8 Weeks

My little chunky monkey is already 8 weeks old . . . time flies!

Excuses, Excuses

Annie is the proud owner of many, many, MANY purses. And like many people who have far too many accessories, she's loaded with excuses as to why she NEEDS these things . . . my two favorite excuses from today:

"I have so many fancy things I need to carry this many purses everywhere!"

and

"Mom, I have to have three purses -- what if people need help holding their stuff?! That's what I'm here for!"


Unrelated to her purse-obsession, earlier today Annie was singing to Isaac, and telling him jokes . . . and to her delight, these things were making him smile from ear to ear. After awhile though, he was starting to get tired and the smiles weren't coming so readily. At one point I listened to this one-sided sibling exchange:

"So Isaac, here's another one . . . Knock knock . . . Who's there . . . Canoe . . . Canoe who? . . . Canoe come inside and play with me . . . [long pause] . . . OK Isaac, let's try that again . . . Knock knock . . . " She proceeded to tell him the whole joke all over again. He still didn't smile, she was bewildered, and I gently explained that he might just be a little young for word play jokes. :-)

First Day of Preschool (Again)

Annie's in preschool for her second year, and couldn't be happier. She was also excited that it was freakishly cold outside this morning so she could wear the new outfit (or one of the new outfits) that Grandma bought her for school.

Here she is, ready to go!

Ellie and Annie posing together.

Here was Annie last year on her first day of school . . .

Annie and Ellie last year.

Back to the present -- here's Annie showing off her new backpack. She'd just been planning on using her old backpack, until she saw this one. Which was in the closet, waiting for Ellie to start preschool next year. Annie took one look at it, and began negotiations, and before I knew it, Annie was walking around with her new backpack while Ellie was happily dragging around Annie's old one. They'd traded. Ellie didn't fare so well in the trade. I didn't know if I should step in and put a stop to it, but as an oldest sister myself, I couldn't fault Annie for getting away with what she can. :-) (Ellie proudly took her 'new' backpack with us when we walked to and from Annie's preschool -- she seems happy with the trade, so who am I to argue.)

Annie and Isaac before school.
I wish I'd gotten her hair done a little earlier, 'cause in all the pictures it's still wet. It dried super cute and curly -- which was a huge relief for me, since I hacked off a couple inches of it yesterday and wasn't quite sure how it would work.

Ellie posing with her 'little' brother -- anyone want to start placing bets on how long it'll be 'til he outweighs her?

My kids.

Red Butte in Pictures

Greg and I took the kids, and my brother Cody and my sisters Talina and Star, with us to Red Butte Gardens today. We spent hours wandering around and enjoying the outdoors. And having cartwheel competitions and taking pictures. Thinking about it, and from watching other photographers there, we were probably the only people at Red Butte today who took almost 200 pictures and not a single on of them was focused on any kind of plant life. :-) The kids (including my siblings) all had a lot of fun.

Here's Aunt Star and Annie walking on the stepping stones in the pond.

Ellie found a pine cone.
And approximately 7000 acorns . . . and she wanted to carry every last one in her pockets.

Star doing an impressive cartwheel -- Cody and Talina standing getting ready to go next.

Cody's technique is very, um, interesting. And cool.

The girls weren't about to be left out, and both tried and tried . . .

"Hi Dad!"

Over in the Children's Gardens (where they'd been changed from jeans into shorts), Ellie played in the water . . .

Annie raced through the mazes with her Aunts and Uncles.
Which was amusing, since most of the passageways are designed for the 6 and under set.

Ellie getting 'caught' by someone in the maze.

Talina, amused by the kids. Or amused by Cody. Probably Cody.

Here's Star and Isaac.

There hadn't been any pictures of him until now, 'cause he slept the first hour or two we were there.

Annie

Annie behind the waterfalls

Isaac, highly amused by something Star just said.

This was Greg's favorite picture he'd taken of Annie all day.

This was my favorite one I took of Isaac all day.

Talina, Star and Isaac, with Cody chilling out on a gigantic lizard in the background.

Annie posing by on her lizard.

Taking time to smell the flowers . . .

Look, it's me! :-) I was actually there. You know, to feed the baby. Change the baby. Keep the baby asleep. :-)

Ellie, Talina, Star, Annie and Cody were chasing each other around the edge of the sandbox pit.

It was so much fun. I just loved getting outdoors and walking around for hours. Especially in such a pretty place. I couldn't stop thinking about how soon Cody's going to be leaving for his mission . . . and it makes me both sad that he won't be here, and motivated to get as many of these kinds of activities in before he leaves as possible!

Ready, Set, GO!

Uncle Cody playing in the fountain at Red Butte Gardens

Videos from Red Butte Gardens

Ellie 'cartwheels' :-)

Cody, Talina, Ellie and Annie doing cartwheels (or attempting to, at least.)



Annie liked the acoustics in this Native American hut display for singing . . . Ellie joined in . . .

Meeting Great Grandma Verla

I've mentioned it before, but it's worth mentioning again: My kids are extremely lucky. They have four Grandparents who live within 20 minutes or so of us, and another four Great-Grandparents who all live less than an hour from our home. They see all of their Grandparents at least fairly regularly. Great-Grandma Verla lives the furthest away though, and is unfortunately the one we see the least. We were last out to see Greg's sweet Grandma for a 4th of July family party. Held on July 5th, we left the party with the promise we'd be having this baby ANY day now (I was already 6 days overdue -- I had hoped that Murphy's Law would dictate that if we drove the hour or so from our hospital down to Grandma's house, I was bound to go into labor when I was there, since it was the furthest we'd been from the hospital in a couple months. Turns out, labor got started within hours of us coming home that night and I had Isaac very early the morning of the 6th). Since then though, with three small children and Greg's work schedule, we had not made it down to see Grandma and introduce her to one of her newest Great-Grandchildren (Isaac is one of many coming the second half of 2010 and early 2011 -- the kid will have a plethora of 2nd cousins his age on this side of the family.) So today was Greg's first day off work this week for this set of shifts, so we headed out to introduce Isaac to his Great-Grandma. I may be biased, but they both seem smitten . . .

Here's Greg, Annie, Ellie, Grandma Verla and Isaac.
How ridiculously happy do the girls seem?
And how huge is Isaac?! This is a 3-6 month outfit on my 7-week old. And not the first one he's worn!

Ellie and Annie acting like the best of friends. This lasted the first half of our visit. Then they went crazy and fought over everything and cried at the drop of a hat. Which, I assure you, is about the funnest thing when you're visiting members of your husband's family that you see less than you'd like. It's all me going, "Oh, they're just crankier than usual today!" and "We had to wake Ellie up when we got here . . . " and "I guess she's not the only tired one!" Sigh. :-)

After a couple hours, I decided it was time to leave when all three of my children had been reduced to tears on multiple occasions in less than five minutes. Annie had the all time biggest freak out though, when Greg and I asked her to please go at least attempt to use the bathroom before we left for an hour long drive. But of course, such a cruel request can only be met with A SOLID TEN MINUTES of weeping, crying and screaming at us. There was foot-stamping and foot-dragging as well. This is on the heels of Annie's many recent freak outs at home, and such previously-unheard-of-from-Annie comments like "You can't tell me what to do," to HER GRANDFATHER at Sunday dinner with Greg's parents, when I bravely ventured out with all three children by myself (Greg was working) to his parents' house for the afternoon and evening. This kid is embarrassing Greg and I in front of his sweet elderly Grandmother, pushing every last one of my buttons, screaming at Ellie for the slightest reason AND being disrespectful to her elders. All in less than a week.

Unrelated and just thinking out loud here . . . but do y'all think USPS or UPS is the cheaper way to ship a kid to Siberia?

(My well-worn mantra right now: It's all just a phase, it's all just a phase, it's all just a phase . . .)

Annie is cute as a button with her little brother though -- singing to him, bringing him toys, talking to him in sweet voices. And when she wants to, she just melts my heart by gushing about how much she loves me and loves spending time with me. And dang, she can be adorable with Ellie. Helping to dress her up in giant wings and showing her the correct way to wield a fairy wand. I'm trying to focus on this kinda stuff right now. (But seriously!? "You can't tell me what to do," to her Grandpa and a ten minute screaming meltdown in front of her Great-Grandmother!?!?) [Deep breaths, Hilary]. Have I mentioned she's going back to preschool next week? And how EXCITED we both are? (For completely different reasons, I'm sure. Actually, on rethinking that, she's probably as ready for the breaks from me as I am from her. It's been a long summer for both of us, and a little time apart is probably just what the doctor ordered. Not an actual psychiatrist type of doctor or anything. At least, not yet.)

(She is freakishly adorable though, isn't she?)

And just to prove she isn't the only one sportin' attitude around here . . .
(Poor Isaac, he has NO idea what he's in for growing up in this house!)

Here's Isaac, just being all chill and not an emotional-whirlwind-of-tears . . .
(His tears are mostly related to wet diapers, and wanting to eat!)

Again, when they're happy . . . freakishly adorable . . .