Sunny days, keepin' the clouds away...

We've had several park days and just playtime outside this past week. The weather has been so nice, sunny, cool and breezy, perfect for the park, riding bikes out front, or swinging out back.

These were taken at the park on a really big slide:

Annie just doesn't know what she is missing:
These are out back on our swing set:

Annie doesn't really like to swing (we found out right after this picture was taken):

Gwyn LOVES to swing:

We used to call Annie pipsqueak because when she was little (like 2 months ago) and sleeping in the Moses basket, she would make these little peeps and we'd tell her that she had better "pipe down little pipsqueak." So, the people at Gap must have heard this story, and they made this little onesie that had a mouse on it and it says pipsqueak below it, and they knew I would buy it for her, which I did and here she is (she just about to let loose and cry in this one because I was trying to get a good picture and Gwyn came up and jumped in her face and scared her):

Jacob had Dad's night at his preschool, he and Brian had alot of fun and were once again the first ones there and the last to leave. Jacob had made Brian a tie, answered a cute questionaire about Brian (which was hilarious!), they made birdfeeders, ate pizza, drank kool-aid, ate cookies, and had some real "guy" fun.
Jacob showing off his craft to Gwyn, she was jealous that she didn't get to go, but she got to go out on a "girls" night to Jason's Deli and Barnes and Noble to pick out a book...she didn't think it was a good alternative.

Rick was in for one night this week, Gwyn said she wanted to slide down, and we didn't know what she was talking about until she climbed up onto Rick's back and slid down...then came Jacob right behind her!
I had to put this picture in here, just so everyone knows how early our days start. Gwyn gets up usually at 5:45 am, she walks into the living room and sits on the chair and then after eventually a few minutes starts yelling "Mommy!" "Daddy!" Jacob soon follows around 6:30 am, and I believe I took this picture of them already dressed up and ready to play at about 6:45 am one morning this week. Brian and I usually take turns during the week on who has to go out into the living room with them....it usually depends upon how bad of a night Annie has had (she is still eating around 8 pm, 12 am, 4 am, and 7 am), it isn't too bad since Brian gets up at 6:30 am anyway during the week, but really, when will these kids learn to sleep in on the weekends?!?! Did Brian and I do this to our parents and we are reaping what we sowed here or what? I only remember the opposite, me wanting to sleep in, but being drug out of bed early on Saturday mornings, I'll just blame this one on Brian :)

Annie is paid off!

The big news of the week....I wrote the last check for all the hospital bills and Annie is paid off and we officially own her! The weather has been super nice here, so we've had plenty of outside playtime. Jacob is getting super excited about Dad's night at his preschool on Monday, they have been working pretty hard on a special project, but it is a secret! At tadpoles, Jacob decorated a rock with hair, feet, eyes, nose, and mouth and named it Tiny...Gwyn shows it off to everyone and tells them it is Tiny. She also pulled the feet off and we had to re-glue those on.

I haven't taken any pictures this last week, so I uploaded all 3 of the kids in the bumbo seat at 3 months...they are all related, huh?

Jacob @ 3 months:

Gwyn @ 3 months:

Annie @ 3 months:

A Motley Crew

We, as usual, have had a "never a dull moment" week. Let's see what I can think of in my 15-minutes-of-weekly-blog-time-that-I-can-barely-squeeze-in-each-week that happened in the last week...Jacob's field trip at school to the fire station, a trip to the park for some fun with some friends which included Jacob saying that a tree "needed a drink" right before he peed on it, a trip to the dr for our second boosters of H1N1 vaccinations for Jacob and Gwyn, a burst sprinkler system valve due to our freeze last Saturday morning, a visit from Maddy and Erika where the kids had alot of fun playing together, a visit to my bible study kick off where we basically got kicked out after 30 minutes because Gwyn fell off a chair and wouldn't stop crying (only 5 minutes later as we are walking out the door to be laughing and gallopping out the door chasing Jacob), a epic breakfast of homeade crepes prepared by Jason, a birthday party for Carter and Cole, dinner with our Sunday school friends where Jacob chased their 3 older kids around the house with a toy bazooka gun, Annie's first taste of both a donut hole (by Jacob) and a piece of ice (on her neck from Gwyn...poor baby!) in the same day, dinner out...yes, I repeat...dinner (well, lunch) out with all 3 kids after church on Sunday at our favorite mexican spot (Lupe's) where Gwyn downed an entire order of guacamole and Jacob devoured cheese enchiladas, he's really good at twisting his fork to get ALL the cheese, and Annie slept the whole time!, daily outside playtime in the cul-de-sac, and of course our normal day to day trips, spills, spit ups, etc.

Here is sweet baby Annie and her beautiful smiles!

Maddy's visit: (and no, Jacob isn't picking his nose, he's touching it and this was the best picture of the 15 that were taken)

Gwyn gets lessons daily from Jacob on how things work to which she replies "O...K"

Jacob's trip to the fire station, the second shot was a right before he freaked out because while he was in the truck the other fire truck blew its horn and he thought he did it:

This is Gwyn with her Motley Crew...she is a hoarder and she hoards toys all over the house. Here are her favorites for this week...a tiny dinosaur, a pirate, a fairy, a fireman, and a chipmunk:

She is so cute!

Top 50 Memorable Moments of 2009 (in no particular order)

1. The birth of Annie Jaye.
2. Seeing Annie smile.
3. Watching the kids with their new baby sister.
4. Watching the love develop between big brother and little sisters, Jacob will always be Annie and Gwyn’s protector, and they will always be his biggest fans.
5. Cherishing each moment of little Annie’s first couple of months, they grow up so fast!
6. Experiencing “the canon” from Annie.
7. Annie, who is such a good baby, was once called a bad apple from both Brian and I (I think this was around 3 am on both instances!)
8. Dressing Annie up in some of Gwyn’s newborn outfits.
9. Hearing Annie coo for the first time.
10. Barely fitting all 3 car seats into both of our cars…come on Brian, I need that Expedition!
11. Watching Gwyn dance around in a tutu at her 1st birthday party.
12. Listening to Gwyn count.
13. Having the nursery worker at church say that if Gwyn cries they take her over to Jacob’s classroom because seeing Jacob makes her happy.
14. Trip to the ER to get stitches in Gwyn’s finger (this one was NOT fun).
15. Watching Gwyn turn into a Dora addict.
16. Listening to Gwyn repeat everything you say.
17. Gwyn sleeping in her big girl bed!
18. Hearing Gwyn say, “I want to hold you.” When she wants you to hold her.
19. Watching Gwyn gallop outside like a horse.
20. Experiencing the wrath of Gwyn when I tried to take her pacifiers away…she still has them.
21. Jacob turning 3.
22. Jacob riding a bike with training wheels.
23. Jacob speaking in full sentences!
24. Hearing Jacob ask when Gwyn will get up from her nap because he misses her and wants to play with her.
25. Watching “super Jacob” turn into Spiderman daily.
26. Jacob being potty trained.
27. Jacob’s Christmas Program at his preschool, where Annie was baby Jesus.
28. Listening to Jacob tell Gwyn about Jesus.
29. Jacob telling us the story of Jonah and the big whale.
30. Telling stories to Jacob about when he was a baby before bed.
31. Weekend getaway to Brenham for Brian and Phoebe (thank you Rick/Sue for watching the kids).
32. Finding out we were pregnant with Annie.
33. Trip to Tulsa to celebrate Gwyn’s 1st birthday.
34. Trip to Florida to visit John and Claudia.
35. Trip to Tulsa in June to visit family and friends…the kids had a blast with all the grandparents.
36. Everyone dressed up in their Cardinals red for a baseball game in July.
37. Trip to Tulsa for Christmas and Stacy’s wedding.
38. Putting together Gwyn’s new room with all of Brian’s beautiful furniture he made for her.
39. Taking all three kids to see Santa.
40. Phoebe leaving her 20’s behind!
41. Brian riding the MS150 from Houston to Austin.
42. The kids dressed up as Spiderman / a puppy / and a little skeleton for Halloween.
43. Celebrating Christmas and New Years with John and Claudia.
44. Brian dancing with Gwyn at Stacy’s wedding.
45. Leaving the kids with Jason while Brian and I went on a few date nights.
46. Watching our house be consumed by toys and crunched up goldfish!
47. Watching the kids run to the front door each day yelling “Daddy’s home!” (myself included!)
48. Hearing Jacob and Gwyn pray.
49. Watching Brian pack Jason’s car to/from Oklahoma with all our stuff…he’d so win “Top Packer” if there was a reality show like that!
50. Thanking God everyday for our awesome kids.

This list was supposed to be Top 100 of 2009, but I ran out of time and energy to complete the list!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We have had a whirlwind past couple of weeks. We left for Oklahoma last Tuesday, we stopped in Dallas to see Emily, Grace and sweet baby Sadie. We celebrated Christmas with Brian's family, my family, and went to Stacy's wedding where Jacob was the ring bearer and Gwyn was the flower girl. While we were there we were able to visit with Brian's grandpa who came down from St. Louis, saw Neely and her sweet girls, Nick and preggo Erika and little Rafael, and lots of family in for the wedding. We came home to welcome John and Claudia for a few days from Florida, it was great to see them, and fun to set up Gwyn's room...she will be moving into her big girl bed within the week so that Annie can have the nursery. We rang in the New Year...well, we didn't quite make it til midnight, but we did have a great visit with them!

This is short and sweet with lots of pictures because I'm low on time, lots to do to take Christmas down in the next two days! We had so much fun in Oklahoma, but we came home with exhausted cranky kids, who were ready to be back on a schedule and in their own beds!

Here are the happy bride and groom:

Annie smiling:

Brian shoveling snow in Oklahoma (we got 8" while we were there), and the kids playing:

Precious baby Sadie and the kids playing when we stopped to see Emily on the drive up:

Christmas celebrations:

Bridal brunch, Gwyn getting ready, Daddy dancing with Gwyn:

The kids with Neely's girls:

Group picture with John and Claudia:

Jacob as a fireman!

Gwyn playing dress up:

Annie sitting in the bumbo...this is round 3 for the bumbo: