Back off, I've been busy!

It's been 2 months since my last post. Wow, that's pretty bad. I mostly feel bad because when I make my blog book there will be a pretty sizable gap. Sorry, future me. I'll have to make up for it by making this a huge one. I've been really busy with baby Annie. It's tough to find time to eat, exercise or shower, let alone blog. She's adorable. She has the funniest, goofiest grin that she'll give you every time you even look at her. It's hard to be grumpy at 3 am when I go in to her room and the second she sees me gives me a giant smile. She's a great baby, but so far, not a great sleeper, so I'm exhausted. I even get nervous to drive across town because I'm so drowsy. It's like torture. She's grown a lot and is now around 12 lbs. She's nice and chubby, especially the cheeks, which are so soft and squishy, they're like a silky bag of pudding. I can't stop kissing them all day.

One of my favorite things is that when I turn the light on in her room at night, or when we go outside in the sun, she squints her eyes and sneezes. He he he. Annie had her baby blessing. Here is our traditional picture of just the baby and I on the blessing day. She's an angel. Jack has a baby doll that he loves and takes care of. He likes to wrap her up in a blanket and make me hold her. He gets really mad if you put her on the floor. Jack's been doing slightly better, but he's still more than a handful. We're back to diapers for the fourth or fifth time, and I've determined that he needs to be the one to decide, because I think he's just too stubborn to do anything I want.

I gave him a summertime haircut, super short, which was tough for me because I love his wacky, shaggy hair. He had asked for it though, and says he likes it now because it's cooler. He cried and wiggled all through the haircut, though. Again, I think it was because that's what I wanted him to do, so he was obligated to fight. He's also can be so sweet and charming. He was standing on the stool washing his hands and he looked at me for awhile and said "You're my best friend." It was so nice I about cried. He also has told me "You're cute" and unsolicited "I love you"s are priceless. To counter that, I was changing his diaper one day, he had diaper rash, and kept saying "Moooom, you're KILLING me!" He said it a couple times than looked at me, pointed, and said "I'll KILL you." It was creepy and hilarious. He has very much perfected the classic whiny-kid tone-of-voice while saying "Mooooom!" Lily's been doing great. She lost another bottom tooth. She's a super-star helper. She's been playing with her horses a lot and has been focusing on her My Little Ponies recently. She got one new pony and in the package was a pamphlet with other Pony products. She's been carrying it around and looking at it periodically and making me read it over and over. She's been doing extra jobs around the house to try to earn money for a Pony hot air balloon. Here she is dressed up with her Palamino, they're both fairies.She's an especially loving sister when Annie is crying. She tries to distract her and cheer her up. In the car, when Annie cries (which is almost every drive) she holds her sucky in and says "Shhhhhh". It's so sweet.Lily picked these flowers for me. I love getting flowers from the kids.Jared got laser eye surgery! He's had such terrible eye-sight for his whole life, it's very exciting. He got the same kind that I got almost two years ago, which is very painful. I think he knew what to expect somewhat, but underestimated how much it would hurt. He was very sad and pitiful for a couple days. He's doing fine now but his eyes are still healing so his eyesight is not great. While our summer has not been as action-packed as it usually is, we've done our best to have fun. Here are Lily and Jack playing with the fire truck. We cut out flames and put them around the room, then Lily's horses would get stuck and and Jack and the truck would come rescue them.We've been enjoying our beautiful backyard. We've planted a lot of stuff, played in the sprinkler, had a lot of picnics, including this one with our pals, the Barnes Family. (Congratulations Jen! She just had a baby girl named Mara.)We got a new swing in our backyard.My sister Hannah, Eric and baby Cate came for a visit. Eric ran a marathon, which is amazing, and we had a family reunion for my mom's side of the family. The reunion got a little mixed up at the last minute due to high water problems at the camp site, but it all moved into the city and there were good times. We had a good time with just our family, here we are up the canyon for a picnic.Cate is so pretty. Here she is standing over Annie.We went to the balloon festival and fireman's breakfast in Springville. It was great. Keep in mind while looking at this picture that it was 6 am and I'd had about 3 hours of sleep the night before.I don't know if having a baby around has just made me realize it, but the kids are so grown up now. Lily is starting kindergarten soon, which terrifies me, and Jack is a full-on little boy. Annie's growing so quickly and even Jare-Bear seems a little more grown up (even though he's actually gotten smaller recently, thanks to Cross-fit and eye surgery). I love our little family so much.