My Baby

Grammy took some sweet photos of my Anna the other day and when I looked at them I was shocked at how BIG she looks. It made me sad, happy, proud and overwhelmed with love for my baby. I am so thankful for Anna. She has made me a better, more nurturing mother. I love my time with her!!!

Anna has such a sweet and sensitive spirit. She loves to giggle, play, cuddle and sing!

Fishing & Kites

Grammy, Papa and Daddy took the girls to the park to go fishing and fly kites! We've really been trying to enjoy the nice weather as much as possible! Getting all the fishing gear together! Daddy has a lot of helpers!

Claire has become quite an independent fisherman!

Flying kites is so much FUN!

Grammy & Papa like to fly kites, too!

Look at Anna... flying a kite all by herself! Such a big girl!!

Family

In the last week we've been able to spend some with our family! Friday we spent the afternoon with Grandma McDowell, Saturday my Mom & Dad had dinner at their house and Shawn, Kristen and kids were in town for spring break and today we spent time with my grandparents and Uncle Craig. We always love spending time with family! My Grandpa Stephens isn't doing well so I've been trying to go over fairly often with the girls. Both girls know that there is something wrong with Grandpa. They have both said things about Papa acting funny or Anna said, "Papa sick". It's so sad for me to see him so ill. Probably the hardest part has been watching the glimmer leave from his eyes. We sure do love him...

At Grandma McDowell's house! She is doing GREAT!

Silly cousins!

Anna loves her cousin Lauren to carry her around!

Grandma McDowell and 5 of her 8 great grandkids!

Buddy

Aunt Beth got a new puppy three weeks ago. His name is Buddy and he's an American Mastiff. He is so sweet and laid back and the girls adore him! Claire would say over and over to Aunt Beth, "Awww, he's so cute, Bethie", in a sweet, high pitched voice! Anna immediately got her doctor kit out and did a complete examination of Buddy. We always laugh and say that Anna is going to be a veterinarian because she always listens to Sophie with a stethoscope. Now she's doing the same thing with Buddy! We sure do LOVE animals in our family!!

Look at that face!

Anna listening to Buddy's lungs!

She loves to use the otoscope to check ears! Buddy's ears looked great!

Checking reflexes now...

Another quick listen!

The girls could not get enough of him!

We also celebrated Steven's birthday!!

Happy Birthday, Steven!

Ahhhh... to the PARK!

So... the weather the last couple weeks had been beautiful! We are loving the warm spring temperatures. We have spent as much time outdoors as possible which means lots of trips to the park. It seems like we had a looooong winter so getting some fresh air has been rejuvenating!! Bring on the HEAT!

Run, Forrest, run!

Apparently, swinging on your tummy is the funnest way to swing!

The girls are so funny on slides now. They only want to go down TOGETHER!

Anna's new skill this park season is climbing up the rock wall! Last year she was still a baby in so many ways and now she's doing big girl things!

We've also been eating lots of ice cream! YUM!

I love that my girls are playing together now! It's so sweet to watch them!

Off to Illinois

Over the weekend, my mom, Claire and I took a trip to Illinois to visit with my older brother, Shawn, SIL, and nieces & nephew. We had such a fun and relaxing time just hanging out at their beautiful home! I hardly even saw Claire while we were there because she was off playing with her "big" cousins the whole time! She had so much fun! Thank you for your hospitality Shawn & Kristen! We love you!!!

They spent a lot of time on the trampoline!

Lauren & Jillian could do a lot of flips!!!

Claire with her big cousins (Connor, Lauren & Jillian).

I took a photo like this of the four of them on the slide over 2 years ago! Boy how they have all grown!!

Shootin' some b-ball!

Jillian made a hop scotch on the drive way and Claire loves hop scotch!!

The kids being very silly and WILD in the evening!

Even Nuna got in on the action!

Claire tackling Connor! The girl cousins love their only boy cousin!!!

Ollie is so cute! We were laughing at how he matches their furniture... he blended right in!!!

On Sunday morning we went to church with them and had the pleasure of hearing Shawn sing! There is honestly no one I'd rather listen to! He can sing!!!!!

This pretty much sums up our visit... just sitting around and chatting! So fun!!!!

Anna's 1st Haircut

This evening I took the girls to go get haircuts with Miss Whitney. This was Anna's very FIRST haircut! She has a ridiculous amount of hair and it definitely needed to be trimmed! I LOVE her hair so I only let Whitney even it out and put a couple long layers in it. I wasn't quite brave enough to do anything drastic at this point! It turned out really cute and she was a perfect angel. She just sucked on her dum-dum and didn't make a peep! Such a big girl!

A before shot of her pretty, long, thick hair!

She loved the sucker!


The "after" pic! You really can't tell from the picture, but it definitely looks more even and a little shorter! Maybe next time I'll be a more daring!

It was also time for Claire to get a haircut. Whitney took about 5 inches off! WOW!!!

I love Claire's hair in a bob!! She looks so much older!

Girlfriends

Tonight I was able to go out with some of my girlfriends for a much needed girls' night out! I went to school with these girls at Dayton Christian and have known many of them since I was a little girl. Dayton Christian was truly more like a family than a school. I am so thankful that I am still friends with many of my classmates! We try to go out every couple months and we always have a great time reminiscing. There is a lot of talking, laughter and every once in awhile... a few tears! Love you girls!!

WICKED

My mom and I went to see WICKED tonight at the Schuster Center and I have only one word to describe the show... AMAZING! It was such a great musical. It was funny, sweet, sentimental and well performed. Many of the performers were right off Broadway and they were beyond talented. My mom and I have been to most of the big shows and this one ranked at the very top! If you have a chance to go, I highly recommend it!