lil' momma

I was babysitting 2 month old Anabelle and I had carried her around in the baby carrier. Anna promptly took her turn with her doll when I was done.

Laundry Day

Every Monday just like my mom did is laundry day. Before kids and being a stay-at-home mom I hated laundry and now I actually look forward to it. As a reward for doing laundry I stay in my sweats, don't leave the house, and hope nobody decides to pop over that day. I usually save all the folding during nap time where no little hands will be tempted to turn nice clean, folded laundry back into mountains of chaos. As I fold, I watch TV completely guilt free. I rarely do any laundry any other day, so when Monday is finished I feel quite accomplished, which isn't felt most other days. You Moms know know exactly what I am talking about.

Feeding Time

I love when my babies learn how to feed themselves, regardless of how messy it gets. I love the little freedom I have to do whatever and I know they will be quiet and contained.

This face says, "Give my compliments to the chef."

Tub Time

I know I am going to miss his baby days.

She is finally two!

It seems to me that normally a parent is how shocked at how fast their kid is growing. But Anna has been two for a long time in my mind. Ever since Chad was born I mentally placed Anna in the two years old category because otherwise it meant that I had two babies and that just seemed weird. Okay I will remind you, they are 16 months apart. Sounds crazy, but it has turned out to be awesome!

I think now is an appropriate time to give a synopsis of my two-year-old Anna.  Puzzles....she does them all day long and she can't get enough of them. She also loves balls, which is why she got a bball hoop for her birthday.  I am not really sure what her favorite food is but if I had to guess it is pizza or fruit snacks. She absolutely loves dogs, the bigger the better. She is not afraid of anything.  She is not really interested in talking unless it is in animal sounds. She takes very good care of baby Chad. She involves him in everything and likes to make him feel better when he is sad. She asks him, "You ok?" or gives him his pluggy or sippy cup. Although she likes to look cute and occasionally likes to play dress up she is a rough and tumble kind of gal. She loves wrestling with all of us including the baby, which he tolerates most of the time. Anna is very independent and self motivated. She does not let me help her with her puzzles no matter how hard they are.  I love this about her.  And that's a little synopsis of my firstborn (And yes, she entered the terrible twos long before this birthday arrived. Its been...well..........you know how it is :)

Birthday dinner, compliments of Little Caesars

 We had a typical birthday. Pizza, cookies and cream cupcakes followed by presents. I enjoyed watching all her smiles as she unwrapped gifts.

Note to self: don't let Anna have a white crayon. She freaks out when it doesn't show up on paper, but refuses to switch crayons

Man, this is cute

After playing rough just before bed time, Anna started screaming and she held her arm for the rest of the night. She yelled anytime we touched it. Oh Man! The first broken bone?!! We took her to Urgent Care the next morning and to our relief it was only an elbow dislocation. Doctor popped it right back in and she was good to go!

Picturesque Portland (cuz I took a lotta pics :)

The month of July has been packed full of wonderful things. The Reece's came for a visit, we drove to Heber for a Hulme Family Reunion, flew over to Portland, and I ended the month with a week at Girls Camp, which meant a fun week at Gpa and Gma Weed's house for the kids.  But alas I only have pics of our Portland trip so if you are interested in a lot of pictures keep scrolling down.

Tillamook Cheese Factory

Moo Moo Cow

It is a self guided tour which was fun, and yes we did get to sample a few cheeses.

Tillamook Cookies n' Cream

Maybe we should wait before we put Anna behind the wheel again. Or for that matter maybe Mommy should be in charge of the baby

 Cannon Beach

Anna chasing birds

Double duty, what a dad :)

The girls

The fam

The boys

                                       The Nike Campus

This statue represents their charity campaign, The Girl Effect

Anna is attempting to steal the statue's pencils so she can draw too.

Sporting our Nike Gear

Anna is cheering on Parker, her favorite left handed pitcher

More Parker fans, Meegan and CJ

Salmon Fish Hatchery

Anna absolutely loved all the fishies. Can you see all of them?

Parker was generous enough to buy loads of fish food for Anna to throw in the water. She caught on pretty quick

. 

This was my first trip to the Northwest and I was very impressed. It was beautiful, tons of things to see and do and we had perfect weather. The Mangums were the best hosts, which is not easy ts share your home with two young babies. Hope to see you soon Parker and Meegan. Keep Portland weird!

Everyday Rituals

Lots of kisses for Baby Chad, everyday

Happy Fabirtherday Weekend!

Daddy turned 27!

 It definitely was a busy weekend. Friday was Chase's birthday. Thankfully Grandpa and Grandma Weed came down and watched babies so we could go out. We went to Red Robin to redeem our free birthday burger coupon and then Chase let me beat him in our tennis match. He usually wins, but he took the tragic loss like a champ.

Saturday morning I brought out brownies and ice cream and presents for our little family party.

A rare moment. Anna repeatedly refused ice cream and insisted on eating an apple. Weird huh?

Anna gave daddy a new pair of headphones, since she destroyed his other pair.

After our morining party Chase went to go to take the GMAT. I know he was feeling nervous, but I couldn't believe how nervous I was for him. Thanks to many answered prayers offered by many loved ones, Chase did well and will probably be going back to school a year from this fall.

The party continues with this morning...Father's Day. Chase is a wonderful daddy and these two have become best of buds. Anna and Chad gave daddy a picture of themselves for his desk at work and a Lindt extra creamy milk chocolate bar. 

Here is Chase realizing that he will not be unwrapping his presents without the aid of tiny hands for a very, very long time.

 I can count on one hand the number of times I have cooked him breakfast, thus I had to take a picture of Chase enjoying his peach french toast.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

I feel blessed to closely know three wonderful fathers, Lee Jones, Stephen Weed, and Chase Weed. I am blessed by all their love and service that they have and continue to give to my family. Love you!

My little Mimic

Anna taking her turn using the nursing pillow

 

 

Here is on of the more entertaining, yet adorable displays of Anna pretending to be me.

Recent Happenings

 Anna, who was not the world's most cuddly baby, has really softened up lately, especially to me. I have been enjoying the spontaneous gush of kisses and hugs. (And let's be honest, I deserve every one of them)

This may not be funny unless you know that Anna is always twirling her hair. Most especially at times when she is just sitting or chilling, eg., watching TV, falling, asleep, riding in the car. The other day the kids and I were on a walk. We were almost home and they had been happy as clams. Anna started screaming out of nowhere. I turned to face her to see she had twirled her hair in a knot and could not pull her finger out. Initially I had a brief moment of panic and irrational worries, but then I went to work. Luckily it came out with a nice good yank, and then I just laughed at the whole situation. Anna was so shocked by the experience she didn't know what to think.

Memorial Day weekend we went to Kangaroo Zoo, and inflatable gym with the Putnams and Grandma and Grandpa Weed. Anna and I bought passes, while Chase spent some time with the baby. I loved it! Sometimes I feel like I don't know how to just have fun as an adult because you should act a certain way. But playing around in the bounce house let me be a kid again. It's really kind of liberating.

Anna about to climb Mr. Crocodile

Landon, Logan, and Anna

CJ taking a little snooze

Chad has turned the delightful age of 6 months. I love this age! It means all hardships of newborn days are long gone and he is really starting to take off developmentally starting with the sit. He is not sitting yet, still just a noodle. If you've held him, you know what I mean.

6mo photo shoot. What a stud!

Anna tickling her baby brother

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yours truly with one happy baby boy

He pretty much does this all day

For how much he smiles I am surprised I have not captured more pictures of it. Seems like the flash ruins all potentially cute baby pictures. He really does seem to smile all day long. I love when I am rocking and singing him to sleep and he is just looking up at me grinning. So sweet.

Went to the doctor's yesterday for his 4 month appointment. These are the stats:
Length: 26 in 87th percentile
Weight: 14 lbs 6oz 30th percentile
Head circum: 17.8in 99th percentile

I never realized how slippery that could be

I was busily cooking on the stove while Anna was playing in the pantry stacking and unstacking and reorganizing the food. This is a daily job for her. I don't think I can let her play in the pantry any more. See below

Yep, an entire bottle of olive oil. She never was able to stand up on her own, which was actually very entertaining to watch. She slipped around in oil for a very long time before I was decided I was ready to take on the clean up.