Life With Little Miss Anna Banana

I uploaded some pictures to our computer, then started scrolling through and realized I had some good ones I wanted to share. Anna is such a little character and really such a little monkey. Here are some funny ones of her.

We got home from the grocery store and they gave us paper bags (since parts of the county have now banned plastic bags). I was in the kitchen putting stuff away when I looked in the family room and this is what I saw!

Then, she ripped the bag and wanted me to tape it up. I didn't because I knew she would just keep ripping it.

We had the missionaries over for dinner recently and I made cio'bar, which is like a really thick hot chocolate. Anna loved it, can't you tell?!

A few weeks ago, poor little Anna was so tired, she fell asleep in her chair, still holding her spoon. She hasn't done this since she was like 14 months!

Lately, Anna has a new game. Put your legs up on the wall.

We had a brief stint at potty training again. She sat on the potty for at least 10 minutes, just reading. It was really very cute to see her do this.

A new love of Anna's is the laundry basket. Since our washer and dryer are out in the garage, many times I put the basket near the door, before I can actually get a minute to go out there and start the laundry. Anna sees this as an opportunity to play. She loves to bring her toys in too.

(Her hair is pretty crazy here! She looks pretty funny.)

I really didn't want Anna to play in this laundry basket, since it's so tall, but she insisted and I got tired of her asking, so I just let her. Well, she discovered it was fun to tip herself out of it. Then, she would want me to put her and the basket back up. After a couple times of this, I put an end to her shenanigans. :)

And last, but not least is Anna's favorite past time...SINGING TIME!

Anna has really developed a love for singing. She loves to sing and is always singing songs she knows. We sit down at the piano together, and I play the right hand, while she plays where my left hand would play and we sing songs from the Children's Hymnbook. After a song is finished, she immediately says, sing another one! We usually do this for about 20 minutes. I'm very impressed with her memory for a 2 1/2 year old. Here are some of the songs she knows all/most of the words and melody to:

I am a Child of God

I have A Family Here on Earth

Popcorn Popping

I'm so Glad When Daddy Comes Home

I Love to See the Temple

Book of Mormon Stories

I am Like a Star Shining Brightly

In the Leafy Treetops

Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

Once There Was a Snowman

There are more, but that's all I can think of at the moment. She kind of knows the song, Pioneer Children Sang, but she gets caught on the walking part and that's all she sings-Pioneer children walked and walked and walked. Repeat. It's kind of funny.

I hope as she gets older, she keeps this love and I can teach her how to play the piano. It's so adorable to hear her sing. Hopefully, when she gets to Primary, she'll already know all the songs! :)

(I obviously didn't do my hair this day, so just excuse the unkept mess)

Anna and Alex

Alex will be 4 months next week! Where does the time go? The last week has been pretty hard, because he decided suddenly he doesn't want to sleep through the night anymore. One night, he woke up 6 times! The last few days have been much better and last night, he only woke up once and it was at 4:30 am, so I got a nice solid chunk of sleep.

He's just such a sweet baby. I really do love him so much. He's getting so good at tummy time. And he is SO close to being able to roll over. He'll turn his head up, and get on his side and all he needs is just a little more and he could roll over. For a little while, Dan would push him to roll over. Then, a few times, without us seeing it, Anna would roll him over! I would turn around and see him on his tummy. I asked Anna if she did it and she said, yes! So now, when I leave the room to wash my hands or something, I make sure to tell her not to roll him over. Who knows what will happen! :)

My sweet little babies!

Anna absolutely loves to do tummy time with Alex. Many times, I'll lay him down on a blanket and she immediately comes over and wants to do tummy time.

He's so big!

Anna was so nice to share her blanket with Alex.

Dan and Alex.

Alex also laughed for the first time last night. Dan was taking off his onesie to bathe him and he started laughing. So Dan tried tickling him a little more and we got a few more laughs. I can't wait till it's a more regularly occurring activity!

Anna is just smart as ever! We went to story time at the library for the first time yesterday. We got there and sat down and she looks at the wall. There were four large dinosaurs and she says, there's a triceratops! Dan loved dinosaurs as a kid and has made sure to instill the love in Anna, as well. She has two stuffed dinosaurs and one of them is a triceratops. I just love how she can recognize things she learns at home in a different setting. The lady who did story time was very impressed with her. We went to the older, 3-5 year old one, and she's only 2 1/2, but she stayed still the whole time and listened well.

Her other favorite thing is when she sees stop signs, she says, octagon! She has a Sesame Street book where Big Bird and Cookie Monster try and find shapes and Ernie has a stop sign. So now it's octagon!

She has also started to add a "y" to a lot of words. When Alex wakes up, she says, "Alex is a awakey!" She does it to other words, I just can't think of other examples at the moment. It's really cute and funny though.

I know it's still a ways away, but I was just thinking about how sad I'll be when she has to go to school! She's such a little sweetie.

It's a Love Story...

In honor of Valentines Day, I thought I would write about how Dan and I got together. I don't know if I've done this before, so if it's a repeat, sorry!

Dan and I first met in June of 2005. I had recently returned from my mission in Italy and had just arrived back in Utah. I had just moved into a new apartment. A few days after moving in, I came home and there were some people in my kitchen for dinner group. He was one of them. I chatted for a minute with them. I remember Dan saying something, but honestly that was it. He on the other hand, thought I was really cute and thought he said something dumb and had totally blown it with me. He actually started dating another girl for a while and I never really saw him much. Fast forward to January of 2006. Dan had broken up with that girl a few months before. One night, after ward prayer, I started talking to him and his friend Rich. Dan mentioned that he was taking an Italian class that semester. I offered to help him if he ever needed it. This was totally innocent. At this time, I wasn't really interested in him. I thought he was nice, but that was it.

Dan on the other hand, was already scheming. He told me that he was deciding between taking Italian and French. Italian worked better with his schedule and then he told me he thought, "Plus, Rachel is really hot, so I could ask her for help." Ha!

So Dan started coming over often to my apartment on the pretense of needing help. When, in reality, he didn't need help at all. He's so sneaky! I on the other hand, didn't suspect a thing. This went on for the entire semester, 4 months. At then end of the semester, my roommates and I decided to go out to dinner to celebrate. Dan came over, a little before we were going to go, and was going to ask me to dinner as a thank you for helping him with Italian. Well, he never got the chance, since we were already going out to eat. He ended up coming with us and I noticed he made sure to sit next to me.

Then, the next weekend, we ended up making tacos for cinco de mayo and watching a movie. This was a kind of hang out date, that wasn't really meant to be a date. Then, a few days later, Dan asked me out. He told me there was supposed to be wind on Friday and we could make dinner and fly some kites. Turns out there was only supposed to be like 6 mph winds, but he didn't specify how much wind! Once again, trying to be tricky.

So that was our first official date. It was fun and we came back to my apartment and watched a movie. We ended up holding hands and cuddling. The next day we hung out a bit, but I had plans for that night. Then Sunday came and I just wasn't sure about my feelings for Dan. I decided that I didn't want to date him and that we should just be friends. Everything happened kind of fast and I just hadn't really thought of him in a dating way, quite yet. I saw him at church, but then didn't see him till that evening, right before ward prayer. However, when he came to my apartment, he looked so cute and there wasn't really time to tell him. Then, I'm not quite sure what happened, but during ward prayer I changed my mind and decided to give him a chance. I think we started holding hands and I decided I liked it and that maybe we could have fun dating.

So, then we started dating. We dated the whole summer. We both just worked the summer and as soon as we got home in the evening, we hung out together. So we spent a lot of time together. As I got to know Dan better, I realized what a good guy he is. He was so kind and sweet. He really showed me a lot of love. He really just swept me off my feet. :)

We decided to get married after 3 1/2 months of dating. At the time, it didn't seem fast at all. In hindsight, it was pretty fast. Something kind of interesting, is after only about 3 weeks of dating, we went to Salt Lake to see the Joseph Smith movie. During the movie, Dan got the very distinct impression that he was going to marry me. He didn't tell me this until we were engaged, which was probably a good idea. :)

So, here we are, 4 1/2 years later. We have two beautiful children, a house, Dan has a good job. We are very blessed. I love Dan so much!

It's a Hard Knock Life...

Ahhh, a few brief moments have found their way into my life. Alex is asleep and Anna is in her room for quiet time. Lately, these moments have been few and far between. I wish I could blog more, but honestly, I rarely gets moments where I can just sit down at the computer and not be interrupted.

I can't believe it's February already! Alex is 3 months today. He's so big! He is in the 3/6 month clothing and actually fits into some just 6 month clothing. He's extremely long and has the cutest little chubby arms and legs. He loves to smile and coo back at you when you start smiling and talking to him. He's getting much better at tummy time and can hold his head up pretty high, even though tummy time doesn't last long because he starts getting mad. I love my little boy so much.

However, can I just say that he is an extremely FUSSY baby! There are so many times where we just have to walk around with him for him to be happy. The second we sit down, he starts crying. If I stop to take a drink of water while I'm holding him, he gets fussy. If things are not exactly to his liking, he gets fussy. Sometimes it's just a little fussing, while other times it's the all out screaming and he actually has tears in his eyes because he's so upset.

There is still the car seat issue as well. He still doesn't like it and will cry all the time in the car. This is extremely hard on me because I honestly feel like I can't go anywhere, or would rather just stay home, rather than deal with a fussy, crying baby out in public. It's really hard when you feel like the only times you can leave the house are to go grocery shopping and to the gym. And taking him anywhere else feels more like a chore, rather than just running an errand. The few times I have taken him out, I have to be in constant motion in order for him to be happy.

Also, because he's so big and heavy, carrying him around, especially in his car seat, is really hard on me. I have tons of knots in my back and neck and right now, my neck feels more like a rock. So, hence another reason, not to want to go places with him.

I love my little guy, but I really hope that things get better soon! As for the bottle, well that just didn't work out. He wouldn't take it. We kept trying and trying. I did buy another bottle the other day, that's supposed to be more like nursing, in its design. We're going to try it out soon and hopefully it will work!

I didn't mean for this to be a Debbie Downer blog post. Ha! I do love being a mother, but going from one to two, has been a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. And I didn't expect to get such a fussy baby. Maybe this means, he'll be more mellow when he gets older??? Maybe? Hopefully? :)

Alex doing tummy time!

Alex in his cute little church outfit.

Anna on the other hand is doing so well. She hasn't really been taking naps during quiet time, but it doesn't affect her like it used to. She's still happy whether she gets one or not. And actually, we almost don't want her to take one, because then when we put her down at night, she falls asleep right away, rather than it taking a while.

She's been really cute lately. She's starting to say sorry for things that she does. If she hurts me and I tell her, "Ow, that really hurt mommy." She then says, "Sorry, mommy." And gives me a kiss. She's also been asking me if I'm okay. If I'm doing something and I hurt myself, or there's a loud sound, etc. She asks, "You okay, mommy?" It's really so cute.

She also learned the song, Do as I'm Doing, in nursery. So for over a week now, she'll do something with her hands and say, "Please, do this I'm doing." And want me to imitate her. It's really cute.

She also has been going up to Alex and saying stuff that I say to him, in the tone of voice that I use. Things like, you're so cute, you're such a big boy, did you have a good nap?, etc. It's really cute to see.

She still isn't potty trained. I asked her the other day, while she was sitting on her potty, if she wanted to start using it. I then asked her if she wanted to wear underwear or diapers. Her response? Diapers! Hmmm...not quite what I wanted to hear, but whatever. I'm sure she'll be ready soon.

Last Friday, as I was doing my visiting teaching, I drove by some free stuff on the sidewalk. There was a bookshelf there. Dan and I had just been talking about getting one for Anna and all her books. So I stopped to put it in our van and it wouldn't fit. I was able to go back later without the kids and get it in there. It's real wood, so that's a plus. I'm going to paint it white and try and put bead board where the backing is. Hopefully, I'll be able to do this soon. I've had it for a week and haven't even touched it.

I meant to post these pictures earlier. Back at the end of December when we got some snow, Anna and Dan made a snowman.

Anna looking so cute in her pikachu hat. She loves it. Anytime we're going outside and it's cold, she says, I need my pikachu hat! I then have to run back inside and get it for her.