Anna, Audrey, & Noah

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Monday, July 20, 2009

Here's our latest oh-so-cool Goodwill bargain...Cinderella shoes! Not bad for $1.25. Anna wears them just about every minute she's awake and in the house. She's always been a fan of high heels (a.k.a. heel shoes in Anna language) and now she has a pair that fit her. Woohoo!

Audrey loves them too and can walk in them very well even when they're on the wrong feet! :)

Swim lessons

Anna finished up her first session of swim lessons at the YMCA last week. I am AMAZED at how much progress she's made since lessons started 6 weeks ago. She (for some odd reason) was terrified of the water to start with and now is swimming by herself all over the pool with her floatation belt on. We're going to do another 6 weeks of lessons in the next level up and her instructors think she'll be swimming all by herself, floatie free, by the time this next session ends. We'll see. I'm so glad she likes it and that she's doing so well.

Anna loves her stylin' goggles. I'm amazed that she even wears them but she really seems to like them.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Nicholas's Birthday

Our friends' little boy, Nicholas, celebrated his 5th birthday this week and we had a great time at his party. They rented an indoor inflatables place and the girls and many other kids had lots of fun burning lots of energy jumping and bouncing around. Audrey got right in there with the older kids, wasn't afraid at all (big surprise!). Both girls loved going down the giant slide. Anna was not ready to leave when it was time to head home. We'll definitely have to visit Pump Up The Fun again!

Audrey loved riding on this little roller coaster. Actually all of the kids tried it out and enjoyed it.

I tried to upload a video of Audrey riding on this but it wouldn't work. I'll try again soon.

MOPS

Last weekend I went on a MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) retreat. Wow... it was so different being away from the girls and Michael for a night. Us ladies had a great time getting to know one another and planning the upcoming year. After we moved to WV, I realized there was a real need for a MOPS group in our area. I had really hoped there would be one that I could join as I really benefitted from the MOPS groups I'd been a part of before. I began to feel God working on me to start a group and I tried to ignore it for awhile but eventually realized that I was being disobedient to what He'd laid on my heart. I shared my burden with our Pastor and he was all for starting a group at our church. I was so overwhelmed at first thinking of all that needed to be done in such a short time as MOPS typically runs on the school schedule which meant we needed to be ready by September. God continues to work out all the details and I'm so greatful for the ladies who've stepped up to help with this ministry. We are all stepping out of our comfort zones trusting and knowing that God will provide exactly what we need, when we need it. We would appreciate any prayers as we launch this ministry off the ground. If you want to know more about MOPS, check out the website www.mops.org.

Happy 4th!

Better late than never right? Our 4th of July weekend was fun as we spent lots of time at the pool and with my sister's family who came to visit. It ended up raining the evening of the 4th which kept us inside but we were ok with that. Our neighbors put on a mini fireworks show that we watched from our back porch. The girls thought is was pretty neat.

Audrey loves to do whatever Anna does including wearing floaties on her wrists since they're too big for her upper arms. :)

Audrey "Houdini"

What more can I say? She loves to squeeze through the bottom of our coffee table. She'll empty everything out of it just so she can play in here. We're not sure what she'll come up with next!

Monday, June 29, 2009

Audrey Update

Audrey had her 15 month check-up today and she's doing ok. We discovered over the past weekend that she has a penicillin allergy. She'd been taking amoxicillin for an ear infection and this Saturday she was extremely fussy and then broke out in a rash which is still there so we're giving her Benadryl to help with the discomfort. Thankfully our neighbor who is a P.A. was at our house when she broke out in the rash and he was able to tell us what was going on. The dr. also confirmed a heart murmur while listening to her but is not overly concerned about it. Other than those things she's doing well. She's not the greatest eater, actually is quite picky and has lost a pound since we had her weighed 2 weeks ago but that's common when they have ear infections as they usually lose their appetite. She weighed 19.6 pounds which put her in the 10th percentile for weight and was 30 1/4 inches long which put her in the 50th percentile for height. She's quite the little busy body, one more reason she's not the heaviest girl, and the doctor was impressed with her vocabulary. She talks when she wants to and uses her baby signs the rest of the time. As long as she's communicating with us and not whining for something, we're happy.

This little girl is such a daredevil! She loves to climb and go full speed ahead constantly. She wears mommy out!

Anna Update

Anna had her 4 year check-up today and is still growing like a weed, off the charts! She weighed 44 pounds which puts her in the 90th percentile for weight and was 43.5 inches tall which puts her in the 110th percentile for height. We knew she was tall but wow! She got 4 shots which was horrible. It took me and two nurses to hold her down and she popped the blood vessels around her eyes by screaming so hard. Hopefully her eyes look better tomorrow. Thankfully she won't need shots next year at her 5 year check-up as we got them all done today. She's very healthy and very ready for preschool, just ask her. :)

Anna is holding the first pepper from our garden. Notice she even wears her jewlery (necklace) out to work in the garden. Too funny!

Anna is 4!

We had a full weekend celebrating Anna's birthday. On Saturday we had family pictures taken, then went to McDonalds for Anna's birthday meal (her pick), and then on to Toys R Us for her to shop with her birthday money. She had her purse and was all set to spend, spend, spend. On Sunday we took her to see the movie "Up" and then came home to eat some cake and open gifts. She really enjoyed all of the phone calls, cards, and gifts. Can't believe she's 4!

Visit with Friends

Last week we had friends, Debbie, Kristen and Emily, from TN come stay with us and it was great to see them. They were our neighbors when we lived in TN and it had been 4 years since we last saw them. It was so much fun to catch up with one another. Thanks so much for coming ladies!

Anna and Audrey had fun playing with Emily. It was so cute to see her and Audrey interact with one another.

The girls loved having Debbie's undivided attention!

Green Veggies

Audrey ate her first green veggies in months so I had to take a picture of the empty jar to document it. She is the PICKIEST eater and getting her to eat anything other than bread and fruit is difficult. She's very sensitive to the texture of foods which is why she's still eating stage 2 baby foods along with a few table foods. It takes lots of effort to get her to eat well so when we actually succeed at this we celebrate!

Happy Father's Day

Well I'm a week late in posting this but so goes life! It seems I'm always 10 steps behind anymore. Just can't keep up. Michael enjoyed his big chocolate chip cookie from the Cookie Company on Father's Day. I even ordered it with extra frosting. Anna was impressed with the size of the cookie and she and Audrey gladly helped Daddy eat it. We had a nice day celebrating Daddy. How blessed us girls are to share our lives with such a great guy! Love you Michael!

Tomatoes!

We've got tomatoes! Two of them are ready to be picked - YUM!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Lexington

First, we got a new camera and I love it! I'm still learning how to use it but definitely like it. Our old camera practically died and I didn't get any good pictures taken of our trip to IN so thankfully the new came just in time for Michael and I's little get away. Last week he and I escaped to Lexington for a few days and it was so nice. We went because he had a conference there and they even had activities that included spouses like a spa day. Wonderful!! My massage and pedicure were great, I could handle that every day. I've always loved driving through Lexington on I65 but have never really stopped to take it all in. It is so beautiful and I can't wait to go back. The big horse farms are amazing. With it only being 2 hours from home, we plan to take the girls back for a weekend trip soon.

We took a drive into the country and oh, how pretty! We've found where we want to live next. :)

This is a mansion/turned restaurant on the resort property where we stayed. So pretty! I wanted to look in every knick and cranny of the place.

The biggest piece of carrot cake we've ever seen. Of course it was bigger than this to start with but we'd already taken a few bites before I took the picture which my husband thought was crazy.

The last night we were there we went to the Taste of the Tropics party and had lots of fun dancing on the dance floor. We don't get that opportinuty very often and mommy especially loved it! :)

Many thanks to Grandma Smith for taking good care of the girls while we were gone!

Audrey is all about making silly faces.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

The Clay Center Museum

We visited the Clay Center Museum today and had lots of fun playing with all sorts of cool things. Anna especially enjoyed it and Audrey just loved being able to roam freely. It wasn't very busy which was nice, felt like we had the place to ourselves.