Catching up

These last couple of months have been a whirlwind of activity. It has been a wonderful summer - kicked off with the birth of our sweet Anna, and then a flurry of visits from friends and family. The blog has obviously slipped down on the priority list, hence the lack of posts. But I'm committed to getting it updated! I'm going to go back and post photos from the past couple months, back dating them so that they are in order. So be sure to check back and scroll down!

Making strides on the Strider

A couple months back we bought Cole a Strider bike after seeing one of our neighbors kids (who is a year younger than Cole) cruising around on one. Sadly the Strider got a back seat to the four wheeler that arrived the same week (bad timing). But we kept on Cole to try it and slowly but surely he has warmed up to it. We took it with us to Sunriver, which was when he really seemed to "get" it as there was a nice flat street for him to ride on. Now he rides it pretty much every day and does a pretty good job of keeping up with the other kids who are riding their "big boy bikes." His latest favorite thing to do is cruise it down the hill. Notice how he is lifting his feet up and then starts running once he gets on flat ground Also notice how he is focused more on the camera than on the street ahead of him.

All snuggled up

Grandma K

A few photos of Anna with my mom, one of her favorite people.

Night swimming

Hot days = perfect nights for swimming. The past couple of nights we have packed the kids up and headed to the pool before bed time. Cory and Cole swim, Anna and I hang out and watch. Or I watch and she sleeps. We have already used the pool more this year than all of the other years we've lived here combined. And Cole is getting to be such a good little swimmer! One of these days I'll take the video camera as photos don't really capture it.

Cole the Knight

Cole borrowed this knight costume from Quincy and wore it for three days straight, pretty much every hour he wasn't sleeping. And I think he would have slept in it if we'd let him!

Here's Cole the Knight playing baseball on our new baseball field. And Anna's first video appearance!

Welcome, Anna!

On Monday, July 5 at 11:08am we welcomed Anna Leigh Badger into the world at 7 lbs 8 ozs and 21 inches long.

We really couldn't have asked for a more perfect labor and delivery. I started going into labor around 3am, labored at home until 8:30am, checked into the hospital at 9am and Anna was born at 11am. Whew! Fast and furious ... exactly what I was hoping for! So fast, in fact, that by the time I asked the doctor for an epidural, it was too late.

My mom and Cory were there with me providing the most amazing support. And our nurse was my good friend Jenni who fortunately was working that day and was assigned to us -- it was so awesome to have her there with us.

It went so fast, and I was feeling so good, that we requested to be able to leave that afternoon. And we were out of there by 3:30pm! Some people might think that's crazy, wondering why we wouldn't want to stay the night, but for us it was just best to get home to our own bed.

Cole hung out with Brad, Mercedes and the girls during the day and the came to visit us at the hospital. I really had no idea how he would react to Anna and what he would think about me being in the bed and all. It was amazing, really. It was love at first sight! He really just instantly fell in love with her and there was no sense of jealousy at all. You can see in the photos below that he was pretty happy :)