Once again it has been over a week since I last posted. How does that happen? And do not worry. Gramme has already yelled at me about the not posting. OK she didn't yell at me exactly. Or at all really. She politely e-mailed me to see if I was going to post soon. And then she in all caps yelled (Mom - did you know that all caps in an e-mail means yelling?) WHAT ABOUT PICTURES! She's funny, that Gramme. So, here is a post. And I will try to update pictures yet this week.

Last Friday was our five year wedding anniversary. Yay us! I took the day off so that Kris could go to work during the day and we could go out that evening together. As it was, I didn't see him most of the day! He spent most of the morning outside getting things ready for our BBQ we were hosting the next day. And then after lunch he headed to work for 5 hours and got home just in time to change his clothes and get ready to go out. We didn't have big plans for that evening. We ended up going out for dinner and then went shopping for a little while. It was really nice to walk around Target gathering items we needed, stopping to browse once in a while, etc. without having one or two kids getting antsy. And then we headed home to play some Wii (which we got last Wednesday - how fun!). Grandpa and Marcia came over to take care of Annika and James. Annika had a great time, getting to go to the park, eating ice cream and staying up late. James gave them a bit of a rough time at bed time but otherwise was his usual charming self.

Saturday was our annual BBQ. We had roughly 40 people over for a great big party. It was a great day for a party. It was warm and sunny but not too hot. We had three couples (Grandpa and Marcia, Dale and Shelly and Michelle and Bart) come over early to join us on a motorcycle ride. Nana and Papa came over early too to stay with the kids. The ride was so nice! We were a little over an hour and it was perfect. Then Kris joined our guests outside to grill and have fun and I stayed inside to keep the food filled and guests entertained there. We didn't get to see too much of each other but I think our guests all had a good time. There were lots of little kids for Annika to play with which made her immensely happy. James was a pretty happy baby too, spending most of the afternoon with Uncle Dale. And he went down for the night so easily and slept through all the noise in the house. That's my wonder baby!

James is so close to crawling. Sunday we saw him get up on his hands and knees, move his knees forward and then one hand forward to reach a toy. And he's done it consistently since. One of these days it's going to click that he can move his hands and knees and get to where he wants to go without flopping down on his belly or face. He is such a happy baby too and much more independent than Annika was. Annika didn't much enjoy the exersaucer or walker. She always wanted you there playing with her or holding her. James is much more content to be on the floor chewing on toys or in his walker playing with toys. He has his crabby moments, like all babies do, when he only wants to be held though too. And he's excellent at bed time. He is so much easier to put down than Annika was. He is just such a great little guy. How did I get so lucky to have two spectacular kids?

Annika is so goofy lately. Last night as she was playing everything she did was finished with a "Ta-da!" She would draw herself or mommy or daddy on her Aquadoodle mat and then exclaim "ta-da!" when she was finished. And she made me take pictures of her drawings before they dried up and went away. She's actually pretty good, drawing a circle for the face, four lines for arms and legs, dots for eyes and a line for a smile. She even drew hair on her people last night. Usually she even draws little lines for fingers and toes. Last night as she was eating I asked if I could take some pictures of her. She looked at me and smiled for three cheesy pictures and then said "OK mommy. That's enough pictures." I listened and put the camera away. What a goofball!

This morning at 2am I woke up to James playing with a toy attached to his crib. I started to get out of bed to go to him and stepped right on Annika! This is what I think happened - some time during the night after Kris went to bed Annika woke up needing to go potty. She turned on the light in her room as well as her lamp (it was like the sun in there at 2am!) and then went potty. Usually she calls to me from the bathroom but last night I must not have heard her so she got up and walked over to my side of the bed. There she usually doesn't say anything, she just stares at me, willing me with her mind to wake up. I didn't, she got tired and laid down next to the bed and went to sleep - with her underwear still around her ankles! See? Goofball! Anyway, I went and got James and with a couple minutes of rocking and a quick milk snack, he was out again. I put him back in his crib, turned off all of Annika's lights, went to pick her up and noticed the underwear situation, pulled those up, picked her up and put her back to bed before returning to bed myself 15 minutes after getting out of it.

Annika did roughly the same thing the night before last. James woke up around 4:30am so I went and got him and fed him and rocked him until we both fell asleep in the chair. Around 5:15am Annika woke up and came into our room. I told her to go crawl into bed by Daddy and then fell asleep again in the chair (I was tired!). Instead of doing that though, Annika laid down between the chair and the wall and went to sleep. Eventually I crawled back into bed with James and when he, Daddy and I woke up at 6:45am, Annika was still sleeping on the floor. She woke up a few minutes after us and crawled into bed with us then for our morning snuggles.