Happy Birthday to Abby

So yesterday we were too busy to post, since we had to do lots of fun things with Abby the birthday girl. Here's a rundown of her day:

6:00 a.m. - Abby wakes up and wants to sleep in "mommy's bed," so we make room and go back to sleep.

6:40 a.m. - Steve has to get up for work. Olivia decides to wake up for food. Abby sleeps.

7:10 a.m. - Olivia is still awake. She needs a diaper change, on attempting to change it she refills the new diaper and also soaks her clothes. All the excitement wakes Abby up.

7:20 a.m. - Steve is summoned upstairs because Abby the birthday queen does not want to walk. He carries her downstairs and she opens her presents from mom and dad. She gets parts for her Mrs. Potato Head, a Snap and Style doll (imagine a bigger, chunky 3-D paper doll), an Olivia book, a music c.d., and a toddler laptop with learning games. We spend the rest of the morning playing with the new toys and watching "Abby's news" (read Veggie Tales).

12:45 p.m. - I take Abby and Olivia for a walk in the stroller since it is in the 70's but had rained all morning, so the park was too wet to play. We walked for over an hour. Abby wanted to go see the boats, but just before we got to the locks she fell asleep. She woke up 25 minutes later when I tried to move her from the stroller to the house. She did not nap again.

2:30ish - Abby wanted to watch Beauty and the Beast (you're shocked... I know) so I told her she could only watch it if she laid down on the couch and didn't get off until the movie was over. Apparently this idea worked. I must have slept through a good part of the movie, but she never moved from next to me.

4:00 p.m - Abby and I planted seeds in our garden. We planted pumpkins, corn, and beans. Olivia slept in her car seat in the shade under a tree. Abby and I got pretty filthy.

5:30 p.m. - Steve comes home from work and we ask Abby where she would like to go for birthday dinner. She picks Taco Bell - nice. We enjoy dinner, come home for ice cream and watch Shrek. Around 8:30 we go upstairs to put away all the laundry I managed to get done yesterday (4 whole loads). Abby goes to bed around 9:30.

Other items of interest - Olivia is now 10.3 pounds says Nintendo Wii. She is also starting to hold her head up on her own and is super close to intentionally smiling. She loves checking out Abby. Also, Grandma Mary, Grandpa Scott, Aunt Hannah, Aunt Emily and Carson are coming tonight. Abby is pretty excited... it is going to be a long day of waiting for her.

Getting Dirty

Some of us have been busy working. Others have been having picnics and taking naps with their best friends. That and making HUGE messes now that there is 5 times more space to mess up! This afternoon, after I put Abby in her room for her nap, I got down to work on a new garden. We have lots of old gardens on the property that are overgrown, weedy, and in desperate need of work. Instead of tackling one of those I ripped out a little section of grass that we decided we didn't want to mow and put flower in instead (and my bell pepper plants so we'd have lots of yummy peppers to eat this fall). I'm two-thirds of the way done with this side of the garden, then I'll have to rip out the rest of the grass, put in the brick pavers I found in the yard and finish the north side of the garden, which currently has two big, tangly bushes. On the bright side, all this gardening is pretty much free, since I have been relocating the plants from the yucky gardens into my new space. And Melissa and Mom also sent some beautiful guys to live in our flower bed too.Abby has been enjoying our new deck. We put a kiddie pool out on the deck and she's been exploring that quite a bit. She also has been using her bubble mower to keep the deck clear of any weeds or grass. And she has been enjoying being outdoors in the nice weather. She even has the start of a farmers tan from being outside so much the last 3 days. We've especially enjoyed the ability to eat outside, which we couldn't really do at the last house because the cement was weedy, unlevel, and too far from the kitchen to make it practical to carry everying in and out.Along with all the playing, Abby and Maize have been taking extra long naps to make up for all the energy they've been using. The other day they were both sleeping on the same pillow on the couch. It was too cute! Abby's adjusted well to her new room and house and is napping and sleeping perfectly. We've been very happy with how well she's adjusted to her new space. And since we've been in the new house Abby's picked up a new skill - climbing. She can now climb onto the futon all by herself. She loves being able to get up by herself and last night was taking books over and getting up to read them by herself. I'm not sure if any reading occured, but she sure thought she was hot stuff. She's also become a champion stair climber, since we now have to climb upstairs to do all the diaper changing. She is one quick little lady!