This was my first week back to work and believe it or not, we all survived! I am now going to be working part-time on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and think this new schedule is going to work out good. Jason said that last night, his first night alone with both kids, went exceptionally well, Josiah did great at his first day at daycare and work was just busy enough to make the 2 days go extremely fast. I will admit that I am exhausted tonight, but I think it is more due to me getting up at 5:30am this morning than actually being at work all day! Either way, we all survived the last few days and are now looking forward to this weekend when we go down south to stay with Papa Ronnie & G’ma Jeryl!

Anya must be going through a growth spurt. When it came to making meals around here, we usually made enough for two people…Jason & myself. Then, to feed Anya, we would both just give her a small part of ours and that was more than enough to fill her up and still leave some on her plate untouched. Until recently. The first few times she asked for “more” of whatever we were having, we thought it was a fluke. But last week alone she asked for more food every night we ate supper. We were amazed one night when she was finally full after eating 3/4 of my porkchop, another night she ate a whole quasadilla and just last night we ran out of Jason’s homemade pizza before she was full! So, since we didn’t have anymore pizza, she ate 6 pieces of deli-sliced ham!! Jason teasingly asked her if she had a hollow leg, but she didn’t know what that meant and, after closing examining both legs replied “no, I don’t have a hole in my leg”!! So, we have decided we need to start making another portion of food to feed this growing girl!

This weekend we just hung out around here. Saturday morning we did our usual and went to the Farmer’s Market. It was hot and busy, but still a lot of fun. Sunday we stayed at the house and got a lot of odd jobs done. Anya was so gung-ho to be a helper that day, so Jason & I really put her to work. She helped him mow the lawn, sweep out the garage, vacuum the livingroom, clean out the van and water the flowers. After all that hardwork she cashed out of the couch early in the evening!

Here are some recent pictures.

Last week I painted the guest bedroom and furniture we had in there. I am pretty happy with how everything turned out. Here is the before and after.

Before:

And After:

Big improvement, don’t you think?

Today Anya is having a picnic at daycare–what a beautiful day for one. Here is what she had to say about it:

We had a pretty relaxed weekend around here. We feel very fortunate to have remained unaffected by all the flooding happening here in Des Moines and are keeping those who have been in our thoughts and prayers.

Saturday we made our first venture to the aquatic center in Altoona and had a lot of fun. We were curious to see if Anya would remember any of the skills she learned from swimming lessons last fall and sure enough she did. She put on her little swim belt and headed for the deep water—and did a great job. She also had a blast going down the kiddie pirate-ship slide and couldn’t get down the slide and back up again fast enough. Josiah spent his time at the pool in the shade dozing in his carseat…he was quite comfy and content, so it couldn’t have worked out better!

Today we went to church and then came home and just had a nice “family” day…doing nothing much more than just enjoying being home together. The kids and I gave Jason a bocce ball set for Father’s Day, so this evening, Jason and I had our first game and he won..but only by a few points. We had a fun time playing and Anya even got to participate, so she thought that was pretty cool!

Here are a few pictures of our lazy weekend. We want to wish all the Fathers a very Happy Father’s Day and an extra Happy Birthday wish to Papa Ronnie!

As I am sure you are as sick of the current weather situation as we are, the only thing I am going to say about the subject is ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! The normally quiet little crick running beside our house has become more like a raging river…crazy!

Anyways, despite the schizophrenic weather we had this weekend, we had a very fun couple of days. It all started on Thursday when Papa Ronnie was in town for the World Pork Expo and spent the night at our house. Anya had him doing all sorts of fun stuff and was very excited to have him here–she was very bummed Friday morning when she woke up and he was already gone.

Friday night Papa Jim & G’ma Barb came down to spend the weekend with us. We had fun going to the Farmer’s Market Saturday morning and after that we came home and got to work. As usual, my Mom & Dad motivated us to get some projects done around here that we have been wanting done for a long time. We inherited some old kitchen cabinets from my G’pa & G’mas farmhouse, so I sanded and painted them a few weeks ago and finally this weekend we got them hung in the garage. They give us tons of storage (that we desperately needed!) and helped us get alot of stuff up off the floor. Once we got most of the junk put away, we emptied out the rest of the garage and scrubbed down the floor to get rid of all the mud, sand and other junk we had on the garage floor from the winter. It looks like a completely new garage and SO clean you could sleep out in it. It was alot of hard work, but so nice to have it done…now we have the 3rd stall completely clean and it makes a good place for Anya to play on these days that are too wet too go outside! Thanks Mom & Dad for all your help—hope you aren’t too sore from all that hard work!

While we were working in the garage, Anya was having a blast in her little elephant pool and we had fun taking turns sitting and watching her swim. She started out alittle hesitant in the water, but before the end of the day, she was having a ball and getting us all wet in her fun! In all the activity going on around here, Josiah was such a good little guy hanging out in his swing or bouncy chair and letting us get so much work done!

On Thursday, Josiah had his 2 month checkup and first round of immunizations. He currently weighs 11 lbs 2 oz and is 22.5 inches long….so he has come a long way in 2 months. His doctor was impressed with how well he can hold his head up (he is a strong little man) and had fun playing with his hair that is in a permanent spike (despite my best efforts to comb it down). He didn’t like the shots any too much, but they didn’t effect him for long. He didn’t eat too great the rest of the day on Thursday, but was back to his old self on Friday. He is starting to sleep longer stretches at night getting up usually only once between 3-4am and then down again until around 8am. So, that is definitely a doable schedule and mommy really appreciates all the sleep he lets her get! He is growing so fast….it is just unbelievable!

Here are the pictures of our weekend. More later…

Another busy week and weekend for us. Finally, a full weekend that felt like summer…it was SO nice. Saturday we hit the downtown Farmer’s Market again and ate our usual treats and then came home to get out of the sun for a few hours and let the kids take a nap. Sunday we went to church in the morning and spent the rest of the day outside. In the afternoon we went to “Jammin for Jesus” which is put on by a church in Altoona (not the church we attend) and is open to anyone who loves Jesus. We went with some friends from our church and we all had a blast. Anya had fun going down the big inflatable slide (so did Mommy!) and we could barely get her out of the jump house. She also got her face painted, played some carnival games and basically just wore herself out running with the big kids and dancing to the music. It was a great way to spend the afternoon!

Tonight Anya had her first session of tumbling and she had a lot of fun. There are 8 kids in her class and 2 teachers and it is quite entertaining to watch. She did a great job of listening to her teacher and following directions. Tonight she learned how to move like a mouse, a kangaroo, a bear and they played “move & freeze”. Here are some pictures of our weekend fun, tumbling class and some other random photos we have taken lately.

Last Thursday Jason had his first experience watching both kids by himself while I went to a JUGs (just us girls) night out. I am happy to report that everything went smoothly while I was gone and no major drama ensued in my absence! My JUGs group went to Super Suppers where we each prepared 6 meals to take home and freeze and it was a fun experience. We had the first of the meals that I brought home the other night and Jason & I both thought it was delicious! Nothing like having a freezer stocked with fully prepared meals just waiting to be eaten!