Happy Anniversary to me!

I graduated from Georgia Southern 11 years ago today. Who would have thought that in 1992 while sitting in my junior year english class and watching this hokey video about this place called Georgia Southern (featuring some dude riding a bike around 'In the Pines'?!) and decided that GSU was the school I was going to (didn't even apply anywhere else!), that my life would change about as much as anyone's life could change. I am so grateful to have gotten a degree (that I never used), but mostly I am grateful for the memories and the people I met along the way - many of whom are named Ricker:-)

Thank you to all of my friends that became like my family while we were in school - I love you all like you are my family and I am so grateful that that we have grown up together. We share a bond of memories, secrets, trips, boys, dorms, activities, band, and I consider you each to be my sisters - I love you all!

Thank you also to those who were my friends and then let me become their family. It's been a wild ride and I actually learned a lot along the way.

P.S. Today is my BIL's b-day - Happy Birthday Clint! My first memory of you is Curt's little brother who sat quietly in the back seat listening to music or reading on trips to Atl to see Curt's other (very non quiet) brother Chris. Humm....guess I pegged that one correctly!

P.S.S My cousin Kimberly is graduating on Sat. I am really proud of her - I can't imagine how hard it's been to keep going while being married and having kids, but she did it! love you.

Do you know what the Wise Men brought to baby Jesus?

Apparently we celebrated Halloween a little too much around our house because Abby is still a little bit hung up on it. She told me that the Wise Men brought baby Jesus; Gold, Frankenstein, and Mur. I was like, "ok, apparently Halloween really made an impression on this kid"

I think i'll use that to segway into posting Halloween picts...here they are!


For Halloween this year, Abby was a.......well....umm....she was a princess cowgirl. Yeah, that's it - a princess cowgirl. I had these great intentions to make a costume, but when it came to Oct 31st I was woken up by my neighbor at 5pm trick or treating and I STILL hadn't figured out exactly what Abby's costume was going to be. So, last minute decision, put every pink thing she owns (and that's a lot of things) on her and send her out the door. My dad came over with the Ranger because our neighborhood is way too big to walk. Plus, everyone's driveways are long! She had fun and had already learned the song, "Trick or Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat". Luckily, she did not sing that song to anyone in the neighborhood.



Would you open the door to this ensamble?!




Oct 26th: while my brother/sister in law and nephew CJ were visiting to see the baby, chris, abby and cj carved a pumpkin.

OCt 25th: Since Abby missed the family Halloween party, my dad set up trick or treating in the woods so abby could practice for the real thing.


Oct 30th: Abby's Halloween party @ school

What are 'The Rules' for dating when you're already married???

A couple of weeks ago, Abby and I went to Chick Fil A after story time and Abby made a new friend, Madeline. I was so proud of abby for her budding social building skills and struck up a conversation with Madeline's Mom about...mom stuff...whatever. As they were leaving, the mom handed me her card (apparently SAHM have their own business cards these days) and we said that we'd get the girls together to play soon.

As I was driving home I realized two things...

1. I was so caught up in abby making a new friend that i didn't even introduce myself to the mom!!
2. I didn't know the protocol for when to contact the mom - would today be too early? am i supposed to wait the typical 3 days like in a dating situation!? it's all too much to know!

being a SAHM is so funny - there's such a social aspect to it almost like high school, only you've got this other person (your kid) that you have to worry about even more than yourself. will they be liked, will they fit in, are they playing with the right kinds of people, are they learning the right things. and then some moms (none that i could hang with) are interested in themselves...what are they wearing, who are they hanging with, etc.

I have met quite a few SAHM since i started staying at home and I have made many friends...but abby is at the age where she is really starting to notice and want to play with other people and i want her to be able to do that as much as she likes. she is such a funny and sweet girl - i just love her! And, goodness knows she needs as much socializing as possible!!

P.S. I have had Ms. M's card for the past 2 weeks now, and i've been trying to still work up an e-mail. Well, today we were back at chick fil a after story time and I ran into her!! i told her that i still had her card and that i was wondering if they wanted to go to X place...she said they'd never been there but she thought it sounded fun. I just sent her an e-mail with the place's information and now i'm just waiting to hear back from her. Hopefully it won't take her 6 mths to reply like it did for chris when i sent him my first e-mail trying to set up a date!!

I'm so nice, they tagged me twice!!

1. the first concert i attended was the Indigo Girls when I was 24. Chris and I had just started dating and yes, we were the only hetero couple there. The concert was at Deer Valley Ski Resort - it was beautiful and we had a great time.
2. I LOVE movies!! My favorite is “Sense and Sensibility”. My favorite line is, “does she care for olives?”
3. I got my learner’s permit the day I turned 15 and my license the day I turned 16. My first car was a silver 1986 Honda 2 door hatchback that I got a few months before I turned 16. That car was awesome and held everything!! It has a lot of memories. I sold it to a teenager at my church in 1999 for $500 and she totaled it months later.
4. I can’t watch scary movies. If I am flipping through channels and I hear the music or see a scene from a scary movie, I can’t sleep that night. This especially happens when Chris is out of town and it’s normally “Silence of the Lambs” (this happened last night as a matter of fact!) I’ve never seen “Nightmare on Elm Street”, Friday the 13th, Halloween, or Saw – the scariest movies I’ve ever seen were the Scream series – I still can’t even look at that mask without it keeping me up at night!
   
5. I LOVE LOVE LOVE diet coke. When you get one from the store and open it, if there are little ice slivers in the bottle – it’s like a Christmas present for your mouth.
6. I never had an Atari, Nintendo or Sega growing up. We now have a Wii and my young nieces school me on Super Mario Galaxy! I just can’t win! I can’t even get past the first level of Super Mario 1! For Mother’s day, Chris bought me Super Mario Kart because it’s a game that you don’t really have to have skill to play, and you can’t really lose/die.
7. I love logic and strategy games – on long trips, I always bring a big book of logic puzzles with me and even brought Sudoku with me in the delivery room!
   
8. I am right handed, but can only snap with my left hand - I know, random!
9. I can't whistle - never have
10. I was adopted when i was 2 days old...it makes me as cool as a Cabbage Patch Kid!
11. I am a creature of habit!!! I always eat the same things, drink the same thing, wear the same things and go the same places. It takes a lot of the stress of life away from me because I know what I like and I know when I go to a place that I won't leave hungry! For at least 10 years, Bryers Deluxe Rocky Road was my favorite ice cream. They recently changed the formula and I don't like it anymore - I haven't found a substitute and ever since, I rarely eat ice cream.
    
12. My first time in an airplane was my junior year of college and I went two places that year - Miami and Salt Lake. Furthest distances I've traveled now are; west - Oahu, east - Paris, south - Miami, North - Ottawa (I traveled a lot for work in my first job out of college)

I hereby tag the following:

Kimberly
Wren
Jessie
Stacey J

The rules...
You must tell you six random things about yourself and then tag/award four other bloggers who you think qualify as “kreativ” (it's the creative blog award, but I can't get the picture to stick). It better not be anything I already know about you either!!!

Goodnight, Elizabeth...

Libby's one month birthday was Monday and since I have been extremely bad at taking pictures (the second child syndrome is hitting already), I thought I'd post some of the past month.

The reason I haven't taken many pictures (by many I mean hundreds, not thousands like with abby) is because from the moment she was born, I just wanted to take in the experience and document it in my mind - I feel like i'll never forget this time with her. We love Libby so much. She is the sweetest most calm baby. Whenever anyone is stressed, all they have to do is hold her and the stress goes away. We love to hold her and cherish every minute we get just to look at her since she's awake more every day. She started laughing today and smiles and coos a little. It's so precious to be there for the beginning again. A lady from my church who has 5 kids and 25 grandkids told me that she and her daughter in law were talking about how different kids are and how God gives them to you in the order that you can handle them in. I can see how that's true - I needed to start off with abby. I love her so much - her spirit and her determination and I understand her because she is me in a 38 lb, 38 inch form. With Libby, I just want to watch and be there for every breath...she is so amazing and I am glad that she is here and that I am able to appreciate her and being a mother this time. The first time it just turns your world upside down so much because you go from being a wife and an employee to something you never experienced and can't possibly prepare for. The second time, it's all about the love:-) One down side, it's like they take shifts sleeping - not fair. When one goes to sleep and we think, "YES - one more hour till we have to get up" the other invariably wakes up. Oh well. Such is life I guess.

One funny story about the girls personailites....the first week Libby was home, Abby was having a hard time adjusting to sharing Mommy. One morning she came into our room and wanted to be held while I was feeding Libby. Chris put abby up on the bed with us and she started pitching a huge fit because she wanted me to hold her. So, here I am, feeding Libby with Abby thrashing about, chris and i trying to keep abby from body slamming into libby. Sweet libby was steadily just chomping away, happy as a milk drunk clam, not bothered by all the yelling and craziness. It reminded me of me and kimberly. I would be thrashing around pitching a temper tantrum because kimberly got something or did something that i wanted, and she would just keep right on doing what she was doing, not letting my fit bother her in the least. Maybe someday they'll appreciate each other like we do, right Kimberly Erin?!?

Get ready for the cuteness!!!

The second 'first hair cut'...
After months of debating hair length and fear over abby not cooperating with the hair stylist, I bit the bullet and took her for her first big girl hair cut. This is actually the second official haircut, but the first one was 18 mths ago (on her first b-day) and was more of a trim.



Anyway....here's the result. We LOVE IT!! She calls it her princess hair cut. She was so wonderfully behaved and cooperative!! Even the other moms in the shop were commenting:-) (she got lip gloss as a treat for being so good - I have caved BIG TIME!! It was clear gloss with sparkles - and it's princess gloss after all.)

Edit: yes, the clip is to grow out her bangs. My dad, mom and chris were against it, but I tried to explain to them the never ending internal struggle girls have about growing out vs cutting their bangs. We'll see how long I can hold out!

abby...sweet abby-iet. hard hearted harbinger of haggis

100 points if you know where that's from. Claire - you are disqualified from guessing since you know. Let's just say there's a reason I still can't sing along to songs with spelling, and it's the from the same movie. There you go - I gave you all the hints you'll need!

This post is about our little Abby - she is a wonderful big sister who LOVES Libby, and like I tell people, sometimes love HURTS! It's been a rough adjustment for Abby and I think being 2 1/2 has a lot to do with it. She loves to hold Libby and give her kisses all the time. Whenever Abby wakes up or comes into a room she always wants to know where Libby is and is very protective of letting anyone hold her or come near. If she hears Libby crying, Abby always goes to comfort her. Unless of course she is the source of Libby's tears, in that case she runs in the opposite direction.

Things are going well otherwise. Abby still likes school and loves to play with her dolls. She is really into Dora, Diego, and Mickey Mouse clubhouse. She really misses Halloween and as you can see in the picture above, still wants to wear her 'pumpkin shirt'. I think I have finally convinced her it's not Halloween anymore, but she did cry when she came home on Tues and all the pumpkins were gone. She is loving seeing the Christmas lights that are already up and has been calling Papa Ho Ho (santa) to let him know she has been a good big sister and that she would like pink babies with pacys for Christmas. We are getting really excited for Thanksgiving next week - My niece Kathryn is in the Nutcracker and on Wednesday we are taking abby to see a dress rehersal so she can see Kat as a ballerenia. Also on Wed we are getting the tree and a smoked ham from Billy's. Yummy!! It's a weird tradition to buy a tree from a grocery store, but they have THE PRETTIEST Frazier Firs around. Anyway, Thurs is a quiet dinner and decorating for christmas, then Friday Chris leaves for South Dakota for a week. Please feel free to invite us over for dinner cause you know I can't cook!!!

Oh yeah, the pictures -
the Krispy Kreme is from a couple of weeks ago. Daddy took abby to get her first KK...and boy did she LOVE IT!! She came home dancing and smacking her lips and saying 'yummmm-yyyy'. I got it on video, but it won't load for some reason.














This is abby's first time playing in the leaves. My mom was off thurs-mon and she and dad kindly had abby over for a lot of the weekend. When I went to get abby on monday she and my dad were playing in the leaves. if you've been to my parents house, you know they live back in the woods so there are gazillions of leaves and my dad was steadily raking them for abby to jump in. My mom told me that at one point abby ran in the house saying "Gammy, Papa missing". My mom ran outside to help her find Papa and didn't see him anywhere till she saw a bit of grey peaking through the leaves and realized that abby had covered my dad up completely in the leaves. Needless to say, they both had a great day.

This is m&d's dog CC (chocolate chip). She is a German Short Haired bird dog. CC had climbed up in dad's lap and was all hunkered down when abby decided to give her hugs. Poor CC. You can see her looking at me like, "please get this kid off of me". CC is THE BEST dog - she just ignores abby as abby tries to hug, pull, ride, etc. We love you CC!!

A delicate balancing act

Sorry it's been so long...so much has happened with the world and our family this last month, and I've gone over and over in my mind what I wanted to say in the blog, but for now I'll just keep most of it to my self (See - I am growing - I have learned to keep my mouth shut!). So much of what's been going on has bothered me, and I have been grateful that Chris and I have been able to have some really good discussions.

I will post some stuff of the girls...still sounds weird to say that:-) Here's one from last night. I was giving Abby a bath and Chris was sitting in Libby's room reading her a story. Abby got done with bath and wanted to read the story too. This picture was a sweet and calm moment that made me think two things...

1. That life has it's sweet moments and we should capture them and hold them in our heart to get us through the rough times...and having a 2 1/2 year old has given me some rough times lately
   
2. Chris Ricker is THE BEST dad on earth! He really is, and both girls are so blessed to have him as their dad. I love him so much and I rely on him to keep me sane and functional.

With all the craziness in the world, I am so grateful for my family. Libby has truly made us feel like a family - we aren't just playing house anymore!!

"Baby Libby, you are soooo cute"

Those were the first words big sister Abby said to her new little sister. An indicator of her approval that we all share. Libby is such an amazing little baby - we all love her so much.

Elizabeth Anne
8.8 lbs 21 inches
10-18-08

The big day!

So, its been a crazy week - Jen and I both got a stomach virus Wednesday. We were mostly better by Friday, but then Gammy caught it Friday afternoon. Abby was going to stay with Gammy and Papa for the weekend while Libby was born, but Uncle Clint and Aunt Sarah were able to come watch her instead. So, lasr minute crisis averted, we're at the hospital now. Jen's somewhat relaxing and watching a movie in between contractions, and we're just waiting for Libby to come!

10-18-08

We had a dr appt today and Dr Thorne made us a date for getting induced!! We are cheking in Sat morning at 7:30 - which is better than the 6am we had to be there last time!

So, anyway, for the past week all i've been telling myself is that I just needed to make it through till the shower and then i'd be ok with whatever happened. Since God is trying to gear us up for 2 kids, I think he was showing me this weekend a glimpse of what is to come. Chris got home Friday afternoon with a bad head cold he'd had all week in S. Dakota. Then we all go to bed and abby wakes me up at 2am with what i can hear on the monitor is choking - it was vomit - all over. So, we all get up, change everything in site, watch an episode of MMCH to see if it's going to happen again, and the by 3am lay down with her, only to not sleep because she is having a very fitful sleep, then getting back up and throwing up again. After the initial empting of the contents of her stomach, the rest was just all the drainage from her cold she's had all week, so i didn't think she had a stomach virus. Anyway, when we got up on Sat I had officially slept for 3 hours TOTAL - which, if you know me, is about 10 less than i need in a night. So, my inlaws come down for the baby shower - very sweet of them to support us and the shower was very nice - and then we hang out for a while, abby crashes, curt, brandy and cj head home, then clint and sarah go over to callaway with us to take 37 week pictures. Here are some of them, i think they turned out well. thanks sarah and abby says she wants to go back to the ocean!

On a final note, sat night was even worse because abby started running a fever, then woke up vomiting again at 3 am, stayed up 3 hours, then slept for a while. she was really acting sick this time and was spiking 104 degree temps, so we took her to pediatrics after hours where we found out she has a raging ear infection. no stomach bug, no strep. all in all i think we got off pretty lucky. The funny thing was that before we left for PAO, i looked at chris and said "we haven't slept, eaten or showered today. we look REALLY rough and we feel even rougher, but as bad as this is, I know it's going to get so much worse in a week and that makes me want to cry". Anyway, we laughed because as chris says, "the only thing we have left is humor". we are glad abby is on her way to being 100% and that we'll see libby in 5 days!!

update on baby libby

We had our 36 week appt on tues with an ultrasound to see how big Libby is. She currently weighs in at 6.8 lbs and things are already progressing...so Dr Thorne said he gives it 2-3 weeks. For me, that means the day after chris gets back from South Dakota it is ON!! I freaked out slightly though and came home, finished the blessing gown slip, started on the gown (kimberly erin, can you explain to me why the slip is currently 4 inches longer than the dress and what i can do about it short of taking the bodice off and cutting off 5 inches??), washed all her clothes, packed her bag for the hospital, and couldn't sleep that night. Yesterday chris had to go to Dothan for work and wouldn't you know it, i totally thought i was in labor. i went back to dr thorne wednesday with my bags packed and he said i was not in labor, nothing had changed and the contractions had to get A LOT stronger and a LOT more regular. I feel stupid because i never felt contractions with abby, even when i was in labor...and when i asked dr thorne, he said "now, you are asking a guy what it feels like". he is funny - i love him. Anyway, chris got into a panic about missing the whole thing and came home early from dothan. i was really glad to have him home, even though he is leaving again for a week on monday. dr thorne said he doesn't think the baby will come before chris gets back, let's hope not!!

• this weekend is going to be a lot of rest, my mom is coming over to help get the house clean, and they are going to be helping out a lot while chris is gone next week since it's really hard for me to get abby in and out of the car and in and out of the tub.

• next weekend is libby's shower that my good friend shiloh is throwing for us...i feel bad having a shower for the second baby, but it does seem important to make this baby feel welcome too. plus, it's a supper sign up so that will be very nice and helpful to have. all of this makes me appreciate even more my family and friends and the people that love and care about us. we need others and sometimes asking for help is the hardest thing.

• the next weekend is the family halloween party on friday, sat is ricker fall fun, and sunday is logan's baptism. if i even make it to that weekend, guess which one is the only one i am now allowed to go to:-( i am so sad that abby is missing out on all the fun fall things this year - we were going to have a good time at Washington Farms with abby's cousin CJ and the rest of the ricker clan. we bought a pumpkin for her to carve and we'll take her to a pumpkin patch down the road, but that might be the extent of her fall activities till halloween. speaking of, abby LOVES halloween. mainly because she knows there's going to be candy involved. it's really fun this year because she understands so much of what's happening.
• the next weekend is fall fun at callaway and then the next weekend is HALLOWEEN!! Abby is going to be.....some sort of random princess ballerina fairy complete with all of the accouterments that you would expect from such a put together made up costume. i bet she'll be cute though AND have the world's most out of control tutu, made by yours truly:-)

sorry for the rambling, just wanted to give an update and we are all still pretty sleep deprived.

You're a [expletive] Mormon....compared to you, everyone has a drinking problem!!

Favorite quote of the year...from Burn After Reading.

The nekkid drunken rooster that would never die....

Tomorrow is my birthday and Wed is my mom's birthday, so we decided this year to do something nice for just the two of us. We spent the morning on broadway, had breakfast at a local coffee shop and then strolled through the farmers market type set up that's going on downtown. We then hit a thrift mall and a beautiful antique store that's housed in a mansion built back in 1884. While we were driving around, my aunt called to see how our birthday celebration day was going and to wish me a happy birthday since they won't see me tomorrow. She recounted me being born and how happy my mom was, and how much trouble I gave her growing up. She did end with what a great person i've grown up to be and that i am a great mom (which is always appreciated after hearing a recount of the wild child i used to be). We were talking about how she was 5 mths pregnant with my cousin kimberly when i was born and how she had hated to tell my mom every time she got pregnant because she knew how much it hurt for my mom to not have a baby. She reminded me of the times I wouldn't leave her house because I was having fun playing with 'the gang' and would freak out as i was carried kicking and screaming in to the car. I told her that today that is called 'slow to transition'. She has always said that God gave me to my mom because anyone else would have killed me early on. I believe that's true. I am glad that abby's temperament has been greatly tempered by chris, but i am also glad that i am like abby so that i can appreciate and find humor in her a little more than maybe my mom did me. Mainly I think she thought next time she'd be more careful what she wished for. When pam got off the phone mom and i were talking about my temper(ment) as a child and how i would NEVER let things go and never back down, even in the face of total and complete rage from my dad. She said I always had to have the last word and was never scared of whatever punishment would come. She told me i always reminded her of the story of the rooster that would never die. I had never heard the story, so she told it to me like this.....

"When I was growing up, we had some neighbor boys who were really mean/rambunctious. They often told us of the time they took this rooster and got him really drunk by pouring beer into his mouth, then plucked all his feathers, then tossed him out in the woods behind their house to die. They said the next morning, sure enough, they heard 'cock-a-doodle-doooooo'. And wouldn't you know, but that old nekkid plucked rooster had sobered up, lived and come back to fight another day."

Mom said that I was a lot like the rooster. Do what you want to me, but I was always coming back for a fight. It was the funniest story i'd ever heard - and i can't believe it took 33 years for her to tell me.

Back to reflection...I can't believe my aunt had 3 kids in 2 1/2 years...she was 23. By the time she was my age she had 5 kids. When my mom was my age I was 11. Kimberly is my age and her kids are 12 and 9. Last weekend Kimberly and the girls were at mom and dad's and aunt pam was fussing at us because abby and anna were outside with out shoes on. We were like, "if their feet hurt bad enough, they'll come in for their shoes". Aunt pam said she was glad she was done raising kids and that she wasn't the momma. I looked at kimberly and said, "OH MY GOSH - those are OUR kids - who thought it was a good idea to let us be parents?!!? I still feel like a teenager sometimes, especially around kimberly because i remember all the mischief we used to get in to - nothing bad by most standards, but we were always up to something.

When I got home chris had roses and a HUGE mum for the outside. Mom and Dad are coming soon to get abby and chris and i are going on a date. Then tomorrow is my favorite meal - country fried steak and we are heading over to warm springs to walk around and enjoy the beautiful weather.

I love chris and i love my family. Even though abby thinks it's her birthday, i love her too:-)

i won't sleep, and you can't make me!

It's almost 11pm and we have been home for about two hours. Normally abby falls asleep on the way home from my parents, but tonight she was playing in the car with a doll my mom gave her and she didn't fall asleep. When we got home we put her down (with the doll that she wouldn't let go of) and thought "she's exhausted, she'll be asleep in no time" (this was about 9:15). Chris and I then went back in the office and were listening to her on the monitor. I heard a noise from the monitor and asked him if he thought she had gotten up. He said no and I didn't really think more about it. I went into the kitchen to watch tv and work on an abby project (world's most out of control tutu) and after a while chris went to go do laundry (he just got in from south dakota). He walks to the laundry room and then turns around and tells me to come over to where he is. I don't want to - don't want to see a mouse that he's found or whatever it might be, don't want to get off the couch, etc. But I get up and he says, "guess she did get up". Abby was passed out cold on the floor in front of the pantry. She has gotten up before and played in the living room until we catch her - but she's never fallen asleep. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen and of course my first thought was "where's the camera!?!". We had a great day today and this evening got to feed the monster catfish and took a ranger ride in the dark while the beautiful full moon played peek-a-boo with us. It was cool and we loved being together with just the 3 of us. We laughed and let the wind blow in our hair. It was a nice night and I am glad abby is FINALLY asleep so we can start again tomorrow.

where have all the good ones gone?

I was reading a friend's blog about how she was trying to get ready for her kid's Halloween costume for this year and I felt vindicated that I wasn't the only one who felt the need to have the costume picked out and bought before Sept 1st. Well....for the past 2 years the Children's Place has not let us down for cute cute costumes that fit well, looked like the age they were intended and weren't over $40. This year I am sad to say, they have let me down big time. Every little girl's costume I can find ANYWHERE is some disney marketed princess, way too hot animal fleece deal, or something so slutty even Brittney Spears would be embarassed to wear it. I mean - give me a break people!!! My only real option this year is the cute fairy costume from Gymboree, but give me a break - I am not paying $70 for that outfit!! Ughhh....abby loves anything involving a tutu and still wears last year's tutu and waves the wand around. The issue is that it's so hot at Halloween...i did end up @ CP the day before Hllwn last year and got her one of the warm costumes for like $10, but for daytime dress up events she wore the princess/fairy something or other from CP...she loved it. She wore the skunk costume only on Hllwn night cause it ended up being kind of cold. I am thinking of skipping the costume all together, making her an awsome tutu and putting her in her gymnastics leotard. Add a crown and a wand and she will be in heaven! Even if she ends up trick or treating at the medical center:-( I love the fall and I love all the different events surrounding Halloween. Hopefully she'll get to participate in lots of things this year and won't miss out due to Libby.

End of Summer/back, rather just to...school!!

Many of you know that Chris and I decided to put abby in a 3 day a week Mother's morning out program at a local Methodist church in town. For lots of reasons really, i won't go in to them all...so no judgements from the peanut gallery reading this! Here are pictures from her first day when my mom and i picked her up. The first week was REALLY hard. Like - really hard. The second week has gone so much better, and day three of last week was especially good. Hopefully we've gotten past the rough parts and will be settled in untill Libby is born and abby's world is rocked upside down once again. Also, the end of summer meant that abby had to change Gymnastics coaches. We love you coach Llaras. She's been abby's coach for 6 mths, and abby LOVES her!



















On another note, speaking of the end of the summer, two weekends ago we spent the weekend with Chris' younger brother Clint and his wife Sarah. It was the most beautiful weekend - the weather was so nice. They took us to this place that was a sweetooth lovers wonderland and we were able to actually sit outside on the porch without the ice cream melting and without sweating to death. We also went out to eat and got to sit outside. They had a clown that came around and made abby balloon animals. Nice! Seeing as how Sarah is from Alaska, I think she really appreciates any time the summer weather dips below 90!! We had a great time visiting and getting to be with them for the weekend.