Anna's 2nd Birthday

To celebrate Annalyn's birthday this year we decided to keep it simple and just do cake, ice cream, and presents on her actual birthday. She woke up that morning to find balloons all over the living room. We went to the library for music time in the morning and then we came home and played outside. I put Annalyn down for her nap and then I attemped to finish decorating the birthday cake. I decided to make a two layered circle cake this year and it was first time I have done it. It was going really well until the second layer broke in half. Joel tried to help me fix it but in the end I think he made it worse. We were able to use half of the top layer so I just decorated it. The good new is that Brynlee and Annalyn thought the cake was beautiful. They told me they loved it several times. I had the girls help me decorate the cake with m&ms for the finishing touch and while they were doing that, Annalyn took a big bite of the side of the cake and declared it to be really good. I was able to fix up the part she ate with some frosting. Hopefully I can get better at this cake decorating thing soon. At least the birthday girl was very happy with the cake I made her. She especially enjoyed helping me put on the candy. I think she ate more M&M than she put on there. 

For Anna's party, most of my family came over to eat cake and watch Annalyn open all of her presents. She opened one of her presents right before everyone got here so I had to quickly rewrap it. When we sang to her, she sang right along and then she enthusiastically spit at those candles until the fire went out. Although, she had a little help getting the fire out. She was quick to open all of her presents and then she ate a big bowl of cake and ice cream before playing with her presents. She had a great time and she got lots of fun gifts. she really liked the chap stick I got her and used most of it up that night. She also got a little play tent and some animals that she has really enjoyed. She got the Frozen movie and she loves to sing the songs and watch the snowman on that show. She doesn't really sit and watch the whole movie but she comes in and sings and dances during the songs. 

Anna's birthday was on a Thursday this year. On Saturday we went out as a family and did something fun to further celebrate. Joel really doesn't like celebrating birthdays so it was hard to get him to agree to come. Eventually he agreed and we went to the park, ate a pizza, and flew a kite. The girls had lots of fun. Anna loves going to the park. It wasn't all that windy by the time we got our kite out but we got it to fly a little bit. Annalyn had a nice fun time and I think it was the perfect birthday celebration for our sweet little girl. I know she enjoyed it.

Annalyn is TWO!

It is hard to believe that my little baby girl is turning two today, and yet it has seemed like she has been two for several months now. She has been telling people that she is two for a long time. She sure has brought so much joy, happiness, and adventure into our house. We love her mischievous laugh, her spunky attitude, and her sweet little cuddles. She sure is a sweet and cuddly little girl. She is extremely stubborn and independent lately. She want to do everything all by herself. She talks in full sentences and she has the cutest little voice. She likes to sing but it is really hard to tell what words she is saying when she sings. Here are several more fun facts about this sweet little girl but first I just want to take a minute to post a few picture showing just how much Anna has grown. In the first picture she is just a few days old, then three months, six months, nine months, 12 months, 15 months, 18 months, 21 months, and in the last one she is 2.

Height - 33.25 in. (44%)

Weight - 28.8 lb. (76.55%)

Favorite Foods - Annalyn still loves to eat. Especially anything sweet. She loves, candy, ice cream, and cake and can somehow find candy I didn't even know we had. She has her picky moments, but is still a great little eater and will eat most of what I feed her.

Sleep Schedule - We converted Annaly's crib into a toddler bed a few months ago since she kept climbing out of it and took us a while after that to get her to stay in her room and go to sleep. I had to put a child proof thing on her door so she couldn't open it but now she is back to taking a two hour nap during the day and sleeping all through the night in her bed. She normally sleeps from 7:30pm - 6:30am. 

Talking - Annalyn can repeat pretty much anything we say. She loves to say the pray and she can say it without any help. She also likes it when it is her turn to "read" the scriptures. She is saying new words everyday and her sentences are getting more complex with 7 or more words in a sentence.

Favorite things - Annalyn still loves baby dolls and stuffed animals. She also loves to color, paint, write on anything she can find, and she loves to cut with scissors. I let her cut up a piece of paper with some scissors the other day and she worked at cutting it for a long time. I kept trying to get her to hold the scissors right but she would hold them her own way. She had to open her mouth every time she opened the scissors and she got so excited every time she actually cut off a piece of the paper. "Good Job, " she would tell herself. I will big in big trouble if that girl ever find a pair of scissors that is unsupervised. She loves to play outside and she likes to get dressed all by herself. She is a great climber and she likes to use her little chairs to reach things that are up high. She also likes to play in the kitchen sink and "wash" her hands. She likes to sing and dance by twirling around the house. She loves to play with Brynlee and she gets very concerned when Brynlee is gone. They are such good friends. She likes to play with Brynlee's friends too. When she knows it is a preschool day she fights the naps really badly so she can stay up and play. The other girls at preschool were really rough with her last week though. They kept trying to hold and smother her with hugs. She didn't like that at all. She likes to give hugs and kisses and she is extremely ticklish. She is obsessed with my deodorant and can't put it on without giggling. She likes to sit in the kitchen while I cook and she covers herself up with all of the dishtowels.

Quotes - As soon as Joel comes home from work Annalyn will stand up, throw her hands in the air and yell, "Hooray, daddy is home, Hooray!." Her favorite phrase that she says whenever something doesn't go her way is "oh Dear!" She asks "Why" a lot. If I tell her she can't so something I am sure to get a whole bunch of "why"s from her, even after I explain why, she still asks why. She has kind of been driving me crazy lately because she has to say my name after every sentence when she is talking to me. I hear stuff like this all day. "I want one mommy. I wanna do dat mommy. I like that mommy. Help me mommy. Hold me mommy." You get the idea. She will do the same thing with daddy, and Brynlee too.

Things she does - I took the girls out to lunch one day and for the most part they were well behaved. Then Annalyn took a huge forkful of her cottage cheese and whacked me right in the head with it. My hair was covered in cottage cheese and Annalyn just started laughing. She thought she was so funny. I picked the cottage cheese out of my hair the best I could and used a wet napkin to clean out the rest but I still found some cottage cheese that I missed when I got home.

Annalyn is also quite stubborn. She really wanted ice cream at grandma's house but when we told her she had to eat her dinner first she absolutely refused to touch it. She never would eat her food so she could get some ice cream so she didn't eat anything all night.

Annalyn also likes to take off all of her clothes and run around naked or play dress-up with Brynlee. My dad came over one day while I was making dinner and Annalyn was wearing this cute little ladybug costume. She laid on the ground and did this nice little somersault for us and that is when we both realized that she didn't have a diaper on. As soon as I mentioned it, she took off running.

Happy Birthday little Annalyn! We sure do love you!

Bad Hair Day

About a week ago Brynlee woke up early in the morning and climbed into bed with me. She was in a whiney mood and she said she need to go potty. I told her she could use our bathroom and then I got up to get us some breakfast in the kitchen. Joel and Annalyn were already eating breakfast and Joel was getting ready to leave for work. Joel went to give Brynlee a kiss goodbye and apparently he found her in our bathroom holding a pair of scissors with hair all over the bathroom floor and counter. Joel said she just looked at him and almost started to cry saying, "I want my hair back." 

Here is the picture of all the hair she cut off. 

Joel brought Brynlee out to me and she was just crying in her dad's shoulders. Joel told me Brynlee had a little "hair accident." How in the world do you have a hair accident? She chopped off some of her bangs and some hair on both sides of her head, plus a little in the back. The left side looks the worst. I couldn't understand how Brynlee found any scissors at first. I have done really good at keeping them up high. I forgot about the pair I kept in my bathroom. They are my sharp sewing scissors too. They were up high so I am sure Brynlee was trying to get into my make-up or something when she found them. I am glad my sister Heather went to hair school because I was able to call her and visit her the same day. I put Brynlee's hair in pigtails until we could see Heather. 

Once we got to Heather's house, we could tell our options were to go really short or to keep it long, add some layers, and wait for it to grow out so we can fix it better. Brynlee didn't want short hair so we kept it long. I can still do pig tails so we have been doing those every day to cover up the uneven parts. Brynlee has told me several times that she doesn't want anyone to know about her haircut. Brynlee tried to get my sister to cut her bangs up right by her head because she said she didn't want bangs anymore. I am glad Brynlee didn't actually try to cut them all the way off. 

Getting her haircut. She wont hardly let me take a good picture of her anymore. 

I was really upset right after Brynlee cut her hair but it really isn't that bad. Thank Goodness. She has talked a lot about wanting really long hair so I don't know what possessed her to cut it. She told me she cut it because she thought she wanted her hair to be like Annalyn's. Just when I thought I could trust her with the scissors. Let's just hope this doesn't happen again.

February Fun

February was filled with some fun adventures at our house. First we found out we are having another little girl, we celebrated Valentine's Day and we played lots of dress-up and made several blanket forts. We all got colds and Brynlee got a bad cough and a fever but luckily they didn't last long. There were a few nice days where we could play outside but it was mostly cold and rainy. Joel would come home from work totally soaked on the wet days; those are his least favorite. He also gets really muddy. Here is a quick recap of what we all did this month.

Joel spent the month working, doing things for church, helping his brother build his house, and  doing several other volunteer projects to help people out. He spent some time at home playing with the girls and helping us out. I even convinced him to spend almost an entire Saturday at home watching the kids. He planned on taking them to go do things but Brynlee ended up getting a fever so they were stuck inside. Joel was really itching to get out of the house by the time I got home so he left to go work on his brother's house as soon as possible.

Brynlee has been pretty helpful for the most part lately. She really loves doing preschool at our house and she has been really interested in writing her name, (she has the B and the r down great) and doing school stuff. She loves playing with Annalyn but they still fight sometimes. She loves her Sunbeam class at church and gets really into the lessons. She likes to spin around during singing time and when she knows the words to a song, she sings (screams) the words as loudly as she can. She still cries every time something doesn't go her way and she can be stubborn and naughty every once in a while, but for the most part she keeps us entertained and she is a lot of fun to be around.

Annalyn also loves to help me. Lately we have had several arguments over who gets to help me mop the floors or do the laundry. She loves to help me cook and she likes to do things all by herself. Annalyn loves to play dress-up but she also likes to take off all of her clothes and run around naked. She loves Brynlee and asks for her all the time. She figured out how to climb out of her crib with ease so we turned her crib into a toddler bed. She can also open all the doors so nap time has been a real challenge. She sure is growing up. She turns 2 in just a few weeks.

I am now 26 weeks pregnant. My third trimester is just about to start. I still feel pretty good for the most part. I have had lots of heartburn lately and I have had a hard time getting to sleep because of it so I have been tired. I still go to Zumba when I can but sometimes when I go I am so tired that I can't do anything else for the rest of the day. Last time I went we made it there on time only to have Annalyn spill her chocolate milk all over in my van. I had some extra clothes for her. I didn't realize until we got there that Brynlee was wearing one pink slipper and one pink snow boot. Apparently she couldn't find a match. Annalyn then spilt my water bottle all over the gym floor. It has been a lot of work to exercise. I have been doing some pregnancy workout videos and going on walks when the weather is nice to make up for my lack of exercise. I have been having fun doing this preschool with Brynlee and her friends. I spent the day Joel watched the kids shopping with my mom and grandma and we even went out to lunch. It was fun to get out of the house. I just need to convince Joel to do it more often.