Mardi Gras

We had fun going to a couple of Mardi Gras parades! The first one was the Dog parade, we took Biz and they both had a good time! The other parade was the Highland parade, which Anna Claire had a blast catching beads with her friends. They got LOTS of beads.

Just waiting!

I guess we've been busy around here. Here are some things I wanted to post about:

Anna Claire is talking about Leighton all the time. Here are the things she says about her brother:
-"When I get big I can spank baby Leighton"
-"Mommy is baby Leighton kicking? Baby Emma sure is."(that's the name of the baby in her tummy)
-She talks to him with her lips touching my belly every night.
-She prays for him every time she says a prayer.
-"Baby Leighton can use my little potty because I'm so big I use the big potty now."
-Today she asked me if baby Leighton will stand up to go tee-tee like daddy.

Needless to say we are all very excited about our baby boy and can hardly wait for him to be here. Hopefully we will get to see our sweet boy soon, we have another ultrasound in a couple of weeks.

Anna Claire is at such a fun age right now. Here are some things she loves:

-- being home with mommy during the week. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

--playing dress up. After she gets her dress up clothes on she always says...daddy is going to love it!

-- Doing things on her own: ie- getting dressed, putting her shoes and socks on, getting out of the car, etc.

--She's really into her daddy. She thinks he hung the moon. We are both so lucky to have such a caring attentive man in our lives. When anything breaks at home and I say I'll fix it she says " no mommy daddy can fix it."

-- Not napping. I think were about to drop the nap. She actually does okay all day and then she crashes early.

-- Helping me with any household chore I do. Especially cooking.

--Pretending to be a puppy named Bella. (see picture)

-- Playing with her friends! She talks about going to her friends houses all the time.

Just like a girl!

Well Anna Claire is really your typical girl. She goes from ballerina to cheerleader to house keeper all in one day...well really all in about 20 minutes!!!

She really loves dress up!

Friends!

Anna Claire is REALLY in to playing with her friends, especially her friends who love to play dress up. She loves having them over pulling out all of her priness dresses, shoes, and make-up.

Happy New Year!

We had a fun New Year's Eve. We went to some friends house and the kids played really hard and had lots of fun. Then we came home and popped firecrackers.

Getting ready for Leighton

Anna Claire painting letters for the nursery!

Matt and I are trying to get Leighton's room ready. Big sister loves to help. There's not a whole lot to do since the poor little boy's room is the size of a shoe box. However, we are trying to make it look really cute, and I think it's come along way, thanks to daddy. He has painted, shampoo'd the carpet (uhhh I can't stand carpet) , and put the bed up.

Still enjoying Christmas presents

Anna Claire is enjoying all of her Christmas presents still. These are a few shots of her skating. As she would say....these are her "skating shoes."

Santa was good!

Anna Claire had a big Christmas. We thought we were keeping it simple, but as it turned out.....it was VERY big. She had a great time and got some really fun new toys. We tried to make her understand the TRUE meaning, but at this age for her it was all about the presents :) Imagine that!

The Big City of Marshall Texas!

We went to see the lights in Marshall...

Baby News!

We found out today we are having a baby BOY! It was so much fun to get to see him today. Everything is on target and appears well. No question about the sex, he is absolutely a boy! We are thrilled and Anna Claire is warming up to the idea that it is a boy. She always talked about the baby "sister" in mommys tummy and now she is saying brother without crying for it to be a girl.

5 More Days

Biz and Anna Claire are ready! Merry Christmas

Bye Bye Paci

I went to the dentist on Tuesday and took Anna Claire with me. I didn't have intentions of having her teeth cleanded, but only to let her sit in the chair and get her familar with the whole dental cleaning idea. However, she of course wanted to have everything I had done, cleaning, floss, the works. She loved it!

The dentist looked at her teeth and discovered she still used her paci and that her teeth/bones were already shifted and told her the paci fairy would come to her house, so she needed to gather up all of her pacis and put them under her pillow and the fairy would leave her a suprise. So that night we did just that and she has been such a big girl about it. I am so proud of her. I was very sad thinking about taking her security away, but she hasen't been bothered by it at all.

Looking Back

I LOVE Christmas time, and always have. Really Matt and I both do....were like kids. I was thinking about the past 2 Christmas' and how much we have enjoyed them as a family of 3 (well 4 with Biz). I've been thnking latley about how fast my baby is growing up, and of course like every other mom....how sad it makes me. However, every new stage is better than the last, I guess because we love her more and more everyday. I count my blessings daily and realize this holiday season what a true blessing my family is to me.


Our 1st Christmas with Anna Claire





2nd Christmas

Getting ready for Christmas

We love Christmas around here. We put our Christmas tree up this weekend and decorated the house. I can't wait for Christmas....it's my favorite holiday!

Day at the fair

1st Haircut--but so much more!

We went today to have our haircut! This was Anna Claire's first and she LOVED it. I knew she was very ummm let's just say girly, and now she is even more prissy. Since her aunt is her stylist (I've learned that's the correct term), she got the special treatment including rollers in her hair, sitting under the dryer like the "big girls" (her words) and taking home rollers for her baby's. I'm quite sure the mini pedicures aren't going to cut it anymore. I think were in trouble with this one. She cried when we left and wanted another haircut and more rollers in her hair.

So since we got home all she has done is play beauty shop. It is so cute, I could watch her all day.

Daddy is so tough

Matt will probably kill me after this, so this may be my last blog entry.

Anna Claire has a way of making daddy do anything and everything she wants him to and it usually involves him wearing hairbows and lots of pink things. This (below) is a very typical look for him around here......

Happy Halloween

Our little fairy princess had so much fun trick or treating with all of her friends. This was her first time and I think she got the hang of it! :) She was eating candy (surprise) constantly (per the pictures with chocolate all over her face) and walking up and down the sidewalk screaming "Trick or Treat" before even getting to the door of each house.


Of course Biz didn't miss a thing!


We went back to some friends house for dinner afterwards which was lots of fun.

Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkin Carving

We had fun carving our pumpkins. Anna Claire thought that was the best thing on earth!!!!