Rolly Polly

Just some random pictures of our daily life from the past week......

Benjamin used to always sleep with his arms up like this, Collin (and Anna as a baby) use the life-saving swaddling blanket so their arms are always down. So Dave and I get really tickled when we catch Collin sleeping like this.


Seeing how much Collin loves Benjamin and Anna and they him, is one of my greatest joys! Benjamin celebrates every smile that Collin beams at him!



I love these two blue-eyed boys so very much!

I thought it was sweet when I caught Benjamin and Anna like this the other day.....Benjamin went up and grabbed a blanket and stuffed animal for each of them from their beds, they got their dolls, and sat together on the couch reading books to their dolls.

They watched some toons too.

This was one of my favorite shirts that Anna wore....such a true statement!

This baby boy is pure joy!

These days Collin is always on his belly....

Our little (err, long) rolly, polly, olly.

Anna is tickled here b/c Collin was holding her hand, her newest favorite thing. She will declare multiple times each day, "He hold my hand!"

More sibling love!

This has been Anna's disposition a lot of late, cranky from (I hope) her ear infections. I couldn't resist posting this picture though to showcase her tutu. She had been dressed for an hour or so that morning, when she insisted she needed her "toto" (tutu) and preceded to wear it all day long.

I don't know if you can tell or not, but this little monkey is trying to "inch worm-it". He puts his face down like this and pushes his butt off the ground. I've been trying to tell him just b/c he's big, does not mean he's old enough for these crawling antics, but he doesn't seem to be listening.....

His hair has lightened so much and sadly, his rooster crow (what we nicknamed his fluff of un-tamable hair on top) has thinned. But he's still as cute as ever!

Collin has gotten to start enjoying the excersaucer this week. He seems to enjoy it, but I think Anna and Benjamin get even more of a kick out of playing with him in it. (FYI, there are three height settings on it and he requires the longest one. Already.)

I just thought these were some cool shots....

Bet you can't guess what he's smiling at....

For some reason, Collin was tickled by his crying big brother. Benjamin was quite upset b/c he lost his drum sticks b/c he didn't listen and keep them away from his precious baby brother's head.

He recovered quickly though when I showed him a made-up game of throwing this ball up and catching it.

I really love being the mom of a four-year-old. (Especially this sweet one!)

We went to Brown County on Saturday to try and have a picnic since the weather warmed up some. It ended up being chillier there than our house, so we ate in the car and the kids played on a playground that was in the sunshine while Collin and I hung out in the car. We did get to go up in this neat house though.

Zoe was not pleased that we went up and left her.....

That's all for now, just one more "touchdown pose".

Anna's 2!!!!

Collin had his four month check up last week. He weighed 18 pounds even (90th percentile) and was 28 inches long (WAY over the growth chart)....he's a big guy! Other than having some trouble getting over RSV, he was declared a healthy growing boy and I couldn't be more thankful! Dave tried to get his picture asleep after nursing since he had his arms in the "touchdown position" like Benjamin slept a lot. The camera woke him up, but I still thought this was a cute picture....

The little monkey has been grabbing his feet some now....

It so tickles me that (to me) his feet are identical to Anna's baby feet. :)

And now onto the birthday girl!!! On Friday (the 26th) our cupcake turned two! Usually I'm a little emotional about birthdays, but Anna talks and does so much that she has seemed like a two year old to me for awhile. She really understood that it was her birthday this year and it was so much fun making her feel special! Here she is on her big day!

I love her so much. Her personality is so indescribable......full of so much sweetness and joy

.....and so much spunk and spice too! :)

Zoe finally got a haircut and in my opinion is looking mighty cute!

I bet you can't tell by their happy faces what's going on in these pictures......

.....Benjamin is in time out and Anna is showing some solidarity for her brother. Usually I nip this kind of activity, but it was a special day and they were just so cute!


Since Dave had to work on Anna's birthday, we made a big deal all week that we were going to take her to a restaurant to celebrate. She seemed pretty tickled and excited! It ended up being a wonderful family event for us. On the way there Benjamin pointed out a real rainbow (his first time seeing one). It hadn't even rained that day and since Anna loves rainbows, we all took time to celebrate that God blessed us with a rainbow for Anna's birthday! After eating we picked up the balloons for the party and the kids had a blast playing with them when we got home.

**You may notice she has a different outfit on in the above picture. Her and I both had to change our clothes b/c she landed on her mouth on the edge of our coat rack and split open the skin between her upper lip and top teeth. It was the most blood I'd ever seen and I was really sad that she had that happen on her birthday. :( I was so thankful though that she was okay and that we were still able to have such a wonderful evening as a family celebrating our sweet girl!


Party time!!!
These two just don't know how to have a good time! ;)

My niece, Katrina, was very appropriately dressed in her rainbows!

Anna waiting patiently for me to get the doll we got her out....

I'm so pleased she loves her doll so much! She lovingly now calls her Belle.

She did good at the opening part of present time, but wasn't too excited to open more as she just wanted to play with what she had already opened.

My aunt got her a diaper bag full of fun stuff to take care of her babies and it has been a huge hit. Both Benjamin and Anna have been taking care of the babies and dolls non-stop with it!

A fun Snow White dress up outfit from my parents. Anna is all of a sudden really into the Disney princesses. She asks to watch Cinderella every day!

They were so cute with their friend, Maddux trying to open the packages with random toys/tools.

Maddux and his Mom, Ryan got Anna a crown and her first pair of earrings!

Rainbow shirt!

She also got this doll that you can learn how to do zippers, buttons, ties, etc. Benjamin has decided this is his doll for some reason and they were so cute running around pretending with the two dolls today. I think they will both be excellent parents! :) Oh, and Benjamin has decided (after much consideration) that this doll shall be named Abby.

Anna was really cute running around with her baby in the new sling we got her like I have for Collin. This phone she's playing with came in the diaper bag and she LOVES it! Doesn't she look like a little Momma here?!?!

Cake time!

I had to put the cake down and hold her once everyone started singing to her, she is acting so shy lately!

At the end of the song, she started mouthing the words along with everyone. She did a great job blowing out the candle too! I liked this picture b/c it reminded me of one from last year....

Just one year ago......


Time to explore the rainbow cake I made her. She LOVES rainbows so much and it was fun to have a rainbow themed party for her. I spent quite some time that day working on this cake and the kids were really excited to finally see it (and EAT it!).

It's a rainbow!!!

Cool, huh?

It tasted yummy too!

Benjamin ate his incredibly fast! I think it was a loooong wait for the poor guy watching me work on the cake!

Anna liked it too, but she doesn't have much of a sweet tooth. She's much more of regular food eater!

The kids had a blast playing Hot Potato with Grandpa Jim.....

After the party, we were all worn out! (But very happy to have had such a fun party for our little girl!)

Benjamin enjoyed helping me make rainbows for the party. I bought washable paint and let him paint one on the wall all on his own. I thought he did a good job! (We are going to paint soon, so I figured we might as well have some fun.)

Benjamin also did some other rainbow artwork.......

Like my pink walls??? :)

I got in on the fun and painted a rainbow too. Anna woke from her nap the day I did it and even though I only had it down to the green stripe, she got sooo excited! When she saw it, she declared (while jumping up and down) "My rainbow! My rainbow! Woohoo! Woohoo! A rainbow for my birthday!" Like I said, it was so much fun celebrating her birthday with her this year! She is an absolute blessing!!!!

The older two had their well check-ups today. Benjamin weighed 38 1/2 pounds (75th percentile) and was 41 1/4 inches long (75th percentile). Anna weighed 27 pounds and 12 ounces (60th percentile) and was 35 inches long (75th percentile). I thought Anna was having trouble with RSV again since she's been coughing more, but she actually has a double ear infection. Other than that, they both checked out and are doing great! Anna had to get a shot today and it was quite pitiful. She cried so hard and told me about a hundred times in varying levels of sadness to her voice, "That hurt me!" :( Nothing a milkshake and french fries couldn't fix, though!