Annie-1 1/2

Annie is 18 months. She is so funny lately. Here are some random pictures to get a little slide show into my daily life with her. She has on lots of jewelry, one of Matts slippers, a flower hair clip, Kate's headband, and a purse. This is usually how she looks and she does it all on her own, if I try to take anything off of her she freaks out. She loves all things girly. She has quite the personality and knows exactly what she wants and usually fights until she gets it. Yesterday she found a pile of hair clips and brought them to me. She handed me one and then tilted her head for me to put it on, then another and another till her whole head was covered, then she walked away and left them on for a while.

Creative writing

CLEARLY Matt knows MANY things about catching and hitting!

Kate's Black eye

At practice the other night, Kate got hit in the eye while playing catch with another girl. It was a very painful lesson for her to learn to watch the ball. I forgot to take a picture of her that night and this is the next day, you probably wouldn't know if I didn't tell you. It really only looked bad for one day and then it was gone. She was a brave girl and went back out to finish practice with her team. She is learning so much. Walking update...still has not sung the bat, walked both time she was at bat last game and scored both times. Her team only won 4 to 3. I guess you could say she was the MVP for that game. Also, Kate is loving dance and is getting better at that too. She has her recital coming up soon and she has been working hard at learning her dance. I've even seen her practice in the outfield during a softball game.

Kate's a walker

Kate is playing softball again this season. She just moved up to the next league and it is much harder than t-ball. She is the youngest on her team and the shortest by at least a head. Everyone loves Kate's personality and get so excited when she is playing because she is so small and does funny things (like practicing her ballet in the out field instead of watching the game). It's girl fast pitch and the first half of the season when the pitcher got 4 balls then the coach came in and got to finish out pitching the strikes. Now, when they get 4 balls you walk. Kate has hit off the pitcher twice this year but both times has hit directly to first base and gotten out, so no base hit yet (we have some bribes for her for when she does). Last week was the first game with this new rule. Kate got up to bat and walked, first time on base. She was so excited, she stole a base and made it home. She got up 4 times that game and never once swung the bat, she walked twice and struck out twice. I talked to her about still needing to judge the pitches and swing when they look good, but she doesn't see any point in that and has already stated her goal in walking every time. She is really enjoying being part of the game now and is having so much more fun, but I'm afraid her batting will not improve now. O well. She like to steal bases too and everyone laughs when she does because she's not that fast and she runs with her hand up. She's never gotten out stealing yet and has scored every time she's on base so she's doing really good. Last night's game she got up 3 times and walked 3 times, they ended with 6 runs and 3 of those were Kate's. Here is a video I took of her stealing 3rd last night. She is so cute.

Say "Say WHAT?" What?

When Kate was little we tried to get her to say "Say What?", but she would only say WHAT?, not the say. So now in our family we say "Say, Say What? What?". I know sounds lame, but coming from a little toddler Kate it was cute. So here are some funny things the kids said lately. Say Say What? What?

Brandon (to Matt, who just came down stairs to get a drink)-"You kids are being too loud up there."
Matt-"I didn't plan to be."
Brandon-"What?"
Matt- "I didn't plan on being loud."

I was at Target with Kate and we were walking through the Girls clothing department.
Kate (holding up a hot pink ugly mess of a dress)-"Can I get this dress?"
Me-"No, I don't like it."
Kate-"Well they're my clothes, YOU don't have to like them."
(I should of then said something like then YOU can buy your own clothes, but I was too shocked that a comment like that would come out of my sweet baby girls mouth and a little shocked about the dress she was holding up. I got a glimpse into my future with a teenager, yikes).

Again at Target with Kate she wanted to spend her allowance that was burning a hole in her pocket. We were walking down the toy isle.
Me-"You don't need any more Littlest Pet Shop pet"
Kate-"Mommy, it's not about needs it's about wants."

Annie still isn't saying many words, but we can already tell she is going to be bossy. She like to mimic Brandon and I when we are yelling up stairs to the kids. She will stand at the bottom and yells gibberish . Once Brandon was using the laptop on the coffee table and Annie walked up and was about to put her hand on it.
Brandon-"Annie, NO."
Annie-"Don'tdothat."(one word not three)
She now uses that phrase whenever someone is doing something she doesn't like.

I know what you are....

Say it......

Twilight Fan!

Ok so here are some funny videos. If you like Twilight you will like these.




For the Mormon Twilight fans (not to say all can't enjoy).

Twilight Years from Tom on Vimeo.

Annie-12 months*

So Annie is 13 1/2 months, but I just got around to taking her to her 12 month doctor appointment. She is 23 pounds and just started saying Mama a couple of weeks ago. (I love it). At the appointment they gave me the worksheet to fill out for 14-16 month babies. It has questions like... can feed self with spoon? can scribble with a crayon? can say 3-6 words clearly? to name a few that I had to say no on. Well when I met with the doctor (she doesn't know that she is seeing a pediatricians daughter and kind of treats me like I don't know what I am doing) she got on me for saying no to those things. I told her that Annie was still young and that we would work on it in the next few months and lets face it she is a third child. Oh yeah and also there was a question about brushing her teeth morning and night. I just said yes to that even though I don't because I didn't want to hear about it, kind of like when they ask how much TV your child watches and you put 1/2 hour knowing full well that it is much more than that. So chances are by her next appointment at 18 months she probably won't be coloring or feeding herself with a spoon, but I'll just say she is because I'm not worried that she will grow up to never use utensils or drawing devices. However, she sure knows how to throw a tanturm, which I think is very age appropriate.

Monster love

I was at my sis in laws baby shower a few months ago and her friend made her these really cute monsters for her babies. I asked her where she got the pattern and I bought it and made Annie a pink monster just like her cousins. I also bought the doll and monkey pattern from the same artist. My mom made the doll and monkey for her. I made Annie's monster with super furry fabric. She loves it. She hugs it and carries it around with her everywhere. Both Kate and Matt keep asking me to make them one too. Maybe I'll work on that soon.

You should all be jealous...

of me (for many reasons of course), but especially for what I got to do yesterday. Brandon's brother David and his wife Christy have a beautiful baby boy Carter who was 12 weeks premature and is still in the hospital. He is doing well and is just over 4 pounds now. Christy took me to see him yesterday and I got to hold him. It was such a special experience and I have never felt so much love for a baby that wasn't my own. I wanted to put him in my purse and take him home with me. I enjoyed having this wonderful experience and to share it with Christy (thank you Christy for sharing your sweet baby with me). He will probably be coming home in a few more week and then I will get to see him more often. You have to agree his is a perfectly beautiful little baby.

This is my hand (which is not huge). Look how small he is.