This weekend my sister had her baby! He was born at 2:45 am on Sunday, Sept 24 and he weighed in at a whopping 9 pounds 9 ounces! He was also 21 and a half inches long and when you hold him he does not feel like a newborn! I don't think Anna weighed that much until she was 2 months old. Ha! Yesterday we went to see him and it was so sweet to watch Sam meet his new little brother for the first time. He just wanted to pat his back, rub his face and take his hat off to look at his fluffy blonde hair. Max is so sweet and I love hearing all those little newborn squeaky sounds :) These aren't the best pictures, but there will be plenty more in the coming weeks.


Here is Sam patting his new brother:

Here he is checking out Max's hair:

Here is the little kimono sweater I made for him because I am the most awesome aunt EVER ;)

And here he is modeling it and looking super cute and squishy!

I'm going back to see him tonight and I can't wait!

These days when Anna wakes up from a nap she likes to stand in her crib and yell for us. Normally we can hear, "Uh-oh! Thank You!" coming from her room over and over. Some days she is more direct with a very demanding "Da da! Da da!", in other words, "come and get me out of here right now!". But when you open the door her first reaction is to throw all of her toys out of the crib (while yelling Thank You of course). Usually the first victim is her little white bunny Rae Rae. Then comes the other, less attractive bunny named Cousin Elliot. After that it's just anything and everything that is in her crib... a sock, a blanket, maybe a book or two. P.S. We didn't name these animals. They came with names!

Cousin Elliot was the first victim.....

Then Rae Rae...

And then Pooh Bear...

Here is the resulting crime scene...notice someone small and guilty peeking out between the crib rails

Just wanted to share some more recent pictures. Hopefully Nathan can get on here later and make these clickable so you can see them better.

Here are a few from Sam's 3rd b-day party. Anna had a blast (despite her grouchy face) running around in my sister's cute picket fenced backyard :)

Is that the cutest Thomas cake you have ever seen?!?!?

The funniest picture! There were 4 three year old boys at this party and they loved taking turns around the yard in the wagon. But it had to be going really fast and when 3 or more would pile in, it got heavy! So the guy in the front is the dad to the blonde twins (seen in the cake photo above) and Nathan decided to help him push the kids around. Notice Nathan is still holding Anna's sippy cup in one hand. Hee hee. Anna was not allowed to ride in the wagon because she insisted on standing.

This is what happens to Anna's hair when mommy gets bored ;)

Here she is smiling at herself in the little mirror at the end of her Peter Rabbit book. Who is that cute baby?!?

Probably my favorite purchase for Anna ever. LOVE these new shoes!!

When did her little legs get so long??

Is it just me or is this picture a little spooky? Another result of Nathan playing with lighting and camera functions. All she needs is a flashlight under her chin! "Long long ago, on a dark and stormy night......"

Here's what happens when I ask, "Nathan, can you play with Anna while I make dinner?". Ruby looks like a concrete dog!

"Hmmmm, maybe I'll just take this camera behind the chair to play with it. She'll never find me here!" It's Anna's favorite place to hide right now.

For Anna's first birthday she received a little white wooden rocker from her grandma and grandpa F. She liked sitting in it at her party and having her picture taken. For the last few months the rocker has been sitting in our living room where Anna will often walk past it, touch it, and then sort of scurry away when it starts to move. Today she was looking at it again so I picked her up and sat her in the seat. I started to rock it slowly and I sang a little song about rocking in her special chair just to make it less scary. Slowly a smile began to spread across her face, and she started inching back and forth trying to make it rock even more.

We took the rocker into the back room so that she could play with it on a soft carpeted floor. At first she would just stand in front of the rocker and start to whimper, wanting me to place her in the seat. Then we would rock for a while and she would inch herself off of the seat. She looked so cute when she was sitting there, that I went into the kitchen to get the camera. When I came back I saw that she had found a way to climb into the rocker all by herself! I didn't catch it on film, but you should have seen the proud and cheesy smile I got when I walked into the room. Here she is loving her special seat that is just her size.




Please excuse her bruises, mosquito bites, and mismatched morning clothes! She is such a little scrappy!

Last weekend we took Anna on her first trip to the State Fair. When we got her out of the car she was really excited. She was still excited when we started pushing the stroller. But when we entered the extra stinky livestock exhibit she wasn't so sure. First she looked at the cows with curiosity, and she thought they were pretty neat:


Then she went to see the pigs and they were...ehhhh, pretty boring:


The baby chicks and eggs were alright, especially after the older kids made a little space for Anna to peek in:


We thought for sure that she would like the sheep and the cute little goats. All of the other kids were petting the goats and laughing at their funny floppy ears. Nathan was even talking with the sheep saying, "BAAAAA!" and they were saying it back! Unfortunately, a loud BAAAA to the face is what pushed Anna over the edge. She was so afraid! She kept trying to dive out of the stroller to get away from them until we moved her to where she couldn't see them anymore. First they were fun to look at:


Then they were just downright scary!


After the sheep incident, she had lost her trust in all farm animals. When we tried to pose her by a sleepy cow, she once again tried to dive for safety:


But the pig races....now that is fun (and a comfortable distance away). We were rooting for Pork Chop the whole time and he won! Yee haw!

She may not be much of a country girl, but we think she still had a good time :)

**To our friends and family out of state....Yes, we did wear shoes to the Fair and No, we did not participate in any contests involving the word "spit".