Grands' Camp 2010

For this post, I have a guest blogger: Lynne Collins, aka Mimi!! I am so excited that she volunteered to do this for me! Mom--thank you, thank you! Just beware--there are LOTS of pics!

Monday morning we went to the Aquarium at Fort Fisher. Anna loved looking at the sharks and the “diver man.” She fed the turtles and the catfish with the Goldfish crackers from her snacktrap. Boy, were they excited!!! She took it all in and really was brave touching the horseshoe crab. It was fun! In the afternoon, we put the blue pool out and Anna and her “baby” had fun for two hours. After dinner, we took a walk around the block – Anna dressed in her “princess nekalaces” and her white cowgirl hat, just a talking to her ‘baby’ (the invisible one that she holds in her hand!) and her ‘princess angel that is holding the blue butterfly.’ Oh, my gosh! God is good!!!

The rest of the week, we just had fun “doing.” Tuesday night, we met Greg and Michelle at BWWs for Mimi’s birthday. We had a delicious cake from Apple Annie’s and Mimi was very excited about her IPOD and her Shalimar.

It was rainy Wednesday, so we just hung around – playing, reading, putting together puzzles, wearing big girl panties (that was a big one all week!), computer with Pawpaw, cooking with Mimi, being a princess, and a cowgirl and playing and talking and playing. We made ‘banilla cupcapes’ that were SO good. When it wasn’t raining, Pawpaw took Anna for a ride on his tractor. She had fun driving!!!!

Thursday morning, we picked Nia up and went to Greg and Michelle’s to go swimming. That was SO much fun playing with Nia, G and M! Then, Mommy and Daddy and Sarah came for a visit. Sarah stayed with us and Jeffro, Johnna and Nia and Greg and Michelle came to Mimi and Pawpaw’s for burgers and dogs. What fun - we laughed and laughed.

Friday, Sarah and Anna and Mimi went to the beach. It was a little rough but we sure had a good time just sitting on the beach and Anna running in and out of the waves, just a talkin’. Then we made our Grands’ Camp tee shirts with Anna’s handprint – fish, of course. Friday evening, we went to see Mommy and Daddy at the beach. Erin and Aaron were there, too. We went back to Mimi and Pawpaw’s and worked in the yard trimming shrubs and digging weeds. Anna sure is a good helper! Blades of grass make perfect microphones to sing into!

Saturday, Anna, Mimi and Pawpaw went to the beach and went swimming at the pool with Mommy, Daddy, E and A, Sarah, and Uncle Block. Anna was the focus of ALL attention and she LOVED it – so did everyone else! She jumped in and swam ‘by myself’ and jumped and jumped and had a GREAT time. Sunday morning the angels were put in their ‘families’ on the coffee table one more time, puzzles put together one more time, books read one more time and we packed Anna to go home. She was excited to see Mommy and Daddy and Sarah and to ‘go to my house, but I will come back to see you, Mimi and Pawpaw!’

Grands’ Camp 2010 was a blessing and a great time for everyone!!

Thank you, Mimi and Papa, for making Grands' Camp so much fun!!

Summer 2010 in Review

In order to not completely stress myself out, I have decided to do the summer-in-review. It was way less overwhelming for me than doing separate posts, but I apologize for the length. Here is Summer 2010...

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Many nights were spent at the Winston-Salem Dash games. Anna LOVED going and especially liked getting to see her pal, Bolt, and giving him a hug!

Wrightsville Beach with Friends

Will and I got to sneak away to the beach with our friends Tyler and Jenn and Sarah and Paul. We had a blast!

New Arrival

Anna and I went to visit my friend, Susan, after the arrival of little Spencer (with big sister Caroline). Anna was so excited to get to hold him!

Driving with Uncle Jeffro

Princess-Ladybug-Dora Remains in Action

Sunday School Swim

We met some friends from Sunday School at Tanglewood Pool and let all the kids play and swim together.

Winter in June

After watching an episode of Dora in the Arctic, Anna just HAD to put her winter gear on!

Storytime Live

Nannie and Pops joined us on a trip to Charlotte to see all of Anna's favorite Nick Jr. friends: Kai-lan, The Backyardigans, The Wonder Pets, and most importantly, Dora. Anna was so excited and all ready to go with her backpack. Once the show started, though, her face was complete shock and awe...and major concentration. It was hilarious!

July 4th at Lake Gaston

Ever since I met my friend, Melissa, my sophomore year at Carolina, she has invited us to her parents' lake house on Lake Gaston for July 4th. We aren't the rowdy college students we were ten years ago...now we come with husbands, kids, and dogs in tow. It's always so much fun for everyone!

Daddy and his kids (Miller, too)

Lexi and Anna

Lawson and Anna

The Walker Fam

The Hege Fam

Grand's Camp 2010--see blog post

Anna spent her annual week with Mimi and Papa in Wilmington

Anna's Second Haircut

Somewhere around the middle of the summer, Anna decided that she was having no more of the bows and clips and pigtails that I love putting in her hair. As much as I tried to explain how cute they were, she just wasn't having it. So, off we went to get her hair cut. I was hoping to let it grow out, but without a way to keep it out of her face, we had to go for the bob. It's still cute, but would be even cuter with a bow or clip in it!!

Picking Peaches at the Koontz' Orchard

Learning to Cut with Scissors

Hege Family Beach Vacation

For the first time since I've been a part of the Hege family, we all decided to head down to Wrightsville for a long weekend vacation together. The weather was perfect (even with the requisite afternoon rain storms) and the beach provided the neatest puddle a little bit inland, which Anna deemed "the lazy river". Between the beach and the pool, we were all in heaven. Everyone had a blast!

Anna's pic of her milkshake

At the Pool

Many, many days of this summer were spent at a pool somewhere, since this was one of the fews ways I could tolerate being outside. We had our neighborhood pool down the street that we could walk to and meet some of our friends. Anna became a pro at swimming "all by myself" with her floatie on. She also became a fan of jumping off the diving board! We also had Tanglewood Pool a short drive down the road that has a zero-entry shallow end so the kids can play with no need for floaties--love it! I bought some Disney Princess dive sticks at Target that I never imagined would be the deal of the century. We rarely go anywhere that Ariel, Cinderella, and Belle don't go with us! Best $9.95 I ever spent! Then, the first of August, we joined Bermuda Run and had access to their pool. It has a kiddie pool, the regular pool that starts at 2 feet (so Anna can touch), and a real lazy river. We had lots of fun at the pool this summer!

Whew! There you have it--Summer 2010. We were busy, busy, busy, but had lots of fun with family and friends! Now we start gearing up for that wonderful fall pastime called football!

Anna's Baby!

We are pregnant!!! Finally, after a year and a half of trying and loss and uncertainty, we are almost 15 weeks pregnant! We are obviously ecstatic. I can't believe it has actually worked this time. Unfortunately, I have been incredibly nauseated with this pregnancy which is interesting since I wasn't for a second with Anna. At this point, I'll take it though. But this is the reason you haven't heard from us since June. This summer has been quite a blur for me ... if we weren't traveling or at the pool, I was on my back on the couch feeling like yuck! I think Anna has watched more TV in the last couple of months than I ever wanted her to watch, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. Since I'm into the second trimester, I'm waiting for the nausea to lessen, but so far, it hasn't much listened. Guess I'll keep clinging to my Zofran (and Colace and Miralax!).

Anyway, we went to the OB on June 30th to hear the heartbeat for the first time. Everything looked perfect! They printed out this sweet picture for Anna to have--her baby! Since there was a heartbeat, we were hugely relieved, but decided to wait until the second appointment before sharing our news with family and friends. We went back on July 29th and that little heart was still beating away! Yay, we had made it to the end of the first trimester!

We are due on February 4, 2011. I am so excited to have the end of this pregnancy in the winter time! The other exciting thing is that Sarah and Jason found out that they are 5 weeks behind us! They are due on March 11th! How fun is that going to be? Jeff and Johnna are due in October with little Penelope, so Mom and Dad will go from one grandchild to four in six months time! Talk about a zoo! Move over Anna, you've got lots of family moving in!!

We go back on August 31st to find out if we are having our Molly or our Jack...we'll keep you posted. I apologize again for the blogging hiatus, but hopefully I can catch you up on some of the events of this summer before school starts back.;0)