Three Months Old!

Here we are and our little Anna Kate is three months old!! She is still a easy going baby and tends to go with the flow no matter what is going on around her. She is growing like a weed and is already too long for some of her 3-6 month sleepers and onesies. I don't have any updated stats but should for her next update since she'll have her 4 month check-up the week after Thanksgiving.

Anna continues to show us her personality and she keeps coming more and more "alive!" What I mean by that is her "words" are getting bigger, her cooing is getting longer, her smiles are getting brighter, and she seems to have mastered her theatrical cries when she's ready to eat! :) Why theatrical you ask? Because she usually takes her cries from a level 6 to a level 1 by the time her head hits the boppy! :) What can I say.....when the girl is ready to eat, she's READY to eat. Sounds like someone else I know (ME!).

I've recently given Anna a nickname, Tark, as a result of her new habit. Do you all remember the old UNLV coach ("Tark the Shark") who used to sit on the sidelines and constantly chew on his towel during the basketball games? Well Anna also LOVES to chew on her bib, burp rag, or whatever else she can get into her mouth.....hence her new nickname. She also loves to suck on her thumb and forefinger at the same time resulting in a "cow chewing and regurgitating its food" sound! We need to work on this while we're sitting at the table eating! :)

Anna is definitely going to be a girl who speaks with her facial expressions.....again sounds like someone I know. She is always giving me what I call her "Papa John" face. I can remember sitting on the couch at Papa and Mama's house and getting the feeling that he was looking at me. When I'd look over at him, he would raise his eyebrows and shrug his shoulders with a big grin on his face. Carrie and Maggie, you have to know exactly what I'm talking about! Anna does the same thing. If I'm changing her diaper or doing anything around her so she can see me, I'm usually greeted with that same grin when I look back at her! It's so darn cute!

I can already tell she is in love with Grace! Grace has been waking her up in the mornings (something I'll get on video for you all to see soon!) and she gives Grace the biggest smiles! SO CUTE! I'll have to remind them how sweet they were to each other when they start fighting over each other's clothes! :)

AK is still not sleeping through the night (although she had a good run for about two weeks when she did) and usually gets up around 4am to eat. I know we're getting to the "just let her cry it out phase" but I can tell you I'm definitely not looking forward to that!

Oh and you all will be surprised to know that AK is now sleeping in her crib! WHO HOO! Yep, I cut the cord and finally took the plunge. She still likes to be held during most of her naps (hence the reason my blog posts are ALWAYS behind! :) ) but that's something I can't quite let go and secretly don't mind!

Anna is also very close to turning over! She gets SO close and will roll all the way over on her side, but hasn't gotten past that last hurdle. She is also quickly getting tired of her papasan chair. Every time I put her in it, she instantly tries to pull herself up so she can sit up. I think someone is getting a little too big for her britches! That chair has been a lifesaver so hopefully she'll be ready for her bumbo chair before too long.
That's about all for now. I'll post again next month with her new stats!

Oakes Farm

I look forward to our annual trip to the pumpkin patch nearly all year long (surprise, I know)! We had planned on going the second weekend in October but Matt got sick so we bumped it back a week. It worked out great because Mom and Dad were in town for Anna's baptism and the weather was a little cooler!

We had a quick lunch then headed out on the hayride to the pumpkin patch so Grace could pick out her two pumpkins. Anna couldn't have been more thrilled to be there and slept the entire time! :)

Papa could have searched for hours for the PERFECT, round pumpkin but Grace was getting low on fuel so we grabbed a couple and headed back. This farm has so many fun activities for the kids to do including slides, a blow up jumpy thing (for lack of better words), sand box, "corn maze" for kids, etc. We had one small problem......we got there right at noon and Grace was in desperate need of a nap! BOO!! Grace took a couple turns on the giant slide and we had to hit the road. No need to worry though. We're going to ANOTHER pumpkin patch this weekend with some promising activities that Grace will LOVE including a petting zoo!! YIPPEE!!

Grace got into carving her pumpkin a little more than last year. She was really just interested in all the carving tools which I'm sure her father appreciated! :)

How can you not want to reach in there and pull out all those squishy pumpkin "guts!"

The finished products!! Maybe next year Anna will get to carve hers!!

We've Been Booed!!

It's that time of the year in Franklin Creek again.........We Got Booed!!! YAY!! We arrived home one afternoon to find some Halloween goodies on our porch, and, as you can see from the pictures, Grace was pretty darn excited!! Note to self......PEZ would make a GREAT stocking stuffer!

A couple days later, we got our Halloween surprises together to BOO two more neighbors. Grace decided to go incognito as you can see!! WAHAHA!! She was SUPER excited to do it this year, but she seemed to forget one important factor. She would ring the doorbell and want to stay and chat a while! Surprise, I know! GRACE wanted to stay and talk! HAHA!!

I had to grab her and make a run for it at the first house. And we may have gotten busted at the second house since we didn't pick the best hiding spot!! But we had fun nontheless!!

If your neighborhood doesn't do this, why not start! It's so much fun for the kids AND adults. Go to www.beenbooed.com to print your instructions and see how many people get BoOeD before Halloween!!

Anna Kate's Baptism

We had Anna Kate baptized on Sunday, October 17th. We have such a great church family and were excited about this upcoming celebration! We were very fortunate to have so many family members travel down to Knoxville to help us celebrate this special day!

Nana and Papa arrived on Thursday and Grandma, Aunt "Wala", Jack, Great Nana, and Don all arrived on Saturday. We attended the early service (8:30am) and were all surprisingly on time (thanks to Mom who got to our house at 7:00am to help get the girls camera ready)!
AK wore the same dress that Mom wore as well as Carrie, Maggie, Sophie, Ava, Grace, and myself all wore when we were baptized! How awesome is that!!

After the service, we all came back to our house for a big ol' family dinner (again thanks to Mom who pretty much took care of everything while I was "tending" to AK)! I wish we all lived closer together so we could have big family dinners more often...and so I digress.

Thank you to everyone who made the trip down to TN!! Also, thank you for the special gifts that were given to her to mark this occasion. I have them tucked away to show her when she is old enough to understand just how special they are!!

Oh and there are MORE pics to come! The pictures that we have from the actual baptism didn't turn out. So when I can talk Mom into shipping us the pics from her camera(hint, hint :) ), we'll have some ceremony pics and more family pics to share!

I Found My Squeal!

Anna Kate has a new trick!! She has found her squeal.....and it's pretty hysterical! Every once in a while, I'll hear a huge AAAHHHHHHHHHHWWWAAAAAA!! When I lean down to talk to her after she does it, she gives me a huge smile almost as if she's saying, "Yeah Mom. Did you hear that!" I got an example on video last week and I can't stop laughing at her chubby cheeks and Grace's cameo at the end!!

First Road Trip!!

I'm a little behind with this post, but better late than never right!

I was dying to meet my new niece, Charlie and was trying to decide on a weekend that I could travel to Indiana to meet her. I was going to head north after Matt got home on a Friday and take Anna with me for the visit. I realized that The Apple Festival (which is always the first full weekend in October) was coming up and decided to take the plunge! The only problem was I knew I couldn't leave Grace in Tennessee while I was having fun at "the fest". So what does any normal, sleep-deprived, new mother of two do.........take BOTH girls with me!! How bad could it be? I would be driving for at least 7 hours with a two and a half year old and a two month old!! No problem!!

As it turns out, I was right!! I loaded up the car with what I'm sure was our entire house. I REALLY need to hone in on the fact that Bloomfield is among the civilized and they do have places such as Walmart to get any needed items I may forget or not want to travel with!! I packed a lunch for Grace and I before we left on Thursday morning. This way I could let Grace eat a "picnic" in the car while I fed Anna and kill two birds with one stone. Who knew picnics in the car could be so much fun.....for Grace anyway! :) We only had to make one other stop to feed Anna and we made in a SHORT 8 hours! SHEW!! Both girls did fantastic!! Yes, I was definitely having one of those "I am woman! Hear me roar!" moments!!


I was SOOO excited for Grace to experience the Apple Festival for the first time! I had so many fun memories of it while growing up and I knew she would have a blast! The only problem is there's too much GOOD food to try in two short days. Plus, it had been several years since I had been back so I "NEEDED" to try EVERYTHING!! You see they have these cinnamon rolls that are near the size of your head and I start craving them in September! I included a picture of one and I'm proud to say I polished off 3 (yes I said 3) of them!! We also ate corn dogs, a taco in a bag, Happy Matt's BBQ, kettle corn......let me stop here because my mouth is watering just thinking about it!!

Grace wasn't afraid of anything and rode every ride she was "big enough" to go on.....and even one that she probably shouldn't have! The ferris wheel, tea cups, giant slide, roller coaster, boats, animal safari, she LOVED them all!! That's my girl!!

The Mohr family came on Saturday afternoon and I finally got to meet little Charlie!! Two words come to mind when I think of her: beautiful and teeny!! She was born 6 weeks after Anna and looked so little next to her! Charlie has a little patch of "Who-hair" that sticks straight up and it's pretty hysterical! I do love a baby with some wild hair! I can't wait for Anna and Charlie to start interacting with each other. It will be so much fun to watch them together as they get older! I wish we lived closer together so they could grow up together and buddy up in school. Makes me really miss being closer to home.....sigh!!



We headed to the parade on Sunday and had perfect weather!! Grace got tons of candy, a hard hat, pencils, more candy, and even a stuffed animal from "Elvis!" The infamous "Elvis" from a nearby town hands out stuffed animals to kids every now and then as he walks in the parade. When he handed one to Grace, she hugged it like she just got a souvenir from The New Kids on the Block!!! HILARIOUS!! She also got to shake the cardinal's hand! Yep, she's big time people!!

By Sunday night, we were exhausted and NOT looking forward to our trip home! I just knew I was in for it since the trip north went so well. BUT, I was wrong and it went just as well!! HALLELUIAH!! We only had to make 2 stops again and both girls did great!! One problem I see is we have to add an hour onto our trip with each additional child. When Matt and I first starting making the jaunt to Indiana, it took us 6 hours. Then Grace came along and it took 7. Now with Anna, it takes 8! Ummmmm 3 kids might be pushing the limit a bit! :)





We had SO much fun over the weekend and got to see so many people: Nana, Papa, Grandma, Aunt Maggie, Uncle Adam, Sophie, Charlie, Aunt "Wala", Uncle Brent, and Jack!! I also got to see some classmates that I haven't seen in a LONG time! We got to eat SO much good food (I'll spare you with listing that again)! And got to see Indiana in the fall!! Maybe we'll make the road trip more often!!