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Archive for the ‘Anya Archives’ Category

We hope everyone had a very Happy Valentine’s Weekend. We didn’t do anything too exciting to celebrate. Anya helped me make a cake and cupcakes to celebrate:

IMG_7552.JPG, originally uploaded by farmboymac.

I thought it turned out pretty good considering I had more “help” than I probably needed!

Also on Friday, Anya’s preschool had their Valentine’s Day party. The kids were so excited to eat their Valentine’s cookies and to pass out their treats to each other. Here is Anya’s table having fun at snack time!

IMG_7565.JPG, originally uploaded by farmboymac.

Other than me having a little “girl time” with my good friend Laura on Saturday getting a pedicure and us braving the snow on Sunday morning to attend church, we had a very quiet weekend around here just hanging out.

Here are a few more pictures of Anya’s preschool Valentine’s day party.

IMG_7526.JPG, originally uploaded by farmboymac.

Who needs an alarm clock when you have a little brother??

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Due to the crazy busy holiday season we had this year, I am doing a catch up post about Anya’s preschool program. She had her second performance in our church only a matter of days after her Sunday school program. It was so cute to see all the kids dressed in their Christmas best and on their best behavior (sort of!!)! In true Anya fashion, she wasn’t shy one bit up on the stage and took every opportunity to wave at us and anyone else she happened to spot in the audience. She was an angel in the “Friendly Beasts” part of the program and, quite honestly, looked the part I even got to go up front and participate…the last song involved the kids ringing different colored bells to the song “Jingle Bells” and all the mom’s who volunteer at the preschool got to come forward and also ring a bell. It was fun!! Josiah had a blast seeing his sister up on stage and even tried to make a get-away to go up and see her at one point. Luckily we were quick enough to grab him!!

Here are the pictures of her preschool program. Enjoy and have a safe and happy New Year!

Today was the much anticipated first day of preschool for Anya and it went great! She is attending Evangelical Covenant Preschool (which just happens to be at our church) and has preschool Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. She woke up bright and early and couldn’t wait to wear her backpack somewhere other than around the house! Jason, Josiah and I all took her to her first day and had fun helping her find her coat/bag hook and meeting some of her classmates. She had no problem feeling comfortable since her preschool room is also her AWANA and Sunday school room and all 3 of her preschool teachers also attend our church–so she was definitely in familiar territory. She was smiling from ear to ear when I picked her up and she talked a hundred miles a minute on the way home about everything they did at “school”–so I think she had a great first day!

Here are a few more pictures of her first day of preschool!

It’s not often that the last week of July is in the mid-70’s…but that is just another crazy weather week of Summer 09! Every night when we were going to bed Jason would say “it was a nice fall day today” and then proceed to talk about how close the first Hawkeye football game is. Although I hate to think of summer days dwindling to fall, I did take full advantage of the breezy, cool days and had every window possible open….ahh fresh air! Today’s temp of 90 forced us to close down and turn the AC back on, but it was definitely nice while it lasted!

We had another busy week last week. I worked my regular Tue/Wed shifts and then did a 10 hour seminar on Thursday to become certified to give immunizations. I had been dreading the seminar all summer and to my surprise, it was much more interesting (and not nearly as boring) as I had anticipated. Of course the worse part was where we had to give (and subsequently get) injections to practice our administering technique. Luckily, my partner and I were quick learners and only had to give/get the minimum 4 injections to pass! Yay for competent partners!!

Friday I hauled both kids down to the pediatrician for Josiah’s 15 month check and Anya’s 4 year check. I was prepared for the shots Josiah was scheduled to get, but had no idea Anya would be receiving her 4-6 year old shots at her 4 year check. So, for a few minutes I had two screaming, unhappy kids to deal with. Luckily, the unhappiness was short lived and all was soon forgotten on the ride home. As far as the check-ups, both kids are the picture of health and they even got quite a reaction out of our nurse when she came into our room to find both kids running around in just their underwear/diapers. Seriously, someone should really be supervising these kids…don’t you think

Here are a few pictures of the kids being silly!

Anya definitely got plenty of opportunities to celebrate her 4th birthday this week with 3 birthday parties within the last 7 days! The celebrations started last weekend with a trip to Winfield to celebrate with Papa Ronnie, G’ma Jeryl and Aunt Joni. Anya was very excited about the “pig” cake G’ma Jeryl & Aunt Joni made for her and of course all the presents she got. Josiah even scored a few presents and had a lot of fun playing on his daddy’s old push bike and G’ma Jeryl’s little rocking chair.

Monday was her actual birthday and she started her day at Science Center Camp. This year she went to both science center and zoo camp and had a blast. It is definitely something we will continue to do each summer! To celebrate her birthday we headed over to America’s Incredible Pizza Company for supper and fun. Anya had a great time playing the arcade games and Josiah even got to ride on the carousel…so everyone was happy!

This week Anya also got her haircut for only the 2nd time in her life. I took her to the girl who does my hair and Anya was very insistent on telling her to only cut a little bit off! After her trim Anya was very excited to sit in the makeup chair and get some pink lipgloss!

This weekend we headed up to Forest City to celebrate Puckerbrush days and Anya and Aubrey’s birthdays! Although the weather was cool, we had a great time watching the parade, participating in all the activities in the park and watching the fireworks. The theme of the parade was “Woodstock” so Jason & Jill had a very groovy float in the parade for Miller Pharmacy. Anya was lucky enough to get to ride on the float with her cousins and had a blast throwing out candy to everyone…she was smiling from ear to ear when she went by! Anya also took part in the kiddie pedal pull competition and we were all amazed at how far she made it. She was just happy to get her blue participation ribbon and a can of pop…it just doesn’t get any better than that! Saturday night we bundled up and headed out for the fireworks and boy did we have good seats! We were in the very first row (up against the caution tape) and the fireworks were directly above our heads. It was a great show and had us laughing the whole time about how close we were to the action. So close in fact that Suzie (Jill’s mom) had a firework remnent land on her and burn a hole in her sweatshirt! Next year we might opt for the second row instead

Sunday we had Anya & Aubrey’s birthdays at Jason & Jill’s house and the girls had fun blowing out their candles and opening presents. Anya has so many new things to play with she can’t decide what to do first! Last night on the way home in the van Jason & I thought it was so cute when Anya said “I love everything I got for my birthday…and I love everyone who gave it to me”…..ahh, such a sweet girl!

Here are pictures of Anya’s birthday week fun.

Today Miss Anya turns 4 years old! Where oh where did those 4 years go? What an amazing little girl she is growing up to be and it is so much fun to be a part of it. I thank God everyday for my little girl and everything she brings to our lives. We love you Anya and can’t wait to see what excitement you bring this year!

Yay for the sunshine….what a beautiful day! We definitely took advantage of the sunshine and warm weather and spent all afternoon outside. You could tell we weren’t the only ones on the street having spring fever–everyone was outside doing whatever they could think of to just be outdoors! We spent a lot of time at the swing set and watching Anya ride her new “big girl” bike. I will say that she did pretty good riding it–she only tipped it once, and it was pretty minor. She has a little to learn yet in regards to steering, but for the most part, she did really well.

This morning Anya had an eye doctor appointment to evaluate her progress on patching. I am happy to report that her weak eye has improved to 20/30 (20/20 is perfect vision)! That is 2 whole lines of improvement! I was beyond thrilled to hear this!! When we started this process, her right eye (her weak eye) was 20/70 and was at 20/50 at our last appointment in January, so she has really come along way. So, the plan is to continue doing what we are doing (which is basically patch whenever she is awake for the most part) and see if she has any additional improvement in 2 months. Anya’s doctor said that even if her eye didn’t improvement beyond where it is right now, they would still be very happy with her overall improvement. So, I am excited to see what happens in the next 2 months and Jason & I are both very proud of Anya for being so cooperative with wearing her patch.

Josiah is now 11 months and is having another battle with teething. He still only has 1 tooth officially, but the second one is just barely under the surface. Every morning for the last 7-10 days I have been just sure that today will be the day the tooth comes through, but here I am still waiting The good news is that he doesn’t let having only 1 tooth stop him from eating table food–he can eat just about anything–and he does! We have been blessed with another good eating, non-picky child, and boy does that make me happy. Right now his favorites include cheese sticks (yes, he can eat a whole cheese stick), yogurt puffs and goldfish crackers, but basically he will eat anything you put in front of him!

Here are some of the latest pictures of the kids.