Abby Lee

1st Grade Picture Day

2011-10-06T15:21:00.004-04:00

Today is Abby's 1st grade picture day. She awakes this morning with her picture smile plastered on her face, excited to face another day, and enjoy times of learning and interactions with her friends. I have never met a person who loves school more than Abby. She gets to play and learn new things and draw. I went to her open house the other day and was pleased to hear so many great things about her and her talents. Although it was a little hard to hear her amazing singing voice while she was chewing on her hair. I say that I am going to cut it off every day and yet know that I will need to think of a different consequence. Maybe I'll start taking away toys every time I catch her. That will kill 2 birds with 1 stone, removing toys will hopefully reduce the amount of mess that currently grows in her room.

The boys are doing well. They had their 2nd birthdays two weeks ago. They are into everything and laughing at everything. I love to spend time with them and yet feel totally overwhelmed because they are into everything and nothing is ever put away for longer than 15 minutes. I cleaned the house on Tuesday Night & I know when I make it home tonight it will be a mess again. I can't believe how fast things can get spread throughout our entire house. Yesterday it was my newest knitting project...stretched across the living room floor. Holy Smokes, I was ticked! Nathan continues to have no hair, while Aleks' is getting longer & longer. It sure is a handful having 3 young kiddos at home, but you have to love them for their individuality and spunk. I wouldn't miss this time for anything!

The lake is Rising!!!

2011-05-05T17:41:00.004-04:00

Holy Cow,

The lake is above its highest level ever. I believe that is is 103 feet above sea level, which is a record. This record is making it hard for cars to get across the sandbar because there is actually water over the road. Tomorrow might be a stay-at-home day for me because of inability to get across & fear that I might not make it back.

As you can see, there is so much water! I can't believe it. I keep thinking I will get used to it but I am shocked each time I drive past.

Along with the water comes, debris. It is a mess. It will take forever to open Sandbar State Park this year...

Happy Spring 2 update in a row...

2011-04-25T20:55:00.002-04:00

Abby & Hannah the day of the 1st sleep over for Abby at a friends house.

The first big snow fall. The boys are not so sure about the snow but Jason & Abby love it. Jason came sprinting out during a commercial break for a bears game. He didn't stick for long. The bears were winning.

Abby the day of the last big snow storm. Man we got hit hard during this storm. We had to get the guys from the farm across the street to help us out. We might have to get a snow blower for next year.

Spring has sprung & Cubs baseball has started. 2 die-hard fans...we are hoping for some kid-size cubs hats.
Happy Spring!

Life as We Know It!

2011-04-24T20:32:00.003-04:00

As we continue to watch the boys grow up & develop as individuals, life as we know it continues to become more complex. We are a little overwhelmed with keeping sane as we live in a house with 3 children who are becoming more and more independent. The boys have been happily contained within our outdoor play yard for the past 9 months. They played together nicely and spent time playing with harmonicas and different balls & looking at books. Over the last week or so we have enabled them some freedom, allowing them to walk around the house...and so they hate going back into the play yard. They are mean to each other, rather Nathan is mean to Aleks...pushing him over, stealing his toys, pulling on his sleeve so that his arm falls out of his neck hole. It is bad. Aleks is starting to fuss at everything and Nathan only wants what someone else has. We watched Nathan cycle between taking a talking birthday greeting card that Aleks was playing with & messing with Abby's DVD player. He would steal the card, Aleks would start crying, Abby would come get the card & give it back to Aleks, Nathan would run over to where Abby's DVD player was & start pushing buttons, Abby would run over & move the DVD player, Nathan would cycle back to Aleks & steal the card again, Abby would come save the day, etc, etc. So with the freedom of the boys comes the constant chaos of our house. Our books shelves are constantly being cleared, our tupperware & baby dishes are spread throughout the kitchen, and if we happen to be watching something in the living room & the boys are free than we know that sooner than later the boys will make the Cds start playing instead of the TV show. And it could keep happening time after time.

The boys are loving being outside. They spend a lot of time walking around the yard & picking up things. They love swinging and riding in the cart. Jason is glad to be out of the house as well. We have started our garden seedlings. They are looking good so far, I just hope that they don't die before we can get them into the ground. This year we are trying to plant things that we might actually eat. The dilemma that I have with planting & growing a garden is that I don't truly know what to do with all of the things that grow & I hate weeding...thus it makes life difficult for my plants & produce.

Nathan and Aleks are both getting teeth. I think they are called the eye teeth? Either way it is pretty painful & highly drooly. The boys are pretty fussy at night and Nathan is no longer sleeping through the night. It is such a bummer. Aleks is still able to sleep & is winning the prize for calmest, most chill baby. Nathan does have a lot of redeeming qualities including his ability to smile at everything & being a happy baby in public. He knows to save his ear piercing screams for the house! Nathan is also an expert climber. We currently have 2 dining room chairs & a kitchen stool in the bathroom. Why you might ask? It is pretty nerve wracking to have a youngster who can climb up things but doesn't know how to get down. The other morning we were getting ready to go out. Jason put Nathan down, got his shoes on, turned around & Nathan was up at the top of the stairs crying. At least he wasn't at the bottom of the stairs crying. It could have been worse.

Oh well, This is a pretty intense update, which hasn't been done in forever. I hope it isn't as long a break between updates next time.

St. Patrick's Day Update!

2011-03-17T13:04:00.003-04:00

Holy cow it has been so long since we have posted. Things are going well. The boys are growing big & Abby gets smarter every day at school.

She is very interested in writing & reading right now. Abby loves the fairy series by Daisy Meadows. I have read more Fairy books in the last couple of months than I thought to ever read. They are a pretty good story though. Kirsty & Rachel always save the fairy from Jack Frost's goblins. Abby's next fairy book is Cherry, the Cake Fairy.

She is pretty excited to read more and more of these books. Luckily there are over 14 different types of fairies with 7 different fairies in each type. That means 98 different fairy books that we can read to Abby for bed time stories. So far we have read the Rainbow Fairies & the Weather Fairies, We have just started the Party Fairies. Abby even creates her own Fairy books. This week's installment was entitled Fairy Games. Fairies play tag, & hide & seek...pretty awesome to see her growing up. Such a great time to be a parent. She is always gaining more knowledge each & every day. Jason & I love it.

The boys are growing big & getting different personalities. Nathan got the stomach bug over February vacation, which enabled Aleks the chance to shine on his own. It was great to see him talking more and laughing with an adult and wanting more attention. Nathan definitely wants center stage all the time, which makes it more difficult to make sure that Aleks is getting attention as well. I have been trying to make special time for Aleks, which is great for him but makes Nathan jealous. The two boys also bicker & steal toys from each other, usually Nathan from Aleks. This makes Aleks cry. Jason is really working on having Nathan share, I usually tell Aleks to push Nathan. Unfortunately this backfired this morning, when Nathan pushed Aleks instead. Oops!

OH well, until next time!

December

2010-12-05T15:43:00.002-05:00

Can you believe that it is Decmeber already? We can't. It feels like forever since we posted on our blog but life is crazy as always and we do what we can. As I am trying to get a handle on having 3 kids and working full time and having a husband who does the same, I realize that I need more organization in my life because things are slipping through the cracks and we need to get control! So perhaps we'll set up a blogging schedule. Much like baths are scheduled through our week. So too will be family updates! Keep your fingers crossed!

We'll post more soon.

Updated Pictures

2010-10-07T18:52:00.002-04:00

Things are a little crazy right now but I thought I would share some cute photos. We are planning to get pictures done soon. Keep your fingers crossed that we actually follow through.

Abby's First 5 years!!!

2010-10-01T19:49:00.001-04:00

Make a picture slideshow

Times are Changing

2010-09-04T11:07:00.002-04:00

Oh how things are changing. Abby will be starting Kindergarten on Tuesday. I can't believe that the day has come that she will be starting school. I have heard that time will start flying by now. I am so excited that she is going but also sad because it means she is growing up. How interesting it will be to see how she changes as she starts to learn more from her teachers and also from her peers. I think she is pretty excited though! She went to a Kindergarten Orientation with Jason yesterday and it looks to be a good class. I guess I should go get her a backpack for school... I wonder what else a Kindergartner needs to begin school.

It will be a busy September. Abby starts school on Tuesday, Mary & Paul get married on September 18th, and Abby & the boys have birthdays in September. I keep thinking back to last year at this time and feeling so uncomfortable and being sick. I am so glad that the boys are healthy and everything turned out fine. Hard to believe that they will be a year old in just a couple weeks. Aleks is sporting 6 teeth & weighing in at 14 pounds. Nathan only has 4 teeth and at last appointment weighed 17 pounds. Both boys like to make noises and "talk" with each other. Nathan can crawl with his belly off of the ground and Aleks still army crawls. They can do the touchdown motion and clap their hands. It is amazing to watch them right now...well except when it is bed time.

This year ought to be a busy one for me at school but hopefully i can be better at posting on our blog. I have gotten lazy, with it being so easy to post on facebook I frequently forget to come this way. At this time we will continue to post here because who knows how long facebook will be around & be used...Blogspot apparently has longevity.

Pictures from our Phones...

2010-09-01T18:36:00.003-04:00

We finally downloaded the pictures that we have been carrying around on our phones...They are pretty interesting. See following snapshots of our lives.

Text sent to Jason accompanying this picture "Nathan's new toy":

Our new car:

Nathan learning to climb up objects:

Our first fight:

"Hey Nathan...what is that in your ear?"

Text sent to Jason "look what Anthony caught"

Trying to figure out how to take a picture of Alex over the back of the seat.

Abby picking Strawberries. I love the colors on these pictures.

Pre-Kindergarten Graduation

2010-06-16T20:23:00.004-04:00

Abby graduated from Pre-Kindergarten this morning. How awesome. It was the cutest thing. The kids all came out with their classmates and sat in one of the 17 chairs. Some words were said by one of the teachers and then each student was called by their first & last name. They would stand up, walk across the balance beam that was precariously balanced on a hill and receive their Diploma/Certificate.

After the ceremony, there was a potluck, where we found out that Abby might have 3 sets of twins in her Kindergarten Class, as opposed to 2 sets. Isn't that crazy. I don't remember any twins when I was going to school. Abby will have 3 sets possibly in her class. 1 set belongs to a girl that was in my class growing up. Abby is super excited about Kindergarten but more excited about the fact that she has a lot of "stay-at-home" days coming up and the family will be hanging out together. I am pretty excited about this as well. We have a bunch of things planned for the summer including Camping in the end of July, Summer Camp/School during the month of July, North Carolina in August perhaps by the way of Illinois. It should be fun. Our first real trips with the boys--Visiting friends--a great wedding in the mountains of North Carolina--and we have a garden. Can't wait to get started!

2010-05-12T21:04:00.002-04:00

Things are getting crazy over at our house! Nathan is army crawling all over the place & can pull himself up. Aleks has 2 teeth that are fully in and can definitely cause some damage. Abby got approved for starting kindergarten next year! Big Doings! I am sure they will just keep coming.

playing on this mat is fun for all three!

Nathan is a sucker for the camera!

Auntie Mary has taken up shearing sheep. She is amazing at it! So strong. we got to go on a field trip to watch.

I have noticed thst my posts aren't as narrative as in the past. i'll place blame on one handed typing & nursing babies...perhaps some day i'll have time & inclination to write more. For now enjoy the photos.

Spring Videos

2010-05-06T21:12:00.006-04:00

We have been spending a lot of time outdoors as the weather is changing. It will be so great to be outside enjoying the weather this summer with the babies. I am pretty excited. Our first summer with Abby was really hot in North Carolina & we didn't have a yard so we spent much of the time indoors. Fun in the Sun by the pool & on the swing. Can't wait. The funniest thing about the first clip is Nathan's feet.

Abby is starting to know how to swing on her own but still loves pushes from Mommy and Daddy.

Some fun pictures, etc.

2010-04-05T20:07:00.002-04:00

Abby is getting pretty awesome at drawing. I personally love pictures of our family! We got an awesome one for Christmas that is framed and on our wall.

I believe that this one of the best preggo pictures that was taken of me. I love it...it was one of my good friend's wedding. I love weddings! Luckily I have 2 weddings this summer that I am going to be a part of. One in North Carolina for my friend Sheridan, & my sister Mary is getting married in September! I can't wait.

These are pictures of the 1st week of the boys life. Nathan is wearing green...Aleks is wearing blue. Can you believe that they are 6 months old?? They started out at 5lbs & now weigh in at 14 lbs 7oz & 11lbs 15oz. I love that we are able to get outside. Easter was last weekend and it was almost 80 degrees IN VERMONT!! Summer is coming.

March Pictures...Can you believe 5 months have gone by?

2010-03-02T19:32:00.004-05:00

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Aleksander...

and Nathaniel...

I think that these two previous pictures are the funniest that I have taken so far...

Over my february break we took a quick run down to see Mary for dinner & cookies. It was a nice trip. Abby had a great time hanging out with her "Aunt Mary."

Abby sporting a new hat from Mary...Nathan had a photo shoot a couple of days later as well.

Nathan is getting bigger & bigger...

AS you can see we have started Nathan on some Green Beans. He is loving them. He ate a whole container tonight by himself. Aleks isn't so excited about food. Every time I give him a bite he makes the funniest face. We'll keep trying. Hopefully soon he too will be eating foods and getting big & strong.

February...

2010-02-20T07:52:00.004-05:00

It feels like forever since we have posted and actually said how things are going. The boys are continuing to get bigger and Abby is becoming a pretty good big sister. Although she goes through time periods where she isn't very nice to the boys she loves them and tries to make them smile any time she can. Abby got Skis for Christmas and Mary & Paul came up on our only snow fall of the year to show her how to use them. I am thinking about getting a pair next year. It would be awesome for the whole family to go out skiing.

Abby and I chose these halloween costumes back in August and I have to say that I was a little bummed that they were too big for the boys this past October. So I have been using them as pajamas because they are made out of fleece and should keep them nice & warm.

Jason and I are trying to take pictures of the boys to record their development. Some days we take tons others not so many. We'll keep trying to keep you updated. I have to go get the camera because Nathan is going to start his first real food. Enjoy the rest of the pictures!

2010-01-24T20:20:00.003-05:00

we have been pretty busy so far this year. The boys are growing quickly and getting bigger each and every day. It has been interesting to check their growth incomparision to Abby's. I am so glad that we have kept this blog because we are able to read about when Abby was 4 months and compare the babies faces to what she looked like. We have some videos that I'll try and post to make sure that you too get to enjoy our boys.

In-home photo shoot...

2009-12-29T08:16:00.003-05:00

this is how the shoot started out...smiles and giggles...

Aleks on the left, nathan on the right.

Aleks above & nathan below

the shoot ended with pushing & shoving & some tears...

videos...

2009-12-14T18:22:00.002-05:00

Nathan rolls over...

some thanksgiving pictures. more to come!!!

2009-11-30T06:17:00.002-05:00

ABBY & ALEKS

NATHAN'S BIG SMILE.

WHAT IT TYPCALLY LOOKS LIKE AT OUR HOUSE. SCREAMING BABIES & SLY ABBY.

They are Here!!!

2009-11-16T21:18:00.006-05:00

The birth of our twins was completely different from the birth of our daughter. Abigail was born without any pain medication. We did most of our laboring at home without realizing it. The twins’ birth story started almost two whole weeks prior to their birth. Two Thursdays prior to the twins’ birth, I started having pre-uterine contractions. I didn’t really know what was going on besides the fact that my super huge belly had been rock hard since 4 o’clock in the afternoon and at 2AM it was still hard and I was feeling discomfort. Also I was pretty sure that some pains had been coming regularly and were getting more intense. So Jason and I called my mom, wrapped Abby in a blanket, dropped her off at my parents and headed into town. We spent the next 2 hours in Burlington at the hospital getting checked out. After determining that I was not going into labor but I was 3 cm dilated, they sent me home and said to take it easy. So I did. I felt OK after this appointment until the following Thursday when the pain had returned and felt worse than before. This time it was 1 in the afternoon. Jason was in town so I drove myself to the hospital, where he met me. We got evaluated, the pain had lessened a little bit so they again said take it easy you’ll be fine. The next day I had a doctor’s appointment with Dr. Young. I felt OK on Friday- I had even lost 8 pounds. I did tell Dr. Young that I didn’t want to be pregnant any more. Since I was at 36 weeks, I expected him to be OK with that statement. He warned me that it was still a little early for me to be having the boys. We did decide that it was time for me to stop working and take care of myself and the babies. I was OK with this. The week before I had decided that I definitely couldn’t work full time and had reduced to ½ time. Now I wouldn’t go to work at all. Saturday I spent most of the day in bed. My body was really tired and I didn’t feel good. I couldn’t eat anything, which is totally unlike me. The food that I did eat which included crackers and apple chunks didn’t stay in my belly very long. I felt so nauseous I couldn’t drink any water either. So I was getting hungry and dehydrated. I spent Saturday, Sunday, and Monday in bed. I watched a lot of movies, read a bunch of books, and spent time on the computer. I don’t know how people spend months on bed rest, I think that I would get super bored and uncomfortable in bed. I would much prefer to be out and about talking with people and being outside than in a bed. Ick. Monday I noticed that my urine was orange. It had been more yellow because of the prenatal vitamin that I had been taking but this was a significant color difference. I still wasn’t eating and was drinking very little. Everything that I ate…including 3 crackers and 1 slice of apple didn’t stay down and I could find no comfortable position. I had decided if I didn’t feel better on Tuesday than I was going to call the nurse and tell her. Sure enough Tuesday morning still felt really crummy and nauseous, I called the nurse and got an appointment for 1:30 that afternoon with my doctor. I was excited and relieved to have an appointment and hopefully feel better. I spent the morning in bed trying to keep the piece of apple that I had eaten in my belly. Before too long it was time to head into my appointment. We headed into Burlington to await my time with Dr. Young. I was called and got weighed. Amazingly I had lost 5 more pounds. We were brought to a room, my blood pressure was measured and I gave a urine sample. Dr. Young came in and checked me out saying that I was no longer dilated but he thought that I should be evaluated by labor & delivery due to a high blood pressure and the fact that my urine was a dark reddish orange color. By this time I was crying because I felt really crummy. I must have looked pretty bad as well because Dr. Young stated that I looked really pathetic. We headed up to Labor & delivery. After waiting 10-15 minutes we were brought into a huge room with a pretty amazing view. I was given a gown and the testing began. I was given an IV with liquids because I was severely dehydrated. Blood was drawn with great difficulty leaving a number of different bruises and bandages. Another urine sample was given and this time my urine was the color of a Coke soda. Jason and I waited to hear from the doctors. We realized during the time period that we hadn’t brought our camera—what if we ended up having these babies today. We also didn’t have the car seats in the car and Jason hadn’t packed an overnight bag. We were totally unprepared to stay and have these babies. After sitting around for 2 hours Jason decided to run home and gather up our forgotten supplies and take care of some loose ends at the house. I got some rest and talked with the nurse, who was a little bit overbearing. Jason was gone longer than we expected. After about an hour the doctor came back in and started explaining what was going on. The blood tests had revealed that I had HELLP Syndrome. HELLP Syndrome is part of the Pre-eclampsia spectrum. HELLP stands for Hemolytic anemia, Elevated Liver enzymes, & Low Platelet count. The protein in my urine showed my liver problems along with the pain that I was having in my upper left abdomen. My blood pressure wasn’t excessively high which is what was confusing my doctors. When they ran my blood samples they found that my platelet level was at 33,000. The average platelet level is 150,000-400,000. I was in the Severe classification of my platelet level. This was alarming to my doctors. The treatment for HELLP syndrome is the birth of the baby and the removal of the placenta. The doctors explained all of this saying that we would have to have a C-Section as soon as possible. Prior to this operation they would need to talk to the anesthesiologist and determine how the procedure would occur—if I would be awake for the procedure or completely under. The dilemma was the placement of the injection for the anesthesia would be in the spine if I was to remain awake. Since my platelet level was low there could be a problem with clotting in the spinal region. So most likely I would be given a general anesthesia and be completely asleep. These discussions were occurring while Jason was still not in the hospital. It was decided that I needed to be given an IV of platelets & that I would have to receive a general anesthesia because the anesthesiologist believed this to be the safest route to my delivery of the twins safely and my own return to good health. All decisions were made and the forms signed before Jason’s return to the hospital. I assume that he was totally overwhelmed by receiving this information upon his return and didn’t truly know what was going on. Due to me receiving a general anesthesia Jason would not be allowed in the delivery room. This was a little bit alarming. This wasn’t turning out to be the delivery I thought it was going to be. I received the platelets, was told that I didn’t need to have the magnesium until after the surgery ( HELLP patients can experience seizures following the delivery, thus they are given magnesium either prior or following surgery or both. I was told that I would be given the magnesium post surgery.) I was rolled into surgery at 9 and told it would be done in very short time. I was awake for the roll down the hall. This is when I started to get scared. I was assisted onto the operating table and given a mask to put me under. It took a while for me to go under. I remember starting to panic because I couldn’t get a full breath. The next piece I remember I was back in the room. The boys were not in the room yet. I was evaluated and given a magnesium IV. Jason went to go find the boys & returned with our beautiful sons. Nathaniel weighed 5 lbs 4 oz, and Aleksander weighed 5 lbs, 3oz. The rest of the evening past with the help of the evening nurses helping me with getting the boys to nurse and keeping an eye on my breathing. Magnesium makes you very tired and makes it really hard to concentrate on conversations and anything longer than a couple of seconds. We spent the next day on the labor & delivery floor. Luckily Jason was around for most of the day and could help me focus on conversations with the doctors. My mom came to visit me in my room. While she and I were talking, Jason went down to the lobby and spent time with Abby. They got a stuffed Kitty that was for Abby to hug whenever she missed her mommy & daddy while we were in the hospital.

Mom was able to stick around for about an hour and talk. It was a little weird because my nurse never left the room to give us privacy and would add comments to our conversation. It was nice that Mom can by and took some pictures. I sent out text messages & called some people but from what I hear I wasn’t very coherent when talking to people. I remember one time talking with Jason and mid conversation I passed out. I awoke seconds later and apologized. Jason said my eyes rolled back into my head. We stayed on L&D until 11PM. At 11PM we were moved down to the maternity floor. Because we had two babies we got our own room, which was nice. Jason was able to get his own bed and he soon fell asleep. I was set up with the boys near by and pillows propping me up. The nurse came by every 2 hours or so to give me pain medication and help me with nursing and bathroom needs. We spent Thursday, Friday, and part of Saturday in this room. I was doing well but being watched because of some liquid that could be in my lungs and my inability to breath in with force. I was also being told that I needed to cough up anything I had in my chest even though it hurt a lot. Visitation was limited due to the spread of the flu. My friend Laura came by on our first day and Mary & Paul came on Friday to spend the day and bring some snacks and take pictures. Apparently I looked pretty pale when they came to visit.

Doctor Young also came by to see how I was doing and to say he was sorry that he hadn’t caught the HELLP syndrome symptoms earlier. I had an atypical presentation and due to the fact that my blood pressure never rose alarmingly this possible syndrome didn’t come up. Each day I felt better and stronger. We were hoping to leave on Saturday because it was Abby’s birthday. We got our wish and were able to leave around noon. It was a little emotional for me because all of a sudden we were totally responsible for these two little beings. I was feeling better but still hurting when I moved too quickly. We picked up Subway for lunch and headed home. Mom brought Abby home and she met her brothers for the first time.

It has been 7 weeks. They have been hard and the boys have grown a lot. I have 2 more weeks until I return to work. Jason will be staying home during the day to take care of the boys and will hopefully be getting a job at night to help with the bills. We are slowly getting back on our feet. Having 3 children is much more difficult than 1 and having twins is much more stressful than a singleton. We’ll keep you posted on the exciting lives of the Lee children and try and be better about posting pictures in the upcoming months. Thank you to everyone for prayers, support and gifts. We love you all.

-Emily

A Final Summer Post

2009-10-08T08:41:00.006-04:00

This summer was busy. We spent a lot of time hanging out around the house but doing different things. One of the exciting things that we did this summer was go berry picking. We picked Strawberries in late June and then Blueberries in early August. Blueberry picking was much easier and enjoyable this summer in comparison to last summer. Last year Abby kind of ran around and it was stressful because she wouldn't stick where I could see her. This year she helped picked berries and stayed close by jason and I as we picked 2 flats of berries. I also made my first batch of blueberry jam this summer. It was my first experience with jamming and canning. I have to say that I am feeling pretty good about the end product. Unfortunately it was my one and only time this summer. It took a lot of energy and focus that I didn't have in August due to the growth of the twin boys.

We went camping once this summer as well. It was only a one time occurance because it was very difficult for me to get comfortable sleeping on the ground. It was a great time though. Jason's band, The Benson Beaver Band, was invited to play at the Fletcher Fest, a camping party that is really a get together of a couple and all of their friends. It was a great party. The turn out was good, there was a badminton tournament that Jason participated in, and a bunch of kids that Abby got to play with and hang out with.

We sat front row for the tournament and cheered Jason on. Abby loved drawing and running around with kids her age. We have noticed a great desire that Abby is showing to play with kids her own age. Luckily we have signed her up for pre-school in the fall which will enable her to join in with kids her age and also out of the house.

The coolest thing that we found at the party was this car. Abby was thoroughly entranced by the fact that there was a car that was just her size. It kept her entertained for a long time.

As I was saying things were getting more difficult as the summer went on. It might have something to do with the fact that I was getting bigger and bigger as the twins progressed. Also most of the summer was quite cool and then in August we hit a heat wave. Well atleast a heat wave in comparison to the rest of the summer. As you can see I got pretty huge. This wasn't even the largest.

Abby spent the summer trying some different foods and doing new experiences. Watermelon is one of her new favorite foods. I got a watermelon from the farmer's market and brought it home to share with Abby. We cut into the watermelon expecting to see ripe pink watermelon, instead it was a yellow watermelon. I hadn't ever seen one before. Abby was surprised and not quite sure what to think about the different colored fruit.

Here she is eating waffles, her new favorite breakfast food. She likes it soaked full of syrup.

Most of our summer was spent in our backyard. The pool was the best place ever this summer. I don't know how I would have survived being pregnant this summer without being able to go out to the pool every day. It made me feel human. I continued this pattern even when I returned to school. One week it was colder out of the water than in it but I was so uncomfortable being so large that I had to get in. It was awesome.

Abby loved going in the pool as well. We spent time with the noodles and also just playing around.

Our friends, Heather and her daughter Lauren came over to play a couple of different times. Abby loved having people over, especially to swim in the pool. I think that next year we'll be even more popular & have more people over.

Abby has grown up so much this summer. I can't believe that our little girl is turning 4 in September. She picks up on things right away and although appears not to be listening, can and will tell you exactly what you said. Which can be a bad thing. We definitely have to watch what we are talking about in front of her because she'll ask you about it later.

The summer ended with a party on my birthday. It was a big birthday-30! We were celebrating our upcoming birth of twins, the purchase of our house, & my birthday. It was a good time. Jason gave me a beautiful rose and also finished staining our dining room table. He still needs to put another layer on the table but hopefully by thanksgiving we'll have the table in the house.

As the summer draws to a close, I think that Abby is slowly realizing that things are going to be changing. My belly continues to get huge. She likes to talk to the boys and tell them how she will be a great big sister and teach them lots of different things. She also likes to give my belly zerberts. I think that she believes that the babies can hear/feel the vibrations through my belly.

She frequently asks me if I will feel better after the babies will be born. I know that she is bummed that I don't do as much as I did prior to being pregs. It'll be nice to get out and go and not be carrying a huge belly...now we'll just have 2 more kids to care for. No problem.

One of our last adventures on the summer was to the art hop in burlington. Jason's band was playing an afternoon show on a saturday. So Abby and I headed into town. We spent an enjoyable afternoon listening to the band play and enjoying being outside.

Abby played with her girls and admired Andi's dress. Andi sings in the band. Abby did a little bit of dancing but really just enjoyed the afternoon.

I return to work in late August and did well for the first three weeks. And then it got to be a little bit much. At first I modified my schedule be reduced by 25-50%. By the next week, I was out of work for good. I spent the time trying to relax and be comfortable. I think that Abby enjoys me being around.

My thought is that the boys will be coming soon. Stay tuned. We'll post as soon as we can.

Jason & Abby storm California

2009-10-01T17:22:00.004-04:00

Jason and Abby went to California in July for Sue's wedding. Jason was a little concerned prior to leaving for the trip but from what I heard everything went great. The trip started out with Abby getting to visit the cockpit of the plane. She got to sit up front and talk with the pilot. I thought that this was pretty awesome. I am kind of jealous. She of course loved the attention and Jason thought it was pretty cool as well.

The highlight of the trip out to the west coast was that most of the family got to meet Zoe for the first time. Sue's daughter was born in March and for many of us/ all of us it was the first time that she was met. Zoe is a beautiful baby and apparently loved to have her picture taken. Abby enjoyed meeting her newest cousin but I believe that her cousin Allyson held the most interest for Abby. It was someone that she could play with and have them interact with her as well.

Here the two older girls sat on the floor enjoying ice cream with their uncle Matt. It does look like the coolest place to be. I would have loved to been sitting there with them.

The wedding was a great hit for the whole family but I think the part that most people enjoyed the most was the pinata that was packed and hung and hit the night before the wedding. Abby is still talking about the fun that she had and we are still eating the candy that she brought home with her and it is almost 4 months later.

In between wedding events the family explored the beaches and took many walks enjoying the sun of San Diego. This picture accentuates the length of Jason's beard. It has since been cut but this shows his length.

A parting shot of the girls who had a great time playing in the California sun.

New Pictures of the Twins

2009-08-04T12:31:00.004-04:00

We got 3-D pictures of the twins the other day and wanted to share. The first picture is of Twin A. In the picture you can see his face and his hand right in front of his mouth. There looks to be another arm or something under the baby's chin. i don't know what that is but you can see eyes, nose, mouth, and fisted hand and arm.

The second picture is of Twin B. You can see ear, eyes, nose, and semi-open mouth. Pretty amazing what you can see in these pictures.

Things are going well with the boys. At last measurement they were 2 pounds 10 oz & 2 pounds 6 oz. We will do a measurement on Friday so I am sure we will have more information then.

A busy July...

2009-07-26T16:31:00.004-04:00

We have had a busy July. Jason's Brother and his wife, Brian & Kendra came for a visit of the fourth of July and also the third which was Brian's birthday.

Abby made Brian a birthday cake. Under all of those sprinkles it says happy birthday uncle brian. And then Kendra let abby decorate with M & Ms and sprinkles. The M&Ms were strategically placed one by one. then came the sprinkles. A little here, a little there, a little bit more over here...and so it went until the entire bottle of sprinkles was on the frosted cake.

The fourth of July parade consisted of the same floats that they have every year...and yet it never gets old. Brian took loads of pictures. I am going to rifle through mom and dads photos and scan the ones from the 1980s and we'll see how closely they align. Abby had fun playing in the bird bath prior to parade while the rest of us ate yummy sticky buns.

We ended up brian & Kendra's visit with a trip into Burlington. We started out in barnes & noble, ate some pizza at American Flat Bread and rounded out the adventure with free music and wading in one of burlington's fountains and then down to the waterfront to look at the lake.

It was a great time for Abby and for us to see Brian & Kendra. A week later Jason's Mom and Dad came driving over from Michigan. We spent a lot of the week hanging out at our house. Abby decided she wanted to create some balloon animals & hats by herself, which actually turned out really cool

We had dinner with my parents & also Bonnie & Kevin. Dinner was awesome full of yummy food and lots of laughs. Our last full day together we went down to waterbury to visit ben & jerry's and have the tour. Abby loves ice cream so a good time was had by all, except for the ride home but finally everyone in the back seat fell asleep.

The end of July brought a big vacation for Jason and Abby. They headed out to California on the 21st to spend a week with the Lake family for the celebration of Sue's wedding to Alfonso. Hopefully we will have some awesome pictures to put up as soon as they return. I spent the week reading and relaxing. And thinking about weeding the garden...yuck!

Fun in the Sun

2009-07-02T07:46:00.002-04:00

Things have been busy so far this summer. Jason is still working at Healthy Living his regular hours and I have been working at Pomykala Farm with Pick-You-Own strawberries. I am done with that which is good because I am definitely starting to feel super pregnant and I still have 3 months to go. Holy Cow. Abby has been enjoying the pool and her swing set at the new house. She truly loves the color pink and wants everything to be pink. She has a pair of pink sunglasses that turn the world pink. I am surprised she doesn't wear them everyday.

Abby has become pretty skilled at her swing set. On the far right she has a swinging bar that she can do flips while holding on to the bar. She also has hung by her legs from the bar. Pretty awesome. I am continually impressed by the things that she is learning and doing. Jason has taught her a couple of words...furious, migration, and extinction. I think her vocabulary is slowly growing.

She also loves music and dancing. She and Mary had a dancing session the other day. It was pretty funny. She is getting really good. We will have to look into a dance class later this summer or fall.

You will notice on her head a crown! She went to the dentist for the 1st time and had a cleaning and did amazing! We were really proud of her.

Twin pictures...

2009-06-06T08:33:00.002-04:00

Here are some ultrasounds so that you too can see what our boys are up to. The first picture is of Twin A's spine and rib cage from the back

This is a current position for the boys, heads together conferencing...plotting.

Twin B is yawning really big in this photo.

Twin B profile

The pregnancy is going pretty smoothly. I am definitely more anxious this time around that something might happen. We were pretty shocked about having twins and were told frequently that twins can have more issues so we need to be more careful about diet (which I am only doing OK with. Apparently these boys want a lot of red meat--HAMBURGERS!! YUMMY!), taking my vitamins, etc. We are currently going to the doctor's once a week for ultrasounds because I got 5ths virus from the school that I work at. It is also slapped cheek disease. It is called that because you get a rash that looks like you got slapped on the cheek really hard. Anyway, the last two ultrasounds have been fine so we are pretty optimistic that everything will be fine. We'll keep you updated!

Pictures from North Carolina and ...

2009-05-30T18:53:00.010-04:00

A couple of months ago, Abby, Jason and I headed down to North Carolina to visit our friends and see how much things had changed in the last year or so. Somethings had changed a bunch and others were just that same as when we left them and we were able to slip right back into our old routines.

Our first stop upon entering North Carolina was a homemade southern meal made by Nanny (aka Hazel. Abby's care giver from age 1 until moving to Vermont). It was an amazing meal and was attended by Hazel's whole family. We arrived early and Abby was able to check out all of her old toys.

Dinner was spent hanging out with Moriah, Hazel's great-granddaughter. Abby and Moriah spent a bunch of time together when Hazel was watching Abby. It was a nice time and we were super full by the time we left their house.

We drove over to our friend's Kelly, Scott and Dakota. Dakota is about 8 months younger than Abby but they play relatively well together. Since Kelly and I still talk frequently Abby and Dakota are still pretty good friends. Abby consistently talks about Dakota and about how we are going to go visit them. "We'll go over to Dakota's house tomorrow, right mommy?" Is a question I frequently hear.

Abby and Dakota did a good job being nice to each other and did a good job being kind to William, a younger baby that came to hang out during girl's night. Girl's night gave me the opportunity to see a bunch of friends in one place and check in to how everyone was doing. It was great to see Sharon and Rhiannon and all the other girls that I hadn't seen in a long time. And of course anytime to hang out with Kelly is good.

Abby was in rare form showing of her amazing dancing skills which include attempting a cartwheel over and over and over again. We are thinking that Dance lessons are in her future. She loves watching Angelina Ballerina right now. We'll see what we can do.

The next night we went to hang out with the Bentsen boys, Carter and Lukas, and the Swann kiddos, Webb and Emerson. It was a nice dinner and a good time to check in with our growing families. Abby is the oldest kiddo but everyone else is pretty close behind. The only thing missing was Brad, Christa and their baby, Griffin. Unfortunately they moved to the other side of North Carolina and couldn't make it for dinner. Bummer.

By the end of the week, Abby was exhausted. She took long naps in the car with her newest friend, Mommy Pacca. Mommy Pacca joins baby pacca that Abby has loved since September. I am pretty excited that Abby enjoys and plays with stuffed Alpacas. They are still one of our favorite toys to play with, although last night Mommy Paca spent the night with Mommy and Daddy in their room. She was tucked under the blankets at my pillow. It was really sweet. Just what I needed, especially since I have been having trouble sleeping. I can't seem to get comfortable.

On Thursday morning, Abby, Jason and I headed to Raleigh to spend some time with my college roommate, Emily Sheridan. Jason was flying out the next morning so it was a perfect plan. Sheridan and I went to all of my favorite places--Champs for the California Chicken Wrap, Cook-Out for a Triple Berry milkshake, Edward McKay's for used books & movies, Target for a mini DVD player so that Abby would be entertained on the ride home. It was a good day. We also went out to breakfast and got Pancakes--Abby's absolute favorite breakfast food at this point in time.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from my ride home but it was eventful. I headed up to my brother Matt's house on Saturday stopping in DC to visit Patrick and Lisette and their two sons, Alex & Max. It was a nice time to check in. It had been a long time since I had seen the Burton family. They are doing awesome and the boys are so tall. I can't believe that Alex is the same kiddo that I was hanging out with when I tore my hamstring and was limping around on crutches at camp. After a break spent chatting about old times, I headed up to Annapolis where I met up with my Brother Matt. We spent some time at his house and then headed out for dinner. Our Cousin Sharon drove all the way over to have dinner with us. I didn't realize at this time that she drove 2 hours to come for dinner. It was a good time. She ended up spending the night in Maryland, where we hung out watching movies and waiting for Ruth to get home. We went out for breakfast that morning with my roommate from freshman year and her husband, which was really nice. It has been a long time since I had seen her either. After spending most of Sunday hanging out and watching movies, we stayed up really late with Ruth, Ruth's son Brad & his girlfriend, who Abby loved because she used to be Princess Jasmine in Disney Land; Sharon & Matt. The next morning Abby and I left and started home. Unfortunately we hit a huge snow storm that stuck with us the entire way from Maryland home to Vermont. I don't think I have ever seen a landscape so white before. The road was white, the sky was white, the tree was white, everywhere we looked, Abby and I saw white. We finally made it home and Jason helped me unpack. The next day I spent on the couch sleeping and enjoying being home.

A couple of weeks later, Mary & Paul, Mom & Dad, Jason & I headed up to Montreal to hangout and enjoy the city. Abby spent the weekend on a sleep over with three of her favorite people from church. It was a great weekend.

The next two pictures show two amazing things. Abby enjoying her last few days in my parents house...and then Abby enjoying our new house! We are still pretty excited about the new house and haven't finished unpacking but that is what I can do when I am on Summer break! Yippee it is coming soon. 2 more weeks.

Hannah's 3rd Birthday Party!

2009-05-02T18:57:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone! I know that everyone expects this to be a super long post with information about the new house and perhaps a little information about the twins that are growing in my belly but unfortunately for you this is a short post with a bunch of pictures from a birthday party that we went to today. Abby and I ventured to Richford this afternoon and hung out with Hannah and a couple of old Covenant Hills friends. It was a food filled afternoon and a bunch of laughs. Abby did awesome until Hannah opened gifts. I know that Abby totally wanted what Hannah got, especially what we gave her and also the really cool doll house furniture to go into Hannah's Super Duper Doll House.

Fun with Grammy & Poppy

2009-03-14T15:01:00.002-04:00

Grammy and Poppy have definitely saved Jason and I lately by taking Abby for an afternoon. It makes it easier for Jason and I to get things done with out the wonderful presence of our daughter. I am pretty sure that Grammy & Poppy like it too. Some days they just hang out at the house but usually they go for a walk.

Here Poppy and Abby are heading down to see our friends Bonnie & Kevin. Abby gets to ride around on the tricycle that Bonnie has available. We have to put in a big thank you to Kyle, Bonnie & Kevin's son who painted the bike that Abby now gets to use when she visits their house.

Grammy & Poppy just returned from a fun vacation in California, where unfortunately they missed the birth of Zoe, Sue's Baby. They did relive the experience by pulling out Poppy's sombrero. Abby loved it.

Abby has become much more affectionate in the last month or so. She likes to crawl up into people lap, is frequently giving hugs and spends a lot of time in our laps. Grammy & Abby spend a lot of time making faces at each other and laughing. Yesterday Grammy was complaining of how cold her hands were. Abby decided to warm them up by offering her warm belly as a place for Grammy's hands. Grammy would place her hands on Abby's belly and Abby would pull away giggling and yet, Abby kept coming back for more. Cold Hands down your shirt. The Lake kids should remember it well.

Mary's Cupcake for her birthday

2009-02-14T10:36:00.001-05:00

Here are the cupcakes that Abby and I made for Mary's birthday. We'll have more pictures soon but thought that these were totally awesome. This was our first try. Pretty Awesome! Happy Birthday Mary!

The first of our Christmas posts...

2009-02-14T07:35:00.008-05:00

Our Christmas was super busy this year. We experiences the Amtrak way of travel from Vermont to Michigan. all in all it was a pretty good trip. We had to drive from Vermont to Schenectady. This took about 3.5-4 hours. Upon arrival we had to wait for our train. It was supposed to be there at 7. We didn't get on the train until 10:39...or perhaps 11:00. And Abby was awake the entire time. We never knew when it was coming so we couldn't put her to sleep. It made for an interesting time period. We spent a lot of time in the waiting space of Amtrak.

After we finally caught the train, Abby and I were pretty excited. We stayed awake for a little while but finally rested. We were supposed to get off the train at 9 in the morning, but because of the 3 hour delay on the pick up it was closer to noon when we got to Michigan, actually Indiana...Grandma & Grandpa picked us up and we drove to their house to start the celebration.

We started Christmas with my favorite part, STOCKINGS!! Yippee. Grandma had gotten us all stockings and we each brought stuff to help fill them. Abby left out cookies and milk the night before for Santa. She got a note back and was only a little excited about the note but super excited about the presents.

Kendra & Brian got Abby a little piano, which Jason was very excited about and so was she. She has played it frequently. Luckily she knows where the volume button is.

Abby's favorite present was of course more Polly Pockets. If you notice in the foreground of the picture a drum and other percussion instruments. This has been played often and loudly in the last month.

Our favorite gifts to give were the stuffed Jesus. Doesn't everyone want one?

and an Abby calendar for Grandma to take to work and share her favorite grandchild.

This sticker book has been a source of interest for Abby everyday. She asks to find the stickers that match the page that she is looking at. It is actually pretty awesome. I like it.

I was pretty impressed by Abby's drinking abilities over this holiday season. She used a big girl cup and drank a lot of milk but rarely spilled any.

Then it was time for us to go. This train ride was a little different because we were leaving a lot later than the other trip. We didn't get on the train until midnight. This meant setting up a bed in the train station and then carrying a sleeping Abby onto the train.

It also met a longer period on the train the following morning. Abby actually did pretty well. She played with her dolls for a long time and also watched a couple of movies on the computer.

She also liked to scamper across the aisle to go see Daddy. It was quite a process. First she was invited over by Daddy...

She check right...

then left...

and off she went!

Finally, She was met at the other side with a big smile and a hug.

Thanks for a great holiday. It was great to see you.

sledding

2009-01-17T10:33:00.002-05:00

Our hill out back has gotten more attention this year than in the last 8 years. Abby, Jason and I went sledding last Saturday night and had to shine our bedroom light onto the hill. Mom and Dad said that this was how they had gone sledding with Matthew years and years ago. Pretty Cool. Although I am pretty sure that they never lost their car keys while sledding in the dark and then were able to find them later that night. Good looking, Jason!

Abby's Snow Angel

2009-01-17T09:58:00.003-05:00

Let's see if this works. It is wicked cute. I hope everyone is doing well. We have a little bit more snow and the temperature is very cold -20 the other morning. We have been trying to take Abby outside more often because she is full of 3 year old energy. I thought that it was the terrible twos. I really don't think so. Abby in the last month has turned into this little monster. Some days she is super cute but other days, holy cow.

More Summer Pictures

2008-12-15T21:20:00.004-05:00

Jason has had these pictures on his login and I thought I would share Abby and her friends. She cried for a long time when she had to leave them. We had a lot of fun camping in PA and can't wait to go again.

Elli, Abby, and Ella had good times playing with each other.

Alex, Ella's brother frequently played with the girls as well. What you can't see in this picture is the bear that lumbered past our campsite only 30 minutes earlier. It was pretty awesome. Some of our fellow campers followed him up the road. I was in charge of the kiddos.

This is one of my favorite pictures. "Life Jackets so we can be safe" as Dora would say.

Updated Pictures and a blast of the Summer during the first Noreaster of the Year!

2008-12-10T19:04:00.004-05:00

So we got reminded that it was time to update our pictures and show you how much Abby has grown. This first picture is of this summer. Her first canoe trip that didn't include screaming! I was very excited. As I was paddling I was having visions of family canoe trips in the upcoming years. I can't wait!

The next four pictures are of Jason's hiking path that he has been taking recently. It was a rare time period that we were actually home together during the light hours. We went for a family hike and took some good pictures. It was nice to be able to spend time together.

Also since the last post Halloween occurred. Grammie was absolutely amazing and made a Cinderella Dress in one afternoon. Thank you so much! Abby loved the dress and so did everyone else we went to visit when we went trick or treating. One of the neatest things that people have started in South Hero is "Trunk or Treat" because South Hero is so spread out, a large number of families have started parking their cars at the school and having trick or treating out of the bak of their car. Sounds a little sketchy I know but it really neat. People really get into the spirit and decorate their cars. Abby loved trick or treating...free Candy! Luckily for everyone she got some help eating the candy for the next week.

Applefest 2008

2008-10-20T20:55:00.002-04:00

Every year South Hero has an Applefest. It is a festival to celebrate the produce that is grown in abundance in South Hero. It has been going on for 19 years and continues to grow year after year. It was the first time that I had gone in 10 years. It was pretty amazing. Abby and I hitch up with Hannah and Todd and Vivian, and our friend Kristin to walk down South Street and eat some apples, some apple pie and check out the crafts that many people from South Hero are making. Our two favorite parts included the obstacle course and the pony rides. I thought I would share some of the photos with everyone. Enjoy the 2nd post in one day...see you in February.

The long awaited post from fall 2008!!

2008-10-20T16:58:00.005-04:00

This post will include many different parts of the fall that we have just experienced. Abby has grown up so much in the last 2 months. Not only did she have a birthday but she is for the most part completely potty trained. Including nap time. We are still working on going the whole evening staying dry but things are getting better every day. She is also talking like crazy and recognizing a number of letters, she wrote an A the other day. A for Abby as she puts it. She loves puzzles and has a very competitive nature. I don't know who she got that from...She is also very interested in growing her hair long like cinderella's. Our answer is that she needs to eat more and then she will have hair that grows longer. It has been good time to take pictures because she continues to learn and develop as an individual. I can only imagine what she is going to be like when she is a teenager, or a young adult. She still loves dresses and it is hard work getting her into pants but again the weather is working for us. It is starting to get super cold up here. They are calling for snow on Wednesday...YIKES! I am kind of excited though. I know that Jason is excited to go cross country skiing. we shall see how Abby reacts to an entire winter in Vermont.

Earlier in the fall we went to a sheep and wool festival. It was pretty neat. I am starting to learn how to knit and become more crafty. I was really impressed by the different types and the amount of wool that is coming out of Vermont. It was also pretty neat that there were a lot of kid crafts and exhibitions to observe while there. We got to see a sheep dog exhibit, an alpaca obstacle course and Abby got to make some crafts. Pretty awesome.

At this station Abby was giving a ball made of twigs and she pushed dyed wool in between the cracks. The is a multipurpose craft. It will hang on the christmas tree as an ornament and then following the Christmas season it will be put outside and the birds can come and get the wool to use in their nests for the spring. She was really excited about the process.

Abby and I have been going to the beach recently. I know, it is fall and about to snow and now is when we finally make it to beach on a consistent basis. It is a great place to relax and enjoy nature that isn't too far away. Some days there are other people their kayaking or just observing a pretty awesome view.

This beach has a long stretch of water front to play in the sand or look for "lake" glass or simply skip rocks. It is probably my favorite part of South Hero.

Toward the end of September Abby got really excited because it was getting closer to her birthday.

For her birthday we not only had a birthday party but she was baptized at the church I grew up in. It was pretty special. Mr. Crocker, the paster who married Jason and I in 2005, was able to participate in this special event as well. After the baptism we went home and had a pretty awesome 3rd birthday party. Abby was joined but a bunch of her friends--Lauren & Heather; Elizabeth, Jake & Allison; Hannah, Toddy & Vivian; Retey, Elsa, Harry, Kaight & Rob; Mary & Paul; Grammie & Bonnie. I think that this was all. It was good eating, some painting of miniture pumpkins, present opening, and cake eating. I made a mickey mouse cake that I forgot to take a picture of. It was pretty impressive. I am bummed I forgot.

Abby got some pretty cool presents this year. She got an Abby & Dora's Great Adventure book that had her own picture in it.

New Sheets with Dora & Boots--they are very bright pink!

New clothes to wear in the fall...

And a new Tricycle. I am really excited about this. Probably more excited than Abby and Jason combined...oh well.

Abby is a Flower Girl!!!

2008-09-01T12:22:00.008-04:00

At the beginning of August we took an amazing road trip to Toronto, Canada and then headed over to Michigan before heading back home to Vermont. The reason for our summer trip was so that Abby could be a flower girl at my cousin, Carolyn's wedding. Since we were over in their neck of the woods, we decided to visit Jason's family in Michigan. All in all it was a great trip. We started our trip on Thursday morning. We were driving up into Canada--all five of us in Jason's blue saturn. The five included Jason, Abby, and I, and also Mary and Paul. they had plans to ride up with us and then catch the bus to Paul's parents and visit them for a couple days and then head back to vermont. We all crammed into the car. Mary and Paul, because they have smaller hips got the joy of sitting in the back with Abby. I had bought her a steering wheel to play with but they decided it was too loud. It quickly went into the trunk, where it stayed for the entire trip. I just don't understand who wouldn't want to listen to barking dogs sing row, row, row you boat all the way to Toronto. Anyway, it was likely the most entertaining Abby has ever had on a road trip. Abby, Paul, and Mary played together for a long time period. They sang, and played with Abby's girls, but the most memorable part was when Mary called Paul on the Abby phone.

Abby tends to nap on road trips, which is an awesome pattern of behavior we tend to support greatly while in the car. I frequently wish she did it on any car ride. This time she had some nap buddies. Apparently Abby isn't the only person who drools while sleeping.

We arrived in Kitchner, which is right out side of Toronto on Friday around lunch. It had been a good trip so far although Abby had gone to bed really late and we were definitely glad to be out of the car. We spent some time in the hotel before meeting up with Carolyn and the rest of the family. Mom and Dad had arrived and gathered Sue from the Airport. Matt and Ruth were out and about checking out vineyards and botanical gardens. We hadn't heard from Jeff, Becka and Ally but knew that they were around some where. The rehearsal went smooth and Abby practiced how to walk in and became friends with her walking partner--Hannah. The rehearsal dinner was yummy and very informal which was nice because we had the kiddos. Abby finally went to bed on Friday night and I got to hang out with my family and watch some Olympics. Unfortunately I had missed the opening ceremony. Bummer. Saturday morning was pretty uneventful although we were kind of late getting going and Abby was definitely full of energy. by the time we got to the wedding in our beautiful dress, Abby was super excited.

There were four kiddos in the wedding, Abby & Hannah, Owen and Evan ( i think that these are the boys names but I might be wrong--sorry). They did extremely well, although Hannah got nervous and didn't want to walk to the aisle. Abby was trying to pull her down the aisle but there was no budging. Eventually Brad, the groom came to get the two and it was super sweet.

Unfortunately Abby didn't last very long into the wedding. She was tired and she really wanted to go sit with Hannah and her family. So Abby and I went out into the lobby and we played with Becka and Ally. Ally couldn't sit still either. They climbed the stairs many, many times. As the couple left the sanctuary to the sound of bagpipes, I realized that Abby was not going to get a nap because of pictures to be taken. I really hadn't thought much about the time that was going to be optimal for Abby's nap. Oops. She did fall asleep on the way to the photo shoot but was able to get into a couple of shots.

Abby loved Carolyn's dress because she thought it looked like a cinderella dress. It was very beautiful.

The reception occurred later on in the afternoon. Abby only lasted a hour or so before we headed up to the hotel room. It was just too stressful for me. Abby and I headed up stairs and got ready for bed. My mom and I had arranged that she would come up stairs when the dancing started so that she could watch Abby and I could have some fun. I was really thankful to get some time to be with family and for my mom to volunteer to watch Abby. THANK YOU MOM (AKA GRAMMIE)!!! The dancing lasted up until Midnight (give or take. Who really remembers). We danced with anyone and everyone who could come be a part. Jason danced so hard he split his shoes wide open. After dancing the family sat around the table talking and laughing and enjoying our free drink cards.

It was great to spend time with our cousin Hilary, who is moving to Boston!! And our Cousin Rob from england. Cousin Tim, Carolyn's brother was there too but I couldn't find a good picture of him to include. If anyone has one send it my way and I'll put it in this super picture post.

On the day following the wedding we headed to Michigan. The drive took a little longer than we expected but we finally arrived for a couple of relaxing days with Grandma & Grandpa. Shortly after our arrival we had a birthday party for Abby. It was great. We had hats and cake and lots of presents. Abby loved it.

She enjoyed spending time with Uncle Brian and Auntie Kendra, and kendra's grandma! It was great.

This was one of our favorite presents. It was a couple of work books that Abby can work on her writing in. Jason and Abby have started having school every day. It is pretty neat. We have also been working on Potty usage. I have to admit. It is going pretty well. And it is all Jason's work! Way to Go!

Probably our most memorable part of the trip to Grandma & Grandpa's, besides the fact that Grandma took Abby every morning so that I could sleep in, ( THANK YOU GRANDMA!!) was the trip to the Zoo. We saw a lot of animals but the neatest part was going to the African Safari and seeing the Giraffes up close and personal. You could buy wafers and feed the giraffes. Very cool! Abby did taste the wafers to see if they were any good. She liked them.

Thanks for a great trip out to Michigan. We had a blast. We'll be back soon.

a quick update...

2008-07-27T22:01:00.003-04:00

We have tried a lot of new things this summer...

CORN ON THE COB--JUST PICKED FROM POMYKALA'S

SKIRTS AND BLOWING BUBBLES--THE NEWEST FAVORITE ACTIVITY

SHARING WITH HER AUNTIE MARY AND "TAKING BIG MARY BITES"

HER HAIR UP IN PIG TAILS AND WEARING A CROWN

AND TOURING BEN & JERRY'S ICE CREAM FACTORY!!!

June Photos

2008-06-11T13:15:00.003-04:00

Hello all those who still check Abby's blog. I know that we have been really bad about posting on a consistent basis, I could say that we have been super busy and just haven't the time but that isn't the case. I think it might be that we don't really have a computer set up that is conducive to writing blogs, too much going on and an awkward angle to type at. Either way, we have been neglect those to whom this is the way you see Abigail grow up. I apologize greatly.

Things have been going pretty well. We are coming to end of the school year which is a new treat for me. Although I have been teaching for 4 years, I have never had a summer break. I am wicked excited about what the next 3 months are going to bring, both to Abby and myself, and Jason too. I will be working at a vegetable farm this summer. Picking strawberries, planting cucumbers, cutting asparagus, you name it. Three out of the last four Sundays, I have been riding behind a tractor transplanting little plants into the ground. It is a lot of fun, dirty & dusty but you have a good amount of job completion, which does the mind good. I am also learning to knit. My mom, aka grammie is an awesome knitter, so I am taking advantage of her expertise. The following is a picture of my 2nd project, the 1st project is lost in our house/room somewhere. It is for Abby, this one was for sale for my mom.

A good friend of ours moved from camp to live in New York soon after Abby was born, we were excited to be able to see Bridget when we moved home to Vermont. Unfortunately, she moved to Florida a month or so ago, so we were only able to see her once. Once is better than never. Bridget--I hope you are enjoying Florida!! Let us know when you are back north!!

In the last couple of months we have been happy to have a friend for Abby close by. Hannah is a couple of months younger than Abby but they enjoy playing together and always love to see each other. Hannah & her parents send their summers up in Cabot, VT at a summer camp. I used to work at this camp ages ago. Abby, Mary, and I went up to camp this past weekend to visit and see how the camp had changed. We also hiked up to the look out and back down. Abby rode in her backpack but truly loved the entire time. As we walked past trees she would grab the leaves and hold on until they ripped off the branches. She also kept my focus on the hike, "keep walking Mommy, you can do it!" She was my motivator up and over the rocks and then towards the end, when I realized how long it had been since I had hiked.

By the way--Abby has learned to make farting noises on the arms of friends--very cute but be forewarned!

I am hoping that Abby doesn't grow too much this summer so that we can use this pack all summer long. How great was it to have hands free while walking. Abby fell asleep on the way down the mountain, which was a peaceful ending to a good time in the woods. We are excited to head back in to nature to ensure that Abby loves it as much as we do. We should have a bunch of good pictures coming up in the next couple of weeks. We are going on our annual Friend camping trip, Hannah and her Mommy are coming to South Hero, and before we know it 4th of July will be here.

New addition to the BackYard...

2008-05-17T12:11:00.005-04:00

With the coming of Spring Abby has discovered the joy of a swing and a slide. We have taken many walks up to the Church and also up to School to slide and swing during the afternoon hours. As you can tell-- She is still wearing beautiful dresses, although we have pants on under to keep her warm in the early spring days.

But last week things changed. My sister's boss asked her if she thought that Abby would like to have a swing set of her own. Heck yeah was the reply. So after a couple of hours of hard labor including borrowing trucks and purchasing a couple of new attachments and we had a brand new, well almost brand new swing set and fortress!! Check it out. Abby loves it. We also have some extra swings for all of our friends so come and visit!! Hope you are green with envy over our free swing set!

Picture Update!!

2008-05-17T11:56:00.004-04:00

I know it has been forever. Jason keeps saying that he is trying to post. Hopefully I didn't take any of his pictures but I kept getting sly comments from people saying how long it has been since we posted. Abby has been changing a lot in the past couple of weeks. It has been a lot of fun to be a part of a growing, learning child's development. It has also finally become spring in Vermont. This means the departure of snow and the arrival of grass and flowers. Jason has been working on the vegetable garden by planting seeds and prompting them to grow. I have not been a huge part of this process although I help Grammie in the garden some times. Abby continues to be in her beautiful dresses stage. It has been hard to have her in pants at all. Sometimes we can get her to wear some under the dresses when it is cold but not always. This is one of her new dresses. It is a summer Dora dress.

Last Sunday Abby helped Grammie to plant some new flowers and to enjoy the sun. Abby lasted about to plants until it became to dirty for her. So her new job became to smell the flowers instead.

I love this picture!

Abby Pictures

2008-04-01T15:14:00.002-04:00

Abby ha discovered hair bows but doesn't think that she likes them very much. In fact she doesn't like people playing with her hair at all. I think that she looks rather cute with her hair up though.

We also thought we would include a picture of her eating. Bagels with white stuff is her current favorite. By the way---white stuff equals cream cheese.

Abby spent Easter with her cousin Allyson. They did well together. Abby is slowly learning too share. Unfortunately, Ally sometimes got the short end of the stick with toys. It was cute to see them together though.

This is a picture of Abby and her Easter dress. She loves wearing beautiful dresses! Although there are days when she stays in her jamas all day, She enjoys getting dressed up!

Saturday Babysitting Job...

2008-02-27T15:40:00.003-05:00

So one saturday morning, I did double duty by watching Hannah and Abby all by myself. Jason was there in the beginning but he had to go to work so he didn't participate all that much. The morning started out pretty normal with pancakes and a play session on the Elmo couch with the blanket. The following picture is from a previous visit.

After playing inside we decided that we should head outside to enjoy the winter wonderland. Hannah didn't enjoy riding in Abby's sled but did enjoy her time in the tree fort. As you can see Abby has a cool set up with chairs and a table. She puts her sled as the front door and we get to hang out in the fort watching cars pass by or even the brave pedestrians.

After spending time outside in the snow, we headed inside. We ate macaroni & cheese. Abby ate more with Hannah than I have ever seen her eat before. While watching some Dora the Explorer, Hannah and Abby decided to play with Mr. Potato Head's glasses.

Although the girls had a lot of fun by the end of the day I was thankful that Abby took a nap and Hannah got picked up. I have to admit that when Mary and Paul came to visit later on that night, I was pretty quiet and allowed everyone else to play with Abby. It was a good time, although I couldn't imagine doing that on a daily basis.

HOLY SMOKERS...EMILY POSTED!!!

2008-02-27T15:11:00.005-05:00

Our pictures start out with some holiday shots of Abby and Ally. The Lake family joined together in Vermont to celebrate the holiday season, missing only one member. Sue unfortunately was unable to join us in snowy Vermont because she was in sunny california. We missed her tremendously. Jeff, Becka, and Ally arrived a couple of days before christmas to spend some time with the family. Matt and Ruth arrived the night of Christmas...or maybe the day after, I forget. It was kind of a blur for me because I caught the stomach virus and was under the weather from christmas eve till the day after christmas. It was not fun. In fact I was kind of out of it for about a week. It was one of those time periods where you aren't sure if you are better or if it is going to come back. Luckily, no one else caught the bug.

There was a short overlap of time when both brothers were around. Of course Mary and Paul joined us during the day and actually stayed a couple of different nights. They only live about 20 minutes away so it is always nice for them to come visit. All in all it was a great time to get together. Although I have to admit it felt weird not to have to leave after the holiday was over...

Abby has decided that she loves Dora. She has Dora clothing and Dora toys, and this Christmas she got a Dora Table and Chairs from Nanny and her family. Her favorite part of the entire gift was the cardboard cutouts that she got to play with. She has full out conversations and enjoys making them dance.

Since we have arrived in Vermont we have had an amazing amount of snow. I believe with today's snowfall, this is the snowiest february in history for vermont. And we still have one more day due to it being a leap year. Abby enjoys the snow, especially since she has a tree fort to play in. We'll post new pictures of the tree fort soon. Perhaps even later today. She is always well bundled when she goes out even when she initially refuses her mittens...she soons sees that mittens are needed up here in the snowy tundra.

This last picture is of one of Abby's new friends. Hannah is a little bit younger than Abby but you would never be able to tell, except that she doesn't talk very much yet. Since arriving in Vermont, Hannah and Abby have gotten together twice but have plans to hang out a lot more. Hannah was very interested in the Elmo couch and also with playing under the blanket with Abby in her tent. Don't worry I have more pictures of these two to come as well. Hopefully these two will become as good friends as there Mommies are. Vivian and I have been friends for over 10 years and have kept contact regardless of her living in New Zealand, and staying in Europe for a while. Vivian married another of my friends and they now live here in Vermont!!( They have actually been in Vermont for a number of years but in the overall scheme of things, she just moved here...)

The Big Move!!!

2008-01-13T15:18:00.000-05:00

In case you didn’t know, Jason, Abby and I are moving to Vermont. In fact we have already done so. This move was a lot of work that came from a lot of different sources. We started packing in November. We did a huge chunk of packing over Thanksgiving weekend with the help of Jason’s parents, Rick and Julie. We received over 80 boxes from a friend at work, thanks Tim & Nancy. We couldn’t have done it without you. During the weeks between Thanksgiving & December 14, we packed the rest of the apartment, I finished my Master’s program, and we tied up all of our lose ends at camp. We also had a little bit more fun with the PlayDoe and spent as much time as possible with our North Carolina friends.

Jason & I were Howed Out of Camp on December 14, 2007. It was a highly emotional event with lots of tears & laughter. Jason left quickly after to go to RDU to pick up my dad, and then find the Rental Truck. I finished off some paper work and then headed home to finish off packing. As I was packing I could feel my anxiety levels elevating. Although we had done an amazing job of packing our apartment, there was still a large amount of “stuff” still lying around. We had a bunch of friends coming and I knew when the moving started all organization will be lost. Jason and Dad arrived at the apartment at 12:30. Dad stuck around for about 15 minutes and then got into my car Bette, which was pack with musical instruments and the television, and started his drive. He was supposed to drive to Maryland and spend the night with my brother Matt. We later found out that he decided to drive all the way home. He arrived in Vermont at 3:00AM. After Dad left, Jason ran out to get some $5 Pizzas and stuff to drink. I continued packing and was working hard when our friend Scott arrived. He was the first helper. He had the job of taking the stars off of the ceiling and taking down the crib. Jason came home with lunch and we started working hard. At this point I realized that I was packing 5 different boxes at once and I was actually filling all of the boxes with materials that pertained to each other. We also found the missing boot, unfortunately I packed it into a box…I just don’t know which one. Anyway throughout the afternoon, we got help from Phil, Emily Sheridan, Kelly, Jenn, Lori, and Jeff. I think that this is everyone but I might have forgotten someone. If you were there and you can think of someone that I might of forgotten please let me know. We worked really hard and were almost completely packed by 5 PM. The last hour or so was spent throwing things into boxes and putting them into the truck. I still haven’t found certain things. The only thing I am really bummed about it the missing boot, which was found and is now missing again. We also moved our refrigerator down the stairs, cleaned it and then moved the old refrigerator back into the kitchen. Later on that night I had the opportunity to clean 2 years of grime off of the refrigerator that lived on the back porch. It was great fun. We did most of the packing process without Abby because she was out at Hazel’s ( Nanny & PaPa ) house. Liz, another friend from work, was nice enough to pick up Abby after work. By 7 o-clock most of our steam had been used. Everything was moving a little bit slower but we were still plugging along. Abby was hanging out and keeping everybody laughing. We continued to munch on $5 pizza as we finished up packing or taking stuff to the dumpster out back. By 9 o’clock most people had left and we were pretty much done. We had Abby’s mattress and our air mattress in Abby’s room with the computer & bag. Any travel bags were on the mantel trash had been taken out, all give-aways were at dumpster or by the roadside. Jason was hanging out with Lori and Jeff, while Abby and I went to bed. We were tired. Plus we knew that we were going to be up at 4:00 in the morning. We made a call to Kelly to tell her the time we were leaving and off to sleep I went.

I woke up at 4 AM and got in the shower. I knew that I had more to do and Jason would sleep later. As I went from place to place tying up loose ends, I took the trash out and packed up my travel bag and took random bits from places that we would forget about, I was excited that we were moving but a little sad to be leaving our apartment. It was really a great place. I also knew that we wouldn’t be able to find another place for only $395 a month, that was this great. Jason awoke and took his shower and then he started packing as well. Not too much later Kelly arrived with Dakota. She saved the day by watching Abby and allowing Abby and Dakota some time together before we left. Jason and I scrambled around trying to fit our bags into different places. I gave Jason his travel snacks and his walkie-talkie. We swept the apartment and moved the final piece of furniture to the roadside for give-away. Kelly dressed Abby and helped with the sweeping process. It was about 6AM when we did our final sweep of the house to make sure we had everything and then sit with Kelly & Dakota on the porch to say Goodbye. After a lot of tears and many hugs, we parted ways. Jason started driving to Hazel’s, I ran over to drop our keys off and then to Hazel’s and Kelly & Dakota returned to their house. Thank you so much Kelly for being there when we needed you, even at 4 o’clock in the morning. We arrived at Hazel’s for breakfast and dropped off a box of perishable food. We had an awesome breakfast and took some pictures of Abby’s North Carolina Grandparents, then we cried for a little while, had a bunch of hugs and were on our way. The first 3 hours were the worst for me. I cried off and on for the entire three hours. I would think that I would be OK and then I would think of one of the many good friends that we were leaving and I would start tearing up. I know that the move is a great step for our family but it is always tough to make a big change. I had been living in NC for 10Years. That is a long time. As I was contemplating our huge change, Jason called me over the walkie-talkie. Apparently there was a huge winter storm coming into Vermont on Saturday night. This meant that we needed to get there before the storm came. So we decided we needed to drive straight through to Vermont. This was a big undertaking. We had started driving at 7AM in the morning. We arrived in Vermont at 9PM. Our only stops were for gas and bathroom breaks. We ended up going all the way to Plattsburg and then taking the Ferry across. The best part of the trip was when we arrived at the Ferry and were about to pay when the clerk said to Jason “Kevin’s got it covered.” Kevin is a good friend of the family. He works at LCT, which is the Ferry Company. He had paid for our ferry crossing. How awesome is that!! As we spent 20 minutes on the boat crossing the lake, I called Hazel to let her know that we were home and revved ourselves up for the remaining 10 minutes of driving. We arrived safely at my parents’ home, went inside to eat homemade Mac & cheese and expel some pent up jitters that come from driving for 14 hours straight without breaks with a baby in the back seat. By the way Abby did awesome. She only cried once and then she was good to go. Although we did miss changing the diaper in time at hour 12 but that was solved by a plastic bag and a blanket. This stop was also when I dropped the ticket that is needed to exit the throughway. It fell out of the car when we went into the rest stop and got stuck under the car. I didn’t know what it was at that time. I came out of the rest stop and saw the paper a little bit from the car and went to see what it was and was happy to see the ticket. Could you only imagine how much I would have had to pay if I hadn’t found it. Goodness.

We arrived at home before the snow fell. The next morning we woke up and there was at least 8 inches of snow on the ground.An Awesome welcome to Vermont.

Thanksgiving in North Carolina...

2008-01-13T14:52:00.000-05:00

The past two months have been kind of crazy but we are going to try and keep you updated with the activities that have gone on. We’ll start with a visit to North Carolina by Jason’s parents. Grandma & Grandpa arrived on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. Jason spent the afternoon in Raleigh doing a home visit and then going to the airport. I spent the afternoon cleaning the apartment. It was a lot of work but I finished with just enough time to sit down and play with Abby for about 30 minutes before Jason & his folks got home. Abby loved seeing her grandparents and being the center of attention.
Thursday we took a walk to the park and then started cooking the Thanksgiving meal. The park is actually just a jungle gym that is in the backyard of a church. Abby likes it a lot because she gets to climb and go down the slide. We tried to go once a weekend but weren’t always successful. Abby has learned how to climb up the chain ladder and likes to go down the smaller slide. Jason usually has to go down the bigger slide with her. Additionally there is a game that Abby likes to play that includes throwing wood chips at her parents. She’ll chase you around trying to hit you with the handful of chips. Sometimes you can distract her and redirect her to go after the other person but not always.

Thanksgiving dinner was pretty awesome. Jason was in charge of most of the cooking. I took care of the sweet potato casserole & the green bean casserole and that was it. Jason was in charge of everything else. He did a really good job. We ate at about 3 (I think). Our dinner party included Jason’ Parents, Jason, Abby and I, Jeff & Lori. Jeff and Lori are our really good friends from Henderson. Lori used to work at camp, and Jeff & Jason frequently play music together, or just hang out. Jeff and Lori were in charge of dessert. Jeff brought a homemade apple pie and Lori brought some sort of Peanut Butter & Chocolate pie. It was absolutely amazing! So rich and delicious…umm, I want a piece right now.

The rest of the weekend included an early morning shopping trip for Emily & Julie (7:30), a trip to Pizza Hut, Christmas Present time, and a bunch of packing. Christmas Present Time was definitely a bunch of fun for Abby, although she enjoys opening the presents more than actually playing them. Her current move is to rip the paper and then through it over her shoulders. She received a bunch of really cool gifts including a Cars CD player, two Dora outfits, and her favorite gift…from the dollar store…a Winnie the Pooh puzzle. I know that she got more gifts that this but with the amount of packing that we did that weekend it is all a blur.

A huge percentage of our apartment was packed over Thanksgiving weekend. We packed our entire kitchen and at least three closets. Our walls were lined with stacks of boxes that were filled with our stuff. During this process we learned exactly how much junk we have. Jason’s mom and dad were huge help and we couldn’t have done it with out them. Thank You! Julie—you packed our entire kitchen and wrapped more dishes that weekend than I ever thought possible. Thanks!

Renn Fest Weekend...forever ago

2007-11-12T20:22:00.000-05:00

OK, so I was going in order but then I got all flustered by the Halloween Post and getting done with my stuff for school. Anyway...Abby and I headed up to Maryland the weekend after her birthday to spend some time with Matt and Ruth and go to the Renn Fest. One of the highlights of my year. We left after work and arrived in MD around 9, Abby was still awake so she got to hang out with Matt and Ruth for a little while. The next day marked Abby's first experience with raking leaves. I was showering and Matt was watching Abby. I finally came out and Matt and Abby were outside playing in the leaves. I snuck out of the house and tried to get the camera without Abby noticing and although not successful I did get a couple of good pictures.

We left early to get to the Renn Fest and were pleasantly joined by Sundee, Chris and Wesley. This is Ruth's daughter and son-in-law and her grandson. It was a fun afternoon watching Abby and Wesley hang out and play. Abby also got to try on Wesley's Monkey Backpack/Leash. We are now proud owners of one because I liked it so much. I have heard a lot of debate over it but I gotta tell you. I like knowing that she is attached to me. Especially now that she doen't like holding hands as much.

Ruth--this picture is for you. Ruth and I have a long distance crush on the main piper in the band "The Rogues." He is the one on the far left with the long hair.

SO Cute, as Abby would say. Fortunately she still likes playing with rocks and isn't into boys yet.

I have a couple of more pictures of Abby's birthday cake and also Tubby, her gift from my friend Katie. Unfortunately blogger is being picky and won't let me post them right now. I'll work on it. I hope you enjoy the pictures. Matt and Ruth--Thanks for everything. I had an awesome weekend and so did Abby. We love you both!

Quick Halloween Post

2007-11-01T21:33:00.001-04:00

Abby got an awesome Halloween package from her cousin Ally! It included an Elmo Candy Basket...

Abby preferred to wear it as a hat. She did this all on her own. No prompting from Daddy. It was "so cute" as Abby likes to say. Abby was a dragon for Halloween. A couple of people were concerned when I told them this over the phone. Now you can see how cute our dragons are here in Henderson. There was also a huge process of us getting a costume. Halloween costumes come out in the store in August. I am not buying a costume in August...there is still two more months before the holiday. So we waited, until two weeks ago. And then every costume that I picked up in the store, Abby would say Put it Back. We went through about 8 costumes before I decided forget it. So the next week we went back and it started out the same way. Until we tried on a tiger outfit. She was going to be Tigger ( who sounds a lot like a dragon by the way). This lasted about 30 seconds until she saw the Dragon outfit...and then it was all over. She wore it around the store for a long time before I finally talked her out of it. I have to admit that I think the dragon is cuter than the tiger, but I didn't think so at the time.

The best part of this costume was when you asked Abby what a Dragon says, and she replies with a "ROARRRR" It is worth it everytime you ask her. She came out to camp on Halloween to see the kids dressed up in their costumes. She also got to hang out with her good friend Scooby-Doo (aka. Dakota)!

I hope everyone had a good Halloween. For those of you that worked at camp, I will let you know that I was a Great Big Moose for Halloween, I had a "my name is..." sticker that said FRED and my Coffee Cup got a label that said "Juice" on it. For those of you that don't work at camp...you have no idea what I am talking about.

A Jumble of Pictures from the last Couple of Months...

2007-10-22T21:09:00.000-04:00

Abby has had an exciting life for the last couple of months. She has been exploring more and coming into her own. She has a great laugh and the most beautiful smile. She does something silly ever couple of minutes, when she isn't asking for Juice or wanting to give hugs and kisses. I think that this is the best part of having a two year old, yes that is right she has turned two. Pictures will follow. These two pictures are from her actual birthday. We had a party over at Nanny & Papa's, she even got a Dora Birthday cake. There were plastic toys on the top and they are now her favorite toys ever. You can see Swiper and Boots in her hands in the picture with me and then Dora in the high chair in the second picture. It is really funny, she walks around with her purse that mary gave her and talks about having all of her friends in there.

She asks for hugs and gives kisses and the best is when she comes speeding at you wanting to be held or loved. It was the cutest thing today when Dakota and Abby were giving each other hugs. I found out later on that Abby bit Dakota. Don't worry we are working on it. It will be soon cured. The other really cute thing is that Nanny (aka Ms. Hazel) has been taking care of a little 8 week old baby, Kendall. Abby loves the baby. She gets to hold him and if she hears him crying, she will tell Nanny and Papa to pick the baby up. It gives us hope that she hasn't bitten the baby yet. I honestly think it is just Dakota. He takes her toys.

With her curiousity has come the ability to climb on top of things. The other monrning I came walking into our dining room area and she was sitting on top of the table. She wanted her juice. She hasn't fallen yet but I fear it is soon in coming. She also ate Play-Doh the other morning. We figured this out when Jason went to check her diaper and was concerned by what he saw in there. Yellow Play-Doh on the way in, White dry round chunks on the way out. Oops.
We did decided to take pictures of our best Play-Doh creations. Jason and I are getting much better at creating things that look like actual animals. Abby makes them talk and walk around. She also enjoys squishing them back into the containers.

We definitely have to keep a close eye on her.

Matt came down and visited us in August. It was a good weekend. We hung out around the apartment but it was good to see Abby playing with family. It also prepped us for our trip up to Maryland that occurred at the end of September. She has a pretty good memory for people, we like for her to look at pictures so that she can recognize who is important to us. Anyway. Matt and Abby's big adventure for the weekend was eating Icy Pops. These are among the ten things that Abby likes to eat but she struggles with getting the ice out of the plastic and into her mouth. Matt was there for her when things got stuck.

This last picture is of the cake that Sue got me for my birthday. I haven't gotten a cake for the last couple of years and really wanted one. I was fully prepared to make a cake at my house just for me but Sue got one made and Jason picked it up. It was really good. Although it was too much for Jason and I. We did the best we could though.

A Wedding in Massachusetts...

2007-10-07T21:32:00.001-04:00

Our friends, Kelly and Scott, provided us a reason to visit family in Connecticutt and allowed my parents a chance to visit Abby in Massachusetts. Kelly and Scott got married on 09/08/07 near Lee, Massachusetts. Jason and I were given to priviledge to participate in the wedding in many different ways. I assisted Kelly by making the cheesecakes for her wedding receptions. She had a tiered wedding cake which you can see turned out quite beautiful. She also wanted individual cheesecakes for her guests. So for the three weeks prior to the wedding, I made 75 individual cheesecakes. She had Turtle flavored and Plain with caramel or chocolate toppings. They turned out really well. So the cheesecakes were made in advance but had to be decorated on the Friday before the wedding. This meant that Jason, Abby, and I flew into Hartford, CT on Thursday afternoon. The flights went OK, Abby got really tired on the second flight and just ended up crying for the last 20 minutes of the flight and then the entire walk through the airport to get our baggage, and then the entire ride over to the rental place, and then the entire time we stood in line. It actually ended up helping us out though. There was a huge line at the rental place and Abby's crying allowed us to be pushed to the front of the line, skipping about 15 people who were really angry. We spent that evening with my brother Jeff, his wife Becka, and their four month old baby, Allyson. She is adorable. I think Abby enjoyed playing with Ally's toys more than actually playing with her but i expect that Ally will hold her own in a very short time period.

Friday morning was spent decorating cheesecakes and putting them on plates and then we headed to where the rehersal was because Jason was going to be playing the guitar for the wedding. I got to babysit Abby & Dakota. Dakota is Kelly & Scott's son. He and Abby are good friends. We walked up and around in the woods. By the way Kelly & Scott were having an outdoor wedding at a state park. It was a beautiful area. After the rehersal, Jason and I went by the hotel we were staying at and checked in. Then we headed out to the rehersal dinner. We were about 20 minutes into the drive before we realized we were exhausted and really just wanted to relax since we had been on the go since 7 in the morning. So we turned around, called Kelly and Scott to let them know what was going on, and headed back to the hotel. Within 20 minutes, my parents had arrived, so got to hang out with them and they got to see Abby. It was a good evening filled with laughter, pizza, and talking about all the people we knew.

The next morning started out with Breakfast at Joe's Diner. If you can call to mind the Norman Rockwell picture of a cop sitting on a diner stool next to a boy...This picture is based on Joe's Diner. I will try and post a picture...we'll see how it goes.

I think I did it right. Anyway, after breakfast we ran over to the outlet stores...Abby got a bunch of new clothes for really cheep. It was a bunch of really cute clothing. Thanks to Grammie & Poppy! At this point we headed back to the hotel so that we could relax a little bit before the wedding. Also Jason could practice, and so that Abby would be nice and settled for the afternoon. My parents had actually come down so that they could watch Abby during the wedding, so Jason and I would be baby free. A nice change of pace. We got everyone settled, got dressed and left a cell phone just in case. My parents had definitely come prepared and Abby had a great time.

When we arrived at the wedding location, we stumbled across the wedding party getting their photos done. Oops. Jason and I headed down to the clearing where the wedding was and hung out. There was a little tension because some people were late but the sound guy finally showed up and Jason got his guitar hooked up. The set up of the wedding meant that I would be sitting by myself but that was OK. I got to take pictures and then cry like mad when Kelly and her dad walked down to Scott. It was really beautiful. Jason was singing in the background. Who wouldn't cry?

The wedding was beautiful. Towards the end of the wedding, I heard a crying that I recognized...Dakota's. He was being watched by Kelly's Aunt, who lives in Iowa, so I thought I would go check and see if I could help because I do spend a lot of time with him. He ended up hanging out with me and not crying for the rest of the wedding. After the wedding, Dakota got in a couple of pictures with his mom and dad, before the rain came. As the thunder started rolling, Jason, Dakota, and I headed to the car. I let Kelly know that we would take Dakota to the reception so that way she and Scott woudn't have to worry about him. This worked out well. We had a car seat, with no baby in it, and our responsibilities were complete!

So off we went to the reception. The reception was a bunch of fun, with good food, good music and a lot of laughter. Kelly has a pen pal from the 4th grade that she still keeps in touch with. Brenda is from Pennsylvania. I had met Brenda when Kelly and I had gone on a road trip a couple of years ago. So Brenda and I hit it off well and enjoyed hanging out that night. We stayed dancing and enjoying ourselves well into the night.

We left pretty early the next morning and headed back to CT to spend the afternoon with Jeff, Becka, and Allyson...and all of Jeff's friends who were over for the Opening Day of Football Party. This meant super good food and Jason got to watch some of the games before we flew home.

As you can tell. It was an eventful weekend but also exhausting. Thanks to everyone for a great time.

New Post Further Down...

2007-08-26T20:56:00.002-04:00

I am having some technical difficulties with Abby's Blog. I have a post from Mom & Dad's visit that I wrote and was waiting for picutres and now I can't get it to be first. So check it out down below...I'll give you a couple of shots to look at as a tease.

Hi.

Grammy & Grandpa

2007-08-26T20:56:00.001-04:00

Soon after visiting Michigan, Abigail was extremely lucky to have her other grandparents come for a visit. They flew in on a Monday morning. Abigail and I were at the airport right on time to pick them up. Unfortunately they were an hour late, someone on their plane had puked and Grandpa had chocolate milk spilled on them. On top of all of that their luggage was soaking wet from a storm up at JFK. The storm had occurred when their baggage was being switched from plane to plane. Craziness...this led to soaking wet backs. As Abby and I sat at the baggage claim waiting and waiting because the computer screens didn't say that the flight was delayed, we watched a lot of people come down the escalator and none of them was Grammy or Grandpa. Abby finally got to the point that she needed to have her peg game just so that she would stay in the chair and wait for them. I finally found someone that could tell me that the flight was delayed, which was nice because I was concerned that we were in the wrong place. Approximately 1 hour later, Grammy and Grandpa came down the escalator. Abby shouted out "Grammy!" Mom was really pleased. The luggage wasn't too far behind which was good.

We gathered their bags and headed out to the car. Luckily I got a really good parking spot so we didn't have to walk to far. I figured since we were in town we could stop by a couple of places before we headed for home. Lunch was the first stop since it was now 1:00. We were all hungry. We drove across town and went to Champs. This is one of my favorite restuarants. I really like their California Chicken Wrap with waffle fries. Yummy!!! After lunch we went to Edward McCains, the awesome used book store ( we also lost Abby's sippy cup at this store), Total Wines, and World market. I love this store. We stocked up on some good wine for the week and headed for home. By the time that we got to the apartment it was hot and we were all tired. The rest of the afternoon was spent lazing around the place and I did some homework. Jason got home from work early and he made us chicken chimichangas for dinner. Sheridan came out to say hello to my folks and spend some time with us. She is just another member of the family. My parents 4th daughter. We laughed and talked about a bunch of stuff. I am really glad that she and my parents get along so well.

The next day Jason and I had to work. Abby got to spend the day with my parents. They went for a walk and hung out in the apartment for the most part. We had $5 pizza for dinner. Can't beat it. Good pizza, cheap price. We typically get this when ever someone comes into town to visit us. It is just easier that way. Abby had a good time with my parents. I know that my parents enjoyed her.

Wednesday wasn't all that much different from Tuesday except that our dinner on Wednesday was cooked by Ms. Hazel. It was the most amazing amount of food. Fried Chicken, Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, carrots, squash, green beans, lima beans, cantelope, rolls. I know that there was more, I just can't remember it. Dessert included hot fudge cake, blackberry dumplings, coconut pie, ice cream. It was really yummy. I was stuffed by the end of the night. We ate dinner and then just spent some time talking. By 7 PM we pleaded exhaustion and headed for home. We spent our evening talking as usual.

Thursday we actually spent some time together. Jason and I worked half the day and then came home. We gathered my parents and Jason kept his work stuff in the car so that he could work on the way into town. As I was driving the car into Durham so that we could go to the Life and Science Museum, I noticed that Jason didn't have any shoes on. "Did you bring shoes?" I asked. He said yes. The drive to the Museum was uneventful. I pulled into the parking lot and was looking for a spot when Jason said "You have got to be kidding me!" I looked over and he was looking at the shoes that he had brought. They were Chacos...black...sandals...and both for the right foot. He had grabbed one of mine and one of his. They are the same size. I looked at him and couldn't believe it. So we pulled back out onto the road to go to the mall. All the while it hasn't really dawned on me that I am going to have to go buy him shoes because he can't go into the mall to buy it himself because he doesn't have any shoes. So after I finally wrap my mind around that I find a parking spot and go into the payless shoes. Unfortunately for him all of his size shoes are really ugly. Fake leather loafers. Luckily for him I go one size up and find him some OK sandals that are semi presentable. I buy them and Dad and I speed walk back to the car. We finally get back to the museum. It is really hot but we are bound and determined that we are going to walk around and enjoy it. And we did. Our favorite part of the museum today was the butterfly house. It was a break from the heat and we got some really good pictures. After the musuem we decided to go to Tripps for dinner. We had never been before but Sue said that Julie & Kevin (Sue's roommate in college and her husband) loved this restuarant. This was a good enough recommendation for us so we decided to go. It was great food and our server was an older gentleman who hooked us up with some extra bread and sauce to take home with us. The drive home was short and we were soon back in the apartment laughing and talking. Ahh good times.

Friday morning Mom and Dad got up and ready to go. Their flight was at 11 so we were leaving the house at about 8:30. The drive was short and soon we were down in Raleigh at the Airport. Grammy and Grandpa were soon on their way back to Vermont. Apparently the flight was much better this time and they got home safely. I spent a little bit of time in town and then headed home to do some homework for my class. It was a great week. Thanks for coming to visit. We had a blast and so did Abby.

More MIchigan Pictures

2007-08-19T21:19:00.000-04:00

This is Abby's cool bed at Grandma & Grandpa. A small word of warning though. Don't try and lie down next to her when putting her to sleep because the bed will fall down on top of you...just thought you might like to know.

These are some pictures from Bob & Marion's house. Just for those folks who don't know the first picture is of Abby and Kendra (Jason's Brother's Wife). She sends us the really cool clothing from Chicago. Abby already has an invitation to go to Chicago and spend time with Auntie Kendra. That is so cool.

This is obviously post wedding clothing. we arrived at Bob & Marion's rather late but were kind of wired so we sat around and talked and drank some peach tea. yummy. Julie is raiding the fridge in the background. Actually she is putting YoBaby yogurt in the fridge. We had brought a cooler to the wedding. What we found out was that the cooler leaked...there was a puddle of water running from our table to one of the other tables. Oops. sorry.

This was Abby giving good night kisses and hugs. It was really late by this time. She was a little clingy but did well. She just gave or is about to give Bob a hug and kiss.

And this is ME!!!

The Trip to Michigan

2007-08-12T07:18:00.000-04:00

We went to Michigan in the middle of July. Jason and I were excited because the weather in Michigan was definitely going to be better than the weather in North Carolina. We were a little concerned about the trip when the week before flying out, we got a phone call from Northwest Airline that our flight was cancelled and they were putting us on another flight the following day. This didn't really work for us seeing as we were flying out Thursday night and coming back on Sunday afternoon. It was already a short trip and the airline wanted to make it shorter. After complaining about it for a couple of days, Jason finally got on the phone and got us on a flight out to Michigan early, EARLY Thursday morning. We were leaving Raleigh at 6 AM. This meant missing a second day of work and also we would have to stay at my best friend, Sheridan's house. We changed the flight Tuesday morning, while I was at the dentist, and called all the involved parties as soon as we could. Sheridan was cool with us staying there and work didn't really have a choice, we had tickets, we were going. Luckily they were understanding about it.

Wednesday night we packed everything up, I finished all the things that I had to do for work and dropped them off at Kelly's, another aspect that typically happens when we travel and headed to Sheridan's. We got to her place in Raleigh at about 10:30 and Abby was still awake. An amazing and kind of scary feat. It was kind of nice that Sheridan got to see her awake though. We sat around talking for a little while until Jason and I realized that we had to get up at 4AM and we should probably go to bed. So we did. After a short period of sleep, I got up at 3:45 to shower and get ready. Jason was ready to go by 4:30 and Abby was up and ready to start a new day. Unfortunately for all, she stayed awake all the way to Michigan but she was also really good. Getting to the Airport was easy and uneventful. Going through the Northwest line was a little more crowded and hectic. The one good thing, we though was that we got to go up in the stroller elevator as opposed to standing in the super long line waiting for the escalator. Unfortunately when we got up to the 2nd floor, the place was packed. I couldn't believe how many people were at the airport at 5 in the morning. And then the power went out. Yeah...the power went out at the airport. But some how the scanners were still working. We slowly made our way through X-ray machines. I do have to say, when you are carrying a fussy baby and standing among a mass of bustling, irritated people, having to remove you belt is a big pain in the butt. When we finally made it through we had to speed walk down to our gate. They were at the point that they were calling our names and looking kind of annoyed. We hustled to get on the plane and not be too annoying. Luckily we weren't the last people. A lot of people got hung up in the security issue. We held our breath that the empty seat that was next to us wouldn't get filled so that way we could spread out a little more with Abby. Our wish was granted. She was able to sit in her own seat, except during take off and landing. We held her then. We had brought a couple of distractions--the computer to play DVDs on and her peg board game (it is one of those games from Cracker Barrell, a triange with holes to put golf tees into. Abby loves this thing and can and does play with it long enough for us to eat our entire dinner. It is a life saver!!). She did really well the entire flight. Although she didn't sleep. Our flight from Detroit to the Grand Rapids airport was uneventful. We arrived in Grand Rapids at around 11 in the morning. It is a small airport and we were quickly out of the gate area and meeting up with Grandpa Lee. I think he was suprised at how quick Abby is. We greeted him and got our bags and were on our way. After Jason installed the car seat in the car, we clipped Abby in and were driving to Portage. Abby was soon asleep. She slept the entire way to Portage and through lunch at Steak-n-shake.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at Grandma & Grandpa's house discovering cool features of their house. They have these spice racks that are hidden between their cupboards. I don't really know how to explain it but image your cupboards and where they meet and have dividers, the builders left enough space about 3 inches that allows a sliding open drawer that has shelfs that hold spices. It is pretty cool. The kitchen is one of my favorite parts of their new house. Although Abby's favorite part was her bed that they got her. It is a car. I thought that I had a picture but I don't know where it went. Perhaps Grandma & Grandpa can send us a new copy of it so we can share. Anyway. Grandma was out and about with her sisters who were in town for the wedding. She doesn't get to spend a lot of time with them. She was really excited when she came home and saw Abby and got a kiss and hug and heard her say Grandma. It was really cute. That evening was pretty calm. We went out to dinner--Mexican and came home to hang around the house. The most eventful thing was that Abby fell and landed on her head off of the ledge by the fire place. She is fine, not even a bruise. We fell asleep pretty early because we had been up for a very long time.

Friday came and we went shopping for Wedding clothes. Jason bought a new suit and I was able to walk around and not worry about Abby because Grandma had her. Shopping is so much more enjoyable without having to worry about a baby. after shopping we went home and Abby played outside with her new sand and water toy. She loved it.

After her first outfit got soaked, we decided to just go with the diaper. Brian and Kendra arrived on Friday night and we ate a dinner of hamburgers and chips and beans and an awesome fruit salad, and I am sure there was other food. We watched the movie "Devil wears Prada" and went to bed. Admist all of these major activities we talked and laughed and Jason read his grandfather's diary. One of Grandma Lee's sisters had found her father's diary and made copies of it for all the siblings. Jason was able to read it over the weekend. It was very interesting because he mentioned some of the major world events that happened at that time. He also let us know what the weekly church attendence was as well. It is was very neat for Jason.

Saturday we awoke and started showering. We had 6 adults in the house to shower and had to the get in the car and drive for 2 or 3 hours to Detroit. The drive was fine after we stopped to get some diapers. We had a quick bite to eat at Burger King and were off to the wedding. After dressing Abby in the car in the parking lot, we went into the church and sat down. Then Abby started crying and fussing and so Abby and I left. We decided to go outside and play on the playground equipement. I figure she had just sat in a car for 3 hours...no way was she going to be able to sit quietly through a wedding. So we went outside and played. It was a really cool playground. 45 minutes later we went inside to say hello to everyone. Oddly enough there was no receiving line. I hadn't ever heard of that. It was fine though. The wedding started at 1 and was over by 2 and the reception didn't start until 5. So we had some time. We decided to go to the mall and hang out there. We arrived at the mall with Abby totally asleep. And she remained that way the entire time we were at the mall--2.5 hours. We found the food court and were lucky enough to find comfy chairs and a couch that Abby could spread out in. Jason spent the entire time sitting with her and talking to his Aunt Jerry. The rest of us would come and go as we liked. Finally we went to the reception. It was at a country club, type thing with a golf course and a large pond in the back. We lucked out and got a table by the door that led to the balcony, so we could sneak Abby out there when she wasn't doing what she was supposed to or was getting loud. The food was great. The music was good, not too loud, and it was an open bar. Can't complain. Abby went out at one time to hang out with the little girls who were in the wedding. It was cute.

Jason said that at one point Abby climbed up the wall that you can see behind her in this picture. She is definitely fearless. It kind of makes me concerned about her in the upcoming years. Jason frequented a lot of different ERs. Not I, I was the cautious one.

Anyway the wedding was great. We had a lot of fun. We stayed at Bob and Marion's house that night. They are an enjoyable couple that Grandma & Grandpa Lee have been friends with for a while. Unfortunately I have no pictures with them. I believe some were taken and if someone has some to send over this way I'll post them. We left early Sunday morning from their house and went up to Indian Lake. It is a camping area for the church that Jason grew up in and that Grandpa Lee was a pastor in ( I don't know if that is the right term but it conveys the message), The Nazerene Church. It was a pretty neat area. It was getting kind of war and people definitely hadn't drank enough water, so we didn't stay all that long. We drove home and were just getting in the drive way when Abby had a messy diaper that came leaking out the side. It was quite an event. We cleaned up and did laundry and spent the last remaining 2 hours relaxing and packing.

Jason's dad drove us to the airport where we took the pictures in the earlier post. Abby did Ok on the first flight but screamed bloody murder on the second flight for a good 30 minutes. It was horrible. When we finaly got to RDU our baggage took forever to arrive. In fact Jason had enough time to take the bus to the long term parking lot and drive back to the airport just as I was coming out the front door with two hiking backpacks and a sleeping baby in my arms. As we drove home we were exhausted but we had had a great time.

Thanks to everyone!

Airport Weekend

2007-07-18T23:13:00.000-04:00

I will definitately post more about the weekend that we spent with the Michigan Grandparents but wanted to share some pictures really quick that are super cute. We had a small amount of time to kill in the Airport and took a series of Abby shots. I share becaause the faces are so funny that she is making. I hope you enjoy.
Emily

More WV Pictures

2007-07-10T22:19:00.000-04:00

As we stated we went camping in West Virginia a couple of weeks back. Well we are still working on getting the pictures up from there. Mostly because there are a lot of good pictures but also because classes started back up and this means that I am super busy person. Anyway, enough about me.

Abby has really started to embrace her reading skills. She is a big fan of reading in the car. We have a two picture series of her attempts this trip. This is the before...

And here is the after...after a little while she gets bored and starts crumpling her reading material.

This is our ahhh...picture. Mary and Paul spent a lot of time with Abigail this weekend. She stills asks about them. We were driving down the road just yesterday and she was asking where Mary and Paul were. I guess that means you both have to come visit again...soon!

Abby was fascinated with the large rocks at our campsite. She liked to jump down from them, with help of course. She liked to read on them, sit one them. The adults liked to jump from rock to rock to rock. That was how we spent one of our evenings.

And this is our cool Abby picture. She loves her "glasses." She has a couple of pairs and loves wearing them.

New Pictures

2007-06-29T20:11:00.000-04:00

So we went camping this past weekend. The weather was so much more enjoyable this year as opposed to last year. We were actually able to move. Our camping party included Aaron, Koa, & their two kids Alex & Ella; Benji & Sarah & Elli; Jessica & Ian (Koa's Sister & Brother-in-law); Mary & Paul ( my sister & her boyfriend); and Jason, Abby & I. All of the kids were 4 and younger. We arrived in West Virginia on Friday afternoon and stayed until Monday Morning. The time was spend relaxing, playing Bocci Ball, Reading, Hiking, Swimming in a River, playing on kids bikes, and fun activities like this. In the next few posts, we'll share some photos of our time in WV.

Our First couple of photos are of Abby in the house:

Abby hanging out on her Elmo couch. She is a picture of happiness in her flowered outfit. The headband doesn't usually last very long into the day. She does enjoy being pretty.

Abby looks like a grandpa in this outfit. I pulled them up as a joke but when I went to pull them back down, she wouldn't let me. She continued to hike them up through out the night.

CAMPING PHOTOS

I am not sure if people remember the picture last summer of Abby and Elli but here they are again, a year later. They enjoyed playing on top of Jason's guitar case. It was neat to see Abby playing with other kids.

I love this picture of Sarah and Elli. It is awesome to see other families together. We don't spend a lot of time with other families so it was neat to see family interactions with young children.

This bike was a big hit. Abby loved it. She found a way to have more than one person ride the bike at one point in time. During this ride Pooh was her riding mate. Sometimes Abby was pushed by other kids, other times by who ever was around. Some how Paul got caught as well. The kids took care of Abby and helped her out during the weekend. Although there would be times that we would look up and all the kids were playing together and there was Abby, playing by herself. Mary said it reminded her of me growing up. I would have to agree that sometimes, I like to be the loner.

Abby was able to talk a lot this weekend. She did really well with people's names, especially Mary and Paul. They were definitely her favorites of the weekend. She would wake up in the morning, "Where's Mary? Where's Paul?" She was always asking about them. We are practicing with other people's names as well, so that when you come and visit us, she will know your name as well.

A tease of our time in Italy

2007-06-05T20:47:00.000-04:00

We thought people would enjoy seeing a couple of Italy pictures. We have tons but these were some of the best.

Durham Life & Science Museum

2007-05-28T19:39:00.000-04:00

Obviously this picture was taken at our house. We moved things around and have definitely helped the good energy flow around our house. Not only is our house more feng shui-ish but it also feels like a home. Now we just have to work on the rest of the house. Step by step people. During our moving process, Abby did puzzles and ran around like crazy.

Our new favorite place to visit is the Durham Life & Science Museum. We have a membership, which costs about the same as visiting the place three times. We have already gone twice since getting the membership, so by our next visit, the membership will have paid off. Anyway. The museum has an indoor activity and interactive part, which is really cool. We haven't spent a lot of time there though because the museum also hosts Bears, Lemurs, Wolves, a Butterfly House and a bunch of different insects. Our favorite right now is the Lemurs. We got Abby a stuffed Lemur named Lennie. We have also named two of the other Lemurs for the Museum, their names are Lonnie & Linda.

These pictures reflect Jason's favorite part of the place. They explore the sound of different bells and drums and how they sound outside. So they have hung bunches of bells, and drums, and xylophone (is that how you spell it?) keys, and tons of other stuff, and then they supply the kids with pieces of wood to hit the different instruments with them. It is pretty cool but gets really loud.

Also there is a pretty awesome jungle gym/play area. Abby's favorite is the sand box but we run all over the place. Wait let me rephrase that. Jason and Abby run all over the place.

Response to the request for pictures

2007-05-22T21:05:00.000-04:00

Here we have a lovely shot of Abby eating the sign we made from Michigan Grandpa for his birthday. It was a long process that hopefully produced some laughs for the recipient.

One of Abby's closest friends, he lives right down the street is Dakota. Here you will notice that Abby is about to hit Dakota on the head with a wooden spoon. She is not the nicest person all of the time. Luckily Dakota was not hurt. Abby and Dakota spend time together at Ms. Hazel's house, when the parents are a work (aka camp)

Abby is also apparently picking up some life skills. On this particular day she walked around the house with the phone up to her ear. She would say hello much like Matt does. It kind of sounds like 'lo. It is funny and yet kind of alarming.

This is our favorite past time for Abigail. DRAWING. She loves the bright colors. She has also been experimenting as to how the bright colors look on the walls and the glass windows, and in our regular books as well as on paper.
It is fun to see her creations. If anyone would like an Abi-masterpeice, please let us know, our refridgerator is getting full.

Abby's New Cousin

2007-04-26T21:08:00.000-04:00

A quick note of congratulations to Jeff and Becka for their beautiful baby. We are so excited to have a new baby for Abby to be friends with. Allyson Lake joined the family this past week and everything is apparently going well for all three members of the Connecticut Lakes.

New Abby Pictures

2007-04-09T22:36:00.000-04:00

Abby on a Long Car Ride!

Abby in her cool pajamas on her Elmo Couch

We got a new computer and have been trying to work out the new kinks and methods of doing things. So bear with us.

Baby Lake Baby Shower

2007-03-31T19:07:00.000-04:00

A weekend in Connecticutt started out with a painful drive. We started out on a thursday afternoon and drove up to Maryland. Abby cried the entire first two hours. It was quite painful and annoying. Luckily things got better and she stopped crying. Although it was a concern on Thursday night. Anyway. We spent Thursday night at Matt and Ruth's place in Annapolis and talked Brad (ruth's son) into driving up to Connecticutt for the weekend. It wasn't very hard. After an enjoyable evening in Maryland, we spent all day in the car on Friday. It was a pleasant drive for Jason though because he had Brad to talk music and books with. I usually spend my time doing homework. Which is what I did this time as well. We arrived in Connecticutt by 4 PM and found our hotel. It was awesome. We each had our own fireplace and everything. The first night was dinner with Jeff & Becka at the Italian restuarant. Jeff and Becka picked Ruth up at the airport and out we went for Italian. It was great food. We decided on Friday to call it an early night because the boys had stayed up late on Thursday. And we knew we were going to have fun on Saturday.

Saturday morning, Abby awoke at 7 just like usual. Ruth and I had made a plan that we were going to take the car out and go looking for a Target. After driving around for an hour and a half and not finding anything resembling a Target, we got Dunkin' Doughnuts coffee and headed back to the hotel. Mom, Dad, Mary, and Paul showed up at about 12 Noon and of course new exactly where the Target was. In the opposite manner than Ruth and I travelled. Jason and Brad went to Target to get gift bags and a couple of other things. Before too long we were on our way to Jeff and Becka's friends that were hosting the party. It was a lot of fun. Baby Lake got some amazing gifts. And I did pretty well as well. I got a couple of party gifts because I knew the answer to a bunch of questions. Go Me.

After loading up Jeff's car with fun new baby gifts, we headed over to Jeff and Becka's place to check out the nursery and hang out for a while. Amazingly enough, without any sort of plan, Abby and Baby Lake have the exact same crib and changing table. What are the chances of that. The nursery looks awesome. They have decided on a jungle theme for the nursery and a sort of ocean theme for the bath time. I personally found an awesome robe for the baby to where. It is really cool. After spending time at the house, we eventually went back to our hotel.

We light a fire in the fire place and spent the rest of the nigth talking and enjoying each others company. We obviously took some pictures and wanted to share. Unfortunately we forgot to break out the camera to capture prego Becka but hope that we can find a picture somewhere to commemerate the weekend. After a late night talking and laughing, we awoke in the morning to a good breakfast and got on the road for the long drive back. Luckily Brad was with us to help take some of the brunt of the long drive. Upon our arrival in Maryland, we attempted to call in sick but were denied. So we got back on the road and drove the final 4 hours home, getting there at about 10. What a long drive...but what a load of fun. We saw snow, we laughed a lot, and had some great italian food. Thanks for a great weekend.

Bruise Lee

2007-03-04T11:25:00.000-05:00

Bruise Lee is how we have affectionately been referring to Abby after this past week. Last Saturday she fell on the stairs and hit her head, resulting in large goose egg and bruise in the middle of her forehead.

The next day she tripped over a blanket and ended falling into a box and skinning her cheek. Three days later she was climbing over my back and fell face first into the carpet, giving her a nice red spot by her eye.

The worst, however, was yesterday when we were on our weekly walk around downtown Henderson--including a visit to the local library where Abby likes to play with the stuffed animals. We were two blocks from home and Abby was running along with us to keep the pace. Apparently she was going too fast to catch herself when she tripped and did a faceplant into the rough cement of the sidewalk.

I was right there and saw the fall and new it wasn't a good thing. She skinned up her forehead--right in the place where her bruise was just starting to clear up. She also skinned the top of her nose, resulting in a bloody nose. As you can see, she looked horrible. She is, however, a tough little girl and doesn't let much get in her way--even injuries. In all of her falls this week, she has only cried for a short time and has been quickly ready to get back to her play. Even on the last block before home--with skinned up face and bloody nose, she wanted to get down and walk the rest of the way.

This last picture was taken this morning. I fear this is only the beginning--especially if her childhood is anything like mine. Emily does say that we have similar temperaments, so . . .

2nd Christmas

2007-03-03T19:02:00.000-05:00

As usual, Jason and I started our christmas drive in the early after noon and ended it in the early morning, but this time our trek was to Michigan. As we left on Thursday afternoon, we weren't sure if we were going to drive the whole way. I knew that we would because Jason likes to drive at night. I on the other hand like to sleep at night. We arrived at Grandma & Grandpa Lee's house at around 4 or 5. Grandma Lee was wide awake. This was a good thing because Abby, also decided that it was time to wake up. Jason took a nap upstairs, and I cat napped on the sofa.
Honestly, we spent our first day sleeping.

Our second day, we had to go shopping. I say it this way because, Jason and I had completed an all day shopping event earlier in December but when it had come time to purchase his families gifts, he decided to wait. So on December 23, we did a whirl wind shopping trip in 45 minutes and got everyone's gift. I honestly think that we did an outstanding job. The gifts were all really good.

Christmas Eve we went to church and Jason saw a couple people that he remembered from when he lived up in Michigan. The afternoon was spent watching the Bears (of course) and then a game of Mexican Train. At the end of the evening we got to open stockings...yoyos, card games, and those spongy animals that grow in water for everyone.

Christmas started out with some awesome baked orange french toast.( I think that was what it was. either way it tasted awesome!! Way to go Julie. Add it to the awesome breakfast recipies). With Jason as Santa, the gifts were unwrapped, and everyone got bundles of gifts. Abby of course raked in the most presents but that is to be expected. Grandma Lee got her tons of noisemaking toys!! The one below was her and is her favorite.

The rest of the week was spent relaxing, watching CSI: Miami, and eating a lot of really good food!! We had a great time, saw a little snow. One of the most memorable times was the walk in park with Abby. For the most part the experience was great. The downers were the floating boardwalks that liked to spit cold water up at you when you walked on them.

Abby's favorite experience of the week was discovering the empty cabinet in the living room. The first time she climbed in and we shut the door she cried hysterically. After that one time, she would shut herself in there to play. It was super cute.

Also while up in Michigan, we met up with our good friend Ryan Taggert. It was great to see him and talk about old times at camp and what he has been doing since.

Out of Order...2nd Thanksgiving & 1st Christmas

2007-03-03T18:36:00.000-05:00

Our second thanksgiving was with my family. Grammie & Pop Pop(we have renamed you) came down early. In fact Jason and I were sitting at our living room table, finishing up dinner and I was fretting about our apartment not being clean. Jason of course was calm and not stressing about it at all. His regular temperment and attitude. I went out to our back porch for some reason and heard a car horn honk. I thought to myself. It would be just like dad to honk the horn in order to get our attention because he knows our door bell is broken. So I decided to check our parking lot to see if it was my parents. And it was. I couldn't believe it. They said that they were going to arrive on Sunday mid day, and yet here it was 7 o'clock on Saturday night! Oh well, the apartment was going to have to stay a mess.

Grammie & Pop Pop were ecstatic to have Saturday night with Abby just by themselves. Although exhausted from their long drive down, they spent the evening watching Abby run around.

Sunday, Jason went to Raleigh early to pick Mary up from the airport. Grammie and Pop Pop took Abby for a walk, while I did homework. The rest of Sunday was a blur, with Jason and Pop Pop heading to Wake Forest to watch the Bears and Mary & Grammie playing cribbage and watching Abby, while I continued to do homework. That night we opened Christmas presents. This was the Lake family Christmas because Jason, Abby, and I were heading to Michigan for actual Christmas.

Monday came and went, Jason and I worked, while Grammie, Pop Pop, Abby, and Mary went down to visit the Knapps. Dinner was at Hazel and Bernard's House(Abby's baby sitters).

Tuesday, Grammie & Pop Pop left to go back to Vermont, and Sue flew in from California. Wednesday, Matt and Ruth arrived with Brad and his girlfriend (sorry, I can't remember her name). Dang it was a full house, and Abby loved every minute of it.

By Friday morning, everyone was gone except Sue. We spent Friday relaxing and watching Cars. It was a good day to relax after all of the guest that had come to visit.

Saturday, we headed to Durham. Sue's college roommate, Julie came up and we were able to eat some Cosmic Catina Burritos for lunch. God, I love that place.

Sunday evening, Sue and I headed into Raleigh so that I could drop her off with my friend Emily Sheridan. Since Sheridan lives in Raleigh and Sue's flight was leaving at 6 AM. We had prearranged for Sue to stay there for the evening. It was a good night. We went out to dinner. It was the first time in a long time that I had gone out to dinner without Abby or Jason. It is amazing what changes occur when you get married and have a baby. It isn't bad, just different.

When I finally got home, this is what I found. I wouldn't give it up for anything.

Recent Pictures

2007-02-10T01:59:00.000-05:00

"Shoes" was one of Abby's first words ("Juice" was a close second and obviously sounds quite similar). Tonight was the first time she has tried to put on Mommy or Daddy's shoes. It was pretty hilarious.

The other night she figured out how to put this hat on her head all by herself. Again, quite funny to watch.

I can't believe how old she looks in this picture.

This is Abby playing with her friend, Dakota (the son of our friends, Scott and Kelly). I'm not sure if she is trying to choke him or about to push him over.

And last of all, a good pic of Abby and Momma. Hopy y'all enjoy.

The first Thanksgiving

2007-01-27T19:46:00.000-05:00

Well hopefully we can get get the stupid picture thing to work on the blogger website soon. We have a couple of photos to add to help with out description of our first Thanksgiving. The first Thanksgiving was Jason's Friends Thanksgiving. It is a tradition with Jason and his friends to get together and celebrate their friendship and the lasting connections that they have. It is always a great time. This year the celebration was at Jeff and Laura's house in Wisconsin. They are currently living in an old farmhouse. Our flight from NC to Illinois went well until we started looking for the rental place. Since we had gotten up at 3 or 4 in the morning, we were a little testy and didn't really get to the rental place in the most direct method. After a lunch with a camp friend, Nikki O. in Chicago, we drove up to Wisconsin. We saw our first snow of the season, which made us very happy. Is is pretty much the only snow that we have seen all year. We also saw lightning during a snow storm. I can't remember ever seening that happen before. Saturday was a great celebration, full of food and talking. Laura outdid herself with the food that was made and the conversation was great as always. After dinner and clean up, we had a time of sharing and joy. It is always a good experience to spend time with Jason's friends from college. It usually enjoys lots of laughter, singing and quick banter. Abby got to spend time with Elli, her friend from the summer, and meeting all of Jason's friends. Some of the best moments of Abby was her sleeping locations--in the backpack outside, on the floor next to the couch and the dog!! It was one of those times when she was playing and then she was out cold! The time seemed too quick and then we were back in North Carolina.

About Dag on Time

2007-01-27T18:31:00.000-05:00

Ok, Ok, Ok, I get it. It is time for me to play catch up on the many different things that have happened in the past couple of months. I can't even remember if I have already posted this picture or not but it a good one, so it will be Ok if I have. This is the picture to remember Abigail's first steps. I believe it might have been like her sixth or seventh but it'll count just the same. Since the beginning of her walking days she has done so very deliberately and with focus. She quickly moved from a couple steps here and there to full blown walking machine. Actually within the last couple of weeks she has been asking to go on walks. She will find her jacket and go to the door and wait for us to get our stuff together for a walk around the block. Sometimes she is patient but not always.
Daddy and Abby reading on the couch sofa cushions in the middle of the living room. This has also become a daily occurrence. Abby will get a book she wants to read and bring it to you. Sometimes she goes page by page but more often than not she skips to her favorite part. In the book Russell, the sheep, her favorite part is when Russell decides to count the stars. She got some glow-in-the-dark stars from her Michigan Grandma, and when he starts counting the 6 hundred million billion and ten stars, she looks up at the ceiling. In her other favorite book, While Angels Watch, she likes the picture of the Owl because she says who, who in response to the picture. She used to say oodle-doo for the rooster but doesn't do that much anymore. Both of these are part of her bedtime routine, which she finally has. It only took us 15 months to figure it out.
This was the weekend of the Antique Car Show in Henderson. It was the largest amount of people that I have ever seen in this town. One of the closest restaurants to us is the the Wildflower Cafe. It is only open during the week for lunch and Thursday & Friday dinner, so we don't have a lot of opportunity to go to it. It is actually really good food and a great atmosphere. It was actually open on a Saturday just because of this show and they made some good money. It was packed with people!! Luckily we got a table outside and could people watch, while Abby walked around.Another picture I wasn't sure if I had posted. Abby got the most out of her costume. She got it in early September and there have been Abby Bee sightings as recent as last week. She had a good time trick or treating with Hazel and the boys at camp.

Promised Pictures...

2006-12-11T22:44:00.000-05:00

These pictures are from Becka's 30th Birthday Party. Mary brought them with her for Thanksgiving.

This is one of my favorites. The one below with Abigail's belly poking out of her shirt. I really think that this is a great bunch of pictures...

Of course this is Mary's favorite. A couple of people have asked me who it is not recognizing her from the previous photos. Either way the camera she was using was really neat. It was an older camera and only has 12 shots per roll but the pictures come out square and the lighting is really awesome.

Hope everyone enjoys.

2006-11-04T16:13:00.000-05:00

Hello Everyone. I know this is pretty amazing but I am posting again. Relatively soon after the last two posts. Holy Cow. Don't have a heart attack. I just wanted to share some photos that I thought people would enjoy seeing. Above is Abigail and her pal Olli. Abby can now get on and off Olli by herself. Additionally she spends many a evening pushing Olli around our apartment. It is amazing to see her maneuver the toy around the doorways and between our furniture.
Abby has decided that some days she doesn't want any help feeding. She can do it her self. This was one of those instances. Obviously she has to get bare in order to make it through the feeding without destroying her clothing.

Her favorite past time still includes reading, especially with Daddy. She really enjoys books. We are happy for this and try and bring books to every function we go to so that she can read. Abby's first steps caught on camera!!! She had a couple earlier but this was the beginning of the time of walking Abby. She is now walking in shoes and has helped to take the trash out. She went on a walk to her old Day Care this morning to swing.
Happy Halloween. Abby was a bumble bee. She came up to camp to trick or treat with the boys and then spent the evening with Ms. Hazel, while Jason and I were part of the Haunted Trail at work.

Hope you enjoyed. Let us know what you think of young Abby.

Professional Pics...

2006-10-29T20:42:00.000-05:00

Abigail got her first professional pictures done this weekend and we wanted to share. It was a painful process and we have learned many things about what to do differently next time. One of them includes feeding all parties prior to attempting pictures. Anyway these are some of the better shots. She really didn't like the feeling of the velveety stuff in the black background.
This my favorite(below), except she isn't smiling. If only....
Hope you like them.

Happy 30th Birthday, Becka!!

2006-10-25T19:47:00.000-04:00

I know that her birthday was in September, but these are some pictures from the weekend.

Back to the regularly scheduled posting.

As some of you know, Abigail and I were able to take off for a weekend of fun up in Connecticutt. It was great. We drove to Maryland on Thursday night, (early in September). After staying with Matt and Ruth for the evening; Matt, Abby, and I drove all day Friday to hang out with Jeff and Becka for her birthday. ((For those of you who don't know, all of these people are my relatives. Matt(my oldest brother) and his wife, Ruth live in MD, Jeff(my second oldest brother) and his wife, Becka live in CT.)) Jeff had scheduled a Bar-B-Q to celebrate Becka's birthday. Anyway...back to the story of the weekend. Matt, Abby, and I drove up to CT, only getting a little lost on the way in to their town. The conversation in the car went like this. "ummm, I don't know exactly where we are" "I think we are supposed to take this exit, according to the map""this doesn't look familiar." "wait, i think i know that gas station""that golf course looks familiar but I don't remember how to get to their house from here.""Isn't that the big hill before the restuarant...""What???" "keep going.""that looks familiar" We had this conversation for almost 20 minutes. With everything looking familiar. We finally arrived, without having to call for directions. Of course, no one was home so we got to hang out in their backyard. Yippee. Just kidding, it was fine. The temperature was great and they have very comfortable lawn chairs.

The party the next day was great. Grammie Linda and John(aka dad) ( we don't know what Abby is calling him yet), and aunty Mary came down from Vermont for the event. Abby was the star of the party for a little while until the triplets arrived. She really enjoyed hanging out with Mary and getting her picture taken (we will have a second installment of this blog with the picture of Mary and Abby that we took with Mary's camera)

Her second all time favorite activity of the day was walking with Dad. This picture really reminds me of the ones we have of Sue and Grandpa, at the farm in Canada. Does anyone else know what I am talking about and think so too?
This was Grammie Linda's favorite part of the entire weekend. She held Abby from the minute that she fell asleep until Mary and I went upstairs, probably over 2 hours. And Grammie loved it.
The party was fun with some darts and talking going late into the night. The next morning we all got into our respective cars and headed our ways. Some north, others south, and Abby and I driving all the way to North Carolina. It was a great trip, although short. Hopefully we can see everyone again soon. Thanks for turning 30 Becka!!

I include this picture because I think it is the funniest that we have had in a while. Abby was super tired one day and fell asleep in her feeding chair. She was knocked out. How sweet.

By the way. I don't know if we have told everyone yet but Abby is walking around like crazy. We'll post more soon. Don't worry. Also we noticed that she has 4 more teeth coming.

The long awaited California post

2006-09-21T21:00:00.000-04:00

My sister, Sue( the one trying to drink the very large margherita in the picture below) lives in San Diego. She has actually lived in California for almost 4 years now. Up until this August I had only been out to visit once, for her graduation. It was definitely time to visit just for fun.

So Abby and I packed our bags and got ready to go. We were to fly out to San Diego, leaving from Raleigh at 6:00 in the morning. So our first leg of the trip was the drive to my good friend, Emily Sheridan's (who will be called Sher for the rest of the blog). Sher lives in Raleigh. So as opposed to having to get up an extra hour early and drive from Henderson to Raleigh, Abby and I spent the night at Sher's. Plus, Sher was coming with us to CA!! The next morning we got up at 3:00. We wanted to be at the airport super early because of the airport difficulties that had been occurring. We got to the airport and had little difficulties with our flights out to CA. Although I have to tell you that it is really tough to have been up since 3:00 in the morning and fly across country and arrive at your destination and it is still on 9:00 in the morning. All in All, Abby did quite well. She only started crying when we were waiting for people to get off of the plane. People weren't too annoyed which is good thing. After meeting up with Sue at the airport, we went and crashed at her apartment. At least Sher did. Abigail was wide awake, and thus so was I. It was a good time for some Sue/Abby bonding. And also a good time for Sue and I to catch up.

As we passed the afternoon talking and just resting, I grew more and more sleepy. BUT not Abby. Sue was planning on going to a concert. She reminded us (Sher & I), that Kim, another good friend(here she is below, also drinking a very large margherita), was coming in at 11, and we needed to let her into the apartment when she called. I delegated responsibility to Sher because she had gotten a nap. The last thing that I remember from that night was that it was only 7PM when I closed my eyes. Then next morning I awoke, I had some how moved from the living room to the back bedroom and Kim and Sue were on the air mattress on the floor by my bed. It was 4AM and Abigail was awake and my cell phone had a message. Sue and I tried to entertain but Abby was not satisfied to be stuck up on the bed. Since Abby is now a crawler, she needs to be able to move. Or else. We stuck it out until about 5 before realizing that it was a lost cause. We found our walking shoes and the Snugli and headed out for a walk. Before leaving I checked my messages and discovered that both Sher and I had slept through Kim's phone calls and she had been hanging out in the front of Sue's apartment for about 30 minutes at 11:30 PM in an unknown city, until Sue got home. Oops. (I am really sorry Kim!)

Sue, Abby, and I went for a walk for through the neighborhood. It was a good walk, although I realized that Henderson is really flat compared to San Diego. After our vigorous morning exercise, we headed to Starbucks for some coffee and then back to the apartment to plan our morning. Sue wanted us to see her office and co-workers and then thought that perhaps we should go to the Zoo. Sounded good to us...And off we went. We met Sue's Co-workers. (Hi everyone!). And then went to the Zoo, it was awesome.

It was set up really well. I would recommend going to the San Diego Zoo. Although expensive, you actually get to see the animals, instead of searching a spot that supposedly contains animals. My personal favorites were the Pandas, the giraffes and the scary looking pigs. The best part of the zoo was trying to navigate the map, the hike up to see the giraffes (it felt like it was straight up), and then the giant giraffe whose head peaked up over the rock outcropping.

Other fun things that we did while in San Diego included going to Mexico. Abigail has now been to two other countries besides America. She is going to be a well traveled baby. Mexico was interesting. The highlights include the fact that you don't have to stop when entering the country. You just drive in. No customs, nothing. Of course the return from Mexico is much more strict. Also it takes a much longer time. In fact, some Mexicans make their living by selling goods to people who are waiting in line to return to the United States. People stand in the middle of the road and are gophers to the stands on the side of the road. Some people are selling ice cream or drinks and will chase the cars down if they start moving before the transaction is completed. This is one of the stands by the side of the road.

While in Mexico, among other things we picked up a dress for Abigail.
Another highlight of Mexico occurred when we were walking down a side street and observed an individual throw a soda can at a car (he was in conflict with the driver) and the soda can went in through the passenger's side window and came out the driver's window.

The weekend was great. We got to see so many things. We went to the beach, we went to an aquarium, we met up with some of Sue's friends. We met up with Vanessa Horne,( although I don't think she is a Horne anymore, I know she is married, I just don't know if she changed her name) a South Hero native. We ate lots of good food. Mostly Mexican...Go figure. Although the picture below shows our parting breakfast. Sher's pancake was the largest thing that I have ever seen in my entire life. And it was cooked the entire way through (I say this because every time I make a large pancake it always has the gooey middle. It wasn't so in this case).

Thank You Sue!! We had a great time.

Our best weekend in Raleigh

2006-08-06T16:31:00.000-04:00

OK so it only took us 4 years of living within an hour of Raleigh to have a really good time in the capital city of North Carolina. And it was all thanks to my good friend KatieJean. Katie came down on Friday to visit. We decided that we were going to go into Raleigh and go to IHOP. That was our major plan. Then we decided we are going into town we had better make an entire day of it. So we did. After a stomach stretching breakfast we visited Edward McKays. The used book store that I thoroughly enjoy. I can always find something good there. I am slowly expanding my library for relatively cheap. Right now I am in the Toni Morrison phase. I am looking for some good authors to read so if anyone has any suggestions please let me know. After the book store we were on the search of the Raleigh Farmers Market. It is awesome. I haven't been at a farmers market that large ever. We were bombarded with people who had samples of fresh blueberries and fresh peaches. There was also a salsa woman. She had 10 different kinds of salsa, all homemade and all really, really good. We got some. And Jason and I decided we are definitely coming back to stock up on some fresh vegetables. Additionally there is a more permanent structure that holds all of the jarred foods and vegetables and jams and jellies. I found some pumpkin butter. I think I am going to get some next time just so that I can try it because it sounds really good. After a bottled soda-I had strawberry, Katie had black cherry and Jason had an RC cola. We bought two pints of fresh blueberries and headed to down town Raleigh.

To do what you ask? To find live music of course. Raleigh has some live music fest going on some Saturdays. Yesterday's main show was Candlebox. But we only stayed for 2 of the 7 bands to play. The two guys were locals. It was a great time. Sitting out in the park. The temperature wasn't too hot, which is pretty incredible given the week we've had. Abby of course made a couple of friends. This guy had been traveling around the U.S. and had started his trek with over 50 plastic turtles. Every time that he made a bond with a child (and hopefully the child's parents) he had given them a plastic turtle. He was down to his last three turtles. Abby was definitely the talk of the people sitting around us. Mostly because she was wearing the sweat band and everyone thought it looked really cute.

After two and a half hours of good live music we made our way to Jason's favorite restaurant. It is this awesome Thai place. The food is great and the restaurant is really awesomely decorated. Abby was a bit of a handful though because there was another baby sitting right next to us. I had some Pineapple Fried Rice and loved it.

Abby had some Cheerios and was good to go. Jason had something super spicy and was happy that we were able to eat at his all time favorite restaurant.

Weekend with the Michigan Grandparents...

2006-08-06T16:10:00.000-04:00

In the past three weeks we have had a lot of occurances. Abby's grandparents from Michigan came down for a visit. It had been a very long time since they had seen Abigail so there were many new things for them to be amazed by. For instance Abigail has teeth. She is crawling like crazy and she can pull herself up when standing near furniture.
She additionally has become more expressive of her excitement. She is frequently laughing and is tickilish on the side. She is also enjoying her toys more, which is good for us since we now feel a need for having so many toys and can actually enjoy a couple of seconds to ourselves when she is occupied with the array of toys that she presently owns. Sometimes for fun we attach Lennie the Lemer( I don't know how to spell it) around her neck, it is funny to watch her crawl around with him.Michigan Grandma brought Abby a stool that she likes to play with. Mostly she enjoys putting Leap or Lily (her stuffed frogs that sing the alphabet and can still stop her crying fits) into the basket created by the legs and push them around. It is really funny to watch because she is utilizing her super crawling speed to try and keep up with the stool.Michigan Grandpa got to spend some quality time reading with Abigail, although it took a little while for her to stop crying upon meeting him...Apparently Abby was scared upon initial meeting. I am including two pictures. The first picture is a little bit dark but a better picture. The second shows up more but no one is smiling...oops.
By the way, Abigail is getting better at the Uh- oh. It actually sounds like it now...

The Past Month....

2006-07-21T06:27:00.000-04:00

The past month has been extremely busy for us here in Henderson. We have been baking in the Heat and trying to survive with only one room air conditioner. Naturally we have been spending a lot of time in that one room. Especially on those days when the heat is too overwhelming. 115 with the heat indexes... That is HOT. Abby is doing well. She is crawling all over the place. She has the regular crawl and then the super crawl, where she zooms across the room. She is really quick. I am constantly impressed. She is standing using the table but not on her own yet. Abby has many different expressions as well. The following picture is Jason's current favorite. I enjoy it as well. She just wants to make sure that no one forgets about her.This past weekend Jason , Abby and I headed up to Ohio to meet up with some friends to go camping. Although extremely hot we had a great time. Abby went for a long walk to the beach, and then went swimming for the first time. I am not sure that she liked it. We'll keep working on it. She got to go canoeing. I am pretty sure that she hated it, seeing as she cried and screamed the entire time that we were out on the water. It wasn't very relaxing for the rest of us either. Additionally, it is highly difficult to go camping with a 9 month old. They are every where, trying to get into everything and wanting to eat everything they can get their hands on. Luckily we had Alien Bob to distract for the most part.

Abby was a little tired when we got home!

Abby Update! Happy Father's Day

2006-06-18T17:34:00.000-04:00

Abby has become a bundle of energy in the last couple of weeks. In the middle of May we, being the Lee family headed up to Vermont for Mary's graduation from St. Mike's. The week was an enjoyable time of hanging out with the family, spending time with Mary's friends and eating some good food. We arrived in Vermont on Wednesday, in time for Mary's party at her house. The next morning was graduation; super, super long, and the evening was spend exploring St.Mike's College after hours. Friday and Saturday included time with the family and a party for the island folk to celebrate Mary's graduation. It was a good time although very cold and rainy. One of the highlights of the party was having Mr. & Mrs. Corbin show up. It was terrific of them to voyage out into the rain to see Mary and catch up with the rest of us. It was also quite humorous to have people not recognize Matt and Jeff, or not even realize who they were.

Since the return to North Carolina, Abigail has become more inquisitive and has learned how to pull herself up. She is even playing peek-a-boo, with just herself. I will be sitting in the orange chair, which is a recliner, with the foot rest up and she will pull herself up and then let herself down gently. We say "where's Abigail?" and she pokes her head back over the foot rest. "there she is..." This game can last for quite a while. It makes me laugh that she is enjoying her ability to pull herself up. She has also moved on to add a different laugh to her repertoire. Instead of only having the panting laugh, she now has a regular giggle. It doesn't happen every time but makes Jason and I laugh right along with her.

Abigail has also slept through the night. Only twice but we figure that it is an improvement from waking up every 3 hours... Some days she sleeps like this, all curled up in a corner...The first night I awoke feeling scared and had to come and check and ensure that she was still breathing...
She also likes Jason's game cube. Frequently she will overlook her own toys to play with his. I find this quite funny, especially when he has rolled up the controller but didn't shut the door to the entertainment unit and she gets to the controller. It is all over then. The controller is out and unrolled and slobbered all over. Good Job.

Food Shots

2006-06-01T22:18:00.000-04:00

We have started feeding Abigail some real food. Unfortunately she enjoys wearing it more than eating it.

Also she will frequently steal the spoon so that she can "feed herself."
Yeah Right...

All Gone...

Howdy

2006-05-28T14:43:00.000-04:00

I figured it was about time that I did an Abby post. It's been quite a while, actually. I really like this first picture because it brings out the dorky side of Abby. I know she's cute an all, but c'mon, she's her father's daughter, and she is definitely a dork sometimes.

This second picture is how we spent part of easter--sitting in the little bit of grass (and the little bit of shade) that is in front of the World Market store. As Jeff and Becka remember, that was a hot weekend. It hasn't been that hot since, but I know it's coming.
I realize this picture is a little blurry, but I think it really captures her mood. With an expression like that, how can you sit still for a camera?
And if there was any question about what baby's do, this answers it--they stick EVERYTHING in their mouths. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Picture Update

2006-05-04T17:31:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note to accompany the new pictures. We have taken to printing out our digital pictures so that we can have more room to take new cute pictures. Although very photogenic for us, when the pre-school photos came time over at day care, apparently Abby didn't want to smile for the camera.

One must always have a good naked baby in a towel photo. Don't worry we have naked baby photos to embarrass her with later on in life.

Abby's Book List

2006-05-02T19:11:00.000-04:00

Since Jason and I are such avid readers we decided we wanted to ensure that Abigail has many options to choose from when she decides she wants to read. We already have an intense library under her crib, but we always love new books. So. We wanted people to know what books we have in case anyone would like to further her education.

We have placed the list in the comments section for those who would like to know what is in Abigail's library.

Holy Cow! New Pictures!!

2006-04-23T22:27:00.000-04:00

We thought that a couple of good photos would help alleviate the anxiety over our slacking in posting. As the semester ends there is a smaller amount of time that I spend on the computer doing anything but homework. I thought you would all enjoy these photos.
Abby has come to enjoy her eating table. In fact sometimes Jason just lets her hang out in there even when she is not eating. We think it is backfiring on us though because every time we go to take the toy away before feeding, she throws a fit. Who could believe that such an innocent looking child has lungs that will compete with my loudness someday. Either way, Abby is eating some rice cereal and some oatmeal but is pretty much just nursing at this point. Although now that she has some pearly whites popping through her gums the nursing days are numbered...

We recently went up to see Adam Robinson(Jason's good friend) in a play that he had written. It was part of a festival. I enjoyed Adam's play and Stephanie's song the most out of the entire evening. While we were up in Baltimore, we stayed with Matt and Ruth. We attempted to go to an orioles game. Well we went and froze our butts off. Matt bought Abby her first baseball hoodie, unfortunately the smallest size was a youth small. It helped to keep her warm though that game. You'll notice that abby is wearing a raincoat underneath the hoodie. She also has two blankets, and my hat on. And we were still chilly. While we were up in Maryland, Ruth bought Abby a new Eric Carle book. Brown Bear, Brown Bear. The book is actually almost bigger than Abby but she likes it a lot.
As you can see by her look of intrigue in the picture below. The books have been great fun.

Jason is also trying to instill his love of Football into our daughter. She frequently rocks the bears onesy and hat when Daddy dresses her in the morning. It should be interesting what she wears this upcoming week when I am out of town. I have another set of pictures just waiting to be entered from Jeff and Becka's visit and the spring time in North Carolina. Give me another week and all of my projects will be completed.