Cousins

Last week, Laura, Mallory and Adam came to visit! We tried to work something out earlier in the summer so Ed could come, too, but alas, his and Matt's work schedules didn't allow that to happen.


On Tuesday, we met up with them at the Toledo Zoo.

This is the girls "fighting." They started it when they were sitting together in the double stroller, prompting Laura to tell them to stop while they were seated, and they could "fight" when they got out. Not something she'd ever thought she'd say, but it surpisingly did not end in tears so no harm done. :)

After the zoo, we all headed back to Ann Arbor for our visit. That night, Laura and I even got a quick girl's night out! (Of sorts, Laura still had to get up with Adam and all four kids were raring to go bright and early the next day) But it was nice to get some kid-free time. The kids were pretty well-behaved the whole time, even taking simultaneous naps the next day. We had a great time and hope they come back again soon!

Kate looks like she is being nice to Adam, but she was really trying to steal his paci the whole time. And Adam is relegated to a pink bouncy seat here at our girl's paradise. ;)

This was the best we could do of all four of them.

Annie and Mal making muffins in their princess jammies.

Stuffs

Just a typical afternoon

Annie has become a bag lady. She is obsessed with what she calls "my stuffs" or "my everythings."
She carries multiple bags filled with junk around with her everywhere we go. It's worst at home because I don't really care what she does with her toys here, but it's getting a little out of hand when we leave. I've finally limited her to one (ok, sometimes two) bags to take in the car, and then it all has to stay in the car when we go inside our destination.
Bedtime is fun, too, because how could she possibly sleep without all her stuffs?! We've been trying to break of her this habit, but it is so hard. And I read that it's normal for toddlers to do this to exercise some sort of control over their lives. And really, I think there are a probably any number of ways we're screwing her up, so I don't want to add to that ;).
So, for now, we just trudge along with all her everythings. No matter how frustrating it might be if she were to come into my bed after Matt left for work at 5 a.m. and have to carefully place all the stuffs in just the right spot AND put the Mr. Potato Head feet next to the door just in case a strong wind should blow and the door slam shut.

For the curious, at any one time, her stuffs include:
Lovey and Kitty (of course, we can't do anything without them)
Princess backpack
Dora purse (x2)
Pink monkey
Ellie the Elephant
Light up egg thing she got for Easter (which I'm pretty sure is going to throw Kate into a seizure one of these days with the way Annie sticks it in her face constantly)
Necklaces and bracelets
Change (Monies)
Mini Care Bears
"Jingle socks" our neighbor made for her
Big girl underwear
Random shirts/nightgowns that in any way resemble "princess dresses"
Shoes
Play cell phons
Tutus
Tiaras
A pumpkin she Trick-or-Treat-ed with last year
Puzzle pieces
Princess cards


I really could go on all day, but I'll stop. A few days ago, my mom said she didn't want to buy anything for Annie out of fear it would just end up as one more part of the stuffs.

Most of her stuffs and our pillows. She was supposed to be helping me make the bed.

Dexter Daze

It has a dumb name, but the annual Dexter festival is a lot of fun. We had dinner with our old neighbors and then walked down to the town square (really, it's small town America and there is a town square complete with a gazebo) to take in the festival. It was a lot of fun. There were a ton of local vendors selling all sorts of cool stuff (new, cute headbands for Kate!!), a live band and a beer tent. We didn't know about the beer tent beforehand, so we weren't able to check that out with the kids. But, the live music was great, and as usual, Annie was quite the little attention hog as she danced to the music.

Madison, Annie, Kate and Sabrina.

Madison got her face painted, and Sabrina got some funky green hair spray :)

Annie very much enjoyed her chocolate ice cream.

Papa and Aunt Ruthie

Papa and Aunt Ruth came to visit twice recently, and I haven't blogged either time. So, they came and we had a great time! They brought Annie this amazing kid's rocking chair, which she loves. It's so cute and so sturdy I think Annie's kids will be sitting on it, too. She pulls it front of the t.v. every morning to watch her morning shows.

Papa being silly with Kate

During the second visit, Papa redid our closet for us. We have a huge closet, but it was a total disaster because it had tons of space with only shelf. Being that organization expert that he is, Papa helped us change all that. Prepare to be jealous:

Annie wanted to get in the closet pictures. Then she wanted one all by herself with two of her precious "stuffs" (more on that later)

And a bonus pic of Papa with the girls last time we were in Cleveland

Thanks Papa and Aunt Ruth for everything! We had a great time, and we love you! :)

Sisterly Love

Lately, Annie has been all about getting her picture taken with Kate. :)

Swing!

Kate loves baby swings. Loves them. She smiles and laughs like crazy whenever we go to the park. Lucky for her, Aunt Carol and Uncle Matt had a perfect one right in their backyard!

Model Madelyn

As neither of my own children have ever been this cooperative, I had fun playing around with Madelyn at Brady's party. Her mom says she has a shortage of pictures of Maddee (she's the third, it happens), so I was happy to help out. She is such a sweet, relaxed baby!

Madelyn Grace, 6 months

Brady's Birthday

Brady turned 4 on August 18. (4?! Why are these children growing so quickly??) His party was the weekend before, and the girls and I were happy to be a part of it. It was great to visit with the family, and the girls had so much fun running around with all the kids.

The birthday boy

Annie was fascinated by all the "boy" toys

Annie and Ella playing nicely in the sandbox. No, really, they were. There was not one sand-throwing incident. Way to go, girls!

Grandma Ralls, Kate and Maddee (who apparently was not interested in sharing Grandma)

Happy Birthday, Brady!

"My Jackie"

Aunt Jackie and Grandpa came to visit for a day while Jackie was on leave and in the general vicinity of Michigan. Annie loves visits from them both, so this was extra special for her. She calls Jackie "my Jackie" and was asking for her for many days after she left.

There were more pictures, but they turned out blurry and backlit and unusable. So I'll just to take that many more next time we see them!

Mommy's Friends

Shouldn't that be on a Christmas card? ;)

I forgot to post this a few weeks ago. My friends Kathleen and Kristy visited with us in Cleveland, and Annie loved them. For weeks after, she would say we were going to play with Mommy's friends. She's quite the little Bobcat in the making. :)

The Firehouse

I'm way behind on blogging, so these are going to be way out of order. But anyway, this week while in Cleveland, my mom and I took the girls to my dad's firehouse for a visit. Our good buddies Callista, Bella, Lucy and Anna (their new au pair), and Laura, Mallory and Adam joined us for some good old fashioned firehouse fun.

I was worried the girls would be scared of all the big, loud, dirty firehouse gear, but it turned out great. The girls had such a great time playing with all the different things, and they even got to take a ride on the fire truck (Thanks Dad and Mr. Hoch!).

Annie, Grandpa and Bella with the fire hose. Bella was a little unsure at first.

But she got the hang of it pretty quickly!

Annie loved it. She kept saying "I spray Mommy!" Um, nope.

Being little fire girls is exhausting. Time for a juice break and some coloring.

I stole all these pictures from Callista's blog because my camera battery was dead. I'll post more when I steal the others off Laura's Facebook page. :)

Happy Anniversary

Happy Four Years to us!

Goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

We took a trip back to our old stomping grounds last week and visited the Toledo Zoo. We hadn't been there since we moved to Michigan! We used to live right down the road and would go all the time. We missed it, and we had a great day!

It was really sunny :)

Taking a ride on Daddy's shoulders

The aquarium was a big hit with both girls.

Annie loved this sea lion (or whatever it is...)

How Kate spent most of the day

Big Girl

At her nine month doctor's appointment, Kate weighed 19 lbs, 3 oz and was 29 inches long! She is in the 91st percentile for height. The doctor said she's just going to be tall and skinny :)

Now, she's too big for the baby car seat already! Annie lasted in it until her first birthday.

Nine Months

Kate is nine months old today! She has officially been out as long as she was in. :) I cannot believe she is nine months old. She is a crazy child these days. She is into everything. She is making Annie go nuts. All day long, she chases after Annie and attempts to sneak away some of whatever Annie is using. Or she's not sneaky at all and just tries to rip it right out of Annie's hands. Thus, all day long I hear, "KATE! NO! KATE!" Despite all Annie's yelling and pushing, Kate is undeterred. She is quite a persistent little girl.

Her most favorite toy is the stairs. She loves to climb them. She giggles hysterically when we catch her climbing up and pull her up off the stairs.

She is also loving big girl foods. She still eats baby food, but she's been trying out table food more and more. Last night, she had some Sloppy Joe's. Two more teeth have sprouted, but you can't see them in pictures because they are the top teeth to either side of the front teeth (which she doesn't yet have). Weird, but true.

Now, if she would just sleep consistently through the night, she'd be the perfect baby....