All About Anastyn

Ink Pen Mustaches

2012-02-07T22:14:00.000-06:00

That's right, who can resist a nice ink-pen mustache. I guess they are just trying to be like their Papa's.

These girls love to get their hands on an ink pen. It doesn't matter how hard I try to hide them or keep them put away, one always surfaces and lands in the hands of a cute little girl! Natalie wasn't too happy about having this moment documented.

A day or so later, Anastyn happened upon an ink pen and decided she didn't want to be left out! She was much more willing to let me document her silly face.

No, they weren't really trying to have mustaches, but how do little ones ALWAYS end up with ink around their mouths. I assume Natalie was probably trying to chew on it, I have no clue how Anastyn managed to have ink all over! Oh, how we love these sweet, silly, girls!

Snow Day

2012-02-02T15:04:00.000-06:00

A few weeks back when it was much colder out, we got a small amount if snow. Anastyn has been anxiously awaiting snow since Christmas. She reeeaaaally wants to build a snowman, but we decided there just wasn't enough snow this time to make our own Frosty. So we bundled up and made snow angels, crawled around, and took short rides around the yard on the sled.

Anastyn all bundled up and ready to get outside in the snow.

Not so excited about me taking her picture.

The girls waiting for me to release them into the snow.

Stomping around in the snow

Making snow angels

Natalie had a little trouble walking since I had her so bundled up so she just decided to crawl instead.

She actually really liked the snow...until she faceplanted in it.

It was fun, but too cold to be out in for too long, so we came back in

and made some nice warm hot chocolate!

Natalie's First Year

2012-02-01T05:00:00.000-06:00

Originally, I was going to take this in the same place every month and see how she had grown and make this really awesome collage. It turned into just getting a picture wherever I could and hoping she would somewhat cooperate. But they are from each month and at least show how she changed over the year.

Where's Natalie?

2012-01-31T05:30:00.003-06:00

For Christmas the girls received this cool easel from Santa. Marker board on one side, chalk on the other and a paper roll at the top to pull down for paintings.

However, Natalie discovered another use for this neat toy. As I was getting supper ready one night I look over to see Natalie has found a new hiding place. The girl just saw an opening and crawled right in. Now it's a fort!

Anastyn thought her sister was quite silly, but definitely wanted to check out this cool, new place to hang out.

So Anastyn climbed on in the other side and there my girls sat, giggling and playing with the markers that had fallen onto the tray they were sitting on.

Natalie absolutely LOVES to climb on, in, under, and around anything. She is always getting caught in small spaces when trying to squeeze her little self through. She almost got stuck the other day trying to crawl under the rung at the bottom of her high chair. Instead of just climbing over it she was sliding under, lol, it always makes me laugh.

And not to leave Anastyn out, since my posting has been quite slim lately, she is getting to be such a big girl. She is always dressing up and putting on shows for us. She loves to sing and dance. She also likes to help out around the house. She was sweeping the crumbs up for me the other day with her little hand broom. She loves her sister dearly and is always saying, "Mom, look at Natalie, she is so funny!", she loves that Natalie will now come give her a big hug and kiss before bed as well. She has been working on writing her letters, but prefers to "teach" me.

I promise, more posts to come. I really need to document some things on both girls!

Breaking the Silence

2012-01-29T21:35:00.001-06:00

What better way to break the silence than with a little humor. This picture makes me burst out in laughter everytime I look at it. She was playing the other day and I said, "Smile for the camera," this is what I got. HAHA, I really hope that she grows out of this awkward smile, it could make for some rough wedding photography one day! LOVE these cute grins right now though!

Happy Birthday, Natalie!

2011-11-17T00:50:00.000-06:00

Today is Natalie's first birthday.

I can't believe our sweet baby girl is one already!

She has been such a wonderful blessing in our lives. She keeps us all smiling and laughing. She is really starting to let her personality show.

She is a bit stubborn, just like her sister. She absolutely loves music and begins swaying and bouncing as soon as she hears the first beat.

She loves to do the actions to various songs, including "The Itsy Bitsy Spider", "The Wise Man Built His House", "If You're Happy and You Know It", and "This Little Light of Mine".

She can walk, but doesn't really want to...yet. I am sure that will come soon enough. She knows what a dog, cow, duck, horse, and sheep say and will do the sounds.

She has the best laugh and you can't help but try to make her laugh again just to hear it over and over. It is very cute!

She LOVES to eat and will eat just about anything you give her. She has been very good when it comes to transitioning to new things. She took a sippy cup no problem, solid foods, milk...pretty easy going.

She loves to climb!

Adjusting to 2 little ones definitely took some time, but I can't imagine life any other way.

She really likes to swing.

I am in love with her beautiful eyes.

She loves being outside, if we are outside she is generally a very happy girl. She usually cries if we have to go back inside too quickly.

She is very playful and keeps herself very busy playing with toys. She really loves to sit in chairs right now and is constantly getting in and out of different chairs around the house.

She likes to do things on her own time. There is no forcing a picture! If she isn't in the mood, it ain't happenin'!

But when she is happy, she is REALLY happy!

Anastyn is still her very favorite person.

As soon as Anastyn comes into the room, Natalie lights up and gets excited. She usually lets out a squeal of delight.

She also gives things hugs and kisses now, I think it is absolutely precious and tell her to give things 'lovin' all the time just so I can watch her again.

I have a lot more I want to say, but I am working on her monthly picture collage so I will save some of it for that post. Hope you enjoyed the pictures of our precious, youngest daughter!

Happy Birthday, Sweetie!

She's A Walker!

2011-11-15T13:20:00.000-06:00

Well, sort of! We are so proud of this crazy little girl! I love the squatty walk! This just makes me smile.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-02T05:00:00.000-05:00

Anastyn was very excited to go trick or treating in our neighborhood tonight. I didn't get home from work until 6:30, so we quickly threw Ana's outfit together and decided Natalie could just keep the pumpkin shirt on that she had worn all day since she was a tad bit grumpy. I dug out a pumpkin hat for Natalie and and threw Anastyn's hair in a bun and we were ready to hit the streets. Apparently, Anastyn was a bit tired. It seemed every picture I took she was yawning. Poor, sleepy girl.

We quickly made our way around the block in the wagon, which was loaded with blankets. Natalie started off with her bottle which made her very happy and she was all grins riding, for at least half the ride. Anastyn started off strong but quickly retreated to the wagon to be wrapped up. She got out, ran up to a house, ran back to the wagon and we covered her up. All in all, we had a really great night and had so much fun watching our little ones have a fun Halloween evening.

And this is Natalie's first Halloween. Happy First Halloween, baby girl. We loved seeing your big smile as you thoroughly enjoyed yourself.

Trunk Or Treat 2011

2011-11-01T05:30:00.001-05:00

We attended the 2nd annual Trunk or Treat at St. Peters Church of Christ, after services Sunday night. We had a great turnout and a chili supper to follow. Anastyn had so much fun, she really got it this year and loved saying "Trick or Treat". She did a very good job saying thank you to everyone as well. When we were on our way home she said, "Guess what?! I got SKITTLES! TWO OF THEM! It is just what I always wanted!" Haha, she can always make me laugh. I am so glad she got what she REALLY wanted! She is just getting too big. Natalie had a good time as well. She loved taking things out of the buckets and putting it in her own. Too bad she doesn't get to taste half of what she picked out! She spent most of her times sitting in the back of our car sucking on the paper of a sucker. Hey, she doesn't even know the difference...yet. Here are a few pictures from our evening.

The girls were matching fairy ballerinas. (Thanks, Devin) Anastyn was especially excited that I let her wear some makeup and loved having her hair in a bun. Yay, maybe we are turning a corner and she will start letting me fix her hair again! (hey, a mama can dream!)

Natalie also got her first real ponytail. I made sure to secure it tightly because she is sure to pull it out if at all possible. I LOVED IT! It made her blue eyes shine just a bit brighter.

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T05:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween!

from the sweetest "ghouls" I know!

Nature Walk

2011-10-28T13:58:00.000-05:00

A week or so ago, when it was absolutely beautiful out, I decided to take the girls on a wagon ride to pick up some pretty leaves.

We were well prepared with water, cheerios, sunglasses and hats...and diet sundrop.

Oh, and we can't forget our jewelry. Anastyn made sure she had her ring and necklace for the ride.

We gathered some very beautiful leaves and I had this idea in my head that we would use wax to coat them and then make a leaf garland. Well I dried them but they have yet to be made into a garland. Oh, well. We had fun on our walk anyway. And I maybe I will get that garland made this weekend.

Natalie loved being able to help herself to the cheerios. And I loved getting her to keep this hat on her head. It is almost too small, sigh. And I can't resist getting a picture when I see lashes resting so sweetly on those cheeks.

I set the timer for a quick shot of me with the girls. Yes, folks, I go out in public looking like this sometimes. It is a bit embarrasing, but I wouldn't get much done if I had to get fully ready everytime I stepped outside my house. That's just the way it is!

Natalie was enjoying playing in the grass and the leaves when we got home. Happy girl

Old Iron Works Days

2011-10-21T10:25:00.000-05:00

I am so excited that we got to go the the Old Iron Works Days at Meramec Spring Park this year. I haven't been in a very long time and we happened to be in Belle the weekend my brother and some of our friends had planned to go. We had planned on heading home early to get some things accomplished around our house, but took a last minute detour and headed to St. James. It was just such a beautiful day we couldn't resist being outside. We met up with everyone and had a great time!

Anastyn and her friend Hannah had fun climing on this antique piece of machinery. Sorry, I didn't read the sign, so I have no idea what it is.

Posing for pictures...always makes me laugh!

Natalie taking a break in daddy's arms.

Kesha and Sarah, two beautiful, pregnant ladies!

I love this picture so much. Trent laughing, Malachi's unsure look, Nate's cute diaper bag backpack...just makes me smile.

We spent some time letting the kids play on this fun slide. Metal slides are so much better than the plastic ones they have nowadays. Much faster! (I know the plastic ones are probably safer...still not as much fun!)

We explored the furnace and tried to get a picture of all the kids inside. This is as good as it gets. Haha! Anastyn is posing with a cracker in front of her mouth and everyone is truly doing their own thing.

Can't believe this sweet thing is going to be ONE is less than a month!

WILL TIME PLEASE SLOW DOWN!?

Anastyn didn't get her nap in and was beyond sleepy. Hannah started playing with her hair and they stood like this for a good minutes. It was so sweet watching them. They get along so well and Anastyn was loving having her hair played with.

The girls practiced their balance beam skills.

We tried our hardest to walk on stilts. NOT EASY, FOLKS!

Natalie loves every minute of being outside.

Nathan, Anastyn, Natalie, and Malachi enjoying some bluegrass.

CRACKS. ME. UP. Hahaha! I LOVE this picture.

The girls were very tired but wanted to "pose" for me.

It took a few tries to get one with some normal smiles.

That's better. What better way to spend a Saturday afternoon than with family and friends that we love dearly! Thanks for letting us tag along!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...

2011-10-20T05:00:00.000-05:00

We were in Belle a couple of weekends ago and while Anastyn and my mom were outside looking at the garden they found this little beauty.

We fixed up a temporary home to transport him home and decided to keep it around to watch it turn into a butterfly. We have had fun feeding it and watching it make its cocoon. Which happens insanely fast. Also, if you have never watched a caterpillar, they eat a ton and get rid of it quickly. We only had to feed it a couple days before it started making its cocoon, but it ate a lot and we definitely had to clean the cage out every day. It was a lot of fun to watch crawl around. Anastyn loved taking it out and holding it.

Isn't it so pretty?

Anastyn got this bug house for her birthday, so I was very excited that we had a place to put the caterpillar.

I was having trouble getting good pictures of the cocoon. It wasn't in a very convenient photo op position. How rude!

Isn't this so cool? We are loving the process. Can't wait to see a beautiful butterfly emerge!

Making A Comeback

2011-10-19T05:00:00.001-05:00

So...it has been a while. Working on some posts about what we have been up to. Until then, here is my version of Embrace the Camera. I have seen it on this blog and think it is a great idea. Technically, you are supposed to do it on the same day as she does and link to her blog so you can see lots of other fun bloggers embracing the camera. But since I am just doing good to get a post up, period, I am just throwing a picture up today.

A few weeks ago Nathan was out of town for the week, so we had lots of fun girl time around the Lansford house. One BEAUTIFUL day, we decided to play in the garage. Anastyn rode her tricycle, Natalie played in the little car that we have and the wagon. We were just having a good time singing and dancing and playing in the garage.
Anastyn has been very into dressing herself and picking out her own clothes lately. One of my favorite parts of the day is when I arrive home on the days I work, Anastyn always greets me at the door with a very loving " Hi, mommy!" and she is always wearing a skirt or play dress with high heels. I. LOVE. IT. And Natalie comes crawling as soon as she sees me and starts whining for me to pick her up. It makes me feel warm and loved and I can't help but smile. I love that part of the day.
Now, I will be honest, I wish I could say that is how the entire evening goes. But Anastyn usually has some crazy meltdown, I get fairly frustrated and we have some tears before everything gets back to happy and normal. However, that is our life right now and I really do want to embrace it. I have a really hard time being in the moment sometimes. I get distracted by all the things that seem to need to be done around the house and hear myself saying, "in a minute, hold on" and it makes me cringe. Then I catch a glimpse of my girls making each other laugh (which is by far the best sound I have ever heard!), or playing peek a boo and I try to remind myself that this time is going by so fast and I need to EMBRACE it now! I am working on it.

Natalie: Nine Months

2011-08-30T21:45:00.000-05:00

Natalie's first time to the beach, Huntington Beach, CA. August 17th, 2011
(yep, need to post about that too!)

Yes, I know that I haven't done a monthly post for my daughter since like 4 months? 2 months? not even sure. She is doing awesome though! I am realizing I am just not good at doing lots of things well. The important thing is I have the monthly pictures and I know what has been going on, right? Maybe one day I will have time to go back and add in posts, but for now there is no time to catch up. We are moving forward!

Cruising in the airport, she was loving being able to be down.

Natalie turned 9 months on August 17th. She is such a big girl now! Her first two teeth busted through a couple weeks ago and they are so stinkin' cute! I can't seem to get a picture but I promise they are definitely there.
Natalie smiles all the time. She loves for anyone to look at her and it takes a smile, a blown kiss, a wave, basically anything and she bursts into her sweet radiant smile. I love these days!
She can wave, blow kisses, give kisses, opens up for a bite, stands when I say "up", and sits when I say "down" (holding onto fingers), she has been crawling all over the place for a while now. She pulls up on everything and cruises along the couch and the pews at church.
She loves her table food. The girl eats more than her sister. CRAZY! But I love it because food fights were not my favorite times with Anastyn. She eats oatmeal with fruit mixed in every morning for breakfast and sometimes before bedtime. She eats some baby food with pieces of food mixed in, but mostly whatever vegetable, fruit, bread, pasta, or baby snack we give her on her little tray. It is fun watching her put food in her mouth, I love how she grabs it with her little pincer grasp and then pokes it in her mouth then opens her hand to assure it stays there, it seriously makes me smile every time, lol, I love it.
She loves to laugh and Anastyn is her favorite person to laugh at. All Anastyn has to say is "Boo" and Natalie is hooked. They laugh together and play in Anastyn's room together some now. I can really see the love they have for one another and that puts all sorts of dreams in my head for them as they grow. I am so proud of my little "sisters".
She says hi and dada and loves to babble and talk. I catch her talking when she has a baby doll in her hands or she likes to babble and chew on things at the same time.
She is a squealer! It is LOUD, whether she is happy or sad she at times lets out this high squeal to let us know, "hey, I am soooooo excited!!" or "I AM NOT A HAPPY GIRL!" I am pretty sure that is what she is thinking.
She is incapable of sitting still, always flipping or flopping or grabbing for things.
She likes to get into things and absolutely everything she finds goes straight in her mouth. I have fished out ponytail holders, foam letters, lint, food that has been dropped on the kitchen floor and I haven't gotten around to picking up yet...yep, EVERYTHING!

Best of Friends

She is quite the sweetheart and I am so proud of her. We are working on her walking, it won't be too long! I think she is simply precious.

Sister Cousins

2011-07-21T21:30:00.001-05:00

The last time we were in Belle, my nieces were also visiting so we decided to try doing a photo shoot with all the girl cousins. They really love one another and definitely act like sisters. I wanted to try to show how much they enjoy being together. These pictures just crack me up. At one point I asked the girls to bend their knees so I could see all of their feet behind them, Anastyn face-planted trying to get her feet up, hahaha, I love it!

We let Natalie in on the next pictures, I thought they were pretty good considering none of these girls hold still for very long, mine in particular!

And She's 3...

2011-07-08T23:18:00.004-05:00

Just like that... Crazy how that happens!

Last Saturday (July 2) was Anastyn's 3rd birthday. She has told us for 6 months that she wanted to have a "Tangled" birthday. (Actually, a "Tangled" cake, but we did cupcakes instead and due to lack of time, no "Tangled" cake. I had considered making this one. That I found on this website. Luckily, the "Tangled" theme was enough and she didn't even mention the cake. Flowered cupcakes were good enough. Yay for 3 year olds!)

Anyway, as soon as Anastyn woke up we had this conversation. ( I wish you could hear her sweet little voice!)
Me: Do you know what day it is?
Anastyn responded sleepily: Yes...it's my birfday
Me: Yes it is, do you know how old you are?
Anastyn: I'm free (3), (as she tries to hold up her 3 fingers.)
Me: That's right. You are three.
Anastyn: So, I'm not 2 anymore?
Me: Nope, you are 3

And just like that...she is 3....CRAZY...where does the time go. When did she change from that sweet baby I would sing to sleep into this beautiful toddler that I still (thankfully) get to sing to sleep sometimes (only now she picks the songs)?

Well, I was going to post all about her party, but I think I will post those pictures and details later and just make sure I get down those things I want to remember about my 3 year old.

Anastyn is definitely one of a kind. She has the best laugh and loves to be silly. She loves to dance and is sure to be seen busting a move of some sort if she hears any music playing...I laugh thinking about it! So cute.

She is quite ornery as well. She can go from sweet as pie to ornery in no time flat and vice versa. It is almost crazy to witness...but it happens.

She knows exactly what she wants and is EXTREMELY independent...I know part of it is the age, but I have a feeling she is going to hold on to that independence.

She wants to try to do everything by herself, but is pretty good at recognizing when she needs help and will ask for it.

I find she responds to things much better if I explain what I am doing first especially if I am going to be rushing her. Example: "When we get to the store you are going to have to ride in the cart and stay there. We are in a hurry and just need to grab a few things. Okay? You aren't going to be able to walk this time." She may not like it but will not put up much of a fight as opposed to me getting her out of the car and putting her in the cart when she THINKS she is going to be walking with me. That can be a nightmare. So I try to stay a step ahead, but it doesn't always happen and tantrums do arise.

Anastyn loves her family very much and is becoming very close with her cousins. They all are so good to one another and I am really excited to see their relationships develop as they grow.

She loves animals and often points out any that she sees as we are driving.

She hates to be dirty, we finger painted some this spring and she would paint a while then completely clean her hands on a towel and start painting again. I am not sure if I have ever seen a child do that...I am sure they have, but it makes me laugh. And yet she will hold worms, and bunnies, and pet dogs, cows, goats, etc.

She is really starting to be a girlie girl. She enjoys picking out her clothes, and almost always ends up picking a skirt or dress. She likes to wear jewelry, especially rings...and shoes, how could I forget her love for shoes. She always wants to pick her shoes and changes them frequently. For her birthday she got some of those play high heels and wants to wear them everywhere. I gave in and actually let her wear them into church...it was just too cute, and she can actually walk in them. She quickly changed into shoes that were easier to run and play in though...just like her mama in that way! And she is finally letting me fix her hair again...but pretty much only wants a braid, not a ponytail.

She makes Natalie smile bigger and laugh harder than anyone else can. I am so happy to be able to see my girls together and the bond that they share as sisters.

She often crawls into our bed in the middle of the night, however, sometimes we will wake up and find her in the floor at the end of our bed or in her bedroom floor...we have yet to figure out why she doesn't make it to our bed on those nights.

She is also very proud of Natalie and gets as excited as we do when she reaches the next milestone. She will exclaim, "Yay Matalie. Look, mom, she is _____ (insert new thing she is doing)" (she refuses to say the N in her name)

She still dislikes having her teeth brushed but FINALLY lets us wash her hair without screaming and fighting, now she just tips her head back.

She is shy with people she first meets, but is starting to warm up much more quickly than she used to.

She loves going to bible class and at VBS this year she started singing the songs with everyone, the first night she was too shy but sang loudly the rest of the week.

She is a precious, ornery, caring, stubborn, loving, silly, beautiful, fashionable, strong willed, always learning, sweet, fit throwing, cuddly, huggable, kissable, apologetic, energetic, kind-hearted, shy, outdoor loving, sweet-toothed 3 year old and I love her to pieces...every last inch of her.

Pictures of the party coming soon!

When You Was A Baby...

2011-06-15T23:24:00.000-05:00

Tonight, Anastyn was in Natalie's room while I was rocking Natalie and she saw the boppy pillow that I used for both of the girls. Our conversation went something like this.

Anastyn: I like this boppy pilwow (pillow). It is pink and has flowers on it. It is pwetty. Where did you get that pilwow?

Me: Well, when you were still in mommy's belly, my friends had a baby shower for me and showered me with gifts (I could see her trying to figure out the shower concept). That pillow was a gift for you.

Ana: Yeah, and when you was a baby, you used that pilwow. And you was in my belwy (belly) and then you was borned.

Me: Really? (wondering where this might go)

Ana: and daddy was in my belwy (belly) and then he was borned. and Mya (her dearest friend) was borned too and she was in my belwy.

The conversation then quickly turned to something else as she often moves from topic to topic fairly quickly. I just let it go, because I am definitely not ready to explain how babies get into bellies and if she isn't asking, I am fine with letting it go for now. I just love how little ones think and I love to hear her talk. I know that soon she will be saying those l's and r's just perfectly and I will miss the baby talk...just a little.
One more thing that I want to make sure I remember. Sometimes at night I will go in to say goodnight and sing her a song. Our conversation usually goes something like:

Anastyn: Will you sing me a song
Me: Sure, what do you want me to sing
Anastyn: thinks hard and then says," ummm, how 'bout Jesus loves me" (or Zacchaeus, but lately it is always Jesus loves me)
Me: Oh, that is a good one....then I start singing.
Anastyn: Noooo... I will sing it. You can sing the hard songs (meaning "He's
Got the Whole World" or "What If All the Raindrops"
Me: OK...and then I listen as she so sweetly sings Jesus loves me. I wish I could record it so I can always go back and hear that sweet, innocent, PRECIOUS voice singing to me! But I know if I get the camera out, it will change and she will stop or start being silly. So I lay there and listen as my sometimes ornery little girl, gets all sweet voiced and sings me a song. I absolutely LOVE it and have had to fight back the tears more than once. Those are the moments that I wish she would just stay this age forever....then she screams at me as I try to pray with her (she is not always a big fan of praying, not sure why) and I quickly kiss her and tell her goodnight and hope the next phase brings more sweet moments and less ornery ones!

And because I have a million pictures and certainly won't post about half of them, I will include a few...just because!

Anastyn watching the ducks at the zoo.

Natalie catching a quick nap at the zoo

Getting ready to go see the newborn twin calves...I just love her in her boots, ready to get dirty!

While visiting friends in KC we attempted a pic of all the girls...Peyton, Harper, Anastyn, and Natalie in the back

There is just something about this sweet face...mmmmm, just want to kiss those little cheeks!

Anastyn with the twin calves. Aren't they so cute? She loves being able to get close to them and pet them.

Peer Pressure?

2011-06-12T21:58:00.005-05:00

Last week I took Anastyn and Natalie and headed to Olathe, KS to see my good friend Karen. She had a baby girl, Harper, in February, and I had not been to meet her yet and couldn't wait any longer. Harper is absolutely beautiful and my girls just loved her...and Karen's dog, Wyatt. I will post more on our visit at a later date, but back to the point of this post. So, one day, Harper had fallen asleep in the swing and it was time for Natalie's nap, but Anastyn was already down for a nap in our room and I didn't want to chance waking her up, so I asked if I could lay Natalie in Harper's crib. Harper takes a pacifier occasionally, so there was one lying in her bed. I didn't think to take it out because Natalie has NEVER taken a pacifier. She has also NEVER slept on her belly but after I put her down and she stopped crying, I went back in to check on her and found this site. Natalie...on her belly...sucking on Harper's pacifier...she must have thought it looked good when Harper had it, so she decided to give it a try...I guess whatever works!

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T15:46:00.000-05:00

Feel so blessed to have these two precious little girls, orneriness and all!

Down on the Farm

2011-04-13T22:56:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago we went to Belle for the weekend. While we were there, a calf was born one morning. Anastyn (and all the cousins) really like to go out to the farm for any reason, so to get to see a newborn calf was especially exciting! It happened to be one of the colder weekends, but we all made the trek out to see the calf. I thought it was just too cute how my dad was carrying the little ones (to keep them out of the mud) and how Skylar and Londyn were following behind. They all looked precious walking through the field together.

Heading out to see the newborn calf

It walked right up to us, everyone was pretty excited.

So cute!

Anastyn actually touched it. I was a little surprised, but she just walked right up to it without any hesitation. She loves any kind of baby!

My dad with Lincoln

I love this picture of Anastyn on her Papa's shoulders

Heading back to the truck, don't they look so cute all traipsing along? I just love it!

I think these two are going to be pretty good friends. They are fun to watch together.

Jumping over the mud puddles

Skylar always gives me her best smile and pose. I love these girls...they really are so good and sweet.

It takes a lot for me to not go fix things like this pant leg over her boot (because personally it would drive me crazy), but when I see it for some reason I smile so big. I love how cute she looks in her green rubber boots and her pigtails and her little hands in her sleeves...ok so I love EVERYTHING about this little sweetheart!

Mr. Lincoln...such a fun little guy

We were leaving so Anastyn was telling my mom bye, I caught this pic and thought it was pretty sweet.

Natalie: 4 months

2011-04-12T04:00:00.001-05:00

Natalie went for her 4 month check up March 23rd. She weighed 13 lbs. 1 oz. (33%) and was 23 inches (25%) long. She is growing perfectly and doing very well. She wasn't a fan of her shots (who is?), but only cried for a short time after. She is smiling all the time...especially for Anastyn. She is moving and interacting with us more and more, which is so much fun. We love her more every day and she brings so much joy to our little family! Natalie is such an easy going baby. She cries only when she is tired or hungry and is easily pacified or calmed. She is reaching for her toys all the time now and loves to try to grab my hair or face when I am close to her talking. She is very attentive when someone is talking. She will get very still and I sometimes catch her just staring at me as I talk. It is such a sweet look. I see her doing it with Nathan sometimes too... she just gazes at him. Once you catch her doing it and smile at her, she smiles back with the sweetest, melt-your-heart smile. It is one of my favorites moments of the day. She can roll over. She talks all the time. She LOVES to be laid down on the floor to look around and play. She only likes to be held facing out (just like her sister was). But if she is tired she will let you put her on your shoulder, as long as you continue to pat her back and bounce her. I can't imagine life without my two baby girls, it is amazing how 5 months feels so long in the sense that you forget what life was like before you had your baby and yet how quickly those same 5 months have flown by and all the changes that have occurred in that short amount of time. It is exciting and exhausting, but brings so much happiness, love, and joy. What a blessing children are...and I thank God for them every day. Now go love on your babies!!!

March 17th - 4 months old

I Love the Sound of This!

2011-04-06T05:00:00.006-05:00

Natalie has been laughing (somewhat) for a while now...but I have never really gotten her tickled until Friday night. Finally! I have been waiting for this! Up until now, she laughed, but it almost sounded like she was stopping herself. She gives a couple little deep laughing sounds and then she is done. Well, Friday, I was picking up some things in her room and had a plastic bag and she thought the sound of it was hilarious! This makes my heart smile!!! Check here to see Anastyn's first laughing video. I still can't believe how much they look alike.

Some Days...

2011-03-30T23:42:00.002-05:00

...You just have to smile and go with it. Today, was one of those days. The morning was going unusually smooth, (no meltdowns about getting Anastyn out of her pullup, no argument over what to have for breakfast, Anastyn ate her entire breakfast without fuss) usually at least one of these things results in a meltdown...today none of them! It is gonna be a good day!

Both girls were in need of a bath, so I gave Natalie hers first. Anastyn watched and played with Natalie as I washed her up and was so good. I got Natalie lotioned up, dressed, and Anastyn hopped in the tub for her bath. She was very cooperative throughout her bath and let me get her lotioned up, hair combed and clothes on with no fuss. THIS NEVER HAPPENS!!! It's gonna be a GREAT day!

Natalie was awake for abnormally long periods today, but she was very happy so it was fine. At one point I had her in her bumbo seat...and she proceeded to spit up all over her new clean clothes ...no biggie, I immediately changed her and layed her on the floor to play.

Anastyn ate lunch and went down for her nap as usual. I was able to play with Natalie for about an hour and then she went down for her nap. BOTH girls asleep for almost 2 hours. NEVER HAPPENS!

I got laundry done, dishes washed and vegetable chopped for supper...then Anastyn woke up.

She had wet the bed during her nap...I can't remember the last time that happened, she has been doing so well. But of course, it would happen on bath day. So I put her in the tub and soaped her up for the second time today followed by lotion...again.

She falls off the table at suppertime after being told multiple NOT to climb on the table, even if she is being nice and giving her sister's toys back every time she drops them.

Fast forward to church...Anastyn was being very good, she was standing quietly next to me in the seat and RIPS ONE! I think it even surprised her...she smiled sheepishly and giggled a little then buried her head in my shoulder. Natalie was talking, cooing amd squealing for the first 15 minutes. Then SHE RIPS ONE! Seriously? I will be honest I was fighting back laughter...people were looking so they definitely heard! And she did it AGAIN! Of course at this point, I know she is filling her diaper since she has yet to poop today. It is now time for class, Anastyn needs to go potty, so I carry Natalie into the bathroom in one arm and put Anastyn on the potty with the other hand. Thankfully, Miss Norma came along and took Anastyn to class for me.

Now to change this diaper...It. is . EVERYWHERE! It leaked up the back and out the sides and smeared down Natalie's leg as I pulled her pants off. GREAT...I go to get my wipes out of the diaper bag...no wipes. Thankfully, we keep some in the nursery at church...only apparently no one uses them because they are dry... I clean up some nastiness with the dry wipes and then take a few of them into the bathroom (just around the corner, and yes I left her unattended on a changing table for 5 seconds) to wet them down. At this point I hadn't realized that it went up her back onto her onesie... no biggie, I reach into the diaper bag for the sleeper that I always keep in there...guess what...no sleeper...no extra clothes. I now have fully soiled clothes, a clean diaper and a somewhat naked baby...REALLY? Haha! Go figure...thankfully my always-prepared friend Michelle had an extra sleeper for her little girl that she so lovingly let us borrow!

All of this to really say, despite all the ups and downs of the day...it amazes me the love God allows us to feel for our children. No matter how ornery they are, how frustrated they can make us at times, or how crazy our day goes...it only takes one little smile, "thank you, mommy", "baby sister is so pretty", silly dance move, unprompted "I love you" or hug or kiss, pure genuine laugh, or witnessing your children being kind to one another or someone else...and it completely turns that moment of frustration around and makes me smile or laugh out loud. I am so blessed in so many areas of my life and love days like today when I sit down and even though my daughter has just ruined an outfit and I am feeding her in nothing but a diaper, she stops nursing and looks up at me with the biggest grin on her face...if that doesn't melt your heart, what does? Or when Anastyn leans over and gives me a big kiss and says "I love you mommy" for no reason at all. Nothing better than our children reminding us to be kind, thoughtful, friendly, forgiving, and thankful.

Anastyn "posing" for me :-)

Loving Natalie's eyes and Anastyn's big laugh!

She Rolls!

2011-03-11T11:19:00.000-06:00

I do not have pictures or video to document it, and it may have been a fluke...but Natalie rolled over yestereday (3/10) for the first time! She has been rolling way up on her side from her back for a while now, but she has never even tried to roll from her belly. Our friends were over and Madison (friend's little girl) was on her belly so I decided it would be a good time for Natalie to do her tummy time. So I put her on her belly facing Madison and she just leaned to the right and rolled on over! I couldn't believe it... I figured it would be quite some time before she would be doing that due to her lack of interest shown prior to now. Of course, she hasn't done it again for me...but I am sure it will happen again, and next time I will be prepared with cameras in hand!

From the Mind of 2 Year Old

2011-03-09T13:32:00.002-06:00

"Mom, what is that pig doing under that cow's bottom?" (as she giggles a little as if to say "silly piggy")

Needless to say, I got to explain that is how momma cows feed their babies. Haha. Love the way their minds work. Not to mention, my little Anastyn is obsessed with piggies to begin with!

Lovely Day for a Wagon Ride

2011-03-07T06:00:00.006-06:00

Since it was fairly nice out we decided to go for a wagon ride around the neighborhood just to get out of the house a little. We went around 5 so it had started cooling off a bit. We bundled up and loaded into the wagon for our walk. Natalie cracked me up. She enjoyed it but had the same look on her face almost the entire ride. I thought she looked so cute in her little bear suit. I figured that would stay on better than wrapping her in a blanket. Anastyn loves having Natalie along and gets excited if she makes Natalie smile. Anastyn would have let me pull her around in this thing all day. I can't wait until it gets nicer out so we can take longer walks!

I love what I see when I look down on these girls. I love their little eyelashes, noses, and lips. And those little feet sticking out of the bumbo seat...LOVE IT! FYI, Anastyn isn't picking her nose, it just really looks like it and I couldn't get her to put her finger down!

Natalie's didn't change expressions much during our ride. She was smiling a little at the beginning and then she had this look on her face for the rest of the ride. But if she isn't crying, she is happy, so it was a successful wagon ride! ;-)

Anastyn is very hard to get pictures of these days. I have a hard time getting her to look at the camera. She also can't sit still, so I almost always have blurry pictures of her! Oh well, what do you do?

Best of Friends

2011-03-04T06:00:00.000-06:00

Nathan and I have become good friends with a couple from our church. We both have two little girls who are close in age. They love each other very much and are becoming good friends. We pray that their friendships and love for the Lord strengthen as they grow up together. I can't think of anything better than good christian friends and we hope and pray that is what these beautiful little girls will be!

Anastyn (2 years 8 months), Natalie (3 months), Madison (6 months), and Mya (2 years 3 months)

Natalie and Madison were so cute lying here together. They would hold hands and reach out to feel the other one lying there. Maddy kept feeling Natalie's hair...until she closed her little fist and pulled a little...Natalie wasn't too happy about that!

After Maddy got Natalie's hair we turned her around so she could get her feet instead. Of course Anastyn wanted to be right in the middle of them. If I had asked her to do this, I can guarantee I would not have gotten this picture, haha, gotta love the will of a 2 year old!

Natalie: Three Months

2011-02-28T16:29:00.001-06:00

Natalie turned 3 months on February 17th. She is smiling and grinning so big all of the time, but I can not catch it on camera! Little stinker already!

It is funny how time works on the mind. Although 3 months is a short amount of time, it is hard to remember life without my 2 beautiful little girls! They are just so sweet together and you can tell they really love one another. I am trying to remember and cherish these days because I know the days of hair pulling and door slamming are sure to follow! The only thing that Anastyn really does that isn't very nice to Natalie is in the car occasionally she will poke her in the eye! Just because! I finally moved her seat over so she can't reach Natalie anymore and it made her sad :-( She also likes to hold her hand in the car, but I explained why I moved her and maybe one day I can move them back together!

Anyway, Natalie at 3 months...I have no complaints!

She is an easy going baby.

She is a good sleeper and goes down easily.

Loves to talk ALOT! Mostly in the morning and late at night. I love to hear those sweet oohh's and aahhh's. She gets very excited when she sees Anastyn.

She loves being tickled

She loves to have her cheeks kissed...she just stays very still with her mouth wide open when you kiss her cheek... I love it!

She has CRAZY hair! It is always standing straight up in the back! haha LOVE IT!

She loves listening to people sing and talk, she assumes all talking is to her and gets very happy.

She falls asleep in the car almost every time we go anywhere.

She is trying to roll, she rolls from her back up onto her side.

She likes to be held facing outward.

I don't h ave 3 month stats because we don't go to the doctor this month but I think she weighs around 12 pounds. She is starting to outgrow her 0-3 month clothes.

And I just adore this sweet face. She just looks at you so intently and waits for you to make her grin, which is quite easy to do...as long as you don't havea camera in her face!

Is there anyone who doesn't just love baby toes?

Natalie: Two Months

2011-01-20T09:41:00.004-06:00

Natalie turned 2 months old on Monday, January 17. She checked out well at her doctor's appointment, she is doing all the things babies her age should be. She weighed in at 11 pounds (53%) and was 21 3/4 inches long (24%) and her head was 51%. I am having trouble believing the height though because according to them she has barely grown longer and I know better, they just never really stretch her out. So I guess I need to do some measurements of my own.

Anyway, miss Natalie is one precious little baby. She has started smiling and talking all the time...she of course, LOVES her sister. If Anastyn talks to her or walks by, Natalie always gives her a big grin and some especially sweet coos and ah's. She also has a special eye for her daddy. If he sits down and looks at her she immediately talks to him with her sweetest coo's. These girls know how to work their daddy! She laughed for the first time on January 15th. I will have to upload the video from Nathan's phone (the battery in our camera was dead, of course). Such a sweet sound to a mother's ears! Here are some pictures from Natalie's 2 month birthday.

Last Days As An Only Child

2010-12-25T23:27:00.003-06:00

Before Natalie arrived we tried to make sure to do a few things with Anastyn to give her some extra attention before her world as an only child forever changed!

We went to eat pizza, one of her favorites, at a new place that was very good. They also had good bread, another favorite.

We played outside and got a few extra laughs in while the weather was still nice and warm.

I love these two pictures above. She somehow always manages to wear her sunglasses upside down, I love it!

We got a few cuddles in before Natalie arrived.

And snuggled with piggy, too, in an attempt to take a nap at the hospital... it didn't happen!

P.S. Ignore the date on these pictures, my camera was set wrong for a few days! oops!

Natalie's First Bath

2010-12-25T15:36:00.002-06:00

Natalie: One Month

2010-12-17T22:17:00.003-06:00

Natalie is one month old today! That is so hard for me to believe, time really just goes so quickly. Her well-check appt. isn't until Monday, so I don't have stats, I will post those later. She is really a pretty good baby. She eats every 2 hours during the day...usually goes 3 hours at least once or twice. She has been sleeping 3-5 hours at a time during the night. She has started smiling a little...today I was singing to her and she started smiling at me and gave me a little coo, let me tell you, that just melts my heart! I can already tell she is going to really love Anastyn. Whenever Anastyn talks to her, kisses her, or walks/dances by she usually turns her focus to Anastyn.

On the other hand, Anastyn is such an awesome big sister. She comes in every morning and is always excited to see Natalie's eyes open. She will exclaim, " She looking at me!" She must kiss and hug her before every nap and before going to bed, and Natalie gets many other random kisses throughout the day. Anastyn usually says "my baby sister" instead of calling her by name. I am not sure why, but she will say it occasionally. She gets a kick out of Natalie passing gas, burping or going to the bathroom and is always happy to help by bringing a diaper, burp cloth, pacifier or blanket. She has really just been so sweet to her and loves her so much. I can't wait to watch them grow together, it should be very exciting!

Due to my lack of blogging I have so much to say and catch up on from the last month, but I will leave that for other posts. I am finally starting to adjust a little to having two little girls. We are starting to get into a little bit of a routine and I usually can get them both to nap together for at least 1 hour - giving me time for a shower and a bit of cleaning. Every day gets better and I am really looking forward to warmer weather when we can get out a bit more.

I took a few pictures today to document Natalies one month birthday. The one at the top shows a hint of her little smile. And the following pictures tell more of how she really felt about our little photo session! She really looks so much like Anastyn did, but there are a few little differences. I really just love both of my girls and am so glad God blessed us with two healthy, beautiful, sweet babies...and fairly good sleepers as well ;-)

I really love this pout face. This may be cruel, but sometimes I just let her cry a little longer so I can see this little pout. I didn't quite capture the full frown, it gets a little bigger still...but this is basically it...I just think it is the cutest face.

I love how she was stretched out across this calendar. ( I stole this idea from a blog I love to read called Under the Sycamore. Hers is a thousand times better, but I liked the idea and you will love her blog)
Stretched out showing us how big she is getting already!

She is officially done with this photo session and showing me that pout I love again! ( I took a lot more, she was a trooper!)

Hopefully, I will get caught up on a few things that we have done this past month. For now I am headed to bed to get my first few hours of sleep before Natalie is ready to eat!

Introducing...

2010-11-27T19:30:00.003-06:00

Natalie Reese

7 lb. 14 oz.

11-17-2010

4:09 pm

I am a little behind on posting about the arrival of our new, sweet, little girl, but we have been keeping quite busy with our 2 little girls and Thanksgiving festivities. I will be sure to post a little more about her arrival soon, as well as some pictures. Every thing went very well with the delivery and Anastyn is adjusting to her new role as big sister. As far as I can tell, she loves it! She is very sweet to her baby sister and gives her lots of hugs and kisses. We are so blessed to have two healthy and happy little girls. Can't wait to post some more pictures.

Fall Happenings

2010-11-08T14:06:00.007-06:00

Since I am clearly not going to get it together enough to do separate posts on all that we have been up to lately, I thought I would at least post a few pictures to show you what fun we have been having!

Anastyn made this candy corn "Boo" and painted the paper bag pumpkin at our fabulous babysitter's house. I thought they were adorable, of course!

Ready for church with her baby. She is getting ready to take good care of her baby sister!

We have taken some good naps!

At the annual Fredendall Fall Festival (a wonderful little fall tradition my mother has started) Anastyn tried her luck in bobbing for apples.

Londyn, Skylar and Lincoln waiting to bob for apples as well. Lincoln REALLY wanted in that bucket!

Anastyn also played a game where you are supposed to put your hands behind your back and eat a donut off of a string. Anastyn loved this game and was determined to get that donut!

We ate lots of good Halloween/fall themed food and snacks.

She loved walking my aunt's dog around the yard. She played with her for a very long time while the other kids played more games.

We went on a hayride. Here is Trent, Kesha, and Malachi. Londyn and Alexis in the background.

She "drove" the tractor after our hayride at the farm.

And Mr. Lincoln flashing his big grin! He loves the camera!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-04T07:00:00.000-05:00

This year our church decided to do a trunk-or-treat and have a chili supper fellowship. We had a wonderful time and Anastyn fared quite well in the candy department! Her little pumpkin hood didn't last too long, but she did pose for this one picture for me, big smile and all! We really love this little pumpkin! I think Anastyn was a little sad to see this holiday go, though. As we drive through the neighborhoods that were once completely decked out for Halloween she keeps asking, "Where all the pumpkins go?" She is very concerned and apparently the answers I give her aren't good enough because she keeps asking ;-)

Pumpkin Patch 2010

2010-10-14T09:15:00.005-05:00

We decided to hit up one of our local pumpkin patches on October 9 with our friends. Anastyn got to go with her friend Mya and the girls had so much fun sliding down slides, seeing the farm animals and playing in the corn boxes. They took a little tractor/train ride and ran around the hay maze. It was a beautiful day and we had such a wonderful time. Here are a few pictures from our day.

This was our attempt at a family picture. Anastyn really didn't want to have any part in taking a picture with us, the only way we could get her to sit there was to put that pumpkin in her lap.

While we were taking pictures of our friends' family Anastyn was over to the side posing among the pumpkins. I thought it was cute.

Running around the hay maze.

Cheesing for mama.

There are two of these pictures (I only included one) both I thought were hilarious. Anastyn looks like she is really getting into it on this one. Mya was trying to fit her entire upper body through that little hole on the second one.

I thought these little "train" cars were cute. Each horse had a different name and the girls enjoyed their tractor/train ride.

We are hoping these girls remain good friends through the years. They are so cute together and really love one another.

Daddy waiting to catch her at the bottom.

One of the hundreds of times she went down these slides.

The girls would have played in these corn boxes all day.

I hope everyone is enjoying their fall and the beautiful weather we have been getting! We sure are!

Bedtime Prayers

2010-10-06T13:48:00.004-05:00

Before bedtime Anastyn and I have been saying our bedtime prayer. Anastyn used to repeat everything that I would say during the prayer and then I would ask her who she wanted to pray for. She would then list the entire family. Lately, I have let Anastyn do more of the talking and helping her through the prayers. She has really started branching out away from just thanking God for people and naming other things that she is thankful for. It is so sweet to hear from her. Recently, our church purchased a new building and we will be worshipping at the new building starting today (Oct. 6). She went with our babysitter to the new building on Tuesday to help get some things moved in and set up for services. So, that was on her mind as we said our prayers last night.

Her prayer went something like this, " Dear God, thank you to new church building, thank you to new class, thank you to Maddy's class (Maddy and Mya are the children of some friends of ours), thank you to Mya's class, thank you to Norma's class, (at which point I helped her move on), thank you to baby sister, thank you to mommy, thank you to daddy, (she continues to list all of her cousins and grandparents), thank you to food, thank you to piggy, thank you to Jesus, (and I helped her wrap it up) in Jesus name, Amen.

Instead of saying thank you "for", she says thank you "to" (which I think is cute). And she often thanks for her blankets and Dora and boots, and lots of other things that she either has done that day or things that she has heard us pray about. She has almost always started to say thank you "to" keeping us safe and for her food. I love this part of our night. She rarely leaves anyone out either, she could go on all night naming the people in her life that she loves and is thankful for!

"I wanna go school..."

2010-09-13T22:09:00.005-05:00

On the way home from the babysitter's house Anastyn and I had a little conversation about her day that went something like this...

Me: Did you have fun at Norma's house today? (our babysitter)

Anastyn: Yeah

Me: What did you do?

Ana: I play wif Rachel...and Norma... and play wif Cody. (the dog)

Me: Did you see Brandon? (the babysitters son)

Ana: No, he at school. He play golf.

Me: Oh, I think maybe he was running (Cross Country practice)

Ana: I wanna go school.

Me: You do? What do you want to do at school?

Ana: Ummm...Eat. (That's my girl!)

Me: What would you like to learn at school?

Ana: Ummm...bout Jesus. (melt my heart)

Me: You learn about Jesus at Sunday school, don't you?

Ana: Yeah!

Just a little conversation that I would like to remember. I just thought it was funny that the first thing she thought she would like to do at school is eat...especially since she is not always a great eater. Also, I love that she said she wants to learn about Jesus...the goal is to keep her on that path. I just love, love, love this precious little two year old!

Camping Trip

2010-09-07T09:45:00.003-05:00

A few weeks back (ok, maybe it was the end of July) we went camping with some good friends. They have two precious little girls whom Anastyn simply adores. She loves playing with them and they had such a great time running around outside and floating on the river for the weekend. We also got to go on a little nature walk through some trails near our campsite. We endured a little rain and some very hot weather, but it was such a great weekend! Anastyn got to eat roasted marshmallows, which are definitely one of her favorite things. And we had all the watermelon, cherries, oranges, and dried fruit we could eat. It was sooo good! The only hiccup came after Anastyn went to bed. She woke up a couple hours later and was fully convinced their were bugs in her bed, fish swimming in the tent (which she referred to as the tunnel), and she had gotten a little burn on her lip while eating a marshmallow, so she also was talking about her burn. She could not go back to sleep. This was about 11:00 pm and she was wide awake...eyes peeled open. I put her in bed with us, but she would sit straight up in bed every couple of minutes and scream that the bed was dirty or she had seen a bug or a fish swimming by. I don't think she gave it up until about 4:30 am and that was only after taking her to the car and putting her in her carseat. Needless to say, we were all a little exhausted the next morning! Here are some pictures of Anastyn and her friends and some of the fun they had.

See...just precious, aren't they?

Playing a little tug-o-war

Some fun with the inner tubes

A little balance beam entertainment

Some rock climbing

And some down time...I really just like this picture for some reason, I love her messy hair

all pulled up!

Close the Door!

2010-08-23T12:42:00.003-05:00

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

2010-08-18T13:29:00.006-05:00

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?

2010-08-12T05:00:00.000-05:00

What happened to July?

2010-08-10T10:41:00.005-05:00

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!

2010-08-04T05:00:00.004-05:00

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!

2010-08-02T09:05:00.006-05:00

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!

Flashback

2010-07-25T20:51:00.003-05:00

Jan. 13, 2009

Blueberry Picking

2010-07-15T12:47:00.002-05:00

You pick yourself a berry

And you put it in a bucket

Pick yourself another

Plump and juicy and new

Pick yourself a handful

Too yummy for the bucket

Squoosh 'em in your mouth

Until it all turns blue

Apparently these are lyrics from a Sesame Street song that I can not find the tune to, but anyway, I thought they were cute...and fitting. About a month ago now, we decided to go blueberry picking. I LOVE blueberries and so does Anastyn and they are so good for you, so I was excited for the opportunity to go. My mom went with us and we had a great time. It was a gorgeous morning... perfect for picking. And the blueberries were the most beautiful and tasty berries I have ever seen or eaten! We each had our little buckets and we picked and ate and played for about 3 hours. We picked almost 40 pounds of blueberries. Anastyn was so much fun to watch. She loved eating them, she took a few pictures when she got bored, and used the bucket as a step stool. The farm where we picked was absolutely beautiful and so well taken care of. It was perfectly mowed and no weeds at all. It really was such an enjoyable time. I can't wait to go again next year! I will no longer apologize for my ridiculous amount of pictures with each post, I think we have all realized I can't choose between pictures and most of the time don't have the time to put them in collage form. So just scroll on down and enjoy!

Eating the blueberries was definitely the best part!

Proud of her first pick

Playing between the blueberry bushes. She walked between these 2 bushes 100 times. She was having fun.

I looked under at one point to check on her since she had gone to the other side and saw this. I thought it was just too cute. Those little legs standing on that bucket to reach the blueberries... LOVE IT!

makes me smile!

Grammy Tammy and Anastyn with some of their blueberries

Going for a big bunch!

Anastyn and mommy

Just look at those blueberries. We had 7 bags full! What a GREAT day!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Sweet Baby Girl!

2010-07-02T08:39:00.006-05:00

I am just blown away that my precious little baby is turning 2 today! Time just goes by too quickly. I can remember each of these pictures being taken and what we were doing at the time and I simply can't believe two years have already flown by. Anastyn is as much a joy to us now as she was in those precious first moments. She loves to laugh and play. Being outside is her all time favorite place, she could run around a yard all day! She can pretty much tell us what ever it is that she wants. We still struggle to understand some of her words, but she is perfecting them and picking up new ones all the time. She is potty trained (except for bedtime). She loves to dance to any music that is playing, and she likes to sing, but only the songs that she picks out. She can be difficult at times, being that she is quite stubborn when it comes to wanting something in particular. Still not a huge fan of getting her hair washed during bath time, but she loves to play in the water. She loves giving and receiving kisses, especially right before bedtime. She gives the best hugs and kisses ~ mommy and daddy absolutely adore them! She finally likes me to cuddle and rock her, but only when she chooses, usually when she is trying to avoid bed, but we don't mind taking advantage of that. She has her daddy wrapped tightly around her little finger and he can make her laugh harder than anyone or anything else! What more can I say? God has blessed us so richly with a precious gift and we pray we will raise her to be a strong christian woman and teach her of His love for her.We are sad to see her growing so fast, yet so excited as she changes and discovers new things. She learns so quickly and makes us smile more than anything in this world. Happy 2nd Birthday, Anastyn! We love you so much! Here are some pictures of her from the last 2 years.

Newborn- just a few weeks old

3 months

almost 6 months

9 months

ONE YEAR

almost 15 months

almost 16 months

18 months

21 months

ALMOST 2!!!

Happy Father's Day

2010-07-01T12:52:00.000-05:00

I am posting these a little late, but hey, better late than never.

Now, is that the look of a proud daddy or what?

Happy Father's Day, Nathan!

A Few of My Favorite Things

2010-06-23T13:15:00.000-05:00

Little girls in their frilly dresses playing joyfully outside together after church,

playing bubbles in the backyard in cute, saggy underwear and t-shirts

catching those HUGE bubbles and standing very still so

mommy can get a picture before they pop,
exhausted babies, sleeping so soundly with crazy, messy hair,

those beautiful big eyes, and sweet, precious little baby hands,

holding on to mama's hair, whenever and however she can get a hold of it,
enjoying a peaceful morning in the country,
and getting a little comfort, with finger on nose from that thumb.

Little helpers in the kitchen, ready to bake in their sweet aprons,

made with love from grammy,

and precious little feet trying to wear their mama's high heels.

and seeing my baby in the sweet, loving comfort of being in daddy's arms.

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to a wonderful husband and daddy! We love you very much and are so blessed to have you in our lives!

Family Reunion Time

2010-06-21T14:22:00.000-05:00

Every year Nathan's family has a family reunion at the Lake of the Ozarks. They have been going to the same resort for the last, I think, 28 years. I have now been part of this reunion for 11 years. Isn't that crazy? Anyway, this was Anastyn's 3rd year to make an appearance (if you count that I was 8 months pregnant with her, and HUGE, in 2008). It is always fun to visit with everyone and spend lots of time outside! Anastyn was so much fun this year. She loved chasing her cousins around and playing with them. She got to swim in a pool for the first time. Well, she may have gotten in last year, but not much. She LOVED jumping into her her daddy's arms over and over again. She was fearless once her daddy showed her he would catch her She would run from the edge and just jump right in. It was so fun to watch the two of them having so much fun. We got to take our time getting there on Friday which was nice and we had fun on our little drive out. We stopped for a little shopping, lunch and a few potty breaks. It was a great weekend and so nice to have a couple days off work!

Turkey sandwich and blueberries for lunch. And a sweet cheesy smile!

The only proof that I was present for the weekend. Anastyn wanted to take a picture since I was taking pictures of her .

She loves blueberries.

We had to stop for a couple potty breaks.

The best sleep she got all weekend. It didn't last long.

Loved this face, had to get a pic.

Ready to go check out the lake.

Anastyn and Grandma Nette headed out on the dock.

Hanging out with her big cousins

I couldn't resist. Poor thing just couldn't hold her britches up all weekend. But at least it is a cute little baby bottom.

She loved the boat ride.

Sweet picture of Anastyn and her daddy on the boat.

Driving the boat with Papa Darrell

She insisted on being wrapped up completely. I thought she looked silly.

Nathan, Anastyn, and Grandma Muriel

Eating grapes and playing with play-doh. She loves hanging around the big girls. They were all so cute together.

Sunny Days and Sandboxes

2010-05-11T09:45:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago....well ok, a month ago, we had some nice warm weather and Anastyn wanted to go outside and play in her sandbox. She wanted to put her boots on over her pants and headed outside. I just thought she looked so cute. I love her hair when her ponytails get messy and it was fun to watch her walk around the yard checking everything out. We frequently have bunny rabbits in our yard and our neigbor's yard, so she was looking through the fence into our neighbor's yard trying to se a bunny. She also likes to look over into the other neighbor's yard to see if the "boys" are outside playing. She has finally started saying "girls" as well, so she lets us know who is outside at any given time.

Looking for the "boys" and "girls"

Looking for the bunny rabbit

Let me just say, it was realllly warm on this particular day. She wanted to wear these lined pants and boots and was not going to change. They do look cute on her, though.

Playing in the sandbox

I really do just love her messy little ponytails! Look at those sweet little curls falling out!

Need Some New Pics?

2010-04-23T17:10:00.004-05:00

I am not really in the mood to blog, nor have I been much lately, as my lack of posting has clearly indicated. So how about a few new pictures to keep you occupied for the time being, since that is what everyone really wants anyway! So here is what we've been up to the last month, lots of pictures ahead!

potty training

spending quality time with friends

block stacking

learning our alphabet

looking fabulous with the cousins in our Easter dresses

loving on this sweet litte guy

loving our time together

playing some Sunday morning ball

spending more time with good friends

cuddling this adorable little one

of course, kissing on baby toes

hunting Easter eggs

and making this cutie grin and giggle. Is that not the cutest baby grin ever?

I Know My Colors!

2010-03-12T09:49:00.001-06:00

Actually, I have known my colors for quite some time now. However, Anastyn is just learning hers! Nathan is very good about working with her on her letters, colors, and counting. She has been able to point out red, blue and green for at least the last couple of months. I want to make sure I make note of this before I forget though. So to date, Anastyn can pick out the colors RED, BLUE, GREEN, YELLOW, PINK, WHITE, BLACK, and ORANGE. If you ask her to bring you something of one of these colors she can do it quite easily. If you ask her "what color is this" when pointing to an object she can tell you red, blue, green, white and pink. I have not heard her say yellow or orange yet. I love to hear her say her colors. Especially green. She learned that one from driving through green lights, so when we go through a light she will yell "Greeeeen!" It always makes me laugh!

She can identify the letters A, B, C and D. She struggles with C when you ask her to tell you that letter, but if you say "go get the {ABC or D}" she can do that almost everytime. So if you say the letter she does better than asking her to tell you that letter's name.

She will count for us sometimes, but still isn't extremely consistent.

Also a little update on her potty training. I am not sure when you decide a child is "officially" potty trained. Is it when they go all day without accidents, consistently? Is it when they go all day and night without accidents consistently? Or is it when they no longer have accidents? I really am not 100% on that.
Anyway, Anastyn consistently goes all day without accidents and wakes up dry from her naps. Occasionally she will have an accident, but they are few and far between. She might have one a week, if that. We have also stopped putting diapers on her for car rides. She does a really good job of holding it or telling us when she has to go when we are out somewhere. We have had a couple of accidents in the car, one was on a long car ride and was my fault. We did not make it anywhere on time to stop. She still wears diapers to bed and is wet in the morning, but she always goes potty on her little potty when she wakes up. So, I guess I can say she has been "potty trained" since she was 19 months. I am absolutely certain it will not be this easy with the next child when that time comes, but for now I am ecstatic! We went straight from diapers to underwear and it has been wonderful....and so much cheaper! Woohooo!

Wanna See?

2010-03-04T08:49:00.008-06:00

We got to go see my newest nephew yesterday and he is just as beautiful and precious as they let on! Here are a few pictures of the newest bundle of joy in the family!

The proud new parents, they look like naturals! And isn't that baby so sweet!?

I just can't get over how small he is!

Look at those long skinny legs!

Me and my baby brother! I can't hardly believe he has a baby of his own! He will be such a good daddy!

The proud new mommy and baby Malachi! She will be a wonderful mommy as well! Doesn't she look great!

Anastyn was very excited to see her new cousin! She was also very concerned about his belly button!

Loving on my newest nephew! I love having all of these beautiful nephews and nieces to love on!

Grammy Tammy and Malachi

Trent and Kesha changing Malachi's diaper, Anastyn watched very intently, I am sure she was making sure they were doing it just right!

She adores babies and was very excited to see Malachi. In the car I had told her we were going to see the baby. She fell asleep about 20 minutes before we got to the hospital holding onto her piggy and blanket (which she loves more than just about anything!) As soon as we stopped her little eyes opened up and said so soft and sweet " Baby?" It was too cute. She immediately kissed her pig and her blanket and put them down in the seat. Usually she lingers with her piggy and doesn't want to put him down. That was not the case yesterday, she couldn't wait to see the baby!

There is a New Fredendall in Town!

2010-03-03T08:56:00.005-06:00

Trent and Kesha welcomed their precious baby boy, Malachi Jax, around 11:45 pm on March 2! He was 6 lbs 2 oz and 19 inches long. I hear he has a full head of dark hair and is a beautiful baby! Hoping to get to see him soon and take some pictures! Keep them in your prayers as they adjust to their new role as proud parents. I am just so excited, yay!!!! Little ones are such wonderful, precious blessings!

Boy, oh Boy!

2010-03-02T11:19:00.002-06:00

Anastyn is getting new boy cousin today! My brother Trent and his wife Kesha are at the hospital and she is going to be induced. Please keep them in your prayers as they are preparing to welcome their sweet new son! This is their first baby and we are all so excited for them! Can you tell by all of my exclamation points!!! :-D

LOVE the Ponytails!

2010-02-24T08:33:00.005-06:00

We are FINALLY able to get all of Anastyn's hair into one ponytail , and I LOVE IT! I still opt for pigtails more often than not because they are easier for me to get in. (It takes a lot of combing, water and smoothing to get all of her hair to the back of her head!) But I love her messy little ponytail. Although, I think it makes her look older and I don't know if I am ready for that yet!

We sure do LOVE this sweet little girl, just look at those big eyes!

See, you think her ponytail is cute too, don't you? ;)

Snowy Day!

2010-02-15T08:15:00.004-06:00

We have had snow a few times this year, but with it being soooo cold we hadn't really let Anastyn get out and experience it. One day when I picked her up from Mrs. Norma's (our babysitter), I decided I would let her walk to the car so she could walk in the snow a little. SHE LOVED IT! She liked walking in it, and then stomping her feet so the snow would fall off her shoes. Needless to say, she didn't really want to get in the car that day. So when we got home we put on her snow boots and let her go get the mail with daddy. She loved walking down the driveway in the snow. This is exactly what I love soooo much about little ones, the simplest things give them so much joy... we didn't make snow angels, we didn't make a snowman, or even snowballs...we just let her WALK in this stuff and she was so EXCITED! I LOVE THAT! The joys of discovery and everything being new is so much fun for me to watch as Anastyn goes through this stage of life. Here are a few pictures of her walk in the snow. (Ignore the hair in her face, it was driving me crazy hanging there, but it was too late to fix it!)

She wasn't completely thrilled to be so bundled up, but when she realized we were going outside she was fine with it.

She couldn't stop looking at the snow gathering on her little boots! She was not ready to come back inside, but it was just too cold on her little nose and cheeks. Maybe we will get another nice snow and a fairly sunny day so we can play a little more!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T22:06:00.002-06:00

My Funny Valentine

Red Velvet Cupcakes for my Valentine's!

Aren't they so cute!

A girl needs her chapstick!

Potty Training in Progress

2010-02-03T13:38:00.003-06:00

For the last few months we have been trying to introduce the potty chair to Anastyn. We would have her sit on it before her bath while the water was running or we would let her run around bare bottomed and try to run her to the bathroom when we could tell she was about to go. Then we bought her some cute big girl underwear. We have had some successes and more than a few accidents. Over Christmas break, Nathan was home for about 2 weeks, so he really worked on trying to get Anastyn to go potty. We bought her a book about going potty and she loves it (A Potty for Me by Karen Katz). She will sit there and let us read the entire book and often ends up going after sitting there a while. More recently she has been showing that she is much more aware of when she goes and will grab her diaper or underwear before or as soon as she goes. So on weekends and in the evenings we have been putting her in big girl underwear and letting her run around and she has been doing pretty well. This past Friday, my mom came up and watched her and said that she ran to the bathroom every time she had to go potty. She had a few small accidents in her underwear, but always held most of it until she sat down on her potty chair. Since then, she has hardly had any accidents and we have had her in big girl underwear whenever we are at home. She always runs to the bathroom when she feels like she needs to go and yells for "DAAA" or "MaMa". We always do the potty dance (while singing " Anastyn went potty, Anastyn went potty) after she goes, and she gets a treat (a bite of twizzlers or Nilla wafers). I am so excited for her and she gets very proud of herself. She also likes to dump her potty into the toilet and flush it down. She even woke up the other night crying and after trying everything else to get her to stop I asked if she needed to go potty, she said "yeessss" so I took her to the bathroom, took her dry diaper off and she sat down and went potty. I put her diaper back on and she layed right down and went to sleep. I honestly can't believe how well she is doing. Soooo.... I guess it is time to start sending her big girl underwear to the babysitters.

Is there anything cuter than belly buttons and big kid underwear?

18 Months

2010-01-02T10:24:00.017-06:00

Anastyn with her friend Hannah, and Hannah's mom, on her 18 month birthday.

Anastyn turned 18 months old this month! Quickly, her stats at her check-up were 19.5 lbs (2%) and 30 inches (I will have to look up that percent). She seems to be right where she needs to be as far as milestones go. Still small, but I think she is just going to make her own little curve on the graph. She has 12 teeth and loves to have her teeth brushed with the little finger brush. She also has been using her potty some. She has gone #2 about 3 times in her potty, but she doesn't like to pee in it. She has only gotten a few drops in there. She loves to sit on it and read her potty book though, so hopefully we can crack down soon and really work on training her.

~She LOVES our shoes!!! ANY SHOES. She is constantly trying to take the shoes off of our feet so she can put them on her feet. Or she will get them out of our closets. She also likes to put on our socks, which I need a picture of because it looks hilarious. She loves her books more and more now. She finally sits still long enough to get through the stories. And loves to look at a book while she is in her carseat.

~She is always learning something new these days. She tries to repeat most things that we say and has picked up a few phrases that she likes to say for most everything, like...

"one mooore" - as she holds up one little finger (she really puckers her lips when she says more) . She is constantly saying this about everything, especially if she liked it. Like "one more" snack, or "one more" time being tossed in the air, " one more" story, "one more" drink...I think you get the picture! I need to get it on video, because it is so cute... it makes me smile so big everytime I hear it!

"no-no" - has become fairly popular, but she really only says it when it is needed.
"yessss" - she thankfully knows this word, and uses it appropriately so we actually her yessss, more than we hear no-no. That might change, but for now, I like the yes'.

"bye-bye" - which is usually said quite emphatically

"I love you" - which is sometimes said very sweetly and sometimes very loudly

"good day" - every day we leave her at Ms. Norma's, Norma says "have a good day", to which Anastyn says "good day". I love it!

~Anastyn can point to all and says (or repeats) some of the following body parts: head {head}, hair (rubs hair), forehead, ears {eaerss}, eyes {eyeess}, eyebrows {eyebow}, eyelash {lasssh}, nose {noose}, mouth, teeth (shows teeth), tongue (sticks her tongue out), lips (puckers), chin, cheeks (puffs up her cheeks and points to them), neck {neck}, elbow {elbow}, arms, wrist {wrist}, hands {hands}, fingers (wiggles fingers), belly {beyee}, belly button, knees {knee}, legs, feet, and toes.

~She knows all of her articles of clothing and likes to point to them when asked "where is your ...(ex. shirt)"

~She knows her right from her left. If you tell her to give you her right/left foot or wave her right/left hand she is able to do it.

~She knows lots of animal sounds and says them when she sees those animals in books or in person. She has learned tons of new words lately. I won't put them all here but I am writing down a list so I can remember how she says some of them. I love to hear her when she talks. It is such a sweet sound and she tries to say everything that we do.

~Our new bedtime routine is one that I want to remember as well. Either Nathan or I will pick her up and say "time for bed, give me a kiss". She gives whoever is holding her a great big kiss and hug and then looks at the other person and starts to kind of squeal... she is waiting for the other person to try to kiss her so she can turn her head away from them. She thinks it is sooo funny, so every night one of us chases the person holding Anastyn and we pretend we can't catch her and then when we do we give her a great big kiss. It is so much fun and I love to hear her squeal and then when you catch her she laughs sooo hard. Such a sweet sound to our ears! Also, once we put her in her bed, she lets us get about halfway across the room and then she stands up and puckers her mouth and makes a "mmmmm" noise so we will come back and give her another kiss. Then we say "night-night, I love you" then she responds with "niiiight-niiiight" (sounding a little southern) "I ya you".

~She loves to kiss the pictures that we have sitting around the house, especially the ones of her self. She kisses the blankets that are in her bed every morning before she gets out of her crib. And her piggy of course gets kisses as well. She is such a loving little girl. I can not think of a better feeling than having your child's arms wrapped around your neck and getting a sweet little kiss from their puckered lips. Melts my heart!!!

~I could honestly go on naming the things I love about our sweet little girl, but I will stop here for today though. Now go give your babies some hugs and kisses! ;0)

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

2009-12-30T10:24:00.001-06:00

I must say, it is pretty great having this little girl around! She makes every day so much more fun! I am one blessed mama and can't wait to spend many more birthdays with this precious little girl!

Anastyn's 2nd Christmas

2009-12-30T09:29:00.004-06:00

Anastyn had a very good Christmas. (We celebrated at home on the 18th since we wouldn't be home Christmas morning). It was so much fun watching her see all her presents and excited to open them. I was expecting it to take her a really long time to get through her presents, but she made pretty good time. She, of course, had to stop and play with each one before moving on to the next present. It was so nice to be able to take our time and let her enjoy the morning. After she played with her toys and ate breakfast she went down for a nap. When she woke up I had sugar cookie dough ready for her to help me cut out cookies. She was a pro. She helped push the cutters down and even helped used the mini spatula to pick the dough up (those cookies didn't quite make it, but she had a good time!) It was a very nice, relaxing "Christmas Day" for us. We headed to Belle on Christmas Eve and got to spend lots of time with family. I will have to post those pictures another time because I have yet to upload them. But here are some of her opening presents and cutting out cookies.

This is the first toy she saw and wanted to play with it immediately.

Lining up her little Princess figurines.

She likes her ABC Leapfrog magnets. She likes to push the button that sings the ABC's and she always sings along with it (not actual words, but you get the point)

Kisses for Mommy

Kisses for Daddy

Daddy helping with the sugar cookies

I LOVE THIS GIRL!!!

Merry Christmas Eve!

2009-12-24T13:43:00.000-06:00

We hope everyone has a wonderful (and safe) holiday weekend! Enjoy the time you get to spend with your family and friends. I know we are going to!

'Twas the night before Christmas

2009-12-21T13:30:00.001-06:00

...when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

while visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.

...or sugar cookies!

So, we celebrated Christmas a little early since we will not be home Christmas morning. We had a wonderful time watching Anastyn walk sleepily into the living room to open her presents and then we spent the afternoon making sugar cookies. She did such a good job helping me roll them out and cut them.

She also wore her Christmas dress to church this week. She was not happy about it and I think the pictures prove that. Maybe we can get some pictures of her this next Sunday in a little brighter mood! Either way, I thought she looked pretty cute!
I will try to post some pics of her "Christmas morning" sometime this week.

We hope everyone has a wonderful week and a Merry Christmas!

Happy Thursday!

2009-12-10T12:12:00.000-06:00

O, Christmas Tree!

2009-12-09T09:30:00.000-06:00

Anastyn and I had the night to ourselves on Monday, so we decided we should probably get the tree decorated. We got into our Christmas pj's (thanks Devin) and started decorating. Anastyn thoroughly enjoyed herself! She helped me with the garland, and hung a couple of ornaments. I don't have a picture of the completed tree, but I will post one later. I had to do most of the decorating after she went to bed because if I stood on her chair, she automatically tried to climb up and stand on it with me. I wish I had a picture of that! She would just wrap her arms around my legs and hold on for dear life! Anyway, here are quite a few pictures of the fun we had!

Let's get the ornaments out!

Anastyn hanging the first strand of garland.

Aren't they beautiful? :)

Now for the green garland!

Hanging her A for Anastyn ornament

She had to stand on the chair each time to put something on the tree.

Isn't this sweet?

On to the tulle.

Checking out the lights

These are from a couple days earlier, I was trying to get her to model the shirt that Aunt Devin made for her and the hairbow that I made. She wasn't being extremely cooperative, but we got a couple pics anyway!

Halloween Flashback

2009-11-23T07:00:00.000-06:00

I have been having trouble with photo storage recently and haven't been able to upload photos to the blog. I have that figured out now so I thought I should post some pictures of the first Halloween that Anastyn participated in. Being that it is almost Thanksgiving, this is definitely a flashback. We really weren't expecting much from our 16 month old on Halloween. We had a purple dinosaur costume, that Anastyn was none to thrilled about when we tried it on for practice. But we decided to give it a try anyway. We had decided to get together with our friends Matt and Michelle and their little girl, Mya. Mya was an adorable little cat and Anastyn wore her dinosaur costume. She would not put the hood on for anything though.... Until we went outside to go trick-or-treating at a couple of the neighbor's houses. As soon as we stepped outside, she let Nathan put her hood on (the head of the dinosaur) and she took off with her little pumpkin treat bucket (that we borrowed from Mya- like I said, I really wasn't expecting much). SHE LOVED IT! I wish I had video. She looked like such a big girl carrying her little treat bucket and walking up to the front doors! She was so excited and would be walking along and let out this little excited laugh. It was so much fun watching her. We had a wonderful night and a lot of fun

watching the girls enjoy all the Halloween candy that they were not going to get to consume!

As you can see, she LOVED the hood! (can you hear the sarcasm?)

Miss Mya the kitty cat

Trying to get a picture of the girls together was a little difficult. However, they both really enjoyed the candy bowl, so we used it to occupy them while we snapped a few pics.

And she is off to trick-or-treat at the first house. As soon as we got outside she was completely fine with the hood.

Fully enjoying herself. She has found a new love... m&m's.

Here are the girls checking out all the goodies.

I just thought this pic was cute. I love the little cat tail and dinosaur tail.

Another cute picture of Mya. Isn't she a doll?

They had a lot of fun digging through the candy bowls at everyone's houses.

This Is For Daddy

2009-10-27T22:20:00.000-05:00

This post is completely random pictures of our little sweetheart. Anastyn says "Daddy, I hope these help, I love you verrrry much!"

Trying on her cousin's cool shoes. They look like little barbie shoes. Do you like them daddy?

Her first ever pigtails that lasted for about 2 more seconds after this picture was taken.

Another attempt at capturing her first pigtails before she ripped them out.

Playing in the hay maze with her dad at the pumpkin patch.

My favorite picture this year! At our family fall festival Nathan told the girls to race to Grammy Tammy. He had to help Anastyn out a little. I think they all look so cute and they are having so much fun!

Daddy's little helper. She will be changing brakes in no time!
Gotta love the completely mismatched outfit from head to toe!

I just really like these last two pics. The top one was at church in Tulsa and the bottom one is from when we went bowling in Tulsa. She was holding her hand over the little area that blows air out on your hands.

We miss you and love you!

Where Does the Time Go?

2009-10-27T21:14:00.000-05:00

I absolutely can not believe that has already been a month since this adorable little guy was born!

He doesn't even look the same anymore. Still adorable, but he has filled out so much. I was trying to steal a more recent picture from my sister's blog, but for some reason it is not showing up right now. So if you want to see how precious he looks in his Halloween costume go check it out here.

We went to Tulsa to meet Mr. Lincoln and to celebrate Skylar's SIXTH birthday party! I really can't believe she is already six. I remember every moment about the day she was born from the phone call I received at about 3 a.m. to finally getting to meet her in the hospital. My FIRST niece, I was soooooo excited! I went straight to Wal-Mart after that phone call - because that was the only place open- and bought baby stuff.

I really have the most precious family! I love these girls with all of my heart! They are the sweetest, most kind-hearted little things. Anastyn adores her cousin, as they do her and it is so much fun to watch them together.

Anastyn also loves her new BOY cousin. She was very gentle with Lincoln and gave him some very sweet kisses and would hold his hand very softly. I don't know what I was even worried about. She LOVES babies and I look forward to watching these little ones grow up together.

Labor Day Weekend Camping Trip

2009-10-15T10:09:00.000-05:00

Here is your fair warning. THIS IS A MAJOR PICTURE OVERLOAD! ....YES, even more so than usual :) So, we went camping Labor Day weekend down on Nathan's family farm. The place where we camp sits right on the river and they have turned a school bus into this cool little "camper" with electric hook-ups and all. I always love to camp, it is just so nice to be away from everything. No obligations or schedules, just lots of good food, family, and friends! Trent and Kesha spent the weekend with us and our friends Lucas and Sarah came down and spent Friday evening with us. They have two beautiful little girls, Ella and Hannah (who is 5 months older than Anastyn). We are so glad they could come down and play some games with us and visit. We miss not seeing them as much since we have moved to St. Charles. Despite the slightly rainy, cool weekend... we all had a really good time. Now on to the many, many, maaaaany pictures from the weekend.

Anastyn and her friend Hannah. Anastyn loved these little chairs that Luke and Sarah brought for their girls.

Ella, isn't she a pretty little thing? Looks just like her mama!

Trent and Kesha canned some pickles this year and the girls LOVED the pickles. Even the spicy ones, at one point all their little eyes were red, but they just kept eating them.

Just thought this was cute. Although, I don't know if Anastyn is holding onto the chair to be close to Hannah, or because she doesn't want it to get away from her.

Sarah was reading the girls a story.

Anastyn slept and napped very well for us on the trip. Saturday morning she was ready to go. Well, after we said bye bye to her piggy. She REALLY LOVES that thing.

She carried her walking stick (corn stalk) around with her for quite some time. She checked the chairs for bugs...

Used it to help her walk around...

and poked Uncle Trent's toes with it.

Played a friendly game of Taboo.

Then conked out for her afternoon nap.

She woke up fully refreshed and ready to go. She loved playing on, in and around this inner tube.

Then she was very focused on conquering this little bump of dirt on the ground. You can't really see it, but there was a small incline or "step" that she would work so hard to climb up, then she would turn around and step down off of it.

Getting her footing

She did it!

I love how she rubs the top of her dads head and sucks her thumb.

We went for a little boat ride. Needless to say, Anastyn wasn't fond of the life jacket.

She chilled out every once in awhile to enjoy the short ride.

Saturday night, Grandpa Darrell and Grandma Jeanette came down with Uncle Drew and Aunt Amanda to hang out for a little bit. Since it was dark, I was unable to get any pictures, but we had fun making banana boats and smores.

Then, Sunday morning we woke up to find this. What a way to end a good weekend. Overnight the water came up about 5 feet and flipped the boat that had been tied down very securely. Luckily, it survived and is still running.

15 Month Check-up

2009-10-09T13:32:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note to record Anastyn's 15 month stats. We went to the doctor on Wednesday and everything went well. (Aside from getting shots...who likes those?) Anastyn weighed in at a whopping ... 19 lbs. Yes, that means she is in the FOURTH percentile. REALLY??? She is small, but she doesn't seem THAT small! Anyway, the doctor said she is just fine, and she is staying consistent on the chart and she looks good and healthy, she is just a small fry! She was in the 21st percentile for height (29.5 inches) and her head circumference was 14% (44.5 cm).
She has met all the milestones for children of her age and the doctor was surprised how still she sat when she checked out her ears and nose and mouth. She was a VERY good girl. So far this was the best appointment yet. Of course, the doctor let her play with the light on her ear/nose checking instrument (no clue what that thing is called), which Anastyn thought was pretty neat. And she opened her mouth up wide when the doctor asked her to, so she didn't even need to use the popsicle stick (love my medical terminology here?). The doctor said she was "stellar" and thought it was cute that Anastyn waved bye-bye to her as soon as we told her to say bye-bye.
ANYWHO... shots...well, they are shots, she remembered from last time and did not even want me to lay her down. We got through them and she did well.
Mainly, we are just so happy to have a happy, healthy, little girl. Life just gets better and better every day with her. What a wonderful blessing!
I have pics to post from when we met baby Lincoln, so hopefully I will get those loaded onto our computer this weekend. We can't wait to see him again. I hear he is still an EXCELLENT little boy. But how could he not be with such awesome, wonderful parents! (LOVE you all) Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

P.S. I really did think this was a quick note, I guess quick doesn't always mean short when coming from me :)

Happy 15 Months!

2009-10-02T14:17:00.000-05:00

Anastyn has been a busy little girl lately. It seems she is picking up new things daily. She is trying more and more to form her words. She tries to repeat almost everything we say, in her own little way of course. She has also started singing at random times. It might be my favorite thing yet. She was in her high chair the other night just singing away. She does it kind of soft and sweetly. I don't know what she is singing, but it is beautiful! I will have to try to catch her on camera.

A few words that she says consistently:
hot - ot
ball- bah
hi- she says this very sweet and drawn out
mama
dada
Ana- as in Anastyn
uh-oh - she finally got that oh in there. I love hearing her say it, because she exaggerates the o by making her lips really round. Absolutely adorable!
dog- dah
amen- ah nah
papa- she has said this once
bath- bah (yes, it sounds just like ball, but she says it when we are going to take a bath)
I think she has started saying that- she points to things a lot and says "dat". I am not 100%, but that is what I have decided.
I also think I have gotten her to say plane a few times.
There are probably some that I am forgetting, but you get the gist.

Anastyn with her fabulous cousins! She looks like their sister, doesn't she? She adores her cousins and she is no longer the baby! She thinks she can play with the big girls now!

She has 3 more teeth. Her upper incisors on both sides and on lower incisor on the left. I think her teething has affected her appetite a little. But she is still a pretty good eater, for the most part. She has really started playing with her toys a lot more lately. She loves to play with all of them. She has started loving on her baby dolls as well. If I start singing "Sweet, sweet, baby..." she will put her little baby on her shoulder and pat its back and rock it. It is very sweet. She also LOVES her bath. She doesn't like to sit down in it. But she loves to play with her ducks and basketballs, and she likes to have water dumped on her hands, arms, and body. She is much better when it comes to washing her hair as well. She loves to splash and fill up cups and dump them out.

Details seem to be escaping me today, but mainly Anastyn is just one happy girl. She has such a personality and so many expressions to go with it. She is very stubborn... and not so happy when she doesn't get EXACTLY what she was wanting... and yes, SHE KNOWS. She is so hard to fool with distractions! She goes to bed very well. She is very in love with her little piggy that she sleeps with. Sometimes, I think she goes down just so she can hold it and suck her little thumb. Definitely an addiction! She likes pointing out babies and children, waving at passing cars and airplanes over head.

Great-grandma Del letting Anastyn steal a drink from her straw.

Love a girl in boots! She had a lot of fun walking around in these. These are my new favorite item in her wardrobe.

Another pic with her "big sisters." I hope they always get along this well. They are really so sweet to her and she absolutely loves their attention.

Hopefully, I will get a post up soon about our camping trip from Labor Day. And a few pictures from our trip to see baby Lincoln and Skylar's birthday. Don't hold your breath though, it could be another week...or two...or three... :)

A Trip to the Zoo

2009-09-28T10:44:00.001-05:00

It has been a month now, but at the end of August we took Anastyn to the zoo. It was a beautiful day and since Anastyn loves animals and to make the animal sounds we thought it would be fun to spend a relaxing afternoon there. She loved seeing the animals, but I think her favorite part was getting to walk around on the paths. She loves exploring and being able to run around. Here are a few pictures from our day!

Checking out the animals with Daddy

Relaxing on a park bench

Strolling along, no cares in the world

She loved this metal piece. She would stand on it...

then run down this little hill...

...then run up and stand on it again. She did this a least 5 or 6 times. It was cracking me up.

Snack time

Petting the penguins, we still have not been in the penguin house. It is always so crowded. Maybe next time!

Telling Daddy what a great day she had!!! Actually I think she showed him how old she is. She always claps for herself after she shows us that she is ONE!

He's Here!

2009-09-23T07:42:00.000-05:00

Lincoln Jett made his debut yesterday (9/22) at 2:30 p.m. He weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long. We are soooo excited! I can't wait to hold him! He is absolutely adorable and precious! Head on over to my sister's blog (if you haven't already) and take a peek! Leave her some love, I know she would love to hear your comments!

Today's The Day...

2009-09-22T07:50:00.000-05:00

...That I get my first NEPHEW and Anastyn gets her first BOY cousin! We are all soooo excited for baby boy Lawrence to get here. Please keep Devin and the baby, Kevin and the girls in your prayers today! It will definitely be an exciting day welcoming the third little Lawrence into their family and a day for lots of change. Up until this point it has been all things girly! I know the girls are so excited for their brother to get here and they are going to be such awesome big sisters! I am sad I am not able to be there today, but we will be heading down this weekend to get our first peek at our sweet little nephew! AND to celebrate Skylar's 6th birthday! I just can't believe she is SIX YEARS OLD! Anyway, it is going to be a great day! Again, please keep everyone in your prayers. Thank you!

On The Climb

2009-09-14T08:31:00.000-05:00

Anastyn loves to get in our pantry and play with the food. Her food is on the bottom shelf so she can reach it. She often gets in there and grabs some food and brings it to me. Thanks to a sale at Schnucks, Anastyn found a way to reach the next shelf up. I was cooking dinner the other night and when I glanced toward the pantry I couldn't see her. I walked over and she was in the pantry climbing up the 12 packs of Pepsi to scope out the canned goods. She loves to climb!

She struggled, just a little, at first. Now she is climbing up and down like a pro.

"Finally, I can see what they have been hiding from me up here!"

"Now... how am I going to get down?"

As a side note, she managed to get down just fine, no bumps or bruises!

ROCK ON!

2009-09-11T08:38:00.001-05:00

HAPPY FRIDAY!

When You Can't Pick Just One...

2009-09-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

Wear Them All!

Anastyn loves to play with her hair bows. She doesn't always love wearing them. But she has ALWAYS loved playing with them. She used to just pull them out of her hair to chew on. Now, she likes to pull them out of the bag... and put them back in...and carry them around... and try to put them in her own hair. One night she was trying to put them in her hair and Nathan decided to help her out a little. She thought it was pretty funny.

Daddy lending a helping hand

Where did they all go?

Giving mommy kisses

The finished product. She kind of looks like an old lady in curlers!

Just had to throw this one in there. I LOVE THESE CURLS!

Happy 14 Months!

2009-09-02T07:00:00.000-05:00

Holding up her finger to tell us she is ONE!

WOW! Has it already been two months since she turned 1? I hate how quickly time passes. I want to just savor every little moment with this little girl, and every moment just passes far to quickly. Since I just posted not too long ago about the things Anastyn is doing now, I won't go over it all again. She is just changing so much from day to day it seems. She is trying to talk a little more each day. I hear a few new words every now and then, but she doesn't like to repeat herself! We just love her little personality and how she will give kisses over and over again! (Well, just a little!) She is such a smiley little girl and I can hardly wait for the end of each work day when I get to pick her up and she comes running to the door to greet me! She always gives me a big hug, kiss and grabs my hair (to suck her thumb for a brief moment)! She is trying to feed herself with the spoon more now. She has a little trouble getting the food onto the spoon, but once we get food on there, she does a pretty good job. When asked "how old are you?", Anastyn will hold up 1 finger (usually one on each hand) to tell you she is ONE. Then she wants us to clap and say YAY! If we don't do it quickly enough, she just says "YAY" and claps for herself!

She can point to HER ears, mouth, hands, head and feet. She can point to ANYONE ELSE'S nose and eyes and cheeks. The thing I love about this is that if you tell her to point to HER eyes - she always grabs her ears and HER nose - she always points to her mouth. I realize this is not right, but it is kind of cute to me for some reason! At least she knows what they look like on everyone else!

Our Little Daredevil

2009-09-01T09:34:00.000-05:00

Anastyn has started wanting to stand up on everything. Luckily she hasn't started trying to jump off just yet, although I know those days are coming! (She did sort of jump off of the couch the other day. Jump may not be the right word, but she stepped right off and landed on her bottom on the floor. Nathan had just put pillows down there because he was afraid she might fall off because she was playing on the couch with him. She must have thought he put them there just for her, because she just stepped right off the side!)

Anyway, I was cooking dinner the other night and had put Baby Einstein on for Anastyn. While she was watching she had pulled her little cow over to sit in front of the TV. The next time I looked up, this is what I saw!

Still watching the show while climbing up

Steady...

HI MOM!

She would lose her balance a little and step down, then she would just climb right back on. I probably shouldn't encourage this behavior by stopping to take pictures, but I couldn't believe she could even keep her balance on this rocking cow!

Then we got a little chair for her (thank you, Tara). And she can hardly keep her bottom in the seat. She always steps onto it feet first and then sits down... for a short period of time. Again, I found her standing on it the other night. What are we going to do? I see some bumps and bruises in our future!

Just Some Things To Remember

2009-08-24T08:35:00.000-05:00

I have been thinking a lot lately about the many things that Anastyn is doing and how I am not doing a very good job of writing them down when they happen. There are some things that she does, that are just soooo sweet, and I absolutely want to remember them!

She is just getting too big!

-loves giving kisses. She kisses all of her toys - over and over again. Last night I told her to kiss her giraffe good night, so she would kiss it, then start to walk away, then turn around and go kiss it again. She did this about 10 times - it was really pretty cute, though! She also will always give kisses good-bye and goodnight. She used to give sweet open mouth kisses- not slobbery though- now she always puckers. Nathan and I sometimes miss the big wet kisses!

-always waves bye-bye. When I go to get Anastyn up in the morning, as I am walking to her crib I always see her waving to her piggy. She holds her hand really close to it and does this sweet little wave, she also waves to her blanket if it is in there, she always does this before she stands up to have me pick her up. If we leave a room, she likes to wave to the things in the room. For quite some time now, she would wave everytime she heard a vehicle of any kind. It is pretty sweet because if we are in the yard, she stands out there waving at any car going by.

-blows kisses. She has blown kisses for a while now too, but she used to kiss the back of her hand and just hold it on her mouth. In the last few weeks she has started kissing her palm and releasing the kiss to us. LOVE IT!

-signs. Anastyn does signs for more, thank you, please (love this one, she sometimes rubs her hand across her belly), food, eat, hungry, drink (on occasion), all done (this is a favorite of hers)

-actions to songs and phrases. Jesus Loves Me - she points up for Jesus then to her self for loves me, This Little Light - she waves her light around, blows it out (she blows through her nose though), and hides it under a bushel, Itsy Bitsy Spider - she puts her fingertips together for the spider and raises her arms as it climbs and waves her hands in the air for the rain coming down, Wise Man Built His House - she will sometimes hit her hands together, but she mainly loves the rain came tumbling down and she waves her hands in the air for the rain. If You're Happy and You Know It - claps, stomps and snaps her fingers. Jesus Loves Me - she will put her arms up like she is showing her muscles for STRONG.

-knows body parts. She can point to her/your mouth, cheeks, nose and eyes, sometimes ears. She knows her hands, head, knees and toes/feet. She likes to wash her own feet in the bath tub, she does a pretty good job, too! She has gotten her shoulders a few times, but usually skips to the knees and toes (when singing the song). We are working on her belly/ belly button.

-mimics. She mimics most of the things we do. She brushes her hair, rubs her hands together for lotion, tries to jump if you jump, claps her hands, stomps her feet, tries to make the same faces that you do, if you make a sound - she tries to make that sound. She always coughs if anyone around her coughs. She also makes a sound ( similar to a cough, but different) if someone sneezes. If I blow my nose, she blows through her nose or sniffs. If she hears people laughing she does this cute little fake laugh. She does it alot in church, if people kind of laugh during an announcement or something, she always laughs once it starts to get quiet. I think it is kind of cute! Pretty much anything we do, she tries to do. The other day, I filled her sand/water table up with water from the hose, a few days later, we had the hose out and she took it over to the table and held it over it like she was filling it up.

-animal sounds. Lion - roars, Cat- mow, mow (personal favorite), Pig - she snorts very well, Horse - she does the horse sigh (lips together -blow through mouth? not sure how to describe this one), Elephant - puts her arm by her nose and makes a small sound - she hasn't quite figured the sound out yet, Dog- pants, Cow- mooo, Duck - ack, ack, Bear - growls, Rooster - some form of errr-errr errr-errr errrrr, Monkey - ahh, ahhh (when prompted)

-everyday things. she blows through her nose to smell a flower and blow her nose. When you tell her to blow on her food - she also blows through her nose! She loves to get in the refrigerator and pantry - she always picks something out and wants some of it- milk, water, pickles, yogurt, bluberries, raisins, meat sticks - she will pick it up or point if she can't reach it, bring it to you then sit down so she can have her snack. She LOVES lotion right now. She will bring you the bottle and holds her hand out for some. She then rubs her hands together and is ready for more.

- words. Hi, mama, dada, hot, hat, I love you, go, good, na-na (banana),Yay, UH (this is uh-oh, she just never says the oh part. She is constantly dropping things, then says "UH". It is kind of funny, we always finish by saying " OH" for her). She tries to repeat words we ask her to say, we have a little work to do in this department though!

When she is tired, if I am lying on the floor, she comes and lays close to my head, grabs a handful of hair and sucks her thumb, like she is going to take a nap right there

She loves to bring you books and have you read to her.

She loves pushing the doorbell on her little dollhouse. She always laughs really big when she does this.

When she is sleepy, sometimes she sneaks into her room and tries to pull her pig out of the bed through the rails. You can always tell when she is having trouble because she starts fussing, which then turns into a scream. We have rushed to make sure she was okay multiple times, only to find her in a struggle with her pig and the rails of the crib. You just can't help but laugh at her desperation!

This isn't something she does, but I need to remember. She has 4 teeth that are in fully. She got the bottom two first (central incisors), then the top two (central incisors). Now the tooth to the right of her right front tooth (lateral incisor) is making its way through. I believe she is working on the left lateral incisor as well.

The things I love the most about her, are sometimes the most frustrating too. She is extremely independent. She knows exactly what she wants, and how she wants things done. She refuses to hold your hand - unless she needs help with a step or something has scared her. She can't be easily distracted. If she wanted the yogurt out of the fridge and you give her the cheese, she lets you know ;) She DOES NOT want me singing certain (bedtime) songs. She fusses the whole time I am singing them, and stops as soon as I stop. When she wants to go outside, there isn't a toy that can take her mind off of it. On the other hand though, I love that she likes to figure things out for herself. I hope that her strong-will will help her be a strong christian one of these days and help her hold to her values. I love that her mind is working to help her form her opinions and will teach her to be creative. She is a precious blessing and life would not be the same without her. What an awesome first year! So many more blessings and great things to come!

Family, Horses, Flowers, and Cows...

2009-08-12T11:23:00.000-05:00

Now, how's that for a title! The weekend of July 17th we headed to Belle for the Belle Fair. Anastyn got lots of time to play with her cousins during the weekend since they were down. They are so good with her and love her dearly. She loves them as well. She follows them around wherever they go and they follow her around trying to take care of her, making sure she is okay. They are such precious girls. They will be such good big sisters to their new brother!

Trying to get all the girls together

Trying to get a picture of the girls together is never an easy task. Skylar was afraid there might be bugs in the grass so she was not going to sit down, she didn't really even want to sit on the blanket! It turned out kind of cute though, even the confused look on Anastyn's face!

Me with Skylar and Londyn

At some point during the weekend Anastyn got to meet the horse that my dad and brother got. She really liked him, but only wanted to touch him once. I think she will warm up eventually and I am excited for her to get on him one day to ride. I know she will love it.

Grammy Tammy showing Anastyn the horse

Not so sure about petting it though

At the 4th of July festival we found this adorable headband so we had to model it, of course!

Is this not the cutest?

Then we let her model her new ladybug outfit that her Aunt Devin got her. I love this outfit and the colors look so good outside. She loves flowers and picking those little white flowers (weeds) that grow in the yard. She also found a pretty orange flower at Grandma Nette's that she tried to smell!

Picking a white flower (or weed, whatever they are)

Happy girl, especially if she is outside

Anastyn with her pretty orange flower

This is right after she smelled the flower, I love how her nose gets all wrinkled up.

And finally, one of my co-workers gave us this little cow that her daughter used to use (Thanks, Sue!). Anastyn LOVES it. It is so funny, for weeks she would not get on it, but she would walk up to it and give it kisses or moo at it or stand to the side and rock it. Finally we got her on it and now she loves to go for a ride. She can rock it by herself, but she really likes when her daddy pushes her around the living room. She squeals and leans back like she is riding a bull or something. I love watching her. She also likes to climb on it backwards, but she always gets herself turned back around so she can rock. So cute!

Here she is climbing on backwards

And finally, one of my favorite pictures. Nathan was pushing her around the couch and she was so excited, I love the look on her face.

Birthday Triplets!

2009-08-10T11:01:00.000-05:00

So, how cute are these three?

On July 18th we were excited because Anastyn got to meet some new friends. Mary Julius had twin little girls the same day that I had Anastyn, so they all share the same birthday. Mary and I started talking on facebook about our girls and comparing what they were all doing, so it was so much fun to get to see them together. It has been great sharing information and it will be fun to see them as they continue to grow. It was fun watching the girls play and seeing the similarities that come with the big number ONE! The twins are absolutely adorable and I think all the girls had fun together. Skylar and Londyn were there as well, and they were such good little "mommies"! I love how they all have such different personalities. Anastyn never sits still and isn't the best at sharing just yet, but loves to give kisses. Carly is so laid back and sweet. She would grab a toy, but if someone else came and got it is was no big deal. Clara was very sweet as well. She and Anastyn are probably the most alike. Both a little head strong, maybe. There was one instance where they both wanted this pink soccer ball and neither one was going to let it go! They were so cute to watch. It is, however, extremely hard to get a picture of three one year old girls all together. I got a couple though! (Maybe more than a couple!) Thanks so much, Mary, for bringing the girls out to play! We will have to do it again sometime! They are absolutely precious!

About the closest I got of all three girls half-way looking!

I just loved the looks on these girls' faces.

Anastyn giving Clara kisses

Sweet little Carly, she was such a good little poser!

Not sure what is going on, but I loved this look on Clara's face!

I just laugh when I look at this picture. I think maybe they were just touching hands, but who knows! ; )

Of course, Miss Anastyn wondering what I am doing behind her!

We found a little frog outside that we let the babies see. Anastyn actually grabbed it out of my hand at one point, then she wanted nothing to do with it. I think all of the girls thought it was kind of neat though.

These next pictures just kind of made me laugh. I love how quickly the photo op dissolves.

Here was another attempt to get all three girls together.

Miss Clara is the first to lose interest

Here goes Anastyn (probably after the soccer ball!)

Miss Carly wondering where everybody went!

4th of July

2009-08-09T16:55:00.000-05:00

July was a very busy month for us. First was Anastyn's birthday, then the 4th of July, which made for one really busy weekend. On July 2nd, we celebrated Anastyn's birthday and went to a Cardinal's game. On July 3rd we had her 1st birthday party, which I still need to add pictures of. On July 4th we headed to Frontier Park to the festival that they have every year. It was a little rainy at first, but ended up being a great day. Later that evening Nathan, Anastyn, and I went back to the park to brave the rain and watch fireworks. Anastyn liked them some, but they were a little too loud for her. All in all it was fun, even though we got rained on. The Lawrences were in town for all of the festivities, so it was fun for the girls to get to spend some time together. They are so much fun to watch but it is kind of hard to get a picture of them together. However, I did get a few cute pictures of them by themselves while we were walking around at the 4th of July Festival.

I love this pose of Londyn!

Skylar giving me her cute little pose.

Watching fireworks in the rain with daddy.

We watched fireworks in the rain but it was actually kind of fun. We had a decent little set-up to keep us dry and we got to enjoy a nice fireworks show. These were the only pictures I got. Maybe we can get some better ones next year!

Flashback: Anastyn's 1st BirthDAY!

2009-07-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

I already posted about this, but I am going to bring it up again with some pictures! On Anastyn's birthday I took the day off and we spent the day planning for her birthday party. We had some errands to run so we decided to grab a quick lunch at McDonald's, which ended up being kind of fun. Anastyn ate her first chicken McNuggets and some carrots from my salad. She didn't get much down though because she spent most of the time playing with the other people in the restaurant. She would wave and smile, and she kept trying to play with this older gentleman. He waved at her once and in response she waved back and started laughing. Then she would turn her head to look at me and then back at this man. If she caught his eye she would wave and just laugh. It was so cute.

Eating her nuggets.

Flirting with the older gentleman.

Reaching for something, I just thought she looked cute in her Cardinal's gear.

After we ran our errands we got home and since it was such a nice day we decided to play in the yard a bit with the ball we got at the party store. Being outside is Anastyn's FAVORITE place to be, so it is great that we finally have a yard where she can run around and play. We had a great time and she had fun kicking and carrying her ball around the yard.

Football, maybe?

Just relaxing

You can't catch me!

Too cute!

Since Anastyn's birthday is the same day as our anniversary, we celebrated by going to a cardinals game with Devin & Kevin and Trent & Kesha. (Thank you grandma!) It was a lot of fun to get to spend some time with my siblings without any of the kiddos. All in all, it was a great day!

Catching Up

2009-07-28T08:03:00.000-05:00

About a month ago now, we moved out of our apartment and into our new house. While we were in the process of taking loads of things to the car we found something to occupy Anastyn quite well. She loves to let water run over her hands and this little faucet on the outside of our apartment kept her happy for quite some time. She played and played in it. Thank goodness for the simple things! She's a water baby!

She also likes to feel water when it is on the ground. She will rub her hands in it, then rub her hair to get her hair wet. This cracks me up, mainly because she hates having her hair washed when she is in the tub, I guess it wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't dumping a whole cup of water on her head though!

One Year Check-Up

2009-07-13T10:03:00.000-05:00

On Monday, July 6, Anastyn had her ONE year check-up. She is doing very well. She is a good, healthy baby. Her stats were 18 lbs. 8 oz (8%) and 28 inches long (16%). Still a small little one, but she is growing well the doctor says. She is just our little peanut.

My home computer is still not working, so I am unable to upload any of our pictures, but I promise there will be one photo-loaded post coming soon!

Anastyn is really enjoying being able to walk. She is so busy all of the time, and she does NOT want our help. She doesn't really like to hold your hand when she is walking and she has to always try to do something on her own before she will let you help. Most definitely, she is "Little Miss Independent"! I have been told that there was another girl in our family that was the same way when she was little. I have no idea who they could be talking about!

Anastyn loves her food and is a healthy little eater. She LOVES blueberries and most of the fruits that I give her. She has had blueberries, apples, kiwi, bananas, strawberries, rasberries, grapes, and mandarin oranges. She likes her veggies too, but doesn't eat them quite as well as the fruit. She is almost completely bottle-free. She is just taking a bottle in the morning now and the rest of the day she is drinking milk and water from her sippy cups. She eats her meals like a champ and we recently discovered she really likes pizza. She ate almost a whole piece and that was after I had already fed her supper.

She knows our routines and is often pointing to tell us where we need to go next or what things we need to grab. She loves to play with her books and toys a little more now. Anastyn LOVES to go outside. She points to the birds and the airplanes the entire time we our out there. There is also a dog a few houses down that she hears barking and makes her dog sound. She loves to run around in the yard and have us chase her. She is so much fun!

Some of my favorite things that she does:
She takes toilet paper and holds it up to her nose and blows.
She puckers her lips for us to give her a kiss (and then plants a big open mouth kiss on us)
She tries to put her shoes on her feet.
She does motions for "Itsy, Bitsy Spider","Wise Man", (she likes the rain motions), "This Little Light"(She hides it under the bushel and blows it out... so cute!) and "If Your Happy and You Know It" (she claps, stomps, and touches her head).
She is always dancing when she hears music.
She carries her baby doll around and loves on it.
She always waves by-by when we are ready to leave.
MY VERY FAVORITE: She puts her hands together to pray when we pray. At church after we sing, if it gets quiet, she puts her hands together, she knows what comes next! Too sweet!
There are so many more things that she does that I love (LIKE, EVERYTHING lol) but I will leave you with these things.
It has been such a fabulous year with this sweet little girl! We are so thankful that God blessed our lives with Anastyn!

Happy Birthday, Anastyn!

2009-07-06T08:22:00.001-05:00

July 2nd was Anastyn's 1st birthday! I don't know where the time went, but it has been a great year! On Anastyn's birthday, I took the day off so I could spend the day with her and get ready for her party on the 3rd. We played in the yard, ate at McDonald's, her first chicken nuggets :), and went to buy balloons for her party. Nothing too exciting, but it was nice to get to spend the day together. I know I enjoyed it!

Our anniversary is also on the 2nd and my grandma bought tickets to the Cardinals game for Trent, Kesha, Devin, Kevin, Nathan and myself. It was great to get to do something fun with my siblings, since we really don't get to spend time together like that anymore!

July 3rd was Anastyn's party and the entire family was able to be there to celebrate along with our friends Matt, Michelle, & Mya and John, Norma, Rachel & Brandon. We had a lot of fun watching the birthday girl play and open her presents and play with her cake. I will post more on the birthday later along with some pictures. Our internet at home has been on the fritz lately so I haven't really had the chance to upload any. But they will be soon to follow.

Hope everyone had a Happy and safe 4th of July!
My wonderful sister, who is much more on top of her blog than I am, has posted a few pictures from Anastyn's big day if you want to check them out head on over to her blog, What A Wonderful World. Thank you, Devin!