His, Hers and Both of them!

Finally, pictures from our Memorial Day weekend lake trip. Aiden was a trooper and ventured out on the boat despite the oh so uncomfortable life jacket. Although, smiles are hard to come by as the jacket squishes his face, he didn't seem to mind the ride one bit.
Highlights for Aiden:

Time in the grass and dock, while watching Anna swim and boats pass by.
Watching grandaddy power wash.
Eating lots of puffs and cheerios.
Sleeping soundly in the dark, dark walk-in closet.
Lowlights: Tumbling down a flight of stairs. Followed by a fall off the bed the next day. Years were surely taken off my life after those two spills but he seemed just fine!

Wow, what a difference a year makes. This little girl who was apprehensive about the boat and massive lake water last year couldn't get enough of both of them on this trip.
Highlights for Anna:

A boat ride to the Mexican restaurant for lunch one day.
Swimming, swimming, and more swimming.
Convincing mommy the water was plenty warm to swim.
Jumping off the lake hand-in-hand with mommy and daddy.
Climbing the ladder to the dock.
Riding in the boat as mommy and daddy skied.
Playing with her sand and water table.
Going "over the lake" as she and grandaddy swung.
Picnics outside.
Sleeping in a BIG girl bed, a bunk bed nonetheless.
And of course blowing bubbles. No trip to the lake is complete without bubbles!
Lowlights: Having to leave it all behind.

And in the words of Anna...here are a few pictures of "both of them" playing at the end of the day in the yard. They surely make me smile!

Jumping Board

Here is how Anna spent her day at Granny and PaPa's. It only took a short while for her to jump without someone catching her. Pretty sure this was her last of at least 50 jumps for the day. How her little arms and legs were still moving is amazing. She is sleeping soundly now and dreaming of the "jumping board" as she calls it.

"A family plan!"

When asked what he wanted the plan to be for Father's Day that was his quick response.

This is only one of the reasons I am surely thankful Anna and Aiden have him as their daddy!

Hoping to get pictures of our "family" day/weekend up as well as the lake soon. We are currently kitchenless and living in a bit of chaos as one of the ways Kevin spent his weekend was demolishing our existing kitchen.

A to Z

Well, almost. More like A to V. This was this mornings "art" project. I have many creative, artistic friends and I myself am not. So this was one of my better moments at making learning come alive. Since the 1st of January we have been doing an uppercase letter a week. In the midst of life we have missed a week or two but for the most part we have stuck with it and as you can see we are so close to wrapping up the alphabet. This morning we went through the alphabet looking through magazines. I asked Anna to first pick out an "A," then a "B" and so forth. She picked each letter out all by herself and we left room for W,X, Y and Z. You might notice there are two "O's" This is because the first "O" was identified as a "rectangle O" by Anna. Yes, it is a bit odd in shape (block style lettering) and then she picked out just a regular,plain old "O."

Anna was given, "My ABC Bible Verses: Hiding God's Word in Little Hearts" by Susan Hunt for Christmas. This is what jump started our alphabet learning and each week we use this book to learn our new letter as well as the corresponding bible verse. It has taught mommy just as much as Anna and we have been blessed. We have both hidden God's word in our hearts. We have recommended this book to many. I am excited about going back through it again as we learn our lower case letters. Now how to explain there are two of each letter?!

Side Note (more so for my memory): I can't count the number of times a day I hear, "What does ____ start with?"

Also, most every letter we have learned has a specific word associated with it. She will say, "T for ____." Most of them are for people's names.

Anna will also sometimes say, "What does "A" (or another letter) start with?" Meaning what are some words that start with that letter.

She is really starting to associate letters with words.

Favorite faces...

We've spent the last two weekends at Smith Mountain Lake. I am hoping to capture all the fun that was had in a post soon. But here are some great smiles from my two favorite little people.

Her two babies...

We headed to the lake for Memorial Day weekend. Another post for another day as I think I have well exceeded my quota for an evening. As I mentioned, Aiden loves strollers and this was no exception. However, it was short-lived because he was almost too big. Anna loved it just as much. And as a side note this was my baby doll stroller when I was just a little older than Anna.

How could I forget...

in the update about Aiden that he has found his fingers. Not the same two as Anna but they both do suck their middle fingers. The second finger for each just happens to be the opposite ones beside their middle fingers. Oh, and this was Aiden's view at Anna's swim lessons each week. He was always thoroughly entertained.

Our little fish...

Last week was Anna's last swim lesson. She has enjoyed every minute of her lessons with her teacher. It is unbelievable how far she has come in such a short amount of time. She is able to swim 6-10 feet on her own, reaching for the edge of the pool and pulling herself up. She can float on her back. She can lift her head out of the water. She learned at her very last lesson how to roll from her stomach to her back. We still have a long ways to go but we are thrilled that she loves the water. Now whenever she is in the pool she wants to practice swimming. There is little playing around. However, she does take time to observe everyone else and to speak to most everyone in the pool. Her teacher said to us at the last lesson that she has never met a child who is such a people person. Anna knew the names of the other instructors who were teaching at the time of her lesson as well as the names of those children who were swimming with those instructors and those children who were taking lessons after her. Not to mention their parents and brothers and sisters as well. She has never met a stranger and surely isn't afraid to ask questions. She is probably the only child who has asked (and actually did) to swim to the other instructor teaching private lessons at the time of her lesson. And of course they all know who she is. I have some video from her last lesson that I hope to post soon.

Can it really be...

that this little one is 9 months already?!

Where has the time gone? In 3 short months we will have a one-year-old! Aiden is saying "mama" and "dada." He loves to rub things with his hand (just like sweet Anna). His fingernails are constantly scratching on some sort of surface. He LOVES balls. He begins laughing as soon as you roll one in his direction. Anything with wheels-trucks, tractors, etc are a big hit too. Almost everything goes into his mouth. He is a drooler. Not only does he pull-up on everything and crawl all over , he loves to climb up on things and crawl over things. Not much stops him. He is very determined. He continues to be entertained by Anna and wants to be wherever she is. He loves to watch her play with her toys and tries to snag a few for himself. Aiden rarely cries but if he does a duet by mommy and Anna usually puts a smile on his face. Unlike his sister, he does not like to be snuggled and has no need for rocking. But he loves to give kisses, hold tightly to your fingers and sit in your lap. As soon as we get him from his crib in the morning he must eat. There is no time for even saying, "good morning." However, he is easily distracted when eating. Although he loves solid food he has his favorites and is sure to let you know when he does not want something. He shakes his head back and forth and if you don't want the next spoonful to go all over, you will take that as a sign to move onto the next food item. Sweet potatoes, pears, applesauce, bananas and prunes are some of his favorites. Anything green is a stretch. And any food, such as cheerios that he can pick up on his own are devoured. He is thrilled when his daddy walks in the door from work. Tonight as I was heading to put him to bed he reached out to Kevin and Anna who were reading on the couch. It was all I could do to keep him from falling head first in their direction. His personality is developing and each day we are falling more in love with this little one.

Ahhhhh....

This little girl is finally in a big girl bed. Mommy had reservations but she has done wonderfully and surely loves her big girl room.

Same sweet eyes

and lovely eye lashes.

Anna and Aiden are both 9 months old in these pictures. Although different in so many ways they both surely love bath time and water.

Outdoor Fun!

We are enjoying the longer days, which allow us to play outside once daddy gets home from work. Anna is working on learning to ride her very first bike. It is a bit confusing to her as to why she stops when the pedals go backwards. Brakes are a new concept as tricycles do not have them.

She is fascinated with watching her feet and as a result her steering is not the best. :)

Our swing finally has a taker. Aiden LOVES to swing and is all smiles from the minute you put him in.

He has perfect form. He grabs hold of the ropes and kicks his legs as fast as he can.

These two couldn't be more opposite in the things that have entertained them as babies. Anna loved the exersaucer. She would have spent hours in there if we would have allowed her. Not to mention we put her in there even after she was cruising around and walking. Aiden could care less about the exersaucer. It buys me little time. However, he does love the stroller. He would stroll for hours. Anna had limits on strolling. Anna was a huge fan of her portable booster chair that we took to restaurants and her high chair at home. She would sit there long after a meal was done. Aiden is there to eat and will tolerate it for some time but it wouldn't be his first choice. And of course you can see what a fan of the swing he is. This swing was barely used by our sweet girl. It amazes me how uniquely God creates each of his little ones. No two of us are a like. But both of these two are blessings.

Be strong and courageous.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." Deuteronomy 31:6

Several weekends ago we had Aiden dedicated at our church. This is the verse we picked for him for several reasons. Above all else we want both our children to know Jesus. And then to know he will never forsake or leave them. We had Aiden dedicated because we believe ultimately he is the only one who can decide for himself if he is going to follow Jesus but we want to do everything we can to grow him in that direction as is the case with Anna. We know they are both really Jesus' children and we pray one day they will choose for themselves to follow him. The New American Standard version of this verse says it this way, "He will not fail you." May both Aiden and Anna know this to be true. We also picked this verse because Aiden's middle name is Caleb. Caleb is an extension of the story of Moses. The words of this verse were spoken by Moses to the people of Israel. Caleb along with Joshua believed they could possess the land God had promised them when most did not. Caleb means a "different spirit." We do pray Aiden would have a spirit set apart for God.