Finally Final

We signed the last scrap of paper and finally closed the contract for the purchase of our new home. Hooray!!! So now we are well on our way to home ownership. Needless to say we are relieved that this negotiating and bartering is done. Now on to the fun part - making this house into our home!

Abby and I worked on our tans outside today in the 68 degree sunshine. It was great! Abby helped "mow" the lawn with her bubble mower, picked up golf balls, and showed Maize all the flowers that are blooming. We are hoping for another great day tomorrow since Steve has the day off. And now, I am being begged to read another book... again...

First Pigtails

We did Abby's first set of pigtails today. They were a little on the short side and the top of the hair didn't fit into them yet, but they were still cute.

Happy Mother's Day

We are having a very nice mother's day today - I got to sleep in (a little, after getting up at 6 and 7 with Abby), got taken out for lunch, and got to take a Sunday afternoon nap. It helps that Abby decided it would be a good day for a 2 1/2 hour nap herself. We've been having beautiful sunny weather, so maybe this afternoon we'll be able to sneak outside for a bit of playtime.

Happy Mother's Day to our moms and grandmas!

Using Utensils

Using Utensils
Originally uploaded by Jen O.

Here's a video showcasing Abby's newest skill - using forks and spoons to feed herself. We are working on speed and precision, but for a little squirt I'd say she was doing pretty good.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Here's a photo from Abby exactly one year ago. She's grown up so much since we first met her. She helped me take Angel Food orders today at the Tribal Health Center, so we got to visit her daddy and all his co-workers. She had a great time seeing the native artwork on the walls and in the lobby - she especially liked the painted wolves and the brass statue of a heron. And she loved having lunch with her daddy.

We are having a very rainy day today. Not the downpour kind - it's the annoying drizzly, not enough to use a windshield wiper, but too much not to, kind of rain. But we do need the rain up here. Our fire risk was very high according to our local Smokey Bear sign this morning.

We are getting much closer to having all of our quotes in for the necessary repairs on the new house. It is nice to be one step closer to getting this all wrapped up and very nice to be almost done playing phone tag with all the contractors. Abby and I have been busy thinking of all the fun things we can grow in our gardens - we already have 72 baby perennials sprouting up in tiny pots on our table. It is going to be so beautiful in our new gardens :-)

Terrific Tuesday

Abby and I have had a lot of fun on this lovely day, except that she only took about a 30 minute nap, so I'm sure we will be paying for it later this evening with a great dramatic meltdown right before bed. Such is life with little girls...

We are getting closer and closer to getting things with the house all figured out. I now have at least one official estimate for the electrical repairs (and a second on the way) and I should have two roofing estimates in the next few days as well. I just can't wait to move into the new place and get to work making it ours. I have 72 little perennial seeds planted so that I can start my flowerbeds. I am so excited about the possibility of great flower gardens. I just was out back and noticed a lot of new things coming up that I had planted last spring and left for dead (like some peonies that never came up last year and lilies that didn't make it up either). Whoever is here next should have some pretty blooms out back to enjoy. They'll just have to fill in the gaps with some annuals or start more perennials of their own.

We took Abby on a long walk last night around our little downtown area. She pushed her own stroller the last block and a half. She is really into pushing shopping carts and strollers right now. She was trying to push from the very bottom axle, but that would have meant practically crawling, so she had to settle for pushing from the basket. Abby had a minor meltdown last Friday at Wal-Mart when I made her ride in the cart rather than walk on her knees so that she could push the cart from the bottom rack. What a nut...

Miles and Smiles

We've been out walking because of our lovely weather of late. Abby has been walking too - tonight she pushed her own stroller a whole block on the way home. We thought about jumping in for the ride, but figured the stroller wouldn't support us. Tomorrow is supposed to be another lovely day, so we will be back out pounding the pavement.

We put another 12 photos from yesterday and today on Walmart.com in the same album - these 4 are just a small sample. Hope you all enjoy :-)

Photos At Walmart.com

We uploaded the 11 month and first half of Abby's 12th month album onto Walmart.com for you all to enjoy.

http://photos.walmart.com/groups/abbyschristmasalbum

The password for first time users is "holiday"

We took a drive down to Hessel and Cedarville today for a visitation. The mother of the receptionist at Steve's office passed away Friday, so we went down to the visitation and took the advantage of the lovely afternoon to see the sights. There wasn't really a public beach of any significance to stop at, so we just did the in the car tour. It is a really lovely area!

"Daddy Day"

We try to make Saturday a day for Abby to enjoy lots of fun things with her dad, since he is at work during the week. Today Abby took her dad to the hardware store, to the park at the Soo Locks, and for a lunch date at the McDonald's playland. She had a whole lot of fun, especially at playland. She doesn't go into the structure yet, but she enjoys watching the other kids and walking around on the rubberized flooring.

We only got a couple good photos today - she was walking around so much that the camera couldn't focus fast enough (I was using my manual focus lens to try and get a softer effect. We saw our first freighter of the season today too, but we didn't stay long enough to watch it go all the way through the lock. Abby got too excited and was almost running, so she tripped and scraped up her little lip. We're going to have to try to get some more cute photos tomorrow.

If the Sun Shines...

If the sun starts shining there will be an Abby photo shoot at the locks today :-) Hopefully we will be posting pictures for you this evening.