All About Anne- 2 years

It is so hard to believe this little monkey is two! She is no longer my littlest, which is just so crazy!! She did so amazing after Clara was born, she didn't show any jealousy and just loved her so much. It is really cute how she says Clara's name, it sounds a lot like Tawa.

Annie has started to talk a lot. I love to hear her start to say so many things. It gives her so much personality. My favorite thing that she say lately is when she will say, " love you mama!" It seriously melts my heart. When she first started talking she would say yes to everything, and in the sweetest little voice too! Now all of a sudden it is no to everything and in the meanest voice too. She is certainly going through a phase right now. Lately we are calling her our little dictator because she is trying to boss everyone around, and in the meanest way too! The other day in the car she was screaming at Russy to sit down over and over even though he was in his seat. Even though she is so bossy right now she still loves to give hugs. If she does something wrong and makes someone sad she will go and say "hugs, hugs" and try and give them a hug.

Annie has the best hair! It is really thick and the prettiest color! Whenever we go places people will comment on how amazing her hair is.

She went through a phase where she wanted to wear Russy's clothes, so I had to snap a picture of her.

One great thing about Annie is that she loves her bed and she loves to go to sleep! She can climb out of her crib but she never does because she loves to get all settled in with her paci and her blanket, her pillow and her babies. She is waking up really early though in the morning becuase of going down so early. She comes down to our bed and uses her one volume (very loud) voice to get us up to get her a bag of cereal and turn on a show for her.

She loves to sit in Clara's seats, whether it's her bouncer or her car seat or bath seat. I wonder if she is trying to be a baby for longer.

She is best of friends worst of enemies with Russy. The get along occasionally but more of the time they are fighting like cats and dogs! She is really tough too and is the one who is pushing Russy around. We have to watch out for our feisty little Annie girl.

Annie just loves Grandma and Grandpa so much! She calls them Bama and Bampa in her cute little voice! She will see them and go run and give them a hug. She has always liked my dad a lot and has loved to just go and sit by him since she was a little baby girl.

I just adore this crazy spunky sweet little lady of mine. Each child comes and adds so much to the family and you just can't imagine your life without them, and of course Annie is that way too! She is just such a little light in all of our lives and I am so grateful I get to be her mom!!

 

Annie's Birthday

We celebrated Annie's birthday when the sisters got home from their trip they took with Grandma for Spring Break. It was really weird to have them all gone for a whole week. It was the week of Anne's birthday so we just waited to celebrate. Plus it's not like a two year old knows any better. Which is another reson I refuse to make a big deal out of their birthday at this age.

We let Annie pick out some presents at the store from us already, but I did want her to be able to have a present to open so I bought some little things with the money from my parents so she had a present to open.

I made her a flip flop cake. I was having a hard time deciding what cake to make her. She really likes Legos and that is what we got her, but I didn't really want to make a Lego cake. One of the girls suggested flip flops since she loves to wear hers and everyone else's. So I thought that would be cute.

Russy had to be all up in the business too. We lit candles and sang to her and she seemed fine and we tried to have her blow them out and all of a sudden she flipped out and was freaking out about the fire. It was too funny. We love this little crazy two year old!

 

Easter

There is something about an egg hunt that is just so much fun for the kids. The week before Easter there was a neighborhood hunt at a nearby park. It was fun to watch Russ and Annie figure out how to do it. Annie got the hang of it but pretty much just took her sweet time. Russy struggled to get the eggs into his bag so I had to go out there and help him. I'm sure some of the parents were annoyed with me, but I just knew that he would freak out later if he ended up with just a few eggs and everyone else had a lot.

We tried to help Jane with a strategy of what to do so she could maximize the number of eggs, she ended up doing pretty well for her, she is just not an aggressive sort. We couldn't find our easter baskets so we were the white trash family with the Walmart bags.

Russy had to unstuff his immediately and try to eat all of the candy as quick as he could. It was cute because he called the chocolate eggs footballs.

It was fun becuase we had our cousins in town to visit so they came to the hunt too. We never win anything so I just gave all of our raffle tickets to Lizzy to go and listen for prizes and she won three! I think she must be one of those lucky people, we will have to have her win us prizes more often!

Clara is actually in this picture too, she is in the sling I am wearing. It has become one of her favorite places to be. Especially becuase she really dislikes her seat so whenever I have to take her places I have to put her in there.

I wish I could have been in the picture too but alas I was in the car nursing. Story of a moms life.

It is always so fun to have cousins visit!

We had another hunt the day before Easter at the church. This one was good because each of the kids were only allowed a certain number of eggs so there wasn't the mad dash like there was at the other one.

We even splurged on the kids and bought them the dollar buckets at Walmart.

 

I love this picture of Jane and Russy waiting for the hunt to start.

We had to do the obligatory egg coloring. For some reason it is like carving pumpkins for me, I always want to do it wth the kids but I am never good at planning it and the all of a sudden I realize the holiday is upon us and we haven't done it yet. This was the first year that Russy joined us doing it and he absolutely loved it. He made sure to make a green ninja turtle one, becuase they are one of his new favorites.

 

 

 

I love the joy that kids have in doing these activites. I love how they look forward to them and think they are something extra special. It sure makes me want to do more stuff with them like this when they love it so much.

It was a great Easter. We had an egg hunt in the house this year because it was raining. I love how my kids are not hard to please. I guess that comes with having a big family and not being able to give them whatever they want. The kids wanted an egg hunt rather than having the Easter bunny come, which is always fine by me especially since I have noticed everyone is going overboard and acting like Easter is another Christmas and giving their kids these giant gifts.

I love to see all my kids together and know that my whole family is here. What a great feeling that is!!