30th B-day Celebrations

This past weekend Kevin and I celebrated our 30th birthday's. Kevin actually turned 30 at the beginning of May and I'm not until the beginning of June but since Joe was in town we thought it would be fun to combine them.

Thomas and Serena invited us over and grilled up a bunch of yummy food. From chicken, to pork loin, to veggies, and pineapple. Delicious! Grandma Patti brought cupcakes from Mad Eliza's and we had a wonderful time!

This picture was a little back lit but I love Adell's expression. She's been doing this face a lot lately and it cracks us up. We sure love that little girl.

Anna snuggling Grandma!

 Grandma and Grandpa were kind and offered to babysit both girls that night. After they took Anna and Adell back to their house, the rest of us adults hung out before heading to Wild Horse Saloon. Kevin requested dancing for his birthday and dancing is what we did!

It was nice going out for the evening. While Kevin and I have been on dates here and there we are usually only gone for a few hours max. It was the longest I'd been away from Anna and it was hard to relax at first but eventually I did and I had a great evening!

I attempted getting a video of Thomas and Kevin dancing but it was too dark and didn't really turn out well. They were both covered in sweat by the end of the night and I'm pretty sure I saw Thomas limping a bit the next day...

We were all a little tired the next day and I think everyone took a nap. Mine was with Anna and it was wonderful. Being 30 isn't so bad.

Uncle Love!

I'm starting to get a backed up on pictures for the month so I'm going to try and get a few posts in over the next few days.

Anna has been enjoying getting to spend time with all of her Uncles!

Enjoying some sun with Uncle James

 I love this one because she was really reaching for that toy. Of course once she got it it went straight in her mouth.

"Give me that toy!"

 James and Scott work evening shift and it's nice when they come over for lunch or to hang out during the day.

Scott kept messing with Anna by putting her headband on funny. She didn't seem to mind to much since she had her rings to suck on.

Hanging with Uncle Scott

 Uncle Joe has been in town all week and we've enjoyed spending time with him.

We're going to miss Joe when he heads back to Austin but luckily we'll get to see him again in a couple of months.

Love you Uncle Joe!

 I'm missing current pictures with Uncle Thomas so I'll have to get on that soon.

Pool Time!

Earlier this week we took Anna swimming for the first time! We were so excited to take her see her experience the pool for the first time. We got up and around, put our suits on, took a few pictures, and headed to the YMCA!

On the way there Anna started getting a little tired and we began to realize that she was probably going to need a nap soon. She fell asleep so we went to get gas and then it dawned on us that neither of us had called to check on open swim hours. Upon calling we found out that we were going to have to wait until 3pm!! 

Fast forward to the afternoon and we loaded up once again. Getting there right at 3pm was great because we were the only people in the pool. Anna was a little unsure at first but after a little bit she began smiling and splashing around.

Hopefully this video works. Poor Anna. Mean Daddy. :)

Even after being dunked she still had a few smiles for us.

We're hoping that a few more trips will help her get used to the water before vacation this summer where there is an indoor pool!

Here is a classic Anna surprised face!

May and Mother's Day

This month we've been trying to enjoy as much time as we can outdoors. After having snow at the beginning of the month we are happy that spring is finally here.

Anna seems to love watching people and especially the dogs playing. When we can we try to go on walks by the lake and she is gradually liking that for longer amounts of time. I'm looking forward to being able to get her in a jogging stroller and get some runs in!

A couple of weeks ago my poor little bug got sick for the first time. She had a croup-like cough and then came down with a fever. I wanted to take her to the Mother-Daughter Tea at my parents church but she stayed home with Daddy instead. 

Grandmom left right before taking this picture!

 Anna was improving but then started sounding very wheezy and congested. On Mother's Day we decided to take her into express care first thing in the morning. She was so happy and alert that the doctor didn't think she looked sick until they actually listened to her breathing. 

They decided to give her a breathing treatment which she HATED. They sent us home with a Rx and we've been giving her treatments several times a day since then. She still cries sometimes but other times she just gives up.

Anna giving up

 We followed up with our pediatrician the next day and she has bronchiolitis. It's an inflammation of the bronchioles in the lungs that occurs after certain viral infections. She was responding to the albuterol so we gave her oral steroids all last week to help speed up recovery. She hated that too and I don't blame her...I tasted a drop and it is pretty nasty stuff. We were pretty relieved when that stuff was gone.

The day before Mother's Day we just hung out at the house with Patti, Serena, and Adell but unfortunately I failed at getting any pictures in. On Mother's Day we were out at Auburn. I also failed at getting pictures out there but I did manage to get in a few that evening at my parents.

Paula with her daughter and granddaughters!

 My first Mother's Day wasn't exactly as I'd imagined being at express care and all but it was still a wonderful day. I'm so lucky to have this beautiful little girl in my life and I love being a Mom to her.

 

5 months!

Our cute little bug turned 5 months this past weekend! This was, in my opinion, one of the most challenging photo shoots to date. While she was in a good mood for the longest amount of time, she is so squirmy and grabby that it made getting 'the right' pictures difficult. I say that...but then I have fun going through all the pictures and laughing about it so I guess it's okay!

This past month we've seen further development in many of the things she started doing last month. She laughs much more now and we have fun acting crazy to get those giggles. We still haven't been able to get a good video of her laughing yet but hopefully this next month we'll be able to.

Last month we loved the pictures of her grabbing the chalkboard but this month they didn't turn out as good because she immediately would try to eat the board. Fairly representative of this age though so I figured I better include one picture!

Anna still hasn't quite managed to roll over from back to stomach yet. She gets soooo close and just can't quite seal the deal. It's kind of fun to watch her try. She seems to enjoy sitting quite a bit and I think she's fairly close to sitting by herself.

Anna continues to be a slobber monkey and will slobber on anything. Her hands, her links, her books, her dress, your hands, your face, etc. We've pretty much come to accept that at the end of the day we'll have saliva on us in some capacity. 

 

Anna's sleep has sort of been all over the place. One week she would eat in the middle of the night and then be wide awake- talking and cooing for 30 minutes or so. While she would put herself back to sleep eventually she was very loud and I had trouble sleeping. Then last week she slept all night for several nights in a row. (She'd slept all night before but only every now and then).  Pretty much as soon as I got used to it she decided to wake up at 2am and then 6am to eat.  That was a little painful for me but we seem to be back to waking once at night. 

Part of the problem is she is easily distracted these days. She's taking in everything around her which is great but makes feeding time more difficult. I've read that this peaks around 5 months so hopefully it will pass soon (and something else will pop up I'm sure). 

Anna's hair continues to grow and is staying dark for now. We love her beautiful bright eyes and the way they pull you in. Her eyelashes are getting longer too making those eyes even more captivating. Her cheeks are getting so chubby and so incredibly kissable. 

 

 It's crazy that just under a year ago we were telling people that we were expecting and now this amazing baby is here and is growing everyday. It's such a joy to watch her grow and learn. I can't imagine life without our amazing little Anna.

Back in Kansas

Now that we've been back in Kansas almost a month already I suppose I should get caught up! Getting back was a little insane to say the least. Thomas flew in the night before moving day (A huge thank you to Thomas for all of his help) and we got up early to get things loaded in the trailer that Kevin bought. We'd sold a lot of our furniture and the plan was to fit everything else in the trailer and SUV. Well...not everything fit. We had to end up getting rid of a few pieces of furniture I would have liked to have kept (a bookshelf, console table, and TV stand....nothing of extreme value but I liked them) and we had to donate/pitch various other things from laundry baskets to cleaning supplies. The original plan was for me to be cleaning while the guys were loading but that wasn't able to happen. Before I knew it I was headed to the airport with Anna and it was all out of my hands. (This flight was by far the worst in terms of traveling with Anna and I'm hoping I never have to travel alone with a baby on an airplane again!)

The guys finished up but somewhere in the craziness of the day Lupin got out of the house. The guys looked for him but were never able to find him. They had to start the drive that night and couldn't wait around for him to show up so he got left behind. I'm pretending that he became a nice cat and someone took him in rather than other not so pleasant alternatives. Poor Lupin :(

The guys drove through the night and arrived late the next morning extremely exhausted. After looking at the car we were all amazed and thankful that they made it back in one piece. I'll be happy once we sell the trailer and I never have to look at it again.


The next day we were all exhausted but we got Anna all dressed up for Easter anyway. She was such a cutie that day!

I was against any family pictures due to the handle bar mustache Kevin decided to sport that day but Patti caught us. 

It took a bit to get things unpacked and organized. We're storing stuff we aren't using in Thomas and Serena's basement so there has been a lot of back and forth trying to find various things we've decided we don't need or do need. We're pretty settled in the lower half of Kevin and Patti's house now (we're very thankful for them letting us stay with them) and Anna seems to have adjusted pretty well.

There have been a few nice days so we've been trying to take advantage of being next to Lake Shawnee. Hopefully more nice days will be coming soon...I have so many cute dresses to put Anna in and I'm just waiting on the sunshine!

It's been nice having this time as a family and I'm very thankful for it. Now that we're settled the job hunt is on but we're going to continue to enjoy our time.

We took Anna to Baby Bookworms at the library last week and I'm planning on taking Anna every week (unless she's napping like she was this past week). I'm also looking into this Parents and Teachers program that I've heard hosts play dates so I can meet some other Mommy's in the area. A lot of my friends from Topeka have scattered so the search is on!

I'm holding off on a true Anna update until after I take her 5 month pictures this weekend. I can't believe she's 5 months already! I will say that she is very grabby but is a lot of fun.

That steak looks good Grandpa Kevin!

 Anna does love this little piano toy and we managed to get these sunglasses on her. It lasted about 2 seconds before they made her mad but I managed to get a good picture in!

 

Butterflies

One last Michigan post before I move on to things happening here in Kansas. We had told our friends Will and Kristin that we were planning on taking Anna to the 'Butterflies in Bloom' exhibit at Dow Gardens before we left town. They have a really nice DSLR camera and let us borrow it. We played with it at home for a bit and took about a bazillion pictures of Anna with it.

I love that Anna is starting to get a little bit of a mohawk. When you are a girl this is pretty much the only time in your life when you can successfully pull the look off. (In my opinion at least)

Anna kept staring at the camera and we had trouble getting her to smile much but we still think she's pretty cute :)

We invited Kristin along to the Butterfly Garden and she ended up taking a lot of pictures for us and even did some editing of a bunch of them! This is one that I really really love. 

She was looking around a bunch but I'm not sure if she really noticed any of the butterflies or not. There were so many pretty flowers and other people to look at.

 

Getting Anna to look at the camera proved to be next to impossible.

One of her favorite pastimes...blowing spit bubbles.

Another favorite.

This photo is also another favorite! We don't end up getting a ton of pictures of the three of us since one of us is usually taking the picture so we were so grateful to get some of these taken! Once again...thank you Kristin!