Rehearsal Dinner

The rehearsal dinner was the first chance Abby got to see her Aunt Sarah & Aunt Amy....her FAVORITE people!! And everyone else!! She was thrilled beyond words to get to run around with them all night.

Arlene, Aunt Sarah, Abby, Aunt Amy
Aunt Amy & Maddy
Mark, Abby and Amy

Grandpa Bob, Sarah and Abby

Grandpa Bob and I

Grandpa and his girls

Justin (GROOM), Amy, Chuck & Jim

Family Trip to Arizona

Well, we survived our trip to Arizona for my cousin's wedding....but just barely!! We arrived Thursday afternoon, and Friday night Mike came down with food poisoning the night of the rehearsal dinner, forcing him to miss the nights activities sleeping off the illness in the car. Then Saturday morning I came down with the same thing (we think we got sick off of the airport sandwiches we grabbed on the go as we went to our connecting flight). By the end of the day Saturday I could barely get myself together enough, but we managed to drag ourselves and the kids to the ceremony (because we didn't fly all this way not to at least see them get married)! But we left right afterwards and had to miss the entire reception party, so it just wasn't in the cards!

The time we spent away from the bathroom was great, just not long enough!

The airline flight with 2 kids. Not so bad, Abby loved counting the airplanes on the runway as we taxied away from the gate....needless to say, lots of counting!!

We stayed the long weekend at my cousin Erin's house with her husband Jim and son Andrew (16 months old). Abby loved playing with him and all of his fun "boy" toys! Hmmm.....do we have a Packer's fan?? We just HAD to stop for In-N-Out while we were out West because I've been craving it for a year, so Abby got to enjoy her FIRST true burger (it was really a grilled cheese...close enough)! The hat was the cutest!! Andrew, chomping on a fry!After lunch we took the kids to run in the fountains. Andrew wasn't too sure, but Abby ran in/out a few times! The weather was beautiful and in the mid 80's the whole time we were there.

Open for swimming business

Well Mike has been spending a lot of time getting the pool ready for this summer. He took the cover off about 4 weeks ago and has since been working to get it clean and chemically ready.

He wanted to test the waters so to speak....60 degree waters......and he declared it open swimming season!!

Still have another 2 months for the temperature to heat up, but 60 is a 20+ degree improvement already from when he opened it last month.

Endless Eggs

Abby had a great 1st Easter experience dying eggs and searching for them. She had fun telling daddy which egg was to go in what color cup, and was very patient waiting for the color to take affect. Hopefully she realizes this is a once-a-year event, and not a frequent arts & crafts project!! The other hard lesson was that real eggs do not have chocolate in them.....I swear! She figured since the plastic ones had treats, they all should.

We even caught her mid-day sneaking a chocolate treat on her own. She came out to the living room to see me and had a guilty look on her face, as well as melted chocolate dripping from her lower lip and chocolate spread across the top of her dress. Hmmmm.....Mike took her back to her room and found a trail of pink foil pieces in her room, evidence that she opened the foil covered chocolate bunny all by herself and devoured it out of sight intentionally. Little chocolate devil!!

Then we took her outside to do an egg hunt and this has to be my favorite sequence of Abby shots in a long time. We were just trying to get her to smile holding her basket, and this is what resulted.
And then FINALLY a SMILE

I'm 5 Months Old!!!

Maddy turned 5 months old on Sunday!

She is clearly a BIG girl now. She's been on cereal and baby food for a full month, and LOVES it! Peaches, Bananas, Squash and Carrots are her favorites. Some of her new tricks are:

She still rolls from her tummy to her back; She can roll onto her side from her back-which is how she loves to sleep these days, on her side!; She can grab toys and pass it between her two hands; She loves to lay on her back and pull her feet into her chest; And best of all her sleeping has greatly improved and most nights she sleeps the full 12 hours with only getting up once to eat after about the 9 or 10 hour mark.

Bubbles

She now knows how to blow her own bubbles without mommy's help! One less thing off my to-do list!! Blowing bubbles all summer.

And I got her this cute bubble bucket that doesn't spill if (really when!!) it is tipped over.....ahhh....a little more peace of mind so she can be on her own.

Chasing "utterflys"

We've enjoyed some off & on sunshine the last few weeks and Abby's new backyard friend is this cute little white butterfly that floats in and out of our yard. Of course I couldn't get him in the shot, but here she is chasng him. She can't or doesn't put the "b" in butterfly, so she calls them "utterflys". Oh the cuteness of being innocent and 2!

Ahhh....napping

If only we all napped in a comfy swing.....mid-day nonetheless!! She had a rough day battling some constipation, so this was a much needed break (for both of us!!).

ABC's....Abby-style

Abby LOVES to sing....in fact Mike and I laugh at the funny times & places she chooses to do it. Most times at home, but other times in public randomly! Her favorite tunes are "ABCs", "Twinkle Little Star", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Old MacDonald". So far ABCs are the only one I've caught on tape.

Princesses Dancing

One of Abby's favorite things to do lately is pretend play with her princesses. So she puts them together two at a time and pretends they are dancing. She also sings her own made-up (mostly gibberish) song along with it because of course they need music to dance to!

Its close to "that time"!

Well, we are definitely getting closer to some serious potty training. I'm not at all eager to tackle this challenge, but its one of those "have to do it sometime" learning experiences, so I figure the sooner the better. I plan to do it full force after our travels in April, in the hopes that she is done by end of summer or sooner. We shall see how it goes. She has all of the "devices" and has tried a few times, with no result. We are at the point now that she tells us EVERY time she does #2.....so I'm hoping she is uncomfortable in it! And we read a "potty" book each nap & bedtime, so I hope it will all click in a month or so!
I just have to grin and bear it (and clean up the aftermath of wet floors and more laundry).

Right now she thinks the big deal is holding the toilet paper!!! I love her so much I just giggled the other day when she asked to sit on the potty, then was screaming from the potty asking for "mommy paper". I just obliged and gave her some!

"Mommy, Ducks!!"

Abby was so funny last night. I was in the kitchen making dinner and she ran in from the playroom repeating what I thought was "mommy dog mommy dog", which I thought meant for me to find her toy dog that is not more than 3 inches long. Well after pulling on me I finally followed her to the window and realized she was saying "mommy duck"! Ahhhhhh there were ducks in our front yard and she noticed them all on her own! So observant these days. So Mike took her out on the front porch to observe! Too cute. She loves pointing things out.

Maddy & Daddy's Nose

Getting pinchy! She has a tight grasp these days, and got daddy's nose.

Moments just hanging around the house

Miss Sleepy Head! Luckily she is pretty good and transplant sleeping from my arms to a soft place!

And then there's poor Roxy. She finally starts feeling better (after her run-in with some back issues) and Abby goes and decorates her with a purse! Nothing new in this house....the dog is just another child/playmate!! Luckily she is very submissive with Abby.

BIG SIS & LIL SIS!!

I finally found some cute matching "sister" shirts. Abby's is a PJ set, but she wore the shirt all day today anyways! Too cute! And I even managed to get them both looking at me in a photo! Amazing!!

I love how Abby is pointing to the words! This was her first night wearing her new special pj's!

Maddy Girl

Sleeping on daddy......and on our bed!

Bath Time

Abby's 1st real bath post-surgery! She had fun bathing behind the shower curtain for the first time. She is a shower-aholic though these days. She begs each morning to shower either with me or alone. If it didn't waste so much water I'd let her do it more often.

Lots of giggles & laughs these days!

Cute video of Maddy

Carpooling Fun

For playgroup today we went up to Newport News to see the Virginia Living Museum (very cute) And my girlfriend Jen and her kids (Abby & PJ) carpooled with us in our car.

So it was a full car load and a lot of fun. The little ones shared the stroller at the museum.