Katie Anne the Photographer

One day last week, Katie Anne came up to me and said, "Mommy, isn't Peach looking so cute today?  I think I need to take a picture of him."  She wanted to use my "big girl" camera for her photoshoot.  She started out a little weak, and we wondered if the photographer and model had the chemistry needed to make this shoot work.

However, after a quick lesson on using the display to get Peach in the picture, things started to improve quickly.  Peach is a natural model, and he worked it for the camera with all he had.

A photojournalistic shot from a slightly different angle:

An interesting flash maneuver (also known as toddler finger over the flash) cast Peach in a soft glow:

Then, the photographer wanted to branch out and take pictures of a few other people in the family.

Ginger is hard to catch:

Dorfee, however, is much easier to catch in a picture:

A picture of Mommy:

And then, the photographer wanted a few shots of herself.  I was more than happy to oblige!

Saunders Jones IV

Over Spring Break, we found out that New Baby Jones is officially... a boy!  I announced the news over Facebook, but I wanted to make it "blog official", record a few more details for posterity, and post a few pictures from the ultrasound. 

Profile shots:

Front of face* shot:

The "It's A Boy!" shot - I'll leave this one to your interpretation and not add commentary:

So far, Baby Saunders is looking like a big baby - he measured 85% on everything except his arms, which are 95%!   So, we hope his hands don't drag the ground like a gorilla.  :)  Just like my pregnancy with Katie Anne, I'm already measuring about two weeks ahead. 

*Katie Anne loved looking at the profile shots, but she was a little scared of the shot of the front of SJ's face.  Her eyes got huge when she saw it, and she said, "Mommy, why doesn't he have any eyes in there?"  I tried to explain to her that the "magic wand" only shows his bones and not his eyes or skin or anything else.  She said, "Okay, well, he's going to have eyes in those big black holes when he gets borned, right?"  :)

We are very excited to be having a little boy!!!  Of course, we would've also loved to have another little girl in the family (and still might in a few years), but we are thrilled about trying all the "boy stuff" and being able to experience parenting both a girl and a boy.  We are carrying on the Saunders name tradition, so the new baby will be Saunders Jones IV. (No, there's no middle name.)  Right now, the plan is to call him Saunders... although Uncle Carlton and Aunt Trisha are making quite a case for their nickname choice - Quatro, like the razor.  :)  Katie Anne knows that the baby's name will be Saunders IV (she calls him "Little Saunders" or "Baby Saunders"), but she says that his nickname is still Dorfee.  When we talked about him being "the fourth" because Daddy is Saunders III, she said, "Well, you're named Katie and I'm Katie Anne.  So, that makes me Katie Anne the Two."  So, now she calls herself "Katie Anne Jones the Two" sometimes.  :)

Katie Anne was not surprised at all at the news that the baby is a boy - she was shocked that we were surprised and said, "Mommy, we already knew that.  I told you that this morning."  (I had asked her the morning of the ultrasound if she wanted to change her mind and vote girl, but she was 100% sure that her boy guess was right.)  According to her, Dorfee told her a long time ago that he was a boy, so she's known that for weeks.  Dorfee tells her lots of stuff from inside my belly, and so now that she was right, we wonder - was it just a good guess or sibling ESP?

Katie Anne's School Party

After Katie Anne's birthday, we had a little party for her at school.  It was actually her last day in the "little kid" class (Young Threes)... she moved up to the "big kid" class (Threes and Fours) after Spring Break.  She loved bringing in cupcakes for her little friends!

The party was at the end of nap time, and some kids slept right through it!

Don't worry... we left a cupcake and a juice box for her when she woke up.

A Note About Blogging...

while pregnant...

while working...

with a three-year-old...

and a husband...

and two dogs and a rabbit...

So, just a quick note about blogging.  I used to blog while relaxing and winding down after a long day in the evenings.  I used to blog while watching tv at night after Katie Anne was asleep.  I used to stay up until 10:00 or 11:00 at night and get lots of things, including blogging, done.

None of the above statements is currently true.  I am too tired to do anything except collapse in a heap after Katie Anne goes to bed because a) she's going to bed a lot later - like 9:00, b) Saunders has had a lot to do in the evenings lately, meaning I'm on my own a lot of nights, and c) end-of-the-year kindergarten is an exhausting venture!

So, I am still blogging - and I'm still taking pictures of things as I go - but I may be a Weekend Updater for the next five weeks until school gets out!

Katie Anne's Tinker Bell Party!

On Saturday, April 10, we celebrated Katie Anne's birthday with friends and family.  Katie Anne had her heart absolutely set on a Tinker Bell party.  She had a dream of a garden party and all her friends running around with fairy wings and magic wands.  So, what can you do when your about-to-be-three year old is a budding party planner in the making?  Of course, you do your best to make all her Tinker Bell plans come true!

We had a big party in Doc and VJ's yard with a giant slide, bouncy house, and lots of toys for her friends to play with together.  It was a fairytale garden party just like she'd hoped for, with bright balloons and colorful tablecloths.  The party started with everyone mixing and mingling while the kids (and lots of the adults) played on the slide or with the frisbees, bouncy balls, and hula hoops.  Then, we had a yummy lunch of pizza, chips, and fruit - followed by the Tinker Bell and Fairy Friends cake that Katie Anne picked out herself.  After that, the kids had a treasure hunt - I hid 100 tiny treasure chests in the yard with candy inside, and the kids each got a basket for hunting them.  Finally, Katie Anne got to open all her great presents.  It was such a fun day!

Between my mom, Jillian, and Erin taking great pictures, we've got more than 600 pictures of the party day!  Here are just a few of my favorites... to see the rest of the best, click here to view the Facebook album. 

Katie Anne's Birthday Dinner at Tokyo

To celebrate Katie Anne's birthday, my parents took us and Saunders's parents to Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse for dinner last night.  The food was fabulous and everyone had a great time!

Katie Anne was mesmerized by the chef cooking right in front of her, but she was scared of the fire when it flared up.  In her words, she said, "I like the cooking show, but I don't like the fire show."  She loved her shrimp, veggies, and fried rice - she ate every single one of the shrimp!

Katie Anne got some butterfly-themed birthday surprises from Doc and VJ...

Our server gave her a little pair of "cheater" chopsticks, and she loved eating with them!  She actually did a really good job with them, especially with the shrimp.

The server brought her a little orange "cake" with a candle, and put a geisha wig on her.  She wasn't sure about the wig, but she did wear it while the staff sang to her...

But, she still wanted to repeat the blowing out of the candles on the other cupcake I'd brought.

The dinner party was a fun way to end Katie Anne's "official" birthday celebrations!

Now, we're prepping for her big Tinkerbell party next weekend!

Time for Birthday Presents

Katie Anne's birthday dream since before Christmas - no joke - has been a playground set for the backyard.  We drive past a few places that sell the wooden play sets almost every day on the way home from her preschool, and she always says, "There's my birthday playground!"  

However, Mommy and Daddy were not too keen on putting out major bucks (as in $2000) for a wooden play set for the backyard.  Beyond the fact that it is just too much money to spend on a play set for a barely three-year-old, we've got a fabulous big playground just over the hill in our neighborhood that we use all the time, and no backyard set could compete with that.

So, we told Katie Anne that those kinds of playgrounds were for restaurants and neighborhoods, and we started showing her the old-fashioned metal swing sets instead.  For a much better price of around $200, we could get a nice swing set for the backyard that would be just as fun for her as the big wooden set.  Katie Anne was completely fine with the change, and she's been poring over a Toys 'R Us booklet with the swing sets inside, thinking about which one would be best.  

While I was researching sets on the internet, I found a great deal at Walmart.com on a swing set/trampoline duo.  I just knew that Katie Anne would love this - she's jumped on my parents' neighbors' trampoline a few times, and she loved it.  This swing set seemed really nice, and the trampoline was small with lots of safety measures and a nice enclosure.  Plus, the best thing was the price - $250 for both!  So, we got a nice swing set with a slide and a cute trampoline for only $50 more than just a swing set would cost... and about $1750 less than the big playground she'd originally wanted!

While she was taking her nap on Easter Sunday, my parents helped Saunders and I put everything together.  It was hot out there, and the directions were quite confusing, but we divided and conquered and got both things put together just in the nick of time.  When Katie Anne woke up, she was a little overwhelmed by both presents and didn't quite know what to do.  After a few minutes, she got busy playing  - and stayed outside for over an hour jumping, swinging, and sliding.  It was hard to tear her away from her new toys to go to her birthday dinner!  I know we'll get tons of use and fun out of her birthday presents.

Here are some pictures of her playing on her new toys:

A little stunned by the sight...

Checking out the new trampoline with Daddy...

There she goes!

Trying out the different swings...

Sliding with her favorite toy Peach...

Cute birthday girl!