Annalise Is 6 Months Old!

My how time flies! Our baby is already 6 months! Unbelievable!

She's beginning to show a little personality these days (this one's a little more like her Daddy than the other!). She's nodding yes to all of the appropriate questions, sitting on her own, rolling here and there, eating yummy veggies (she's got two teeth!!) and talking up a storm. Oh yes.....and also BIG into playing the "I throw it down, you pick it up" game. Good times! :)



She's such a happy baby! Even when she "comes alive" at around 10 pm each night. She's sleeping a little better now that those two teeth popped through. Thank goodness! Mark was ready to send her back! Guess we'll keep her for a while now. (Maybe till she's 12 or 13.)

Happy Halloween

There was a costume parade at preschool the day before Halloween! Avery and her friends..."Fancy Nancy"(Addie), "Wonder Woman" (Kaelee), and Alice the Witch stopped to pose for some pictures after singing a few Halloween songs. Too cute!

We had a good Halloween. Grandma and Grandpa were here to celebrate and go trick-or-treating with Avery! Our little ladybug went trick-or-treating to a few houses in the culdesac and then came home to hand out treats! :)




Little Red Riding Hood went back out to finish off the neighborhood with Grandma and Grandpa and came back to check out her loot! It was a good night....not too cold and NO rain! YAY!! (Thanks again for the great costume Grams!)

Pumpkin Patch

The weather held long enough for us to make it out to the pumpkin patch with our friends Scotty, Irene and Henry. Avery had been to the farm with her preschool and was most excited about riding the train through the mud puddles again! :)




Mark picked out the most pumpkins....$35 worth. Sheesh....that's a lot of pumpkin to carve!



We had a good time and the pumpkins turned out nice. Two of Mark's were the only ones missing on the day after Halloween. Hmmmmmm?!?

October Visitors

It was so much fun having Grams and Gramps come visit for my birthday! We had a great long weekend!



Grams spent a lot of time sewing Avery's Halloween costume (who knew that hot gluing things together wasn't "sewing"?!) which turned out SUPER cute! I had no idea how I was going to put together Little Red Riding Hood. **Thanks for bailing me out, Mom! :)


Avery loved every moment of being able to craft and play with Grams and Gramps! Annalise loved watching the show!

October Already!

It's definitely feeling like October around here. It's a rainy day and the leaves are all changing! I can't believe that Annalise is 4 1/2 months old! It is going so much faster with her than it did with Avery!

We're all still adjusting to being back in school. It's so much more work to get two kids out the door in the morning than one! Who knew?! :) (Those of you with more than one child knew.......)

Anyway.....Annalise likes to be anywhere that Avery is and she hangs on her every word. Luckily Avery doesn't mind the attention and actually will sit and hang out with her sister. She especially loves "reading" to her. Avery has this crazy gift of listening to a story one or two times and having it completely memorized. So she is able to "read" the story to Annalise. Although....to her credit....she does know a few sight words and knows the letters and their sounds.













It was great to see Auntie Lori and Uncle John a couple of weeks ago....and we look forward to visits from Grams and Gramps and Grandma and Grandpa this month! You'll all be so surprised when you see how much the girls have grown!

We're gearing up for Halloween. Avery still hasn't decided what she wants to be this year. There has been talk of Little Red Riding Hood and Dora the Explorer. We'll see!!

I'm really going to try and keep up with the postings.....one of these days I'll get my feet back under me! For now.....enjoy the new pictures! :)

Happy October!

First Day of Preschool

*NOTE: I've been trying to get these darn pictures to post for a few weeks now. I think I finally figured it out! Yay!!!!! Sorry it's been so long!


Well...this year's transition back to preschool was uneventful! Avery was VERY excited to be going back to see her teachers and was thrilled that all of her friends would be in the same class. She's loving school! Hopefully she'll feel the same way when she heads to KINDERGARTEN next year!

The Bottle Battle

Well...we've been back at work for almost a week now and Annalise is getting somewhat better at taking a bottle. She and I had a little heart-to-heart before I took her to daycare for her first full day. I explained to her how important it was that she not starve and how much less guilt I would feel as her mother if she would just TAKE THE BOTTLE.

I had every intention of leaving work at lunch to go and feed her. I got a phone call from her daycare provider about an hour before letting me know that she "sort of" took the bottle. It's not pretty and she still won't really latch on....but she gets more in her mouth than she wears now. Phew!

Otherwise....Annalise is great. She's growing like a weed and is such a happy baby! She is loving the play mat.....she'll lay and talk to the animals as they spin and sing. Too funny!



Avery gets to start preschool again tomorrow! She's very excited! She's been great at daycare making sure that Annalise is well taken care of! She'll be sure and check on her periodically and gets quite concerned around feeding time! Avery is a wonderful big sister!

Jon's Wedding

Our good friend Jon got married Labor Day weekend.




Mark was one of the groomsmen and Avery got to be an impromptu flower girl (all the girls at the ceremony could join in if they wanted). It was a great ceremony and a super fun reception. Avery was exhausted Saturday night after all of the dancing and running around she did! Annalise was a trooper and actually fell asleep in my arms as we were all dancing to "We Are Family" blaring! Good times! :)

3 Months Old!!

It's funny how you want that first few weeks of infancy to go quickly(well...I did)....and then before you know it....it's gone. Annalise has turned that 3 month corner....she's got great control of her head, she'll smile and laugh for you, she drools like she's maybe even beginning to get a tooth, etc. Along with all of that comes the different faces.

Here is Annalise at her most happy time.

She is a very happy and easy going baby most of the time....











Until she gets HUNGRY......then she'll frantically eat her hand. The entire thing! She hasn't really liked the idea of a pacifier (unlike her sister)....it's too bad actually....I think it might taste better than the fist!


It's beginning to sink in for me that I have to go back to work in a week and a half. I thought it might be easier with Annalise. And perhaps it will be....maybe I won't cry off and on all day thinking of her at daycare. BUT....I get most anxious about the whole thing when we try to give her a bottle. She is NOT a fan. In fact....she's yet to take one. We're on nipple/bottle brand number 6. Anyone out there with magic tricks.....I'd love to hear them. We're sort of at a loss. Hopefully Ryan and Teresa (her daycare providers) have the magic touch. Sigh. Anyway...this is a mild version of what Annalise looks like when we get the bottle out.

We've still got some time (ha)....and we're hopeful that she'll be drinking out of a bottle in a week. If not....we hear that babies will eat from just about anything when they're hungry enough. Yikes. Be sending us (and Annalise) good thoughts! :)

Nooksack River Camping

We had a great time last weekend camping at the Nooksack River with some friends. We had 8 kids between 4 couples....ranging in age from 8 years to 3 months. It was HOT! The river felt good and the popsicles (cold beer for the grown-ups) tasted great! :)




















The two babies even had a good time. Jet is two weeks younger than Annalise.