Finally!!!

So here it is - Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort. We are mere hours away! By Sunday afternoon you will find Abby and I relaxing in the kiddie pool :-)

The bags are packed, they are sitting by the door, and we are almost ready to go! And we cannot wait - especially me! So we are going on vacation for a whole week - no posting until February. But we promise lots and lots of pictures of Abby's first trip to the beach and her first trip to Disney. Maybe even her first plane ride - we will see how that goes. She is really going to miss Maize. She has been chasing her around and harassing her at every opportunity lately. She will get right up to the couch or chair where Maize is sleeping and scream right in the poor dogs face or pull her ears. I think Maize will really enjoy her dog-cation as well.

So now, I have to try and get Abby to take a nap, which she wouldn't do yesterday, and run down my checklist once more so we have everything we need for our trip. Just thinking about it makes me tired!

Almost Vacation Time

We are one day from leaving on the first leg of our vacation journey - the trip to Hastings to pick up Grandma Mary. Abby and I are ready to go, we even packed up Abby's diaper/toy bag for the airplane today. Now we just have to get her Dad equally ready to go and see if there is room for all of our stuff in two suitcases. We are counting down the hours.

We went last night to look at the Presbyterian parsonage and another house that we almost made an offer on last spring (which I had never seen). House hunting is such an interesting process. The house we almost offered on is a classic 70's house, right down to the colored bathroom fixtures and kelly green carpet (everywhere). I think men and women must have very different eyes when it comes looking at the functionality of a space. For example, in the 70's house Steve was all for the "master suite" since it had a master bathroom connected to it. One thing he didn't take into account was the fact that our bed is probably almost as big as the room (apparently king sized beds weren't too popular when the home was designed). So anyway, we checked out those two homes and now we have some thinking to do about our long term plans and goals. But the parsonage was lovely, well kept, and would earn the Aunt Carol two thumbs up for being a very cool, old home. I'd say we really liked it (Steve liked it, I loved it, so that combines to really liked it right??)

Abby's been broadening her food horizons slowly. We finally got her to start eating chopped fruit this week. She still will not eat any vegetables except green beans and chopped up sweet potato, but she will eat the baby food varieties, so we are keeping her diet fairly balanced. She really, really loves drinking yogurt smoothies using big girl straws. She especially likes it when I let her hold the yogurt bottle. She is growing up way, way to fast!

3 Days Until Florida!

It is warmer here today, a whopping 23 degrees, but there is no sun. Personally, I'd rather have below zero and sunny. After all, I do spend most of the time indoors looking out, so it might as well look nice outside. We are all ready for a short break from the cold and snow and can't wait to wiggle our toes into the sandy beach. Hopefully Abby will enjoy her vacation as much as we will. And we are really hoping that she does well on planes, for everyone's sake!



Here is a short video of Abby's newest hobby - emptying our bookshelf. She pulls books out like a champion - either one at a time or in handfuls. What a silly girl! At least she also has dolls and other toys to play with once she gets everything onto the floor.

I just finished packing the bag that Abby and I are sharing. It is super full and barely under the weight limit, but it is much nicer to have one heavy bag to lug around instead of two. Plus we'll have a stroller, car seat, my carry-on, Steve's carry-on (which is going to be a diaper bag too), and Steve's suitcase. It was so much easier to travel when it was just the two of us! It's a good thing we love Abby so much or she'd be in trouble for all the extra luggage and work it takes to travel with her!

New Shoes

Every girl loves new shoes, right? Last night we got Abby 3 new pairs at J.C. Penney on the clearance rack. She got a tan pair of size 4 Mary Janes to wear now, and a size 5 and 6 pair of shoes for later. Abby's bag is all packed for Florida - now we just have to figure out if all my stuff can fit into the bag with her stuff so that we can minimize luggage. Good thing there is a washer and dryer where we are staying!

We are staying warm at a sunny ZERO degrees today! At least it is sunny.

Just For Fun

We thought this was too funny not to share. Our winter up here has been better when it comes to slipping and sliding. The snow is too dry to be slippery for the most part. Instead we have the 6 foot tall snowbanks along all the roads which force you to play chicken when deciding whether it is safe to turn or cross the street. Stay warm!

Sew Much Fun

I know what Grandma Jennie will say - I should start a business. I have too many businesses already I think.

And, for Aunt Carol, who knows "The Soo", the house we are going to check out is on St. James Place, which is a cross street between Carrie and Spruce. The listing number is 08-810 (listed with Century 21). It is right around the corner from the bank, the stone church, and "The Castle".

Abby's New Doll

Abby already has 9 baby dolls and 2 barbies! She got her newest addition to the doll collection over the weekend. Her new baby can moves its head and arms and also makes baby noises (it has a motion detector in its forehead). We have had a good time playing with the new baby in Abby's growing family. Now we just have to come up with some names for the babies. So far we have Kitty the barbie (since it is a ballerina like our babysitter), Penny the Bitty Baby, Jo the water baby (it could be a boy or a girl, so we picked a name that could be unisex), and Natalie the Cabbage Patch Doll (thankfully those come pre-named). Now we just need 6 more doll names and also a name for a very fancy looking barbie. That is a lot of naming!

Abby really loves dolls. Her face lights right up when she see them. Sometimes she gets to take a doll into her big girl bed for a nap, which usually results in a shorter nap. She will start to wake up and rather than going back to sleep she finds that baby doll and starts playing with it. Pretty soon she will be cooking in her play kitchen and feeding her babies.

Busy, Busy Weekend

We are so ready for our vacation at the end of the week! We have been beyond busy and the hectic pace will certainly resume as soon as we are back in Sault Ste. Marie! Steve's Mom, Dad, and Grandma Obreiter just left a few hours ago to head back to the Lower Peninsula. Abby and I took a little nap, and now we have errands to run, clothes to wash, and bags to pack for our visit to Florida. It is going to be another busy week in the Obreiter household.

We happened upon a gem of a house for sale. It's an old Preysbeterian parsonage with 3 bedrooms just a few blocks from here. We are going to take a look at it soon to see if it would be a good first home for our family. We are hoping, after two days in a row of freezing pipes, to find someplace better insulated and maintained before next winter rolls around.

Thawed Out, Sort Of...

Our pipes are thawed out, but I doubt much else outside is with the temperatures we are having today! It made it up to zero degrees for a few minutes around 3, but it dropped right back to -2 degrees and it is still falling. Brr...

















Abby has a new favorite, and messy, activity. She really loves pulling all the books off the bookshelf in the living room. I had to clean off the shelves she could reach and put only her books and toys on them so she would quit eating our phone books and taking pictures out of our photo albums! She really loves tossing as many books on the floor as she can and then standing on them. What a nut! She has also figured out how to turn the humidifier off and on, but it has a fan she could stick stuff into so I've now moved it so that she can't reach the buttons or the fan. Just another thing she'd like to play with but shouldn't.

Steve's Mom & Dad and Grandma Joyce Obreiter are on their way up to visit. They should arrive sometime later tonight, so we are praying for good weather on their travel. It is snowing again here, but since it is lake effect snow it shouldn't be widespread. Happy Friday - hope you are all staying warmer than we are and that your pipes stay thawed :-)

FROZEN!!!

We are freezing up here in more ways than one. Steve got a nice surprise this morning when the shower wouldn't work. Neither would any of our other faucets since the pipe coming into the house from the city pipes had frozen. We are lucky to have a great landlord who was over as soon as he could get here (his car wouldn't start because of the cold so he had to borrow one from a friend) and got us all thawed out. He should be back later today to get us insulated a little better, so that hopefully we won't have any other freezing events.

Oh... and it is -17 degrees (air temp). I don't know what the windchill is, but I'm sure it's ridiculously low!

More updates later - Abby and I are going to get cleaned up now that we have water again. That and a nice cup of coffee!