Bedtime Stories....

Anna Kate crawled, yes, crawled up and into the crib with Alex the other day. She was "reading" a rainbow book to Alex. :)

Daddy's Birthday Cookie Cake

Anna Kate helped to decorate the cookie cake for Mike's birthday. Needless to say, she left her own kind of impression on the cake.....

Mike had a great day...he got to sleep in both Saturday AND Sunday (when you have a baby and toddler, sleep is a precious commodity!!), lots of cards and gifts. Most importantly, the new lawn mower! If we could only get a break in the rain to actually mow the grass.....

Pool Playdate

Today was my turn to spend some Mama-and-me time with Anna Kate. Mike watched Alex while Anna Kate and I went to a (kiddie) pool playdate, hosted by one of our playgroup moms.

We had a great time this morning! Anna Kate fluttered around the water and dared herself to get in the "middle" pool. She did get in the monster slide pool, and *wanted* to go up. Once I helped her climb up the steps, she didn't want to have anything to do with the big pool :). She was content with the little pool.

Hurricane Anna Kate?

The Weather Channel thinks that we are going to have two storms named Ana and Kate this year, but we have the hurricane known as Anna Kate!! Seriously, check out the named storms for 2009, and Ana and Kate are there. And, no, I won't think it's funny when either one of (the real) storms hit us!!

Our own Category 5 storm is a force to be recked with :). She can empty every storage container and book shelf and strip her bed in no time flat....

The funny part about this toy box...Anna Kate just wanted to be inside of it with the lid closed :). She was happy as a lark 'reading' a few books as she laid on the bottom of the box. Such a silly goose! But that's our Anna Kate for ya!

Sisterly Love

One morning before heading out to take Anna Kate to school, I find Anna Kate in the den like this...

Made my day :).

Miss Alex

Goodness, time flies when you are having fun :)! Alex will be 8 weeks old on Tuesday! Yep, she'll be 2 months old next week...and that means another doctors appointment and shots :(.

Alex is now sleeping through the night (WOO HOO!!) from 11pm to 5am. It is definitely making things more enjoyable around the house. (And I should add that Anna Kate is also sleeping until 6am and her night terrors that plagued her for 3 months have significant subsided!!) So sleep is a beautiful thing around our place!!
Yes, Alex's hair is crazy. We know it. But we love it. It's so fine that it sticks straight up! If it wasn't for the bows, people assume it's a mohawk and that she's a boy. Alex's dark, dark brown hair is also lightening up as well. It's still very brown, but not the almost black that it was when she was born.

And the best part...Anna Kate has finally come around and realizes Alex isn't going anywhere (other than with us!) She will walk over to the door closest to Alex's carseat and say "baby" when it's time to get Alex out of the car. She's said Alex a few times :) as well. And she will get really upset when Alex is crying. Not fun to have 2 girls crying...enough sometimes to make mama cry, too :).

Happy Birthday, Mike!!

Today is Mike's 30-something :) birthday! He wanted to spend the day at Disney and so he did! Disney offers free admission on your birthday and he took full advantage of it, taking Anna Kate with him. Alex and I ran a few errands in Orlando to favorite stores that we don't have in our area, enjoying the air conditioning :) and dodging the rain.

Mike and Anna Kate mostly rode the attractions, but got a few pictures with the characters.

While at Disney, we met up with my friend Emily and her family. They were down here on a vacation and glad we could catch up with them. Emily and I were both DGs---matter of fact, Emily was my DG lil sis. It's been 7 years since we have seen each other! She has the sweetest family and loved meeting her kids. I've been watching them grow up in pictures so it was great finally meeting them!

By the time we got home, we were all tired and both girls need a bath. So we are continuing Mike's birthday with cards, presents and cake tomorrow!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Anna Kate these days...

All my post lately have been about Alex and her updates, so here's what's going on with Anna Kate. (BTW, sorry about the weird formatting--not sure what's going on or why I can't fix it :-/. I'm working on it.)

At first, Anna Kate really didn't want anything to do with Alex. She wasn't ugly to her lil sister, but really just wasn't interested. In the recent days, she has shown more interest (specifically gets upset when Alex has one of her blankets), but is willing to get a diaper/throw a diaper away and help with the bottles.

A funny story about Anna Kate help out: Cleaning up, I found a bottle and sippie cup in the den, and asked Anna Kate to take it to the kitchen for me. I saw her round the corner and then went back to Alex. Well, when I went to the kitchen, I didn't find the bottle or sippie cup. Couldn't figure out what she did with it. Later that evening Mike was playing in Anna Kate's room with her, and when she opened the play kitchen oven door---wah-la! there were the bottle and sippie cups! So when I asked her to take them to the kitchen, technically she did!! I'll be more specific next time :).

Mama's first attempt at pigtails on Anna Kate. Her hair is so fine, the ponytails won't stay :(. But they sure look cute on her! The hands on the face picture----Mike got Anna Kate to put her hands on her face when she said "OH NO!" As you can see in the first picture, she's watching Curious George. Most likely George got into trouble. prompting her to say "OH NO!"

On the way to school this week, Anna Kate and I talk about the cars and trucks on the road with us. We had passed a school bus (she likes to wave to them) and then screamed "COOKIE!" when we passed a Publix truck and a bit upset when I didn't obliged. This was 8.30 in the morning and couldn't figure what promoted her to ask for a cookie. It was a few minutes later when I realized----Publix gives free cookies to kids while their parents grocery shop and so when she saw the Publix "P" on the truck, she thought of cookies! She is such a smart lil thing!

Happy Mother's Day

We hope all the moms in our families are having a special day today! I am :). I got a gift card to a favorite day spa and plan on using that very, very soon! Anna Kate also decorated a heart-shaped cake--with a little help from Daddy--at our local Publix Saturday morning.

The pictures are from Sunday morning after mass, taken at a local park.

For our mothers, Happy Mother's Day!