First Tooth

Trey has his first tooth in! And as anyone who has ever tried to open a baby's mouth knows, it's impossible...so no picture. But it's there!

Pumpkin Patch

We took a trip to the pumpkin patch this morning. We came home with 3 pumpkins and one very happy little girl!

Family picture (not the best random photographer!)

in front of the "great pumpkin"

riding the merry-go-round

How tall this fall?

catching ballons inside the big pumpkin

me and my guy

dad and his girl

finding the perfect pumpkin

got it!

pushing the wheelbarrow
such a diva!
changed into jammies as soon as we got home...and put on the apron of course

spitty spitterson

Poor Trey, he doesn't get as much video time as Abby...maybe because he doesn't do much. So here's one of the man doing his favorite thing.

Apron Update

If anyone thought I was exaggerating Abby's love for her new apron...I wasn't. Today is the first day that she hasn't worn and that is only because it's up high and she can't see it. She has worn it to the store, to the bodyshop, out to dinner and all over the house.

Abby's Apron

So Christmas came a little early for Abby this year. A customer of mine makes these cute little aprons and she brought some by the stand and I couldn't resist buying this one for Abby. It has Mardi Gras necklaces on it which are her favorite things to play with at Grammy's house. I was going to wait and put it in her stocking but since we were going to make cookies I thought she should get it early. Now she won't take it off. Jerry wouldn't let her sleep with it on last night but it was the first thing she found this morning and has been wearing it all day.

she got to add in her own treats; choc. chips, M&M's and sprinkles.

mini-me?

In case anyone out there had any doubts about Abby being mine this picture should squash that!

Silly Babies

pretending to sleep

Awwww, so cute!

Abby "bouncy-bouncing"

Tonya said I'd do it!

On a friend's blog she was "tagged" to do a task. Go into her "My Pictures", find the 6th picture in the 6th folder, post it and right a little something about it. She did it and bet that I'd be the next one to do it and I can't disappoint her right?!

And it's a good picture too! This was in April of '07 so Abby was about 9 months old when Jerry and I took her for her first visit to the playground. This just happens to be my favorite picture of that day (thank goodness I didn't have to post one of an unshowered, frazzled me!). I think she looks very old-fashioned-lady-going-to-tea here. What a beauty!

favorites

Since I'm on a roll with posting today what's one more. This one is more for me so I can remember my conversations with Abby. We were talking in the car yesterday on our way home from the store and I was asking her about her favorite things, here they are.

animal: giraffe
color: pink
song: ABC song
book: Go Dog Go
number: 5
letter: B
person: Abby
cat: Isabelle

I bet if I ask her now I'll get a whole new set of answers!

Pictures of the Week

Abby figured out how to pick up Isabelle

then she locked herself in the cage with Izzy

Pukefest '08....this was his third outfit in 15 minutes...all three looked like this!

look at me!looks a wee bit like dad in this picture

playing with a toy!

Saturday

This one's a little out of order but you'll get over it. We did have a super fun day on Saturday that I didn't post about since it was trumped by the car accident. First we went to Mt. Vernon Christian to watch some volleyball. My friend, and former coach, Ed is coaching at West Seattle so we went to watch his team play a game. We got there right at Abby's naptime but she did pretty well during the game, she likes to watch older girls...I'm hoping she was taking notes. Trey thought it was super fun and sat quietly in my lap the entire time. Afterward we came home and the kiddos took naps. Then we met up with the Corey family in Bellingham at a cool bouncy play place. There happened to be a birthday party there with a few older kids (it was Saturday night, what did we expect?!) but the girls still had a good time. It's fun to see Anicia and Abby become friends. They followed each other around, giggling and laughing and having fun. Jerry and Tim were sweet and helped the girls out. There were a couple bouncy houses, the big bouncy slides and then an obstacle course. Shannon and I are going to take the girls back another day when it's quieter in there. Then we all went to Boston pizza for dinner and the little ones were all very well behaved. A busy but very fun day!

playing in the bouncy house

discussing what to play on next

they were hiding behind a poster at Boston pizza talking girl-talk, and singin the ABC's

the kiddos

Grrrrrr....

On our way home from a fun family trip to Costco, some old lady decided she needed to add a little more fun and get us in a car accident! Traffic in front of us had stopped and being the responsible driver that Jerry is, he stopped too. The guy behind us (also responsible) stopped as well....the old lady behind him somehow couldn't find her brakes and rammed right into him pushing him into us. Thankfully the kiddos seem to be doing alright, the car has some damage to the bumper and the hatch door doesn't close properly and Jerry and I are pretty sore but I guess it's better than being the guy behind us who smashed up both ends of his car. I think I'm done with fun for a while.

sleepyhead

It's 11:00 and I just woke Trey up. I got a little concerned that I hadn't heard a peep out of him since he went to bed last night so I thought I'd be a good mom and check on him. He was sound asleep still. I hope this isn't the start of a growth spurt...I don't think he could grow any faster!

Little Helper

I have quite the little helper at home. She loves to sweep and mop, clean the bathtub, and is pretty good at picking up her toys before I ask her too. I have a much cuter video but it was way too long to put on here.

busy day

Yesterday was a busy day for me and hardly any of it involved the kids. I went to work in the morning and then had to go to downtown Mt. Vernon to the health department to get my food permit renewed. Forty minutes, $10, and a ridiculously easy test later the state of Washington has deemed me safe to handle food. Neat. Then I drove to the bank to deposit a check and got stuck behind the slowest person EVER. I finally made it home just as Abby was going down for a nap. Trey and I hung out for the next two hours together...fussy hours, not fun hours and he finally went down for a nap just after 4. I did a couple things around the house and watched some Oprah then got myself ready for my first night of volleyball in 18 months. I play on a parks & rec team on Wednesdays and Fridays in the fall. I made it to the gym about 5 minutes late and it was apparent that taking that much time off and having another baby did nothing for my skills! The first game was rough...and that's putting it nicely. On the upside, nobody else had played since March so we were all a little rusty. My team played for an hour and then I played another hour as a fill-in on another team. I miss playing and it was really fun to get back on the court. I got home close to 9 and Abby was asleep, I barely saw her all day! Trey had fallen asleep on Jerry but woke up when I walked in...I think he could smell his food! I fed him and thought he might go back to sleep...not a chance. I finally gave up at 10:30 and Jerry put him to sleep...for the first time since he was born!!! How lovely was that for me?!!

Speaking of baby Trey...he's not much of a baby anymore. He has two pairs of size 12 month jammies and I've been avoiding putting him in them even though I thought they might fit. I want him to stay little just a while longer. But not doing laundry for days made it necessary to put him in the big jammies...which fit perfectly, they are not big at all. Time to buy more I guess!

before & after

Hmmm...which one looks better?

There's not any natural light in the room and so the color is totally off with the flash. It's a light brown/latte color. Very pretty. Now I need to find someone to hang the decorations...

Rusty-boy

Just in case you thought that Rusty was a neglected dog...here's proof that he is indeed a loved little guy.

new color

My hair is a new color and now so is the bathroom! My friend Shannon owns Per Dona in Mt. Vernon and she happened to have an opening yesterday morning which worked out perfect since Jerry had the day off. Shannon's husband Tim brought their daughter Anicia over at 10 and Abby was pretty excited to see her best buddy. They were settling in to watch some Dora when I scurried on out the door leaving the men-folk to watch the children. It was so fabulous to be doing something fun for myself...by myself. I got to read an entire magazine, have some girl-talk and get beautified at the same time!

I then went to Home Depot and got a gallon of paint for the bathroom. The color I picked...Traffic. They must have been running short on paint names, it's sort of a latte color. I guess that's the same color as traffic, who knew? I got the bathroom painted in under 2 hours and then when back and retouched it this morning. It looks soooooo much better than the previous green and white with wallpaper weirdness that was going on before. I'll post a picture when it's all put back together.

My one and only pre-election post!

Since I have left comments on several other peoples' blogs (most are friend-of a friend-of a friend ones) I thought it would be only fair to write down on my own what I think. I always considered myself a moderate democrat but seeing the severe religious right posts of others I'm feeling like a hard-core left-winger. I truly think that our country is desperate for some new leadership, which I think McCain absolutely will not provide. Here's my take on a few of the controversial issues out there...feel free to agree or disagree, I enjoy spirited debate!

Women's Issues: I personally would not have an abortion but I certainly don't think that I have the right to tell another woman what she can/cannot do with her body. I do think that there should be conditions (no late-term abortions where the mother's health is not in jeopardy, etc). I think that those who are anti-abortion need to find a way to take care of all the unwanted children who are already and who will be born in the future before a ban can be put in place (a ban that will not work...just black-market the procedure). This is not an issue ever in national politics but I also think that prostitution should be legalized, regulated and taxed. It's a "crime" that will never be eradicated. And what's the difference between affairs, one-night stands and paying for it?

Economy: I think that in a perfect world where everyone wanted the best for everyone else, the Republican ideal of trickle-down economics might work. However, we are a nation of me-first people. This plan will just make those who are making good money, make more and those who are on the bottom get pushed further down. I think that the lower/middle classes should be given the breaks. If you have more money to spend, more jobs will be created...it won't work the opposite way.

Iraq/Afghanistan: The "war" in Iraq needs to stop, we need to get out and let them take care of their own. If we are going to war with the premise to stop terrorism and promote democracy than why are we not in Darfur and places like that...Oh wait...it's because we have no monetary interest there. I firmly believe that diplomacy will go a long way in restoring our image in the world. Being so hated among other nations only makes us more suscepitble to being a terror target.

Gay Marriage: this is such a non-issue for me. I don't know why anyone cares whether or not somebody wants to get married. If you think it's wrong than don't have one or attend one. But when the divorce rate is 50% in the heterosexual community than maybe it's time we give those who are actually in love a shot at it.

I have lots of opinions on everything and if you know me than you know how passionate I am about sharing them (and usually I offend someone...sorry!) I live in a house divided as well, Jerry is a Republican. If we aren't proof that two opposing sides can live together than I don't know what is. Happy debating everyone!!!!!

ummmm......

So I thought I'd use Tanya's suggestion of making a list of whatever to add to my blog page and make a list of the shows I watch each week and HOLY CRAP...I watch 19...yes 19 shows each week and that doesn't include the endless disney channel shows, movies, dr. phil, oprah, the news and myriad of other things that are on. I'm not sure where I find the time to watch any of it! I had to cut out a few this year too so my list was longer last year. And the list doesn't even include the summer "filler" shows that I watch...but in my defense the summer list is shorter. I rarely watch anything when Abby is up either, there aren't many that are kid friendly so most of the watching happens during her nap and at night. Thank goodness for DVR's...what did people do before that?? hahaha! But I guess I can thank Trey since he requires me to sit in a chair for hours a day feeding him. Well, I'm off to do a load of laundry and clean the kitchen so I can watch TV guilt free later!

Eight Ball...Corner Toilet

It took me about 30 minutes to get the whole wallpaper border off the bathroom wall....only to uncover a nice billiard motif going on. The downstairs living room of the house used to be a pool/party room...hence the bar downstairs...and I guess the theme was carried into the bathroom. The owners after that put a hideous wallpaper border over that and I'm not sure which I hate more. A coat of paint or two and it will all be gone! The dryer sheets worked AWESOME and my hands are not only incredibly soft but they smell great too.

My Husband

Jerry stayed after school yesterday to try and get some work done. He wants to stay caught up this year and not have to do the mad dash when it's time to do grades and other stuff. On his way home there was a fire call for a car accident on Hwy 20 so he stopped at the station and got on a truck to go to the scene. He did remember to call and tell me he'd be a little later than he thought so I waited awhile to start dinner. It turned out that it was a very bad fatal accident (you may have seen it on the news) and he didn't get home until almost 11. I made dinner for the kids and I and put a plate for Jerry in the fridge, put the kids to bed and watched some tv before going to bed myself. We all missed him terribly as the kids didn't get to see him all day but we are very proud of him for being such a hard worker and sometimes putting the needs of others first. I know he would rather have been home to see the kids before bedtime but he has a lot of pride in the extra jobs that he does. We love you Jerry!!!

Household hint!

I knew one day my excessive TV watching would come in handy! A year or so ago I was watching some home decorating show and they mentioned that you could remove wallpaper by wiping it with a solution of fabric softener and water...instead of a chemical. I have a border in the downstairs bathroom I need to remove (it's ugly and I want to paint the room) but didn't have any fabric softener. I have tons of dryer sheets though so I thought I'd give that a whirl. And IT WORKS!!! I just got the sheet wet (used ones work just as well!) and rubbed it over the stuck on backing and then it just peeled off super easy. Any extra remnants I just used the sheet to scrub off. Fascinating, I know!!!

No Mommy, No!!!

Yesterday when I got home from work I was definitely not welcomed with hugs and kisses. Abby hollered and cried saying "No, Mommy. No!" over and over while clutching Grammy. Then Grammy had to go and Abby clung to her like a little koala bear and wouldn't let go so Grammy kindly said she'd put her in bed for her much needed nap. I was told by Miss Cranky Pants not to come upstairs at all...no problem. Grammy read her a book or two and she was out like a light. When she woke up 3 hours later she was in better spirits but I was still not a super welcome sight. I told her that we could go to the store when Dad got home and that seemed to calm the waters. A long trip to Lowe's (Bumpa's store!) and Costco (does everyone we know shop there on payday?!) and we were home. When it was time for bed I managed to get her settled down enough to go to sleep and told her that I had to work the next day...she was very excited that Grammy was going to be back again. I'm chopped liver I guess.

Today she was still not quite happy to see me but Grammy had talked to her and Abby promised she wouldn't yell and cry when I got home. Good job Gram! Hopefully she won't be too disappointed that I don't have to work tomorrow and it'll be me here in the morning. At least I'm still the favorite over Jerry! (poor Dad!)