Naps are FUN... as long as you aren't sleeping

This is how nap time often goes in our house...

Goodwill Friday

Our little girl apparently LOVES shopping (oh no...). I think it is the overhead lighting that most amuses her. Today we decided to try my sister Melissa's favorite Friday trip and started our own "Goodwill Friday's" tradition. We found some good bargains. We got a set of illustrated bible encyclopedias (each volume was only 99 cents - and they were old so they match my antique book collection). We also found a VHS copy of The Prince of Egypt and 3,2,1 Penguins (a movie by the veggie tales guys). Last, but not least, was a car seat winter cover for Baby H. as soon as he or she is ready for it. Abby will be too big for the infant car seat before it gets too cold here. Or maybe we should re-phrase that - she will be too heavy for us to keep carrying her in that seat.

So... we took our afternoon and made the most of it, and I think we both had fun. Abby laughed and cooed all the way through Goodwill, but slept though the book buying at the Salvation Army.

Today was happy in a brown shirt day - these are my favorite pictures from this morning. She's been a happy camper all day long :-)

Remembering Grandma Baker

Steve's Grandma Alta Baker passed away last night. We found out this morning - what a terrible start to a day and the weekend. I am so glad that we were able to get some pictures of Abby and her Great Grandma Baker a few weeks ago so that we can teach her about her family and can remember Grandma Baker on a day when she was at her best. We want Abby to have all wonderful relationships and family memories and hope that she will value her family as much as we do.

Further complicating our weekend is the fact that I am scheduled for a biopsy on Monday for a large and still growing mass in my breast. We weren't going to tell anyone about the tumor until we knew whether or not it was cancerous, but with the biopsy on Monday and the need to head down to the Kalamazoo area to remember Grandma Baker in the next few days, we had to let Steve's family know about the procedure and I didn't want people to be hearing rumors about my health issues so we are going public.


















Steve and I are both fairly confident that the results will be non-cancerous, but we are waiting for confirmation and praying to that affect. Either way I will probably require surgery, but surgery for a non-cancerous mass is much less stressful.

So, instead of starting a wonderful weekend of exploring our U.P. home, we are waiting to figure out what our plans are for the next few days. I envy Abby's peacefulness at this age. While we were digesting the convergence of terrible news and stressful issues this morning Abby was laughing and playing with her chicken rattle. The simple joys of being a baby.

And on that note - we apologize for a thoroughly disappointing and depressing post. Hopefully this afternoon will bring a lovely adventure for Abby and I to report on.

Me & Maize

Best friends are nice. Abby is getting big enough to appreciate her pal Maize. This morning she spent 5 minutes checking Maize out while Steve tried to get her attention. Apparently dogs are cooler than parents.

Here are the best photos of our two girls from their playtime on Monday. Abby did most of the playing, Maize did most of the napping.

No dogs were harmed in the creation of these photos.

Company's Coming

Here are some more pictures from our 4th of July visit to Great Grandma Jennie's house. It was Abby's first time being held by Great Grandpa Steve. She also got to visit with Great Aunt Barb.
Our family is hosting visitor's today. Abby and I are waiting for my friend Maureen Fox and her boyfriend Greg to arrive. We have some big plans for today, if the weather will cooperate. Right now it is 63 degrees, cold, breezy, and cloudy. If it clears up we are going to visit the Soo Locks tonight and have dinner at The Antlers. For those of you who haven't been to The Antlers, this is what you are missing out on - a huge room full of stuffed animals, chandeliers made of antlers, lamps made with deer hooves, a two headed calf, and the famous "bells and whistles" that go off while you are eating. Last time Abby slept right through the whole thing, including the whistling and ringing.

Tonight is also a big night for Abby - it is going to be her first night sleeping in her crib. Steve and I are going to have a slumber party with her in her room so she feels comfortable for the first few nights. She's taken a few naps in the crib, but never done a whole night.

So... we will be busy and won't be able to blog any tomorrow, but we will be back on Friday :-)

Hopefully by then we will have a ton of new pictures to show off. Have a WONDERFUL day!!!

Abby Meets Puppies

Abby got to meet Grandma Mary's bulldog puppies. She wasn't too sure that she liked them, but they liked her.

Home Again, Home Again

We are all home safe, sound, and in Maize's case stinky. We had a great time visiting our families, but now we have two very tired girls. So tired that both Maize and Abby are sharing the boppy pillow on the couch (Abby on the inside and Maize on the outside). It was a very, very eventful weekend for us.

We traveled down on Thursday evening (Steve got out of work early so we left shortly before 4 pm) and made the trip in about 5 1/2 hours. We were very happy with that. We went straight to see Grandma & Grandpa Hodges. Abby got to visit with Grandpa while we waited for Grandma Mary to get home. Grandpa Scott and Aunt Hannah tried to play a trick on Grandma Mary by putting a doll into the baby bed and hiding Abby upstairs. It didn't work, but it was funny. Abby had slept well on the ride down, so she was up until midnight when Uncle Nate came home with Courtnie. Nate had just proposed to Courtnie, so everyone was pretty excited. She is a sweet girl and we are lucky to have her as a new part of our family (and now there are more women then men in the family again).

On the 4th we spent the day with our Hodges and Osgood families. Abby visited with Great Grandma Jennie and Great Grandpa Steve and also Great Grandma Lorraine and Great Grandpa Harley. We had wonderful barbecue pork chops cooked by Abby's Uncle Dan and lots of other good food. We were able to enjoy some time by the pool and Maize and I visited the horses in the field. Maize got very muddy running through the shallow puddle in the low spot of the field. My mom is down to 4 big horses and a miniature horse. The evening of the 4th my dad was called in to his office to deal with a little boy who's teeth had been splinted and the splint had come loose. Since Steve had wanted to take x-rays of my teeth, we tagged along. Luckily no drilling on my pearly whites was needed quite yet, but the weak spots on my first molar weren't any better, so they will be filled soon.

We spent Saturday the 5th at Grandma and Grandpa Obreiter's house. We got to see Abby's cousins (Connor, Noah, and Jacob) and Aunt Tammy. We were also able to see Great Grandma Joyce , Great Grandpa Ed, and Great Grandma Ruth. We had a nice time visiting, but Abby got a little overwhelmed by the big boys and their noise level. She did have a great time with Jacob while the bigger boys were out swimming. Abby and Jacob are keeping up with each other pretty well. Abby's only 4 days older and just slightly bigger and stronger, she is also tanner and has a lot more hair. Sometimes it seems like they shouldn't be related at all when you look at them. She also wants to be more active than Jacob, but they are both very good babies. By the time we did all that visiting we were all exhausted.

We went to church at Hastings Baptist Church with Abby's Grandma & Grandpa Hodges. Abby spent most of the service sleeping on Grandpa. After church we made a quick trip to Great Grandma Jennie's for lunch and birthday cake (for Jen's cousins Seth, Luke and Meghan and Grandma Mary). Then we had to hit the road to come home to Sault Sainte Marie so Steve could get back to work today. We made the trip home in 5 hours and 15 minutes. Abby was asleep the entire ride. When we got home around 9 pm, Abby wanted to get to partying, but we made her go to bed at 10 like normal. It was a good thing we were heading north and not south on the ride home. The traffic leaving "Up North" was in gridlock from the Mount Pleasant area to near Lansing. Yikes!

So now we are back to our normal routine. Today is a trip to the grocery store and Wal-Mart.

My First Pony Ride

Thanks to Hannah and Emily for the Pony :-)

Good Girls

Our two girls were good for the babysitter, she said. We will see if they were really good when we try to get Katie to watch them again. Of course, right as I was trying to leave one dirtied her diaper and the other got excited and peed on the floor (you can figure out which did which). And... I believe that Miss Abigail didn't do a very good job at getting her morning nap, so we have a little whine to go with our afternoon bottle.

Tomorrow we hop in the car for our big trip "downstate". I am keeping my fingers crossed that both Abby and Maize will do a good job on the car ride. We probably won't be on the road until about 5:30, so hopefully Abby will sleep most of the ride. We listened to the fireworks up here last night for Canada Day. Maize didn't appreciate them, but the rest of us didn't mind them much.

The First Park Visit

Abby took her first trip to the park today, and me being in a rush forget to grab the camera. Oh well... She had a great time watching all the kids sliding and swinging and playing. And, Abby and I even tried out the swing together. We had a lot of fun. Unfortunately the reason we had gone to the park was to participate in the "Time Out for Moms" that our church was putting on, but I misread the bulletin and was an hour late. The only moms Abby and I saw at the park were talking about being drunk at a wedding reception and were wearing some pretty provocative clothes - not quite the group that I was out to meet. They are having another "Time Out for Moms" in a few weeks, so we will try again.

This afternoon Abby and I need to clean up at least the lower level of our house. Tomorrow Abby will be staying with a babysitter for the first time so I can head out to an appointment. I could have tried to take her, but sitting in a car seat would be no fun for sweet Abigail, and the appointment is during her nap time. So, one of Dr. Drockton's daughters is coming to stay with Abby. I'm sure she will be much happier and I should be able to get back much faster without having to deal with keeping an eye on her.

And then we need to wash clothes and pack them up. We need to make sure we will have room for all of our things in the car and still have room to bring back our supplies. What a busy week - I am getting tired just thinking about it all.