our bodies not allowing us to due to the training our children have provided. It was great and we plan on doing it again much sooner.

Jackson had a class field trip to an Alpaca farm which was suprisingly fun.

And finally finshed the last of my projects for Anna's room. ( This looked much better once it was dry, but it's the only pic I have to document my projects for her room :)
A seperate post for Halloween to follow and we are done with October.

Isn't she lovely...

2009-10-12T22:28:00.000-04:00

Moore County Fair

2009-10-03T15:00:00.005-04:00

Kaysha and I decided to take the kids to the Moore County fair a couple of weeks ago. We really had no idea what to expect and arrived the first time at 1:00 in the afternoon on Fri only to find out it didn't start until 5. So we packed the kids back in the car went home for naps and came back that evening. Luckily Jackson was a champ about the whole thing, as I think I would have thrown quite the tantrum if I was told that I was going to the fair, gotten out, looked at all of the rides, and was then told to get back in the car to go home and take naps instead. We had a great time and Jackson was fearless, wanting to ride the ferris wheel and any ride he was tall enough to ride. Kurt had no idea what we were going to and was seriously bummed when he found out he had missed Jackson's first ferris wheel and fair ride experience. Other firsts included corn dogs which were kind of good in a disgusting way.

very blurry, but too cute to pass up.

I know that there are way to many pictures, but I am terrible at weeding them out, power on, you are half way through.

I was worried that once Jackson got up there he would be scared, but he was fearless.

I wish there was a way to get you to understand how fun it was to watch Jackson in this ride. It was kind of a rough ride that whips you around the corners really fast, and when I saw him whip around the first corner and bump his head on the back I thought he was going to be upset, but he was laughing hysterically. Every time he would whip around the corners, both times he rode it, he laughed this crazy, hysterical laughter that only happens if something is really reallygreat. Kaysha and I laughed so hard my cheeks hurt. It was definately the highlight of the night, and worth the ridiculous amount of money they charge you in those places.

Last day at the pool

2009-10-03T14:50:00.003-04:00

Here are some old pictures from our last day at the pool the Saturday before Labor Day. We discovered this great pool halfway through the summer that was a bit of a drive(20 min). Totally worth it at 2.00 for the whole day, and next to no one was ever there (except for a seniors water aerobics who I'm sure loved our company during their class).

Anna ready for the pool.

Jackson's classic look for all pictures this year.

This was basically all Anna wanted to do the entire time, stack them up while sitting on the cement next to the stairs. Stack them up...

and in and out. Honestly, I'm talking 30 min at a time.

...pants on fire

2009-09-20T03:52:00.003-04:00

So this is a post about my sons new found love of lying. He has discovered that unless Mom and Dad see something happen they really cannot prove that it did. He has not quite mastered the full concept of lying and usually opens his lies with a line like the following recent ones, "I don't have candy in my pocket," "I didn't hit Annabelle in the head with my stick"... Keep in mind, these are conversation openers where no information was asked of him. When we then follow up with, " Jackson, do you have candy in your pocket?" he replies with, "Well, did you see me get candy?" if the answer is no he sticks to the lie until the pocket is checked, if the answer is yes he knows the jig is up and confesses. He has also discovered that this skill can be used to work his parents against each other and will often say when talking to one of us about something he wants that the other has vetoed, "Well, did you talk to Mom?" and "Did Daddy tell you I did it?".
He's lucky he's cute.

A big brother is born

2009-09-11T21:57:00.003-04:00

Last weekend we were at the park with Kaysha and Patrick and were playing in a picnic area where two other children and their father were also sitting. The other kids were probably around 2 and 4 years old. The two year old little boy was concerned that Anna was getting to far from me and went over to her and was trying to get her to come back into the picnic area. He pushed her a little rough and then the four year old sister went over to her too and was telling her to come back in by her mom. I was just about to get up and decide if I needed to intervene, and was thinking in my head, "Hey, tell your kid to get his hands off of my daughter" when I looked over and Jackson was staring at them and slowly moving over to where they were. He walked over there quickly and without saying anything to them stared at them, quickly slid next to Anna, put his arm around her shoulder, took her hand and led her away from them. I almost cried. The look on his face when he looked at the situation and then at them was perfect "big brother", taking control of the situation. How do they learn that, I was so proud. Anna is in good hands.

(So these pics have nothing to do with the post, they are just cute brother and sister pictures)

First Love

2009-09-10T21:51:00.004-04:00

I wanted to make sure to post about this since this is the closest thing I do to journaling right now. Last week I was having a rough afternoon and was emotional. Jackson saw me start crying and gave me a hug and asked, "There, all better now?" I said that I was and he turned away for a few seconds and looked back at me with a shy smile and said, "Mommy, I'm in love." I said, "You are? With who?" I didn't even know he knew what that meant. He paused for a minute and then smiled and said, "With you." Wow, not a bad day anymore. The next day we were doing an activity with pictures and color tiles and he said," Let's do the heart one because we are in love." How does he know what that means and how do I break it to him that I am already taken?

Is it bad that I hope he feels this way forever? Someone told me that you never get over your first love, I hope not. Sorry to his future wife, but I hope he always loves me like that and says forever to his future wife, "Yeah, it's pretty good, it's just not quite how my mom does it." Yeah, she will hate me. I'm half-way kidding, ok, maybe 25% kidding.

Our Saturdays

2009-08-01T20:19:00.007-04:00

Our Saturdays usually consist of the same thing, playing at the park in downtown Southern Pines, followed by walking to the toy store and playing with the two huge train sets they have set up. The day ends perfectly at the ice cream shop where we get turkey dogs and fries (veggie dog and fruit for Anna) and ice cream for Jackson and I. I mean really, why mess with perfection? Here's some park pictures, I forgot to take pics the rest of the day. I'll have to take some pictures of our downtown as it looks like something right off of a classic American movie, complete with a train track and old train station right through the middle. It's the kind of area that makes you look around, take a deep breathe in and think, I love it here.

She wants to do everything he does, uh-oh, we're in trouble.

Disclaimer: Kurt said I need to put a disclaimer that Anna's hair looks weird, and that she is much cuter in real life than she is in these pictures. As for me, it was my first experiment with pigtails and I think she looks adorable.

Playing in the Rain

2009-08-01T20:12:00.003-04:00

It has been raining here every evening, and yesterday Jackson asked if he could go outside and play in the rain in his bathing suit. I answered the usual "no" that comes out of a mom's mouth before they really consider it, and then I decided, what the heck. I told him he could go outside in his clothes and that we would all come play, he made me repeat the plans about three times to make sure he had heard correctly, and then we all went outside. As kids, in Florida, we used to play outside in the rain all of the time and I forgot how fun it is. I'm going to make an effort to do more fun spontaneous stuff like this which end up being the moments that really matter.

Fourth of July

2009-07-26T20:49:00.003-04:00

Here are some pictures that I haven't had a chance to post from July 4th.

I think this picture looks like an ad for the fourth of july(if there was such a thing), or a postcard. The next two pictures are really bad becdause they were taken when it was getting dark from really far away with the zoom way up, I only included them because this was the day Anna started walking and these are some of her first steps, so they should be documented.

And this one is just cute, bad quality or not.

Cute cousins watching the lame parade together. See the stunned look in Patrick's eye as he tries to comprehend all of the rallies of people sporting anti-Obama signs on the day that stands for patriotism in America.

Rocking like a big girl

2009-07-26T20:42:00.003-04:00

Here are some pictures that I took tonight of Anna rocking for the first time in her finally (re-)finished rocking chair. She wanted up and then would bounce to make it rock, she seemed very proud of how big she was. I gave her some books and she sat in her chair and looked at books like this toddler that she is quickly becoming.

Camp to begin Hell

2009-07-26T20:08:00.003-04:00

Here begins what looks like a lovely blog about a boy and his father and a bonding experience of their first campout in the backyard. Kurt and Jackson rummaged the woods in our backyard building a fire pit and burning what looked like harmless wood and brush.

The above picture captures what I think Kurt's expression would have been if I had asked him, "Hey, do you think this wonderful memory-making experience with your son is worth the non-stop hell like fire that will cover your body and make you insane for the next three weeks?"

For those of you who don't know, Kurt and I somehow got poison oak, the evil and far more persistant cousin of poison ivy. Apparently it goes through your system and just pops up where ever it likes over the course of the next couple of weeks. We have tried everything and Kurt has even gone in and gotten steriod shots and other meds. We have tried all of the over the counter products from calmine, benedryl cream, ivyrest, and everything else. We have also tried something called jewelweed, which seems to be drying up some of the old stuff, but not stopping all of the new outbreaks. It is seriously the most maddening thing I have ever dealt with and so far there is no end in sight! At least we'll have these delightful family photos depicting a happy family enjoying backyard fun.

one year old

2009-07-05T22:46:00.003-04:00

Here are some pictures from Annabelle's first birthday. I don't know what to say about my big girl in this post. I don't understand how this year could have gone by so fast. I'm torn between wanting her to go back to that tiny cuddly baby and loving so much the sweet fun little girl that she is now. She has all of the sudden decided to stand up in the middle of the floor, and yesterday in her very own Anna way, decided to walk and is taking 5-7 steps all of the time. She went from thursday, not even allowing us to hold her hands and walk to saturday, standing up on her own from sitting and walking forward, falling and getting up to do it again. She is a gem and everywhere we go people constantly ask, "Is she always this good" and, "Is she always this happy?" . The answer to both is always yes. Here are some pictures from her little celebration we had with the family.

Anna is "So big!"

Her new birthday phone, since she loves pretending to talk to Dada on everything.
MMMMmmmm, first taste of gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free,soy-free cake, plenty of sugar though! I should get an award for creating something edible with out all of those ingredients.

Our new house

2009-06-17T19:44:00.004-04:00

Here are a few pictures of our new home that people have been requesting. It is finally starting to feel like home. I have so many projects still to complete, but I figure none of them will happen until October when I'm done with school, so this is it for now. :)

In this one you can see the giant pantry that I originally freaked out about, but now love.

I can't believe I'm actually posting a picture of the kid's messy playroom, but it's a playroom so that's what it's suppposed to look like right?

The view from our back deck. It's so fun to have a backyard now! Living in a duplex for three years has really made us appreciate our home and all of the things we can do now like let Jackson play in a pool in the backyard, or ride his bike on the street and take walks right outside our door, we are loving it here.

Anna

2009-06-17T15:46:00.008-04:00

Here's some rather boring video of Annabelle doing basically nothing for 5 minutes straight. Enjoy. Some things she is doing these days that she refused to perform are, waving hi and bye, saying mama, dada, uh-oh, and a version of all done while doing the sign. She standing up on her own but refuses to walk once she realizes what she is doing and goes completely limp until you leave her alone and let her crawl. She will also sometimes sign eat and occasionally tries milk and mama signs. She also just started pointing to my nose and mouth. She said hi a few times in the video but not in the really high sing-songy voice that we use and is adorable. Sorry, I guess every time I paused it started a new video, so I have no idea what is on each.

(Sorry I don't know how to edit down video, fast forward when you get bored!)

Firetruck Birthday Party

2009-06-17T15:24:00.005-04:00

Here are the pictures of Jackson's birthday party two weeks ago. We were so lucky to get to have it at the Southern Pines Fire Dept. which was wonderful. They set up tables right in the bay and let the kids climb into the firetrucks, and had a lieutenant dress up in his gear and talk to the kids about what firemen do. Lots of the kids tried on the gear. Jackson (of course) was the only kid who actually got scared when he was dressing up in his gear and came and sat(hid behind) next to me until he took off his gear. It was a wonderful time and I think all of the kids had a great time. I'll write another post about all of the cool four year old things Jackson is doing these days.

Some Mother's Day beach pictures

2009-05-23T23:08:00.006-04:00

Mommy the yeller

2009-05-23T22:52:00.004-04:00

Tonight I was about to give Jackson a bath and he was whining and asking to use the sidewalk chalk that I had told him we would use tomorrow,and I asked Jackson what he thought I would do if he was whining (I was looking for the answer that I would take away the sidewalk chalk)and he said, "ummm, yell". I said, "oh do you think so?" He smiled and said, "No." But, your first answer is usually the right one, right? Oh, I hope not:(

Overkill

2009-05-20T22:04:00.006-04:00

Ok, I know this is overkill and no one wants to see this many photos of my child, but the photographer retook some pics on Fri and we got the cutest pictures, I especially love the ones of him in his old crusty red hat that he took from Grandma's house that he used to wear over there everytime he was there. She called him "grandma's cowboy" and he wears it everywhere including bed.

2009-05-14T15:42:00.004-04:00

Here are Jackson's "school pictures". I love everything about the Montessori school that Jackson attends, including their untraditional take on school pictures. They brought in a children's photographer and we each got a disc with pictures to print what we wanted. Here are a few from what was taken. I must say he is adorable, that's my totally objective opinion.

Angel girl

2009-04-10T22:41:00.001-04:00

Kurt took this picture with his phone one day and I just thought it was precious. He gets the best pictures even with a camera phone. Doesn't she look angelic?

nine months old

2009-04-07T16:06:00.005-04:00

How is my little girl nine months old. These nine months have gone by a lot faster than the previous nine months. What a difference nine months makes. I can't believe she was in my belly nine months ago and now she's just this little smily person who eats everything off of the floor that she can possibly find. I left her in the kitchen the other day where she was crawling around playing while I went to the bathroom and in the two minutes I was gone, she got into Jackson's easel and had written on her face with one marker and had sucked on the other colring her tongue, teeth, and the whole inside of her mouth orange. And so it begins...

Annabelle passes the time these days by hunting for inappropriate things to put in her mouth and choke on. We discover about half of them pre-digestion and the other half 12-24 hours later. She literally does this all day long, more interested in the hunt than toys. I vaccum and sweep at least once a day but with a 3 year old she still succeeds. She has now learned to lock her teeth and bat our hands away. I introduced her to cheerios yesterday in the hope that if I gave her something appropriate to put in her mouth it would serve as a replacement behavior for the constant crumbs and carpet fibers that she lives for. She loved them and yelled any time her tray was empty even if she had a mouth full. She currently babbles mamama, and dadada and Jackson would tell you that she is saying all kinds of other things. Her current favorite "toys" are little noses saline spray, plain brown bottle nipples, a broken breastpump tubing, a little einsteins book, and an actual fisher price table top with the legs removed so she doesn't pull to stand on it and face plant forward, oh and any electrical cord. She is a good sleeper and generally all smiles, especially if mommy is around. She is crawling everywhere and starting to pull to stand. She is loads of fun and I can't believe how fast this is going!!! Nine months from now she will be this whole little person.

A Day in the Life of Jackson

2009-04-07T15:14:00.007-04:00

One day a couple of weeks ago Jackson was in true Jackson form. There's really no other way to describe it. It was like moving from one train wreck to the next. Some days he is the sweetest most well behaved child who listens and takes a nap and plays by himself and with his sister and doesn't get into anything. Then there are days like this day...

Jackson does not nap every day so when he can't fall asleep I tell him he can have quiet play time in his room until____ o'clock.(fill in the highest number that I think I can get away with).On this particular day he was tired but had fought me and fought me to go to sleep, he wouldn't stay in his room, etc.. So finally after putting back into his room way to many times to count (and only yelling once) he gave up and stayed in there for "quiet time". When I finally heard something crash I opened the door and just stared. When I asked Jackson what on earth he was thinking he answered with out an ounce of guilt "It's my sand." Perplexed I asked what he was talking about and that we do not clear everything off of every shelf in our room. The reply I got was "but, Mom I'm Sandman and this is my sand, see..." and he proceeded to whirl about the room throwing things to illustrate his point. For those of you who do not get the reference there is a scene in Spiderman 3 where sandman is created and whirls around in a container of some sort of radioactive type sand. He had seen this scene a couple of times about a year ago, what could I do but laugh without looking to encouraging and take pictures.

So then follows the one hour standoff to pick up the last 25 items on his own after I cleaned up most of the rest by myself (which by the way I later found that night that he had just stashed in the closet and told me he had put away). I then try to find ways to occupy his time while I cook dinner. I came up with a car wash for his cars on the back porch with a small tuperware container with bubbles and scrub brushes. When I looked out on the back prch this is what I saw.

(the car was not strategically placed but, does it's job. Hopefully no one will find these too offensive, I'm sure he'll appreciate these phots in 10 years)

So to top off the day as I put him in the bath I started to burn dinner and set off the smoke alarm which freaked out the kids. But we recovered with a jam session after dinner minus the burnt rice.

New tie for church

2009-03-19T22:34:00.003-04:00

Here are some pictures of Jackson in his first big boy tie for church, he wore it every day for the first two weeks with everything, including jammies.

Side note: Have you ever seen the episode of friends where Monica and Chandler need to take engagement pictures, but Chandler can't give a natural smile and has an awful cheesy face that he gives everytime someone brings out a camera, we've decided that's Jackson is Chandler. We simply cannot get a natural looking smile, or get him to look at the camera when we try. This is the best I can get. He's cute anyway, cheesy grin or not.

Googily-goo

2009-03-19T21:40:00.003-04:00

Here are some updated pictures of my girl who has become known as goo-goo or googily-goo in our house. I'm not quite sure how Annabelle morphed into googily-goo, but it went something like this "Annabelle-girl" to "Annabelle-girllll" (drawn out until it sounded like goo, this is all done by Jackson you see) to "goo" to "googily-goo". And to think we spent all of that time deciding what to name her :). She is a doll, even now as she has decided for some reason since her surgery on Monday to put tubes in that she does not need to sleep. Exactly the opposite of what we had planned. She is currently crawling around tearing up my bedroom at 10:30, I gave up trying to put her to sleep, as I am doing this.
These days she is getting into everything, crawling on all fours backwards, and dragging herself with one arm tucked under to get forwards, not sure why the difference. She is ultra independent and wants down as soon as she's done nursing. She is into everything and can find every tiny piece of inedible everything and eat it before I can get to her no matter how many times of day I vaccum. She has begun to clap, and thinks she is very cool when she does this smiling at everyone. She also says Dadan everytime Kurt says it to her, and never for me. She is smiling at least 90% of her awake hours even now at 10:30. She is a doll and I feel so lucky to have such a smily joyful little person in my life. It is going way to fast. Alright, enough motherly babbling, here are some pictures of Annabelle enjoying some food that doesn't come from Mom and some pictures of her playing today.

Green beans are yummy.

I tried to get a picture that captured her clapping, this is as close as I came.

big boy haircut

2009-03-19T21:01:00.002-04:00

Ok, so when three people in one week commented on "her pretty hair", Kurt put down his foot and said that it was time for a big boy cut. Here are pictures in the hair salon, he did amazing and just sat there quietly watching the whole thing.

In the car ride home.

From Snow to 75 degrees

2009-02-12T22:14:00.004-05:00

Here are some pictures from our fun day at the park on Sunday. It was 75 and gorgeous on Sunday so we all went to the park and played catch and soccer and had a picnic. Also, included are some pictures from an impromptu swing on a vine that Dustin convinced us to try. Seizing the moment is fun...

Let It Snow

2009-01-20T15:08:00.006-05:00

We finally got snow!!!! Not just a little snow but 5-6 inches fell last night and through the morning. It's great! Jackson and I had a blast this morning playing in the snow. Lame Wal-Mart doesn't even stock any form of sleds so after trying large tupperware lids, trashcan lids, etc.. I settled on a trash bag which works fairly well. The snow wouldn't pack that well so no snowman this morning, but Jackson and I are about to go out for part three and try again. The funniest part of the whole thing is that the gov. declared NC in a state of emergency, because of 6 inches of snow. Everything is shutdown, it's hilarious.

Snow Angels

Snow tastes good, not really...

First Snow

I want to be Church

2008-12-17T22:33:00.004-05:00

I just wanted to share a funny story about Jackson. Jackson has begun to pretend to be different things and wants to be called by that throughout the day. The other day he came out of his room and told me that he wanted to be church. I was confused and told him that we did not have church that day, just a day at home. He said no, I want to be church. I told him I didn't know what he meant, and he told me that he needed Daddy's tie. I gave him Kurt's tie and he went and got a church shirt out of his closet and his church pants and shoes. He put them all on and then came out and said "there I'm church." I then told him to go sit down for lunch and he told me, "no, I'm not Jackson call me church, I'm church. " So I had to call him church for the rest of the day. Where do they get this stuff.

Snowman Day

2008-12-17T22:12:00.003-05:00

I finally completed, what might be my most proud accomplishment of my mommy life... snowman jammies. If you understood how much my son loved jammies you would understand how excited I was to give these to him. Since I didn't make the original deadline of Dec 1st as planned I decided to make a whole cool day of it called snowman day. And since we live in a place where snowmans don't exist this is as close as we are going to get for snowman day.

Jackson had school that day so I sent him to school with a snowman sandwich and snowflake cutouts of white cheddar cheese. When he got home I gave him his jammies which turned out to be pretty big on him, so I need to take up the arms and legs. He thought they were pretty cool at first.

We had snowman cupcakes and drank milk from a cool snowman cup.

Unfortunately the activities I had planned did not happen since I had to babysit a friend of his and Annabelle refused to nap and was truly high-maintenance that day.

About 45 minutes after he had them on he came out of his room hot and sweaty from playing and annoyed about the long legs and sleeves and told me that he wanted to change. I said "oh, let's keep your cool new jammies on". He said "I don't like them" and I said "oh, jackson mommy made those jammies for you." He replied, "oh, I'm sorry mommy, don't be sad (pause) but I don't like them." Crushing. Maybe when they fit they will be the hit I had hoped for.I then rebounded by making snowman pancakes with sausage (while holding the still fussing Annabelle in one arm) on my special snowman plate and a few snowman books before bed. Ever have one of those days that you visualize in your mind as being so great and it turns out not at all as you planned... snowman day.

Under the tree

2008-12-17T22:01:00.004-05:00

Whenever Annabelle is quiet we know where she is. First she will lay there and stare up at the lights and then when she decides she's ready she suddenly attacks the tree and pulls down lights, branches and ornaments. This very unsafe light intanglement happened in moments after a diaper change. Don't worry she really is quite supervised I promise.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-17T21:50:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone! Sorry to all who were waiting for a card and didn't receive one. We decided to save some money this year by forgoing Christmas cards. Here are the pictures that we took as possibilities for the cards that we did not buy, so Merry Christmas, here's your card! I have to be honest and say that the two good ones were snapped by Kurt as it seems I can take 10 without a result and every time Kurt snaps one it is perfect.

Ok, Annabelle doesn't look great here but I thought Jackson looked cute. I can't believe it's only a week until Christmas! Where has the time gone this month? I hope everyone is enjoying the season and takes time to slow down and enjoy the last week, as I am desperately trying to do.

rolling, rolling, gone......

2008-11-23T23:24:00.006-05:00

Annabelle has begun to roll around everywhere. At first I thought that it was random, but now I realize that she is rolling towards toys that are across the room and will get very frustrated if a table leg or toy interupts her path. Today she ended up in the bathroom in 2 minutes flat and then five minutes later I couldn't find her and she was under the coffee table which was pushed up against the wall. When did she get so big?

Then of course sibling rilvary. By the way this is not from Halloween he just wears this all of the time.

I don't know why this is so dark, I don't think some of you will be able to see it. I have a new computer and I'm trying to figure it out. Will try to edit later.

More Halloween pictures finally

2008-11-23T23:11:00.002-05:00

painting pumpkins

Jackson and his friends at his school Halloween party.

His teacher Miss Melissa and his friend.

Trick or treating with a large group. We constantly heard him saying, "what about me..." and "you forgot me".... Mob mentality I guess.

Oh my, all the candy I want.

Not a pose, this is really what happened when given free reign.

Annabelle's first adventure

2008-11-18T21:57:00.002-05:00

Well, we have a new computer now so I don't have my pictures loaded yet, but I thought that I would write a post about our trip to Utah. Annabelle and I ventured to Utah last Wed. night to go to my cousin Rachel's wedding on the 15th. So off we went with Annabelle securely in her sling. The day started off on the wrong note with my airline switching to a new terminal the day before, which wasn't that big off a deal it just meant lots of extra walking with a baby in a sling, an overloaded diaper bag containing anything I could possibly need (including extra clothes for me just in case), and a suitcase that turned out to weigh 50.5 lbs. I found this out when I trekked over to the new gate and was told that my suitcase was overweight. After staring at him and politely reminding him that it was .5 lbs, and then asking him to weigh it again, it weighed 50 this time and we were off.

To all of you who hate to travel next to children, please remember that children are people too and given that the average women is bearing children for around 10 years of her life, we cannot be expected to remain at home in our houses for ten years of our lives. We all know it's annoying, but please don't look directly at us, roll your eyes, sigh loudly and then say "well I guess I'm the winner." It really makes us feel awkward. As a mother I know I'm biased but I have to say that my baby was especially cute and good on that flight in spite of the meanie sitting next to us. We then moved on to our next flight which was three hours long, after 2 min. of crying she slept the entire flight. Our whole journey house to house took 13 hours and she was such a trooper, smiling most of the time.

We had fun staying with Jane, Ella, and Matt although Annabelle didn't do much sleeping. Jane was a doll with Annabelle and constantly called to me to do things or see things by requesting that "Monique's house" come too, as this somehow had become my full name. It was great to see family and let Annabelle spend some time with her Nana. My cousin was married in the Bountiful temple which was beautiful.

Flying home was a little louder, as Annabelle had developed an ear infection the day before flying home. Thankfully, I sat next to the perfect traveling companion who told me when she sat down that she had eight grand kids all under the age of eight and that she loved kids. Ahh, thank goodness. She was a godsend, taking things out of my diaper bag and packing it back up during the four hour flight, and just smiling at me when Annabelle was screaming rather than glaring at me. After a 1 1/2 hour ride home, we were home again! It was a crazy but fun five days and it went better than I could have hoped with a four month old in tow every where I went. Pictures to follow shortly.....

Happy Halloween

2008-11-03T00:22:00.002-05:00

Here are a few pictures of my kiddo's dressed up as Mickey and Minnie, more to come when I can get my computer to cooperate...

A fun day at the pumpkin patch

2008-11-02T23:52:00.003-05:00

Here are a bunch of pictures from our fun day at a local pumpkin farm. They have a big wooden playground in cool shapes like a train, ship, and castle. They have an area to ride trykes and gross stuff like fried pickles. They have a deal where if you pick your pumpkin from the field and it is bigger than 30 lbs. it's only 15.00 no matter the size, so it was Dustin's mission to find the biggest he could, and he did pretty well at around 65 lbs. It was our first really crisp fall day and it was so fun.

Dustin's pumpkin.

My little pumpkin.

My cake made with love for all to enjoy but me. I have discovered that I still love to bake even if I can't eat any of it.

First taste of a Reese's

2008-11-02T23:20:00.002-05:00

The pictures say it all. Jackson has discovered what candy is.

Crying Cousins

2008-11-02T23:13:00.002-05:00

I had two sets of jammies, one that was 0-3 and one that was 6-9 so I thought it would be funny to put them in the same sleeper and show how different they were in size. They ended up looking far more similar in size in these pictures than they actually were. Annabelle was about 12 weeks here and Patrick was 6 weeks old. Patrick liked to cry alot at this age and we all thought he was going to be the difficult baby, turns out he's an easy going baby whose a breeze to babysit, and my smily baby turns into a screaming lunatic when anyone else takes care of her for more than about 4 seconds. Poor daddy.

A walk in the golf course at night

2008-11-02T23:02:00.002-05:00

There are about 40 golf courses in our county, and one night Dustin, Kurt, and Jackson went for a walk on a nearby one (this is of course not allowed). They made some cool pictures with Jackson's flashlight and all had fun. 39 or 3 not alot changes over the years for boys. Jackson loves hanging with the boys.

Bumbo girl

2008-10-05T22:59:00.004-04:00

Here's my big girl in her big girl chair. It's a great item to have, as I can take her with me wherever I am and set her on the counter or wherever. She looks strong in these pictures, but after about 3-5 minutes she starts drooping and looks like what Kurt coined "little yoda". She has a shameful low amount of muscle tone for her age. But when you weigh 15 pounds it's hard to lift your head:).

Just like mommy...

2008-09-21T21:12:00.003-04:00

Don't worry it's a doll,

Samson

2008-09-21T20:54:00.004-04:00

Here's the before picture of poor little Samson featuring Ella as Delilah.

He lived through it and didn't seem to lose any secret strength, although I was pretty close to tears the first few hours afterwards. I knew it was time when twice in one week people said " oh what pretty hair she has", and " oh, did you see her pretty hair". Looking back, it was time.

pretty pretty princess

2008-09-21T20:21:00.005-04:00

Here are some pictures of Annabelle in her very girly, frilly dress bought by Nana for her blessing day. It's the exact dress that I thought I would never want that, it turns out, I couldn't live with out. There are a bunch of family pictures that Dustin took with his camera that I will post after he sends them to me, so for now it's just Annabelle. Her blessing went exactly the way her Daddy feared, with her breaking into loud tears right as I handed her to him. She cried pretty loudly until about half way through and then stopped crying in time for her to look around as he held her up for everyone to see.

Annabelle's not so sure about all of the poof.....

But she comes around.

Just because, baby feet are cute.

Sleeping Beauty

2008-09-08T22:32:00.003-04:00

Here are a few pictures of Annabelle doing what she does best. Sleeping. This is her in her deep night time sleep that nothing could wake her from. If anyone else had told me their eight week old, breastfed baby was sleeping eight hours straight at night I would have believed in my heart that they must be a liar..... exhibit A. Apparently it happens and I'm one of the lucky ones. To all you other mothers, I'm sorry, I really should just keep it to myself, I know.

These are a few of my favorite things.... about Jackson

2008-09-08T21:48:00.010-04:00

I just wanted to write down a few thoughts about my crazy, exploring, sensitive, loving, funny, sweet boy that is Jackson. He can take me from seething madness to hysterical laughter in two seconds flat, and he knows it. Lately he has been doing and saying the funniest and sometimes most grown-up things and I forget them so quickly, so I thought I write down a few things that he has been up to lately. Jackson is very into Mr.Potato Heads lately and has acquired a variety including Spiderman, Indiana Jones, Darth Vader, and a stormtropper (can you tell who is doing the purchasing?). The other day he came out of his room while playing with them and told me," look mom, it's a Jackson Potato Head".

Another of Jakson's favorites is his spiderman costume which he wears as jammies most nights. You'll notice it at the base of his get up. He had asked to wear jammies(in the middle of the day), and I said go get whatever you want. After spiderman he wanted something else and when Mom said she wasn't going to change him again he took matters into his own hands and emerged from the bedroom wearing this or should I say these..

A few weeks ago a tired Mommy, silly enough to shoe shop for Jackson with a newborn and a opinionated toddler, gave in at the shoe store and let Jackson purchase a pair of spiderman rain boots with the strict understanding that they were only to be worn in the house or when it was raining(which in pinehurst nc isn't very often). He never really fought me on it but wore them religiously around the clock, including sleeping in them for the first couple of weeks. One evening we finally had rain and Kurt asked him if he wanted to go play outside in them. Jackson of course loved it and has been asking to play in the "water pudding (puddle)" nearly every day since.

I have never seen another sibling so in love with their little sister. He greets her with the biggest most gentle hug in the morning before even acknowledging my arrival. I never have to worry about her safety because he springs into tears if he thinks he might have accidentally hurt her. While his tendency to cry when she is upset, does increase the cry volume at my house, I wouldn't trade his gentle sensitive nature for anything else. He is growing so fast, as I realized three weeks ago when he asked Kurt if he was "completely sure" about something. What a good big brother and sweet funny boy he is growing into. How lucky am I that he makes every day an adventure.

Trying out video

2008-08-21T11:11:00.003-04:00

Here is my attempt at getting Annabelle to smile on camera, I got two almost smiles. This took me an hour to get my slow no memory laptop to download and process, so I hope this works and you enjoy.

Okay, so as an after note, this is a long highly annoying video of me talking in an isanely high-pitched, annoying voice, so please prepare yourself and turn the volume down on your computer before you push play. If I knew how to edit I would.

why?????

2008-08-05T16:04:00.002-04:00

This is the question that I ask my self daily, and especially yesterday, as I entered my bedroom to find....

This is in case you can't tell an entire 4 oz. size of a specialty diaper rash cream that you have to buy from a pharmacy. The rest of the contents of the container were all over Jackson's arms hands and the floor. Given the creams job of repelling water, not the easiest thing to clean off of people or electronics. It was definitely one of those days as later in the day when I was napping and thought Jackson was too, he had gotten up snuck into the bathroom and gotten out all of my nail polish, two hand soaps, and bathroom spray. Luckily I awoke before mayhem broke lose. To top of the day in bath Jackson was able to reach my creamy facial cleaner and happily spread it all over the bath tub. A day in the life of Jackson. I don't know why, it was like the third time in a week that things of that consistency ended up all over my tv. Why.

A mom's best friend

2008-08-03T21:52:00.003-04:00

think every second time mom should be given a sling upon leaving the hospital. Even I have needed it and my baby doesn't cry. You can do everything in these while they snuggle in quietly. With your first baby, I now believe looking back that surely there's enough time when they are sleeping or content to get everything done, but introduce a toddler into that and goodbye time. Here are some pictures of annabelle and i after doing dishes and making dinner. Plus it has the added bonus of making you feel like super mom getting all of that accomplished while your baby is strapped to you.

1 month old

2008-08-03T21:46:00.002-04:00

here are some pictures of anna from a few daysago at 1 month and today in her church dress, sorry they need touching up, but i'm trying to do this one handed standing up while nursing, so...surely you understand.

day at the park

2008-08-01T15:38:00.002-04:00

Here was Annabelle's first big outing at two weeks old. We went to the park and flew Jackson's spiderman kite which he thought was so cool. We had a picnic and played at the park. Annabelle slept in the shade the whole time.

three years old

2008-08-01T15:22:00.003-04:00

I just wanted to write a quick post to tell all of you how big my big boy is. He has recently begun to use phrases that make me look at him twice to see if it really came out of my little boy. About 2 months ago the day after he turned three he wanted a cookie that was up on the counter and I told him he couldn't have it. He looked at my with his face all scrunched up and mad and said to me, "That's not fair!" I laughed and looked at him and asked him what he said, and he repeated so seriously, "It's not fair." He has also used such phrases "I don't need to do that", "I can't", "Mommy, want to play in my room with me?", and then the other day he told me to lay down when I was still in bed nursing Annabelle. He turned on my fan, started to shut the door and said to me as he blew me a kiss "nigh-night mom sleep good". They get so big so fast, I hope this time it slows down, but I know it won't. It has really taught me to enjoy the moment and not rush anything, Annabelle will be talking before I know it and that makes me sad.

what a difference two weeks makes

2008-08-01T15:14:00.005-04:00

Here are some old photos to show all of you just how big I got. Prepare for jaw dropping. I can't believe I'm even posting these for all to see, but every time i see the 38 week picture I am astounded and stare, so I will allow you to do the same. Go ahead have a good laugh at my expense you know you want to.

Here is 36 weeks, big but not too bad, still looks somewhat human.....

and then there was two weeks later, luckily my only two more days of pregnancy after this.

spidey in all his glory

2008-08-01T15:04:00.002-04:00

Alright, both kids are asleep so i will try to do some furiously fast blogging. This was Jackson two weeks ago. He loves his spiderman costume and wears it to bed almost nightly, he has never worn the mask before and all of the sudden wanted it on. He was extremely proud and announced all night that he was spiderman. To top it off Daddy let him watch the opening intro screen to spiderman which is all he can handle of the actual movie and he watched it over and over again. He then proceeded to line up all of his spiderman paraphernalia (which is a lot much to mom's dismay) on the table and in the chair next to him while holding the remaining amount in his lap. Very cute and a little like his Daddy.

introducing Annabelle Grace

2008-07-05T23:53:00.003-04:00

here are some pictures to hold you guys until i have time to really post, promise to post more and actually write some updates :)

Birthday boy

2008-06-15T23:24:00.003-04:00

Jackson's birthday was on the 2nd and he turned three years old. Where did my baby go? We had a fun family day that started with him waking up to streamers and balloons everywhere, which by the way we could have stopped there. He could have played with the balloons all day long. We went to Panera for breakfast which is Jackson's favorite place to eat (mommy's too, purely coincidental) and then to wal-mart to look around (sadly a favorite too), followed by petsmart where he picked out a dark blue fish that he has since named simply "dark" short for dark blue, her color. Mommy was tired from being big and pregnant so then Daddy and Jackson went to the park and out for ice cream. The day ended with presents and cake. What a fun day.

The easiest cake I could think to make was Mickey Mouse who luckily he is really into right now, so it worked out. He likes the classic cartoons and has started to watch his first tv show of Mickey Mouse clubhouse which has evolved into that plus 2-3 others on playhouse disney. I figure I will do whatever I can to occupy him at this point and deal with the guilt later.
(didn't take the time to fix the bad red eye, sorry)

Just like Mommy

2008-06-15T22:30:00.003-04:00

Does he have the I'm tired of being huge and pregnant look down or what?

Jackson came out of his room the other day and said look "just like mommy, a big belly like mommy". He's nice enough to point out on a daily, sometimes hourly basis "wow, mommy's belly is big" and other comments that I really don't need pointed out daily by this point in the pregnancy.

I just want to be happy

2008-06-15T22:22:00.002-04:00

I had to share a quick story as Jackson says so many funny things these days that blow me away. He is into labeling emotions on us and himself and has even used the phrase "I'm frustrated". The other day a few weeks ago he was having a really rough day and was crying about everything all day long and fighting me on everything. After nap he woke up and was just near tears about everything I asked him to do or not do. I finally said to him, "honey, what's wrong with you today do you need some cuddle time?" and he said to me so sad and serious, "mom, i just want to be happy." I asked him what he said and he said it again, " I just want to be happy". I guess sometimes we all just have bad days and can't snap out of it even at two. It gave me perspective on difficult days, that maybe he's not trying to be difficult that he just might be having a bad day too.

It's been so long I almost forgot how.....

2008-06-15T21:58:00.005-04:00

OK, so no surprise to anyone I am horrible at blogging. I'm guessing I'm not going to get any better at it once baby number two arrives, so I'm going to stop apologizing, this is who I am. I'm going to post as much as I can tonight but they are probably going to be out of order and all over the place because I'm so behind. I'm going to start with the post recent and head back. I'm 36 weeks pregnant today which is a pretty big accomplishment, come tomorrow I will have carried longer than with Jackson which was the big goal. One more shot to the hip and I'm free to have her. I'm ashamed to say that when I had a strong bout of contractions this week my first thought was you can not come out until I get my hair cut, knowing it would be forever until I had the chance again. So mission accomplished here's the new 'do......

This was my mid-life sticking my tongue out at my mom. When I was growing up I always wanted bangs and my mom would never let me have them so I finally decided to try it at 26. I finally got the bad orange hair color completely taken away, yeah, worth every penny.

(almost) 7 months!

2008-04-12T22:09:00.002-04:00

As everyone has reminded me I skipped right over 6 months and forgot to take pictures every week. It becomes a little less fun to post pictures of yourself on the internet when you jump so quickly to the point of gigantic and the pictures aren't quite so flattering. Along those lines this is the last time you wills see my bare belly as it just looks huge and I can't bring myself to show the photos to people as it gets even bigger. I know it is supposed to yada yada yada but I'm sure we could all do with out seeing it every month. I'm carrying this baby very differently than with Jackson. Just as the old wives tales claim, this baby just makes me look round and huge and is sitting very high, while Jackson was more of a nice bump on the bottom of my belly (much more flattering). I'll be seven months in a week, but let's be honest I don't post that much so this is going to count for that. I would have loved to have actually taken decent pictures, but it's 10:00 and Kurt wasn't up for the game of that looks horrible take another one so, here you go.

Look at my curly hair

2008-04-12T22:00:00.003-04:00

Just thought I'd share a couple of quick pictures for all of you to see just how long I've let my son's hair get lately. I'm getting a lot of pressure from Kurt as well as Dustin and Kaysha to cut his hair already. I don't know if it is the fact that he won't be my little baby soon or what but I feel this need to keep him looking like a little boy for as long as possible and I love the curls, I think it suits his wild personality. I think he has plenty of years ahead of him to have a big boy hair cut which I have already tried out on him, for the record, when he was younger. I like the wild curls better, so you all can weigh in and let me know what you think. I will admit it looks a little crazy here after nap, but Jackson is a little crazy so........

Easter

2008-04-12T21:49:00.003-04:00

Here's a few pictures from the Easter brunch that we went to on the Sat. morning before easter. It was Jackson's first easter egg hunt and once he figured out that there was candy in it, and that I was actually going to let him eat it, he was pretty darn excited. I got so busy making food on easter that I forgot to give him his easter basket so I ended up throwing out the candy and giving him little presents through out the week. So since he doesn't know the difference I got to seem like a really cool mom all week rather than the really lame mom I felt like on easter.

Green Day

2008-04-12T21:26:00.006-04:00

OK, so I'm not very dedicated to blogging it seems. I can't believe that over a month has gone by and people are threatening me if I don't post. So, I'll begin back at Green Day which was on Saint Patrick's day. I decided to make the whole day about everything green. We wore green clothes and cooked green eggs (with spinach, surprisingly good) and ham and green milk. We read the book Green Eggs and Ham way to many times.

We went for a walk and found green stuff like the obvious grass and leaves, and then had green smoothies which consisted of one of those "naked" green drinks that has a bunch of fruit and weird stuff like broccoli and spinach and green algae, mixed with ice. Jackson absolutely loved it but I thought it tasted like broccoli and garlic. Jackson drank all of his....

and then mine. We also had avacado dip with all kinds of green veggies and pita chips, Jackson gave all of the veggies a try and then stuck to the pita chips.

The day finished off with a big green cupcake which made

Jackson very happy.

20 weeks pregnant with new hair

2008-03-01T22:24:00.000-05:00

Well, I was caught up, so much for that. A lot has happened this month, including the expanding of my belly. We found out that we are having a girl. Kurt was more excited over the fact that he was right and I was wrong than the fact it was a girl. We are both thrilled and I am finally beginning to believe it and buy some pink. And so it begins.... It will be a miracle if we can decide on a name as we currently do not have even one that we are both on board with. I went home to visit my sister and made it just in time for her to have her little guy who they named Kade. He is still in the NICU as he was only 32 weeks, but is doing pretty well. I also had a hormonal few days and decided to chop of my hair and try a home highlighting kit. The haircut turned out well, the hair color, well to say it didn't turn out would be a gross understatement. My hair was an awful shade of orange and my friend who used the same color had bleach blond white hair (we were both the same shade to begin with). We made emergency appts. at a salon the next day and had corrective colors done. I wish I had a picture to show the before, but it isn't on my camera, so here's the after which is much better, but still not what I was going for.

I think it looks more blond in real life but maybe it's just me.

Finally, a belly!

Wow nearly caught up!

2008-01-27T22:02:00.000-05:00

I am feeling quite accomplished as I have published four posts tonight and have gotten somewhat caught up. I have reached my limit of computer time, since it still makes me feel sick, but I promise to post christmas and stay better caught up in the future. I'll update next week after the big reveal of what we are having. Stay tuned (the two people who actually look at this besides my mom).

4 months pregnant

2008-01-27T21:51:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I feel like I can start using months now instead of weeks, as it seems more official and sounds more pregnant. I have been feeling the little kiddo kicking around with those tiny little feet for about a week now, especially if I drink OJ which seems to send him/her into a frenzy. We will find out next week which we can refer to. I would love to report that I am looking incredibly pregnant at this point, however it seems I am destined to stay at the akward fat yet not pregnant stage forever. Occasionally the most bizzare thing will happen and the baby will move forward and I will not be able to lay on my stomach and will actually look quite pregnant. This has only lasted a day at the most and then is gone. I am however getting to still sleep quite comfortably on my stomach and wear all my jeans and clothes, so I'm sure when I'm huge I'll wonder why I was in such a rush. And I promise next time I take these pictures to actually wear make up, do hair, etc..