Our Baby is 2 months old!

Sweet little Anndra turned 2 months yesterday - and to celebrate I'm finally posting a few more pictures.

Halloween Happiness

Parker decided to be a GI Joe character this year - I just love how kids pose when they're in costume.



Lincoln was a cute little Superman. Parker was thrilled to finally have a sibling old enough to trick-or-treat with him.




Our little pumpkin stuck her tongue out for her picture. :)




All 3 kids:




Lincoln digging through his loot at the end of the night:

Parker turns 7!!!

We had a fun SPY themed birthday party for Parker this year. He invited five friends. Here are the party guests from left to right in the picture below: Ian, Parker, Zane, Todd, Zoe (Ian's sister), and Sincere.



We told the kids that they would be training to become secret agents. Each game was a "training exercise" and each prize was a different "spy gadget" so that by the end of the party they each had a complete secret agent kit in their own "top secret briefcase."



For example, the picture above shows an exercise where they were training to infiltrate a high security room in enemy headquarters that was armed with laser beams. The only way to deactivate the lasers was to follow each one to its point of origin. So the kids had a blast winding the string around the little cardboard handles as they climbed under and over each other's "lasers."

Another training exercise involved using the dress-up clothes to disguise themselves so that no one would recognize them when they were spying. (Sorry that we didn't get a picture of you too, Zane).












Our spy version of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey used a big red target and suction cup darts.




After all the games, it was cake time!



The birthday boy watching us light the candles.



We even dressed Anndra up for the occasion.

4 weeks old!

The past 4 weeks have FLOWN by! Our little one is growing fast. Here are a few pictures taken during the three weeks between bringing Anndra home from the hospital and Halloween.

Lincoln meets his little sister

When Todd brought Lincoln to see me in the hospital (Parker was still at school), Anndra wasn't in the room when they arrived. She was in the nursery getting her first bath. So Lincoln got to spend a few minutes with me in the bed before she showed up. This video was taken just after the nurse placed her back in my arms.



At the end, after Lincoln refuses to kiss his sister, he reaches out to Todd, points to the chair and says "Please" (he doesn't quite put the 'pl' at the beginning). We've learned over the last couple of days that this means he wants Todd to sit down and take the baby so Mommy can hold him - only him. Thankfully these moments of jealousy are only occasional and most of the time he's happy to have her around.

Our baby girl has arrived!

Anndra Eve was born Friday, October 9, 2009 at 11:31am. She weighed 6 lbs. 9 oz. and measured 19 inches long.
















Some of you may be wondering how we chose her name. We wanted to name her after Todd's mother: Debra Ann. So we took the "eb" out of her first name and added the "D" and "ra" to the end of her middle name to make "Anndra" - hopefully she won't mind having to spell it for people all her life!

Here's our sweetie with her namesake:

Summer moments continued

Here are a few more of our cuties from the last month or two...


Parker (already!) talks about how he can't wait until he's old enough to drive... maybe his first 'vehicle' will be something like this? I see a future summer job in the making. :)




I have to say that when you are 7-8 months pregnant, it is very nice when one of your kids is old enough to push the other in his swing. Lincoln doesn't look too excited here, but he really does love it. He's probably just impatient with the fact that we stopped Parker to take the picture.




Parker lost his first tooth Friday, August 7th. So he was able to start first grade with just the right kind of smile... He actually just lost his second tooth (the other bottom front one) earlier this week (9/29).




Parker's first day of 1st grade - August 24, 2009. The teacher had all the students color their names while they were waiting for the others to arrive and get settled in. You can tell how excited he was to break open that brand new box of crayons.




For the last 4 months or so, Todd has been taking the boys on a weekly bike ride (usually Saturday mornings while I do yoga). Sometimes they ride to a park or to get donuts or to play at the McDonald's playground. These pics are from one of those bike 'dates.'






This is a classic Lincoln expression when he's pleased. He loves chillin' on the couch with his big brother first thing in the morning. (And the bent down ear reminds me of when he was a newborn and his ears were always getting folded over).




This little toddler is no longer happy with sitting in the cart - he just HAS to do whatever Parker does.

Random Summer Moments

I can't believe it is almost October and I have not caught up on posting the rest of our summer fun. I guess I better hurry and finish before our little girl arrives, because then I'll be busy posting about her.

So here's Lincoln 'puzzling' over Parker's maze book on the airplane when we were coming home from Utah. I'll admit it's not the smartest-looking expression on his face... can you tell the vacation took it's toll on his sleep patterns?




Taking the elevator up to Daddy's new office (hooray - he's a second-year resident now and gets his own office!). Parker's almost 7, and yet he STILL loves to be the one to push the button. :) I guess some things take longer to out-grow than others.




Lincoln - all ready for church... notice the red hair because it has almost totally faded to blonde in the last month or two.




Both boys sharing Daddy's chair (and some cheese crackers). Lincoln recently learned to fold his arms for prayers, but in this picture it looks more like he's striking a pose than getting ready to pray. Kind of funny how he manages a "don't mess with me" look even with his cheeks full of crackers!




Helping Daddy wash the car - notice our new garage! We love living in this house for many reasons, but the garage is definitely a big one.