We've got a yeller...

This past week, Annie turned 5 months old. She now does a number of fun things: yells (and I do mean loud!), she rolls all the way over like crazy, she is working on sitting up and doing quite well, although the nose dives happen quite frequently, she belly laughs (but only at Jacob) and she has started sitting in her highchair when she eats her cereal once / day. Here she is at 5 months, and again I pulled Jacob and Gwyn's pictures out when they were 5 months so we can see how much they look alike, or don't!

Annie @ 5 months:

Jacob @ 5 months:

Gwyn @ 5 months:
It was green day at Jacob's school this past week, and we take the color green very serious around here. Jacob decked himself out in his Handy Manny underwear (green), green pants, his favorite Hulk green shirt, and his shoes even had green on them. Needless to say it was his favorite color, but of course since Jacob said it was green day, that meant it was for Gwyn too.

We broke down and went to Pei Wei after church on Sunday because Jacob is asking constantly about going to "that place where you eat the chicken with the sticks." I've got to give it to him, he can put down an entire order of honey seared chicken by himself, and impressively he uses the chopsticks as well!

Poor Gwyn had to have several breathing treatments this week, she caught a cold (and gave it to Annie a few days later, and then to Jacob a few days after that, so one cold lasts us at least 2 weeks around here!). Anyway, her colds sometimes go straight to her lungs and thankfully she is doing much better, but it just breaks my heart when I see her weezing and it being so hard for her to breathe. Hopefully, she will grow out of this and it won't be asthma.

I did get pulled over by a cop the other day for speeding, I was going 62 in a 50 on this wide stretch of road and honestly I didn't know the speed limit and had no idea what I was going. Needless to say, it was really nice to have two screaming girls in the back seat that day, the cop let me off with a warning, so thank you Gwyn and Annie for saving me a couple of hundred $$! On another note, I will watch my speed more closely, I have precious cargo I'm hauling around!

Oh and when I mentioned that Annie yells, she does. At church, I had fed Annie and then gave her back to the nursery worker, I then walked out to use the restroom and peek my head in to check on Jacob and Gwyn and I can hear her yelling in the hall (yes it is weird, I can tell it is my yelling or crying child from a ways away). I go back in, and she is sitting in the exersaucer and yelling at this toy, then she would hit it with her hand, smile, then yell. The nursery worker told me at first they thought she didn't like being in there, but then they saw she liked it, she just likes to yell when she plays. Great! That is just what our house needed was a yeller at an incredibly high octave! She fits right in!!! I told Brian the other day that I would really hate having a conversation with me, the kids are loud and I can never really finish a sentence, and now we've got a baby who likes to yell for fun!!

Here are a couple of random pictures...Jacob in a variety of dress-ups...spiderman, batman's belt, and a racecar driver vest??

Precious little Gwyn is so sweet!

Brian gave Annie her first taste of lemon when we met him for lunch when Jacob was in school on Friday, she sucked nearly all the juice of it out...can you believe she liked it???

Spring Break Week

Spring Break week was alot of fun, but somehow the only one worn out is me! We started the week off with 3 hours at Chuck E Cheese, which I had been reminded about daily from Jacob that we hadn't been there in a "long, long time!" We met some friends there and sadly, Gwyn has learned the funnest part of the game is putting in the tokens and then walking off, but 3 hours and $30 later, we did manage to walk out of there with a mini tootsie pop for both kids, a plastic spider for Jacob, and a pink princess ring for Gwyn. When we got home later, Jacob asked if we could go again after dinner! Jacob thought air hockey was the greatest game, although he was cheering everytime I scored a point on him! Thankfully Annie spent about 1 hour of the time riding around in the carrier asleep, so I was able to chase after Jacob and Gwyn.

Tuesday was rainy and muggy, so we spent the day at home having fun...even snacktime can turn into playtime. Here is what Jacob and Gwyn did when I set them up with a snack while I went to feed Annie...also note that unpopped popcorn kernels REALLY hurt when you step on them on a wood floor. I also put in that picture of Jacob making Annie smile...he says she really likes him!
Wednesday we spent playing at a really nice park in Katy, here are Jacob and Gwyn having fun. I also learned that it is a BAD idea to dress your kids in green when going to a busy playground on St. Pats day during Spring Break...too many kids running around in green about gave me a heart attack trying to keep up with them. Jacob was given an assignment to watch out for Gwyn, and he did a pretty good job. He said he was watching out, so that no kids were mean to Gwynnie.

Annie rode around with Mommy and had a pretty good time:

Later that night, green waffles for dinner...Gwyn like hers with alot of butter!

Thursday we pretty much just played at the house, and took a trip over to Jason's apartment. The kids love going over there, he has several kids shows taped for them, and they usually eat him out of all his snacks...I think they polished off half a box of wheat thins while we were there! Of course, everyday ends with playtime outside with Daddy!

On Friday, Brian got off early, so we took the kids to the Houston LiveStock Show and Rodeo...we didn't stay for the rodeo, just took part in the carnival and animals. Here are the kids testing out some of the John Deere tractors:

They thought Daddy was so cool when he won this enormous dog for them (the thing sheds like crazy, so I'm sure it will end up in the trash very soon), but look at Jacob's face! He was so proud of his Daddy! It reminded me of when I was little and my Dad won two dolls at bingo and I took one to show and tell in Kindegarten and told everyone how my dad was so good at bingo!

Here they are with some cows...when I told Gwyn we were going to the rodeo I told her she could see some pigs and she said "and dinosaurs?" I don't think she was disappointed even though they didn't have any dinosaurs.

Well, that about sums up our week. We did have to fill out paperwork for the kids' preschool next year. I filled out Jacob's and Brian filled out Gwyn's. It asked for talents on Jacob's and I put "he runs super fast." On Gwyn's, he put that her talent was that she had x-ray vision (I'm sure they will be entertained by her application), and on listing her fears he had to put Santa Clause and Chuck E Cheese.

Every night when we put Jacob to bed we had been telling stories about when he was a baby or when he and Gwyn were babies, but we ran out of stories having done this for about a year now. The new thing is that Jacob tells Brian his favorite and least favorite parts of his day. This is pretty entertaining....some of his favorite things have been playing with Gwynnie, when Gwynnie chased him, green waffles for dinner, etc. Some of his least favorite things have been when it rained outside and he couldn't play outside, when Gwyn bit him on the finger, or when Gwyn hit him. He's such a sweet little boy, and he prays right before bed and he prays for all of his family, and that he would get to watch some kids' shows!

Jacob & Gwyn = Pete & Repeat

Meet Jacob and Gwyn. Bat Boy and Bat Girl. Cowboy and cowgirl. Doctor and nurse. Spiderman and spidergirl. Superman and supergirl. This brother-sister bond is growing stronger everyday, and we are enjoying watching them grow up and closer!

We've had again a busy couple of weeks (which is why I haven't posted in 2 weeks). Brian was out of town for work for a few days, followed by a men's retreat with our church (although he came home talking about rifle shooting, where he won 2nd in a contest, and he also brought home 2 potato guns, so I'm not sure the specifics of the retreat, but it seems like he had a good time!). My parents came down for awhile to help me with the kids. My dad was here for a full 10 days, and my mom was able to come for two weekends, but had to fly back to work during the week. The kids had a great time with their Nana and Papa, and I'm sure Nana and Papa had a great time, but I think we wore them out and gave Papa a cold! We also celebrated my 31st birthday, so I'm official "in" my 30's now. It was sweet having Jacob and Gwyn sing Happy Birthday to me, but they were more excited about cake than anything else! (they have that whole birthday party thing down, I'm surprised they didn't ask where their favors were!)

It was Western Day at Jacob's school, so of course Gwyn had to wear her hat when went to drop Jacob off last week.
My dad and I took the kids to the park. Here is trouble brewing over the collection of what they were calling blueberries, but we told them they were not blueberries (they were some type of bud from a fallen tree) so Gwyn wouldn't try to eat them, so then Gwyn brought this bottle filled with them over to me, she said, "Here are some not blueberries."

Outside playtime in the cul-de-sac included Nana pushing Gwyn on the trike:

Annie is loving to laugh!

A conclusion to my birthday celebration with a crawfish boil and bocce ball (Jacob is actually really good!):

My dad got on a bike pretty much everyday that he was here, and the first time he did it last week, he said it was the first time he had been on a bike in 30 years. He did pretty good, Jacob taught him how to ride again, and in the end Papa ended up teaching Jacob a few tricks!

Jacob was trying to keep up:

Little Annie didn't miss any of the fun. This is round 3 for the exersaucer and she really likes it, we take it outside everyday and she loves being outside in it. My mom was holding her and thought she might want to take a nap, so she moved from the playroom into Annie's room to rock her and Annie immediately started screaming. When mom brought her back into the playroom where Jacob and Gwyn were, she immediately stopped. She already wants to be part of their posse.

The fun never stops

Super Annie learned some new tricks this week: 1) to giggle! and 2) to eat rice cereal! We have had a rather active week, I took Annie to her 4 month appointment and Gwyn to her 2 yr appointment. They are both doing well, Gwyn did have an ear infection and Annie's weight dropped from the 50th percentile down to the 30th percentile, so I've started to try to supplement with some formula and she lapped that rice cereal right up!

Rick visited for one night, and the kids love it when he comes. They pretty much attack him at the door with "want to play with us?" followed up with "you have something for us?" meaning, "where are the m&ms?"

My friend Christina came over with her 6 month old baby Tyler, he is growing fast and Gwyn was really sweet to him and kept giving him baby toys. We also went down to see our friends Brad, Erika and Maddy. The kids had so much fun playing together, and we had fun watching OSU beat #1 KU in basketball, GO POKES!!

The weather has been super nice here, so we have enjoyed many days outside playing, going to the park, and we went to have breakfast at "Jason's Gourmet Crepe House" and hang out, which by the way, is a phrase I must say too much because Jacob says he is hanging out all the time, and then he told me Annie was just hanging out in her car sear. He also asked me if it was going to be Christmas soon...Ha!

Here are several random pictures from the week, the fun never stops here, we go all day, every day, from about 6 am to 8 pm. Annie just looked too sweet, so I had to go get my camera:

The kids "playing" that they were asleep (Annie doesn't quite get it!):
Gwyn says "we sisters!"

She liked her princess crown:

Annie tried it on:

Gwyn being silly (above), and Annie smiling, she is a very happy baby!

Oh yes, the Lego fun never ends, the latest project is the longest Lego train ever built...it keeps growing and growing and I think Brian is trying to take on a new challenge to fit all the lego pieces that we have onto a train...Jacob can't wait for Brian to get home to do some more work on his train!

Jacob told me that Annie and Gwyn wanted him to read to them, so he did:

Jacob was proud of picking me flowers (weeds), which were the culprit of some major allergy issues for me, but he really wanted to make sure I put them in water and smell them!

Needless to say, this was a "before shots" picture...and needless to say there is no after shots picture since it was screaming MADNESS!

And I wonder why I can't keep my floors clean (crunched up goldfish and nutragrain bars)!
I turned around and Jacob and Gwyn were laughing, they had brought Gwyn's cowgirl hat and put on Annie:

This is a picture of Annie while she was giggling, I'll have to catch it on video so you can hear it because it makes you smile!
Jacob is still big into his choo choos:

And he wonders why he can't blow bubbles...he doesn't seem to get he's blowing a bit too hard:

This was at a birthday party, I just thought it was so sweet of Jacob, he was making sure Gwyn was right with him and showing her how to do things. Gwyn had a boo boo on her finger and he said "I really don't like it when Gwyn gets hurt." How SWEET! Then at church on Sunday, I was in Annie's room and I could see out the glass windows and Gwyn's class was on the playground, and they were rounding her class up to go inside while Jacob's class was going outside. They say each other and Jacob ran over to give her a hug, and then he bent down to kiss her. Then Gwyn's teacher was making her go inside, and she DID NOT want to leave Jacob. She started screaming and jumping up and down and crying, so when they brought her in I went ahead and picked her up to take her with me. We waited on Brian since church was out in about 10 minutes, and Jacob's teacher brought him out to me and said that he was really sad about missing Gwyn, so she wanted to bring him out to us. Besides the fit by Gwyn, how sweet was that, they love each other!!

Same birthday party, neither of them mess around when it comes to cake and ice cream:

Annie's first time in the swing, she liked it! Jacob and Gwyn were so excited, but Gwyn wanted her swing back.

Here is Annie in the exersaucer, she actually liked it for about 15 minutes, but was ready to get out by the time I took this picture.

Annie's first bites of cereal:

Lovin' me some Annie:

I had taken this a few weeks ago, but finally got it off my phone:

Here are a couple of videos, one of Annie's first bites of rice cereal, and the other of Gwyn and Jacob singing Jesus Loves Me: