A Review of our Trip in Pictures

All of the Hodges Great Grandkids. Abby just woke up from a nap (not her idea), so she was crying :-(
Jack and Great Grandpa Harley
Abby learned how to swim on her own with a floating jacket. She swam circles around the pool for hours and hours.
Abby and Aunt Hannah, who styled her "princess hair"

Abby, Olivia and the Newland cousins with Grandma Von and Great Grandma Joy

Abby, Olivia & the Newland cousins with Grandma & Grandpa Obreiter and Great Grandma & Grandpa Gamble.
Olivia and Great Grandpa Duane Baker
Isaac Hodges - our newest nephew. We love him! We don't have a picture of just Emma yet, but we will be getting one soon when she and Jack come to visit their favorite Aunt :-)

New Photos on Walmart.com

Abby helped me upload the rest of the photos from March and the ones from April to our Walmart.com photo sharing site. You can get the link on the right hand side of the page to view and order them.

We had a great time yesterday playing with lots of Abby's friends and enjoying a backyard barbecue. Abby played so hard that she ended up climbing onto my lap around 6:30 and falling asleep within about 30 seconds. So I spent about 30 minutes of the party with two small girls sleeping on my lap - adorable, but awkward. I think my arm fell asleep within about 3 minutes.

Today Steve (and me too sometimes) is working on putting together Abby and Olivia's swing set. So far we have the base for the fort and the slide put together. I think Steve is out working on the platform for the slide right now, so maybe by the end of the evening we will have the slide ready to ride on. We'll have to see. The weather is cooperating and so are the little people - for now.

Some Random Photos from Thanksgiving Weekend

Our Girl - 21 Weeks

How your baby's growing:
Your baby now weighs about three-quarters of a pound and is approximately 10 1/2 inches long — the length of a carrot. You may soon feel like she's practicing martial arts as her initial fluttering movements turn into full-fledged kicks and nudges. You may also discover a pattern to her activity as you get to know her better. In other developments, your baby's eyebrows and lids are present now, and if you're having a girl, her vagina has begun to form as well.

from (http://www.babycenter.com/6_your-pregnancy-21-weeks_1110.bc)

Note from Jen: she has been practicing martial arts (hence the nickname Ninja baby) for weeks now. The poor ultrasound lady could hardly get the pictures she needed since the baby was constantly flipping. We can even see her moving across my belly already.Abby, her dad, and I have been working hard on figuring out a name for baby sister. Abby has also been working hard on designating which things are hers and which belong to baby sister. So far she's doing pretty good at understanding that she has to share things, but I'm sure that will change the minute the baby is actually here. One of the things she is excited to share is the new Disney princess table and chairs that we bought with her Christmas money from Great Grandma Lorraine and Great Grandpa Harley. She has been so excited about her chair and baby's chair and keeps asking us to take them from her room downstairs and back again, based on where she is (we are not obliging, since she already had a table downstairs).
Abby got her H1N1 booster yesterday, so she should be officially protected from getting the swine flu. Unfortunately I think they also squeezed in a little grouchy vaccine too, because she has been having random meltdowns since the shot. She was really cute after getting her "poker" - she looked at me after they put the band-aid on her leg and said "poker time all done uh-huh". She was totally over the crying before we left the exam room and besides reminding me that poker time was done, she didn't seem to be affected at all.

P.S.

We've uploaded Abby's 15-18 month pictures to http://photos1.walmart.com/groups/abbyschristmasalbum

Happy photo printing! Sorry we got so behind in the uploading. We still have all of our pictures from camping to upload.

Some Ham To Go With Your Eggs

When Grandma Mary came over Abby learned about how fun it can be to make funny faces for the camera and then see the pictures. Since then she has been hamming it up and begging for us to pull out the camera whenever possible. She's done some pretty funny pictures lately. One night she had to take off her pajamas just so she could model her new boots. We didn't coach her on any of her modeling poses or faces - she is just a natural talent.

Abby enjoyed playgroup this morning. She got to make a place mat with her picture on it and had a lot of fun coloring it with all her favorite colors. She also got to do some dancing and singing, which she really got into. We have a great time playing with Abby's friends every week. And, as a special treat she had lunch with dad at his office afterward. It was lots of fun.

A Wonderful Weekend

We made it home last night after a wonderful weekend visiting family and friends in Hastings. Abby had some great birthday parties (3 of them) and enjoyed her first Easter egg hunt. We have lots and lots of pictures, which are going to be posted on our flickr site, since it is much faster than posting them here. Here's one of the pictures of Abby eating her second birthday cake. She mostly just picked the M&M's off the bunny's bow tie.

Abby got fun gifts and we got a new baby horse. She still needs a name, but we are pretty sure she is the most beautiful horse we've ever had!