Annabelle can still be coaxed into sitting still for pictures with a little Dora or some Thomas the Train. I’m not above bribery in the form of TV to get the pictures I want.

Saturday night we had a Meyer family night and were super lazy! We hung out at home and had a quiet family dinner – B made patty melts on the grill and they were delicious. I’m getting sad that fall is approaching and our grilling days may come to an end. I brag about B’s grilling often so it’s no surprise I’ll be missing it terribly when the snow arrives. (Although B has been known to shovel a path to the grill so we may not be completely out of luck this winter!)

We bought the girls the movie “Happy Feet” and watched while they played with their toys. Annabelle loved the penguins and GG showed off some of her new dance moves. I’m fairly certain the entire family was sound asleep by 10 o’clock!

We started off the long weekend with a trip to the zoo with the Carlson’s. Jennifer’s sister, Kim and her fiance, Greg, were visiting so they joined us as well. We even packed a lunch – this was one of our longest trips to the zoo yet. We usually hang around for about an hour but we stuck around 2 1/2 this time. The girls had a blast playing with their friends, Ben and Jack, and love seeing all the animals. Fun morning!

Baby Ben has quite a few admirers in the Meyer clan. He’s getting so big. I’m not sure Annabelle can keep calling him Baby Ben when he’s taller than her – but I bet she’ll try!Annabelle and Jack pulled Ben’s shade down over her face and all 3 were belly laughing over the endless game of peak-a-boo. GG was thrilled that Annabelle was antagonizing someone else for a change and she could have a break!

Checking out the monkeys

Sweet little GG is walking now and doesn’t want to be stuck in the wagon anymore. She wants to run with the big kids. Unfortunately it would take hours to get through the zoo with her tiny little steps, so she was happy with the compromise to get out of the wagon and hitch a ride with her daddy.

I found a height predictor on the baby center website and decided to give it a try for Miss Annabelle. It confirms what we suspected – our girl is going to be a shorty! Here are the results…

Height Predictor:

Your girl will likely be 5 ft. 1 in. at age 18.

*This prediction is a “best guess” but it’s still just that — a guess. Based on the formula we used* there is a 50 percent chance that your girl’s full-grown height will be within 0.7 inches (above or below) of this prediction, and a 90 percent chance that it will be within 1.7 inches.

So, it looks like I’ll be towering over this girl in her teenage years. Ok, being 5 ft 4, towering may not be quite accurate, but I think being a few inches taller will help me maintain the upper hand. Miss GG may be another story. The indictator is not accurate until they turn 2, so we have a year to keep guessing about our little one.

Here’s the tool if you’re interested in playing around for your 2 year old (or older): http://www.babycenter.com/child-height-predictor

We finally captured some action shots of Gwyneth walking! She’s still a little unstable on her feet, but she gets where she needs to go. She mostly walks between her dadda and I but occassionally she’ll just cruise around the house.

She thinks walking is hilarious! She’s taking her dance moves to new heights.

Annabelle is not the least bit entertained with this walking nonsense.

This is Annabelle trying to helping Gwyneth walk by holding her hand. It starts as walking then usually ends up with Annabelle dragging Gwyneth across the floor. I swear Gwyneth is laughing, really, I swear. We do break this up quickly – well, after I take a picture, of course.

It’s one of my favorite times of year – football and reality tv are in full bloom!!! Not one to pass up an opportunity to squander my meager wages in exchange for a bit of trash talking, I’m putting my money where my mouth is and I’m getting ready for POOL season. I know most people hear pool season and instantly think summer and outdoors but not me. I think football, gambling, and parking it on my couch in front of the tv for the long haul!

Pool #1 – Top Chef

It’s back and it’s absolutely my favorite. I’m not thrilled with my pick this season – he’s kind of a weasely little guy but I got a better pick than Erica. Her guy is the worst! Here’s how my friends faired in the picks this season…

My chef – Eli

Tammy’s Chef — Laurine

Curtis’ Chef — Robin

Erica’s Chef — Mike

Kathy’s Chef — Ashley

B’s Chef — Michael V (younger of the brothers, I think he’s got a good chance)

I’m rooting for this crazy dude -his name is Kevin and he reminds me of Joe, Casey’s boyfriend in Chicago.

Pool #2 – Project Runway

It’s looking fairly promising for me in this pool as my designer won this weeks challenge. Here’s how my friends faired in the designer draw…

My designer, Shirin, and her winning design this week:

Tammy’s designer — Johnny

Casey’s designer — Mitchell

Erica’s designer — Christopher

Curtis’ designer — Nicolas

B’s designer — Althea

I haven’t picked my favorite for this season yet, but of course I’m in it to win it!

Pool #3, #4, #5 – Football

El Diablo is back and I’m ready to clean house in my many football pools this season. Wish me luck…even though we all know it’s not about luck, I’ve got the skillz! I’m over preseason and ready for some regular season football. Not surprising, I think I prefer the food and trash talking to the actual game itself.

It was a wild and busy weekend! We set off for St. Louis to celebrate Poppy’s birthday. We arrived at DIA with plenty of time to spare — more than we had even planned since our flight was a bit delayed! The girls kept themselves entertained and the flight was pretty uneventful. Always good news when traveling with toddlers.

Delayed at DIA

B got pretty lucky with GG sleeping most of the flight.

We finally arrived in St. Louis! Auntie Becky, Madison, Poppy & Melissa were waiting for us. We very excited to see them and the girls were thrilled they got to stay up past their bedtime!

GG and Auntie Becky

Annabelle and cousin, Madison

They are two peas in a pod. These girls adore each other.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early and on our way to Grandma’s house. We spent the morning looking at pictures, the girls played with Barbies, and B fixed Grandma’s computer and speakers. Grandma didn’t join us for the zoo, but she did go with us for lunch.

Grandma and (a few of) her great-granddaughters.

We calculated she now has 13 grand kids and 12 great-grand kids.

For Valentine’s Day each year, Poppy adopts an animal at the St. Lous zoo for each of his granddaughters. His donations keeps the animal fed and cared for the entire year and he renews them each year. Annabelle & GG each received a zebra last year and Annabelle also received a warthog her 1st Valentine’s day. We visited the St. Louis zoo to meet their animals and their names are posted as official adopted zoo parents.

The zoo crew

GG has the best view in the house

G loves the carousel! She’ll definitely be our little thrill seeker.

My sweet tween niece, Madison.

We picked up B’s cousin, Amanda at SLU and had lunch at Fitz’s. She’s a sophmore and is getting her degree in nursing. It was really nice to see her. The last time I saw her was at my baby shower when I was pregnant with Annabelle. She is doing really well at school and it was great to catch up with her.

GG snuck in a little nap after lunch, but Annabelle was going on two days without a nap at this point. Considering how much she usually likes her sleep she was doing really well. We headed down to Busch Stadium for the Cardinals game. This was GG’s first game and what a way to experience baseball! We sat in a suite behind home plate with unlimited hot dogs, brauts, a nacho bar, cannolis, pretzels and plenty of beer and sodas to go around! Melissa’s family joined us for the adventure which included Melissa’s sisters 6 kids and her brother’s 6 month old little boy. There were so many kids! Luckily there was plenty of room for them to run around and expend some energy rather than being stuck in their seats the entire game.

GG’s first baseball game!

What a view!

Happy girls at the game

The dessert cart came around and each of the kids got their very own treat. Annabelle and James each had cupcake the size of their heads! Annabelle ate half the icing off the top of hers before passing it off to GG. GG always manages to find the best seat in the house!

Sunday morning we met the Paz gang for lunch at Norwood Country Club. My Uncle Jerry, Aunt Barb, cousin Chris, his wife Rebeka and their little one Ian joined us. It was wonderful to catch up with them and watch the cousins play together. We’ve been fortunate enough to see them twice this summer and it’s been great watching our kids grow up together. We squeezed in a lot of fun and family in a very short amount of time!

Ian Paz

Paz cousins

Our friends Don and Jess are expecting their second little one in November. Ang and I are throwing a sprinkle for Jess next month. Jess isn’t finding out the baby’s gender so I had to keep the invites gender neutral. We decided to go with a yellow duck theme. I was feeling very creative and am quite pleased with how the invites turned out. I hope that Jess and all her guests love the invites too! (I kinda wish I could get a do-over on my sister’s.)

This patterened paper was a great find but it was discontinued. I cleaned Archivers out of their last 5 sheets and really had to make it stretch. There was no room for error – nothing like a little card making pressure. And the finished product…

I handmade quite a few for this shindig – 20 to be exact.We’re ready to celebrate Jess and the baby-on-the-way

I loved the duck stamp and even added the little extra touch to the envelopes.

Signed, sealed and ready to be delivered!

I’m seeing Jess tonight and I can’t wait to hand deliver her invite. I hope she loves them!

GG was in need of a haircut so after work we set off for Cool Cuts 4 Kids. Considering she’s just a year old this little lady has had quite a few haircuts already. I take her in every 6 weeks for a bang trim but today was a full haircut to straighten things up in back. Her hair is past her shoulders!!

Dora is a special treat but can be a bit problematic when she starts dancing!
Haircut in progress

How cute is this look? Too sweet!All trimmed up

Ta-da!!! Haircut complete and little pigtail twists to finish the look

Although her haircut is complete, Dora is not! She was more interested in finishing her show than going to eat dinner.

Annabelle pushed her mini-cart through the grocery store as we checked items off our weekly grocery list. We even picked up a little something special since Grandpa & Grandma Meyer were joining us for dinner this evening. Grandpa Bob loves pie! He makes no secret of it and luckily he’s got a weakness for Miss Annabelle & Miss GG so he’s willing to share. Annabelle put cherry pie in her little cart and got laughs from everyone who walked by pointing to the pie and telling them “my Grandpa’s pie”.

The girls were very excited to see their grandparents. Grandma Carole swooped in and held GG while I made dinner. Grandpa Bob read book after book after book to Annabelle. We had Cincinnati chili for dinner which is a big-Meyer hit, but I can only committ to eating it/making it once a year. I try to keep it a special-treat around our house – don’t want anyone (B!) getting too spoiled!

After dinner, Grandpa Bob and Annabelle waited patiently for pie…. (notice Grandpa Bob’s napkin bib – Annabelle thought that was hilarious! “Grandpa’s bib!”.)

The patience quickly wore off and they began beating the table and chanting “We want pie! We want pie! We want pie!” I’ll give you one guess for who initiated that move….

B finally delivered the goods! Notice Grandpa’s look of disbelief as Annabelle receives the first piece…

This is the look of distrust. Annabelle knows for sure if she looks the other way half of her pie will be gone with one quick swoop of Grandpa’s fork. She is on to the old man…..

Little Miss GG played so hard today. The heat from playing outside, along with cutting a new tooth just took it out of her. She was extremely lethargic. All she really wanted to do was snuggle. Lucikly there were plenty of welcoming arms to hold her. We did our best to keep her hydrated and cool. She took a catnap on Grandma’s lap and we knew she wasn’t quite feeling herself because she passed up a bite of ice cream and pie. She went to bed without a peep. I hope that tooth makes an appearance soon and gives my girl a much needed break.