The First Ponytail

I don't know what it is, but I have been dying to put Anna's hair up into a ponytail. I guess it's just one of those being-a-girl, having-a-girl things. Every previous time that I have tried this, she has gotten fidgety and would not be still and I have given up (mainly because I realized she did not have enough hair to go up in one). Well, I tried again on Tuesday and IT WORKED!! My mom would call this a "palm hair" and not really a ponytail, but it doesn't matter to me. I got her hair to go up and both of us were so proud!

The Lesser Pumpkin Patch

OK, so the pumpkin patch in Dallas was tops, but we couldn't exactly put pumpkins in our suitcases to bring home! We had to go to one of the pumpkin patches around here and this year, Daddy got to come!

This is the third year Anna has gotten her picture taken beside this sign. She was more excited about the pumpkin, though!

Anna and Daddy, but someone would NOT look at the camera!

Anna in the tee-pee (she wanted Daddy to get in with her, but he decided against it).

Mommy and Anna in the hayride wagon (again, not looking at the camera).

We ended up with two beautiful pumpkins to bring home for carving. That will be a whole other story, I'm sure!:)

Our Weekend with Oren

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We had a blast this past weekend with Mimi (my Mom) and Oren (my cousin who is three months younger than Anna--wierd, I know). It was my aunt and uncle's fifth anniversary, so instead of my mom keeping him in Raleigh or Wilmington, we thought it made more sense for him to come up and stay with us.

Anna and Oren played and played, everything from kitchen to school bus to drums to chase. It was great for both of them. Oren was placed in an environment that was a little more rambunctious than he is probably used to and Anna had to practice sharing her toys. Good for all those involved!

On Saturday, we took them to lunch at Chi-fil-A and then the neighborhood had a Halloween parade for all the kids. My mom and I found a railroad hat and handkerchief for Oren to wear, in memory of his Gramps who worked for the railroad. Anna was originally going to be a ladybug again, but since it required an entire suit and it was approximately 75-80 degrees outside, I decided not to torture her. We found a very cute, yet cheap, set of wings, a skirt, and a wand so she could be Tinkerbell (or some sort of fairy princess). They were adorable.

It was great getting to spend some great QT with Oren and expose him to the further craziness of the Collins Clan. We hope this becomes an annual tradition!!

So Sad...

I know all moms (and many dads) have those moments when they just think, "Stop! I wish I could just stop time right here!" or "No, I want to go back to when they did _______." Well, once again Will and I had that moment this weekend.

When Anna first started to walk, I would ask her, "Do you want to walk or do you want Mommy to carry you?" Soon after, when Anna would come to us in the characteristic hands raised "pick me up" pose, she would say "carry you". She had this sing-song way that she said it that made our hearts melt. It was so precious and we loved each and every time. I am usually a stickler about correcting her grammar, but I could never bring myself to correct this. I told Will we would let her say it as long as she would. Well, time is up.

This weekend, my mom and my cousin Oren (who is three months younger than Anna) came to stay for the weekend while my aunt and uncle were away for an anniversary weekend. Anna and Oren had a blast spending that time together (post and pics to come later)!! The funny part is that we didn't realize how verbal Anna is. She was the typical girl and talked non-stop compared to Oren and was bossing him around like crazy--"come this way, Oren", "eat it with your spoon, Oren", "I want that, Oren!". Well, in the midst of all her talking, she turned around to Will at one point and said, "Carry me". We both looked at each other and almost teared up. Our precious little "carry you" was gone!

My mom quickly chimed in with, "You never got that on video like I told you that you needed to, did you?" Nope. Chalk another one up to could've, would've, should've!

Helping

The phrase "cleaning the house" has taken on such a different meaning in the last two years. What I could do in a couple of hours or a morning pre-child now takes me an entire day because Anna has to "help". Instead of picking things up once and them staying in their place, I can pick things up three or four times throughout the course of the cleaning period. It just amazes me!! The positive piece of this is that it has produced some of the funniest moments (like the blue toilet water incident in a previous post). I wanted to share how Anna "helped" on Friday while getting ready for Mimi and Oren to come for the weekend.

While I was putting away laundry, Anna had a small meltdown until I let her try on my Ernie and Bert scrub top.

Then, downstairs while folding laundry, I turned around to find this:

She said, "Look, Mommy!! I'm putting my boobies on!" After I picked myself up off the floor from laughing, I had to explain that she had on my bra and that bras hold boobies up. I kept thinking to myself, "Am I really having this conversation with a two-year-old?" Guess so...

Our Big Weekend in Dallas

What a fun weekend! We flew out to Dallas on Thursday to see some long lost friends from our younger years. Our "excuse" for going out there was that Will and I acquired tickets to the Texas/OU game. Will's step-grandfather was a huge Texas guy and the family has kept his season tickets since he died and passes them around. It was our turn and we jumped on them. Thanks Abe and Nana!!

We stayed with our friends Wade and Sarah in Keller, Texas, just north of Fort Worth. Sarah and I interviewed on the same day for our job in the PICU at Children's Medical Center straight out of nursing school. We became fast friends and realized that we may have been separated at birth:). We have so much in common and might possibly share a brain! I don't know what it is about Sarahs that make them like sisters...

Anyway, Wade and Will have become pretty good buddies as well, so it is natural to jump at the chance to spend time with them. It's even better that they have two precious boys, Clayton and Drew, who are 4 and 1, respectively. We knew Anna would have a blast playing with them. Plus, they were extra sweet and offered us all their toddler paraphernalia (including a car seat) so we wouldn't have to lug all of our stuff out there on the plane. How awesome are they?

Anna did a great job on the flight over, even managing to sleep a little over an hour even thought the flight was delayed quite a bit. We got there to the usual Carpenter red carpet. They had presents for Anna and Sarah fixed a fantastic dinner. The kids got to take a bubble bath together in the big bath tub and had a ball.

On Friday, Sarah and I decided to take Clayton and Anna to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch while the daddies stayed home so Drew could nap (and they could play Wii). I know you guys are familiar with the phrase "Everything is bigger and better in Texas", but I'm telling you it's true. This place was incredible! There were wooden painted characters everywhere, multiple bounce houses, a playground, mazes built out of bales of hay, and hundreds of beautiful pumpkins. The kids loved it! Anna was a little hesitant about the sheer number of people there and kept saying "There are lots of kids here!". It was apparently the first nice day after weeks of rain, so I don't blame them. It was a gorgeous day. On our way back to the car, we walked over to the adjacent ranch to see the horses. They were so friendly and made for a special end to the trip. Gotta see horses in Texas!

We met the men for lunch at La Madeleine to get their delicious tomato basil soup. Then the daddies offered to take the kids back for naps so Sarah and I could go shopping. How sweet?! We dashed over to Grapevine Mills. Now, we have Concord Mills down the road from us in Charlotte that I have been to once in my life. But I can't tell you how many times I've been to Grapevine Mills! The other insane thing is that I ran into someone I knew from NC there!! My sister's friend had emailed me to say she would be in Dallas and to ask for fun things to do while she was there. We ran into her at Ann Taylor!!! I still can't believe that in all of Dallas, we were at the same place at the same time. Crazy!

So, after shopping our hearts out (and finding some pretty awesome deals), we headed back to grab the boys. We met more Dallas friends for a reunion dinner. Dave and Peter were Will's roommates while he lived in Dallas and were groomsmen in our wedding. Dave and Missy have since added Allison to their family and Peter brought cute little Andrew. We were so excited to meet these new additions! I just felt really sorry for our waitress-- 8 adults and 5 kids is a little high on the insanity scale, not to mention the mess! I'm so glad we got a picture of all the kids afterwards.

Saturday was the big game. Sarah and Wade were incredible and offered to keep Anna so we wouldn't have to take her into the chaos of the Red River Shootout in the Texas State Fair. She got to go to Clayton's T-ball game while we watched football. The game was at 11 am, and so we knew traffic was going to be bad. We left the house at 8:30 and sailed into downtown by 9. Then we sat and sat and sat and sat in traffic. We entered the stadium at 11 and barely got to see the kick-off. Texas pulled out a win in one of the longest, turnover frenzied games I have ever seen. We met Will's cousin, TJ and his girlfriend Megan, at the game. Then we got to hang out and have a beer with his aunt and uncle afterwards. It was fun to catch up with all of them.

Saturday night we ventured out with the Carpenters for some Texas BBQ. We were excited because they actually had sweet tea!! Then, they wanted to take us to this place called Cabela's. This place was insane! It was like the Bass Pro Shop on steroids! Besides all the gear and whatnot, different taxidermists had donated work and all these different wildlife scenes were set up. It was almost like going to the zoo! They were so lifelike that Anna kept saying, "They not hurt us. They not real." We even got some fudge from the candy shop and the boys played around in the firing range. There's nothing like free entertainment!

We were so sad to come back on Sunday. Clayton kept telling us that he wished we could stay for 120 months. Me too, sweet boy, me too. We said good-bye to our dear friends, not knowing when we would see them again. We just count ourselves blessed to have met such wonderful people during our Dallas time and to be able to remain so close across all the miles between us.

Here are some pictures from our amazing Dallas adventure:

Playing Catch Up

I'm a little behind, so I'm going to try and catch up. Last weekend we headed for Chapel Hill for the Georgia Southern game. I was a little nervous because it was raining here when we left. It turned out to be a pleasant cloudy day and didn't sprinkle again until we were walking back to the car after the game. Yay! The highlight of this game was the fact that all three of my bestest girlfriends from UNC were going to be there. Melissa and Carrie and I see each other relatively frequently since we are all in NC, but Michelle is in Chicago. We do see her quite a bit considering the distance (thanks to her dedication for getting back here), but it's rare for all four of us to be together. I am so sad to report that we failed to get photographic proof of all of us together, but it was so good to see them again. Here are some pics of our fun day.

She's not asleep!! She just kept closing her eyes when the flash went off. I had to get a pic of her with her big-girl headphones on. Will is excited because we don't have to listen to Elmo on car rides since she will wear these now.

At this game, Anna figured out that she could sit in the hole on the corn-hole boards. She kept saying, "I can sit in the hole like on my potty!" Crazy girl! It's hard to play a game with a cutie-pie blocking the target!

At least I did manage to get a picture of Michelle and me together!

Anna sat in Talley's lap for probably a solid 15 minutes and learned how to open peanut shells to get the peanuts out. She was a pro by the end of it!

Anna' First Trip to the Fair

The excitement had been building about taking Anna to the fair this fall. We have actually had it on our calendars for a couple of months now. We decided it wouldn't be worth it the last couple of years since she was so little, but we knew this would be a perfect age to introduce her to the wonders of the fair. So Wednesday, Will took off from work early and we got there about 4:30, which was perfect because it got a little crazy later on. She rode rides, saw all the animals, ate a hot dog and her first cotton candy, and rode the big Ferris Wheel. She went fishing and won one of the monkeys with velcro on his hands and feet that can hang from everything. He is now a part of the "everybody" that she sleeps with (of course).

At first, she loved the rides, but would get really upset when the ride came to a stop. It took her a couple of times to realize that something else was right around the corner. We're pretty sure her favorite part was the pony ride. She got to ride Freckles and sat in that saddle with her head bobbing like she had done it a hundred times. She had a HUGE meltdown when that was over! One of the other moms looked at me and said, "I think a horse is in your future!". I was a little worried we were going to have to go home with one (just kidding!). Luckily, distractions were everywhere and we were soon on to more fun. I think Will and I had just as much fun as Anna did!

Anna on her first ride--Wormmy

Anna and Mommy on the train

She loved all the animals, but wasn't too sure about letting them touch her. She loved the cows and sheep since she got to hear them "moo" and "baa".

Mr. Camel was a tad intimidating!

Anna riding Freckles

She got to ride two horses that day!

Anna and Mommy on the Ferris Wheel--she was standing up, intrigued until about the third time around and then decided Mommy's lap felt a little safer.

Anna and Daddy on the Himalaya. There weren't many rides that she was tall enough to ride on, but this was one. It went WAY faster than we thought it would and Anna got her first taste of centrifugal force. She didn't quite know what to think, but still raised her hands up when Daddy did. It was pretty funny!

We can't wait until next year!