July Times

Our tired Big girl after her July 4th fun.


Anna's boyfriend Henry. Henry and his mom Jessica have come to visit every week since Anna was born. We look forward to their visits.

Growing baby Anna

Sweet girls. Bella does really well with Anna. She is mostly gentle and kind...but you can tell she is ready for Anna to play with her.

Bella enjoyed 2 pieces of Papa Johns pizza. It is one of the few foods she will eat.

Park Fun: We enjoyed a Saturday evening at a local new park. The playground is great for Bella's age. We look forward to going back and checking out the walking trails.

Bella sporting her GA hat backwards.

First time liking the swings.

Can't stop to pose with mommy.

Can't wear enough beads...at least when I'm in my PJs

Crib time


Our good friends and convienently neighbors too, Chad and Christina, came over last Friday night. Jason cooked some great ribs and the guys played pool until Bella joined in on the fun. Playing with the pool balls is now her favorite activity. It takes a good distraction to get her away from them....although, it is nice to clean the whole kitchen(yes! the pool table is in the kitchen) and have her be entertained.




She has now added the word "step" to her vocabulary. She is putting her princess step stool to use...grandma bought it to use in the bathroom for washing hands and brushing teeth...we are getting early extra use out of it. She pushes the stool from corner to corner and plays with the balls.

Anna attending her first birthday party. Another neighbor, Jeslyn Thomas turned one. She had a cute outdoor water party. There were three small pools and some slip-n-slides set up. There are no pictures of Bella at the party because she was all in the action and keeping us too busy to take pictures.

Fun party favors.

Daddy and his girls

Bella had her first trip to Build-A-Bear. Grandmomma and Granny(great grandmother) joined us. The idea, of course, came from Grandmomma. It was a fun time.

Anna in the swing for the first time. I'm sure she is liking a change from the bouncy seat.

One of the few quick snapshots of Bella with a hairbow in her hair. She pulled it out 2 seconds later. We had just bought new Dora ones. Guess you have to pick your battles. At least the GA hat is pink.

So far Anna likes tummy time.




One of Bella's many faces.


Got to take snooze breaks when you can around here!

July times have been good times. It is definitely a challenge having 2 kids under the age of 2 but it is a challenge we wanted and prayed for. The days are full of changing diapers, coloring, nursing, playing with pool balls, dancing, disciplining, and the list goes on. I would not change a thing. We go to bed singing the Barney song and I wake up at 4 am with it in my head. You just laugh and live in the moment, knowing we never get these moments back. God is good all the time and all the time God is good!

No Fear

This fourth of July, Jason ran the Peachtree Road race for the fourth year with my brother. I have only ran it once with them and it is my goal to run next year again. As soon as I am off house arrest(aka: recovering from having Anna) I will be so excited to get back into an exercise routine. Poor Jason does not enjoy running but was a good sport, especially being sleep deprived for the last month.

We had fun playing with Isabella's new sprinkler during the day. She loved playing with the balls but could not figure out how to get them back into the sprinkler without getting sprayed in the eyes every time.

We went over to Jason's brother's house for a fireworks celebration. They had many friends and family over and had a very impressive fireworks show. We had assumed Bella would be afraid of the fireworks however, we could not have been more wrong! She had no fear and absolutely loved them. It was so much fun watching her expressions and listening to her "wows" but we would have appreciated a healthy fear. It brought on much anxiety as we had to force hold her down to not run after the shooting flames. The anxiety lessened when she was entertained by throwing snaps on the ground...she thought it was the funniest thing.

Thanks Jeremy and Nichole for hosting a great time.

Happy Father's Day Jason!

Jason enjoyed some one on one time with Bella all weekend. The weather was perfect for Bella to play in her little pool and try out her Elmo sprinkler we have been waiting to use since Christmas. I also made sure Jason got some one on one time with Anna in the evenings. Anna has been such a good baby despite the set backs we have experienced. Bella is still adjusting to our new life as a family of four but is doing better every day.

Bella and I had a lot of fun making daddy's poster the week before Anna was born.

Welcome to the World Little Anna

Bella's last night as an only child. We all 3 soaked in the memory.

Jason and Pattie at 5 am the morning of Anna's arrival. A special thanks to Grandma De Long who snapped the photo and watched over Isabella that morning.

Anna
Kathleen
De Long

Born at 7:56am 06/08/09

Weighed 6lbs-3oz

19 1/2 in







Our first family photo. Bella was not too excited to see mommy at first. She is adjusting slowly...but we have no doubts she will be a wonderful big sister. I hope that she returns to being a mommy's girl once I completely recover. She has turned into daddy's buddy over the past week.

It's hard to tell who Anna looks like. She does have some features that are the same as Bella...but all her dark hair makes her different too.

Grandmoma..

special thanks to you too for watching Bella the four days we were in the hospital!






We enjoyed having visitors from friends and family. Thank you for coming to see us and baby Anna.




Papa Joe




The Hills came by for a visit
with little Henry too...born in April.


Aunt Jennifer
and
cousin
Jonathan



We were able to go home on Thursday afternoon 06/11/09 We were very excited to get home to Bella and glad for the approval from the pediatrian for Anna to go home. Anna is continuing to improve with spitting up but had a difficult start. She is a little peanut weighing 5lbs-13oz here.


A few minutes after we got home both cats came out to welcome baby Anna.












Grandpa and Grandma De Long came by for a visit Friday night.

The Farr's joined us Saturday afternoon.


Our friends and neighbors
Chad and Christina came by for a
nice visit Sunday.

Welcome to the World little Anna we are so glad you are here. You are a blessing and a completion to us.