1st Haircut

I forgot to bring my camera to Emma's 1st haircut - big surprise! I did manage to take a decent picture with my phone and figure out how to get it on the computer. She was a very good girl! Anna was good as usual - she likes getting her hair cut. Both the girls were very good for my haircut too. My hairdresser had two little tiny dogs to play with - my girls were in love!! She also gave them some candy hearts for being so good. It was a good experience for everyone!! So here's my big girl in the chair...Here she is smiling for the camera at home with her new do and wearing a maternity shirt I had sitting out to loan to a friend. She INSISTED!!! that she put it on, and she ran around the house with this dress on for at least an hour. I know you can't really see her hair in the picture, but I thought she looked so cute posing.There's the new do, with a "cheese".I think it makes a cute dress!!Anna wanted a turn wearing it too, but she didn't want her picture made. She was running away from me screaming here. Never a dull moment!I guess she thought she needed a yogurt treatment for her new haircut. You walk away for 5 seconds....My girls have been going through some big changes in the last couple of weeks. Anna has stopped napping for 2+ hours every day - she'll usually still nap for me a 2-3 times a week for an hour or so. I REALLY miss it!!!! Emma is talking so much and tries to repeat everything I say. I forgot to mention on the last post that she calls Anna "Aine". She talks so much that she doesn't want to go to sleep. She just wants to practice talking - it took her 2 hours to fall asleep last night! They have also been getting along much better lately, which I LOVE!!!! Here are some cute sister pics....

And getting ready to go for a ride with Pappa last weekend. Tony held on to Junior leash too. Junior did great, but I won't be trying that!!

Anton is finally home from Puerto Rico. We can't wait to see him tonight!!!!

What my kids are doing

EMMA
- is talking more and more. I can understand most of what she says, but I am probably the only one. She has a VERY sweet & cute voice!
- says OK a lot. It sounds like "uh-kaayye". Here some other phonetic spellings of some of her words that I love:
- Bunny "buh-eee". Bunny goes EVERYWHERE and gets washed at least every other day.
- Monkey "mahn". Her monkey is small and porcelain. She painted it at a friend's birthday party at one of those pottery places. She carries it around as much as I'll let her, and she sleeps with it. Amazingly it only has one chip on it after 3 months. Funny girl!!
- Duck. She pronounces it pretty well and has been saying it for a while. Anything that looks like a bird is a duck.
- Choo Choo. She has this one down. She LOVES Thomas!
- Airplane "eah-plane". We see a lot of them on our frequent walks since we live somewhat close to an airport.
- is wearing mostly size 2T. She can wear some 3T hand me downs if they are shirts or dresses. She can still wear her 12 month shorts/skirts/capris from last year.
- is FINALLY going to get her first real haircut tomorrow. I hope I remember my camera!!
- loves to dance. Sometimes when she does it she'll say "I dancing".
- has started to say some little sentences like "I sit down" or "Mama read book".
- is still a great eater, but has stopped liking a lot fruit. She LOVES asparagus of all things. She also likes tomatoes, avacados and very buttery brocolli. She loves just about any starchy food, except she doesn't always like bread. Neither of my girls will eat a white potato of any kind except french fries.
- Loves to be outside.

ANNA...
- was officially 3 1/2 on Saturday!
- is a great eater.
- seems very grown up all of a sudden.
- asks me "why" about a million times a day. She asks me about almost everything that she sees around her and wants an explanation for all of it. For example... "Mama why is there a police man in the road?" Because there's a lot of cars when it's time to go to school, and he helps everyone get there and be safe. "Why is it time to go to school?" Because this is just when school starts. "Why do teenagers go to school every day?" etc.
- has officially stopped napping just in the last week. For about a month I held on tight to that nap by letting her fall asleep laying down in bed with me, but it's over. I'm still grieving, but I think I'll like having her go to bed earlier once I get used to the new routine. We just started gathering up a basket of toys for quiet play upstairs for 45 minutes. She's still getting used to it.
- wears mostly 4T, but I don't buy her that size anymore unless it's something that is cut long. It's kind of hard to shop for her because it totally depends on how something is cut. Luckily we got lots of great hand me downs from a friend so I'm not shopping much anyway! :) She wears lots of 5's already. Long sleeve things are too long in the arms but they fit her long torso. Short sleaves are easier - she just wears 5's, but she can still fit into some of her 4's from last year. Same with dresses. Spaghetti stas are pretty much out of the question - if they're big enough to cover her belly, they just fall off her shoulders. Pants are a differ story! Luckily the little girl sizes come in 4 slim, which is the size jeans I got her this winter. She can still wear her 24 month shorts and capris from last summer.

ANTON
- was offically 16 1/2 last Tuesday.
- is 6'1", has slightly bigger feet than Tony and wears the same size pants as Tony. He could wear an XL shirt like Tony but he usually prefers a L still.
- is finished with soccer season. He still has band, but only one day a week most weeks.
- is signed up for drivers ed in April. We're all excited!
- eats my healthy food with gratitude (most of it anyway) but eats junk food as much as he can.
- is in Puerto Rico with his mom right now for spring break. He actually went last week because his aunt died and the funeral was there. I hope he's having a meaningful time with his family!
- got a new bike a month or so ago - a used one. It's pretty handy because it doesn't have clipless pedals like my bike so I can use his if I don't want to wear my bike shoes. We both like it a lot.
- really wants to go to UT (that's University of Texas, NOT Tennessee as I first thought when I moved here from Georgia).
- is adored by his little sisters (especially Emma) and his little brother too from what I can tell.

Last Weekend

Last weekend was beautiful! Tony taught Anna how to fly a kite. She LOVED it!

Emma had fun running after Anna. :)

Tony also taught Anton how to do lawnmower maintenance.

Then Anton had to work on a school project with a friend.

They made a little video about recycling with a couple hundred pictures of a bottle helping another bottle escape from the trashcan to go to the recycling box. It turned out really funny! Good job guys!

Anton's little brother and cousin ended up coming over. Anton took them out in the backyard to play dart wars while I cooked dinner.

Emma thought it was all very exciting and managed not to get hit. I think.

Master of the dart wars!

My big girl LOVED hanging out with the big boys.

Hanging out in the hammock after all that hard play!A few cute girlie pictures from during the week... Anna showing off her fashion sense and expert matching job. She's also "pregnant" with the tiny baby doll under her shirt. She gets a kick out of doing that.

Anna likes for me to read "her" book. It's a 1/2 filled photo album of her tiny baby pictures. A few weeks ago when we were reading it, she wanted to get the boppy pillow out and sleep on it like she was in "her" book. She's been sleeping like this ever since.
Emma fell asleep watching TV the other morning. Anna messed with her and she rolled over on her belly and slept in this position for 20 minutes.
My pretty Anna in her Cinderella dress. We tried few ballet lessons, but she's just not into it. She kept telling me she was ready to go a few minutes into the last lesson (which will be the last lesson). I finally relented and she was so excited to leave, jumping up and down saying "now I can go play soccer!". Funny girl!
I didn't take pictures, but I was very excited to order Anton's letterman jacket (for band) on Thursday. It was a nice day so I took the girls on a bike ride up to the school. It was actually quite hot and Emma fussed getting her helmut on. I'm really hoping that was just an off day because I'm really looking forward to hauling them on the bike a lot while the weather is nice! Anyway, I'll be sure to get a picture of Anton in his jacket as soon as it comes in... just in time for the summer heat!

Happy Birthday Tony and Joanna

Tony's Birthday was on the 28th, so here's the obligatory cake pictures...

So happy God made my wonderful Tony! He did such a great job!!!! Practicing for another birthday down the road... Check out little repeat in the corner. :)Joanna's birthday was also a couple of weeks ago, so we had a little playgroup celebration on Friday. Joanna loves cake!! Caaake. Emma loves cake so much she learned how to say it. It sounds soooooo cute!

Anna loves cake too! Aiden declined cake - he doesn't like sweets. Hmmm I think that's a gift. I'm a little jealous!

After everyone left I was trying hard to get a cute picture of my matching girls.

This is Anna eating the plants like Junior. Funny girl!

Praise God for Tony and Joanna!!!

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. " Psalm 139:13-16

Ballet Class

Well I didn't remember to bring my camera to ballet class Tuesday, but thankfully my wonderful friend Jessica asked me if I had it when we were picking up our girls from school that afternoon. Even more thankfully, she let me borrow hers since were were headed straight to the Y. They aren't that great because for some reason, the teacher left the lights off. I was able to lighten them up so you get the idea, but they are pretty grainy. I wasn't able to lighten the little video clips, but I figured my parents might be willing to strain their eyes to try to catch a glimpse of their granddaughter in action!


They started with some 2nd position plies (I had to look up how to spell that!!) I realized looking at the pictures that she's rotating her feet out for some reason. Maybe we'll have to practice not doing that. :) In case you are wondering, no, the teacher didn't notice and correct her. I had no idea what to expect, but it's basically just a fun time for tiny girls to run around in leotards

And eleve...

Emma was very interested in the camera.


Some random shots of leotard cuteness...

Practicing spotting and spinning.

They had the Swan Lake ballet playing. They were pretending to be some kind of animal - a swan maybe?

Anna lost interest in the class for a while and started playing with the yoga mats the spectators were sitting on. We were in this brand new room for the first time, and the teacher wasn't sure if it was ok to bring chairs on the floor. She is one of those crazy artistic types... so she brought in a cart of yoga mats for us to sit on.

I finally chased her off the mats when she started this - after I took a picture!

This is probably the best one - you can see her spinning.

Here you can see the bowlegged plie.

Anna was also doing something really funny earlier this week. I think she must have learned that song in Sunday School that goes... Je-e-sus Je-e-sus, Jesus in the morning, Jesus in the noontime... (with Praise Him and Love Him verses too). So she was singing the Jesus verse, then Bra-a-den Bra-a-den, Braden in the morning... and Lo-o-gan instead of Praise Him and Love Him. Braeden is in her class at school, and Logan is the baby brother of her good friend Aiden. She makes me smile! :)