It's morningtime!

Anna absolutely loves morning time lately. She gets up, lifts up the blinds to check and see what time of day it is, and is completely delighted when she finds sunshine (or just daylight) on the other side of the window.

This morning, after getting home pretty late from a trip last night (more on that later), she eagerly runs in our room, comes up to our bed and taps me, and with her most excited voice says, "It's morningtime Mom! Wanna play with baby dolls and be a princess with me?"

And of course, even as groggy as I was, how on earth could I turn that down? And so we played and had breakfast in our tutus and tiaras.

Just want to remember these magical mornings before they become crazed running around looking for a shoe, while packing a lunch, and remembering homework before the bus comes for school. Stay little, my little Anna!

Happy Halloween!

Anna has been looking forward to Halloween since signs of it started arriving in the stores this year. She was ready to go trick-or-treating back in September and would get so disappointed when I told her we still had awhile. We finally made a countdown chain of I think 36 days. So after pulling down day after day, it's safe to say she was EXCITED to finally go trick-or-treating yesterday!

We were so lucky to have Dave home the WHOLE day yesterday! It was much needed since we don't get to see him much these days. We had pumpkin waffles and carved a pumpkin and we just hung out in our cozy home while it rained off and on all day. Loved it!

I had planned for awhile this year that Anna was going to be Little Red Riding Hood for Halloween. My mom had given me my old dress from when I was Anna's age and it's a real swiss dirndl, which also looks like a perfect Red Riding Hood Dress. All I needed was the Hood. And when I saw a red-hooded coat at Target, it was set!...except Anna had other plans. Of course. She wanted to be a mermaid, or a chicken, or a duck, or a kitty cat, but mostly a mermaid. Then I found a perfect little monkey get-up at Old Navy. (thanks to my SIL Ashley!) And of course it was love at first sight for Anna! I loved seeing her so excited that I was even willing to forgo my Little Red Riding Hood plans.

So here's our little monkey girl anxiously waiting to go trick-or-treating...



She had a blast and was ecstatic about each and every piece of candy that she got. I was actually surprised that she wasn't even nervous to say "Trick-or-Treat" and she did a great job of only taking one per house, which I thought for sure wouldn't happen. After each house she kept saying, "Let's go get more candy mom! Another house!" It was a little drizzly, so she carried her "rainbrella" around with her and I sure wish I had a picture of that. So funny to see that little monkey walking around with her candy bag in one hand and umbrella in the other.

Then we saw our good friends Marc and Kim and their girls who Anna adores. Marc came to our house and we had warm apple cider while Anna sorted through her stash. The night was a success! Rain and all!

Now, I didn't completely lose in the costume department. Our church had a trunk-or-treat on Wednesday, and somehow I convinced her to be Little Red Riding Hood for that! Hooray! She got to wear my old dress before she outgrew it! Pictures were taken and documented for posterity. And she makes a very cute Red Riding Hood I might add.

I'm so glad to be a mom to enjoy this fun holiday through a child's eyes again! Love our sweet (and crazy) little monkey!

It's a BOY!

This is a little late in coming, but...we are having a BOY! The little guy is due in March and we are very excited for his arrival! It still seems unreal to me. When I see that little body on the ultrasound screen I still can't quite believe that that sweet little body is growing inside of me. I am so anxious to meet him and have him join our family. And I can't wait for Anna to be a big sister...even though there will probably be some struggles there too. She is so sweet and protective over her own little "babies" and even me, I can't wait to see how she is with her baby brother.

When we saw his feet on screen, he was tapping his little toes. Very cute.

Pumpkins with our pumpkin

ooooh how I LOVE this time of year! There's just something in the air. Fall seems to engage all of your senses from the beauty of the colors, to the way it smells. I just get giddy thinking about it.

One of the chairman in Dave's department, Dr. Argenta, has his own farm in a town nearby. He told Dave we could go to the farm today and pick out some pumpkins from his pumpkin patch with Anna. Oh boy, did we take him up on his offer! I've never seen such a variety of pumpkins in all shades and sizes. Anna was in heaven.

She found a couple that were just the right size and some that were not, but she tried to carry anyway. She was giggling and leaping around the pumpkins nonstop.

I love this picture because it takes a second to find her.


She even carried her pumpkins back to the car herself. Of course.
Little Miss Independent.

Thank you Dr. Argenta!

Now on to carving! (or painting in Anna's case!)

Happy Fall!

Taylo Swiss!

Last summer it was the Wiggles, and this summer Anna has progressed 10 years into her next music obsession -- Taylor Swift. Or "Taylo Swiss" if you're talking to Anna. She loves singing along to all of her songs, especially Love Story, while we're in the car. Last week Taylor Swift was in town, Dave was on night shift, it was me and Anna on a Friday night with nothing to do. So why not go and try to scalp a ticket for the concert with my 2-year old? Some would say that I am a little crazy, but I don't care. Anna LOVED it! And so did I!

Anna loved the pink Taylor truck

When I told her we were going to a concert, she was excited. She had to get her necklaces on before we left. While we were talkin business with the scalpers, she kept saying, "Let's go to concert Mommy! I hear music!"

It was so fun to see Anna so excited about all of this. I thought she might like it, but I didn't know how excited she would be. Kellie Pickler opened and at one point she yelled out, "Are y'all havin fun?" and Anna shouted back "YEAAHHH!" with all her heart. It cracked me up.

Anna dancing to her favorite songs with her Taylor Swift glow stick.

Thanks for the tip Darcie!

The funniest part was when she was talking about Taylor, "the little girl dancing and singing". She must think she's little because we were sitting so high up in the nosebleeds! We had such a good time together and I'm so glad I have my little friend to go do fun stuff with. We missed Dave and I felt bad we were having fun while he was working hard all night. But we can't help it, we had to go.

The other day she told me she wanted to go see "Talo Swiss" again. Maybe one day Anna. But for now let's work on catching up on your sleep!

One down

It's just over a year ago that we backed up our 26 foot Penske truck into this driveway, not knowing what we were in for in this new stage of life. That seems like just yesterday and yet living back in SLC seems like so long ago. But it's been a year. 1 down. 5 to go. Dave is finishing up his "intern" year and will be getting a HUGE raise to pay off all of student loans. (NOT!) Our life here is pretty settled and it's been fun and having so much change. Although change is sometimes uncomfortable and hard. But it's good. And I'm learning a lot.

I've been meaning to write a post about our life here really since we got here. Just the boring stuff. What's it like? What's different? etc. I actually started this post last August I think. So it's about right that I'm posting it now. I'm always late. If you've ever invited me somewhere, you already know that. I have time denial issues. I always think there's more of it than there really is.


So here's just a little randomness about our new life here. What it's been like, my impressions of our city, etc. In case I haven't filled you in on the boring details yet. This will be totally random and I'm in a weird mood, so we'll see what pops up...

• Just to clarify, we live in the South. Yes, it's the south, even though we're in North Carolina. I'm surprised how many people are surprised by this. And something that I've learned since I've been here, Alabama, Mississippi, etc. are the deep south. And Florida isn't really considered "southern" at all. (culturally, not geographically of course.)
• Southern Hospitality is real. Everyone's nice here. People drive by and wave at you. I love it! They don't know you, but you're both on the street so you might as well wave. People are friendlier and polite. And I think it's quite charming.
• The roads don't make sense. Instead of North/South, East/West streets, most of the streets here are diagonal, but then they turn and wind and really you have to drive in a horseshoe to get somewhere that should just be a straight shot. But that's just me, coming from Brigham Young's grid system. Where numbers actually meant something. No disrespect to the Moravians, but seriously, when it comes to street planning, leave it to the mormons. Actually I bet it really has something to do with old farm roads and all of the dense woods and hills here. Maybe. I have no idea what I'm talking about really. All I know is that it takes longer to get 10 miles here than it does in SLC.
  
• There are no sno-shacks! yes, really! I don't understand this because it gets really hot here in the summer. It seems like an obvious solution to hot summer day, but I haven't seen one. Okay, one. At the fair. But it's the old chunky ice kind. Doesn't count. And last summer, I really missed my pina colada with cream sno cone. Maybe I'll start my own shack this summer. The overhead is cheap, right? I have found some divine custard though. Nielsons has nothin on this place!


• There are WAY too many bugs here. I'm not one of those girls that shrieks at the sight of a bug. I'm usually the one that had to kill all of the bugs. (Except in Hawaii when Sara was the bug master. She killed a centipede and many a cockroaches for us) But there are just so many here. And weird ones that I've never seen before. And my neighbor told me that last year he found a black widow in his yard. And so he caught it and released it in our greenway. What?! If you catch a black widow, why on earth don't you kill it? Sure, I love Charlotte as much as anyone, but until I see "terrific" in a web, that spider is going down the toilet. But the real reason I don't like bugs is because they LOVE me. If I go outside for 5 minutes, I've got 5 new bites. And I really hate bug repellent, but I must use it if I want to be a fun outside mom for Anna. I guess this just means that my blood has a really good flavor. Which is good news, in case I ever meet Edward.
• The plus side of this is that we have Fireflies! I'm looking out my window at some right now. Love those cute little lightening bugs!


• Get ready for this one...they don't have cinnamon bears here! Not even lips, or Santas, or any holiday shape gummy. I know. It's a travesty. I don't understand why. Although I did see some in Myrtle Beach at a "Dylan's Candy" copycat store. But this was before I knew they were a rarity out here. This is a problem for me because for some reason I crave these on occasion. There were a few times at work where I would try and hunt some down, but it wasn't something people kept in their desk drawer. Weird, huh? Well, maybe my teeth will be thankful for this.


• Hot Chocolate selection is dismal, but they have a huge variety of tea, sweet tea, and grits. Sweet tea seems to be much more popular than Starbucks.
• I miss sidewalks. Only the really nice neighborhoods have them here.


• Garbage pick up - silly! Instead of the truck picking up each trash can. A guy goes around and collects everyone's bags into one trash can. Then the tuck picks that one up to dump. I don't get it.
• Did I mention it's really green here? If you've been East you know, but just to reiterate, it's pure green lusciousness. I really have no idea how big our city is because I can't see it all.
• The falls and springs here are REAL! It's so beautiful. I'll try and post some pics one day. Beauty, beauty all around. Trees and flowers blossom in the spring. And the trees glow in the fall.
• I really like the fact that I only had to wear my winter coat 5 times or less last winter. That's my favorite kind of winter. Although in some ways this is too bad, because I do love cute coats.
• Instead of putting Christmas lights up, people put candle lights in their windows at Christmas time. Which I love because it's cute and colonial. But I missed all the adorned rooftops too.
• I LOVE the fact that we're a few hours from the beach. It's rare for Dave to have a whole weekend off, but we try to take advantage of this as much as possible! The beaches here are beautiful and peaceful and warm. And I don't miss all the seaweed from the Cali beaches. We haven't made it up to the Outerbanks yet, but I'm excited to see what that's all about too.
• We've explored so many new places here. Little nearby towns and the big cities. I love going new places and learning new things about people and history. We have much more ground to cover, so hopefully Dave's schedule and our funds will allow us too.
• Having a two car attached garage and a car with keyless entry has changed my life. Really. I am grateful every day.
• Purses are pocketbooks. Shopping carts are buggies. A BBQ party is a cook out. Just a few of the new terms that I've learned here. I also really like it when the ladies at the store tell Anna how "smart" she looks. Although I think she's smart, I think they mean she's cute.
• I think I kind of like Christian Rock.
• Most people love God here and it's okay to talk about it. I really appreciate that.
• I can't do as much on my own as I thought. But I just try my best. Sometimes I don't. I think I used to be "together" and now I'm just, well, not. And I'm working on balance in my life, right now there isn't any! I admire any mother that has found it.
• I have aged 5 years in one year. Really. I've recently noticed that I look old now. My face has wrinkles. I look at pictures and think how different and "younger" I look - and it was just last year! I wonder what did it to me. The moving, the residency, or the 2 year old? hmmmm. Maybe I'll have to have Dave sample Botox on me some day.
• Dave's schedule hasn't been as bad as I expected. Sure, he's gone a lot, more than most husbands, but I really expected it to be worse. I think I did that on purpose so I would be happy instead of disappointed. He's had some rough rotations, but he'll get a good one some months where he only has to work 40-60 hours per week instead of 80-100. And those months are the best. He's doing a great job and has enjoyed most of his intern year. Next year should be better, so we're looking forward to that. I must give him credit that part of the reason it has been a good year is because of him. Even though he is worked to death, he doesn't complain much and has a good attitude. When he has time off he wants to go and do stuff with us. Which I am very grateful for. If I worked that much, I might be curled up in my bed crying on all my days off! Sorry to call you out, but thank you for being so great Dave!

How's that for random facts? I know there's more to say, but I'm done for tonight. Maybe I'll continue to add to this list for fun.

It's been a good year. Lots of adjusting, but a good year. Dave and I have said all year that I really don't think there's a better place for us to be right now. It suits us great. Even without cinnamon bears. We've met some really great people that have made our year much more enjoyable too. Especially for me. I'm so grateful for my friends here! They will probably laugh at my random list. I'm such a rookie.

Here's to hoping the next 5 are as good or better than the first!

Look who's living in our flower basket...

Anna's so excited!

Anna's Half Birthday

Anna turned 2 and a half today. I don't quite believe it. She just barely turned 2. So that means she will turn 3 in just barely no time. This can't be happening. But it is. And it has been quite the 2 and a half years with her. Better than I ever would have thought and harder than I ever would have thought. But I love her up and down and back and forth. And back again.

You know she's an only child, so she got a little half birthday celebration with cupcakes. Just for fun. Yes, I know. We need to have another child because this is a little ridiculous, but it was fun and I always love celebrating my half birthday, just for fun. Why not? I say. Because any reason to make cupcakes is a good reason.

So this reminds me to finally post about her actual birthday. That was back in December. I figure now's as good as time as any to post it. I told you I would be going way back. I love birthdays and I would be real mad if I never posted about this because I definitely would forget all of the details. I'm sure I already have. Thank goodness my mom was there to take lots of pictures to remind me. So for the next post, you get a little flashback to 2008. Birthday style.

she keeps me safe

It's nice to know that someone's got my back. someone's watching out for me. keeping me safe. And I am lucky enough to have that someone be Anna. (I think Dave sometimes does too)



Lately I can tell that there are moments that she actually does listen to me. When she's scared I tell her, "Don't worry, I'll keep you safe." And when she's doing something dangerous and I tell her to stop and she gets mad, I remind her, "It's my job to keep you safe Anna!"



So for the past month or so, I've also been watched over.



When I'm out in the yard weeding..."Make sure the bees don't get you Mom! Don't worry, I'll keep you safe."



In the parking lot walking to the store..."Hold my hand mom. I'll keep you safe."



And at bedtime, I get a big hug and "Don't worry, I'll keep you safe." with a little pat on my back.



And it melts my heart.



But then tonight, she had a serious case of the sillies and we were having some bedtime drama. For the past few weeks she drags bedtime out as looooong as possible by acting silly and not cooperating with ANY part of the bedtime routine. So I told her it was bedtime and not playtime and left the room. Then came the floodgate of tears and screaming. I waited for a few minutes for her to get the picture (although I do hate those cries!) and went back in the room. She gave me a big hug and then looked at me and said, very seriously, "Mommy, you can't leave! It's my job to keep you!"



Well. She wins. She can keep me forever.



And I'm glad to report bedtime went much smoother after that.


I left the room happy to know that after all the mistakes I've made so far as a mother, she still wants to keep me.

A Visit from Grandma G

I know I am so incredibly behind on blogging! I really wish I didn't have to sleep so I could just stay up one night and get it all done at once, but I don't think I would be a very good mommy the next day. So I'll keep trying to get caught up little by little. And then catch up on the life that was happening while I was catching up. haha. It never slows down, but I guess that's a good thing. What's that quote?..."Life is what happens while we're making other plans" or something like that...Anyway here's a few fun pictures of a post that I started a month ago about my mom's visit in March. We're so lucky that she has airline benefits to pop in for visits frequently. One thing is for sure Anna really loves her grandmas!

Mom got here the weekend after the "big" snowstorm and by the end of the week it was 80 degrees. We headed to Pilot Mountain first where Anna had fun finding puddles from the melting snow. This mountain is much different than the ones we're used to, but it's still beautiful.

I miss Mayberry

I bet you didn't know that the real Mayberry is just a few miles from us. Yup. Andy Griffith's real hometown with Aunt Bea, Opie and whistlin and fishin. The real name of the city is Mt. Airy. And it was quite charming. We strolled down main street, talked to the nice old men sittin on the street, and stopped in for a shake at the malt shop. Anna had to let every know she wasn't a small town girl, so she wore her red heart sunglasses around and everyone called her Hollywood.

And we couldn't miss out on this photo op. Wally's Service Station. These are for you Dad...

I really think that my dad would buy this truck if it were for sale.

The next day we went to Tanglewood Park and let Anna run around the playground and watch the ducks on the lake. We were all excited to be out in the sunshine on a beautiful day.

Anna loved having Grandma G here to play with and have somebody else to push her on the swing. Still her favorite outside activity.

Another good thing about Grandma G coming is that she always takes a lot of pictures. And then I get some cute ones like this of Anna just doing her regular silly stuff that I always forget to take pictures of.

Thanks for coming to visit Grandma G! We love you!

Never leave a child unattended when painting

I looked away for less than thirty seconds.

And this is what I get.

"Great! Mom's not looking. I can finally stick my finger up my nose!" What in the world child?

Thank goodness for Non-Toxic and washable paint.

Happy Easter!

Now this is what I pictured

Saturday was just one of those days. One of those days that I pictured before I had kids. What my life would be like when I had kids. The day dreamy unrealistic kind. Little did I know that these days are actually far and few between, but they do really happen occasionally. And it's so fun and all worth it when they do.


We didn't go to Disneyland or have a big party. It was just us and a sunny day.


We went to an Easter Egg Hunt in the morning. Anna was excited for candy and I was happy to see some friends too. Dave was able to get some studying done while we hunted. Poor guy has to take yet another test next month. How many boards can there possibly be? But while he studied, Anna had her first real go at the egg hunt. Anna needed to fuel up with a granola bar before the race started so she could have energy and endurance to make it through the hunt. She was so thrilled when she found her first egg, she just had to stop and see what was inside before she went on. Jelly Beans! Well, she might as well eat them now that she's opened the egg. And so it went. She only found a handful of eggs by the time she finished, but she was so pleased with herself.



Then it was home and time for some conference. I love conference weekend. Now, it's a little (well, a LOT) harder to pay attention when you have a two year old running around, but lucky for me, someone gave out play dough in some of the eggs, so Anna was entertained for awhile during the first session. I really love conference. It's just the jumpstart I need to get my life in check twice a year. (I should really check in with myself more than twice a year though)


In between sessions, we went to one of my favorite parks for a Kite Festival. Oh man, was Anna excited about kites. And the weather was heavenly.

I adore stuff like this. Anytime someone decides to make a festival about something simple and enjoyable, I'll be there. We don't have a kite, but there was a nice old man with a bunch in the back of his truck for people to borrow. Southern hospitality for ya. Anna wanted to hold that string so bad and she mostly ran around in circles for awhile, but eventually she got it and up her kite went. We lounged on the grass for awhile and watched the other kites and enjoyed the sunshine.



And miraculously Anna fell asleep on the way home. Her first nap in about a month. Hallelujah!


A nice day. A fun day to be together. And it didn't cost us a dime. I need more days like this.


Although of course it wasn't completely perfect. There were many tantrums scattered throughout the day and we had to carry Anna out of the park kicking and screaming. But I don't think I'll remember those parts of this day. That happens every day anyway. That's why it's nice to get a day like this when things are just, well, as they should be I guess. Two year olds throw tantrums, kites fly in the sky, and eggs are waiting to be discovered. Now that is how I pictured parenthood.

Lately

Lately Anna has been busy. Always busy.

Always wanting to have fun.

Always upset when mom tries to spoil the fun.

Lately Anna is always polite.

"Anna do want some apple juice?"

"No thanks!"

"Anna, it's time to change your diaper."

"No thanks mom."

When she bumps into me she says, "Oh Scuzi Mommy! Sawtee!"

And she always says "Scuzi" when she's trying to push her chair up to the counter to try and sneak something while dinner is cooking.

She even says "Bwess You Mommy" when I sneeze or cough.

Lately Anna wants to have a baby. Here's a little scene from yesterday:

Anna: "I want baby in my tummy mommy"

Me: "Yeah, me too. Just waiting for daddy..."

Anna: "I hab baby in my tummy and I push it out."

Then Anna gives me the biggest push and flexes her face so hard to "push" the baby out.

Then suddenly she says, "Hmm. Maybe next week."

And walks away.

Lately Anna is so good at playing pretend. I love overhearing her play with her animals and dolls. "Want go to gym?" "K?" "I wabe at you" "K?" "Want go to church?" "OK!" "Wanna go my swingset?" "I push you?" She loves having them "talk" to each other.

Lately Anna is "Ohhh Maaan!" and "Ta Da!" Having a 2 year old around makes me notice the things I say a lot. "Oh man" is one of them. When Anna drops something or is not going her way, she says, "Ohhh Maaan!" And when she finds something she's looking for, she jumps up and shouts "Ta Da!"

Lately Anna loves playing with friends. And the older they are, the cooler. She especially loves our neighbors, Emily and Stephanie. She's only actually played with them a couple of times, but she talks about them almost every day. She can't wait to go to school one day, just like "Emee and Stephee".

Lately Anna loves singing. My favorite is when she sings "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" But her other favorites are Jingle Bells, Twinkle Star, Popcorn popping on the apricot tree, and I can sing a Rainbow. She sings all the time these days. And unfortunately for her, she inherited both my and Dave's talent for singing, but to me, it's the most beautiful singing in the world.

Lately Anna has decided she's too big for naps. I am in mourning over this. I really am having a hard time getting through my days without a break, but at least she's not too cranky even without the naps, so I guess it's her time. Sigh! She's getting so big.

Lately Anna loves to play outside. But it's been rainy the past few days and she's got a stomach bug, so we've been trapped indoors. I'm SO ready to go outside again!

Lately Anna surprises me every day with the things she says and does. She makes me laugh and I am in trouble because I can't help but spoil her with my attention. Not much else has been getting accomplished around here. The girl rules the roost right now, but I just love her and I can't help it.

Lately Dave has been on 2 awesome rotations (Anesthesia and Derm) and I love it! It's so great to have him home for dinner and on the weekends. I feel so spoiled and it will be hard to get back to "normal" intern life.

Lately there has been much to blog about, but just can't seem to get to it. (see reasons above: no naps, want to hang out with my husband while he's home!) Although, I'm getting anxious because I won't let it go. I WILL get to it soon. I'm talkin alltheway back to October. Yup. It's ambitious, but this is the only way it will get documented that we've been living.

So that's what we've been up to lately. And sometime soon I'll get to blog about our life before "lately."