I am back to playing catch-up, starting with the end of last summer. On August 30th, my brother, Trevor, married his beautiful wife, Megan. The wedding was here in Utah (which was nice for us!) at the same LDS temple Derek and I were married in. I'm going to copy and paste what I wrote in an email to my sister Maggie (who is currently serving a mission in Florida and was unable to attend the wedding.)
"Yesterday was wedding day! It really was a nearly perfect day. The weather was fabulous...cloudy and cool in the morning at the temple, then sunny in the evening for the reception. Megan was stunning. Trev smiled the whole day. I got to see them kiss in person for the first time...and first twenty times after that. The sealer was long-winded but had great insights and a sense of humor. (He told Trev to "give her a real kiss, none of this little peck stuff.") Dad gave a little speech at the luncheon, and it was really nice. Mom was lovely in peach, and Haley and Maren were the cutest bridesmaids ever. Anna was adorable and happy all day. Derek stayed busy chasing her around and suffering through too many pictures. I only cried twice, once hugging Trev after the sealing and again during the mommy-son dance. (Trevor had to go and pick that darn "sleep my baby" song from that lullaby CD, and he was crying and I just lost it. I'll blame it on pregnancy hormones.) They had so many well-wishers the receiving line went on for over two hours. The flowers and pictures looked great and mom's slide show was a hit. The cake was beautiful...until it started melting off the tray and looked more like a frosting avalanche. And they actually had lots of willing dancers so it seemed like a real dance and not a Sioux Falls stake youth dance like some wedding dances I've been to. I was exhausted by the end of the day, but so, so happy for Trevor and so excited to have Megan officially join our family."
It really was such a happy event! We all love Megan and are so happy that Trev found someone so perfect for him.
It was kind-of too bad for us that Derek's cousin Connor's wedding was also that same day. We left Trev's reception early to try and catch the end of Connor's, but we pretty much showed up just in time to help clean up. It was really fun, though, because we got to see all of Derek's family who came out for the wedding. The evening before the wedding, we had everyone over at our house for dinner. Anna had so much fun with her second cousins, Lexi and Chelsea, and it was so nice to catch up with those we hadn't seen in awhile.
Little cousins
Anna & Lexi on the trampoline
The following Saturday (September 6th), my best friend, Ashley got married. The wedding was in Mitchell, and it worked out pretty nicely because Anna and I just drove back to South Dakota with my family after Trevor's wedding. Then Derek flew out that Friday evening, and we all flew back together the following Monday. I was honored to be one of the bridesmaids in the wedding party. The only problem was that the dress I ordered no longer fit over my baby bump. I had been trying it on almost every week to make sure it still fit....and I could still squeeze into it until the week right before haha. Try as I might, there was absolutely no way I could get that zipper up! I borrowed a couple of black dresses from friends, spent a couple days running around Mitchell trying to find a similar dress, but none of them really looked like the original. Finally, one of my mom's amazing coworkers offered to alter the dress for me. She was able to take the seams out just under my arms and add two black panels to increase the width of the dress. It worked great, and you could hardly tell it was a different material. I was so grateful! Ash's wedding day was amazing and so fun. We all got our hair done together that morning and then took pictures in the afternoon before the ceremony. I was super nervous about tripping in my 4-inch heels walking up the aisle, but I made it with no problems. (I was so happy to take those shoes off afterward though! My feet were killing me by the end haha.) The ceremony was really beautiful, and the reception/dance afterward was a ton of fun. I was so happy for her, and I was so happy I could be there for her special day!
You know the classic kids' book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie?" My child is the mouse. I am completely convinced the author had a 2-year-old who inspired that book because it is seriously my life these days. Anna is just SO easily distracted by little things that it takes forever to get her to do anything or go anywhere. And she also has to do EVERYTHING herself, which also means it takes three times as long. She really is a ton of fun 90% of the time, but boy, oh, boy, there are some days when she REALLY tries my patience.
Let me walk you through our morning today as an example. Around 8:00 a.m., I hear her knocking on her door (she can't open doors yet), and I go to get her. We snuggle for a little bit, then I tell her it's time to change her diaper so we can go downstairs and eat breakfast. I tell her to go get a diaper; she pull three out. She says, "Two diapers!" I tell her she has three. She counts them about 10 times. I tell her to choose one to wear, she stares at them for about two minutes saying "choose one, choose one" over and over. (FYI two are exactly the same, and the one that's "different" has a picture of a monkey swinging on a vine instead of a monkey holding a leaf).
Finally, I pick one and tell her to put the others back, she says, "No, I want this one!" and grabs the other diaper that looks exactly like the one in my hand. I say fine. I tell her to come lie down. She comes over and notices the tag on the changing pad. She points to it and says, "Tag!" (a word she just learned). Then she spends another two minutes trying to tuck the tag underneath the changing pad, with no success. I help her. She gets mad because she wants to do it herself. She finally succeeds in doing it by herself. I tell her to please lie down. She doesn't. I try the "puppy trick" and tell her to pretend to be a puppy and lie down so I can rub her tummy. This time it backfires because she suddenly is reminded of her stuffed puppy and has to go get it from her bed. She brings the puppy over and lays HIM on his back and rubs his tummy. She notices her puppy has a tag. She points to it and yells, "Tag!" Then she pulls out the tag on the changing pad (that she spent two minutes tucking away) and yells, "Tag!" She points back and forth to both tags. "Tag. Tag! Tag. Tag! It's the same!" I say, "Yes, they're both the same, good job!" I then rub the puppy's tummy and say, "Good puppy! Can Anna lie down and be a good puppy too?" She finally lies down, and I change her diaper.
I then tell her it's time to eat breakfast. We head into the hallway, and she sees the bathroom. She immediately wants to wash her hands. She climbs on her stool and I help her wash her hands. She notices the medicine on the counter and immediately wants some. I tell her she doesn't need any because she's not sick anymore. She then remembers the "momter" (thermometer) and wants to take her temperature. Luckily, the thermometer is downstairs, and I tell her so. We go down the stairs. I pull out two kinds of cereal and ask which kind she wants (she's forgotten about the thermometer by this point). She says "oatmeal." I tell her no, we're having cereal today. I ask again which kind she wants. She picks Life. I pour two bowls of Life and set them on the table. I pull out her chair so she can climb into it by herself. She sits down and I push in her seat and put her bib on. She looks at her bowl of Life for a second, then pushes it away and says, "Krispies!" and points to the Rice Krispies on the counter. I tell her, "No, you picked Life. We're eating Life today." She cries for about a minute. (I give myself an internal reminder to stick to my guns and not give into her every demand and also pray desperately that she'll just please eat the cereal in front of her because I really, really don't want to have to put her in time out over cereal.) She finally picks up her spoon, takes a bite, says, "yummy!" and eats happily. Crisis averted. I breathe a sigh of relief.
About three bites in, Anna gets frustrated with her hair falling in her eyes and cereal. I ask her if she wants me to put it in a ponytail. She says yes. She almost never wants her hair done, so I quickly go upstairs and get her comb and hair ties before she changes her mind. I fix her hair while she eats. She eats most of her cereal and asks for more. I give her more. She takes one more bite and then announces she's finished. She climbs down and goes into the living room where she finds the thermometer. She tries to unzip her pjs so she can take her temperature. She can't get the zipper down. I try to help her. She gets mad because she wants to do it herself. She struggles with it for a few seconds and then finally gets it unzipped far enough to put the thermometer under her arm. She drops the thermometer down her pajama leg. She starts crying. I fish the thermometer out of her pajamas and give it back to her. She finishes taking her temperature. It's now 9:00 a.m. I already want to pull my hair out.
The bad news? The rest of the morning was equally terrible, and by nap time, I was almost in tears. The good news? I laughed out loud probably 15 times writing this post. I hope you got some good laughs in too.
Now go find a copy of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" and imagine the mouse is Anna and laugh some more.
Our favorite little girl has officially completed two full years of life. I remember thinking when she was around 6 months old that time seemed to be moving rather slowly and that I was doing a good job of really savoring all the special little moments and changes of her life. Now two whole years have passed, and I can't help but feel a little nostalgic thinking back to the first days, weeks, and months of her life. It really does seem like so long ago! Our Anna-girl is growing up!
The best part about age two has been her skyrocketing verbal skills. Just in the last month or so, she has started putting together three to four word sentences, and her vocabulary seems to be growing exponentially. One of my favorite phrases she says right now is "I love _____!" She says it about almost everything. ("Anna, would you like an orange?" "Yeah! I love the orange!") There are still times when I can't make out what she's trying to tell me, but most of the time she is really able to communicate exactly what she is thinking. It is so fun to hear all the things she has to say! She is also bringing to my attention phrases that I probably need to say less. I didn't realize how much I say "Oh gosh" until she started parroting, "Oh josh!" :)
In addition to words, Anna is learning lots of other new things. She can count to ten, sometimes twelve by herself. She's starting to figure out colors and usually gets green, blue, red, pink, and white correct...although if she's not sure, her default is always, "Green!" She can name tons of different animals. She knows a few shapes including star, circle, and square. She can sing her ABCs and can correctly name at least two-thirds of the letters. She loves playing with her alphabet magnets, and she points out the "Letters a Aph-bet!" on signs, t-shirts, cereal boxes, etc wherever we go. Basically, we think she's pretty smart. :)
Turning two has also brought a big streak of independence. She is definitely a strong-willed little thing. If you can't convince her to do something of her own accord, you can bet a tantrum will ensue if you make her do it anyway. Brushing her teeth is a fight every single time, as is getting her hair brushed, washing her face, and getting her nose wiped. (Notice a common theme?) She likes to do all of those things herself, but if you try to do it for her, it is the end of the world! She also sometimes decides she does not want to wear pajamas to bed. The first time, we forced her into pjs anyway, and she threw the biggest tantrum I have ever seen. Now, if she insists on wearing her clothes to bed, we just don't fight it. Pick your battles right?
We moved Anna into a "big girl" bed and new room just before Christmas. I was really worried about how she'd do with the change, but it's actually been great. We bought twin bunk beds (knowing we would need them eventually) from our neighbor, painted them white, and separated them so she has two single twin beds in her room. It's perfect because the top bunk has railing on the side so she can't roll out, and I can lie down in the other bed when she can't go to sleep on her own at night. We also painted her walls blue and a dresser white with blue knobs to match. It turned out pretty cute, and she loves her new room!
Anna continues to be a bookworm. Some of her recent favorites are The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli, the Froggy books by Jonathan London, and the Five Little Monkey series by Eileen Christelow. She loves going to the library every week for story time, where we get to learn lots of fun new songs and nursery rhymes. Here is a video of us singing one of our favorites.
Another fun thing has been watching her start to play pretend. She often pretends to be different animals, usually a puppy or a frog...she jumps and yells, "Riddit!" haha. We got her a kitchen and play food for Christmas, and she loves pretending to cook. She also got a doctor kit for Christmas, so we've been playing doctor a lot (which has been good, because she's actually been to the real doctor FOUR times in the month of January...more on that in a minute). It's also fun to watch her talk to and take care of her dolls and stuffed animals. Her two baby dolls, Rosie and Sally, sleep with her every night and usually each have to have their own blankets and get tucked in too. She also likes to change their diapers and usually has to change them first before getting her own diaper changed. Sally also gets to take a bath with Anna.
Besides her dolls, Anna's favorite toy to play with is definitely her Lego train that she got for Christmas. She loves Legos and she loves "choo choo trains" so it is basically the best toy ever. I don't think a day has passed that she hasn't played with it! She also loves building towers with blocks (or whatever is available), and she's getting pretty good at it.
So like I mentioned before, Anna has had several doctor visits this month. First was her routine 24-month check up. Anna's right foot has been slightly curved since she was born, and her doctor has been keeping an eye on it. He kept hoping it would straighten out on its own, but it hasn't, so he referred us to a pediatric orthopedist for that. Then he also discovered that she has a heart murmur and suggested we get that checked out by a cardiologist.
The pediatric orthopedist called her foot condition "metatarsus adductus" which basically means the bones of the front of the foot curve away from the back of the foot. It's actually fairly common in infants and usually corrects itself in about 90% of cases. So there's still a slight chance it could fix itself (although it's not too likely since it hasn't already). But the doctor said there's not really anything they can do for it until the bones have completely set and hardened, which isn't until age 4 or 5. At that point, if her foot is causing her any pain or keeping her from walking/running normally, they can do surgery to fix it. But if it's not really causing any problems, then we really don't have to do anything. He actually said his son had the same condition and his foot is still slightly curved, but he was able to run track and play soccer and everything, so that was encouraging to hear.
The cardiologist appointment was a bit more lengthy. He listened to her heart, then wanted to do an EKG, then an echocardiogram. She was such a champ and sat so still for all the exams, even the echo which took almost 45 minutes. Everything came back looking normal, and the doctor said the murmur wasn't anything to worry about and will probably go away after time. So that was good (but expensive!) news.
Then Anna also had a follow-up eye appointment this month. Her eyes haven't really worsened, but haven't gotten better either. We got a slightly stronger prescription in her right lens, so hopefully that will help some. Her ophthalmologist thinks she will probably end up needing another surgery, but he wants to wait another couple months to see if they'll improve with the glasses and patching.
Pretty much, we're anticipating that with all Anna's doctor bills and with the baby coming next month, we're likely going to meet our out of pocket maximum before March!
Let's see what else? Anna still loves dancing. She got some pretty dress-up skirts for her birthday and she likes to wear her "twirly skirts" when she's dancing. She also frequently asks me to put in my Zumba DVDs (even though I haven't been doing Zumba for months now) and dance along with the instructors haha.
Anna has also mastered the somersault.
Anna loved playing in the snow while it lasted. Too bad we've hardly had any this winter!
Anna still loves being like Mommy and Daddy. This is one of my favorite pictures. She's "working" like Dad.
Here she is washing dishes like Mommy.
And here she is wearing my boots. :)
I seriously love her more and more every day! She brings so much life and light into our world!
I'm obviously way behind with updates on our family news, so as everyone probably already knows, we are having another baby--a boy!--in less than 5 weeks. Here are some pictures from when we announced we were having a baby, and then later when we revealed the gender.
I have definitely hit the "I'm-ready-to-be-done-being-pregnant" stage of pregnancy. My mom has a theory that God purposefully designed the last month of pregnancy to be completely miserable because it makes us forget how awful labor is and actually ANTICIPATE labor so we can be done with pregnancy. :) I think this pregnancy has been harder than my first. I battled nausea for 20 weeks instead of 12. I've had more back pain this time around...probably due to the fact that I've already gained almost ten pounds more with this kiddo than I ever did with Anna. And he is currently sitting really low, so I have a lot of pelvic pressure/pain which isn't too fun.
But laying aside all the unpleasantness of pregnancy, I'm starting to feel pretty excited about having another baby. I knew I wanted my kids to be fairly close in age, so I was excited as soon as I found out we were having another child. But it took me awhile to really feel excited about having another BABY. The newborn stage is honestly not my favorite. I know so many people love newborns...how they cuddle with you all the time and the "newborn smell" and all that. But while Anna's newborn stage was incredibly special for me (getting to be a mom for the first time and feeling all the love and emotions that come with that), I think I've enjoyed every subsequent stage of her life more than the first. I just enjoy babies more when they can actually smile and giggle and interact with you. (And also when they sleep for more than three-hour chunks at night). But as it gets closer to my due date, I'm feeling more excited about holding a newborn baby--MY newborn baby--again.
And right alongside my growing excitement is a fair amount of increasing nervousness. The thought of having an infant AND a toddler overwhelms me just a little bit. Some days, I feel like we're barely able to manage Anna. Those days I think, "How in the world are we going to take care of TWO kids??" Sometimes, I start thinking through different situations, like going grocery shopping, and how it will be with two kids. (Should I get the baby all buckled up and in the car and then take care of Anna? Or will it be easier to get Anna all situated in the car and then give her a snack or something to keep her happy while then get the baby ready to go? Then when I get to the store, do I get Anna out first? Or is it better to get the baby out first and then Anna so she can't run off? And putting the baby's car seat in the shopping cart is definitely not going to work because it will take up too much space. Is my best option going to be using a baby sling? Is that going to be annoying to put that on and take it off every time?? Etc, etc) I get stressed thinking about it! But then I remember how I felt going anywhere with Anna when she was a newborn and being so paranoid that she would CRY (heaven forbid) while I was at the store and I wouldn't be able to get her to stop and people would think I was a terrible mom and all these other ridiculous thoughts. And then I think about how she threw a royal tantrum the other week in the middle of Wal-mart, and I didn't even bat an eye! And I remind myself that it will be challenging at first because it will be new, but then it will get easier and easier.
I know I have tons of catching up to do on the blog, but at my mom's request for pictures from Anna's birthday, I'm just going to do that first. :) Anna turned 2 on Thursday! Her birthday party was so much fun! I had planned to keep her party super simple...but then I got this magical idea to do a Candyland themed party (Anna loves the game) and couldn't get it out of my head. So I just decided to go for it. Luckily, my mother-in-law flew in on New Year's Eve and jumped right in to help with all the food and decorating.
Anna woke up at about 6:30 a.m. on her birthday...not because she was excited for her birthday, just because she does that sometimes. So with staying up until midnight the night before, it made for a short night for Mom and Dad. After trying to get her to go back to sleep for an hour, we gave up and got up with her. I made her blueberry pancakes, which are one of her favorites. I tried to make a Mickey Mouse silhouette, but it didn't turn out so well. But we decorated it with a whipped cream "A" and sprinkles, so she loved it anyway. :)
We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon cooking food and decorating for her party. Everything was actually really easy and cheap to do...colored paper squares for the "gameboard" and tissue-wrapped paper plates for giant candies made simple decorations. (At least it was simple in theory. Unfortunately, the tape didn't stick to the wall very well, and since we decided to do that first thing, we spent the rest of the day re-taping them because they kept falling off the wall, haha).
Karry re-taping right before the party
"Quick, take a picture before they fall down again!"
But the thing I was proudest of was the food table. We made cupcakes and frosted them different colors to make the game board "squares." Then we frosted a few pink ones to mark the different destinations of Candyland. I found a bunch of pictures from the board game on google and made simple labels for all the food. We had the "Peppermint Forrest", "Lollypop Woods", and "Chocolate Swamp" (all using leftover Christmas candy). Then we had "Plumpy's Fruit Salad," "Rainbow Pass-ta Salad," "Gramma Nut's Trail Mix," "Lord Licorice Wands," and of course, "King Kandy's Castle Cake." Oh and we made sherbet punch for "Queen Frostine's Ice Cream Sea." It turned out so cute!
Karry did an amazing job on the castle cake!
We had a crowd of over 30 family members and friends, and Anna received quite the load of gifts. It was so much fun to watch her open her presents. Her reaction was, "Whoa!" or "Wow" or "Oooh!" for everything.
Opening gifts
Blowing out candles
She also had a blast eating the tower off of her castle cake.
We had the neat opportunity to visit Kentucky and southern Indiana over the July 4th weekend. The Smith family reunion was held this year at Patoka Lake, IN which is near where my grandma grew up and where her sister Billie (who just recently passed away) lived. Since the reunion location was so close to where Derek served his mission, we decided to spend an extra couple days touring Kentucky, and visiting some of his converts. This was the first time Derek has been able to go back to Kentucky since his mission five years ago, and it was really special for us to go with him. I can see now why he loves it there so much!
We flew into Cincinnati late on Wednesday, July 2nd and stayed the night there. Thursday morning, we drove about an hour to Louisville, Kentucky. We spent the morning at the Louisville Waterfront Park along the Ohio River. There's a cool pedestrian/bike bridge that goes over the river and a really fun playground where Anna had a blast. We ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant that was also right there on the river.
After lunch, we drove to another park across town to meet up with Jay, one of Derek's converts. When we were planning our trip, I asked Derek what he wanted to do while we were in Kentucky, and the first thing he said was, "I want to visit Jay." Jay is one of Derek's closest friends from his mission, and it was clear that the two have a close bond. We wished we could have met his wife, who was just recently baptized, but she had to work late that day. But it was really special to get to meet and talk with him.
After saying goodbye to Jay, we drove to Patoka Lake for the reunion. All six of my grandma's kids and their spouses plus most of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren were able to attend. It was quite the crew! It was a little crazy and chaotic, but loads of fun. The weather really couldn't have been more perfect. It was about 75 degrees and sunny the whole time we were there. We spent a lot of time swimming at the lake, catching fireflies at night, keeping track of all the little kids running around, and just visiting. On the 4th, most of us drove to the next town over to watch the fireworks. And of course, the boys (and Megan) had to get a game of basketball in. (They had to drive 45 minutes to the nearest court and then another 30 miles to the nearest Wal-Mart to find a ball, but they were determined to play!)
What a crew!
Anna at the beach
Bailey and Jackson
Charlotte
Maren and Anna
On Sunday morning, we left pretty early to drive to Bardstown, KY for church. Bardstown was one of Derek's favorite areas, mostly due to the wonderful members of the little branch. Everyone was so welcoming. Several people remembered Derek, and it was really neat to see the daughter of one of his converts there. Derek enjoyed visiting with the TWO sets of missionaries (elders and sisters) that were currently serving there. We had a couple people ask us, "Are you moving to Bardstown?!" Honestly, by the end of the day, I was almost ready to! It is such a neat little town with lots of old brick buildings, cobblestone paths, and tons of history. And the people have such fun southern accents and big hearts.
At a Civil War memorial in Bardstown
When church was over, we stopped by to visit with Angie, another of Derek's converts. She welcomed us into her home and we were able to visit for a couple hours. She is such a nice lady, and she just loved Anna! I am sad we forgot to take a picture with her before leaving.
Next, we drove about 30 miles to Elizabethtown, another of Derek's areas. We drove by his old apartment and the church building, and then drove to Fort Knox. While Derek was in E-town, he had the opportunity to make weekly visits to Fort Knox to teach the soldiers training there. The missionaries would also conduct Sunday worship services and hold baptisms almost every week.
We stayed the night in Bardstown and then drove the next morning to Frankfort, KY. We took the scenic route through Versailles to see all the horse farms. That drive was so pretty and better matched my vision of what Kentucky would look like. The Louisville area has way more trees than I'd expected, but as we drove east, the trees cleared to make way for the rolling green hills I had pictured. We made a couple stops to take some pictures with the horses. These horses are some of the most spoiled horses in the world. Their pastures and barns are huge! (Derek told me he heard some of the barns even have chandeliers inside. What?!)
Definitely in the Bible Belt. Love it!
In Frankfort, which is the capitol of Kentucky, we decided to do some of the "touristy" stuff. We visited Daniel Boone's grave, did a quick tour of the capitol building, and ate lunch at this neat little southern-style seafood place by the river where I got to sample my very first hushpuppies. We made a quick drive by Derek's mission apartment, and then it was time to head to the airport. (I have to make a note here that Anna was a superb traveler. She slept most of the time in the car as we drove around Kentucky, and she was really good on the airplane...until the last hour of the flight home. It was a 3 1/2 hour flight and it was late and she was really tired but would not fall asleep until five minutes AFTER we landed. But other than that, she did really, really well.) We wished we would have had time to visit Mt. Vernon, IN and Corbin, KY, Derek's first and last areas, but they were more out of the way and we weren't able to fit it in. But it was such a fun trip, and I'm so glad we were able to go!
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