Sibling Sleepovers

Anthon and Erilyn have been having sleepovers in Anthon's bed lately. It's so cute! It started out with them playing one day, but now Erilyn pretty much insists on it every night! They do pretty well, and it's really fun to hear them laughing and giggling together. We move Erilyn to her own bed before we go to bed, but she still wakes up at 5:30 every morning. We put her back to bed, but still, who wants to get up at 5:30 and haul a two year old back upstairs to her bed? We're thinking that she's always woken up at that time, but when she was in her crib and couldn't go anywhere, she'd just roll over and go back to sleep. Now that she's in a toddler bed, she'll get up and come crawl into our bed, which is cute and annoying all at the same time.

Anthon isn't any better. He gets up with her, but he knows to stay in his room and play. I've been teaching him a little about telling time, so we gave him a clock and told him that unless the first number is a 7, meaning it's at least 7 o'clock, he can't come out of his room. So far he's done pretty well.

I'm so not a morning person (as my dad, who always woke me up in the mornings, will attest) that it still baffles me that my kids are early risers! It must be Kirk's fault. Crazy kiddos.

Erilyn is two!

We love Erilyn's sweet smile and her easy ability to make anyone who sees her smile as well. She brings joy wherever she goes! She loves to color, copy Anthon, play chase and tickle, play with her baby, play with Shadow, jump on beds, and swim. We love our Erilyn!


Erilyn 2006

Erilyn 2007


Erilyn 2008 and at her party!


We tried to keep Erilyn's birthday this year minimal simply because we learned with Anthon that two year olds don't really care or remember all that much. So, we just invited our neighbors over to share cake and ice cream with us. It was great fun and both Erilyn and Anthon LOVE the play kitchen that we got her (a great internet steal!). The only drama came when Erilyn fell backwards off our couch, screamed, and then promptly fell asleep. We couldn't wake her for anything, so we were off to the ER. She ended up snapping out of it and is fine, but she was a bit sad and clingy all night. I had some nasty flashbacks of ER trips with Anthon--concussions etc., so we were glad she's okay!

Shadow

This is our beautiful cat, Shadow. We love him and he is perfect for our little family. He has, however, inadvertantly cost us a pretty good chunk of change! Admittedly, I am at least partially responsible. It if weren't for my love of animals, we may not have had to pay quite so much to care for this particular one. We love you Shadow!

So, here's the story. I first noticed that something was wrong with Shadow last Friday when I told Anthon to make sure and feed the cat and Anthon told me he didn't need any food. This is odd because our lovely little Shadow is also a bit of a piggy and Anthon has to feed him at least twice a day. That he didn't need any food that morning was my first red flag. As I started to pay closer attention, I realized that Shadow had not moved from his curled up spot on the couch in quite some time. Then, when he finally did move, he wasn't walking on his right front leg at all. Long story short, we took him to the vet once his hot, swollen, leg started oozing yucky stuff everywhere. After a steriod shot (to help with his 107 degree fever), sedation, IV fluids (he wouldn't eat or drink), antiobiotics, pain medication, and bandages, we brought poor little Shadow home! Kirk has to help me change the bandages, which is quite a process because the wound is pretty big and yucky (we still don't know what happened), but he's getting better every day. He even walks on it now! We love you Shadow!

Summer Swimming

We've had tons of fun swimming at our little neighborhood pool. Erilyn is getting braver and braver every time, although I'm still torn about the use of a flotation thinger. It helps with my panic levels, but it gives her a false sense of security so that when I take it off, she really causes me panic! We have fun, regardless!

Catch up!

I'm back! Thanks to all of you who keep checking my blog even though it's been totally MIA for quite some time. Now, to play catch up...a lot has happened!

Kirk's birthday...

Anthon getting into the bandaids...if you look closely, he's got one wrapped around every single finger!

Best friend birthdays, and park days, and reward trips to Chuck E Cheese!

(I love Erilyn's faces!)

Anthon finally learned how to swing on his own (did you catch the "finally?!")...

...and we drove to Memphis! Here are some pictures of us going for walks around Uncle Daryl's beautiful neighborhood, to the Zoo, to the Children's Museum, fishing, to the Mississippi river, and a few random ones.

This is Anthon sitting like a giant panda to eat his snack!

(Erilyn too sleepy to even lay her head down, Anthon in heaven on Uncle Daryl's farm, and Erilyn getting loves from BJ!)

We went to Ranch Days with friends...

...and the rest of the time has been filled with swimming, park days, hair cuts (I cut a good two inches off Erilyn's), reading stories, trips to the Science Spectrum, Memorial Day BBQs with friends, making cookies, playdates, celebrating Mother's and Father's Days, grown-up dates, babysitting for friends who had babies, and, oh yeah! We moved! We're still in Lubbock--Kirk has one more year left--but we just moved to a place that wasn't quite as expensive and we like it a lot. It's newer and bigger, and cheaper! And we're two doors down from good friends.

(Anthon is on the diving board in this picture...once he started, I couldn't get him to stop! He's a diving board fanatic!)

Erilyn is finally talking where I can pretty much understand her all the time and she's even using phrases, which is a big step for her. She's quite coordinated, and I think she's more likely to be the athletic child in our family. She loves jumping, and copying Anthon, and following me around trying to do her make up or brush her hair. It's fun that she's very girly about shoes and makeup and pretty things in her hair. We have fun.

I was noticing that many of the pictures of Anthon are blurry, and I just have to say that it's not my fault! I challenge anyone to take pictures of Anthon that aren't blurry. That's just how Anthon goes through life. Always in a hurry about something. He runs everywhere, even just from his bedroom to the bathroom which is about five steps away. My challenge in life is to try to teach him to slow down long enough to see the sunset, and smell the flowers. At least on occasion!

I'll post pictures of our new house once we're a bit more organized.

Fun, busy summer days!

Trunk trips

It's been ages since I've posted anything. And now I'm kicking myself in the pants for missing all the funny things I should have written down. One funny thing happened today. I signed Anthon up to go to Vacation Bible School this week at the church where he goes to preschool. So far he's loved it. He's learned about be-attitudes, and how to forgive, and the whole thing has a beach party theme. Yesterday he came home with a whole CD of beach themed christian music and one of the songs has a line that goes something like this: "I will believe with my whole soul; I will believe wherever I go." We popped it in and were listening to it on one of our many trips to the new house with a trunkload of stuff when Anthon asked me to stop it so he could tell me something. He said, "Mom, I believe wherever I go, I just don't always tell you." So cute!

This week has been a little crazy trying to get moved one trunk load at a time. It'll be nice when Kirk gets all our big stuff moved on Friday and we can actually start putting things away. Our good friends live two doors down and we walked over there tonight after a load and had homemade ice cream. So fun to have friends so close! I haven't seen many of my friends much lately because they have all had or are having babies within the past couple of weeks. I'm starting to feel left out!