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.

Christmas Cards

I've had a hard time sending out our Christmas cards this year. They just kept getting pushed back, until finally Brandon took charge and addressed all the envelopes yesterday. I am not doing a card this year, just a picture. I am hoping that you can read my blog to catch up on what's going on with us.

My sweet friend Sarah took our pictures for our cards. I think she did a great job, check out her photography blog for even more of us!

You know Dasher and Dancer.....

But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all?

Matt put on Kate's dance outfit from last year and was running around as Rudolf. Brandon and I were laughing pretty hard. I'm sure this is something he won't be too excited about when he is in high school, but until then, enjoy!

You've heard of pictures with Santa, what about pictures with Rudolf?

Pictures with Santa

The kids got to sit on Santa's lap and get their pictures taken at our ward Christmas party. Annie didn't seem to mind a bit, we were hoping for a funny picture, but instead we got a happy one as usual.

Annie-1 year

I can't believe my baby is 1. This past year has gone by too fast. We had a little family party for her on Thanksgiving. She didn't care for opening presents or for eating her cake. Annie still has 4 teeth, is standing up on her own in the middle of the room, but not walking yet. She has taking a couple of steps as she moves from the coffee table to the couch. She doesn't say any words, but Dada, but she is almost always talking. We love having Annie in our family and are excited for another year full of exciting firsts.

Quilting times 2

Brandon's brother David and his wife Christy are expecting twin boys. Christy is doing an owl theme for their nursery. I made these quilts for them, but I copied the idea and the style of the owls from some art her friend made for the room. I think they turned out cute.

I have a Visitor in my house

Brandon is watching the premier of the new show V wearing his V costume (from the 80s miniseries) that I made him a few years back for Halloween. He put it on as a joke, but as you can see in the 2nd picture he kept it on to watch.

Quilt Exchange

I joined another quilt exchange with some friends. There are 12 of us and each gets a month and everyone makes a block for them during their month using fabrics you pick and rules you set. I got the month of October and so of course I had to do a Halloween quilt. This is what I got back. (I am missing one in the picture, but I will post each of the block individually later so you can get a closer look). I am really excited to put these together to make a fun quilt. Stay tuned for a completed quilt soon. The one I made is the spider web pattern (bottom right).

Kate playing Softball

Kate played softball again for the winter season. She learned so much and did so well. She had a great coach and really enjoyed playing. In complete contrast to our football season, we really enjoyed attending Kate's games. We also discovered that Kate is really good at the batting cages and to Brandon's delight they liked having a daddy daughter date there. Kate's team played on Halloween and Kate dressed up like a bat (not a baseball bat, ha).

May the Trick or Treating be with you....

We had a Star Wars themed Halloween this year. Kate was Princess Leia, Matt was a Clone trooper, and Annie was an Ewok.

Carving Pumpkins

The kids carved their own pumpkins (pretty much all by themselves) this year. Matt really loved his happy face, Kate made a scary one and Brandon is excited for the new season of V and showing his support with his pumpkin.

Annie-11 months

This Halloween Annie is 11 months old. Have you every seen something so scary??? Annie is such a sweet and happy baby. No new teeth yet (besides her green vampire teeth that only come out on Halloween) and she isn't walking yet (thankfully). She calls me Dada and says AAAA for Matt and I know that only because she copys me when I yell his name. It's no surprise that she would say his name before anyone else since she hears it the most often when we have to constantly yell at him to get off of her. He sure does love his sister and it drives us crazy sometimes.