Close the Door!

Anastyn has recently started sleeping in a toddler bed and has been doing sooooo good! She stays in bed all night every night, it has been great! I also love that she can get up by herself in the morning. She always comes to find us and is so happy, she has startled me a few times because she comes up behind me so quietly in the mornings. She has a little more difficulty going down for naps, she stays in bed, but it takes her a little longer to wind down and fall asleep. Ahhhh, the excitements of a 2 year old!

When we put her down for bed, we always close the door at night so she doesn't hear noise from the living room or have any extra lights flooding her bedroom. When we go to bed, we open her door so she can get out by herself, if need be. I guess she has grown accustomed to this and likes to have her door shut when she is sleeping. Twice now in the mornings, as I have been getting ready for work, I hear her door shut loudly. The first morning I went in to check on her and she was crawling back into her bed and looked at me very matter of factly and said "door close, mommy" then layed her little head down and went back to sleep. I guess she doesn't like the morning distraction! She does love her sleep and apparently wants to get up on her own terms!

This morning the same thing happened; however, this time I knew she had done it and just left her alone. It makes me laugh though that she actually gets out of bed and closes the door and goes right back to bed. Gotta love that sweet little girl! I do have pictures of her in her big girl bed, just haven't taken them off my camera yet. Maybe one of these days!

Our Trip to the Zoo

Anastyn loves animals of every kind. She is so curious about them and loves to watch them. So what better place to go than the zoo! It is so great living so close to the zoo. We can go for a few hours see what we want to see and be home before nap time. I think St. Louis has one of the most beautiful zoo's. The walkways are mostly shaded, the animal habitats are easy to see, and I always enjoy our time there. If you are up for a little bit of a walk (I figure you walk around all day, what is another 5-10 minutes of walking from your car), you can park for free and there is no fee to enter the zoo. They have some attractions that you pay for (which we have not done yet) but I have seen where they have passes that you can purchase for one price and do multiple things that have fees (children's zoo, train ride, sting ray pool). One day we will do those things, but for now, Anastyn enjoys walking around looking at the free sites! It was a gorgeous day and we went in the morning, so it hadn't gotten too hot yet. Luckily, after a different brand of sunscreen purchase, we had no breakouts from our sunscreen this year, unlike our zoo trip last year. It is hard to see from those pictures but her eyes were so puffy all day. Here are pics from this year's trip.

Another classic zoo picture where you enter the zoo. I love looking back and seeing pictures of us as children in this exact same spot at the zoo.

Getting a nice ride on daddy's shoulders

Checking out the fish and looking for the hippo. He was MIA that day.

The classic zoo picture


She loved climbing up on the rails to get a better look

Loving on her mama for a picture. This is when she started saying cheese for all of her pictures!

The lions were very lazy that day.

I LOVE this picture!

Anastyn likes walking on anything that requires her to balance. She is always climbing up on the curb or anything that resembles one.

Maybe she gets it from her daddy?

Who Doesn't Love Corn on the Cob?

What happened to July?

July is always a busy month for us with Anastyn's birthday, the fair, and lots of visiting with family. I seem to always have tons of pictures from this month of the year. I am just baffled that it is already the 10th of August though. I just can't seem to figure out where time disappears to. It gets away from me much too quickly. Here are some pictures to sum up some of our fun in July.

Anastyn eating breakfast with her cousins. Hanging out with big cousin, Skylar. Showing off her very first braid and how I bribed her to hold still.

At the Belle Fair: Me with Skylar, Me with Londyn,
Love the look on Anastyn's face ~ so happy to have her picture taken with me, and me with my brother, Trent.

Anastyn not so sure about the car......verdict's in, she hated it! (She was on it all of 3 seconds! lol)


She hated the cars, but couldn't get enough of this HUGE slide. I guess she isn't afraid of heights! Thank goodness daddy was up for the ride!




Big smiles with daddy after going down the big slide.
I loved her hair that night- it just looked so nice and tamed!
Mommy and her little sweetheart!

Her first corndog...she LOVED it! Ate every last bite!

4th of July Fun!

Even though the 4th is long gone I still have all of these pictures that I want to post. We had a blast over the 4th. It was so much fun getting to spend it with our family and all of Anastyn's cousins. We watched fireworks on Friday, July 1 in Owensville and Anastyn had a wonderful time with her cousins. She wasn't very excited about the actual fireworks, but playing before and after them was a lot of fun!

Our attempt at a family picture.

My sister helped us out, this one is a little better!

About as good as it gets trying to get cousin pics.

Grammy Tammy, Grandma Del and Alana

Anastyn was being silly and her daddy was chasing her around. Her pants have a tendency to slip down, so I believe they are being pulled up here. She was having so much fun running around though.

Kesha with Malachi and Trent

Mr. Lincoln and me, he is the happiest baby I know! You can always get a big grin out of him.

Me and my beautiful sister, Devin.

Me and my sweet nieces, Skylar and Londyn

Kevin and Devin

FINALLY, BIRTHDAY PICTURES!

A month late, but here are the pictures from Anastyn's 2nd birthday party! Yes, there are tons of them, even in collage form, but I loved them all! We did a "Bubble" themed party and the kids had a lot of fun! My grandma was sweet and let us have the festivities at her house. We had so much fun watching the kids run around and play. We played in bubbles, turned the water fountain into a bubble fountain, played with balloons and swam a little. Ate lots of food and had a wonderful day with family and friends. I got her birthday cake in St. Charles at a bakery called J Noto's and let me tell you, it was FANTASTIC! It was a white cake with strawberry filling and buttercream icing! Anyway, enjoy the pictures!

The big Birthday Girl, decorations and the cake

Playing in grandma's fountain, turning it into bubbles.

Eating, drinking and trying on her new necklace.


Family and friends, uncle Kevin and Lincoln,

Aunt Kesha and Malachi,
Granmda Muriel and Anastyn


Lots of family, Papa Kevin and Papa Darrell,
Grandma Vi and Lincoln,
Grammy Tammy and Londyn

PRESENTS! That is what she is yelling in the bottom right picture.

Hannah and Anastyn in the bubbles, Skylar, aunt Devin with Ella and Skylar with their party whistles, Grammy Tammy with Malachi, Londyn and Hannah.

BALLOONS! This was my favorite part of the day! Who knew girls could have soooo much fun running around a yard holding onto a balloon. They were screaming and laughing and smiling....it was just too sweet!

It took Anastyn a little longer to get started, but once she saw how much fun the other kids were having, she was off! I love these pictures of her. She was having so much fun.



All of the girls trying to fit into one tiny little foot bath.

Eating cake and ice cream.

And what better way to end the day than to get in your real birthday suit! The girls stripped down on their own and started running around the yard, they had me laughing! And finally a little swimming to end the day!