The Kitchen Table

A place where MANY memories are made! Here are just a few highlights from our table this month.

Mark and Elizabeth figured out how to blow bubbles through a straw with their milk! They thought it was so cool and funny!!

 Before dinner they were playing in their play kitchen and somehow Mark's pitcher and Elizabeth's pot made it to the table and they wanted to drink out of them...why not?!

 Annie couldn't decide whether to chew on the wooden puzzle piece or her cracker!

 There was a night of tears. I can't remember why they were all crying but it happens so rarely that I had to get a picture of it!!

 And to make them stop we bribed them with their first popsicle!!

 The pictures make it look like they liked them but they didn't eat much of them:)

 And this is Annie's first time using a bowl and spoon!!!! She LOVES practicing and can get food on her spoon and into her mouth if it's something like yogurt. She insists on having a spoon or fork now when she eats and even went through a phase where she wouldn't allow anyone to feed her anything!

 For the first time EVER, Annie fell asleep in her highchair at lunchtime!!!! I was trying to hurry and get some food in her before her nap but I wasn't fast enough! This is quite shocking for this to happen to Annie because she is such a light sleeper and a social baby who doesn't want to miss anything!

Sleepy Boy

While Mark was sick he was found sleeping a lot on the couch:

 And one time at the top of the stairs! If you look closely you can see some of the sores on the bottom of his feet:(

STAIRS!!

Handy Husband designed and built the stairs in our backyard!!! They aren't completely finished but oh so close! We LOVE how they turned out and the kids think they are pretty cool too. Way to go Mark!!

Hand Foot Mouth

After getting home from Pasco, Little Mark and Elizabeth got hit with hand foot mouth disease!!!!!! They had a high fever for almost 3 days and then Mark broke out in a rash on his feet mostly, with only a small rash on his hands. His mouth was sore though, this made him very miserable! We were hoping and praying that it wouldn't get any worse for Elizabeth and that Annie wouldn't get it. It is highly contagious though so we were prepared for the outbreak. Miraculously she didn't get it and Elizabeth's was VERY mild!! Poor Mark though, he was so sick and couldn't sleep well at all. He went 2 nights with sleeping very little. He finally crashed one afternoon and slept on me for almost 3 hours straight! We are SO HAPPY to be done with that and hope to never experience it again! It was so stressful, as is any sickness. We thought we were going to have to cancel our trip to Canada but we made it. We arrived sleep deprived but we made it!

Happy Fathers Day!!

This year we were sharing Fathers Day with Annie and visiting family at Grandma and Grandpa B's house! It was perfect that David and his family were there. We LOVE hanging out with them and had such a great weekend!!!! Mark got to spend lots of time outside with the kids:

 And played tennis with his parents and David:

 Wrestled around with the kids:

 And I gave him several small gifts this year including his first Fathers Day tie:) And a brand new lunch box with bento style containers (which we LOVE)....but what makes it even better is that I have actually been packing his lunch for him more often!! 

Here is our failed attempt at getting a picture that describes just how we feel about the most amazing, patient, fun, energetic, storytelling, singing, creative, handsome, crazy DAD!!!!!!!!!!

Here are a few more highlights from the weekend. Mark and I got to go for a walk in the country and on our way home we were greeted by a herd of cows who came rushing at us...Mark's face must have looked familiar to them and they thought he was bringing them food!! Just kidding babe!!!!

 Elaine got very creative with play dough:

 We got lots of sun when it wasn't too windy out:

 The twins got to see and feed horses and pigs:

 Of course Mark's favorite thing to do was play with the dog:)

 Our super talented (and flexible) niece Monica is a great ballet dancer and for her birthday got this stretchy thing:

 OUCH!!!!!!! All her siblings had to give it a whirl too!

We had a great weekend!!! We love our Daddy and we love our family!!

Annie is 1!!!!!!!!!!

I am barely making this one in time, in 35 minutes she will technically be 13 months, so on the last night of her 12th month I am staying up late just to share what we did to celebrate our little girl turning 1!!

This year her birthday fell on Fathers Day, so we had two great people to celebrate!! We were at Grandma and Grandpa B's for it and so the day started off with Annie playing cars with her brother and cousin Cory:

 Then we were off to church and in the mad morning rush to get there on time (which we actually did, shockingly!) we didn't get a picture of her in her dress but....Mark did sit them all on the couch when we got home just so we can remember how fun it was to have 3 kids in diapers:)

 She got all dressed up in her birthday outfit and was ready to have some fun!

 Birthday girl with her Daddy!!!

 Annie has the special privilege of sharing her birthday with her cousins Monica and Micah. I was so happy we were there so that she could spend her 1st birthday with them!! 

 We learned from the twins first year birthday to only give a cupcake (instead of a entire small cake) to them! 

 This was her face as everyone sang to her:

 This was her first time eating CUPCAKE!!!!!

 It was all going well until I tried to scoot her closer to me. I didn't realize under the table there was a sharp piece of metal and her poor leg got scraped and stuck under that piece! I felt (and still feel) SO BAD!!!! She was rightfully upset. So once I gave her lots of love she went back to eating her cupcake but it wasn't the same, as you can tell from the scowl on her face:

 But Mark and Elizabeth enjoyed theirs! Cupcakes are still Mark's favorite, I don't want to know how many he had.

 Annie tried to share her cupcake:

 Make her fake cry face (she did this a lot at people, it was quite hilarious actually!)

 And then she was finally happy again!!!

We had all of Matt's family, David's family, Grandma and Grandpa B and Uncle Phil and Aunt Meg there. It was such a fun time and we were so happy to spend it with family!! Annie was a little bit under the weather due to teething all 4 of her 1st year molars:( But she was a trooper as always! Happy Birthday my beautiful baby!!!!!!