36 weeks

Ever since Anna started sitting in a high chair at restaurants, she's been found "chillin'." Now, we've found her "chillin'" in her crib! (Sorry about the dark picture...it was dark in her room and I didn't want to use the flash and wake her up.)

35 weeks

This weekend, we were blessed to spend time with extended family to celebrate Granddaddy's 99th birthday. Both his daughters, all four grandchildren, and all six great-grandchildren were in attendance. I love it when we all get together! Reminds me of when I was little and we went to Granbury for holidays. Now, there is a new generation running around and actually starting to play together! It's so much fun to see.

Everyone together (all 18 of us!)

The great-grands

The grandkids (and spouses)

The daughters (and spouses)

Three generations of hands

8 months

This is the best picture I could get with the sign. Anna is just grabbing for everything these days.

(This is pretty typical of Emily & Anna. Emily just wants to love on her and Anna just wants to get away!)

We've continued adding new foods to Anna's line-up. One that hasn't made the cut is rice. Unfortunately, she's had a reaction to it so we'll wait on it for a while. But, she loves to eat now and is eating about 1/2 C cereal and 1/4 C fruits/veggies a day. She loves sweet potatoes, squash, apples (when mixed with something), peas, and bananas. We'll be starting peaches today.

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I don't think I ever posted these pictures of Anna trying Cheerios for the first time. A couple weeks ago, in Tennessee, Chick-Fil-A had free Cheerios, so we tried giving her some. While curious about the ones on the table, she gagged at the ones we put in her mouth (and eventually gagged so much she threw up). Guess we're not ready yet!

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Next week, Granddaddy turns 99. The place where he lives has a monthly birthday party so Emily, Anna & I met my mom there for the party. Emily loved "working" the puzzle and Anna enjoyed the balloons!

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A few months ago, I did a freezer cooking day. With two little ones underfoot (or even having someone watch them), I realized that I really can't take a full day to do freezer cooking. So, taking a cue from Crystal at Money Saving Mom, I'm doing some quick batch cooking. I planned several meals we like that I knew would freeze well and am making 3-4 times the recipe and freezing the some while we eat some for supper. I bought a box of chicken through Bogie's (40 pounds!), sold some to my sister and kept the rest. Even thirty pounds of chicken is a lot! My freezer went from barren to very full overnight. I'm also making freezer meals for Anna, since I like to make her food (mostly for cost reasons).

In the past 2 days, I've made peas, squash (fresh from the farmer's market), sweet potato and peaches for Anna (and divvied up a jar of applesauce). I also made 5 meals of cracker crumb chicken and 2 meals of sweet soy chicken. I plan to make sloppy joe meat and spaghetti sauce next week and will make up WAY more than I need right now so we'll have some in the freezer for later. I also have a few more meals planned for early September.

Whew...my vacuum sealer is tired!

34 weeks (and 400th post!)

Another busy week. Anna's been in childcare a couple times now and all I've heard is what a good baby she is. She was in MOPPETS (childcare at MOPS) last week and the church nursery this week. While I miss having her with me, it's very freeing to have her not with me!

She has now had rice and seems to like it okay. However, I've had to add pears to her "no eat" list. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that list is only going to continue to grow. :-(

I always think about things I'm going to write throughout the week, but I never can remember them when I sit down to write. Oh well. I guess you get what you get!

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Last weekend, we went to Nashville for my cousin's daughter's wedding. On Sunday, we ate lunch at Five Guys (yummy hamburgers, even without the bun) and they have peanuts. Emily and Todd (my cousin's husband) really enjoyed shelling the peanuts together. Emily even cracked them with her pinkie finger (as Todd really cracked it). It was so fun to watch her interact with family she really doesn't know.

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On another note, I'd just like to say that it pays to enter sweepstakes and even instant win sweepstakes. I've been playing the HEB Gear Up Giveaway when I think about it. There are a few prizes...the grand sweepstakes prizes and a few instant win prizes. The other day, I started the game and went to another web page. When I came back, it said I had won an instant win prize. Cool. I figured it would be an HEB gift card or something like that. No. It was an $800 Dell gift code. Phillip & I had been talking about needing to replace his computer, but we just don't have the money right now. Well, I guess we do now!

33 Weeks

This weekend, the girls and I traveled with my parents and sister to my cousin's daughter's wedding. It was a L-O-N-G 2-day weekend, but totally worth it to spend a little time with family we don't get to see often. Saturday was one of the longest days I've had in a while (at least in the last two weeks ;-))...awake from 2:30 am to 10:oo pm. (Two weeks ago it was 7 am to 3 am.)



Anyway, we had a great time at Kelsey's wedding and got to have a break from the 100 degree weather in Texas. Oh, wait, we had to endure the 80 degree, 80% (or more) humidity weather in Tennessee. Oh well...fun times!

Sunday morning, Emily & Anna were playing together and Anna decided to find Emily's belly button.

She always the innocent one!

Muffin Tin Monday

(Two PB&J heart sandwiches, goldfish, Craisins, pretzels & 2 cherries)

It's Monday and I wanted a simple lunch, so I made a muffin tin meal for Emily, using the flower cups we gave her for her birthday. (And she remembers she got them for her birthday!).