Walking Olivia

Olivia has been cruising around things lately and today started walking behind the baby stroller. It's not going to be long before we are chasing her all around this house. I'm not sure if we are quite ready for that new level of activity. I better get my running shoes out of the closet.



We got back last night from our travel around the state. We left Tuesday morning to see Grandma Lorraine and Grandpa Harley for a few days. I love being there with them. I have so many happy memories of times spent at their house as a child and during our grad school years. Abby and Olivia decided to make themselves right at home and had a great time. Abby even told me that Grandma Lorraine had the best toys in the universe, which is quite funny considering most of those toys are older than I am. The girls both enjoyed getting spoiled by their Grandma and Grandpa. Abby didn't want to leave - she told me that I could leave her there and see her later.

We got to do some much needed retail therapy on our trip. Abby has sprouted up, literally, in the last few weeks and now wears size 4. So, we hit the winter sales racks for size 5. I hope that she is still wearing size 5 when next fall rolls around. If not Olivia will be a lucky girl. We got lots of warm shirts and soft pants for Abby to cruise around in next fall. And coffee - mom's best friend. We also got a two screen dvd player for the car. The upgrade to a screen for each little person made our trip home much better. Olivia loved being able to see and hear the movie on her way home.

So, we arrived home to a freshly painted dark blue wall behind where my new cabinets will be installed in the next couple weeks. It looks amazing and it was great to have that get done without having the extra assistance of Abby and Olivia. Now for the big task of keeping them away from the project when it really gets going.

We have a problem...

Okay... I will admit it. I have done a terrible job at updating this lately. Or really since Mother's Day when Steve bought me an iPod iTouch and I could check my email and facebook account without having to get on the computer. It has been a wonderful thing for both of us - it is much more convenient to have a little hand held device that allows you to check email practically instantly and then put away. And so, I have not been on the computer much and this poor blog has suffered. But an end is in sight... we have ordered the counter tops, cabinets, and all the supplies for putting a built in counter/desk/storage system in the playroom. Then the poor laptop should be able to find a home in a place where I can use it and still supervise small girls who are quick to destroy the office where the laptop has been living.

So... we are looking forward for the arrival and installation of the project in two or three weeks. When I say we, I think I am mostly meaning Steve, since he will be painting the wall where the cabinets are going this Saturday while the girls and I are downstate visiting family and friends. We are leaving tomorrow to see Grandma Lorraine and Grandpa Harley for a few days and then swinging over to Hastings to pick up a quarter of a cow that has been waiting for us since around Christmas, plus a few Christmas presents that didn't fit into the car on the way home. It should be a fun time and a good change of pace for the girls since the extreme cold weather has been trapping us inside. Today it's a whopping 13 degrees, but yesterday I don't think it got above zero!

Avalanche Bay

We just got back from a wonderful day at Boyne with Grandma Mary &
Grandpa Scott (Hannah & Emily too!). The girls had a great time
playing in the water and enjoying some extra attention. And Steve and
I enjoyed a little adult time to ride a waterslide or two. It was
great. Our night at the hotel was not good, but Abby was pretty tired
after two days of having her best friends here. And I came home with a
head cold. Not fun!

Almost Playmates

Abby and Olivia are making big strides on playing together without screaming or crying involved. Finally... Poor Olivia is still getting the short end of the stick, since the playing for the last few days has involved pretending that Olivia is a dog and trapping her in a pretend dog crate made of all the toy bins or trapping her in a pretend baby crib made of the same toy bins. But at least there has been a few quieter moments around here and the girls have been able to entertain themselves and each other without physical injury.

While Olivia took her afternoon nap yesterday Abby and I went out and froze our bottoms off in the snow. She filled the yard with snow angels and Maize entertained us both by running in circles around Abby and jumping over the top of her while she was working on her snow angels. She also took a trip down the "snow slide" and got it all cleared off. We also took our first trip to the library in a long time to join the story hour for preschool aged kids. Abby did really well listening to the stories and making the craft (a sweet pair of raccoon glasses).

New Year, New Age

I've hit the magic age - the "I'm 29 and holding" age. It's really no different than 28. Just a few gray hairs, a few more wrinkles, and a few more aches than I had at 19. We've been really busy in the last couple days. We had a fun time celebrating new year's eve with the other dentists from Steve's office. It's a tradition we all enjoy. They all got a great laugh out of Abby playing Just Dance with Dr. Drockton's big kids (ages 10 to 20). She danced and danced well into the night and enjoyed her glass of sparkling grape juice at midnight with the rest of us. Olivia dosed off for a while, but managed to be awake shortly after midnight. They were very good for being up way, way past bedtime.

We also got together with friends on Sunday - it was one of those days where nothing was going as planned. But the food was good and the friends are great, so we survived 2 kids crying a lot, some fighting over toys, and Abby peeing on an area of white carpet. It's a good thing that one of the crying kids belonged to our friends - that made our kid peeing on the carpet slightly less embarrassing for Steve and I.

I celebrated my birthday by having a toddler slumber party so that Kimberlee could take Felecia out to Marquette for a very early appointment (I picked that over having kids dropped off at 5:30 a.m.). The four kids in the house yesterday did really well considering the amount of sleep they got. We tried putting them to bed at 8:00, but at 9:30 they were still "whispering" - very loudly. Then they were up before 7:45, when I noticed the whispering starting again. For kids that normally sleep 8 pm to 9 am that was a short night. And they got a little feisty around 3 pm as a result. But we survived. Nothing got broken. And, when Steve got home we went out with just our girls for a nice dinner and a trip to Abby's favorite store - Walmart - to replenish our milk supply.

I'm working on ideas to make the last year of my 20's fun. So far I'm not coming up with much. There is a 50/50 chance that we will be taking a family trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico in June (Steve's got a course - if his co-worker Dave goes we won't go, but if Dave doesn't go we are going to add a day or two to the end of it and do some Southwest exploration). We are going to Disney again in March with our friends from here in Sault Ste. Marie. That is going to be really fun - we have wonderful friends and our kids all love to be together, so it will make for a great week I hope. And I want to make time to meet up with Melissa, Emma, and Jack for a camping adventure this summer, but we haven't even started to work that one out yet. I have 364 days of my 20's left... that's not much time to have some grand adventures before I'm 30.