A Copp Wedding!

This past weekend we spent in Topeka. My cousin Chris was getting married! I loved the colors (gray and yellow) and they did such a wonderful job decorating. I also liked how they incorporated Micah (Chris' son) into the ceremony. Micah is lucky to be getting Lexi as a stepmom.

Lexi, Chris, and Micah

It was nice getting to see and chat with family. It's not every day that we get to hang out with the Copp side all dressed up!

Uncle Mark, Aunt Laura, Matt, and Christa

I managed to get a picture of me and Grandmom which doesn't happen often. I had a great time visiting with her. 

Anna had fun with working on matching cards with Grandmom. It was fun to watch. I had tried a matching sock game with Anna earlier in the week and it was a total failure. Something clicked though and she was getting it!

Anna also had fun coloring with Daddy although his fish drawings did get made fun of by Grandmom. :)

Hailie was out sick with the pneumonia but Seth was able to make it. It's always nice seeing this guy dressed up...he's such a handsome fellow. 

Anna wanted to go up to the gazebo so badly before the ceremony so while we were waiting for dinner we took her outside to wander around. I love this picture of Anna with her Daddy and how someday it will be her up at the alter. 

We decided to leave Jane with Kevin's Mom and Dad that evening and bring Anna to the wedding to do some dancing. It got a little late for her so she didn't actually get to do any dancing but I think she still had fun. Gampa and Adell picked Anna up from the wedding for us which was soooo nice. Before they got there we had fun wandering around outside. Anna absolutely loved the gazebo and once Adell got there they had a blast running around like crazy. 

I really enjoyed the reception and having a chance to visit with family. I especially enjoyed getting to hang out with my cousin Kelly. 

Me and Kelly

Once the dance started we had so much fun dancing. I managed to sneak in a few dances with my Dad before he left which was really nice. I don't get as much quality time with him and we had a blast dancing. I don't like how pale he makes me look though....

We had a wonderful weekend and we were so happy that we were able to make the wedding. A nice perk of living in Kansas again!

Jane: 3 Months!

Our sweet little Jane turned 3 months old this week! I feel like I say this every month but I'm just amazed at how much she's grown and changed.

Over this past month Jane has become so much more alert and has continued to focus on things much more. Sometimes she'll be in the Pack 'N Play while I'm tending to Anna, cooking, etc and I'll peek over and say hi. She'll then break out in the biggest smile and it warms my heart every time. 

This little lady has been kicking up a storm this month. Anna has even noticed it and likes to say "Jane. Kicking". Jane also discovered her hands and enjoys chewing on them like crazy. She continues to produce lots of spit and her little spit bubbles are adorable. She's also started gripping more and more often. Sometimes Anna will give her a toy and say "Share". When Anna doesn't take it back, Jane holds onto it and will either wave it or try to eat it. She also pulls up her dress/shirt/blanket to her face a lot. 

Sleep this month has been pretty variable. We occasionally get a 7-8 hour stretch still but she's been waking up up between 2 and 3am more often. It would help if Kevin and I could get ourselves to bed a little earlier once both girls are asleep but we have a hard time accomplishing this. It's nice having a little "down time" without any kiddos to tend to. 

Last week we got our first laughs from Jane which was amazing. She isn't laughing every day (although she teases us by almost laughing a lot) but we're having fun trying to get them out of her. Jane is also responding to Anna with lots of smiles and that is incredible to watch. They seem so fond of each other...Anna adores her and we look forward to them playing together in the future. 

The last couple of weeks Jane has also had her little tongue out most of the time. She'll just be sitting there with it sticking out and even smile with it sticking out. It's pretty fun to watch and I was excited she did it for at least one picture. 

I thought I'd thrown in one picture from my phone of the girls together. Anna tells us "Jane. next" when she wants to sit next to her.

We sure love this little lady and we look forward to seeing what the next month will bring!

When Kevin was gone....

Last week Kevin was out of town from Sunday through Friday. He left from Topeka since we were there that weekend so after grabbing breakfast with Kevin's family I headed over to my parents for the day before heading back to Olathe. We managed to have some fun...

Anna found some of Hailie's old play stuff and we turned her into a princess. She spent a lot of that week talking about princesses.

Princess Anna

 Grandma Paula took Anna outside to play for awhile.

Looking cool in their shades. 

 After I finished feeding Jane we decided to get her in on the fun too. Anna enjoyed pushing her (until she got hit by the swing...luckily she wasn't going very fast)

It was such a nice evening that we decided we'd take a walk around the block. Anna normally would go nuts over this. I was unable to get her to take a nap that afternoon so she was getting pretty tired.

She was so tired she had to lay down in the street.

During dinner she began falling asleep in her chair the poor thing was so sleepy. I wiped her up and moved her to the bean bag where she passed out for awhile. It made the ride home interesting. Anna was crabby the first part and then Jane woke up upset which made Anna upset again. I was very happy to get home that night....

I was sort of dreading Kevin being gone for an entire week but it went well for the most part. There were some crazy times for sure (like bath and bedtime when both girls had needs at the same time) but we survived...and didn't watch a crazy amount of Daniel Tiger either :)

Keeping busy!

One night I thought it would be a good idea to make cupcakes and that got a little hectic but Anna had fun helping. When she finally got to eat one she was so excited (there were mini cupcakes) and she stared at it and laughed for a long time before actually eating it. 

Cupcakes!

 Our playgroups started back up that week which helped a lot. The week was also broken up some when my Mom came to spend the day with us. I took Anna to playgroup solo which was nice for me and it gave us a little time just the two of us. 

Grandma snuggles!

 The help that day was wonderful and just having another adult in the house was really nice. I'm very thankful she was able to get the day off of work to spend with us!

 Anna was all full of love and was very generous with the hugs and kisses. The girls are used to a little more one on one attention in the evenings when there are two of us and I think they were missing it a little bit. 

Anna with Grandma and her "friends"

 Anna kept saying "Daddy. home" and I kept having to tell her he was in Boston. I loved hearing her repeat "Boston" back to me. She was missing Daddy for sure but we did video chat one evening. It was fun seeing how excited Anna was to talk to Daddy over the computer. 

Daddy got home Friday night and we were all so happy to see him! He has to be gone again next week but it's just for a day (two evenings) which I am thankful for. Hopefully no more traveling for the rest of the year!

Huff 'N Puff

While we were in Topeka visiting Joe last weekend we had a chance to head to dinner before going to Huff 'N Puff out at Lake Shawnee. Anna saw the toy grabber (not sure what it is officially called). She was pretty mesmerized by it and since it was play until you win we decided that if she ate well she could play.

We let her steer and press the button a couple of times before we "helped" out and she got this little lopsided blue ball. She was pretty excited about it and kept yelling "I got it" and "Ball" really loudly. Who knew it would be that amazing?

We headed out to see the balloons after that. It was a pretty nice evening for Huff 'N Puff and we were looking forward to seeing Anna's reactions to the balloons. Jane even was awake for awhile to check things out. 

Jane with Daddy

 Kevin's Mom and Dad met up with us and we wandered around with them for awhile checking things out. 

We got there a little late to see many balloons in the air (although we saw some while we were walking there from where we parked) but they were all getting set up to do an illumination so we were able to see them getting set up for that. 

We went to go get Anna a blow up balloon of her own and we ran into Thomas, Serena, and Adell. The girls were pretty excited to see each other and to have mini hot-air balloons. 

They spent a fair amount of time hitting each other with the balloons and had Kevin dropping them on their heads. It was pretty entertaining....

I love this picture of Anna looking up waiting for Daddy to drop the balloon on her head. 

Jane just spent time taking it all in and blowing spit bubbles. 

We had fun with the girls and we can't help but think of how fun it will be next year when Jane is old enough to be "wowed" by the big balloons too. 

Football and Puppy Love

This last weekend we spent in Topeka. Uncle Joe was in town from Austin for his birthday and both Uncle Scott and Thomas were being honored as part of the 2004 State Champs at the halftime of the Hayden Football game so we had to go! We used to go to the boys' games every Friday when they were in high school so it was fun reminiscing. My Mom was nice and watched Jane for us and we just took Anna. It was her first football game and we were excited to take her. 

She was interested in what was going on but she didn't really care for all the yelling. Whenever people around us would cheer loudly (including Kevin) she'd say "noooo" and want me to hold her. She did have fun seeing everyone and having Adell feed her popcorn!

It's crazy that it's been 10 years since the boys won State. We had a blast back then and it makes me feel really old that 10 years could have passed.  We left a little after halftime. It was getting late for Anna and she didn't want to sit in the stands anyway. She much preferred walking around looking at the scoreboard and people watching. 

Kevin's parents got a new puppy that day and Anna was pretty excited about it. Buster is a tiny little thing and watching Anna with him was priceless.  

She kept tilting her head to say "puppy" in the most adorable voice ever. She constantly wanted to follow him around and hold him and would giggle when he'd sit with her. 

 Buster occasionally would follow Anna around and she thought that was pretty funny too. 

Anna also enjoyed feeding Buster. It's awesome how much she loves dogs. We plan to get one eventually but it will be a few years. I've never had a dog before and am slightly allergic to some of them so I'm not in a huge hurry. For now she can enjoy Gama and Gampa's doggies!

I have more from the weekend...including Huff 'n Puff! Stay tuned!

Kansas City Zoo

On Labor Day we decided to take a trip to the Kansas City Zoo! Neither of us had ever been before and we were excited to take Anna. On the way there we kept asking Anna what she was going to see and she was talking about the Giraffes and Elephants so we knew we were going to have to see them.

There was lots to see on the way to the elephants including the polar bears. One of the bears was in the showing off mood and kept swimming in front of the viewing window. It was amazing to watch how graceful they are. I was holding Anna and watching the bear and Anna started shaking. You ask her about them now and she'll shake and say "scare". 

We caught the tail end of the sea lion performance. Anna liked it when they jumped up to touch the ball.

Finally we got to the elephants! She was so excite about it and has been talking about them ever since. If you ask what we saw at the zoo...."Elephant"...if you ask her favorite part..."Elephant". It's all about the elephants. 

Checking out the alligator.

In order to get to the Giraffes we had to take the Africa loop. The loop is a mile long and Anna walked most of it. By the time we made it to the Giraffes Anna was tired and because of the distance from the viewing area she wasn't that impressed. She enjoyed being able to touch a python though!

We lucked out and Jane slept for us until it was time to take a break and eat lunch anyway.

We found some shade to eat our picnic lunch and cool off. The morning started off cooler but definitely started getting hot a little later. 

We made another stop by the elephants on our way back to the entrance. Anna was starting to run out of steam from all the walking and the excitement of the animals. 

We headed inside to see the penguins swimming and this was a hit. Then she saw the fish. There aren't a ton there but it didn't matter. This got her excited all over again...especially since there were a couple fish that looked like Dory.

After this we decided to head back home to the girls down for a nap. The parking lot was packed by the time we left and we were happy that we made it in the morning. We went ahead and bought a family pass so we will definitely be going back. There is a lot of the zoo that we didn't even get to see including Australia. Looking forward to seeing the Kangaroo next time!