Random Photos

Here are some photos of random events that were too good to toss but didn't necessarily warrant a single post...Enjoy!

A tailgate picnic on a gorgeous day outside the new house.

Being silly with Aunt Sarah and Aunt Michelle

Anna at Taylor's gymnastics birthday party.

Nannie is teaching Anna how to sew and
I'm so glad she's learning this almost-lost art.

Fun at Sarah and Jason's: chillaxin and ...

...trying on old costumes!

Watch out Rory McIlroy...
Jack is getting pretty good with a golf club!

Anna Has Her Mama's Ears

I inherited the less-than-awesome hearing traits from my dad's side of the family.  My dad needed hearing aids as a teenager, but didn't get them until he was in his twenties.  Almost his whole side of the family has (or needs) hearing aids.  Luckily for me, I only inherited the low-tone loss, which has meant that besides sitting closer to the front in classes at school and having to pay a little closer attention to lower, usually male, voices, I haven't had to wear hearing aids.  And fortunately, my hearing hasn't changed much at all since they discovered it when I was seven years old.
So, enter present day, and now the docs have discovered that our precious Anna has her mama's ears.  After battling with some ear infections around 4 years old and doing some subsequent hearing screenings, her pediatrician referred her to an ENT and we received the diagnosis--her audiogram and mine look almost identical.  At first, both my dad and I were pretty upset that we had passed this on to her.  After some time to digest it, though, we both came to the conclusion that in the grand scheme of things, this was not the worst thing in the world.  We didn't pass on some heart defect or horrible chronic disease.  Hopefully, she will only have to adjust herself in minor ways as I did.  Even if she does have to get hearing aids eventually, they are so advanced now that you cannot see them at all and some you can even swim in!!  We will cross that bridge when we come to it.
When I looked at her in the sound booth when she had her repeat screening a couple of weeks ago, all of those memories of doing those silly "raise your hand when you hear the beep" tests came flooding back to me in serious dejavu fashion.  Anna, my precious girl, I am so, so sorry that you will have to deal with this hearing loss like I did.  I hope that you take it in stride and never feel that it is a hindrance for you.  I pray to God constantly that your hearing will remain stable like mine has and never worsens.  On the brighter side, I guess we can just look forward to yelling at each other as we both get older!!:)  I love you, sweet girl.  Mommy

Pumpkin Patch Photos 2012

October 2011

What a difference a year makes!!

Anna's Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Sophie, Ellen, Bella, Anna, and Sidney

Audrey and Anna

Bella, Audrey, and Anna

All the girls...where did the boys go??

On the wagon

Bee-prise!

Somewhere along the line, the Collins family stopped using "peek-a-boo" and adopted "pee-pie" instead.  I'm sure Will would immediately claim that it was his crazy mother-in-law's doing. ;)  It may be, I'm not really sure.  It may be slightly easier for them to say or just easier to repeat over and over and over and over.  So, for Jack and Anna, we played "pee-pie" instead of "peek-a-boo".  And then Anna taught Jack how to jump out from behind a door or from inside the pantry and yell "Surprise!".  This quickly became Jack's favorite all-time game, except he morphed the "pee-pie" and "surprise" together into "bee-prise".  It is the cutest thing ever!!  Here is some photographic evidence of "bee-prise" in action:

Are you ready, Mama?

Where is Jack?

Bee...

PRISE!!!

Jack's Funny Words

Jack's vocabulary has exploded over the last couple of months and it is so neat to watch him pick up on new words and sayings.  He can pretty much let you know what he wants now, too, which is profoundly helpful!  A few of his pronunciations, though, are hysterical and I wanted to get them down before we forgot...

1. Water: Wawers (always plural, no matter what or how many containers it's in)
2. Soccer: Roccer
3. Socks and Shoes: Rocks and Shoes
4. Pacis: Pappies
5. Top: Poc, as in "Jack put 'poc' on"
(There are several words where he takes the final sound and puts it first.)
6. Elmo: Elbow
7. Cookie Monster: Cookie Honker (plain.as.day)
**He has to check every diaper to see if Elbow or Cookie Honker is on it.
8. Superhero: Reereehero
(After the kids get out of the bath at night, they have been wearing their hoody towels on their heads like capes and running down the hall being 'superheroes'.  Jack yells this the whole time he's running and it's so stinkin' cute.)
9. Zipper: Bippers (again, always plural)
10. Surprise: Bee-prise (see next post)

I'm sure there are more that I will add later, but these are the main ones for now.  We love that sweet boy!!

Jack's First Haircut

Pre-haircut curls in action

Jack's hair came in just like his Daddy's and Aunt E's--curly!!  What a shock to this straight-haired mama!!  It has been precious and I loved running my hand through those cute little curls at the nape of his neck.  When it really started to grow, though, it started to look rather mullet-like.  Then the hair over his ears started to take off in Bozo fashion and I knew that it was time for a hair cut.  I didn't really want to do it and cut off those cute curls.  A part of my heart broke, actually, but I knew he needed it.  So on October 17th, at 20 months old, I took Jack to get his first hair cut.  He was a champ and sat relatively still sucking on his lollipop.  He kept trying to turn around and figure out what that lady behind him was doing to his head, but otherwise was pretty good.  She did save those precious curls for me that will forever be saved in his baby book.  I didn't leave there with a baby that day...Jack became a little boy. (sob, sob)

My little man