May Wrap Up

I feel like I posted a lot in May but there are always the few odd photos that I don't want to leave out! My girls are too cute to not post every picture possible :)

Granny Dot had a short visit and went with us to the park. She was kind enough to push Macy in the swing for a long time.

Anna loved playing/eating wood chips.

Daddy and Anna hanging out in bed on a Saturday morning.

Macy looking suspiciously at daddy and Anna.

We love going to the new splash ground. Macy throughly enjoys the water this year. Past summers she was very much afraid of it. The fountains will go up and down and her favorite thing is to run to each one and "push" it down until the water goes away.

 Her second favorite is to fill buckets, or this day her hat and shoes, with water.

I tried to get a picture but she wouldn't look.

Anna was more interested in my hat.

I love Anna in her high chair. She looks to big in it and hardly ever hangs her feet down. They are usually up kicking the leg divider thing.

I let Macy paint my nails.

My first attempt at the Rapunzel braid from cutegirlshairstyles.com

It was finally warm enough to feed the fish at our complex. Macy would say, "Here fishy! Get some food fishy!"

The pool opened! 

Anna loves hanging out in her pool float! She can touch the bottom of the kiddie pool with her little toes so she likes to push herself around. Macy makes sure to bring Anna back to me if she strays too far.

Anna looking like Quasimodo. 

Splash ground time at the new Mosaic District in Merrifield. With Izzy and Nolan. I think the sun was a little bright for their eyes. 

Anna at 9 months

I seriously cannot believe my baby is 9 months old! By the end of summer we'll be celebrating her 1st birthday! Summer always goes by too fast as it is so this summer will fly by and my baby will be entering toddler-hood. Where has the time gone?

Here are some pictures of my adorable, round faced little angel. She is seriously so happy and goes with the flow. Especially when Macy suddenly appears and pokes her in the face, hits her with something, or loudly shouts boo in her face. Anna loves Macy regardless of those things. Anna often looks around for Macy if she can't see her big sister. She laughs when Macy talks and plays with her.

As you can tell she didn't like the headband on. At least you can see how cute her little face is with a headband!

Anna loves playing with her bin of toys. Actually she mostly plays with the bin. She empties all the toys out and then plays with the basket itself. It does keep her occupied for quite some time.

Right now Anna is not crawling but she's making baby steps to get here. This is her stage right now. She puts her hands on the floor from a sitting position and starts to rock forward like she's getting momentum to push off. A couple times she got her legs turned around in crawling position but cried because she couldn't do anything sitting like that.

Her new thing is growling. She loves it and does it often. It usually results in her coughing after the growl because it has irritated her throat.

Anna is a talker. Probably because she has to speak loudly to get a word in with Macy around. She talks often too and has a sweet little voice. I can't wait to hear words! Sometimes she makes sounds that sound like dada and Anna.

Anna likes to clap and does it when she's happy. Sometimes she'll copy me if I start clapping.

Caught mid-clap

She is very interested in eating our food but doesn't have any teeth to chew it. I give her tiny pieces of some food but she normally spits it out after sucking on it.

Anna will smile back at strangers who say hi to her. Or non-strangers too, i.e. friends, family. I'm also able to hand her off to people who want to hold her without any crying. If she does cry it means she wants a bottle first. It's funny that she still associates eating with me although Ja feeds her too. I'm glad she knows who her mommy is :)

I don't have any of her stats from the doctor because when I called to make her 9 month appointment they didn't have any openings until July 2nd! She turned 9 months on May 26th! I can tell you though she is still in the very low percentile for weight and average for height. She's a skinny little thing but I love that little thing so much!

We found out tonight that Anna responds to her name. She turned around to find Ja when he called our Anna. She went back to playing so he called out Macy, mommy, baby and she didn't respond. Then he called Anna again and she turned around. Good job Anna!

I'm done with pictures mom!

What brings me joy

Last night Ja asked me what brings me joy. It caught me off guard a little bit but it didn't take me long to answer.

What brings me joy? I could have said getting a pedicure, someone cooking dinner for me, buying a new outfit, or eating Trevor's pan au chocolat. While those things make me happy, the thing that makes me have the most JOY is watching my children be happy and enjoying each other's company.

Almost everything in my day I do for them and their happiness. I'm always trying to have fun activities for Macy because I love watching her learn and accomplish something. I love the wide-eyed look she gives me when she does something that surprises even her. I love watching her run around with friends laughing and smiling the whole time. Her happiness brings me joy. Her love of life brings me joy.

Anna is such an innocent sweet soul. She is happy most of the time and that makes me joyful. She smiles and laughs at many things which in turn makes me smile and laugh. I especially love it when her and Macy are playing and laughing together. I also love when I can make her laugh and her shoulders scrunch up and she gives us a huge toothless grin. Her pure happiness gives me joy.

I hope I can have more children that will also bring me joy. I live my life for my children and they give me so much joy. All the sleepless nights, screaming tantrums, and poopy diapers seem so unimportant and insignificant when I compare them to the joy Macy and Anna bring me.

As Ja and I were conversing we both tried to describe the feeling we get inside when we think of our sweet little girls. It's a love that can't be truly written in words but only felt. Ja said he feels like he gets chills all over his body when he thinks about how much he loves them. I feel like my heart is going to burst with love.

We both love our girls so much! I want to hug them all day long! Thank you Ja for giving me such beautiful girls, inside and out.

Macy's Preschool Group

We had a end-of-the-year party for Macy's preschool group at Lincoln park. We were able to get one good shot of the group. I can't believe the school year is coming to a close! Macy (and I) enjoyed our co-op preschool and learned a lot. Macy thrives in a teaching environment (as long as I'm not the one teaching her!). It was very nice to have 4 other moms who also put a lot of thought into their lessons and in helping the kids learn. As much fun as it was, I'm glad Macy will be doing a regular preschool next year :) Being able to just drop her off will be great! 

Here's the group (starting from the left): James Rice, Owen Dayton, Emma Gilbert, Macy, Halle Merrill. 

Emma moved to California a few weeks later and Owen moved out to Ashburn. We will miss our friends! Macy liked playing with them both.

April Showers Bring May Flowers...and Ties

I love spring here. Although I liked it slightly less this year because I developed allergies I still think it's beautiful. I love that all the dead branches sprout little buds which eventually turn into bright vibrant flowers. All over the trees, all over the bushes, so beautiful. Every year I am just as impressed and in awe as I was our first spring here. Macy loves to pick the flowers too.

I took those flower pictures on our way to pick up Macy's friend Halle from school. We live right next to the elementary school and Macy loves to go to kindergarten to pick up Halle. We only go into the cafeteria but it doesn't matter to Macy. That is kindergarten as far as she's concerned. They immediately embraced and Halle carried Macy for a little ways.

They held hands for a little bit and I thought it was so sweet. Macy loves Halle so much and asks to play with her all the time. Halle is 6 but is great with Macy because she has a 3 year old brother.

Over the course of two months I made 12 little guy ties. I wanted a project and found this pattern that would be great for Stacie's and Deanna's baby boys. I wrangled two of my friends into making them with me- they actually have boys to enjoy them. I made 6 ties for each of them in sizes 3 months up to 4T. I was very pleased with the results. Both Stacie and Dee loved them. 

Because I waited to give Dee hers in person Oliver was old enough to wear his! Isn't he adorable?!

Our 2nd Annual Busch Gardens Trip

We had such a blast last year we decided to go again! This time we invited our friends, the Arringtons, to come along. We had a fun and memorable time but the feeling was much different. First off, we had four kids to juggle instead of just one. Macy was cranky because she was getting over being sick and having a lack of sleep. And it rained on Saturday cutting our day in half.

Over all we had a fun time and will probably do it again. Macy loves hotels so much that we could just stay at the hotel and she would think it was the best vacation ever.

Callie, Macy, Anna

The 2 1/2 hour drive seemed so short compared to our 7 1/2 hour drive to Tennessee. The girls did great and went right to sleep when we got to the hotel. We did stop to eat at a newer restaurant by the hotel called Holy Mackerel. It had really delicious fish and chips.

First ride of the day- the tram!

Macy and Grant on the airplane

Friday was a beautiful day at Busch Gardens. Ja and I both love that park so much. It's beautiful with all the trees and different decorations and themes. It has great rides for adults and children. And the best part was, it was empty! We didn't wait longer than 5 minutes all day! Sometimes Macy was the only child on the whole ride. Her and Grant had a great time together on some rides. Grant is a little more adventurous than Macy so he enjoyed the roller coaster and log flume ride. Macy did go on them but only once. Grant rode each multiple times. We enjoyed funnel cake, a good lunch at the German house, and a good dinner at Uno Pizzeria. A fun but exhausting day. We stayed until closing time at 8!

On her ladybuggy ride. Her favorite.

On the dragon ride that goes up and down. Macy was having fun, she's just making a funny face.

Anna fell asleep during our lunch show.

Macy's first roller coaster date

both kids have cute smiles!

Macy was very excited to see Abby

The kids had a blast playing in the water fountains

And Zoe

Anna did great. She was quite the trooper with only two 20 minute naps all day.

Anna and Callie in their matching outfits

Saturday turned into a cloudy and windy day. Not so great for a water park but we braved through it at Water Country. This place was even more empty. Hardly anyone was there on it's opening day. I didn't blame them though, it was pretty cold. We stayed until 2 then headed back to Busch Gardens. By this time it had started to drizzle. We took the kids to Sesame Street land and Macy requested the roller coaster again! I was very impressed since she was very scared after riding it Friday. When she got off her lips were white! So riding it today she told me to hold on to her very tight. She screamed the whole time but in a good roller coaster scream. Ja said her face looked very frightened so we were glad the camera caught her look. We had to buy the picture because it was priceless.

We did ride Elmo's tower which was awesome. I was so proud of Macy for doing it sine it goes up high. She held my hand and screamed but it was definitely a fun scream.

Macy was so excited to see Elmo!

We tried walking further into the park but it started to downpour so we headed out. Everyone was completely soaked when we got to the car. Thankfully I had a change of clothes in the car for the kids. I was a disappointed we had to leave. One, because we paid for the ticket and couldn't get a good day out of it and two, because I wanted to have a day where Macy could do whatever she wanted. Friday she had to wait around for the adults to ride their rides too. But I know we can go back some day and try again. Macy was begging to go back to the hotel anyways.

Hanging out at the hotel

We enjoyed a delicious dinner at a restaurant called Food for Thought. I ordered a beet salad with candied pecans and raspberry vinaigrette which was very tasty. I could eat it a couple times a week. That night the kids went to sleep instantly.

Sunday we packed up and went to church in Williamsburg. Anna ended up getting poop on Ja's white shirt and suit. It was gross. We drove home and ended the weekend with a great dinner at Matt and Cassidy's house.

Now our summer travel plans are over and summer hasn't even started! We'll have to think of something else to do...

Macy took pictures of us leaving the park Saturday:

This is how we got Anna in from the car.