The Greg and Debbie Family

Snowed In

2012-01-21T10:04:00.000-07:00

As Greg mentioned last weekend it started snowing enough to cancel church. As it turns out it continued snowing up till this last Thursday. It doesn't snow here very often and usually if it does it only sticks around for a day or so before getting washed away by the rain. So when we get a real snow storm the area doesn't really have the resources to take care of it. As a result things almost shut down. Everyone just huddles up in there houses until the snow goes away. We were no different. Greg went into work for half a day on Monday and then worked from home through Thursday. Abby and I stayed at home and watched movies, played with friends down the street, went for cold, snowy walks, and tried to not get cabin fever. When we measured on Thursday we had about 8 inches of accumulated snow.

We decided to make a smoothie for dinner one night but before we really got started Abby wanted to make a pretend smoothie. The video is only a sample of her pretending skills.

Abby's friend came up to the house one afternoon with a sled and Abby had her first real experience sledding. She enjoyed it. Abby never wanted to wear gloves or her hat and it was a constant battle. Maybe as a result, she ended up a bit sick on Friday. But she's feeling better after a day of movie watching.

Snowy Weekend!

2012-01-15T20:10:00.004-07:00

Winter has certainly arrived here in the Northwest! It snowed last night and all this morning and has left us with a couple of inches!

As soon as we found out church was cancelled, Abby insisted we go out right away so we spent a while making a snowman (ended up being a snow girl that never got really finished), shoveling off the driveway (worthless since it snowed so much more after we finished), and Abby throwing snowballs.

After our snow adventure, we camped out inside for a while and then had some friends nearby over for lunch and went over to Greg's cousins for dinner. It was a pretty relaxing day and a nice change of pace. We're not really sure what the next week will bring though as there is a lot more snow in the forecast.

Prior to today's excitement, there hasn't been a whole lot to report. Abby is bossy as ever but also a lot of fun. She lately has been singing a lot of songs for us, some that she has heard at church or preschool but also a lot that she just has made up.

Some of the songs/stories she has made up lately include:
"Once there was a little tiny baby snowman"
"Masticated! masticated masticated masticated..."
And, as always, her Ariel song that just has her singing "aaaaahhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!

2012-01-01T14:51:00.011-07:00

We hope you are all enjoying your start to 2012!

It's been a few weeks since we posted, we have been busy with the holidays and spending lots of time with friends and family.

This year, most of Debbie's family came up here to Washington to spend time together and celebrate Christmas. Abby's cousin is just a little bit younger than her and Abby loved spending time with her. She still asks about her. We spent lots of time hanging out and went to Warhorse together as a family on the day after Christmas. (Where Greg, not for the first time, placed hopes on 'fresh' pretzels being good in the theater and was intensely disappointed)

In addition to Christmas, we had a pretty fun, short week with Greg having last Monday as well as Friday off of work. On Friday, we made use of Greg's parents gift of a family pass and went to the Seattle Aquarium. It is a lot bigger than it looks from the exterior and Abby had a lot of fun seeing octopus, fish, and seals. We didn't quite get all the way through before Abby was done but thanks to this year long pass we can go again and again to see the things we missed!

Alright, here are some pictures of some of the fun we have been having!

Here is Abby doing something on the floor (playing 'babies' probably) with her cousin.

Abby loves exploring and trying new things. She found mommy's swimming goggles somewhere and of course had to try them on.

Here is Abby 'trying on' a new Christmas dress (sorry about the sideways pic, I can't get it to rotate)

Enjoying a Christmas present

Spelunking for the last gifts

Sporting matching aprons

Opening presents with Debbie's family (Abby went ballistic when she saw the Santa outfit)

Poking starfish and creeping herself out with a model octopus

Greg gets Monday off work so another shorter week. What an awesome time of year!

Pre-Christmas Christmas

2011-12-26T15:43:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we took a quick trip to Utah. We had a super fun time with gramma Kelli and papa Micheal. Abby spent lots of time...

playing "house"

having cold park time

painting

~~tormenting~~ loving the kitten Aunt Gen was kitty-sitting

opening presents at Great-papa's house

loving time with papa

It was a fast trip and even though Abby had a harder time sleeping there then she has in the past we are still glad we went.

Pajama Performance

2011-12-13T21:35:00.000-07:00

Abby loves to sing and will sing all day long. This is kind of a long video but we thought it was really cute. We hope you like it too.

Random Stuff

2011-12-11T12:25:00.001-07:00

Abby took these pictures...

Abby likes to wear her doll's pants and do head stands.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-29T18:35:00.006-07:00

Hi everybody! We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Ours was very good. Gregs siblings and Mom flew in for Thanksgiving and the weekend and we had a lot of fun. Abby loved having them here as well and has been in withdrawal (read: acting terribly) since they left. Here are some of the fun things we did with them while they were here:

Grandma went to preschool with Abby. Here is Abby reading at preschool.

Here is Abby at circle time at preschool.

Here is our Thanksgiving dinner. There were some classics (awesome slow-cooked turkey, potatoes, stuffing), some additions (pineapple?) and some exceptions (no cranberries!) and it was all great.

Abby has been super excited about Christmas and every day mentions "I love Christmas". She likes looking at the "toys" (ornaments) on the tree and so far hasn't broken into any packages. We don't quite know how to tell her that Christmas is still a month away.

We did some shopping on the weekend. Here is what Abby picked out to get at a toy store. Sadly for her, we didn't get most of it but she sure loved playing dress-ups.

Abby continues to have a ton of energy and personality. She has had a couple of "accidents" lately and when Debbie told her she needed to listen to her body Abby looked at her with a funny look and told her "My body can't talk mommy, it doesn't have a face!". Silly Mom.

Mellow November

2011-11-17T15:21:00.003-07:00

We've had a pretty mellow November so far. Nothing too exciting. We're really looking forward to the Holidays and having the chance to spend time with both our extended families.

A few weeks ago we had some family pictures done and just got them back yesterday. Here are some of favorites:

Also, this morning when Abby asked what we were going to do I told her I was going to the temple. She very sweetly asked if she could go to the temple too. She was so sweet that I decided to change plans. Instead of spending time inside the temple by myself, I took Abby. At the temple, Abby I and walked around the temple grounds, took a few pictures (it was really windy and cold), and then spent a little bit just inside talking about the importance of the temple. It was a very special time for Abby and I.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T20:47:00.003-06:00

Abby had been talking for months about being a ballet-kitty for Halloween. We were finally able to make her dreams come true.

On Saturday we had our church Halloween party. It started with a dinner followed by games and ended with a trunk-or-treat. Abby loved this party. She got a cupcake from the cake-walk. She went "fishing" multiple times. She was so good going from car to car saying trick-or-treat. She liked telling everyone she was a ballet-kitty. It was a blast.

On Halloween day she had a party at preschool, which I was able to stay and be a helper for. It was fun to watch Abby interact with her schoolmates and for me to get to know them better. After preschool we went to Greg's work to trick-or-treat around his office. We ended up the day with a little trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.

At the end of this holiday all we have to say is that Abby has enough candy to give her plenty of stomach aches and we had a great time with our Halloween this year.

The Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-23T21:36:00.000-06:00

This week Abby had her first field trip with her preschool. We drove out and met the rest of her school at The Farm, which just happened to be the same pumpkin patch that we went to last year. This time we were able to do some of the fun activities The Farm offered.

They had a fun hay maze in the barn. While we were waiting for everyone to arrive Abby kept telling me she wanted to go in the barn. When we were ready to go in she got really excited. She went through the maze with one of her friends from school.

At the end of the maze there was a large, fast slide. Abby had a great time in the barn despite the bigger kids being kind of crazy and intimidating.

After the barn we saw the animals and pet a kitten. We then loaded everyone up in "the train," which was actually just a couple of hay trailers pulled by a tractor. They took us to one of their pumpkin patches reserved for field trips and all the kids got to pick any pumpkin they wanted. I had to convince Abby to look around a bit before picking one. She was ready to pick the first one she saw.

When everyone had their pumpkin we boarded the train again and went back to the main activity area where we all got ice cream bars and then saw a pig show. By then we'd been there about two hours and kids were getting tired and starting to leave. Abby wanted to have one more look at the ducks and then we headed out too. It was a great first field trip.

Today we got to carve Abby's pumpkin. After Greg got the top and we showed Abby the guts she decided she wasn't too interested in scooping out the pumpkin so she played with toys while I did the gutting and Greg did the carving.

Even though Abby didn't help much with the activity she did love the finished product. And...

she saved six seeds for planing in the spring.

Abby Montage

2011-10-16T20:47:00.005-06:00

Abby "needed" to wear Greg's jacket

"I grabbing you Daddy!"

We needed a beret, this was close.

At the open house for the new fire station.

Abby got cold while we were out on a walk.

This is how Abby falls asleep every night.

Changing Seasons

2011-10-03T21:18:00.000-06:00

The season is definitely changing for us. Just two weeks ago we were at the park every day for hours at a time. Now, the days are getting shorter, cooler and more wet. While hoping to take advatage of the change in weather we worked a bit on our sad lawn. Abby was happy to help Greg spread the grass seed. In the two days since Abby had checked multiple times to see if the seeds were growing yet. To her dissapointment they have not.

We've decorated our front step for fall. Thanks to my parents awesome garden we have some corn stalks and a very impressive pumpkin, although the latter is just on loan. After puting those things up Abby and I decided that it need something more. So after a little looking around a little we found a very cute scare crow that we both think is perfect.

Abby just recently discovered that she can use the camera just as well as we can. Here are some pictures she took tonight:

Beginning of Autumn

2011-09-25T12:05:00.005-06:00

Hi everybody!

Hope everybody is enjoying the first week of Autumn! Things have cooled down a little bit up here but are still beautiful.

Nothing too exciting this week, Abby continues preschool, Greg continues work and Debbie continues holding everything together!

Abby has really gotten into having us draw pictures lately. Neither of us are great artists so its a wonder Abby is satisfied with anything. Here's a picture of a hamburger and our family. Pretty awesome.

It's a long and awkward story but some random vacuum salespeople were trying to get people to buy vacuums and offering to do a room or something for free. We needed our couch cleaned and they said they could do it so we had to endure a sales pitch in return for a couch cleaning (which turned out to not be that great). Abby made the most of it though and while the guy was distracted, took his cleaning pads and spread them around the entire room. This picture is of when she was only half done. The guy had no clue until the work was done. Abby was pretty pleased.

Abby has been really into forts lately. She somehow finds a way to put almost all her toys into the forts which makes them pretty cramped and uncomfortable (for us). She doesn't mind though.

That's about it, hope everybody has a good week!

Peaches and Birthdays

2011-09-18T20:31:00.004-06:00

We've had a pretty good week. Abby is still really enjoying preschool. She's been waking up earlier everyday and it can be tough to convince her that she needs to wait to go to school. She refused to have anything to do with waiting the other day so I took her to school and we waited outside the locked door for nearly a half hour. She just wouldn't believe me that it wasn't time for school so I let her find out for herself.

On a non school day this week my mom came over and spent many hours with me canning 42 jars of peaches. Abby did really well playing by herself and occasionally visiting the kitchen for a slice of peach. Toward the end of the peaches I decided I wanted to seal some jars of maple syrup while we had the caner out. I quadrupled the recipe I usually use and only got two quarts. Hopefully with those jars on the shelf I won't have to make syrup so often. I'm so glad

Yesterday was Greg's birthday. Abby was so anxious to open his presents. She wanted to open each box as it arrived but I told her we had to wait until Saturday. It was really hard for her. When Saturday finally arrived she was so happy to hand each box to Greg. She was so bouncy I could hardly even get a non blurry picture of her.

I also braided Abby's hair for the first time yesterday. You can't really tell from the picture but it was really cute.

Finally, our weather has really cooled off. We barely saw the sun more the once this week. It rained all night last night and we decided it was a boot day. Abby was so proud of herself for putting on my boots and walking around in them.

Busy outdoor week

2011-09-11T15:03:00.009-06:00

Hi everyone!

Hope you are all doing well and had a fun 4 day week! We have had a lot fun outdoors lately and a lot going on so here is a bit about what we've been doing.

A week and a half ago, Debbie and Abby found a park near Redmond that they loved. They had so much fun that they spent four and a half hours there! By the end, Abby was sandy, happy, and exhausted. On the way back, there was nothing Debbie could do to prevent her from napping in the back seat.

We have enrolled Abby in preschool this year for just 2 hours, 2 days a week. She has been super excited for it and on her first day, she was pumped and ready to go. She put on her backpack and didn't look back!

Here is a video just before she headed off:

On Saturday, we wanted to make the most of a beautiful day so we headed to a beach we had never been to about 20 minutes north. Like many northwest beaches, there wasn't a ton of sand, mostly rocks, but we had a good picnic and then eventually found a stream that Abby and Greg's cousin's kids all enjoyed.

Here is a picture of Abby and Greg waiting for friends to arrive and trying to stay out of the sun.

Here's a picture of Picnic Point, the beach we went to. You can see her in the middle of the picture, way out there. Sorry for the poor picture, we only had the camera on my phone.

Here's Abby playing near the stream we found. As always, she loved scooping up dirt and rocks and didn't mind the freezing water.

Saturday night we topped off a great day with grilled pizza and breadsticks. This is the second time we've grilled pizza and it turned out a lot better this time. This was actually the first time we used fresh mozzarella cheese on a pizza and it really added a lot. It was a great way to end a fun and sunny Saturday.

Tolt/McDonald Park

2011-08-29T07:49:00.005-06:00

We had tons of fun camping this past weekend. We decided to stay close this year and camped at Tolt/McDonald Park, which is only about an hour from our house. We also invited some friends to camp with us. We went up on Thursday (except Greg) found our perfect tent spot and got things all arranged. The day was hot and the two campsites we had didn't provide any shade. Greg showed up to have dinner with us on Thursday. He didn't stay the night because he had to work on Friday but he came up after work and stayed the night with us on Friday. We had such a good time. I'm glad we went with the friends we did and that we stayed two nights. It was nice to feel like getting settled in was going to be worth it. We had perfect weather and no rain. We made yummy dutch oven meals and roasted s'mores. Overall it was a great trip.

Abby loved sleeping in the tent with her own sleeping bag. We all slept pretty well (with a little help from sleep aid).

We went for a walk around the park on Friday and found some great black berry spots. I was surprised by how many berries Abby ate. She thought it was the coolest thing.

We played in the river a couple of times. There was a pretty decent beach (if not a little rocky) we went to one of the times. Abby sat and played happily with her bucket and shovel for nearly two hours. She was completely sandy afterward. And got stripped down at the spigot after each time in the river.

We are so happy that we were able to have a good camping trip this year. And thanks to my parents for letting us borrow so much of there camping gear. It made the trip that much more enjoyable.

Big-Girl Room

2011-08-21T09:55:00.007-06:00

For the last few weeks I've been work on and designing a big-girl room for Abby. We transitioned to a twin bed while we were in Utah (Abby was too big for the pack n' play). Ever since then she's been sleeping on a mattress on the floor. This week was when I finally got to put all of my design together. Even though I still need to get stuff for the walls I think it turned out pretty good.

It took a while to find the right color pink. I bought a few different sample paints and didn't really loving any of them. While expressing my frustration to the paint guy and Home Depot he said they have a color expert in the store who's job it is to help people find the right color. Thank goodness for that. She explain that the colors I was looking at had a grey undertone and it was killing the colors in my design. I've very happy with the color she picked out for us.

I was hoping to start and finish the room transformation all on Friday. But I didn't finish painting until 5:30pm (far later then I expected to). Needless to say we didn't want Abby sleeping in there that night. So I took her mattress into the master closet and told Abby how cool it was that she could sleep in mommy's closet. She thought it was great!

In addition to the bedroom redo we also had an impromptu pool party this week. The weather has been really nice all week long. There was one day when it was going to get really hot out. Because our friends that we usually go to the condo pool were out of town we decided to borrow grandma's inflatable pool and play at home. By the time we got the pool set up and filling with water we had almost every neighborhood kid in the water. After a while with a pretty crowded pool the bigger kids left and Abby got to play with the girl across the street (who is just a year older). The afternoon was a lot of fun but Abby said she liked it when there were no big kids in the pool.

The things one hears these days

2011-08-14T12:21:00.006-06:00

The last few weeks have been pretty normal. Abby and I like to play and run errands during the day. Greg is enjoying work. Going through our normal routine is rarely boring. Abby is an incredible chatter box and she says the funniest things. There are some conversations that we have with her everyday. For example:

Abby: "Mommy, where my candy (or whatever she's eating) go?"

Mom: "I don't know"

Abby: "In my mouth, down my rope (throat), in my tummy!"

Abby: "In my tummy. I can't see it. My stomach in the way."

Other funny things she says...

"I turn on the light. I bigger."

"Jesus makes pancakes" after seeing a picture of Jesus preparing the sacrament.

"I have my privacy." when asked if she needs help in the bathroom.

"I not tired. I just yawn."

"No, mommy don't talk to me. I talk by myself."

"I be fine" or "I be okay" when we ask her if she wants something in-particular, like her jacket.

"Where my nuts?"

When in Greg's car the other day: "Scoot up. Don't squish my shoes! Scoot up your chair."

"I not whining anymore, Abby happy."

"Yesterday daddy say "Oooh my goodness!" My bugger really really big."

Abby also sings.

"I'm just a little girl" The theme song from a show called Caillou

"Twinkle, twinkle little car (star)"

"Snowman, snowman. Melted, Melted"

"Happy birthday to you" yelled very loud and repeated over and over.

Back to Life

2011-07-31T12:18:00.003-06:00

Our fist week off of vacation has been pretty good. While Abby loved all the attention she got while we were with Greg's family she is also really happy to be home. We haven't done anything super exciting. The weather was nice enough for us to go swimming at our condo a couple of times. We also picked up some new dressers and reorganized our master closet. I think the space is much more efficient now.

We also took Abby's crib down this week. Abby started sleeping in a big bed at Grandma's house. When we got home we put a mattress on the floor for Abby to sleep in but decided to keep the crib in her room until she decided we could take it down. We wanted it to be her choice to sleep in the big bed rather then her crib. During this past week she only slept in her crib once. On Friday I asked her if she wanted to take it down. She agreed and I let her help me take all the screws out. It's a big step in her little life. Now I just have to decorate her room and get her some real furniture and she will really have a big girl space. She's growing quickly and we are so proud of her.

We don't have anything too exciting planned anytime soon. Hopefully I will be able to convince Greg to go on a few camping trips before the weather turns rainy again.

A couple of pictures from this week:

Playing with toys on her big girl bed

On a walk

Utah

2011-07-26T20:40:00.006-06:00

It's been a little while since we last posted. The last few weeks we've been having tons of fun in Utah with Greg's family. Greg's dad drove Abby and I down. It took us 16 hours and we did it all in one day. Abby was amazing pretty much the whole drive but we were happy to be done driving when we got to grandma's house.

We stayed with Greg's family for just over two weeks. Greg flew down for the last week of our visit and then we drove back home, again all in one day but it only took 15 hours. Again Abby was a pretty good rider.

The toughest part of the trip was at one point when we had been driving over three hours without a break. We had given Abby some presents along the way and one of the things we gave her was an egg full of Silly Putty. She kept asking where it went but we couldn't find it. When we finally did stop after she had been crying and very upset for a while, we saw that she had "hidden" the putty behind her head and it had melted and stuck her hair to her shirt and car seat. We felt bad for not finding it earlier and it explained why she was so upset. It took a while to get it out but after we took care of that and had something to eat she was much happier.

Here are some highlight videos of our trip:

Hawaii 5.5 years later

2011-07-10T13:35:00.006-06:00

Two weeks ago Greg and I took a vacation to Hawaii. This was our first time back there since getting married. We were very fortunate to have Greg's parents stay with Abby while we enjoyed time to ourselves.

We started with a few days on Kauai. The island is very beautiful and has a much slower pace than what we're used to. We loved relaxing on the beach. We did a lot of reading and a little snorkeling. After Kauai we spent another few days on Oahu. Our adventures there included some snorkeling, hiking, and driving around the island.

We tried shave ice on Kauai but it was not nearly as good as Matsumoto's in Haleiwa.

I didn't realize till now how much the shorts/dress clash. Yikes. I guess it works in Hawaii, or something. We took some wedding photos on this beach, we were dressed a bit different then.

At the top of Diamond Head the morning before we flew back

We had a wonderful, relaxing time together but we were also very excited to get back to our Abby!

3rd Annual Strawberry Picking

2011-06-27T13:08:00.005-06:00

Hey all!

Debbie and I are about to head off to Hawaii for a couple of days (Kauai for 3 days, Oahu for 2) but we just wanted to give a quick update on strawberry picking adventure #3. This is the third year we went to our favorite (well, only) u-pick strawberry field about a half hour east of us. This year, we brought along two friends and our total haul was 38 pounds of strawberries! That's a lot! For Debbie and I together, we brought in 23 pounds which I think is about the same as last year. Since we just ran out of strawberries for smoothies about a month ago, these arrive just in time. We look forward to many months of yummy smoothies with these berries. We are hoping also that the blackberry bushes behind our house give us some berries for smoothies as well, it should be a tasty year!

Ok, off to Hawaii, will update with more when we get back!

New York

2011-06-26T12:33:00.010-06:00

As Greg mentioned in his last post I spent last week with Greg's sister in New York City. Greg's sister and I decided last year to go to NY to see Wicked on Broadway. I'd only been to the city once when I was twelve and I didn't really know what the city was all about. So it was nice to do lots of research and figure out we really wanted to do. Here are a few photos of some of the things we did.

Very cool building and informative video

The United Nations

Pomme Frites, a french fry place devoted solely to Belgium fries and different dipping sauces, we liked the curry bbq and mexican ketchup

Central park. We spent a few hours walking around and sitting in the park. It was beautiful and strange to be able to see the city but not really hear it.

We loved seeing Wicked, definitely the highlight of our trip.

We also saw Phantom of the Oprah (one of my ultimate favorite musicals). We really enjoyed not feeling rushed to do a bunch of touristy things (Ellis Island was the most touristy we got and we didn't even get off the ferry at Liberty Island). I thought the subway system was pretty easy to navigate as long as we had our map with us (that was our saving grace). By the end of the trip we were blending in enough that some other tourists were asking us for directions.

At the end of our trip we went up to Connecticut for Greg's brother's second wedding reception. Connecticut was beautiful and such a contrast to the city. Miranda's family put together an amazing parting complete with a fireworks show at the end of the night.

Overall it was a great vacation. Although I did miss my family a lot. When Abby and my mom picked me up from the airport Abby started running full speed as soon as she saw me. We had a precious reunion.

Abby and Daddy at Home

2011-06-19T20:41:00.008-06:00

Hi everyone! While Debbie has been in New York (I'm sure she'll post on that), Abby and I have been having fun at home. We've both missed Mommy a lot but we've tried to make the most of our Daddy-Daughter time.

So here are some of the things we've done:

Played in the bath with some new toys! We ordered a camp pots-and-pans set for our emergency kit and Abby immediately declared them to be "bath toys". She enjoys them a ton and particularly enjoyed filling the red cup with cold water and then pouring it all over herself.

Abby played with Play-doh a lot. Here is her making a phone out of Play-doh.

Abby drew a nice picture of Mommy. See? Two eyes, mouth. Mommy.

We played lots of Disney Sorry, aka "Buzz Game".

We had a couple of picnics and spent a lot of time in the park. We went to at least 4 different parks while Mom was gone. Here is Abby eating something at the park. I don't remember what it was but it doesn't actually look like she liked it.

Here is Abby dressing as a princess!

Some of the other things we did included:
-Feeding ducks
-Going to a mall
-Buying new shoes
-Learning how to say "I forgot something". It's Abby's new favorite phrase. Sometimes she uses it correctly but half the time she doesn't know what she forgot so it ends up meaning just "I'm going to do something new". Pretty funny.

We're both super excited to have Debbie back though, we both missed her a lot!

Grass

2011-06-05T14:00:00.001-06:00

We've nearly completed our outdoor project. Last Saturday we put down a bunch of sod. The only hiccup of the day was realizing that we'd ordered about 100sqft too much sod. Not wanting good sod go to waste we had to find someone who wanted it. Luckily our neighbor was ready for some hard work and they were able to use it. We still have some final detail work to do (edging and such) but the hard work is done.

Manual Labor

2011-05-29T13:31:00.009-06:00

Although most of our week was uneventful, yesterday we had a big day in the yard.

We don't have a ton of space behind our house and what was there has been pretty unusable. Because of some weird slopes, poor soil, and terrible sod, we had very bad drainage and nothing grew well. We wanted to even out the ground and improve the soil to make it possible for us to install some nicer grass. We've been slowly working towards this but yesterday was a major push.

With a tremendous amount of help from my dad, 8 hours, no rain (even though it was forecast) 140 landscaping stones, and a lot of manual labor we turned...

this

into this

and this

into this

and this

into this

It was a long day of hard work and we still have some soil conditioning to do and sod to install but the hard part is done and that is satisfying.

Going to the beach, digging a hole

2011-05-19T22:37:00.007-06:00

The sun decided to show up this week. It was a gorgeous week with a few days in the 70s. To soak up as much sunshine as we could Abby and I went for a morning walk everyday, went to the park a couple of times, and went on a big adventure to the beach with friends.

On Thursday we decided to go to Discovery Beach Park in Seattle. We went with our friends Damian and Nina and their moms (and Nina's sister). It is a beautiful beach on the Sound which helps it stay protected from the cold winds that we would find on an ocean beach. Not long after getting our picnic set up Abby said she needed to go to the bathroom. Too bad there weren't any facilities around. With no other options but some drift wood I helped Abby pee in nature. I was very surprised by how well she did.

Abby loved playing in the sand and having a picnic but she was most thrilled with playing in the water. All the kids were a little timid when we first got to the water but quickly realized how much fun splashing in the water was. Nina was having so much fun she decided to take all of her clothes off. Abby wanted to do the same but I convinced her to keep her pants on. I'm so glad I thought to take the camera I got some really good video. At the end of the day I was sunburned and Abby was tan.

On Saturday the weather wasn't quite as nice but still dry enough for us to work some on our back yard. After picking up the needed supplies at the hardware store Greg started digging a trench so we could bury our drain pipe. While Greg and Abby were digging (Abby was mostly putting dirt back in the trench while Greg was trying to keep up with her) I was putting the pipe together. Because the glue takes a while to dry we weren't able to finish the project but if it's dry enough tomorrow Abby and I will put it in and bury it. We think Abby will be really good at filling the whole back in.

Rock Hunting

2011-05-15T08:55:00.004-06:00

Hi all! It was another uneventful week. The sun came out a few times so Abby and I were able to get out for a few walks and time at the park. Daddy had the afternoon off work on Friday so they spent the afternoon together while mom went shopping. In the evening we went to Costco and Abby was excited to have pizza and frozen yogurt for dinner (although their pizza has been increasingly disappointing the last couple of times we've bought it).

On Saturday we worked hard on the yard. My parents came over in the morning and helped us tremendously. My dad is an incredibly hard and zealous worker. He rarely takes breaks and runs circles around everyone else. While this was a horrible trait to grow up with I realized yesterday that it a wonderful trait to reap the benefits of. While my dad was tilling the small 300 sqft section on the north side of our yard my mom, Abby and myself had to pick up the rocks that the tiller kicked up. We were all very surprised by the number of rocks we pulled out. Most of the rocks were about the size of golf balls and we pulled out about 5 or 6 bucket (5 gallon sized) fulls. We also found around 6 or 8 rocks that were bigger then ostrich eggs. We hope to be able to replant the grass once we have better dirt for it to grow in. Maybe having so many rocks was what made the growing conditions so poor before. After just a few hours of really hard work we were all very tired but we felt like we'd accomplished a lot.

Sadly, it's raining now and expected to stay wet this week (Seattle hasn't gotten above 70 since November of last year!) so we aren't sure when we'll next be able to work on the yard again. Stay tuned! Have a great week!

Landscaping and pictures

2011-05-09T07:55:00.004-06:00

Not too much has been going on lately. We've started working on re-landscaping our backyard. That will probably end up being a larger project then we can really comprehend right now.

We celebrated Mother's day. It was a special treat to have Abby wake me up with a smoothie and a "Happy Burtday". I burned my hand trying to make soup for Mother's day dinner.

Abby says prayers.

I downloaded the pictures off our phones and found some cute ones.

Easter

2011-04-24T09:36:00.009-06:00

We've had a good and busy week. Yesterday we had really nice weather and spent most of the day outside. We worked some in the garage and prepared some things to be stored in our crawlspace instead of the garage. Greg also went to the LDS cannery close by and bought some rice and beans and a few other things that we also put in our crawlspace. We've been working on being more prepared and we thought that having some dried food would be good for emergency situations. Abby loved playing in Greg's car
(and only sat on the horn once) while we worked in the garage. She also liked going down into the crawlspace with Greg.

In the afternoon we went to our local park and then got some Wendy's on our way home and had a picnic in our front yard. It felt so good to have the sun out all day. Unfortunately the sunshine didn't stick around and it was gray and raining all of Sunday.

Earlier this week we celebrated Easter at my parent's house. My sister had been visiting my parents and was going home of Friday so we did Easter stuff with them before they left. Abby really got into coloring and finding eggs. I thought that she would lose interest in the egg hunt and her cousin would end up with all the eggs but she actually did really well. We forgot to take our video camera so we had to use the camera on the ipod.

On Easter Sunday, Abby was excited to find her Easter basket on the front porch. The Easter Bunny knew to put some of her favorite things in her basket, including: Toy Story fruit snacks, juice boxes, stickers, and of course eggs filled with jelly beans. She loved it.

Visit from an Aunt

2011-04-17T22:22:00.007-06:00

This past week has been pretty exciting. Greg's sister came to visit! We did a lot of playing, eating, shopping, and just being together. Greg Friday off work and spent the morning with Abby while Debbie and Gen went to the outlet mall. The girls came back with their arm's full and wallets empty to find that Greg and Abby had done the grocery shopping. We had a couple of family movie nights. Abby was happy see another Toy Story movie. We also saw How to Train Your Dragon. It was a cute movie. On another day we decided to go to a local children's museum. We've hard of this particular children's museum a couple of times and thought it might be fun for everyone. As it turned out the place was located in a deserted section of an old mall and it was kind of just a glorified play place that had an admission fee. While Abby had fun she also had trouble focusing on any activity for more then a few seconds (except one of the water activities). She also seemed just a little young for most of the activities. The rest of us got bored really fast. Perhaps when Abby is a little older we'll take her back. The highlight of that day was definitely going out for Indian food. Having some good curry and naan is always a nice way to finish a day. Here are a couple of fun pictures and videos:

At the children's museum

Abby playing on a "boat"

Abby still really loves playing on the bed. She likes to pretend to sleep and makes dad pretend with her. Tonight dad started snoring she thought it was cool and wanted to do it too. Abby liked trying on daddy's shorts today. She was running all over the house while holding them up to her chin. Also, this evening while reenacting the time we went to the park with family Abby started finding random objects and declaring they were papa, grandma, and her aunt and cousins. Watching her imagination develop is amazing and hilarious.

Park and Abby reading

2011-04-10T19:07:00.012-06:00

There were a few days of sunshine this past weekend which meant we got to start on our garden and going to the park. We have a small garden (though bigger than our 3 pot garden last year!) with a few peas, carrots, peppers, and strawberries. We're looking forward to seeing how things grow in our new house. Our patio gardens of the past have not turned out so well so we are hoping for an improvement.

We've had fun at the park lately with Abby and with Debbie's family. Here is a picture of Abby sliding with her cousin and of her on the swing. Abby LOVES the swing but the only catch is it has to either be fast or not at all. She will cry if you swing her too slowly!

Abby is starting to be more independent and imaginative. Without prompting she put one of her dolls to "bed" and started reading it a book.

Well, not a whole lot more going on, we are hoping for some more sunshine soon so we can get further on our lawn and garden!

No Nap Crazies

2011-03-27T20:10:00.003-06:00

Sundays this year have been pretty interesting for us. At the beginning of the year our church time was changed from 9:00am to 1:00pm. We really liked the earlier church time. We would get home just in time for Abby to go down for her nap. Because the later church time is right in the middle of her nap we have to choose between skipping her nap or skipping half of church. We have yet to find a solution that makes everyone happy. Today we decided to skip her nap and go to all of church. Abby did great all day. She didn't have any break downs and if you didn't really know her it would be hard to tell how tired she was. She did, however, get a little loopy. We took a little video because she was being so funny. She crashed pretty hard when it was bedtime. I'm wouldn't doubt it if she was asleep before I even made it to the door of her bedroom.

Not much else has happened this week. We've been pretty low key. The most exciting news was something that Abby got in the mail. If you recall the video of Abby's birthday party she received some small Woody and Buzz plush toys from Toy Story. She loves her new toys and has taken those toys everywhere with her. It didn't take her long though to figure out that she was missing a Jesse toy. She asked us for weeks about a Jesse doll. Whenever we would go to the mall Abby asked if we were going to get Jesse and she would frequently ask "where Jesse go?" We tried getting her a Jesse toy but everywhere we looked they were sold out. We even had family in Utah looking for a Jesse doll. Finally Greg found one on Amazon. Even though it cost as much as the Buzz and Woody toys combined we went ahead and got it. This is Abby when the box came.

Also, Abby's been practicing her harmonica skills.

One Year Older

2011-03-21T20:40:00.001-06:00

This last week Debbie and Abby turned one year older. We had fun going out for dinner with Debbie's parents. Abby was happy to have "fa fies" (french fries) and "kikin" (chicken). After dinner we opened presents and had milkshakes. Thank you for all the happy birthday wishes.

Abby continues to do well with potty training. She's been rewarded with Ariel underwear, which she loves.

Other then some exciting birthdays we've had a pretty low key week. The weather has been quite raining but that's the season we're in right now.

Abby found Debbie's yoga mat and now likes to say "yoga" and then get in weird poses. Here is one where she convinced Daddy and her toys to all get into a "yoga" pose.

Abby is great at coming up with things to do. She found a box and had a great time making a fort of it. (Enjoy her song!)

Potty Training Two-Year-Old

2011-03-07T13:34:00.005-07:00

It's been a pretty eventful week for us. It started off with Abby saying goodbye to her diapers. Abby has been interested in the bathroom and all things associated with it for months. It's just recently that I've been brave enough to think about doing something about it. I prepared myself as best I could by skimming through all the popular training books and talking to friends who have trained before. I figured the best way for Abby and I to start was to get her into some training underwear and see how things went. I was expecting things to go way worse then they actually did. We spent most of Monday and Tuesday in the bathroom. She was doing well staying dry for a few hours that we ventured out to the store on Wednesday. By now (seven days later) life had pretty much returned to normal, minus the diapers. I've been so pleased with Abby. She's been a rock star through the whole process. She seems pretty pleased with herself too. Of course it helps to get M&Ms after using the toilet but sometimes she doesn't even care about that. She's also done really well with using public or unfamiliar restrooms. Go Abby!

Some funny things from this week: on one of the days we spent in the bathroom Abby was looking at a picture of Pooh Bear, Eeyore, and Tigger (with whom she is not familiar with) and she very confidently renamed them bear, hippo, and monkey. Also, we had dinner at a friends house on Thursday. Because we were leaving their house at the same time Abby would usually be going to bed we put her in her car seat with everything she would need to fall asleep on the 30 minute drive home. She was excited by the idea of sleeping in the car but ended up spending the whole drive declaring that she was awake.

We finished this week with Abby's birthday party. We made a bigger deal out of her birthday this year then we did last year. Partly because we new she would enjoy it. We decided to center her birthday around her favorite Disney character, Ariel (which also happens to be my favorite). We had some of her friends over and did cake, and presents, and pin the flower on Ariel. We also had some Little Mermaid coloring pages, and some of Abby's best toys out for all the kids to play with. Abby received some pretty cool gifts including Ariel underwear, a Woody and Buzz (Abby's next favorite Disney/Pixar characters) action figures and Toy Story 3. It didn't take long after opening the movie before Abby was asking to watch it. Abby was so happy, excited, and wired all afternoon. We enjoyed ourselves. For those of you who couldn't make it to the party here is the Reader's Digest version:

Also for Abby's birthday she received some cool stuff from her aunts and uncle including a new bath toy. Abby spent and unprecedented amount of time in the bath playing with her new toy. She was in there so long that the water turned cold and even then we had to convince her that it was time to get out. Thanks for the great birthday presents!

Crayon chaos

2011-02-27T19:13:00.004-07:00

Hi everyone!

Hope you have had a good week! Things are going great for us.

Last weekend, my (Greg's) mom came up to visit for a few days. We had tons of fun and Abby had a great time with all of the activities she brought. Both the play-doh and watercolors were big hits and kept Abby occupied for (relatively) long amounts of time.

Abby still points to her water-colored paper on the fridge and says it's Abby's.

Early in the week, it was pretty sunny and warm-ish (in the 40s). That means that Abby had a bit of time to play outside. I didn't get to go to this park but it sounds like Abby LOVED the tire swing, as you can see here.

So on Friday, I was working at home for a variety of reasons and was the one putting Abby down for a nap while Debbie was out. I put Abby down in her bed and a few minutes later heard a scraping on the wall. I thought Abby was dragging her doll's head against the wall but no, it was something far worse. I knew things were bad when as soon as I opened the door, Abby jumped in surprise and then admitted guiltily "color". I saw that she had been coloring the wall near one edge of her crib. When I said "oh no" she got a little more excited and said "more color" and showed me the rest of the wall by the crib where she had colored across the whole wall.

The real mystery to me in all of this is how a crayon managed to get in her possession. Was it somewhere hidden on her body? Down her pants? In a death grip in her hand that I didn't notice? Already hidden in the bed from earlier adventures? No idea. In any case, we tried to clean it but weren't really successful as water soap and elbow grease just removed the pain from the wall. Our friends gave us a Mr Clean eraser which is supposed to work well. We'll try it but I think in any case we will have to repaint at some point. Oh well, I guess that's life with a two year old.

Here is Abby doing her best to help clean up:

Well, that's about it from us, hope you all are doing well!

Helper

2011-02-13T20:14:00.006-07:00

Not much has happened this week. Abby continues to learn and grow. She LOVES helping us with things. Her current favorite is helping in the kitchen. At dinner time she likes to help set the table. She knows where everyone's spot is and that everyone needs a plate, cup, and fork. This morning as we were unloading the dishwasher Abby took three of her plates and did a dinner role-play at her small table.

Abby also likes to help cook. Tonight we made cookies and she put in almost all of the ingredients (with a little help from mom and dad). When they were done she really enjoyed eating one too.

Amazon, Strawberries, Bike

2011-02-07T14:07:00.003-07:00

This last Saturday was pretty pack and tons of fun. Earlier in the week Greg noticed some deals on Amazon Fresh (Amazon's grocery store) so we decided to stock up on some stuff. Our groceries arrived at 6am on Saturday morning. We were so excited we let Abby open on box before breakfast. Unfortunately for us (parents) we opened the one box with Toy Story fruit snacks (Abby's current two favorite things) right on top. It was a little more difficult to get Abby to focus on eating cereal when she knew something so much better was available.

Later in the morning my dad came over to help me build a garden box. I'm so excited to have a real garden. We had strawberries in planter boxes at the condo but they never did very well and I attribute that to them being in stupid little boxes. I think growing in actual ground will make all the difference. Because of the way our house is situated on our property we had to put the box in the front yard. That just means I have to keep the everything looking amazing. I think we've gotten off to a good start though. Along with helping me build the box (actually he did most of the work I was just there as company) my dad also gave us some new strawberry starts that he'd pruned from his garden. I hope we get lots of good fruit this year.

While my dad and I gardened Greg took Abby out for her first bike ride. Abby received a cool toddler sized ATV for Christmas that's been sitting in the garage waiting for the right time (i.e. not raining) for us to get it out. We're not sure how she really felt about her bike. She did really well not going too fast but she still has a lot to learn, like steering. We'll be looking forward to some more dry (and hopefully warmer) days so we can get her bike out again.

Bonus video!

Driving

2011-02-01T09:37:00.002-07:00

Last night Greg took Abby for a drive. He had to move his car from where he parked it when he got home into the drive way. Because he was just going to stay on our street and wasn't going to be going very fast he let Abby sit in the driver seat with him. She loved it!

Balloon, Popcorn, Naked

2011-01-23T20:33:00.007-07:00

Hey all!

How are things? Happy January, strange to believe that it is almost over. This week and weekend have been pretty good, better than last weekend where Debbie was sick (then I (Greg) got sick on Monday). That was no fun.

So, ok, not that exciting but we got a standard helium balloon at Trader Joes some time at the end of November or early part of December and it is still completely inflated and looks brand new. I know, a balloon isn't that cool for the over 2 crowd (even Abby is tired of it now) but come on, this thing is still going at nearly 2 months! Should we be calling Guinness yet?

Ok, on to real stuff. This weekend we had a busy Saturday which included going to "The Country Village" which is this kind of cool, kind of weird little encampment not far from our house. This little village has dozens of tiny shops ranging from antique stores to little restaurants as well as a "buoyant clairvoyant" in a boat. Oh yeah, and ducks. Lots and lots of ducks. Frankly, I'm not totally sure how any village filled with antique sellers and fortune sellers stays in business but maybe the ducks are the answer. They certainly attract us to the Village pretty regularly and Abby loves chucking bread at the ducks. There is also a pretty aggressive rooster that Abby likes to dislike. She will put out her hand and say to the rooster in a firm voice, "no chicken. no chicken." because she doesn't want the rooster near her.

While we were at the Village on Saturday we saw that a little kettle corn shack was open and Abby LOVES popcorn so we headed over (ok, we love popcorn too, but Abby is the excuse). Somehow, I never had thought too much about how kettle corn gets its name but this guy was making it with a, well, kettle. It was a giant kettle heated by propane that he was stirring with a massive pole thing. Kind of like you would expect for molten metal but in this case for popcorn. It was pretty cool to watch. The popcorn ended up not being all that great (not sweet enough for kettle korn, not salty enough for real corn) but it was a cool experience.

Abby loves having her clothes off and being "nakey" (as you have probably seen in earlier videos) but she has taken it even further. From time to time, while she is waiting for us to come get her in the morning she will take off all of her clothes and present them to us when we come in the room declaring "nakey!". Well, that has started happening even more frequently and she has been stripping down every morning this week. Even more, the last two nights she has taken off all of her clothes BEFORE she goes to sleep. The first night she did that, I heard her talking about being naked and so came in and put her back in her clothes. Last night though, she did it without boasting of it so when we went in before we went to bed we saw here asleep in a little naked ball (well, not completely naked, thankfully in all of this she has kept her diaper on). We gave her some extra blankets and she slept fine but we hope this trend doesn't continue!

Hope you all have a great week!

Ducks and Pizza

2011-01-16T09:57:00.003-07:00

Last was pretty uneventful we had a small snow fall but it was melted by the end of the day. This weekend was exciting. We started Saturday by taking Greg's car in for some maintenance. While waiting for his car we decided to go to a park close by to feed some ducks. We'd never been to this particular duck pond before so we were shocked to find how aggressive they were. The ducks were all excited talkative. The only draw back was the rooster and goose that were also very aggressive. The rooster was pecking at the bag of bread and the goose took a peck at Abby's coat. After that Abby didn't want to be down on the ground with them so she stood up on a railing and tossed bread to the hungry birds.

Later in the day Greg and I went on a date. We had a reservations in a pizza cooking class. We left Abby with my parents and were off to the city. The chef teaching the class boasted his credentials and then taught us how to make good pizza dough, bread sticks, and other yummy stuff. The most interesting thing we learned is that real pizza dough is made with high gluten flour not just all purpose flour. It makes the dough more elastic and easier to work with. It was a really fun and interesting class.

The only bad thing about the weekend was getting sick. I was out of it all of Sunday and Greg is out of it today. We only hope that Abby doesn't get it.

Seats

2011-01-10T12:36:00.005-07:00

Not much has happened this week. Abby and I stay busy during the day having play dates and running errands.

We went to spend some of our Christmas gift cards and got Abby a potty seat, and a booster seat. She was really excited about both. For a few days she liked sitting on the potty seat. She is still really excited about her booster seat. She can now sit at the table with us. Ever since getting the seat she hasn't eaten in her high chair. Whenever we mention eating she says that she wants to sit in "abby's pink seat".

This weekend was pretty fun for us. We found a copy cat recipe for a really yummy mexican salad that we usually get at a place in Utah. We decided to make the recipe invited some friends over to eat it with us. As it turned out the recipe was pretty involved and just about every component of the salad was made from scratch. We ended up cooking a lot of the day on Saturday and most of the day Sunday. It turned out great! It was one of the best meals we've made in a very long time. And it was fun to have friends over the enjoy it with.

While we were cooking Abby would help some of the time and do her own thing some of the time. Here is a video of her doing her own thing:

Swim Suit

2011-01-02T11:06:00.004-07:00

Welcome to the new year! This week has been pretty low key for us. Greg had a short week at work while Abby and I had a lot of organizing and cleaning to do around the house.

We decided not to really celebrate on New Year's Eve. Since Abby likes to wake up around 6:30am we knew we wouldn't have the energy to stay up till after midnight. As it turns out some people in our neighborhood started setting off fireworks around 10:30pm and didn't stop till about 12:30am. Fireworks are prohibited in the city where our condo was so we've never had a problem before. We never even thought about the potential problem fireworks might be in our new house. Next year we'll probably just stay up.

The other day Abby found her swim suit and really needed to wear it so we let her go swimming in the bath tub. She's now taken three baths in her swim suit. For the first couple times she wouldn't let us wash her hair because she was swimming not taking a bath. But we put our foot down today and got her hair washed.

Abby saw a little video on one of our friend's blog with their baby chewing on her toes in the bath. I guess she wanted to see what it was like.

End of the Year

2010-12-29T13:19:00.004-07:00

Merry Christmas everyone. We hope your Christmas season has been as good as ours.

We had fun in Utah with Greg's family. On Christmas we opened presents at Greg's grandparent's house. Abby was really excited about a little stroller and a pair of dress up shoes she found with her stocking. After she got those things she wasn't too interested in much else. We had to come back home just a few days after Christmas so Greg could get back to work. But we were also able to celebrate a second Christmas with Debbie's family so that was one benefit. Abby received a lot of cool toys, clothes, and books. It will be nice to replace some of the toys that she doesn't play with much with new and exciting toys.

Some of the things Greg and I received was a new ipod for Debbie and a new comfortable computer chair for Greg.

Playing Rock Band

Coming home from Utah wasn't too eventful. Abby did well on the plane though it was probably her last flight as a lap child. When we got home that evening we decided to go to the grocery store for some milk and bread. Unfortunately we found one of our cars had a semi-flat tire and the other car wouldn't start. Luckily for us both issues were resolved without a ton of hassle though it wasn't exactly what we wanted to be taking care of as soon as we got home.

We're excited for the new year, for getting more settled in our home and starting on some new year's resolutions.

Merry Pre-Christmas

2010-12-23T11:47:00.002-07:00

Hi everyone!

We hope you are having a merry Christmas season! Things are great for us, we have been in Utah for the last week (two weeks for Debbie) and are having a lot of fun with family and enjoying not working, etc.

We came down here both for Christmas and also for Greg's brother's wedding. The wedding and related events all went very well and were a ton of fun. Congrats Daniel and Miranda! Abby loved wearing a pretty dress at the reception and enjoyed all the junk she got to eat at events.

Some other fun things that we have enjoyed here:
*Catching up with friends and family
*Going sledding (actually, Abby hated that. She was excited about the sleds till she saw what you actually do with sleds and then I think she was terrified. She was also upset because we had told her we were going to a park but to her, a park means slides and swings, not some suicidal trip down a snowy hill.)
*Feeding ducks (Abby said thank-you for them after she gave them bread)
*Relaxing
*Watching BYU win their bowl game
*Watching Utah lose theirs
*Making a snowman
*Avoiding malls at all costs (except to go to Build-a-Bear so Abby could make a Rabbit)
*Lots of coloring (mostly on paper, only a little on windows!)

Here are some pictures from our time here thus far. We hope you are all doing well and enjoying your holidays!

Abby at Build A Bear

Us in all our Wedding garb

Abby built a snowman and then insisted on calling it Abby.

Feeding ducks

1...2...3...Splat

2010-12-08T18:11:00.001-07:00

Holiday Home Tour

2010-12-02T13:09:00.004-07:00

Happy Holidays!

We had a great Thanksgiving, shared with Greg's cousins the Cards. We enjoyed a delicious dinner with all of the fixings. Including the most amazing stuffing I've ever tasted!

Since then I've been putting up Christmas decorations. We didn't do very many Christmas decorations last year because we thought it would be too hard for Abby to leave them alone. So far Abby's been doing good with the Christmas stuff. She "helped" me put the bulbs on the tree and was fascinated by the lights. It's been fun to watch her try to understand what's going on. We have a Christmas present from my sister that Abby's been wanting so badly to open. I have to keep telling her that we have to wait till Christmas.

We're still getting settled, doing mostly small detail things like organizing the filing cabinet. I've promised pictures though so here is a short tour:

Looking from the living room to the entry. The dinning room and kitchen are just to the left.

Looking from the kitchen into the dinning and living room.

Kitchen, with our little mischief maker in her awesome Christmas pajamas.

The master bedroom is just at the top of the stairs. Abby likes to "sleep" in our bed. Also, I made these curtains.

One of my favorite parts of the house is this huge storage closet.

Laundry room, which still needs to be organized.

Abby's bathroom. After seeing her just potty trained cousin go potty yesterday Abby has been on a potty kick. She likes to pretend to go potty. We go through all the steps (sitting on the toilet, using toilet paper, flushing, and washing hands) but we keep her diaper on. We're hoping it helps her get comfortable with the whole idea of going to the bathroom.

Abby's room and the spare room/office.

While decorating is still a work in progress we love our new house and plan on being here for a long time.

Picture Roundup

2010-11-28T09:18:00.005-07:00

We were downloading pictures from the cameras on our phones and wanted to upload a couple of cool ones here!

Here is Abby 'helping' us put together an Ikea desk. She is also sporting her little ladybug skirt/costume that she put on herself.

At Target, Abby got sick of sitting in the cart and instead found herself some shoes and a hat she wanted to wear. Trying to separate her from them at the end was pretty difficult!

On the snowy days, this was the view from our bedroom window:

Here is Abby on a tire swing at Debbie's parents

Snowy Bonus Post

2010-11-23T22:04:00.003-07:00

Hi!
We are having some unusually snowy and cold weather for Seattle. It snowed most of Monday and has been in freezing temperatures since. Since we have a lot of hills and not a lot of experience with snow (both the drivers and the cities deal terribly with snow) things are a mess. Greg was able to leave early on Monday which ended up being a great move since some people literally spent the night on the freeway in the parking lot that I5 became. One of Greg's coworkers made a 3 hour walk home on Monday night.

Anyway, while commuting is a mess, it sure has been pretty! Here is Abby going for a walk with Debbie:

And here is the view from our bedroom
Sorry for those of you in Utah, we hear the storm is now on you!

Moving Boxes

2010-11-21T15:01:00.006-07:00

It's been a little crazy the last couple weeks. Since moving in we have been running here and there, unpacking boxes, trying to get the house all set up comfortably. Greg's sister came up and spent a super busy weekend helping us get a few things decorated. We got curtains and pictures hung, and did some decorative stuff around the house. It was fun to have her up here to help out. We only wish she could have stayed longer so that we could have done things at a more relaxed pace. We'll just have to have her come up again for decorating round two.

As you can imagine we've been dealing with a lot of moving boxes. We saved one of the biggest and made a play house for Abby. We cut windows into the sides and a sky light in the top. She loves to play in it, especially when she has friends over and they spend their time going in and out of the house. Check it out:

In the video you will notice some of the things we've done to the house: curtains, mounting the TV, etc. Also, we've been able to upgrade out internet speed by switching to cable instead of DSL which means higher quality videos on the blog.

By the way, now that we do have the ability to upload video in higher quality, let us know if there are videos from the past that you liked and we can reupload them!

Welcome to a new Home

2010-11-07T14:16:00.005-07:00

This week has been busy and exciting. We moved!

So... while we have loved the condo we have had for the last couple of years it has started to feel a bit cramped with our hyperactive little Abby. We've known for a while that we wanted to get something a bit bigger and have actually put offers on a couple of different houses in the last year.

Well, a little over a month ago we found a house that we really liked and decided to put an offer on it. It's a three bedroom, two and half bathroom new construction that backs a green belt. It's in Bothell so just a 5 minute or so drive from our old place. We like the private feeling the green belt provides and that the house doesn't require any remodeling.

We did the majority of our moving yesterday. We rented a 17ft U-Haul and were surprised to completely fill it up. Debbie's dad helped us get some boxed to pack our stuff in. The funny thing was that they were spice boxes and they smelt very strongly. While I was setting up Abby's new room I discoved that half of her stuff smelled of cinnamon. This morning while I was putting things in the pantry a lot of the stuff smelled of cumin. Some of the smells are nauseatingly strong. I'm glad that when we unpacked the truck we just left all the boxes in the garage so the house doesn't smell.

Abby helping us pack

This coming week we'll be busy figuring out where everything fits best. I think the hardest to set up and get settled will be the kitchen. The new kitchen is double (or more) the size of the kitchen in the condo. It will be interesting to see where everything ends up in there.

We're excited to be in a new place. Abby has enjoyed just exploring things. We'll keep you updated as things get settled.

We'll be posting more pictures and info when we get unburied a bit!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T14:21:00.006-06:00

Hello all, we had a pretty good week this week. Abby and mom kept busy visiting with Debbie's parents, running errands, and playing with friends.

We celebrated Halloween last night andAbby was a cute little sheep. We borrowed the costume from Greg's cousins and Abby LOVED it. We taught her how to trick-or-treat by using chocolate chips so that she was prepared for the trunk-or-treat party we went to.

Abby was great at going around to each of the cars and saying "a tee" to get her treat. She would also say "baa" when prompted. Because the party didn't start until 6:30pm (Abby's typical bedtime) it meant we were keeping her up pretty late, about 7:45. Okay, it's not a ton later then normal but it was quite an eventful evening and Abby had a harder time going to bed then she normally does. "That's okay," we said "she'll probably sleep in tomorrow." Nope, she was wide a wake at 6:45am. I think we're going to stick with the earlier bedtime for a while.

She has never really had candy before this week so it is a fun experience for her. We are definitely trying to limit it but she must think about it a lot - last night when Greg went to give her a binky while she was sleeping she said chocolate ("chalee") in her sleep. Yikes!

Here is a video of our little sheep....

Videos

2010-10-26T09:04:00.000-06:00

Abbys New Favorites

2010-10-19T20:21:00.008-06:00

We had a fun week this week with Greg's Mom visiting for a couple of days. Abby loves all of her grandparents a lot and even though she calls them all "Papa" she knows them individually and loves to spend time with them.

This week Abby has learned to love a lot of new things. For one, she knows now what pillows are and can say pillow. As it gets colder, she is also starting to like blankets even more.

Abby, Debbie, and Kelli went to one of their favorite places, Ivar's for lunch on Thursday. (Greg doesn't like seafood so he didn't mind!) Abby loved the french fries and little fried shrimps but she loved most chasing birds.

Abby also loves pumpkins ("pump-kee") and has to point them out every time she sees one. We went to a pumpkin patch/petting zoo over the weekend, which Abby loved. They had some rabbits and farm equipment that Abby loved and also popcorn which Abby always loves.

Another thing Abby has learned to love is different version of coloring "culah!". Grandma Kelli brought some watercolors which Abby loves and Abby also loves coloring with just about anything, on just about anything. Any time Debbie or I write something on a paper Abby always points out that we are coloring.

So yeah, those are some of Abby's favorite things these days!

Things are going pretty well for all of us. If you read our microwave saga a few weeks ago you'll be relieved to know that we finally got the part we needed and got it installed. It is a huge relief to no longer have our microwave on our end table and our kitchen feels whole once again.

Well, that is about it, we hope you are all having a great week!

First Hair Cut

2010-10-13T09:05:00.007-06:00

Abby had her first hair cut yesterday! It was kind of an impulsive decision. We were at the mall and there was a kid's salon and since her bangs have been in her face for months I just decided to get them cut. The salon was really cute and they had a special chair for her to sit in and lots of toys to distract her. Even though I was really nervous it turned out to be great. She even got a special prize at the end. Overall it was a great experience.

Abby was so good through the whole process as an extra prize we shared a cookie after. It's so nice to see her eyes again.

Abby's Morning

2010-10-11T08:38:00.002-06:00

Microwave and keeping Abby busy.

2010-10-03T13:52:00.004-06:00

Hi All!

Hope you are all having good weeks! It has been a fast and kind of crazy week for us. It was not too cold out this week so Debbie and Abby got to go to the park a couple of times. They also found out that the mall play-place opens earlier than the mall itself and so have gotten to go play there a bit. Abby loves climbing all over there but can't decide what she thinks of other kids.

One of the constant challenges with Abby is finding things for her to do. She loves learning new things but it can be tough for us to keep up with all her wishes. One wish that we constantly struggle with is how much she loves movies. She loves "doggie" (a lame but somehow loves 70s movie called Benji), "fishy" (Finding Nemo or Little Mermaid) and "elephant" (Horton Hears a Who). Sometimes she wants to sit and watch them but often she just likes to have them on while she is doing things. She doesn't watch THAT much but still, we wish we could find more things for her to do to keep her busy.

We had a pretty frustrating time with our microwave this week. It started having issues last week and completely died mid week. We went to Sears and had a series of ups-and downs.
On the upside, we found a microwave in clearance for about 40% of its original cost.
On the downside, it didn't come with the mounting hardware.
On the upside, we had the mount from the old microwave so we proceeded to mount the bracket to the wall (which was difficult and Greg got his thumb pounded (no permanent damage, just some purple!)
On the downside, the mount wasn't the right type so we had to order a new one that cost a ridiculous amount.
So yeah... it was a pretty annoying set of events but eventually we'll have a functioning microwave again.

Winter is not far away for us. The mornings are getting noticeably colder and the days are getting more gray. We are trying to soak up as much nice weather as we can. We like to go for walks in the evening as a family or go to the park during the day, or both.

Hopefully by next wee we'll have the microwave problem fixed and we'll have some more activities for Abby to do.

Locks

2010-09-26T14:05:00.007-06:00

Septembers has gone by really fast. It seems as if we just barely started the month and now a new month begins this coming week. Where did the time go?

Yesterday we spent as much of the day outside soaking up some sun. In the morning we visited the Ballard Locks which connects the salty Puget Sound to the fresh water of Lake Union and Lake Washington. We were able to see the Locks in operation as some Washington boaters headed out to sea. We also saw the unique salmon ladder which is a system built to help Washington salmon return from the sea to the streams or hatcheries they were born in. There was an observation area that was below the water level and had windows so visitors could easily see the fish. Abby LOVED this part. It is the perfect time of year to see Coho salmon. They are really large fish but also kind of ugly. It was still fun to see them though. We only had a limited amount of time on our parking meter and Abby was upset when it was time to leave. Maybe we should have just bought more parking and let Abby keep playing. But to make it up to her we stopped at a park on our way home. She enjoyed getting some wiggles out and also putting sand in another little girls hair.

Watching the boats near the locks

A big Coho salmon in the salmon ladder.

In the afternoon we went to my parent's house to watch the BYU football game. I heard it was kind of a disappointing game. Neither Greg or I watched much of it though. I decided to wash the car and Abby kept pulling Greg away from the game. We left before the game ended. For dinner we went for a walk and had a picnic at the new city hall building. Abby loved playing on the grass and the rocks they have there.

In the end it turned out to be a pretty exhausting day. We're happy we were able to be outside as much as we were though. The sunny days won't be around too much longer.

Birthday Week and Kitchen Set

2010-09-19T16:35:00.005-06:00

Hi! How are you all! Hope you are all doing great.

Things are fine here though it's been kind of a tough week. Abby started getting a cold last week that has continued through this week. Because she doesn't feel well, Abby has been super sensitive. I've been trying (and failing) to figure out how to deal with tantrums. Abby has always been a pretty happy, easy going kid. This week, however, I've had a least one huge tantrum a day. Abby will get upset over something that normally wouldn't be a big deal and then her emotions will get out of control and she doesn't know what to do. It often seems as though she doesn't even know why she's crying.

On the up side Abby appears to be getting better. She's sleeping a bit better at night and that helps for her to be less tired during the day. Today (Sunday) we had a nice day and had a good walk in the evening. We went for a walk through downtown Kenmore and played for a while in the grass in front of Kenmore's town hall. We may be itching to move sometimes but Kenmore has been great for us these last few years and the place we live is really convenient. I'm sure wherever we move we won't be just one block from groceries, library, post office, pharmacy, food, and a park like we are here. We'll certainly miss that.

Other things this week.... we got a kitchen set for Abby that she loves. It was sort of an impulse buy after a hard day where we wished we had more for Abby to do at home. Abby likes to "cook" cereal or fruit snacks on the light up stove. She also likes to keep everything in it's right place; juice boxes in the fridge, pans in the oven. It's been really nice to keep her entertained. The only bad part is that it is made of cheap, flimsy plastic. We're not sure how long it will really last. As least she really likes it.

It was also Greg's birthday this week. We had a low key birthday (Greg's favorite). Instead of birthday cake he requested cinnamon rolls. When he got home from work we opened a few presents, sang happy birthday, and had ice cream. Abby enjoyed helping with the presents and really loved eating ice cream. My mom was very kind and came over to watch Abby and put her to bed while Greg and I went out. We hadn't made any real plans so we ended up going out for a casual dinner and then coming back home. It wasn't much but it was nice to get out together.

Opening presents

That's about it. Hopefully things will get easier this week as Abby continues to feel better.

18 Months

2010-09-12T20:26:00.005-06:00

Hi all!

Hope you had a great week! We are hanging on up here. This week was supposed to be a short week (just 4 work days, right?) but it felt a lot longer!

Monday was fun, it was a bit overcast in Seattle but we decided to go out to Remlinger farm which has a fruit market and some random toys and carnival type things. We ended up going too early to go to any of the real amusements (and on an overcast day, it probably wasn't worth the price of admission) but we did have fun in their play area and poking around. Abby loved playing with the toy train set they had and liked the mechanical horse, except when it was moving.

After Monday, things kind of went downhill with Abby getting a cold. She has been pretty congested and miserable which has made life a bit tough for all of us. She just wants to spend all day watching TV, preferably with a bunch of snacks nearby. Not a bad way to spend a sick day really but we try and get a little more variety in her days. Which she hates. She is such a good natured kid most of the time that it really kills us when she is as sensitive as she's been lately.

One night in particular, last Thursday, was really tough. Debbie had a hard night (trying for 45 minutes to get Abby to go back to sleep after waking up from congestion) and was getting sick herself. So when I got home from a Sounders game (which was fun, even thought it was a tie) I told her I would take Abby. Well, about 11:30 Abby started really crying (she had kind of choked in her sleep or something) and I picked her up from her crib. She calmed down quickly but then told me she wanted water. Ok, so I got her water. Then she wanted a cracker and ok, I got her a cracker. Then she wanted down from the chair, fine. Then she grabbed my finger and took me into the family room where she asked to be picked up. Then she told me to go over to the video cabinet and pulled out a video. Well, we watched the video for a while and then I tried to put her back to bed. That's when things got really tough. As soon as we approached her bed she started saying "No no no!" very cutely but very desperately, turning into cries. I'm pretty weak and just couldn't put her into bed after that so we went out, watched another video, and tried again. This happened for a couple of hours and even though I tried feeding her, repeating her normal nightime routine, etc, nothing was working. Finally, about 1:45 I just had to put her in and let her cry it out. After 45 minutes or so she finally stopped crying and went to sleep but it was pretty sad. As long as she had a video and what she wanted, she was laughing and dancing and happy but she did NOT want her bed.

That's really how the rest of her week as gone, when she is happy she is very happy and fun but when she isn't getting what she wants, she throws tantrums and is tough. We'll hope she gets better soon!

We are hanging in there and hope you are all well!

Football, Peaches, and Toys

2010-09-05T15:58:00.005-06:00

I'm sitting here trying to remember what we did this week. I know we did a lot. It felt like a busy week. But I can't remember exactly what we did. When Greg gets home from work Abby likes to sit on his lap and watch him play Starcraft, a computer game he likes. She'll take Greg by the hand and lead him to his computer and say "go", which is her name for the game. Doing that makes the evenings feel fuller. Before we know it it's time for dinner and then time for bed.

This week started college football season. Greg was excited to see how Utah would do against Pittsburg on Thursday night. They won but because Utah and BYU will soon not in the same conference we don't have to cheer for them anymore. So that's good. BYU played against UW on Saturday. We were all really excited for this game. Two years ago BYU against UW up here in Seattle. It was a really close game and BYU won but there was a few controversial calls at the end of the game and UW felt ripped off. So with this game being played in Utah UW was looking for some payback. The two teams turned out to be pretty fairly matched and even though BYU was the less experienced team they still pulled off a win. I only watched the 4th quarter (after Abby went to bed) but it was a fun game to watch.

In addition to the football game yesterday Greg and I also canned peaches. Peaches are my favorite fruit and even though Greg's not a big fan he still helped me with some of the canning. I now have 22 pints to get me through the winter. As it turns out Abby loves peaches too. She begged me for some yesterday and then this morning she found a jar, brought it to me and said "pee" over and over. Here's a small video.

Abby's picking up words like crazy now. It's still only the first sound of the word but she remembers words a lot longer. It seems like we tell her once what something is and she'll remember it.

In an attempt to get Abby some more toys that fit her age we visited a second hand store this week. The toy selection wasn't huge but Abby found a little vacuum and chair that she loves. She's been playing with them both non stop since we got them. I love that they were only a few dollars each. Maybe we'll hit another thrift store this week and get some more.

Abby's new vacuum

Abby's new chair

Ice cream, House, Seat drops

2010-08-29T15:54:00.005-06:00

Life has definitely calmed down this week. There hasn't been too much going on. Greg had a work party on Wednesday afternoon. We decided to take our ice cream maker and freeze some ice cream while there. That was fun. We made a vanilla batch and a mint chocolate chip batch. I think the mint turned out much better then the vanilla. Though they were made from the same recipe we just added mint and chocolate to the one.

The weather has been much cooler and even a bit rainy this week. It makes it harder for Abby and I to get outside. It also makes it feel more like October then August. The winter is coming way too fast and I'm not ready for it. Our condo is already feeling cramped and it will be hard to be cooped up for the next 9 months (that's how long our rainy season is).

Speaking of being cramped in our condo. We decided to put an offer on that house that we went and looked at last week. It was a nice, cute house and because it was short sale it was in our price range. We made the offer in the middle of the week and our realtor got back to us a few days after to inform us that we'd been out bid by another buyer. We were a bit disappointed but oh well.

Abby's been really good. I have thought many times this week about what a sweet baby she is. She rarely cries and although she gets upset multiple times a day (frustration or not getting what she wants) she is often easily soothed and reasoned with. I know I've said it before but I love how well she communicates with us.

Abby has been so fun to play with lately. She loves playing hide and find with her toys. She'll put an object under a blanket or burp cloth and then raise her hands in a questioning "where did it go". After a bit she will take the blanket off and "ta da" there it is. This week she has picked up doing "seat drops" where she'll jump up and land on her bum. I'm not sure what else to call them. Here is a little video that catches a few "seat drops".

Back on schedule

2010-08-22T15:39:00.003-06:00

Hi all! Hope you all had a good week!

This week was all about getting back on schedule. We finished our fun trip to Utah with a flight back to WA on Monday. The flight wasn't too bad, there was exactly one extra seat on the Southwest flight so we were able to take Abby's car seat on and she got her own seat. We gave her a bit of "medicine" and she went to sleep and slept for most of the flight. We had a great trip but it was nice also to be back home, let Abby sleep in her own bed, etc.

After being gone for two full weeks, it was a little hard to get back into the swing of things but we are managing. Work is going fine for me and Debbie and Abby have been having fun. It hasn't been as warm or sunny as they would have liked so they only got to go to the pool once! I have been helping a number of people from church move so that took up one of my evenings and Saturday morning. It's nice to help people out but it's even nicer to have reminders to stop accumulating crap and just think whenever we buy something that someday we will have to move it!

Yesterday we gave our cars a badly needed carwash. My car is parked under some kind of mass-polinating tree and when I got back from vacation it was almost growing. So my car badly needed an exterior scrubbing and Abby and Debbie's car badly needed a back-seat vacuum. Abby makes an amazing mess sometimes with smashed goldfish and crushed graham crackers so Debbie was very glad to get things cleaned out.

Also yesterday we spent some time looking at a house we like. Strangely, we really like this one on paper and like the facts about it but our we didn't really feel like we HAD to have it. Often times I think with houses it is the opposite, it is more of a gut thing that drives you to a house. We don't know when we'll get a house but we'll keep looking. In the meantime, we like our place here.

Things are cooling down a bit and while Debbie is getting sad about winter coming, I am getting excited because the cold means college football season!!! Looking forward to seeing BYU and all of college football get started. There has been plenty of off-season drama around football but all of that is just the appetizer to the real thing.

Abby is as active as ever, we got a video of some of her jumping like crazy.

Well, that's about all that is going on with us. We hope you all are doing well!

Trip to Utah

2010-08-17T20:34:00.003-06:00

We had a blast the last few weeks visiting family in Utah. First we stayed with Greg's family for about a week. Abby loved playing in the little kiddie pool they'd set up for her. She also really enjoyed playing with Aunt Gen's cats. We were surprised by how sweet she was to them. She liked to pet and lay her head on them while they were lounging. It was fun to watch her interact with them.

We also spent some time with my family in Heber, Ut. Abby spent time with her cousins in the kiddie pool that my parents set up. She also liked playing with her three year old cousin on the little swing set that our accommodations had their property. It was really cute watching Abby and her cousin walk around together holding hands. I never had a camera around when they were holding hands but it sure was cute watching them play together.

Abby and her cousin riding bikes with Grandpa's help

Abby got to ride in the back of the pick-up truck

Sharing a grasshopper shake from Granny's shake shop in Heber

We don't have too many specifics from our time in Utah. We loved relaxing together and with our families. Abby loved having daddy around all day and she asked about him all day today, I kept reminding her that he was at work today. She would have much rather him be at home to play with her.

All About Abby

2010-07-25T14:22:00.008-06:00

Warning: The following post is mostly just about how much we like Abby and all the things she is doing. If that is going to bore you, come back next week! (Though by this point, that's mostly what the blog is about anyway!)

When Greg's mom was here last month one thing she was impressed with was how much Abby signed. I have to say, Abby is a pretty good communicator. There are not a ton of times when she gets frustrated if I don't know what she wants. But knowing what she wants is pretty easy.

Thinking about this, I realized the other day that in the last three weeks Abby's language and communication skills have developed at lighting speed. It's amazing. She says and/or signs something new everyday and she is really good at saying the first consonant of words. The other day she was waving her flat hand in front of her body saying "ka". When she started getting frustrated that I wasn't getting it I asked her to show me and she went right to the front door and tried to get out. That's when I realized she wanted to play with her friend that lives in our same building. Her friend's name starts with a K sound. When Abby was waving her hand in front of her body she was halfway signing bubbles because they like to play with bubbles together.

Just for the record Abby regularly signs:

Airplane
All done
Amen
Apple
Baby
Ball
Banana
Bath
Bear
Bedtime
Bike
Bird
Boat
Book
Brush teeth
Bubbles
Cat
Cereal
Coat
Cold
Daddy
Diaper
Dog
Doll
Drink
Eat
Fish
Frog
Grandma
Grandpa
Go
Hat
Help
Horse
Hurt
Juice
Leaf
Mama
Medicine
Milk
More
Nice
One
Please
Potty
Pray
Rain
Shoes
Sleep
Socks
Sorry
Star
Telephone
Thank you
Train
Tree
Truck
Up
Wash hands
Water
Wind

Abby regularly says:

Bike
Boat
Book
Bubbles
Button
Bug
Car
Cart
Cloud
Color
Cookie
Cracker
Doggie
Duck
Eye
Fishy
Flower
Hi
Juice
Kitty
Mama
Milk
No (mostly just shakes her head)
Outside
Please
Quack quack
Ruff ruff
Shoe
Toes
Uh Oh
Water
Wow
Yes
...and lots of random babbling that may or may not be words.

In other news, the weather has been really nice this week. We've gone the the park and swimming almost everyday. Abby has gotten so tan over the last few weeks. Greg and I are both pretty white and don't tan easily. As it turns out Abby is completely opposite. She has beautiful olive skin, from Greg's side (Greg: who are you kidding?) of the family, and it tans really nicely and really easily. After getting back from swimming yesterday Greg was shocked with her tan lines (he doesn't see them very often). We just had to take pictures

Abby also LOVES helping around the house. If we tell her how to do something more often then not she will happily comply. She enjoys helping us set the table, and she knows that silver where goes on the plates and glasses don't. She picks up her toys before going to bed (with our help). She puts dirty clothes in the hamper. She puts shoes away in the closet. She throws trash away and does laundry. She vacuums with the hand-held vacuum. She dusts the TV and computers.

She also knows where eyes, ears, mouth, hair, head, nose, belly button, belly, and toes are. She loves listening to music and asks us to turn it on all the time. She also likes to help in the kitchen standing on a chair to direct or else fetching ingredients from the pantry.

With Abby's increased communication skills and ability to understand instruction the whole family is happy. She has also been sleeping more soundly at night. It is not uncommon for Greg and I to not have to get up at all. We love having Abby in our life. We learn from her everyday and when she smiles it melts our hearts.

We love you Abby.

A Plush Rest!

2010-07-22T21:31:00.003-06:00

The Zoo

2010-07-19T19:26:00.000-06:00

This last week was fun. Probably not a packed full as some weeks previous but our little family still found ways to hang loose.

The weather cooled down quite a bit from the week previous so we didn't go to the pool quite so often. On one of the nice days Abby and I went to the pool we ended up staying for about an hour and a half. I didn't think Abby had the ability to do something, other then sleep, for more then 10 minutes but she had a blast in the pool. She mostly played on the stairs with her bucket and shovel and a ball she was borrowing from the other kids that were there. After a while she found the hose that had been adding water to the pool. She thought the hose was the best thing in the whole world. She played with it for a good 45 minutes. The hose water was cold but she didn't care. When she started getting goose bumps I had to turn the water off. She still had fun playing with the hose though.

On Saturday my dad invited us to his company picnic at the zoo. Abby had never been to the zoo before so we all piled in the car and headed for the Woodland Park Zoo. It was interesting to watch Abby's reaction to the zoo animals. Because she is not as familiar with zoo animals as she is with house pets (cats and dog) she mostly just stared at the zoo animals. We did however get her yelling at the gorilla on camera. It was a fun day.

This afternoon Abby and I were out for a walk around our condo complex. Abby was leading and I was following. After a bit we started to get closer to where the pool is and Abby started to get more and more upset. Pretty soon she was laying on the side walk in a full on screaming fit. I'm guessing that she wanted to go swimming. Unfortunately with the weather not being hot enough and us not having any of the appropriate gear we couldn't go swimming. I had to carry her back to the condo while she continued screaming and flailing. When we got inside the tantrum continued for another 5 minutes. I got some of it on video.

Fun time in Oregon, Hot week in Seattle

2010-07-11T14:08:00.004-06:00

Hi all!

Sorry we didn't get to writing last week, we were too busy having fun in Oregon! My (Greg) family had a surprise birthday party in Oregon for my Mom and we spent Thursday through Monday down there. Our route down was kind of interesting because we needed to pick up Dan and Gen (my sibs) at the Portland airport and their flight was delayed. We had already planned to be in Portland a bit early and with that earliness, combined with the time for their delay, meant we had about 4 hours to kill in Portland. We ate lunch (where Abby ate her normal diet of a bit of fruit and lots of ketchup on fries -- she uses fries as a spoon for ketchup and only eats the fry when it becomes so soggy it is useless to her as a spoon.) and then went over to the Ikea near the airport. Ikea, as it turns out, is a perfect place to kill time with a toddler. Abby had a great time playing in each of the furnished rooms and trying out just about every chair they offered. It was a pretty cheap way to kill time as well, we had to buy Abby a little soccer ball she got attached to but that was it!

The time in Oregon was great, we rented a house with a fantastic beach view and spent time hanging out, at the beach, and exploring the area. It was a little windy and cool but not too bad. Abby kind of liked the beach but there was something living in the sand that kept biting her. We thought she was just being fussy until we saw blood! So sad! She was ok after we got her home and washed off. Debbie said she was also getting bit by something. Funny how whatever it was it was just going after them.

Back in Seattle we were in for a week of heat! It got into the 90s during the work week and Abby and Debbie stayed cool by spending lots of time at the swimming pool. I got to go swimming with them on Saturday and it was a lot of fun. Abby spends time either playing on the steps where she walks back and forth and splashes and she also enjoys going out swimming with a parents help. She does a good job of kicking/flailing her feet and paddling and seems to be a natural in the water.

We have been working on organizing and consolidating our possessions as we have had them either at Debbie's parents or else at our storage unit for a while. We hauled about a dozen boxes of books from our storage unit to our place to go through yesterday and it really made me motivated to get rid of some of them. Time for some outdated textbooks and other random things we have been carrying around to go! I realize that 2 bookshelves worth of books is nothing compared to some (cough, cough) but it is already too little room to store our books and our condo doesn't have room for any more shelves!

Abby loves helping us do chores around the house. She loves vacuuming with our small handy vac, her favorite part of sweeping the floor is scattering the dirt pile right after Debbie puts it together. She also loves helping with the laundry. We finally got a bit of it on video yesterday.

We're suppose to cool off a little bit this week. It will be nice to be able to do things outside with out feeling like we're melting.

Fun Week with Grandma

2010-06-27T18:05:00.008-06:00

Hi all!

Hope you all are enjoying the first official week of Summer! Seattle has had a pretty wet and miserable spring but the first week of summer here has had some warmer days and hints of sunshine.

This week has been particularly fun because my (Greg) Mom has been up visiting. We have done a lot of fun activities and its been a great week. Here are some pictures from the week:

Abby loves slides! She is usually out of control going down them but quickly wants to try again.

Peek-a-boo!

Abby loves shoes of all shapes and sizes. When guests come over she loves to mix up their shoes and bring them random other shoes.

We went out to the Harvold Berry Farms in Carnation, WA where they have a U-Pick strawberry field. Last year we picked 8 pounds of strawberries and thought that was a lot. This year we went a little overboard and brought home 22.5 pounds!!! We are going to be freezing a ton, making jam, and eating strawberries with just about every meal! Abby was surprisingly helpful and did a good job both picking as well as helping us put the berries in the box. She picked up some rocks and added them to the box as well but she did great.

Eating out a few times and getting balloons!

"Painting" with water on our deck (surprisingly effective activity, kept her busy for a while)

Swimming in the pool - she had fun playing on the steps after swimming with Mom

Feeding birds at Ivars

Eating fish & chips and clam chowder at Ivars (she apparently liked them, must not get that from her Dad!)

Playing with bubbles (BUBBLES!!!!!)

Figuring out her toys

Playing at the park (more)

Swings!

Happy Father's Day!

2010-06-20T14:17:00.005-06:00

I don't know about anyone else but I think Abby has the BEST father (and grandfathers, and great-grandfathers) on the planet! Greg is also so patient with Abby, even when I would find it hard to be. I love to watch when he gets home each day. The joy on both his and Abby's faces is true love. Abby adores her daddy. He is the first thing she asks about in the morning. She misses him during the day. When he gets home at night she has a hard time not being near him. Those two are a match made in heaven. My love for him grows each time I watch him with our daughter.

Here's to you, Greg!

Love, your family.

Bonus Pictures!

2010-06-14T20:43:00.002-06:00

Here are some bonus pictures. Some I forgot to include in the last post and some are just good to share.

Our mansion tent dwarfing it's neighbors.

Abby playing with one of her favorite toys, a water bottle.

Abby eating corn on the cob for dinner. She did surprisingly well for her first cob.

Camping, Abby Learning

2010-06-13T15:20:00.007-06:00

Hi All!

Hope you are all doing well! Things are going well for us, we have had a fun and sunny weekend. Our friends invited us to go camping with them this weekend as part of their family's annual whitewater rafting trip. We went two years ago and had a lot of fun and were excited to go again. I left work around lunchtime on Friday and we drove out the couple of hours to the campsite and started setting up our tent.

The last time we went camping with Abby, we found that our tent just wasn't really big enough to handle us three and this time we wanted to have room to put Abby's pack-and-play up so that she could go to sleep in it. With that in mind, we went on Amazon and started looking at tents. We found one that looked pretty good, had a good price, and said it fit 9 people. Now, most tents exaggerate their claims a bit and the "people" measurement is only for people packed shoulder and not a real comfortable figure... So, we got the tent. When it arrived and we set it up we realized we would never need to complain about size again. This tent was ridiculously huge. It is so big we couldn't set it up in our living room. When we set it up at the campsite, it dwarfed the smaller tents around and for three people is definitely overkill. Well, overkill it may be but it certainly gave us plenty of room to set up our air mattress, pack and play, camp chair, backpacks, and still not touch probably 50% of the floor space. Pretty awesome.

We spent Friday night and Saturday morning having fun, chatting around the campfire, etc. Saturday morning I really wanted to watch the US/England soccer match and the plan was for Abby and Debbie to go swimming. Unfortunately, the pool at the place we were staying was pretty cold and Abby only lasted a few minutes. After that, there was no real way to control her and we put her in the car to head to the group lunch. On the way to the lunch, despite our best efforts she fell hard asleep in the car. Not wanting to have to deal with her fighting us the whole way home, we decided to forgo lunch and a trip down the river to be able to drive while she was asleep. It was a bit disappointing to miss out on the major activities but it was nice to get home with Abby asleep most of the way. Overall, it was a lot of fun.

Abby has been communicating very well. She still doesn't say much (though she is starting to say more (maw-maw) and cracker (ka-ka) but she seems to understand a lot more than she says. She surprises us how often she understands and does what we say, for example we asked her to put her pajamas in her hamper and she did it without being shown. When you look at her from the perspective of "what does she understand" instead of "what doesn't she understand", it is pretty impressive!

Oh, one other thing Abby is getting real good at: climbing on things. She loves climbing on chairs and couches and while its really cute, it's also kind of scary! She certainly keeps us busy...

Have a great week everyone!

Memorial Weekend

2010-05-30T15:20:00.002-06:00

This has been a fabulous week for us. On Tuesday Abby and I went swimming at the YMCA. They have an aerobics class designed for moms with toddlers. It was a lot of fun and we got to meet some other moms.

On Friday Greg and I had to pick up our new washer and dryer and get them back home before Greg had to leave for his trip to Utah. Unluckily, it was a rainy morning. Luckily, with the help of my parents, everything went smoothly and I got Greg to the airport in plenty of time.

While Greg was in Utah visiting some friends my dad and I spent Saturday installing new shelves in our laundry closet and setting up the new appliances. By the end of the day we were finished with the project and exhausted. So, we went out for Mexican.

Today we are spending the day getting some things organized and catching up on laundry.

Abby's been really cute this week and we've gotten a lot of good video. A little while ago we posted a video of Greg chasing Abby around the bed. Abby still loves to play on the bed and we're a little (very little) less scared of her falling off. She seems to be a little more aware of the edge and even scoots safely off without out any help.

Abby is starting to understand that she can manipulate her surroundings. She catches on quickly to ideas and games that we show her and then she wants to play over and over again. Here is a game Greg started the other night.

More Sick and Power Outtage

2010-05-23T14:26:00.005-06:00

This week has been pretty challenging. As I mentioned in the last post Abby wasn't feeling too good. We thought she was healing well and she seemed pretty happy on Sunday evening. We even got out of the house and went and saw my dad. Unfortunately she started throwing up again in the middle of the night. We had two more days of throwing up after that. We took her to the doctor who couldn't do to much for her. He told us she probably just had a bug and it might take a while to get over. We were just suppose to keep offering her clear liquids. She finally started improving when I would only give her 1 teaspoon of liquid (water, chicken broth, juice) every 15 minutes. The only hard part being that she was hungry and would get pretty mad at us for not giving her more. After a few hours we decided to give her 1 tablespoon. We gradually increased the amount of liquid we gave her and she kept it down the whole day. The next day we used the same process but added applesauce and Jell-o. We are happy to say that she now seems to be fully recovered.

The weather this week has been pretty stormy. On Wednesday we had a storm strong enough that the power went out for a few hours. Greg had a hard time getting home because traffic lights were not working and he had to stop and get some dinner because everything in our kitchen is electric. I heard on the radio the next day that a tornado had actually touched down near a town in the middle of Washington called, Moses Lake.

Here is a video of our power-out picnic:

Other then those exciting things there hasn't been too much going on. This coming weekend Greg will be visiting Utah. It will be fun to hear about his trip

Ups and Downs

2010-05-16T09:59:00.004-06:00

This week has been full of good times and bad. Early in the week Abby and I visited the YMCA. We were given some guest passes a little while ago so we decided to check it out. Abby was really excited to play with the other kids in "Kid's Corner". There no Pilates or Yoga classes offered at the time we were there so I decided to check out the Land Aerobics class. Turns out it was a class for "active, older adults". I was a little embarrassed being the only one under 60. It got worse though when I was paged on the PA system to report to the Kid's Corner. The supervisor of the Kid's Corner told me that Abby was doing really well until some other mom's started picking up their kids and then Abby lost it. She was hysterical when I got there and it took me a good 15 minutes to calm her down.

The weather has been pretty nice this week. It seems like Abby wanted to be outside every waking moment. As soon as Greg would leave for work she would start signing "outside". She would go to the coat closet and sign shoes and then go to the front door and try to turn the nob. Sometimes she would even beg for some keys and as soon as I would give them to her she would try to unlock the front door and when that didn't work she would go to the patio door and try to unlock that. She's very determined when she wants to do something.

Also this week Abby figured out how to climb onto things. While playing with Greg one evening she climbed on top of a box and turned the TV on. I'm glad he got a video of it. The next morning while I was doing laundry and Abby was playing I found her standing on our coffee table frustrated that she couldn't get down.

Unfortunately we ended the week on a low note. Abby started throwing up on Friday afternoon and has been sick ever since. It is so hard watching her suffer and not being able to make it better. There were times when she would switch from Greg holding her to me every few minutes. It was like she was trying to figure out which one of us would make it all better.

She started feeling a little better last night and was asking for something to eat. We could understand how hungry she was but the nurse advised us not to give her anything but clear liquids for 8 hours after she last threw up. She was so insistent and was asking so nicely that in the end we gave her a saltine cracker. Thankfully it didn't make her throw up again. We got a small video of her asking for food.

We are all on the mend mentally and physically. It is a blessing that these sicknesses have come on the weekend. I know I wouldn't be able to manage a sick baby all by myself.

Calming Down

2010-05-09T20:39:00.003-06:00

We had a couple of exciting weeks recently. This week things have been calming down a little. It's been nice having a second car for Abby and I to get out during the day. We've been to the park a few times this week. Abby has started recognizing places as we drive. When ever she sees park toys (whether driving past one or stopping at one) she gets really excited and starts signing like crazy. She does the same thing when we pull into my parent's house. She gets really excited and has lots to say.

Greg and I had a date yesterday. A friend of ours (who has five kids) insisted on taking Abby for a bit so we could get out by ourselves. We had a bit of lunch at The Mongolian Grill (one of our favorite places) and then we took a leisurely stroll around Costco and tried some tasty samples. It may not have been much of a date but we enjoyed it. It was shocking to me how uncomplicated it was for just the two of us to go out. Normally getting in and out of the car is really complicated. One person has the baby the other person has bags and stuff. While we're out half of our concentration (or more) is on Abby. I'd forgotten how simple it was to just get out of the car and go wherever we were going and actually think about what we were doing. It was very nice. We really appreciated our friend for taking Abby. She had a blast with the other kids and when we got home with her we found bark in her diaper.

Also new this week: Abby started walking backward. We're not sure where she picked it up but she likes to start on one side of the room and she will go across the whole room just walking backward. She's getting really good at looking behind her and avoiding furniture and toys and such. She's a pretty funny girl.

Friendly Plane Baby

2010-05-02T13:57:00.004-06:00

Hi all!

Sorry for the missed week last week, we were pretty busy last week! For my (Greg's) siblings graduation we went down to Utah last week to spend a couple of days with family. We had a great time and the five days we were there seemed like it lasted just a few minutes. We would have liked to see more people but we just had a few days and spent most of it with family. We'll be down in Utah more in the summer and will make sure we see everyone then.

This was the first time I had ever flown with Abby. Abby and Debbie have flown on two other trips before this one and on both of those trips, Debbie says Abby just fell asleep on her and slept most of the flight. Well, that certainly didn't happen on this trip. On the way down, our flight wasn't full so we claimed a whole row which was great. Abby spent the whole time climbing back and forth between Debbie and I. She climbed along the seats as well as along the ground in the feet area. We kept her pumped full of food, milk, and crackers and, while a bit exhausting, wasn't too bad. She finally fell asleep just as we were approaching the gate after landing. The way home was about the same, no sleep and lots of wiggles. Abby spent most of that time waving to random strangers on the plane. After we got off, a couple of people came up to me while Debbie was in the bathroom and said things to me and Abby. It was a little weird because although Abby was waving to them on the plane, I had no idea who they were and, really, Abby waves at a lot of people. Oh well, we're glad to have a good-natured baby.

While we were in Utah we had lots of fun visiting with family. We made and ate lots of yummy food and had a fun time catching up. We attempted to go to the graduation ceremonies but me and Abby both got antsy. I can't really remember my graduation but are they really all that boring? Still, while the ceremony was painful, we were proud of our graduates.

Abby is very bored at graduation.

Abby had fun playing with the cats at my parents house in Utah. The first day or two she was excited but too scared to touch them. The next day or so, she would pet them very sweetly and tentatively. By the last two days, they were fearing her as her favorite games were to pull them by the tails from the window ledge and to steal their toys. My sister had gotten the cats a new, pretty big toy and Abby decided that it was her toy instead. Abby doesn't really have any toy competition at home so it was funny to watch her get all emotional and possessive about this toy and try to run away from the cats with it. Even when there was a cat half inside she didn't hesitate to try and pull it away.

This week has been kind of cold and wet up here which isn't too fun. Debbie is loving having a second car and she has gotten out most days this week to get to parks, do shopping etc. It is nice that she can have some more freedom now.

Work is going well for me. We just had our annual performance review and people seem to think I'm doing well so that is nice. I love my job way more than I ever expected to and am very content with it.

At home, we have gotten a storage unit to put some of our excess stuff. We have been storing it at Debbie's parents but don't want to burden them with all of our junk. I didn't think we owned that much but now that we are hauling it box by box it is pretty shocking. Maybe Debbie and I need to start being like my parents and moving every year to make sure we aren't carrying excess baggage.

Here are a few more pictures from the trip:

Petting the cat, Ellie.

Abby signing "Daddy"

Family picture looking into the sun on a windy day.

Abby's Cute and Car

2010-04-17T16:48:00.007-06:00

Every week it seems as though Abby learns so much. She is growing up very fast and I can hardly keep up. Abby continues to develop her sense of independence and sometimes doesn't understand why she can't always do what she wants. This week Greg and I have been trying different things to get Abby to sleep in a little later in the morning. She's been waking up around 6:00am everyday. While that may be okay for her, I'm not ready for her to be awake at that time of day. I started getting up around 5:30am so I could have a bit of time to start the day the way I wanted to. We put in room darkening curtains in Abby's room. We also tried keeping her up later in the evening. Nothing has had any effect on the time she wakes up. In fact there were a few days when she woke up a 5:45am. Greg and I are at a loss. Hopefully it is just a phase. One might expect a change in sleeping habits might increase fussiness but luckily Abby is just as happy as ever. We are grateful to have such a good baby. As always she is super cute and she loves discovering new things.

Abby just recently learned how to sign shoes and socks. She is very cute when it is time to put them on before going outside. While doing laundry she found one of my socks and proceeded to try and put it on her foot. After coming inside I took her shoes off and just put them on the floor so I could organize some other things that we'd brought in. After a little bit she found her shoes and tried to put them on. She didn't succeed in either case but it was pretty cute to watch her try. She is very focused and determined.

While putting bags (and baby) in the car after grocery shopping on Friday we noticed that Abby had pee'd through her diaper and got her pants all wet so we changed her diaper in the back of the car and left her pantsless on the drive home. When we got home I noticed a potential stain on her shirt and took it off to treat it, leaving Abby with just a diaper and socks till we got all the groceries put away and the laundry started. She played with her backpack till we could get her some clothes.

Greg found a computer game made for babies. Every time any key on the keyboard is hit something (a cute animal or creature) pops out and says "peek a boo". The first time Greg let Abby play she went ballistic. She absolutely loves that game and loves that Greg will let her play on the computer. Here is a little video:

Also, since Greg has started driving to work Abby and I have been spending a lot of time at home. Which is not too bad some of the time. It can get really hard on days when Abby gets bored or when I feel like I have errands to run. Greg always tells me that if I need the car he can just take the bus but that doesn't seem fair for him to add almost an hour to his commute so that I can run a 45 minute errand during the day. So, yesterday we met with an auto broker and bought another car. We are very excited about our 2007 Honda Civic. It is a very nice car and with a little more space in the back seat we were able to put Abby's car seat in the middle. She really likes to look out the front window and it is easier for us to see her. It was an exhausting day yesterday. I'm excited to have the ability to go out and do things with Abby during the day and for Greg to still get home at the same time.

Food is on Gregs mind

2010-04-11T17:37:00.008-06:00

Hi!
Hope you are all well. We are recovered now from our grossness last week and feel much better.

So, what's been going on the last week? Well, we tried some new recipes like a garlic chicken pizza and red beans and rice. Abby loved the red beans and kept shoveling them into her mouth so fast that we eventually had to stop giving them to her so we could have some left for our lunches the next day. She managed to get it all over her face and body but she loved it.

Yesterday (Saturday) was a pretty busy and fun day for us. We made some of Abby's food for the week including a strawberry-peach-blueberry-yogurt smoothie which was so good that Debbie and I ate half of it before freezing it for Abby. We stopped by Subway also and got their BLT so that we could compare it to the BLT that we have started making. It turns out, while we like their addition of onions and green peppers, they were missing the most (in my opinion) crucial part of a BLT - barbeque sauce! Seriously. I didn't think I liked BLT until I tried one with warm bacon and bbq sauce. That converted me. What's not to like about that?

Ok, enough about food. Oh wait, not yet. We needed to fill some time on Saturday night before Abby went to bed so we went out to Little Caesers and got Crazy Bread and took it to a park. For $1.99 it was an awesome activity. Abby got to slide (which she loves) and to run around (which she also loves). She also ate some bark before we could get it out of her mouth, not sure how much she loved that.

Speaking of Abby, she has continued to find new ways to be cute and destructive (sometimes at the same time). She has learned how to open boxes of cereal and then empty their contents on the floor. She did that first with the last of our box of Cheerios and then killed half a box of Crispix. She then helps by smashing the cereal. Yep. At least so far it has been on our kitchen floor and not on carpet.

Also yesterday, while we were waiting for an oil change we went over to Rite Aid and found some sweet Easter candy on clearance. Since we were too horribly sick to even realize it was Easter last weekend this was some sort of consolation... ok, not really, but I do like candy and I love good deals.

Well, not too much else going on, things are good for us!

Abby loves Signing Time

2010-04-05T20:15:00.006-06:00

Hi. So, as you may or may not have heard, we were all (even Abby!) super sick over the weekend. It was pretty miserable but we are getting better.

Not really too much to write about since we did nothing but suffer all weekend but we do have this video of Abby that is so cute it makes up for it!

In the video you will see Abby doing her own made up sign for Baby Signing Time (when she rocks her arms). You will also see her first use of "please" which is a hand rubbing her belly.

Getting Teeth

2010-03-28T15:05:00.002-06:00

I'm excited Greg was able to post about our ginger ale drinking. I get talk about the rest of the goings on.

This week Abby has been getting four teeth in. I'm not sure when her back bottom molars broke through but some of her front teeth broke through this week. There is always a lot of talk about a tooth initially breaking through. Now, I can't remember what it's like to get teeth but I imagine that along with the break through pain there is also a lot of general a-tooth-is-moving pain. Abby does very well with all of this. She is still happy 98% of the time. It's been a rough sleeping week though. There's been a couple of nights where either I or Greg have had to rock her back to sleep. I think we've gotten past the worst of it though.

In other news Abby drew a couple of pictures this week. When looked at with a naked eye it really just looks like scribbles on a paper but looking through it eyes of loving parents they are master pieces. We put her latest up on the fridge.

For Abby's birthday she received a ball factory toy from her grand parents. Greg and I were really excited to get it going for her but the first time we set it up she was so scared of it she could only watch nervously from our laps. So we put it away for a little bit. We've brought it out again in the last couple of days and as it turns out she really likes it. Here is a short video.

Ginger Ale

2010-03-27T20:20:00.005-06:00

So, if you have been reading long enough, you probably remember that we did some root beer tournaments a while ago to try and figure out what the best kind of root beer was. Well, we decided to hold another soda competition only this time the soda under scrutiny was ginger ale. Ginger ale isn't a hugely popular drink but it comes in a lot of different varieties and we decided to give them a try. Despite being March, we didn't go with a tournament format and instead just went for a pool of six. The eight of us participating each ranked our favorites, from one to six, and then combined for a final result. May I have the envelope please....

6th place - Despite my hopes for this (and my 2nd place vote), the worst place winner was Reed's Ginger Beer. Now, I guess this one had a disadvantage because it was ginger beer as opposed to ginger ale but I think people were really just too wimpy for this. Sure there was a mighty kick in this one and sure people like Debbie described it as vinegary, medicine-like and a kick to the face but hey, I like a ginger drink I can respect. Oh well, most people hated it.

5th place - Well, store brand try but they often disappoint. Safeway's store brand ginger ale was 5th place. Debbie described it as having a burning sensation and nobody found much redeeming in it.

3th place (tie) - Coming from a 2 liter bottle, Seagram's tied for third and was pretty well liked by everyone. Debbie thought it was bitter but it still earned her number two ranking. I didn't like it much but most people seemed to.

3th place (tie) - A ginger ale I got to love in Michigan but definitely takes some getting used to, Vernor's also tied for 3rd place. Vernor's has an extremely strong initial fizzyness but has a bold but not too-bold taste. Vernor's is a product of Detroit and is the oldest ginger ale in the US and tied for oldest soda in the US with Hires (one of our #1 root beers from 2008). It was my number one choice but Debbie didn't like it too much and thought it was very sugary and bubbly.

2nd place - I guess it is the most common ginger ale for a reason - Canada Dry took home the number 2 ranking and was well loved by all. Everybody thought it tasted a lot like 7up which to me kind of defeats the purpose but everyone agreed was very drinkable and not much of a shock to the system.

1st place - Always a strong soda brand, Thomas Kemper came out on top with their ginger ale. It got an amazing 4 (out of 8) first place votes. Debbie described it as having a strong ginger taste while still being smooth. TK does a great job in all of the sodas we've tried and this time was no exception.

Well, that's a wrap of our 3rd soda competition, more on Abby and the rest of the family later!

Pushing

2010-03-24T11:37:00.002-06:00

Abby's really been into pushing things lately. She tries to push anything that is too pick for her to pick up. Here is a video demonstration.

Sun Shining

2010-03-22T11:57:00.002-06:00

This past week has been great for getting everyone outside. Seattle winter and spring can be hard sometimes. The days are mostly gray and after a while everything seems to run together. But happily the sun decided to shine on us most of last week. Abby and I were able to get out for some really great walks. On one day we decided to walk on the Burk-Gilman trail (a paved trail near our house). After about a half hour in her stroller Abby wanted to get out. Because there wasn't very many other people on the trail I let her get out. She loved pushing her stroller, picking up sticks and rocks, and generally being free. The next day Abby's friend Damian came over with his mom. We all went on a walk to a park near by and had a picnic. It was fun to watch Abby interact with the other kids at the park. She wanted to steal everyone's sippy cup and she also loved putting bark from the playground onto the side walk. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of our time outside.

On Saturday some another friends of ours came over. Abby loved playing with Max and it was such a nice day after having lunch at a Thai place we decided to go to the park. Abby saw real ducks for the first time. Good thing I was there or else she would have jumped in the water for a closer look. She also ventured up the big toy and went down the slide a couple of times. I don't think we'll be able to keep her away from the slide the next time we go to the park. We also took a family walk around the neighborhood in the evening.

On Sunday we had a very nice BBQ with friends of ours. Abby had fun dumping rice and fruit on the floor for the dog to eat up. I'm sure the dog didn't mind it either. After eating we had a Ginger-Ale tasting tournament. I'll let Greg tell about that.

The rain is suppose to come back this week so, I'm glad we were able to get outside as much as we did. It was great to be outside so much and to have so much time with friends. It makes us all anxious for more sunny weather.

First week of 1 year old Abby

2010-03-14T15:51:00.003-06:00

Hi!

So, this has been the first week of Abby being one and it has been an up and down week. Abby has been a bit sick with a cold this week so that has made her a little more sad than usual. She also has some more molars coming in we think so that could be adding to it. She is still a very sweet baby and loves to gives kisses and hugs and to share her toys with us. She also loves her teddy bears and loves to give them hugs.

Birthday puzzle

Abby hates being restricted even more than ever, she always likes to be able to run around and explore. When we go to the grocery store she will last about 15 minutes in the cart, then about 15 minutes in our arms, and after that, she MUST go exploring. She loves nothing more than running up and down aisles, often screaming. For that reason, we are really liking the Saturday 8:00 AM time going grocery shopping!

Nothing really eventful this week, we had birthdays at the beginning of the week and just a normal work week for the rest. Abby wore her hair in pigtails yesterday. It was pretty cute and her hair was wild this morning. Too bad we couldn't get any good pictures.

Well, that's about all I can think of that is going on with us, I hope you are all doing well!

Sharing Daddy's coat.

One Year!

2010-03-11T07:59:00.004-07:00

Abby and I turned one year older on Monday. It was a fun and exciting birthday for us both.

On Tuesday Abby went to the doctor. He said she is very healthy and that mom and dad were doing a good job. He was also impressed with her walking and tumbling skills. She absolutely hated the examination which suprised and frazzled me. In the past she was always very easy going and mostly relaxed at the doctors. This time though she wanted nothing to do with being measured. She did not want anyone to look in her ears, nose, or mouth. And she was especially unhappy that anyone should think about poking around her belly. It was a struggle and once it was done she clung to me like sticky tape. At the end of the visit we had to struggle again to get her shots done. I'm sure she cried more over being held down then she did over having the shot. Only good things to report from the doctor's though.

At one year Abby:

Throws temper tantrums
Has 8 teeth (2 are molars) and working on 2 more (molars)
Walks and tumbles well
Is VERY independent
Loves discovering things
Loves being outside
Says: dada, teddy often
Signs: eat, bedtime, more, amen
likes the color red
Some favorite food include: kiwi, tomato, banana, strawberries, graham crackers
doesn't take a bottle
Is a little dramatic
Is quite intuitive
Likes to read books
Gives kisses

Birthday Party Day!

2010-03-07T12:55:00.005-07:00

It's been a good week for us. The sun has been shining frequently and it's been nice to get outside and go for walks.

Yesterday we celebrated Abby's birthday. We thought it would be too hard to fit in a party on her real birthday since it is Monday. After Abby got up from her afternoon non-nap (she spent an hour in her crib not sleeping) she came out to find the house decorated for a party. She was most excited to find some balloons. Since finding the balloons yesterday she has literally only let go of them when we pry the ribbons out of her hands and take them out of sight.

Later in the afternoon we had my parents and Greg's cousins over for some carrot cake and ice cream. Abby had her own little cup cake which she ate with a fork. We sang to her and then gave her a chance to blow out the candle. Greg blew it our right before she touched it.

Carrot cake, Yum!

Another milestone that was hit yesterday was turning Abby's car seat around. It took some time figuring out how to put it in properly. We had both the car's and the car seat's manual's out and we were crawling all around the car. Now that it's in though it won't be so hard next time.

"I can see everything!"

Bonus Videos!

2010-03-02T08:11:00.003-07:00

Abby was being really cute yesterday. I got some good videos and pictures of her. I was just going to email these king of long and slightly nudy videos to the people I thought would enjoy them most but I couldn't get the email to work. I'm sure most people will think they are boring but we get a kick out of Abby.

Abby's been learning how to eat with a fork. Sometimes it can get messy but it's usually pretty fun and we're frequently amazed with her comprehension.

After particularly messy dinners (as seen above) we have to put Abby in the tub. She always gets really excited when she hears the water going. Before I got the camera going on this bath Abby had successfully soaked half the bathroom, water was literally everywhere. She has fun though.

Crafty week

2010-02-28T16:04:00.003-07:00

Hi!

How are you all! Abby is desperately fighting off going to sleep for her afternoon nap right now. She used to be very good at naps and she still is pretty good at her morning nap but her afternoon nap has gotten harder and harder. I don't know that we will be able to convince her to do it much longer. If she misses it though, she starts acting wasted about 6:00 pm and its also really nice to have some down time in the afternoon so we will miss it.

It has been a fun week for us, though no huge events to report. We have both worked on some craft projects this week... My project was putting some pictures in collage picture frame that we got to for a couple of my Antarctica pictures. It turned out really well but we don't know where to hang it now. Debbie made a little hanging mobile with pictures of Abby which also turned out well... and we also don't know where to put it.

We went to Costco yesterday to pick up the pictures for said crafts and I have to admit, I'm becoming more and more converted to Costco. Debbie has always loved it but I have been a hater for most of my life. It seemed for many things that we got there that they weren't much cheaper than you could get at a grocery store and they came in really inconvenient sizes. Well, we got a membership as a Christmas gift from Debbie's sister and while I still hold that a lot of what is at Costco can be found at similar price/unit elsewhere - I've started to see that there are also a lot of other things that you can find that are way cheaper. For example, we got some cinnamon for under three dollars for a size 20 times bigger than what we would buy at the grocery store for the same price. Or yeast for breadmaking - a little jar at the grocery store costs around five dollars. A massive brick of it at Costco? Also five dollars. Now, if only we had more room to store all of these great deals...

Abby continues to be very clever and getting into new and interesting things. She is a pro at turning on the TV (we don't even watch THAT much TV, I swear!) and at banging on keyboards (that I'll admit we do a lot of). She also has started to experiment with combining things like putting blocks and balls in her plastic kitchen spoon. Pretty clever.

We made some interesting new foods for Abby yesterday. We made a yummy fruit smoothy with bananas and peaches and strawberries. We made a nectarine/cucumber mush that she likes surprising well. We also made a very, very red beet / sweet potato meal that she hasn't tried yet... we'll see about that one. The biggest experiment was a chicken-dinner that had some pasta, chicken, carrots and green onion. We make a point of trying everything before we give it to Abby, if we hate it we can't expect her to eat it, and after trying this one we had to run to get something to wash it down. We don't know how it turned out so badly. The texture was bad, the flavor was bad, even the color was bad! I don't know what we are going to do with it. Maybe Abby will strangely like it, we'll see.

Here are some pictures from this week!

Licking the smoothie from her bowl.

Sometimes Abby likes to show a little leg.

Abby's been getting more cuddly. We think it's really cute.

Abby wanted to taste some of the beet/sweet potato. She thought it was interesting.

Playing with the remote after turning the TV on.

A Sunny Day!

2010-02-21T15:08:00.006-07:00

We had another fun and productive Saturday this week. Saturday usually turns into our day to get things done. Plus the weather has been nice the last couple weekends with just makes us want to get up and go. This Saturday Debbie helped her dad install a new shower door at their house, and we de-molded the window in addition to our normal weekly cleaning. Greg spent time making some interesting food for Abby which included a carrot and peaches mix, and a carrot, celery, blueberry, and potato mix. It's nice to get a variety of foods into her diet.

We also enjoyed a picnic with cousins yesterday. Abby had a good time exploring the area where we had lunch. She also had a ball at the playground. There was a spinning ring toy (see pictures above) that Abby loved playing in the middle of the ring and putting piles of bark on the edge of the circle. She also really loved playing in the sand. It was fun to watch her realize what she could do in the sand. We gave her a bath when we got home.

It's been a lot of fun watching Abby grow and develop. Sometimes she will just start doing things that we have never taught her before. For example, yesterday Abby started dancing. We had to catch her on video today because it is just too cute.

Ready for Church

2010-02-17T09:33:00.003-07:00

For Christmas Abby received a really cute church dress that she has worn every Sunday since she got it. This last Sunday right before we left she had gotten into my church bag and pulled out a little coin purse. She looked all cute with her dress, hat, coat, and purse all ready for church. Here is a little video.

Crazy Saturday and Nice Week

2010-02-14T14:34:00.009-07:00

Hi all!
Another week comes and goes! Hope you are all doing well.

This week has seemed kind of crazy but maybe most of it was just how crazy yesterday was. It started out as a normal Saturday, doing errands, cleaning, stuff like that. When we went out to go to the grocery store in the morning we noticed the rear-passenger tire was a little low but didn't think too much of it since we would just add some air when we got gas later in the afternoon. Then, in the afternoon while we were making Abby's food in the blender, our blender started really breaking down. It has been deteriorating rapidly (we use it a lot since we make lots of food for Abby and make a lot of milkshakes) but somehow it broke one of the teeth that connects the motor to the blade while it was in the middle of blending. It sounded more like a lawnmower/garbage disposal than a blender at that point and we decided we needed a new one. Since we had to make Abby her food for the week, our blender needs were urgent so we headed out.

We went out to the car and saw that the car tire was really low at that point. Fortunately, we have a place to get air just a block away. Unfortuantely, at this point it was 5:15 and just about everywhere that could do a tire repair was closed at 5:00 on a Saturday. We started calling around and Les Schwabs, Discount Tire, everywhere we could think of was closed. We decided to just start heading in the direction of Best Buy (we had a lot of gift cards and were going to get the blender there) and along the way started calling everywhere we could think of.
The Walmart here doesn't have an auto garage but we called Costco and they said they could do tire repairs. Unfortuantely, when we got there, that turned out to only be the case for Costco tires. They said they might bend that rule but it was just a few minutes before they closed at 6:00 and they were already swamped. But, they told us Sears was open till 9:00 so we headed that way. Sears saved the day and in an hour or so they had gotten the small screw out and fixed things up. While we were in the mall that Sears was attached to Abby also decided to mix things up by wetting through her diaper but at that point it wasn't too much of a big deal. So, Sears got things done in enough time and Abby was in a good enough mood that even though it was late we were able to stop by Best Buy and get an awesome new blender. It's no Blendtech but it seems good and we are going to try it this afternoon. Will let you know how it goes.

Hrmm, other news... We are loving the new season of Survivor that started. With that starting and Amazing Race and the Olympics all on we certainly don't lack for things to watch in our small amount of spare time.
On Saturday, Debbie made me throw out a bunch of socks that I don't wear and the sock pile we made kept Abby busy for a long time. Here are some pictures of Abby and the sock pile (and the stool she is constantly trying to climb on).

Oh yeah, Debbie tried making biscuits for Abby and they turned out pretty good. The result ended up looking like gingerbread but they are sort of nutritious (wheat germ, powdered milk, etc) and don't have any sugar. Abby seems to like them a lot.

Welcom to Februrary

2010-02-07T12:23:00.004-07:00

Hi Everyone!

Things are going great for us, it has been very warm and sunny so far this month and Abby has been doing great walking inside and out. Its good that she is exciting and interesting because not much else has happened this week.

It has been good for me (Greg) to be back at work, I enjoy my job and it has been good to get caught up and working on things again.

Yeah, really, not much to say. We have been wrapping up odds and ends with the bathroom renovations and generally getting caught up on things. We are looking forward to Abby's birthday. We aren't planning on doing anything big but it is exciting, and a little strange to think that it has already been a year since she was born.

Abby playing on our patio

Abby Walking

2010-02-02T18:49:00.003-07:00

There has been a demand for more video of Abby walking. Today was a very nice day so we decided to go for a walk around our building. Abby loves being outside and loves it even more now that she can explore it her way.

Quick pics of Abby

2010-01-31T20:09:00.003-07:00

Some people were demanding Abby. Here she is walking around, checking out her shoes, and checking out a post-bath hair-do. We'll get up some video when Debbie's computer starts working (need to replace the battery)

Antarctica

2010-01-31T16:39:00.004-07:00

Hi everyone!

Hope everyone has been well, it has been a great trip though it is also nice to be back! I'm sure this post won't do the trip justice but hopefully some of the pictures will better capture what we did and saw.

Short version: It was awesome. And a long ways away. A couple of pictures are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/greganddebbiepics/Antarctica?authkey=Gv1sRgCILIz8Hkm47ieA#

Long version: The trip started with me and my dad flying to Atlanta. His trip was more than twice as long but eventually we both made it there. After we met in Atlanta, we took the ~10 hour flight from Atlanta to Buenos Aires. The flight was pretty bumpy and I really didn't sleep at all, which wasn't fun. Thankfully I had a good book (read Hunger Games on the flight down) and stuff to keep me entertained during the many hours. We arrived in BA in the morning and got a taxi to our hotel where, luckily for us, they allowed us to check into our room even though it was only ~10 AM.

I laid down and was asleep before I knew it and slept for about four hours which felt really good. I was still a bit wasted though so we had a low key evening and walked around a bit and got some (not great) pizza. The next day we went to the domestic airport (Buenos Aires has an international airport and then an entirely separate, 45 minutes away, domestic airport. This seems to cause a lot of confusion but is probably great for the taxi economy). We took a ~4 hour flight down to Ushuaia which is the furthest south city in Argentina (and the world) and arrived in the evening. Even though we arrived pretty late in the evening it was still very bright outside. This was pretty weird to me coming from Seattle where it gets dark about 4:30 pm. We got our first look at Ushuaia (almost all dirt roads) and just had dinner in our hotel (really bad steak).

The next day we had the full day to explore Ushuaia and we ran a number of errands such as finding super-glue to fix my broken shoe (amazingly, despite us speaking no Spanish, almost nobody speaking English and no large stores we were able to find some after a lot of searching and wild gestures). We also picked up a camera-cord (some dollar store neon-green twine) and visited a glacier (which was a nice little hike but really wasn't much compared to what was to come the rest of the trip). That night we had a little briefing/meeting with our tour group at our hotel and then had an even worse dinner in the hotel. (I again got a very bad steak and my dad got the "Casserole Casserole". Yeah, huge mistake. It was a seafood-casserole and had a whole squid and tons of nasties in it. He ended up trying to hide most of it under my steak carcass and among the other rubbish on my plate. Despite all this, our very animated (and non-english speaking) server was very dissapointed with how much we both ate and we vowed never to return there).

The next morning we hung around the hotel until the afternoon where we met up with our tour operator at the docks and boarded our ship. Our ship had ~100 passengers and 70 crew and, though our cabin wasn't roomy, the ship on the whole was very comfortable.

We got situated in our cabin and looked around the ship and then went up on deck to watch us leave Ushuaia.

With Ushuaia in the background, we went to the dining room for dinner. After the terrible food in Argentina (note, there may be very good food in Argentina, we probably just set ourselves up for failure by eating in places that looked nice but ended up being disasters) we weren't sure what things would be like on board but we were pleasantly surprised with how great the food was. Each day the meal in the dining room was completely made to order and always included fresh bread, good dessert (with ship-made ice cream!), a choice of 4 or so main dishes, soup, salads, etc. In addition to this, for lunch and breakfast you could do self-serve food in the lounge, something I often did. Dinner the first night (and every night) was good and then we went to bed while the seas were still calm and we were in the Beagle channel (that connects Ushuaia to the ocean).

During the night, we entered the Drake passage and could definitely feel things getting rougher. The Drake passage is the stormiest passage in the world because of the intersecting currents. Luckily for us, things were pretty calm both going down and back but even the relatively calm seas got tipsy. The entire second and third days of the trip were sent sailing through the passage and on these days we listened to lectures, read, and hung around on the ship. (During dinner on the second day there was wave big enough to tip the ship enough that many tables had all of their dishes knocked off. We lost most of our silverware but hung on to our plates and glasses.)

One of the highlights of the trip was on the third day when, after seeing nothing but open ocean for days, we saw a large (to us at least) iceberg in the distance and then passed very close to it. It was awesome to see and a great sign of things to come.

After sailing for 2 days and 3 nights we arrived in Antarctica. For the next 4 days we had two landings each day on islands or on the Antarctic peninsula. These landings were done on zodiacs and in addition to the landings we also spent some time on the zodiacs moving around the bays, looking at seals, whales, and icebergs. The scenery there was all fantastic and included a lot of penguins, a lot of glaciers, a lot of whales (we saw orcas almost every day, including when we were sailing through the Drake passage), and a ton of icebergs (the highlight for me). Some highlights
-Watching a penguin gathering rocks to build a nest.
-Seeing whales just 20 feet from our little Zodiac.
-Finding a bunch of seals just chilling on an iceberg in a mazy-area of floating icebergs
-Jumping into the ice-filled water (they let anyone who want take a polar plunge - my Dad and I were both crazy enough to do it)
-Taking a hike and having to take off most of our layers
-Wondering how penguins survive with how far from shore they build nests and how awkwardly they waddle
-Being in a place with no trash, no traffic, no other light, etc.
-Not ever seeing dark (by the time we would go to bed at 11:00 it was always still light)

After 4 days down there it was time to head back which meant two more days crossing, another day in Ushuaia (trying to change my return booking which I had accidentally made for the 25th of FEBRUARY), another day in Buenos Aires (this one was a little more interesting, we did lots of walking and exploring... but the food was still bad), and then another day home.

All in all, an awesome trip that completely lived up to all my expectations. Many thank to my Dad for making it all happen and thanks to Debbie who was a single parent for two weeks while I was gone.

It was great!

A selection of the pictures from the trip are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/greganddebbiepics/Antarctica?authkey=Gv1sRgCILIz8Hkm47ieA#

While He Was Out

2010-01-26T17:48:00.005-07:00

Greg has been gone now for 14 days. It has been an interesting two weeks. Especially since I decided to do some renovation while he was gone. The list of things to do included: making the opening to the laundry closet smaller and installing new doors (we've never been able to open the left bi-fold door all the way because of the way the doors were situated with the fridge), installing a new door for the entry closet (just updating), installing base trim boars in the kitchen, updating the bathrooms by replacing the vanity and faucet.

I'm glad I had the good sense to hire a contractor for the doors and trim. The bathrooms didn't seem like they would be that big of a deal so I was going to do that my self.

While our contractor was busy working on the doors I was trying to figure out how I was going to get the bathrooms done and take care of Abby. As each day past by and nothing on the bathrooms was accomplished I decided to ask a friend of my if he could help. He came to pull one vanity out and get started on some demolition. That's when I realized that the new vanity I'd chosen (and purchased) did not have the same footprint as the old vanity. This is fine except for the fact that the vinyl floor did not extend under the old vanity. So, my simple bathroom project instantly grew (as projects ussually do) to include replacing the floor as well as the vanity. My friend got started right away on pulling up the old floor (and the three layers under it) and then we went to Home Depot to find out what they had in terms of flooring. I found an easy to install, self adhesive vinyl floor and picked up a few boxes. Four days later my house was an abloslute disaster (I literally could not see any of my kitchen counters), I was at Home Depot again, and It didn't look like there was any end in sight. Thankfully that was the lowest point, things started moving up from there. Everyone took a break from remodeling on Sunday (after I'd stayed up way past my bed time cleaning Saturday night) and we finished the project late last night.

Guest bath during construction

Master bath during construction

It was a lot of hard work and it seemed like there was always some one coming or going. But I love my new bathrooms! It feels like they have doubled in size and they look so new and fancy. There were lots of blessings received this last week. My friend who helped me with the bathrooms brought his wife along (whom I'm also friends with) and Abby got to play with their son who is about her same age. We would usually move the couch so that it blocked off the entrance to the living room and the babies could play without getting into the danger zones that used to be bathrooms.

Guest bath finished

Master bath finished

In retrospect everything worked out so well. It feels so good to have it done and Greg will be coming home to a completely different house.

Thank you to everyone who helped out these last few weeks. Abby and I couldn't have made it without you.

She Toddles

2010-01-17T13:14:00.003-07:00

This week Abby has grown leaps and bounds in her ability to get around. Although she is not quite leaping she has started to walk with confidence. She has been working on this since before Christmas, taking a few steps here and there, walking well holding just one of mom or dad's hand. Last week Abby was walking to mom or dad with encouragement, as long as it wasn't too far away. Each day Abby would walk a little more on her own. By the end of the week Abby is walking most of the time and though she falls down quite often she doesn't seemed bothered by it. Good job, Abby!

Greg left for Antarctica this week. He has been gone for five days and will be gone for another 10. Abby and I are doing well. It is quite tiring though being the only parent around. We're keeping busy though.

While Greg is gone we are doing a little more remolding. We hired a contractor to help us replace our laundry and entry closet doors. The laundry closet is a bit involved with the door opening needing to be narrowed because of the fridge size. But that project is moving along well. Next week I'll start doing some minor remodeling in the bathrooms. I purchased some new vanities last week and they will be installed this week. Then all I have to do is paint and do some trim work and all our planned remolding will be finished for our condo.

10 Months!

2010-01-10T15:03:00.005-07:00

"I love books"

Abby turned 10 months this week. It's hard to believe how fast she's grown. It seems like every day she is doing something new. She frequently surprises us with her intelligence. She very clever and is a good problem solver.

At 10 months Abby:

Sleeps through the night (most of the time)
Helps to clean up her toys
Likes most of what she eats
Signs: all done, hungry (or eat), milk, more
Is learning how to sign: please, and tired (or sleep)
Enjoys "reading" her books
Plays well independently
Sorts the Cheerios from the Chex in different corners of her high chair tray
Likes to put her blocks into her bucket and then dump them out over and over again
Likes to show us things that she is holding
Has 6 teeth (4 on top, 2 on bottom)
Is biting just about everything she can
Takes the dolly she got for Christmas all around the house with her
Takes mom and dad for walks around the house

Here is a video of the coolest thing Abby is doing right now (sorry about Polly's curiosity):

This last week Abby discovered that she can open the cupboard under the sink as well as one of the bottom draws in the kitchen. We got a lock for the sink cupboard to keep her out of the trash. But we decided that letting her pull out all our Tupperware lids from the bottom draw keeps her busy while we are trying to cook in the kitchen.

Abby loves her dolly and chewing on things

In other news, this last week we spent a lot of our extra time running errands and getting things ready for Greg's trip to Antarctica with his dad. He'll be leaving this week and will be back later in the month. There has been a lot of things to prepare for this unique trip. Greg is very excited and anxious. I'm sure he will have the time of his life though.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-03T15:52:00.004-07:00

I love the fresh feeling that comes with a new year. After getting back from Utah we had a lot of unpacking and cleaning to do. We spent time this last week cleaning our carpets. We have been meaning to do it for a while but something always came up. But with the help of my parents who let us borrow their carpet cleaner (and even brought it over) we were able to get it done. Sadly though we had to move furniture and our house became a wreck for us to get it done. It is all done now and everything is put into order and we have clean carpets.

With our house in shambles and Abby on the loose we had to keep a very close eye on her. During a moment while both of us were distracted Abby found the cat's food dish. Typically we keep it in a blocked off section of the living room, the only corner in the entire house that she can not get (yet). With everything just piled in places we had to leave it exposed and I guess her finding it was kind of inevitable. Luckily she didn't eat any. Greg caught her just as she was picking it up. She looked at him with her big brown eyes and smiled as she turned the dish upside down. Good thing it was just dry food and it wasn't too hard to clean up.

Over the next couple weeks Greg will be going to Antarctica with his dad and I will be getting pictures printed and into photo albums and doing other things to "close out" 2009. We are excited for this coming year and the exciting adventures we will get to go on.