Crawfish Boil

We have friends who have an annual crawfish boil, and Corey and Adelynn LOVE it every year! 

She lives for seafood! 

Corey's teaching one of his co-workers how to eat a crawfish!

HAPPY! 

Our busy boy!

My Kids!

So, I realize it has been over a year and a half since I blogged. I don't really have a good excuse, except that I don't think people really look at blogs anymore. But, I need to keep my blog alive with pictures and updates, so that I can keep some kind of a record for my kids to look back on. So, this will just be a quick update on what the kids are up to. And, how busy they have been keeping me in March 2016! 

 Addy Irish dances A LOT, especially in the month of March. We call it our own "March Madness". She had a bunch of performances this past week and I wasn't even the one dancing and I am worn out from taking her everywhere! She's amazing in so many ways. She practices dance over 8 hours a week and then has performances on top of that. In the picture above, she was performing at Pullen Park and her teacher (3 time World Champion) is the dude in the glasses. He has taught her SO much, and we feel lucky to have one of the best Irish dance teachers around!

This is what they call a "perfect diamond". It is what most dancers are trying to do when they dance a certain step in their hard-shoes. (But, I'm just the Mom, so I don't really know).

 This was on St Patrick's Day, she got her ears pierced just before she turned 8 last year. She's growing up so fast. 

 Hanging out with dance buddies right before the St Patrick's Day parade! 

 This girl is happiest when she is dancing! But, she also really enjoys just playing in the back-yard, and reading Junie B Jones books! She also loves games that we can play with the whole family and she has started liking Legos too!

Jack is so chill, he reminds me of Corey on a daily basis. This is a picture of him watching the St Patrick's day parade. He has been very supportive of his sister's dancing because he has his own dance buddies to hang out with. He has been in preschool and is learning SO much about the world around him. He surprises me everyday with some new fact! He says things like: "Did you know that the larger the planet the more gravity it has". And, "Did you know some birds are dinosaurs", and he LOVEs numbers. Just tonight he said, "8 is an even number, because it has 2, 4, 6, and 8". He's only 5, and will be starting Kindergarten in August. He still attends speech therapy twice a week, but his speech has improved tremendously in the past year. I'm so proud of his progress. So far his interests have been karate and swimming. He wants to give soccer a try too! This boy is my cuddle bug!! 

Let me introduce you to Mr. Miles DeMar Anderson!! This kid was the easiest baby on the planet! SUCH A GREAT BABY! Now that he is 16 months old and walking, he is CRAZY busy!!  He is the child who knows how to push my buttons. Almost daily he throws something in the toilet and goes to "time out" for it. He destroys the house daily, dragging all kinds of things around. He is at the stage where he is testing limits and discovering and he isn't taking his job lightly. :)

Miles on St Patrick's Day, I usually use the stroller to keep him contained. 

Sometimes he figures a way out of the stroller though!

 His first Easter egg hunt, and it was the sweetest thing to watch!! 

He would pick up the eggs and then chuck them at the ground. 

This kid has a thing for sitting in the refrigerator, if we open it for anything he sits down. And, this picture was taken last night right after he got a huge "goose-egg" on his head from running into the wall. He is a happy baby, and brings us SO much joy, I feel blessed!

Miles DeMar Anderson

I FOUND THIS POST IN MY DRAFTS FOLDER, NOT SURE WHEN I WROTE IT, but I wanted to make sure these pictures make it on my blog. 

Our baby boy was born on November 11, 2014, on Veterans Day! Miles DeMar Anderson was 8 lbs and 6 oz, 20 1/2 inches long and born at 8:50 a.m. His name actually means soldier, which we didn't know until later. And, Corey was away in Texas at Basic Officer Training when Miles was born. Life has been a whirlwind of emotions, with many blessings and lots of craziness rolled into the last few months. We are so glad he is here and healthy, and we are glad our Dad made it home and we are together as a family, we feel complete now.

http://www.andrawillisphotography.com/miles

All Boy!

I still had my doubts about whether this baby was a boy or not, especially since we didn't actually have a very good picture of it's boy parts. My midwife said I needed another ultrasound to check for a few other things that the 20 week ultrasound didn't see. Luckily we got a good picture this time:

He's all BOY!

And, I don't really care for creepy 3D pictures, but I liked this one of his foot and hand. He's measuring 2 weeks early at 3 1/2 pounds (and that was almost 2 weeks ago). He's growing healthy and strong. 

28 Weeks

Jack already loves to cuddle with Baby Miles. 

Dogsitting...

We have spent our weekend dog-sitting. But, it has been more of the dogs actually sitting (or just sleeping) and me running around vacuuming up hair. ;) 

                                            This is Apollo, he's a retired greyhound racer.

                                           And, this is Sal, he's an Italian greyhound. 

                            We actually took them to Shelly Lake and had a nice outing with them.

***It has been entertaining to have dogs around, and of course the kids are in love with them, but I'm going to keep giving Addy all my really good reasons for why we won't be getting a dog until she is 10***

Cute Boy

Yesterday morning Jack woke me up by bringing me this flower from our yard, he was so excited to bring me a "star" flower. 

Then, this morning he woke me up and said he made me earrings! This kid knows how to win the heart of a woman! Love him to pieces!!

Summertime

School is quickly approaching, and it's bittersweet to think that our summer is almost over, and school is starting! I know next summer will be totally different with a baby, so I have spent this summer soaking up the sun and reading. We have had a lot of fun swimming this summer. Adelynn has improved in swimming a lot this year and hopes that next year she can do swim team to build her skills even more. It's embarrassing to say that she's a better swimmer than me (which most people probably are), but she's very self motivated and enjoys the challenge. 

Jack plays in the kiddie pool and doesn't care how cold the water is, he'll play for hours. He absolutely hates sunscreen, so he's gotten quite the tan. He also took a little t-ball class and loves anything involving sports, guns, bad guys, and superheroes.

Adelynn has also started Irish Dance. She took a summer camp and the first day she was overwhelmed and yelled at me saying that it wasn't her talent. (Of course I made her keep trying)! By the end of the second day she LOVED it! When the camp ended she wanted to still go everyday. So, now she is taking classes twice a week. It will be fun to watch her improve with learning the reels and steps. I absolutely love Irish music, so I have no complaints when she turns the music on to practice. And, I am excited that her teacher has an impressive resume as a world champion and danced with Riverdance.  

Irish Dance Camp

I was cleaning out my closet a few days ago and realized that Adelynn's New Year's Resolution was to learn to Irish dance, 

I thought it was ironic that she had just started classes. 

Addy had her art "framed" at one of the local banks, 

so we had to go check it out. 

That's what the kids are up to, and of course I am being a Mom and getting use to driving around in a van. ;) Some of my most recent changes are that I look 8 months pregnant, but I still have 3 months of this pregnancy left. When people ask me when I'm due and I say, "3 more months". It never fails, their jaw drops and they are speechless. I'm getting used to it, since this is how I was when I was pregnant with Jack. I could probably write a book with all of the bizarre comments I have gotten. But, I'll spare you the details. I have learned a great lesson, the only thing a pregnant lady really wants to hear is compliments or congratulations. That's ALL...

28 Weeks

 My attempt at a picture with the kids. :)

                                                               Addy played along!

I also tried to go to a regular doctor and wasn't impressed with the care I was receiving. So, I love nurse-midwifes and recently switched to a practice in Durham that is AMAZING!! I will be delivering the baby at Duke Regional Hospital now, it's a half hour away, but it will be worth it. Corey is glad I'm not delivering at his hospital anymore because he didn't want me to embarrass him with my "hippie ways". So, everyone is happy now. ;) 


The ARMY: I LOVE to HATE the military and their absurd ways of doing things. I'm sure most of you know by now that I'm a planner, with a touch of OCD. This kind of personality doesn't mesh well with the military way of life. Granted, Corey is only in the Reserves, so I really have nothing to complain about. But, the ups and downs we have been through these past six months have been stressful. Corey has to meet his weight requirements, pass his physical fitness tests, go to drill one weekend a month, and complete 80 hours worth of power points and tests. This is what he has been doing for the past few months and now that he has gotten all that finished he can go to Texas for 28 days for Basic Officer Training. It just so happens the next slot that is available for him to attend this training is right in the middle of my due date. And, apparently the Army doesn't care if you miss your child's birth. So, we are just left waiting to see when they assign him to attend Officer Training. We will know more by the end of September...like I said, I'm a planner and the military is messing with my plans. ;) 

I should mention that Corey actually likes being in the Army and it's been good for him to have weight loss goals. And, I can't forget to mention that thanks to the military we have amazing insurance and I didn't have to work while Corey was in school. So, I'll quit complaining. ;) 

This is Corey right after coming home from drill weekend, a nap and the remote make everything better.