New Blog Address

Since this blog address only had Avi Grace's name on it, I have moved our blog to: www.theanthonygirls.blogspot.com . I love the new look of the blogger templates. Lots of fun!

Two Week Update

I took Sally Sharp for her two week checkup yesterday. She is growing very nicely! Her stats are:

8 pounds, 13.6 ounces, 90th percentile (8 pounds 1.8 ounces at birth)

20 and 1/4 inches, 75th percentile (19 inches at birth)

Head circumference 35 cm, 50th percentile

Family

We've had lots of company over the past week and a half. Here are some snapshots of our family members with Sally Sharp. There are a few missing that are not on my camera, and I'll post those as soon as I get them from other people.

Nana

Aunt Joan

Uncle Cory

Aunt Susan

Shug

Granddaddy

Mimi

Papa

Cousin John Michael, Aunt Sheri, Cousin Madison

Cousin John Michael

Cousin Madison

Uncle Joel

Aunt Abbi

What's in a name?

I wrote in a previous post that I was intrigued by everyone's desire to know what we were naming this precious little girl and their willingness to offer suggestions. Drew and I truly did not make a final decision on her name until the night before we went to the hospital. In fact, Drew was still questioning me the morning of her delivery to make sure I wanted to stick with what we had picked. I have to admit it wasn't his first choice, but it was always mine. To me, family names and names that have a meaning behind them are very special. And, that is exactly what the name Sally Sharp is for me. My mom and Grandmother's (mom's mom) first names are Sally (my Grandmother goes by Sally and my mom's name is Sally Elizabeth, and she goes by Betty). Sharp also comes from my mom's side of the family. My great, great Grandfather was John Sharp Williams. He served as a United States Senator and maintained residence at his family home, Cedar Grove Plantation, outside Yazoo City. I have always been fascinated by him, and obviously, I love his name. He had a daughter named Mary Sharp and a daughter named Sallie as well (I chose to go with the spelling of my Mom and Grandmother). My Grandmother says she remembers calling Mary Sharp, "Aunt Sharp," as she was growing up. I thought that was interesting, and thus the name Sally Sharp was created in my mind. I've had many people ask me where her name came from and if it was family, so here is the explanation of how we came up with sweet Sally Sharp. I love it more now than I did before I named her, and I think it fits her perfectly:). Oh, and for now, we are going with the double name--Sally Sharp. I'm thinking it might stick this time (we started out with Avi Grace, but Drew and I mainly call her Avi now).

And this is the only picture I have been able to capture of proud big sister and her baby sister. For some reason Avi does not want us to take any pictures of her. She keeps saying, "No pictures today." I'm not sure how I managed to snap this one, and I didn't even realize I had it until I was going back through pictures yesterday! Hopefully she'll warm up to the idea. She is still loving "the baby" as she calls her most of the time, and she wants to kiss and hug her all the time. It's very sweet, and Sally Sharp is one lucky little girl to have such a sweet big sister.

Sally Sharp Anthony

Sally Sharp Anthony was born Wednesday, July 21 at 7:53 a.m. She was 8 lbs 1 oz and 19 inches long. She looks SO much like Avi did when she was born. We've determined Avi had a bigger nose at birth, but their faces look very similar! Speaking of big sister, she is adjusting very well so far. She LOVES her baby sister (I was a bit worried in the hospital; her first reaction was more of ignoring the baby). She gives her lots of hugs and kisses, and she is copying everything I do with baby sister...and I mean everything. It's quite funny. Overall, we are doing great. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. We're glad to be home and adjusting to our new life! I'll post more pictures soon...just wanted to get a few up to show her off!

Five years ago today...

Five years ago today our sweet Austin was born. It is extremely hard to believe he would be 5 years old today. What would his personality be like? What would he look like? Interesting questions to ponder, but we just have to continually remind ourselves to be thankful for the time we had with him. We are also over the moon thankful for our adorable Avi Grace that God blessed us with and another baby girl that God will bless us with on Wednesday! We miss his sweet smile!

But WHY, mommy?

I found myself cracking up at Avi several times yesterday, so I thought I would share with you some of the things she said that made me laugh.

1. I told her it was time to get dressed for church. She said, "Am I going to wear a dress?" I said yes. She said, "Oh, I LOVE dresses, mommy!"

2. Her new thing in the past few days has been to ask WHY about EVERYTHING. Yesterday she asked me why several times in a row (and it is usually, But why, mommy?), so I asked her if she had to ask why about everything. Her response: "But, why not, mommy?!"

3. As she was eating dinner last night, I gave her some applesauce and a regular spoon. She said, "This is not my spoon. I want a colored spoon with some color on it!" Really? A colored spoon with color? So, I went and got her a plastic spoon that was colored, and she said, "Is it pink, mommy? I LOVE pink." She's not opinionated or girly!

4. Again, as she was eating dinner, all of a sudden she busted out with, "Does everybody have a daddy?" Interesting question. The easy answer...yes, sweetie, everyone has a daddy. I tried to go on to explain to her that her Papa is my daddy and her granddaddy is her daddy's daddy. Not sure that really went over well! Probably just confused her more.

5. Lastly, I took Avi to the dentist about a week ago for the first time. I didn't expect her to love it or anything, but she really acted like a baby while we were there. She wouldn't lie in the chair and she whined and cried the whole time we were with the dentist. Not fun. When we finished there, I told her I was pretty unhappy with the way she acted while we were there. I guess that was the first time I had used those words with her, because now at least 2 or 3 times a day she asks me, "Mommy, are you happy?" Wow. Maybe telling her I was unhappy was a bad choice of words? I don't want her to be worried about whether I'm happy or not! I am reassuring her we are happy, but she keeps asking!

My reaction: WHOA

Soooo, this is what Avi looked like one day last week when Drew brought her home from school! All I could say was, "WHOA!" The pictures really don't even do it justice...she was absolutely dirty from head to toe. Right before Drew got there to pick up Avi, her teacher said she fell on the playground and got mulch ALL in her hair. The entire part of her hair was jam packed with mulch. The only thing I could think was how in the world am I going to get that mulch out of her hair?! Just washing it didn't do the trick. I had to run her hair under the faucet in the tub for several minutes to work all the mulch out! The bathtub was FULL of mulch, which she thought was hysterical until later that night when she saw how dirty the tub was. She asked her Nana to clean it out it was so dirty!

Obviously Avi thought being so dirty was funny! Oh, and of course she was wearing her "extra" clothes when Drew picked her up. It must have been one of those days!

Her flip flops were permanently embroidered on her feet!

Happy 4th!

We had a fun, family-filled weekend celebrating Independence Day this year! On Saturday, we spent the day with my family. Both of my sisters were here with their husbands/families. We spent the day playing games and we ended the day with a great supper my mom and dad cooked. On Sunday, we stayed around our house until mid afternoon, and then we went over to Susan and John's house (Drew's aunt and uncle) in Browning Creek to spend time with his family. We enjoyed another great supper and the fun fireworks. Avi was mesmerized by the fireworks this year (she was scared of them last year). All in all, we had a fun weekend. Time to get back into the routine tomorrow. Only 2 weeks left until new baby Anthony arrives!

Avi hugged Abbi before they left, and I was grateful to get a good snapshot of them together.

Avi is very into "watching and helping" anyone cook these days. She loves to stand in a chair next to me and help me stir. Lots of fun.

She was so proud of her "little ponytail" I put in her hair yesterday. Usually I just put a barrette or a bow in, but her hair is thicker now, and the little ponytail seems to help the bow stay in better. She loves it.

More fake smiles! They're growing on me, though! I tell ya, she really is a sweet child, and she brings us so much joy. Oh and, that gap between her front teeth is awesome! I love it.

Boppy Popcorn

I feel like I have so many things I want to blog about, but I can't seem to get them organized in my head to blog about any of them! I guess that's what happens when you are 36 weeks pregnant! Yes, you read right, I am 36 weeks, and I will be having this baby girl in 3 weeks. I talked with my doctor last week, and we are planning to have a scheduled C-section on Wednesday, July 21st unless she decides to come sooner on her own (unlikely, I'm sure, just because I'm smoldering in this heat!). Anyway, we still don't have a name nailed down. It's kind of a non-issue around our house it seems; Drew and I just don't really talk about it. However, I find it interesting how important it is to other people! It doesn't bother me, it's just funny! I keep assuring everyone we will have a name by the time we go to the hospital! On the other hand, Avi decided a little while back that the baby's name should be Boppy Popcorn. Quite a lovely name, huh? Boppy is what she calls her blanket, and I can't remember why she chose popcorn to go with it, but she does love popcorn! We've thrown it into the mix of names, but I don't think it's really in the running. What do you think? My dad and my nephew got out my dad's high school year books and started looking up names. They definitely came up with some interesting ones! My "favorite" was Jeffie Jane...yes, he had a girl who went to his school who was named that (sorry, not trying to offend anyone!). So, the name game has been fun, but it will soon end, and we will move on to bringing this nameless child into the world, which brings me to my next update...

I've told my husband for a while that I wouldn't have another child in the house we live in now (it's only 1250 square feet), and I also didn't want to be pregnant/taking care of a new baby while building a house. Well, guess what? I'm doing both of those things I swore I wouldn't do. I'm so glad God has a sense of humor! So, we are set to start the foundation on our new house any day now. The dirt work has been finished for a few weeks now, and we are just waiting on the builder start the foundation. So, needless to say, we have a lot going on around here. I'm excited, anxious and nervous about both endeavors. It is going to be an interesting next 6 to 8 months!

I couldn't post an update without a few pics of Avi. She's having a great summer. I can't believe she will be 3 in September. She's lots of fun, and I'm amazed at how girly she is...she loves playing with her baby dolls, she wants to wear a dress to school everyday ("I wanna wear a big dress mama!"), and she loves to put on lipstick to "make me even prettier." Not sure where the lipstick thing came from at all...I hardly ever even put it on myself! She's a sweetheart.

Avi loves to play in the sink, "doing her dishes." Oh, please lord, let her keep that desire as she grows older! Ha!

Avi loves to make a pallet on the floor. On this particular day, she unrolled her school nap mat and wanted me to take a picture of her with her baby dolls, Penny (left) and Amy (right), hence the fake smile!

The Beach

Avi and I went to the beach last week with my mom, my sister, Sheri, and her two kids, John Michael and Madison. We missed having my other sister, Abbi, there. Unfortunately she is teaching a class right now and couldn't get away to join us. We tried out a new venue this year--the Beach Club near Fort Morgan, AL. It was very nice, and I think we will go again. The first two days we were there, it rained in the morning. In the above pic, Avi was looking outside checking out the rain...wishing it would quit, especially since we had already put on our sunscreen and were ready to head to the beach!

SO, while it was raining, Avi and Madison decided to make funny faces at me!

And we finally got to go to the beach!! Avi loved the sand, and thankfully we had a week of fairly mild temperatures with nice breezes. The oil clumps started coming ashore late Friday afternoon, and we left Saturday morning, so we were very lucky to enjoy a clean beach while we were there. The rest of the pictures are of our "photo" session on the beach. Since Abbi wasn't with us this year, I had to play photographer. Not sure I got anything great, but some of them are pretty good. I love beach pictures!

Pony Pigtails

(FYI, I've posted several entries today.)

After mastering the ponytail, we moved on to "pony pigtails" as Avi likes to call it. Yesterday, I fixed her hair in pigtails for school, and when I picked her up from my mom's yesterday, she still had them in! I was shocked. She was SO proud of them. They were really cute, too.

She had to show off the back of her pony pigtails.

Loving her daddy :)

A ponytail & an afternoon on campus

Avi's loved her first ponytail...although you wouldn't be able to tell by the picture! As I mentioned in the previous post, she has a habit of not wanting to smile for the camera. She's not unhappy; she just wouldn't give me a smile. All afternoon, she kept feeling her ponytail to make sure it was there! Doesn't she look like such a little girl with her hair pulled back?

A couple of weeks ago, we enjoyed a beautiful spring afternoon on the drill field at MSU. Avi thoroughly enjoyed playing in the water fountain. She got the entire front of her dress wet! She wasn't bothered by it, though. She also colored with some sidewalk chalk, but I wasn't able to get a good picture of that.

She made Drew climb all the stairs in front of Swalm with her. The girl loves to climb stairs.

Had to throw this one in. Last summer, Avi's cousin, AnnaClaire, passed a cool Barbie Jeep down to her, and I finally bought a replacement battery for it last week. She loved riding in it last summer (even though she couldn't steer it; we just got her going in a circle and she loved it!). However, this summer she just wants to sit in it and pretend to drive. Why did I spend money on a battery if she doesn't want to ride in it, I don't know! Hopefully as the summer goes on, she will get used to it again and actually "drive" it! Looks like Drew is enjoying it more than Avi! I think he was trying to coax her into driving it.