Two Peas In A Pod

The girls have been enjoying each other so much these days. Here's just a few moments I've captured over the past month or so. They crack me up - so fun!













I hope everyone has an amazing Christmas - we're happy to actually have one this year! Last Christmas was spent unpacking and trying to go into labor! :) Glad to not have to repeat that one...

Another Official Walker!!

Yay! I thought I'd have to wait a little longer, but Emily has been very determined lately to figure the whole one-foot-in-front-of-the-other thing. She's such a cutie; I love that little girl!

Sorry the quality isn't great...at all. All our lights were on and everything; oh well. :)

Catch-up and Must've

K, so big apology about not posting for a while, but I'll tell you what: the old adage "No news is good news" is certainly applicable to us. Things have just been incredibly busy, in a very good way! :) Jared is now the Director of Assisted Living at a facility in Phoenix (boo on the drive, but it's worth it!), I am forever chasing around two little monkeys, but also enjoying my down time of reading, writing (set aside book 1 for some editing, working on book 2 now), and improving my housewife skills.

Anna is truly delightful and frequently makes me laugh like a little girl. She is growing fast and learning even faster. Emily has now mastered stairs, can get up and down off the couch, and tries to climb anything she can. She is using so many more consonants than last month and you can hear her language abilities changing almost daily. She even says "Daddy's home!" with the same intonation that Anna uses; it just usually sounds like, "Dah-huh!"

Anyway, all is well with us. I will try to be more consistent about posts, but sorry, no promises! I'm just lovin' life a little too much!





Two very tired Trick-or-Treators. Anna was a ladybug and Emily was a bee. I know that I now like Halloween quite well - best child labor opportunity EVER!

Better Late Than Never

I'm sorry it has been a while - things have just been hectic, and I feel like my brain has melted a little this summer. This first picture sums a lot of it up for me. :)

We spent a weekend in the big CA in August to see Grandma and Grandpa. I took a bunch of pictures and got so many cute ones, but we are having memory card issues and connection issues and all other issues that might cause me to drag my feet in doing a post. (Thank you for the terrific motivator...made me smile.)

However, this is all I've got for now. After spending five hours in a car, Emily got her payback:



Santa Monica Beach; Anna had a ton of fun running along the water's edge with me and picking up slimy seaweed. This was her first visit to the ocean.



Emily is all over the place now, constantly cruising along furniture, frequently letting go and standing on her own for seconds at a time. She has perfected getting off the couch by rolling onto her belly and scooting off. She has been clapping her hands and saying her version of "Yay!" for a while now, and crawls like the floor is on fire. Anna is using describing words along with her nouns like: "Big black wheels on big blue truck." She is progressing rapidly and I enjoy conversing with her.

Anyway, all is well, despite being a little crazy. I will try to get some more pictures soon!

Motivation?

Ugh, will somebody please send some motivation my way?? I need to post SOMETHING worthwhile soon!

Pics Galore

Whew, July was crazy. These pictures will just sum up what has been going on with the Gardner family!

Blacktail Lake, Idaho. Anna was NOT happy, but probably only because her life vest was for an infant; it was a bit snug.

There are the dimples!

Sand much?

Playing at the neighborhood park.

Um, back at Blacktail - Anna's first beach. Obviously these pics won't be in order...

Emily, Grandpa and the polar bear, Andy

Our new car, because 'something' happened with our old one...oops.

Emily swinging at Iona Elementary where I went to school as a kid in Idaho!

Anna helping Grandpa Eddie get ready for mowing up at the ranch.

Such a sweetheart.

Up at the ranch.

Tire swing at the ranch. It's HUGE!

Other swing, not so huge...

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa Birch up in Idaho.

Yay, our lawn is finally complete!

The only news we have is that Anna is doing excellent with potty training, Emily has mastered the army crawl, and is days away from an official crawl, and we are all healthy and happy! Take care!

Summer Pics

I wish we could have captured Emily's super huge dimpled smile, but she just was so somber in the grass today. Oh well, here are the best pics of our super darling dolls!





P.S. Thank you Jenny for the new (to me) camera!! :)

H-Happy Beedew!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY my little 2 year old! I can't believe it's only been two years - honestly it feels like you have been part of our family for so much longer!

I loved this morning that when I came in to wake you up (thank you for letting me sleep past 5...), you instantly jumped up and ran to give me a hug! I said, "Happy Birthday, Sweetie!" And, since we've been working on letter sounds, you are frequently sounding like a stutterer. You said in reply, "H-Happy Beedew!"

I remember your birth so well; you definitely took your time coming, but we couldn't have been more pleased to have such a healthy happy little girl!


Who would have known what an amazing big sister you would turn out to be?! You are such a sweet spirit, and we love your energy, intelligence, humor and occasional mischievousness!



Here are a few things about you as a two year old, Anna, that we will want to remember for a long time!:

*You are big and strong for your age
*You already got your two year molars, plus all the teeth normally preceding them.
*You have amazing coordination and play on structures that would freak out most mothers.
*You just learned how to do a somersault and do it with pizazz.
*You LOVE to dance and request almost every afternoon that Mama put on her dance music so we can dance around like crazy monkeys.
*You are a very good eater and love fruits and veggies probably the most, then chips.
*You are just starting to play 'pretend' and create such entertaining performances.
*You kiss your sister every chance you get, and sometimes try to ride on her back.
*You are very obedient and love to please your parents.
*Every time you say 'Jesus', you fold your arms.
*You have such a contagious laugh and smile.
*Your favorite songs are: (in order) My Little Ladybug (one Mama made up), 1-2-3-4-5 (one Mama made up), If Your Happy and You Know It, Pat-a-Cake, Rock-a-Bye Baby, Apricot Tree (or whatever it's called...), and Itsy Bitsy Spider.
*You are afraid of flies and hate being tossed up or anytime you feel like someone might drop you.
*Your favorite movie is Mulan, even though you can't say her name.
*You are such a helper around the house, and frequently help make your own meals.


For Anna's birthday, we played it pretty low key, she had a playdate with her cousin, including an hour brunch, an hour at the splash pad, and an hour at the mall. They had a blast together!



We love you, Little Monkey!


(Sorry it's fuzzy.)

Intentions

Okay, it has been a while. It seems like every day I think to myself, "Oh, that is such a cute picture! I can't wait until I can post it on the blog as soon as I get a way to transfer it onto my computer since Anna's juice dripped into the usb port of my phone!" Yes, I think that exact thing every day. Anyway, finally I stole Jared's high-functioning phone and swapped memory cards. I know. I'm a genious... Here's the update:

Emily just had her 6 month check up today. She is very healthy, 50% for both height and head size and 80% for her weight. She's a chunk, it's so cute. She totally looks like a used car salesman in this picture. Ha ha!



She just started eating rice cereal and veggies this week. She is doing so great, and by day 2, she had stopped with the tongue thrusting. Now she uses her hand to help shove everything in. Very messy to say the least, but its good for her to get that coordination down. :) Speaking of putting things in her mouth, she is officially a thumb-sucker. It is interesting that Anna seems to be VERY much a Gardner, right down to sticking her tongue out as she works hard on something. And Emily seems to be as Birch (or Irish) as they come. I sucked my thumb for quite a while, and Emily had that down pretty early. I watched as she fell asleep the other day after her bath and captured a few cute moments.



Emily is sitting up by herself now. I feel comfortable setting her upright on the floor with some toys and walking away. I'll go switch the laundry downstairs or something, come back up and she's still sitting and playing with her toys. Its a fun stage. She's also really grasping and examining her toys. She's super fast, too. I will dangle a toy in front of her and its like a reflex as she hurries to grab it!


She absolutely adores tummy time. She scoots around in all directions by one method or another, but no crawling yet. It also looks like her eyes will be staying blue. Anna's eyes started having some green in them by this age. Not that you can see color in this crappy quality picture, but it totally represents their relationship. These girls love each other so much. P.S. If anyone has a fantastic camera they are looking to get rid of, um, just send it on over. I am tired of fuzzy colorless pics! :)


Anna is more active now than ever - it's crazy how strong and curious she is! She now helps me make meals, change Emily's diaper, clean house and do yard work. This is how I found her one evening after she helped me do dishes. Luckily the sink was scrubbed clean already!



She LOVES playing outside and requests frequently to go to the park, especially with her new best friend!



Anna's Mommy has made a really awesome new friend and her daughter is just a few months younger than Anna. They love each other and request play dates frequently. Anna loves swimming in the new kiddie pool we got her and especially loves squishing into her boat with her new girlfriend. :)



They are so cute together.



The only other thing that comes to mind about the girls is Anna's new monologue skill. When I was teaching her to say 'please', I would encourage it, and then quickly reply with, "Sure!" when she asked. Now, she will say, "Movie? Please...SURE!" Of course, it is in Anna language, which I think only I understand, but it cracks me up because she does it for just about everything now. At least she has pretty good manners, saying please, thank you, your welcome, covering her mouth when she coughs, and covering her bum when she toots. I love motherhood... ;)

Huh?

I mostly use this blog for keeping family abreast of how the Gardners are doing, but every once in a while something will excite me enough or bother me enough that I will consider blogging about it. Most of the time I just decide not to and move on, but I've been passing an intersection during a fairly frequent drive that reminds me time and time again why I am not a political person.

First and foremost, I just don't really have an interest in most of the legislation passed, even with the issues that effect me directly. (However, I am the last person to complain about that crap, so at least I am not a hypocrite.) Secondly, I think I most often just take on that attitude that one vote will not make a difference, so I don't bother. Yes, I am a registered voter, and yes, I have actively voted in many elections and whatnot; I just am not very interested and here's why:



Wha? Politics are very confusing to me. I want the public to be safe, so do I vote "yes" or "no"? I know that I could go online and read everyones OPINIONS about the proposition, but in order to develop my own opinion, I feel like I need to go directly to the original source and read the material from beginning to end. However, I know that I probably won't understand half of it, and the other half won't even pertain to me.

So, there I sit at the light, waiting to turn, and I look at these posters. I get really frustrated with society. I want the bad guys to be dressed in black cloaks with dark spots under their eyes. I want the good guys to be clad in white shining armor with slight halos following their perfectly styled head. Otherwise, I know I will mistake that wolf in sheep's clothing and vote for the bad guys just because they misrepresented themselves.

I know some of you (especially some in my family) will be disappointed that I do not make a greater effort in understanding and supporting the right issues, but I just consider that I am trying to create the best world possible within the walls of my home and will let the smarter people out there handle these types of conundrums. Now I'm going to go visit failblog.com to remind myself that I'm more intelligent than at least some of society...

Bzzz and Eww

So, the other day, Jared and I spotted this fairly good sized bee hive in our tree in the front yard. It is a pretty young tree, so with the weight of the bees and hive, the tree was practically falling over. We watched it for two days as it got noticeably larger each day. We were about to spend a good amount of money to have it removed, but a pest control guy in our neighborhood said to try and give it one more day. He said that sometimes bees will nest for a short while and then realize that their location wasn't the best choice. They will just pick up and leave within a few days.



Thinking that we were going to probably end up losing most of our tree if we tried any other method, we decided to wait it out. The next day, they were gone, hive and all. I really wish I could have seen them complete the feat because this nest was larger than a 2 liter bottle, I can't fathom how they just took it all away in one afternoon! Either way, we are glad they moved and our tree and children are safe! :)

Anna has a little boyfriend in the neighborhood. They hate each other most of the time, but those few times when they get along, they are so cute. Here they are about to head out on the town in his hot new Ford truck. He obviously is excited. I thought it was so funny, he's totally thinking, "Eww..."


Emily is now rolling over, mostly when she's upset. She sits up really well for about 15 seconds as long as there is a toy or a big sister in front of her to focus on. Although taken with my phone camera, and not very good quality, I thought this picture of her was super cute.



Anna's hair is finally long enough to justify it being pulled back each day. She's not very patient with me, but it usually turns out pretty well. Here's a style I got a picture of the other day.



That's it for now. :)

Stuff

Not a lot has been going on lately; just the same 0l', same ol'. Here are some pictures of the girls.

Anna, Emily and I went hiking one day just for fun. I love being a non-working mama. It lends itself to random opportunities that I appreciate. We didn't go very far, but it was fun.
(I tried to turn the photo, but it wouldn't the first time. I was too lazy to actually go the extra mile to do so.)



Here is Emily singing...



We took our annual trip to the Renaissance Festival. I love that place. Both girls enjoyed themselves. Anna even was tall enough to ride the free flying butterflies this year.



Here was another visit to the Schnepf Farm. That tree to the left of Emily's head is a whitethorn acacia - my new favorite desert tree. Those little yellow round blossoms smell like heaven! We are planting one in our front yard to replace the dead something-or-other that is there now. By the way, Emily is squinting, not scowling. She really does love her mommy.



Happy girl!



Well, so long; we'll post again when more nothing is going on! :)