My Yardwork Projects

Hot pink peonies :-) I can't wait for the whole bush to be in bloom! I love flowers.
The trees post cutting - now I just need to haul away all the branches and limbs. Our yard goes all teh way back to the line of hostas/foliage in the back. If you click on the picture to expand it you should be able to see them. All we need is to get a fence going and we'd be perfect.
My newest flower bed and walkway. Some of my transplants aren't faring too well, but hopefully they'll get better soon.
Freshly trimmed shrubs and bushes. And mowed grass. The only problem is that our sod didn't transfer well from the back yard to the front yard. Could be worse.

I've heard that some of my cousins are trying for a mini-baby boom. For the record I have no intention of participating. Abby still wears diapers and still needs too much assistance. So don't count on us to add to the global population any time soon. Abby enjoys being an only child :-)

Fake Food

Abby's been playing with her fake food a lot today. She's especially enjoyed eating her fake pizza. That and learning how to use her little squirters in the pool.

We finally cooled off today and we really enjoyed the weather. So much that we baked and cleaned out the office. We are now done with boxes of stuff laying around :-)

Other than that, not much to update. We've just been playing and laughing. Abby says "hi" to all of you!

House Update

We have ordered a new dishwasher and it should arrive in the U.P. within 5 to 7 days. Apparently it takes longer when they have to deliver by dogsled and snowmobile. It's too bad that the old one broke down so soon, but I sure won't complain about the nice, shiny, new unit that is on the way!

I've also got all my shrubs and hedges out front trimmed, the lower branches on the tree trimmed up, and the new flower bed mostly filled. Only a few more weeks of work and this place will look like someone actually lives here :-)

Abbeeeeee

Here are some photo highlights of Abby's weekend. We had a very fun time visiting with Grandma Von and Grandpa Roy and Great Grandma Joyce. Abby showed them around our neck of the woods including Tahquamenon Falls and Lake Superior. Luckily it was a nice hot day to be outdoors enjoying God's handiwork!
Grandpa Roy, Grandma Von, Abby, and Great Grandma Joyce.
Abby found the mini-rocking chairs at the visitor's center in the Tahquamenon Falls State Park. She loves little furniture!
Abby's grandparents brought her up a vanity play set. She was nuts about it. She is going to be a true girlie girl. She wanted to sit on her vanity stool and stare at herself in the mirror, talk on the play phone, and put on her necklaces for about an hour straight. It was a lot of fun watching her play.

Last night Abby perfected saying her own name. She'd been working on it for a while, but now it really sounds like Abby (emphasis on the "ee"). We left our digital video camera at Grandma and Grandpa Hodges house so they could make a dvd of Courtnie and Nate's wedding, so we couldn't get video footage of the hilarity that goes on around here. Here new favorite words are Abby and Daddy - she just walks around randomly saying them.

It was ridiculously hot here yesterday. We moved to the Upper Peninsula and were very excited to be leaving the major heat. Neither of us particularly enjoys seeing 90 degree weather, but that is what we've had the last few days. It is supposed to reach 87 today, so Abby and I made play date plans for the beach. We spent a lot of time yesterday in her wading pool. And we had a hard night going to sleep since it was so hot and humid! Hope you can all stay cool today - we will sure be trying any way possible.

Busy Weekend!

We've been very busy again this weekend. Steve's mom, dad, and Grandma Obreiter came up and helped us complete a lot of the little projects that we needed to get done. We've now removed all the carpet from our house, almost all the wallpaper from the half bath, put in a walkway and garden, fixed the outdoor spigot, removed the leaky dishwasher (water was coming up through the floor)... as you can see we've been very, very busy!

Yesterday we did Tahquamenon Falls and it was really, really hot for up here! We have some good pictures, but we don't have the time right yet to upload them. Maybe later...

Abby has been saying her name over and over and over. She must like the sound of it.

She Says The Darndest Things

Abby just brought me her shoes and said "stoee" - I think we may have a shop-a-holic!

Pool Party

We've been having lots of pool parties lately. At our pool parties you can swim in whatever you have on... shoes, shirts, pants, diapers, whatever.Steve's mom, dad and Grandma Obreiter are coming to visit tonight. It should be a great time. Hopefully our poor little fireball is feeling better quickly. She's been running a fever off and on for the last couple weeks. Either it's teeth, a virus, or allergies. I just hope she's feeling better soon!

New Words

New words of the day:

Door (pronounced dooy) and Tree (pronounce twee)

She even pointed to them when she said the new words. What a smarty pants!

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!

Quick Update

We've been busy, really busy. So we will just give you the quick update and then get back to work. We moved into our new house on Saturday and finally got our internet up and running Sunday night. Yesterday was a blur of unpacking, putting in the Angel Food order, enjoying the nice weather with our new kiddy pool, and other odd jobs. We have a lot of little projects to work on over the next few weeks, including a really neat garden that Abby and I are going to start.

So, we will give you more details later. But for now it is back to work. I have 6 boxes of slate tile for our bathroom floor that need to be moved from the car to the house.

Abby can now say "baby," "boy," and "daddy." She is still working on tooth number 8. She is also now a master of our new staircase.