Because I had to

I know we are all extremely busy these days. Between my husband, kids, housekeeping, laundry, spending time in the Word, cooking, exercising, and my little part-time job, my days are completely full. Occasionally though, I see something (usually while blog surfing) that I just have to try. These little guys were too cute not to attempt.


I made them for Abby's Thanksgiving lunch at PDO. She dressed up as a pilgrim.

But she was more than happy to let her dad wear her costume.

Tiny at 2 months?

The answer to that question is no. On Grant's two month birthday he moved up to 3-6 month clothing and size 2 diapers.

He had his two month check-up today. He weighed 12 pounds and measured 23 and 1/4 inches (both 60th percentile). He looked and sounded great according to his doctor. He is starting to smile a lot and sleeping 6-7 hours at night. He says he is ready to see both sets of his grandparents next week. He is also looking forward to meeting two aunts, one uncle, and three cousins.

24 hours

24 hours is the amount of time since Grant had his last bottle. Praise God! This little boy is nursing like a champ.

He (and his mom) is quite happy with himself.

G is for Grown-up

Zach and Calyn decided a few months ago that they want to be donut cookers when they grow up. Last Friday they were given the opportunity to dress up as donut cookers for school when they studied the letter G and got to dress up as grown ups for the day.

We started the morning with a trip to Krispy Kreme to pick up their props (donuts).


The Krispy Kreme employees were so impressed with their aspiration and costumes that they gave us a quick tour of the donut machines and walked us through the donut making process.

They even offered to let the twins come back later (we were running late for school) to take more photos and dip donuts in chocolate.

Z and C of course got their free, hot donut and we headed to school.

Zach and Calyn provided the days snack for their class courtesy of Krispy Kreme.

The other students wanted to be a doctor, momma, preacher, scientist, handy man, football player, and home depot employee.

Thanks to all the Krispy Kreme employees and the kind manager who gave us the tour. KK also donated the two dozen donuts to Z and C's class.

One-up

I am not much for one-upping my friends, but I think this experience with Abby one-ups the Annerson pooping in the tub story posted by my friend Leah.
Recently I was taking a shower and waiting for Tim to bring Grant to shower with me. As I was scrubbing I heard Tim say, "Oh Abby" in the tone that just tells you something bad has happened. Little Miss Abby had pooped in her diaper (she was not poopy when I started my shower). She then proceeded to take off her poopy diaper and slide all the way down the stairs that lead to our bedroom. I graciously allowed Tim to clean up the mess as I lingered in the shower with Grant. But if you happen to visit our house in the near future and feel the need to go up to our bedroom, I would wear shoes. I'm just sayin'.

Tough

Another tough anniversary has arrived-one year since the death of my sweet sister-in-law Susan. But as tough as it is for Tim and I, it is infinitely harder on her husband, Chris, and son, Evan. Will you please pause and lift them up in prayer? Please also lift up my in-laws, John and Terry, Tim's brother and wife, Pete and Emilie, and Tim's brother, Jeff as this anniversary is also hard for them. One more request: please also pray for Susan's brother, Andrew. He lost both parents to cancer and then Susan in just a few short years.

Thanks.

I miss Susan a lot. We often went weeks without talking but had the type of friendship where we would catch-up in minutes on the phone and then talk about nothing for over an hour. I find myself wishing that I could call her for advice (both in child rearing and scrapbooking) or wanting to share with her a funny story. I loved going to Chicago. We always stayed with Susan and she went out of her way to welcome us and keep us busy. I hate to think of going to visit and not having her there.

Susan was a great wife, mom, and friend. These pictures are old (Evan is now five) but they are some of my favorites. Susan was always smiling.

Abby's new favorite thing to do

Interestingly, she did not like this swing at all when she was a baby!

Six things at six weeks

Grant is six weeks old today. Here is a list of six things that I want to remember about him.

1. Serious-I have no idea where he could have gotten this trait. Anyone have any idea?

2. Smirk-He is not quiet smiling yet but for now we settle for this adorable smirk.

3. Spit-up-I mean lots of spit-up. Lucky for you I did not provide a picture.

4. Soothie-Grant loves his pacifier. A new experience for us since none of the other kids would take one.

5. Squinty- He often opens his right eye wider than his left.

6. Smitten-In case it isn't obvious or I haven't mentioned it lately, I am so in love with this little boy. Thank you Lord for this blessing.

People always ask

Since people always ask who Grant looks like and right now sibling comparisons seem to be a popular blog topic, I'll let you be the judge and you can compare/contrast the Dallas siblings.

G-man:

Big Zach Attack:

C-bear:

Crabby Abby:

Swallowing Status

Yesterday Grant had a swallow test done at UMC. The speech pathologist (a former 9:30er) determined that he has a few issues. The liquid would bounce from his airway to his esophahus but was not aspirated (thankfully). This 'bouncing' is definitely not normal. The liquid should just go straight down his throat but doesn't because his swallowing is delayed. She also determined that he is a little uncoordinated when drinking. This behavior is more typical of a baby in the NICU, but not of a healthy, full-term infant. Lastly, she suspected that he does have reflux and recommended getting him tested. Her first plan was to have ECI (early childhood intervention) come to our house to do feeding therapy in order to catch him up to age appropriate feeding abilities. After discussing Grant with her supervisor, she called me this afternoon with a new recommendation. It seems her supervisor has had success with getting babies with a poor sucking mechanism (which he definitely has) to transition from bottle feeding to breastfeeding (I had expressed my desire to exclusively breastfeed and get rid of the bottles). So our plan is to go meet with her next week and see if she can help us. I'll let you know how it goes.

Ashley Grace Whitmire

Today is our niece/cousin's 9th birthday. She is a lovely young lady and and a great friend. Calyn adores her and asks to mail her pictures and go visit her ALL the time. We wish that we lived closer to her!

Happy Birthday Ashley. We love you!

We hope that you had a great day!

My Guys

The Dallas boys while watching the Tech game on TV this afternoon.

Compare it to the picture below of Tim and the twins at the Tech game last week.

What a difference 30 degrees makes!

Despite the frigid temperature, the twins enjoyed their first Texas Tech football game. A big thanks to Leah, Annerson, and Annerson's Gandy for giving us the tickets. The kids watched a little of the game but mostly enjoyed the other aspects of the game.

I look forward to a future filled with many more Tech games.

One Year

My mom went to be with Jesus one year ago today. I miss her a lot. I think about her a lot. Sometimes thoughts of her are jogged by the smallest things. For instance by the jeans worn by Abby just the other day.

My mom bought me countless pairs of Guess jeans in the 80's.

And several times a day when I look at this little guy:

I think about how she never got to hold him.

However, I am thankful that she is in heaven and that one day she will meet him. I would like to believe that she has already seen him but I think that she is too busy sitting at the feet of Jesus and rejoicing. And probably singing. She was a terrible singer, so now she probably sings all day.

Welcome to my crib

Hi again. Grant here. Today I am four weeks old. I started the day by sleeping from 12am til 7:45am. My parents sure were in a good mood when I woke up. I thought I'd give you a tour of my room. I don't sleep in this bed yet but I will soon.

My mom painted my name on these canvases.

We went for our first walk/bike ride as a family. My dad had the day off because it is Tech's Fall Break.

I fell asleep in the stroller but enjoyed the walk.

After our walk, I posed for my mom. She still thinks I am really cute.

What do you think?

Cold weather is here

Anyone want to help me wash cold weather clothes?

These are the clothes of the three older kids. Thanks to all my friends for hand me downs. Abby benefits from several of our generous friends and from her older sister. Here is her pile.