Planting Flowers

Last week I had the idea of planting flowers in an empty egg carton so AnnaBeth and I picked up some planting soil and some flower seeds. This morning it was overcast and not too terribly hot so we got to planting! It was also a bit of a learning experience for me as I only knew what sunflower seeds looked like. I had never seen the other before. And hopefully they'll grow. We still have plenty of seeds to try again if they don't.

 All set up and ready to get started

 Our four choices of flowers

 Turtle watering can

 Eager to get her hands dirty

 Carefully adding soil to each little section

 

 Time for the seeds!

 The seeds are all snuggled in the soil and ready to watered

 On the trampoline so they can get full sun all day and hopefully be fairly protected if a monsoon hits before I get home to bring them inside

 Giving her boof a hug...she sure loves him!

 Happy girl!!

 Love this face and pose that I just happened to capture!

 Our beautiful girl with oatmeal on her face :)

Painting

About a week and a half ago, I was at Staples and they had a set of 18 Crayola paints with a brush on sale for $4 so I snatched it up. That night I asked AnnaBeth if she wanted to try painting using a paint brush. She was SO excited to try it! I started out letting her dip the brush in the color herself but she ended up vigorously dipping the brush in so I took over and had her tell me what color she wanted to use and then I dipped the brush for her. She really enjoyed painting with a brush and did a fantastic job!

 

 

Making Muffins

AnnaBeth is quite my little helper and tonight she helped me make the box of blueberry muffins we had in the cupboard. Before we started, I got everything ready so all she had to do was dump the stuff in the bowl and she did SO well at completing each task! Then once they were in the oven, she ran around the house yelling "gotta cook the muffins!!!!"

 Pouring in the muffin mix

 Then the applesauce (I substituted it in place of the oil)

 Then the eggs

 Then the milk

 Stirring it all together

 Time to add the blueberries

 Gently stirring them in

 All ready to pour into the cups

 Marveling at her work :)

 Watching them bake

Excited that they will be done soon!

32 Weeks

Ah, I am down to just 8 weeks until my due date!! It seems so long and so short at the same time. I am so, so very ready to meet my little Mason but at the same time, I'm not ready as I'm not quite ready to give up my alone time with AnnaBeth. I'm not really worried about figuring out how to manage two kids or anything like that, I know that God will daily provide me with what I need to accomplish those things. And I know that AnnaBeth will adjust well to having a little brother. I will just miss having just her but I know that will go away once Mason is here just like my missing it being just Kent and I went away once AnnaBeth was here.

I feel as though my belly just keeps growing and growing and growing. In the last 2 weeks I have put on 6lbs. Yes, 6!! I'm hoping that trend doesn't continue over the next 8 weeks. I'm up to 23lbs so far...still 15lbs away from what I put on total with AnnaBeth. According to the info out there on the interwebs, I should expect to gain about a pound a week from here on out with 1/2 of it going to Mason. We have an ultrasound scheduled for this Wednesday the 17th so I will get pictures posted once we get home. I'm anxious to see him again and find out approximately how big he is right now.

AnnaBeth was saying hi to Mason in this picture here. Yesterday she started telling us that Mason has to come out and then after she says that, she grabs my belly as if it were a heavy ball and tries to pull it toward her. For her, I guess that's how he will come out, if someone pulls on my tummy. She says he's still growing in there but then turns right around and adamantly says he needs to come out. It's really cute!!

Wiggle Worm Adventures

On Friday I took AnnaBeth to the activity center at McQueen Park (this is the one we walk to via the canal that's at the end of our street). Every Friday morning they have a class called Wiggle Worm Adventures that's designed for children under 5. Since we are Gilbert residents it only costs $1.50 for her to play for 2 hours. They have the class in the gym (PERFECT during the hot summer!) and have tons of stuff for the kids to do like a basketball net, soccer net, a thing with holes for footballs, hula hoop type rings, bouncy balls, riding toys and a whole bunch of other stuff. AnnaBeth had a BLAST!! It was the best $1.50 I have ever spent! AnnaBeth spent most of her time playing basketball and was VERY good at sharing any of the balls with other kids, especially the younger ones. I was so proud of her! During her playing, a girl about her age threw a plastic cone at her and hit her in the arm. Her parents came over right away and told her not to throw things (and explained that their daughter was in a throwing phase right now and felt SO bad that she threw something at AnnaBeth). AnnaBeth didn't know what to think and the girl wrapped her arms around AnnaBeth's neck and gave her a really big hug to say she was sorry. AnnaBeth wasn't quite sure what to think and tried to pull away until I explained that the girl was just telling her she was sorry for throwing the cone at her. Then it finally clicked and all was right in her world again.

While we were there, it was also story time Friday (this happens every other Friday). This is completely free and the kids are read a story by someone who works at the activity center and then they do an art project related to the story. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull AnnaBeth away from all of the fun she was having but when I asked her if she wanted to go to story time she immediately started talking about reading a story and made her way toward the doors of the gym. I had invited my friend Becca to join us with her daughter Taryn and she had invited her friend Lisabeth and her daughter Macy. AnnaBeth said goodbye to the girls and we headed over to story time. She did fairly well with sitting and being quite for the story but the art project...well, let's just say that a hungry 2 year old and an art project don't mix. She (ok, I) quickly glued on some of the colored tissue paper and glued on the googly eye and we left before a real meltdown occurred.

I am planning on taking AnnaBeth on my Fridays off up until Mason is born and then we will start going every Friday once I have recovered from birth and feel like it's something I can handle. It's a great way for her to get some exposure to other kids and learn to share and play with others. I can't wait to take her again!

Woods Canyon Lake August 7, 2011

Last weekend we made another trip up to Woods Canyon Lake. It was a bit warmer than last time and with me being nearly a month farther along in my pregnancy, it was a bit harder on me this time too. I had to stop and rest a lot more during our walking and when we decided it was time to leave, AnnaBeth and I stayed put near the spillway while Kent walked back to the car and brought it over to where we were. AnnaBeth was super excited to go search for crawdaddies (as she call them) again. We didn't find any snakes this time but did find plenty of crawdads, caught some minnows and also caught a grasshopper. During our walking we saw a little girl and her grandma feeding the chipmunks some sunflower seeds. The girl was so kind as to share not one, but two handfuls of seeds with AnnaBeth so she could feed them too. This trip was most likely our last trip up there before Mason comes, unfortunately. My belly is just getting too big and the pubic bone pain I have been experiencing isn't going away so it makes it painful for me to do a lot of walking or sitting at one time. Here's the slideshow of our pictures and a few videos from our fun filled day!

AnnaBeth meets baby Jack

A couple of weeks ago, me friend Renee came over to the house with her son Jack who was about 5 1/2 weeks old so AnnaBeth and I could meet him for the first time. I had been telling AnnaBeth most of the week that baby Jack was going to come for a visit so she was pretty excited to meet him. She doted on him the moment they walked in the door!

She kept staring at him saying "hi baby Jack!!!"

Jack was nursing and she decided to burp her baby Grace

Then she decided Grace needed to have a drink

At some point, she noticed that Jack was not being fed with a bottle so she decided Grace needed to eat the same way

I think she was really just rubbing her face but it looks like she's had a "d'oh!" moment and realized that she can't actually breastfeed her doll

 Bondo had to get in on a picture too

 I loved holding him and it seriously made me want to hold Mason even more than I already do!

Everyone was helping get an unhappy Jack buckled into his car seat

AnnaBeth did really well during Jack's visit and I'm really hoping that she will do just as well once Mason is here. She was constantly saying hi to him and when he was fussy, she kept asking what was wrong and why he was crying. And she didn't try to clobber him with anything so I'm taking those as all good signs that she should hopefully adjust well to having a little brother.