Hair cuts

For several weeks now, Anna Kate will tell us every night during bath time, "Drew need a hair cut". And she's not wrong! He was definitely getting a little shaggy.  So, yesterday, a hair cut is what he got! We made it a family affair. Aunt Ashley and I also had hair cuts scheduled for the same day. DotDot brought them over and they did great! In the past, our hair cuts have been a bit stressful. One time, Anna Kate got car sick on the way to the salon, Drew is typically a wiggle worm, and the last few times they have been uneasy about being in a strange place with strange people and have been a little uncooperative. So, I talked this little adventure up big time. I talked to them about where they were going and  how they were going to have to sit in the chair like big kids. Apparently it worked because from what I hear, they did great! I was able to get by there but Drew was already finished and Anna Kate was about half way through.  We are all ready for Easter and Anna Kate now tells us "Drew no need hair cut" every night during bath time.

 Sitting like such a big girl! She just got a little trim. We are going to eventually end up cutting her curl out so I will hold on to her sweet little curls as long as I can.

I missed Drew's cut so this is later that night before bath time.  He looks so much older now that he is all trimmed up!

Blogging slacker!

I just realized it has been a couple of weeks since I blogged! I'm not sure why I have been such a blogging slacker! We haven't been up to much. We are impatiently awaiting spring and better weather. We get teases of warm, sunny days and then our hopes are crushed a few days later with cold and rain! Spring is 4 weeks away and the time changes back in 2 weeks! I'm so very excited!

We have just been doing our normal weekend family gatherings. We are enjoying our last few weeks of having John Clay home before mowing starts back up and he spends the majority of his weekends working. 

Last Saturday, Drew and Anna Kate spent the night with DotDot and Grandaddy so that we could go to a birthday celebration for John Clay.  From what I hear, Anna Kate didn't sleep well so she may not be invited  back to spend the night for a while!  :) We have determined that Drew is going to be our kid that never wants to come home and Anna Kate will never want to stay away.  Lately, when she gets tired she wants to go home! And she'd prefer her Mama go with her.  On Sunday, we had another birthday celebration for Daddy and this time included Mimi Jo. Todd, Whitney, Price, Hayes, Michael, Susan, and Nathan also joined us for the party. Drew and Anna Kate really enjoyed playing with their cousins. 

This past weekend was more of the same. Anna Kate has been wanting to go "shopping" for several days so Saturday morning, we went to Target to exchange some Spring/Summer shoes I bought for them.  Anna Kate loves her some shoes. I got her some Hello Kitty sandals that we had to wrestle away from her Friday night. I hid them from her knowing that she will want to wear them every day and it is too cold right now for them!  After they woke up from their nap, they wanted to go "bye-bye" so we went to Mamaw & Papaw's house for a little while. Uncle Aaron and Megan were there so that always equals a good time in their book.

On Sunday, we met Aunt Ashley for our weekly visit.  DotDot and Grandaddy were on their home from visiting Nanny Norma & Uncle Papaw in Florida so Anna Kate & Drew were a bit confused. Drew was convinced Grandaddy was there since his truck was. They did make it home just as Drew and Anna were waking up from their naps. We visited for a bit before we headed to Aunt Teresa's house to celebrate Caleb's birthday. We really are enjoying getting to see so much of our family.

These pictures are random but this is some of what we have been up to!

 We have fashion shows daily at our house. Anna Kate loves her clothes, shoes, and hair bows. You can't ever tell what kind of outfit she is going to come up with!

 Bucket head! Drew has been getting in on some of the dressing up action too.  He also has bucket that he likes to wear on his head and call his helmet. His new thing is to take all of the clothes out of his closet and bring me one piece at a time and tell me he is going to wear that particular item tomorrow. 

 Watching Jake eat.

 Following in his daddy's footsteps. He loves beating and banging on things! 

 We had a bath at Mamaw & Papaw's house Saturday night before we came home. They love to do funny things with their soapy hair then look at themselves in the mirror.

Again, following in his daddy's footsteps. I think Drew's love for baseball is beginning to develop (honestly, I would much rather he get into baseball than football!).  He practiced hitting the ball with his bat all weekend long. And he's pretty good at it too!

Two and a half!

What?!?! How did that happen? Today Drew and Anna Kate are 2 1/2 years old. Geez.... I am still having a hard time accepting that they aren't babies any more and they went and turned all big kid on me. I don't think 2 1/2 is really even a toddler any more. My sweet little 4.13 lb. Anna Kate and 6.12 lb. Drew are kids (if I am going to be completely honest with myself, I can't even remember those two babies any more. But being that honest kind of makes me want to cry so I will continue in denial). This growing up business is such a weird phenomenon. I mourn their fleeting babyhood with one breath and enjoy how fun they are and how much easier they are getting with the next.
My creativity has been a little lacking lately, (I'll blame sickness and winter time blahs!)  but I will try to compile a list of fun facts about my..... Big Kids!!

-Their absolute favorite show is Barney. Gold Rush comes in second. Other than that, there isn't much on the TV program short list.
-Anna Kate has found her inner artist. She loves to paint and color. When she isn't doing that, she is mothering her babies or Drew.
-Drew still loves his trains, cars, and blocks.
-Both are pretty much ready to be potty trained. I just need to bite the bullet and get on with it!
-Anna Kate prefers to dress herself. We are going to have to work with her on picking season appropriate attire! After that we will tackle matching.
-Both are very polite. They are really catching on to thank you although Drew will usually say "Thank you, your welcome" all at once!
-They talk a lot! About anything. Sometimes it is just jabber but they mostly actually say real words these days and can actually carry on conversations.
-Anna Kate loves to sing.  She catches on to songs pretty quickly. My favorite is when she sings the Barney "I love you" song. She wants to hold your hand and sway while she sings and wants to kiss you at the part where they say "a kiss from me to you". It's quite precious.
-When you tell Drew you love him, he immediately says, "I love you too more!". :)
-Both are sweet and kind hearted little souls. They give sweet hugs a lot and will say things like "you look pretty" or "(insert name) is beautiful!".
-On the flip side of their sweetness, they are also two. They test boundaries. They do things they know they aren't supposed to just to see how much we really mean it when we tell them not to do something.
-They are very close with each other but also are okay to be split up. They will ask about the other one but don't seem to get upset if the other is gone. This is a good thing! I want them to have the special twin bond but I also want them to be have some autonomy. Although it is comforting to me to know they will always have each other, I know eventually they will be split up at school.

Their first Valentine's party was at school today. I think they were just excited about school and didn't really realize it was a special day. For some reason today felt a little different when I dropped them off (and this was before I realized it was officially their 2.5 year birthday!). They felt like such big kids. They marched themselves in and sat right down at the table with the rest of their class. Anna Kate sat on one end of the table and Drew on the other by their own choosing. I think that may have had something to do with it. They were very much individuals with their own friends. It was sweet but a little strange. For me anyway. But I think I have already established their growing up has thrown me for a weird emotional loop! :)
I am excited to see what the second half of the twos brings us. Whatever it is, I know it is going to be crazy and hectic at times but I hope it is equally as fun!

I am disappointed to say I didn't get any pictures of them today on their official 2.5 year birthday. I'll have to take some tomorrow and pretend! I found this picture on my camera. This was from the snow a couple of weekends ago. For some reason, I just like it! My two, sweet little big babies! 

Cheeeeeessssseeeee!

It only took 2.5 years but they may finally be getting the hang of picture taking.  Well, okay.... we still have work to do but it's a start! You would think that with as many pictures as I have taken of these kids, they would be pros by now. I think a lot of the lack of cooperation for picture taking is spitefulness! I also want to note Anna Kate's outfit. She loves to look beautiful and she really likes "farkles" (sparkles)! She put her outfit together all on her own.

Not much to report around here. We are laying low while lots of sickness is going around. I caught a cold/flu something last week and I think Hubert & Katherine have been sick with the same thing. Drew and Anna Kate have both been fighting runny noses and hopefully it will stop with just that.  I'll be glad when Spring rolls around and all of the illnesses leave town and warmer, dry weather returns so we can get outside!!
We went to breakfast Saturday morning to celebrate February birthdays with the Garners.  Drew and Anna Kate are always up for a good breakfast out.  We hung around the house the rest of the day. On Sunday, we did our usual lunch/dinner at DotDot and Grandaddy's.  We did manage to get outside for a little while before lunch and naps.

 Anna Kate being silly with Uncle Doug (or Uncle Dougin as Drew kept calling him).

 Drew and Granny Lisa had a good time playing too!

 They cleaned every.single.toy out of the ottoman. Then Anna Kate got in a pretended to be asleep.

One of Drew's favorite new games is playing opossum. He has actually tricked us into thinking he is still sleeping a couple of mornings.  I caught him peeking!   

Snow again!

I haven't gotten off to a good start with my blogging for 2013.  I haven't had much to report. It has been rainy, cold, snowy, icy, and we had a couple of days of 70 degree weather and thunderstorms.  Crazy!  January felt like the longest month ever! The buyer for our house didn't work out so we are once again trying to sell. Hopefully someone will come along soon. We are running our of room at our house quickly!
I was folding up some laundry on Saturday when I looked up and saw that it was snowing! It was coming down pretty hard and when I told Anna Kate and Drew about it they ran over to the door and just stood there "ooo-ing and ahh-ing" over it. So, I dropped the laundry and we bundled up to go out and play! There wasn't any real accumulation, enough to cover the deck and a little on the grass but we had a good time.  They ran in circles like little crazy people and then turned their attention to the swing set.  We have put up the swings for the winter so there isn't much to do there. Drew climbed up and was headed down the slide before I realized it. The little bit of snow that was on there got packed down and turned icy after his first trip down. And then the real fun began.  We had a revolving door of climbing up then flying down the slide. They were coming down so fast they would shoot off of the end and land a couple of feet away from the bottom of the slide. I caught them until my un-gloved hands couldn't handle it any more. I had to literally carry them both in. They were not done with all the snow fun. I'm pretty over winter but I am still holding out hope we will get that one good snow that we can go out and sled in before Spring arrives.

 It's snowing! Anna Kate was apparently planning to just let herself out!

 Trying to climb on the swing set.  It kind of looks like the windy is blowing her away!

Cheesin' before heading down the chute! Then my phone died so these were the best I got.

"isms"

The more they talk, the more we laugh!  Drew and Anna Kate some of the funniest things! And, since it is the purpose of this blog to document all of the things I don't want to forget, this blog is going to be about Anna-isms & Drew-isms.

-Drew calls a football a "football game"
-Anna Kate says she watches Gold Brush (Rush) before she goes to bed.
-Drew will fall down and say I hurt THE knee, THE head, etc....
-Anna Kate says "I pick" when she wants to choose what she wears or eats.
-They both call police cars race cars.
-Drew always refers to trucks as "big ole' truck".
-Anna Kate calls Dora "Doris". I am sure this is because my Mom & Dad have a neighbor named Doris.
-Both still have a hard time with pronouns. They say things like, "hold you", "help you", "let my in", etc....
-Drew calls hang nails "hangers"
-Anna Kate calls the TV the TT and Drew calls it TB.
-Drew says "Chrisom" lights
-Anna Kate says "farkles" instead of sparkles.

These poor kids have nothing to play with so they had to get resourceful.  That is Anna Kate riding on the vacuum while Drew pulls her.  I do love the excitement on her face. I hate that the picture came out blury.

My girl looking too big!  She needed to get her purse before we left.  What doesn't look like big girl is that silly paci!  See how she is chewing on it?  She is working getting her last set of molars in. I have been putting off taking paci's for too long and my excuse (yes, I know it is an excuse! I am really dreading taking them away and what I am sure will be some sleepless nights!) is that I will take them when they are done teething.  These 2 teeth are it! 

Oh, Drew!  Such a silly man!