The Future is Bright...

Lately Analayne is really into playing doctor and beauty parlor --- ON Leighton! He is such a willing (uuuhhhh...forced) patient/candidate. Occasionally, she will use her doll in addition to Leighton, but in all honestly Analayne tries hard to be a very gentle big sister! Leighton is SO intrigued by her. Leighton rarely takes his eyes off of Analayne (not sure if this is for entertainment purposes or because he feels safer knowing her whereabouts!) In general, he just lets her do her thing and he typically smiles and coos at her. Yea-- for a relatively easy going baby. I am just glad that she put the cotton in the baby dolls mouth instead of Leighton's!

The Secret Is Out...

Those of you that know me well understand my "germ phobia" and "organizational methods." Really, I have had these "issues" for nearly as long as I can ever remember. However, I have adapted my personal methods for dealing with them, especially since having my children. I still carry sanitizing wipes in my purse for the public restrooms and a small bottle of hand sanitizer for the wee little hands that must touch everything, but most of the other random issues I have are slowly diminishing. For instance, my backyard is fenced in and I have several toys that are for the "yard only." At one point in my life I would have commented that it is tacky to have stuff strewn across your yard. I don't so much care about that anymore! Well, recently Analayne took a drinkable yogurt outside and apparently her curiosity got the best of her because she decided to pour her drink down the tubes of one of her toys. A few days prior she and her friend poured sand down the tubes so you can only imagine what it looked like when I walked out the back patio and saw what she had done. Whew--Hoo... sand and yogurt all mixed together in the 100 degree heat! The old me would have taken it apart and got the hose out and sprayed the toy clean. The new and too tired to really care "me" gave her a bottle of cleaner some paper towels and let her do her best to clean it herself. In addition, I saw that a storm was on the horizon so I instructed her to drag it into the yard and told her we were going to let the rain wash it off. She thought that was a cool suggestion so once inside she stood at the door and watched the yogurt get washed off her toy. I ended up with a clean toy and a child that was entertained during the entire storm! Shhhh... don't let my secret out!

Mothers Day 2009

I am one PROUD and Happy Momma!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Iv'e Got 3 Words For You....Spirited, Tenacity & Spunk

I love Analayne. I love the way she lives life with spirit, tenacity and spunk. She embraces each moment, lives freely and she has FUN. Analayne wants to "feel" everything! Don't get me wrong...she needs some down time but "less is more" for Analayne (unless of course you are serving up ice cream).

You see I first realized that Analayne would be the type of child to want to "capture" each moment and embrace the day about 7 hours after I delivered her. It was about 2:00 in the morning, Russ was asleep in our tiny hospital room and despite my 18+ hours of NATURAL labor I could not sleep. Analayne was in the nursery and I just wanted to see her. I walked into the nursery and quickly spotted her bassinet. There she was just a few hours old, lying there beautiful as she could be...with her eyes wide open, looking around. I thought to myself..."I thought a newborn would be asleep?" I then quickly eyed the other babies in the nursery and saw that they were indeed ALL asleep and it was at that moment that I thought, this girl is full of life and I was RIGHT.

At almost 4 years of age I see my daughter living life to its fullest. Happy, singing, talking, dancing, being silly, never meeting a stranger.... LIVING each day with anticipation and tenacity! This is just Analayne's personality. She is a "people person." Analayne gets up early and likes to go to bed late. She can outlast and outplay both me and her daddy! She inspires me and I love how God gave us a daughter that is SO very different from me. As her mom, I get frustrated with her energy sometimes but in all honesty I want to to bottle up some of her cheerful spunk, tenacity and spontaneity for myself.

Well, that is after I contemplate the idea for a week, think through all the pro's and cons and then make a list of all actions involved in accomplishing the aforementioned task!

Enjoy some of our latest pics that capture just a glimpse of the REAL Analayne!

How many nick names can you give a baby?

Sweet Pea, Doodle, Baby, Cry Baby, Little Buddy and Crank are all "names" we (I) use when referring to Leighton. Don't you just love to make up names to call a sweet little baby? I think my favorite might just be "little buddy" because that is the name that Analayne started using on her own and it is just sheer, sweetness to hear her talking to Leighton and refer to him as her, "little buddy." Crank is the nickname that Mimi started in reference to Leighton's funny cranking noises he makes as he gears up for a good cry!

Analayne still gets confused and says things to Leighton like, "Hi, sissy." I then say, "Analayne you are the "sissy" he is your brother." She knows she is the sister and therefore would correct herself. However, lately I think she is giving up on being so gender specific because I noticed she is now just going up to him and saying, "Hi little baby."

Falling Into The Fountain

If you know my daughter this might not come as much of a surprise to you! On Sunday following our Sunday morning worship Analayne was outside the theater playing around the large fountain with her dad and another little boy while I was at home caring for our new baby. Playing around the fountain has been a highlight of Sunday for the past two years but apparently yesterday she took a spill into the water. Russ was right there with her and he just grabbed her out but it all happened so fast that she had been totally immersed in the water and was soaking wet from head to toe. I guess is was good that I was not there because I don't respond to these "incidents" as well (calmly as daddy does). Anyway, since Russ wanted to go eat some lunch with Mimi and Papa and Analayne was soaking wet he took her to the store to buy new clothes and shoes so she would have something warm and dry to wear.

Since he does not do any of the shopping in our household he really had no idea what size she wore and I don't think he wanted to make any phone calls to me for assistance so he got the sales lady to assist and ended up with a size 6X sweat suit from the clearance area and some size 6 underwear. He then headed to the shoe aisle and against good discretion he let her pick out the shoes. She picked out some ultra glittery, light-up Strawberry Shortcake Velcro tennis shoes. My personal opinion is they are hideous but Analayne loves them and is so proud of them so I have actually grown to like them a little bit.

I asked Analayne if maybe we should not play up around the fountain anymore and she said, "no I am not going to run around the fountain "ANNNNNYYYYYMORE." She then went on to say, "thank you daddy for getting me out of the water." Even when he was putting her to bed last night she was thanking him for helping her.

As parents we can't really be upset. We all learned a lesson and out of the 3 of us, maybe I learned the most.

1. Accidents happen and you have to LET IT GO. You can choose to make it positive!
2. Tacky,glitter shoes become a little "cuter" when you little girl loves them.
3. If you swear you will never do something.... you will.
4. Clothes that are too big are okay when daddy picked them out and enjoyed doing so.

Check out the designer "kicks" that Analayne will be sporting when she plays outside or is riding her tricycle!

We have our princess....now we have our prince!

Hello Friends and Family. Meet our new baby boy, Leighton! After being induced 7 days after my due date he was born on March 27th at 5:12 pm. We are adjusting to our new family of 4 and I can easily say that Leighton is proving to be a sweet cuddle bug. He wants to be fed and he wants me to hold him (I'll take it)...

Enjoy the pictures,

One very in love mommy of TWO!