Caleb is 3 months!

I thought I posted this from my phone, but alas, it didn't work.  So here is a late post!!

Caleb is 3 months old! He turned 3 months the weekend of Anna's party. He is really changing this month!

He is much more awake these days and aware of his surroundings. He is constantly looking around and following our voices  if we are not beside him. He is reaching for toys and people. 

He is fitting nicely into 6 month clothes and even some 12 month.  The boy is big! He was in the 90%ile for both height and weight at his 2 month visit. 

The boy is a 45 minute napper, which I've gotten used to. He will nap longer in the swing, so once a day he naps in there for about 2 hours.  He takes 4 naps, goes to bed around 7 or 8 and wakes around 6am.  He still wakes up once or twice to eat, although he has slept 8 hours a few times.  I'm hoping that is becoming more of a trend!! 

He is such a sweet, smiley baby. I'm really smitten by him.  I just want to play with him all the time! The only time he is grumpy is when he has gas or in the late evening when it is close to bed time.  He loves bath time, especially when he can bathe with Anna :).  If he is fussy in the evening, a bath will calm him right down!

He nurses about 6 times a day, approximately every 3 hours.  He still only has a bowel movement about once a week, but I've started drinking prune juice, which passes into my milk, and Caleb will go to the bathroom.  Funny how that works :). 

We love this sweet baby boy!! He is truly a blessing. 

 

Anna's Birthday Pictures!

Well, Anna's first ever birthday party was a blast and success!! Here are some details:

We had a SPLASH party and invited mostly our friends from community group at church.  They all have kids approximately the same age as Anna.

We asked everyone to bring diapers to donate to Loving Choices Care Center instead of gifts. We did this for 2 reasons.  1) Anna has plenty of toys and 2) There is a big need for diapers at the Center.  I actually just dropped off the diapers today (yes, 3 weeks later...) and the lady working was so thankful and said they had just run out of diapers.  It was so neat to see how we were able to meet a need!!

Our sweet friends, Ashley and Derrek came in town and stayed with us that weekend.  They were a huge help and we were so thankful to have them come. 

Anna's friends who came were: Annabelle (and little Elliot), Jack, Riley, DJ (even though he slept through the party), Avery, and Will. 

Our friends were: The parents of all the kids, Wanquing and Choa. 

We had a great time.  The weather was amazing! I mostly socialized, as the kids didn't need much corralling. 

Josh grilled hot dogs for everyone and we served fruit cups, chips, pretzels, tea, lemonade and capri suns.  Of course, we had strawberry cake made by yours truly :). 

Anna would not try the cake and I didn't force the issue on her big day.  I know she would have liked it if she would have tried it.  She was already full I'm sure...she drank a caprisun, had several fruit cups, a hot dog, and who knows what else!!

My awesome friend Laura (mom of Jack) took pictures at the party with her SWEET camera.  I think they turned out great!

The Birthday Girl

 Playing  on the swingset

Annabelle loves swinging!

Jack and Anna

GREAT friends, what a blessing!

Avery swinging all by herself!!

We all sang to Anna, I think she was shocked.

Trying to talk her into blowing out the candles.

Opening a little gift.

Our sweet little 2 year old!!

Kiddos playing in the pool!

A long and wonderful weekend!

Happy late Independence Day! We had a great weekend here at the Skinner house. Josh took off Friday so we had a 4 day weekend.

Thursday and Friday were spent at home trimming bushes and playing in the yard. It was hot but Anna's pool provided relief. Thursday evening we went to the ISCA house to celebrate the holiday. Good food, friends, and conversation! The house has totally changed and looks great. Anna enjoyed playing in her old stomping grounds. After the kids were in bed, josh burned the bush trimmings and that was our "fireworks" for the night. We did see some in our neighborhood and even had some parachutes land in our yard:)

Saturday we went out and about. We made it to Homegoods in Rogers and found a rug for the house :). Afterwards we ate at On the Border and had an excellent dinner!! The kids did great until we went back to Homegoods after dinner. Josh did great entertaining them while I went to pay for the rug.

Sunday Josh watched the kids so I could do more errands, and then we all went to Home Depot together. It was a nice trip and we got a few necessities for some home projects. 

 

AND...I finished Anna's valance (finally) for her room.  Here is a look:

 

 

We really had a great weekend and enjoyed our down time.  It was a blessing from the Lord. 

Anna is 2 years old!

Anna is 2 - or as she says "I chew years old".  It seems like I blinked and this girl turned 2!!

Birth

 

1 year

 

Two Years!!

 

 

Here is Anna and Josh preparing her hand and footprints for her bday table cloth tradition:

Here are a couple pics from her party:

The Arces visited and helped us with Anna's party!

 We are loving this age! Anna is growing so much and learning so much.  It is really neat to watch her take everything in and hear her describe all that she does.  She is a TALKER!! She repeats everything, and is communicating great.  Most people still cannot understand what she says, but mom and dad can understand her most of the time!

She can answer questions like "What is your name" and "How old are you".  She says "I Anna Grace" which sounds more like "I yaya gace".  It's pretty cute :)

Her favorite things? 
Mowing:

 

Playing with friends and riding her "car" down the driveway (it has a slight downward slope and she goes FAST!):

 

At her two year appointment, we learned that Anna is in the 90 percentile for weight and 75 percentile for height.  She is growing big!

 

With us going in and out alot, flies have gotten in, and Anna spends a lot of her day attacking the flies(without much success).  Once she even hit me on the arm and I don't know if she imagined a fly or if it was really there.  HILARIOUS!

 

She is sleeping pretty well, although she has teeth coming in and that may be disrupting her night sleep.  She takes a 2-3 hour nap around noon everyday. 

 

She likes to play with her tea set, blocks, push her stroller, run, sing "wheels on the bus", swing, and pretend to talk on the phone (she uses various things as a phone).  She LOVES being outside watering plants, playing in her pool or just running around. 

 

She is really starting to love Caleb.  She always wants to know what he is doing and if he cries, she says "I ceck on him".  She plays with him and shares her toys with him on good days.  Other days she gets upset if he wiggles and touches her.  I think she thinks he is hitting or kicking her.  All in all, she's a great BIG sister. 

 

Discipline is getting better, but we have good and bad days.  The terrible twos haven't been too terrible thus far. 

 

 



We love this sweet, loud, fast, happy two year old!!