Back here in Arlington, we were trying new things too!  This is Anna Kate’s reaction to rice cereal!

…not so sure!

Nope!  Not today.

Mmm… fingers taste much better! 

You are 5 months old sister, so it’s about that time!  We’ll keep trying!

Noelle is in Jacksonville with my parents right now having the time of her life.  They have had a little schedule for her jam packed with fun activities.  Noelle has not missed us one bit!  Today was "Hawaii Day!"  Supposedly she found a grass skirt in one of the closets and is calling it her "bikini skirt."  Rara put some umbrellas in smoothies for her snack, and tonight they went fishing.  These pictures were from Friday when Poppa took Noelle out in the kayak on Lake Jacksonville.  She loved it! 

Noelle is coming home tomorrow, but this has been so great for all of us!  Thanks Poppa and Rara for showing our girl the time of her life.  I’m sure she’ll be begging to come back soon!  

Thanks Marshall and Carol for our awesome summer swim last week!  You guys are the best!

While I was finishing up my house work (lol) for the evening, I found my buddies just like this.  They were talking about our first Christmas in our new house.  Noelle has lofty holiday decorating envisions… we shall see (Mommy girl’s tired)!

This is a picture of Noelle with her "trash box."  Every night we’re out at the house she collects discarded wire and adds it to her trash pile.  She is so proud of herself (this was her idea) and her little contribution, and we think it’s really thoughtful.

This is one of Anna Kate’s birthday year buddies, Landon!  He was 7 lbs. and 19 1/2 and was born on Friday, August 7, 2009!

Noelle was very territorial of Heather at the hospital and rarely left her side.  Noelle and Heather are super close, so Noelle had to adjust to Heather being a Mommy!

These guys are so silly.  I just love how they are cracking themselves up.  Jon, you look so cute as a Daddy – it suits you well!

"It’s… just… a… little… crush!"  Someone has a crush on Marcos.  She has been asking me all week who that person was in the corner at the hospital with the hot pink hair?  I always guess other people and she says "No…" and gets really giggly, but today I got tired of playing the game, so when she asked, I said, "Marcos!"  She laughed and said, "That’s a great guess, Mom!"  Silly silly girl.

It won’t be long before Landon catches up and passes Anna Kate in size, but right now he’s our little newborn buddy!

We love you, sweet Landon, and can’t wait to share lots of memories with you!

*This is the first pic of the famous Anna Kate 3rd and 4th finger suck.  She won’t take a passy and these are her fingers of choice.

So, this is Noelle’s first family portrait, the red person is Mike, black Anna Kate, blue Mommy, and green Noelley.  This is Noelle’s famous Tahiti dress that she calls her "bikini" dress.

This is an outfit Noelle laid out one day last week.  She has started laying out her outfits like this on her floor each night for the next day.  This morning she proudly put on her ensemble and told me she was a "winter fairy."  Love you, Silly Willy!  

*Note, her panties and a pair of stick-on earrings are also laid out to the right.

We have to be vigilant about discipline at the house for safety reasons.  I probably aggravated Miss Priss by taking these pictures, but she was disobeying so much at the time that I didn’t care… and of course, after she said sorry and we gave hugs and kisses, she was right back smiling as evidenced below.

This hot pink colored trim drawn by our little artist is the permanent door frame of our house!  Noelle did not get a time-out for this (she had no clue between this board and all the others in the house), but we won’t be taking markers out to the house anymore.  It was fun while it lasted.  Mom and I were talking about how sweet it would be to have her little art barely showing through the stain for the memory of it all!