Happy 1st Birthday Annie Jaye!

Our sweet baby Annie Jaye turned one this past week.  It is amazing how fast this last year has gone by, so much faster than with Jacob or Gwyn.  Annie has truly blessed our family and we love her so much!  She is so sweet, she smiles all the time, loves to laugh and play with Jacob and Gwyn, loves to run to the door when Daddy comes home, likes to be swung around and bounced up and down, wants to be right in the middle of everything that is going on, is very curious and gets into EVERYTHING.  Here she is in her favorite drawer full of ziploc bags and straws:

I think I pick up at least 50 ziploc bags and straws every single day.  I was fixing dinner the other night when I decided to take that picture of her in her drawer.  I then thought that it had been awfully quiet for awhile, and found Jacob and Gwyn in mine and Brian's closet with all of the clothes that were hung on the bottom rack pulled down off the hangers.  Jacob told me Gwyn did it and he was just playing with the hangers (oh, he is so innocent).  Oh the price of having 15 minutes to fix dinner...a house full of ziploc bags and straws on the floor and clothes all over the closet floor!  Annie really does have a radar for when the refrigerator door opens, if Jacob or Gwyn go to get their milk out and open the fridge, I have to say, "Hurry, shut the fridge, Annie is coming!"  We also have to keep all the bathroom doors shut, she makes a beeline right to the toilet at every opportunity.  One day, I was in the kitchen and she started heading that direction.  I walked over towards the door and said in my you-are-in-big-trouble voice, "Annie" and she came running from the bathroom with this little look like, "what, I'm not doing anything."

Annie's birthday was on Wednesday, so we had mini birthday cakes for breakfast before Brian left for work. The kids had so much fun and both went to preschool wired!

Cupcakes are no big deal to her, she has been hitting the birthday party circuit with Jacob and Gwyn and their friends for quite some time now, so "this ain't her first rodeo"...she knows exactly what to do!

  Here she is with her new car seat on her birthday...she likes finally being able to see everything.

Since I had a dentist appointment to get my first crown (Gwyn was pretty disappointed this wasn't the same type of crown as her princess crown), Brian had to take all three kids to the doctor by himself on Friday.  They were all getting their flu shots and Annie also got her 1 yr check up.  She is growing very well, she weighs 20 lbs 2 oz and is 29" long.  She is in the 40th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height (we call her our little runt).  Annie had to get 4 immunization/flu shots, and Brian said she was so mad after the fourth one, that if she would have known any curse words she would have been saying them to that nurse.   Instead, she had to get her revenge by giving her a nasty look.  Gwyn, who had so much anxiety over her flu shot, told me when I got home that the doctor was mean, gave her 3 shots, and that she didn't cry.  Well, she only got one shot, and she did cry...alot.  Brian did pretty good with all 3 kids at the doctor, but I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when they came in to start giving out the shots!  Here is poor little Annie sporting her battle scar bandaids:

The kids did cheer Annie up by giving her an Elmo chair for her birthday...Annie liked it, but not as much as Jacob and Gwyn:

My mom flew in for the weekend, and we celebrated Annie's birthday on Saturday.  Gwyn was in charge of the party planning committee and selecing party decorations, and we ended up with a hodge podge variety of Dora, Tinkerbell, Hello Kitty, Princesses, etc:

 Gwyn setting the table:

 Streamers and balloons were in some weird places, Gwyn and Jacob each got their own roll of streamers:

Brian made Annie's cakes...again, I made the cake and the icing and he decorated them, so I should get some credit, right?!?

The party hat was not a success:

Annie with her cake:

Digging in:

Jacob enjoying his chocolate ice cream:

Our attempt at a family picture:

The birthday girl:

Really, to get her to smile big Brian would run around the living room and I would get the camera ready for when he stopped.  Seriously, we did this at least five times until Brian was too tired!

Annie with her proud Daddy:

 Annie with Uncle Jason:

 Annie with her proud Mommy:

Annie with Nana (we got a good smile in these pictures by lifting her high in the air and then taking the picture when she came back down...the things we do to capture those two little front teeth!):

 A happy birthday girl!

What color are these eyes?  I thought for sure they would be dark brown, but they are kind of hazel, but seem to have turned a little more brown lately.  The doctor said they were a gray, and rarely turn colors after kids turn 1.

This past week was Storybook Land at Jacob and Gwyn's preschool.  The school transformed their fellowship hall into a little carnival of booths for the kids, each booth representing a fairy tale/storybook.  Gwyn's class went on Wednesday, and since her class is so young, they asked for some of the moms to help walk them around.  I got to go for awhile and Gwyn had so much fun.  Her hair was a little crazy, I couldn't do much with it since she put about 10 squirts of hand sanitizer in it before we left for school that morning...she has recently been putting hand soap and sanitizer in her hair trying to fix it herself:

 She is the cutest little girl around!

Gwyn was upset when I had to leave, but that quickly disappaited when her teacher announced they were going to their room to have cupcakes.  Her class uses this ring rope when they go place to place, the kids hang on to a ring and walk together, it was so cute!

Jacob's class went to Storybook Land on Thursday, and I signed up to work the Peter Pan booth...Jacob was so excited to see his Mommy dressed up as a pirate, and his little friends said, look at your Mommy!  You should have seen his little smile.  At my booth, the kids had to walk the plank:

Funny things the kids said this week:

Jacob (to Brian while he was decorating Annie's cake):  You sure are doing a great job on that cake, Daddy!

Gwyn (as we are decorating for the party): This is going to be the best birthday party ever!

Gwyn (as we are looking in Michaels waiting for Party City store to open next door):  Why aren't you buying anything??

Brian (as we are watching "How it is Made"):  Alright, they are showing us how we they make transformers next (the electricity kind).

Jacob:  TRANSFORMERS...COOL!  (He was thinking of the toy transformers, ha!)

Another funny conversation on the way to school last week:

Jacob:  Why did God make snunks where they squirt people and make them stink.

Me (trying hard to think of why God even made skunks):  Well, that way if another animal is trying to get the skunk, then the skunk can spray them and the other animal will run away.  God made it so that they can protect themselves.

Jacob:  What am I going to do when I get sprayed by a snunk with that stink?

Me:  You don't have to worry about that, skunks are afraid of people, they don't live around us, they live in the woods.

Jacob:  But what about if we go camping in the woods, then are they gonna spray us with that stink?

Me:  If we see a skunk in the woods, then we could call a forrest ranger to come get the skunk and take it back into the woods if we ever see one.

Jacob:  The police are going to come to take the snunk away...to snunk jail?

Me:  It is a skunk, not a snunk, and if you ever see one, then run the other direction and go tell mommy or daddy.

Brian (after reading a story before bedtime):  What do you guys want to be when you grow up?

Jacob:  A doctor, a real one with real doctor tools.

Gwyn:  A cowgirl (and later that night she prayed that God would help her be a cowgirl.)

Brian (after reading a preschool devotion to the kids):  Is there anything you are afraid of?

Jacob:  Bad guys

Gwyn: Dinosaurs, and if I see one, I'm going to tell my teacher.

Pumpkins for our pumpkins

We had a visit from Rick and Sue this weekend, and it was one fun filled weekend.  We started off with a trip to the park, where Jacob couldn't catch Sue because he wore his flip flops which kept coming off, and he didn't let her forget that if he would have had his "man" (tennis) shoes on then he would have caught her for sure!  We then took the kids to the library, checked out a few books and DVDs, Jacob played some computer games, and Annie acted like a kid in a candy store...she thinks it is her mission to get ALL those books off those shelves.  We took the kids to Chuck E Cheese for lunch to meet Brian (who of course had more fun than anyone), he even told me that if we would have left him alone on this new Operation game, we would have been choosing something on the treasured back wall of the prize counter...we still ended up with over 550 tickets and the kids each got a few things, which I think at least two are already broken.  Gwyn had talked a big talk all morning about that she was going to give Chuck E a high five and a hug, but she changed her tune when we actually pulled into the parking lot.  She got all anxious and said she didn't want to go because she thought she was really going to have to do it.  Of course Chuck E didn't show (we were the only ones there and he mainly only shows for birthday parties), so the kids had lots of fun and even came up with some really good ideas of where Chuck E might be..."maybe he's sick and when to the Chuck E doctor...maybe he's on vacation...maybe he got in trouble and is in time out." 

We took the kids to the Fall Festival at Jacob and Gwyn's preschool.  The kids had so much fun, playing games, Jacob got his face painted, Gwyn made an Indian hat, Brian sent Jacob to the Whataburger booth to get him some coupons, etc.  We later dressed the kids up in their costumes (Jacob:  Buzz Lightyear, Gwyn:  Tinkerbell, and Annie:  a lion which both Jacob and Gwyn had been on previous Halloweens) and hit the pumpkin patch at the Methodist church near our house.  The kids wanted to pick their own pumpkins.  Jacob had taught Gwyn about small, medium, large which he learned in school, so he wanted to make sure he got a large pumpkin, Gwyn got a medium, and Annie got a small pumpkin...Jacob ended up getting one of the biggest pumpkins there, he was proud!  This is the one picture we got of Annie with her lion hat on...and only with Brian holding both of her hands so she can't get it off!

She did this at least 50 times...Brian was worn out, but he was a good sport as I would say "put it on her again!" and then try to snap a picture with it on

 She liked the little pumpkins...probably because she is one!

 Rick and Sue with the kids:

 Is this one medium?

 She said, I'll get one of these for Annie!

 Jacob liked this bumpy one, but ended up finding a bigger one, which he rolled around and Rick had to carry out.

 Riding the horse...Gwyn is about to fall off!

 Ride 'em cowboy...wait, you aren't Woody, you are Buzz!

 Sue and Jacob:

You should have seen Jacob's face when Brian carved Buzz Lightyear into his pumpkin...My Daddy is Awesome!

This past week was also picture day at school.  Of course just a few days before pictures he fell at the plant store and hit his face on the concrete, so he went to school with a big scab across his nose for pictures.  I told him to please not mess his face up anymore before pictures, and then I took him to get his haircut at Sports Clips (I usually cut it myself, but decided if he was going to have a big scrape on his nose then at least his hair could look good).  Well, apparently Sports Clips doesn't cater to moms with 3 kids, the decor is set up like a mens locker room with flat screens playing ESPN everywhere.  I told Gwyn to go sit down and watch TV and she asked to watch Dora!  She then commented on the 49ers football clip that "that red one hit that white one."  Jacob wanted his hair slicked up for pictures, so I snapped a few pictures before school that day:

 She likes her Gator shirt that Jason got her:

Brian picks this shirt out all the time...it says Daddy's little monkey:

Sue and Rick got Annie this new dress and her own horse ride on toy (she's been using the green John Deere tractor):

Here are just a couple more pictures of the kids playing outside.  Jacob LOVES his fishing pole and it is actually amazing how good he is at casting it out in the yard.  He and Gwyn have so much fun playing together.  The other day he told me that he saw Gwyn on the playground and he went and gave her a hug and that she cried when he had to go inside with his class.  I asked Gwyn about it and she said (very emotionally), "Jacob walked away!" I then explained that if she went with Jacob's class they wouldn't have a snack or lunch for her because her snack and lunch are with her class, which seemed to make sense to her.

 She loves to slide, and is quick to find out which is the fastest slide at any playground.

 Gwyn made leaf, rock, flower/weed, and feather soup...YUMMY!

 Jacob said this was the best sucker ever!

 Laundry basket fun!

Some artwork from this past week, Gwyn was really proud of her mud pit for her pigs.  She said her hands got really yucky but she washed them.  She also now wants a pet pig that she can make a mud bed for.

Funny things the kids said this week:

Brian:  Gwyn, do you want to go to work with me?
Gwyn:  Yes, but I don't have any work clothes (oh, she is learning it so young!)
Jacob (he leaned over and whispered in my ear he had a secret): I want to get Gwyn something with a princess on it for her birthday.  Don't tell

Gwyn (as we are leaving the pumpkin patch):  I don't want to go home, I want to go to Target (that's my girl!)
Brian (after reading a book to the kids about getting to do more things as your grow up):  What do you want to do when you grow up?
Gwyn:  Cook
Jacob:  Mow the yard with your big mower
Gwyn:  Annie, we have a secret surprise for your birthday...it's an Elmo chair (note to self: do not tell Gwyn anything you don't want everyone to know)
Gwyn:  I'm medium, Jacob is large, and Annie is baby large.
Me:  You mean Annie is small?
Gwyn:  No, Annie is baby large. (OK?!)
Gwyn:  There's sparky!  (This is hilarious, I walk at the park with Annie and Gwyn after I drop Jacob off on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and of course we get lapped by people walking or running with dogs, and we have a little game where we try to guess the dogs names, and Gwyn remembers what we guessed their names were from before...we had guessed ones name was Sparky and on the second time around when they were passing us, she said, "There's sparky!" and the owner just looked at us like we were nuts! Ha!)