Summer Photo Extravaganza!

Since the summer is sadly coming to an end I'm doing a picture post to catch up on what we have been up to.

Grant and Ricky after racing the go-carts on Grant's Birthday on July 21st.

The happy family just before diving into Grant's Birthday cake from Ricks...Yum!

After returning home after some errands. Abby's way of telling me, "Mom I'm worn out and need to rest a bit."

Sue and Howard came out for about two weeks at the end of July. While Grant and his dad went for a Saturday breakfast together, Sue, Abby, and I enjoyed getting some fresh produce at the Farmer's Market and then visiting the Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks to see the beautiful flowers.

Abby enjoying her toes as she posses on the quilt Jackie Rockhold made for her.

Nana and Abby enjoying the Arts Festival in Park City, UT the first week in August. This was my first time flying solo with Abby, without the help of Dad. Although I was pretty stressed about it, everything went very smoothly. Little did I know the adventure was yet to come!

Abby's first ride on a chair lift at Deer Valley where we heading for a short hike while my brothers and dad mountain biked. It was fun to get to be with the entire family. We were all out in Park City for my parents annual Jimmy Buffett Party.

Abby and I up on top of the mountain...it was quite the view.

Back home after our travels out west Abby is enjoying her first time in her high chair. Going off what we have read we are starting to put her in it when we eat to get her ready for eating solids. Notice the position of the dogs. Although we have not introduced foods to Abby yet the dogs seem to know what will soon become a good food source for them!

Irene, Leah, Abby, and I enjoying the last concert in the park of the summer. I am so sad to see these end. They have made for good times!

Abby meeting her Great Grandfather Bowden for the first time. Abby has become quite the traveler. After this trip Abby has been in 10 states: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Tennessee, North Carolina, Michigan.

Abby's first time in a big pool. She was not quite sure about floating on her back.

She loved this little boat we found.

Four generations.
I had set Abby down with her doll while I went to wash my hands when I came back Abby was holding the doll's hand, too cute! She has become fascinated with faces. She gets a kick out of watching the other kids play at daycare.

Yes, with the mention of daycare the summer has ended and it is time to head back to school. I find myself torn about this. I am very excited to get back in the classroom and get a new year under way and yet I am heart broken about having to be away from Abby. Teacher inservice started Wednesday so Abby has had a few days to get to know our wonderful daycare provider, Jennifer, and to met the other kids. It has not been easy but I know it will be better with time.

Another Adventure with Flying

Yesterday was an adventure to put it simply. I will be updating what we have been up to the last few weeks soon but today is focused on our day yesterday.

Abby and I took a short trip to Greensboro, NC to visit my Grandfather. This was his first time meeting his great granddaughter so it was a neat trip. We have a great time that included Abby's first dip in a real pool.

Flying back home started smoothly as we flew through Detroit. I found myself thinking that Abby is a great traveler (as this was her third trip flying making that 10 states this girl has visited already!), she must be my good luck charm (I seem to have bad luck flying and run into all types of complications). Well my bad luck started with the plane from Detroit to Fayetteville being a bit delayed. We finally got on the plane about 1/2 hour late. Once they got us on board we found out that the air conditioning unit on the ground was broken, they were sure to let us know that it would work when we got in the air... this doesn't quite make sense to me but I am not an airplane expert. Forty minutes after an announcement stating that they would hurry and get us up in the air they finally started to prepare

for taking off. Abby and I both were not fans of the hot hot airplane, but she was a trooper. Thankfully once in the air it did cool off.

Things went smoothly until we got down to Fayetteville and the ride got a bit bumpy. After circling a time or two the captain informed us that Fayetteville's control tower had been struck by lightning and had lost all power therefore losing communication with its planes, so we were being rerouted down to Little Rock. As our flight was extended Abby fussed a time or two but still was very good.

Once in LR they de-boarded us (thankfully due to air conditioning problem) telling us when they got the go ahead from Fayetteville they would refuel and get us home. Thirty minutes later an airline representative had the fun job of informing us that our flight had been cancelled and they would be busing us back to Fayetteville....

In my mind....

Well crap, that's a 3 1/2 hour drive.... during Abby's fussy time of night... I'm going to somehow have to get my extra large bag (or so it seemed at the time), car seat, carry on bags, and sweet Abby on a bus by myself. This stinks.

Some wonderful people put my fears to rest by helping me. Including a very nice man who shared his sandwich that he had been smart enough to purchase before he left security. FYI there are no places to eat outside of airport security in Little Rock besides a small Starbucks.

The bus ride went smoothly Abby was awesome and we happily got to see Grant and head home at 10:30 that night.

I have no desire to fly for a while now.

Couldn't post without sharing a photo of our little girl.

Rollin', Rollin', Rolling

That's right Abby is officially a roller! From both stomach to back and now back to stomach. Two nights ago I awoke in the middle of the night to find Abby as you see her below.  As it is not recommended for babies to sleep on their bellies I rolled her back to her back.  She clearly thought that her stomach was more comfortable and proceeded to flip back to the same spot.  I didn't sleep as well the rest of the night as I felt the need to check and make sure she was alright every so often.  I felt much better about her being in that position when I saw her flip back to her back on her own several times. The picture of Abby below is from a nap she took the next day in her new favorite position.

This video is from earlier tonight.  In it Abby flips all the way from her back to her stomach. She still continues to be a girl who loves to be on the move.  If she has it her way it won't be long before she can start to move herself around on her own. I'm hoping we still have a little bit of time before this happens. 

Pool TIme

It is HOT! The sad thing is it is only going to get worse this coming week. I have been trying to get out each day in the morning before the heat of the day sets in (90s with high humidity) and go for walks. During Wednesday's walk Jill and I started talking about how nice it would be to have a pool. Well after the 6 mile trek I stopped by Target to pick up a few odds and ends and I came across a blow-up pool on sale! After a bit of struggle to get a pump that works Jill helped me get the kiddy pool set up. The best thing about it is that there is a little seat making it quite comfortable, and with it being about 6 feet across which will make it a great place to kick back and read (if I can find the time....doubtful...but I'm hopeful) ! Abby was not so sure about the water it was still a little chilly. She was very content just sitting on my lap looking at the water.



Every other week in Fayetteville there is a free concert in the park. These have been a fun, kid friendly event. This past week we went with several other couples. Abby's boyfriend, Kyler, who is 5 weeks younger, was also there. Notice below the awkward moment captured when Abby tried to hold his hand and she was denied. Poor girl.

She just so darn cute! While waiting for Grant to finish up a few things at work I had the camera and started taking a some pics of Abby. Here are a few of my favorites.

This and That

We have been enjoying a busy summer.   Two weeks ago we flew home for Grant's HS Reunion.  We enjoyed getting to see friends and family although with it being such a quick trip we found we ran out of time, not getting to see everyone that we had hoped. Where does the time go?  

Abby is a fantastic traveler!  On our very first flight we were cutting it a little close (surprise, surprise), when flying Southwest this is not a good thing.  We were, I believe, one of the last ones to board the full flight.  So as I'm walking down the aisle with the baby only seeing middle seats I'm trying to scout out some friendly people who would be understanding.  As I'm looking people are diverting their eyes probably thinking, "Oh please do not let me get stuck next to a crying baby."  Finally I plopped down and got settled between a man who slept the whole way (taking up his seat and half of mine erg!) and a very kind lady who happened to be a grandmother and there for was very understanding. Abby only broke down for about 5 minutes take that sleeping guy who's intruding my bubble) the entire flight.  That actually ended up being the only time she fussed, for the rest of the trip's flights she slept her way through them.  This made Grant and I very happy.  I only hope it goes this smoothly when fly home alone with her for my parent's Jimmy Buffet party later this month. 

Below are some pictures from some summer events as well as our trip home.

Abby at her first baseball game...Go Naturals!

All clean after a bath

While home it was Flaming Gorge Days.  Like every small town festival they have a parade. Howard, who used to be a fire fighter, was invited to ride in the truck. He was up in front in the passenger seat while Grant was in the back waving out the window.

Abby, Sue, and I watched the parade. Abby was a fan till the fire truck came and scared her with the sirens....how rude :-)

The Fam enjoying 4th of July fireworks.

As I got out of control taking picture of this cutie I believe the flash scared her causing her to pull out the pout before breaking into tears. 

Abby has officially rolled over from her front to back by her self once. Of course the camera was nowhere in sight.  This video is of her somewhat rolling over with a bit of help from mom.  At the end of the clip she tells us what she just did, she is soooo talkative right now. I love it!

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day to me!  I guess that is a little selfish, but it is my day after all so I should be entitled to be at least a little selfish.  Happy Father's Day to Abby's two Grandfathers as well, Pap-Pap (we decided we can't go with Geezer) and Howard (who hasn't decided on what he will be called).  There, that should at least partially save me for wishing myself a Happy Father's Day first.

Abby has had a great week, getting to spend a lot of time with Peggy's mom, or as Abby knows her, Nana.  Peggy went to a week long seminar for school this past week, so Nana flew down to be a babysitter for the week week.  Everything went well for all parties involved.  Nana seemed to really enjoy having the one-on-one time with Abby everyday.  Peggy left around 7:30 and was back home by 4:00 most days, and she survived being away from her baby girl for that long each day for five days in a row!  Now things have returned to normal, Nana flew back home yesterday, and we are gearing up for the week ahead.  

Next week will end with Abby's first plane ride, as we are all flying from Tulsa to Salt Lake City so that I can go to my 10 year class reunion.  I was on the fence on whether I was going to go or not, but it will give Peggy and I a good chance to test our nerves and quite possibly have an entire plane full of people hate us because of our crying baby.  In the end, who could pass up an opportunity like that!

On to the pics!

Here is Abby giving me my first Father's Day card!  We're both pretty excited about it!

Here is Abby looking pretty cute. (Which is a pretty normal thing for her to do!)
Here's a nice, happy, smiling baby!

In this video, she is talking to her zebra, until she realizes she's on camera, then she gets a little shy.

I think she is trying to do some crunches here, but she doesn't quite have the concept down.

Catching Up

Much has been happening in the past several weeks.  First off Howard will be done with his radiation treatments tomorrow. He and Sue have been down in Salt Lake the past six weeks. So I know they are looking forward to getting back home.  Grant and I will be flying back west later this month for his high school reunion.  We look forward to seeing them soon!

After our friends left my dad was in town for a few days as he ventured to North Carolina to ride the Dragons Tail.  He also stopped by on the way back through.  It was good to have him visit. 

The day after my dad left my mom flew into town to watch Abby while I attended a math workshop this week. That's right, this was my first time to be away from Abby for more than a day. It has been very hard to be apart from her.  I am very glad that I still have about 2 more months before school starts back up. 

And now news on the Abby front....

She is still a wonderful little fuzzball.  Her hair continues to grow (still showing no signs of falling out) and she is getting to the point where she needs a hair cut.  She can hold her head up for the most point but it's still a little unsteady, this makes me nervous with scissors.  I believe we will be doing the hair cut while she is asleep. Stay tuned to see what happens.

On a very exciting note we have a great sleeper on our hands.  For about the past two weeks Abby has been sleeping through the night.  She will usually be out around 11 and has been sleeping till 7:00.  That is 8 blissful hours of sleep.  Grant and I are loving it. 

And to celebrate sleeping through the night here is a small collection of sleeping Abby pictures...

Passed out after receiving her two month shots. Poor thing was not feeling too good and just wanted to be held.

Sleeping in style with her pig tails.

We know she's in a deep sleep with her arms are up by her head. They usually start by her side and slowly make their way up.

Watering plants is hard work!

Peaceful bundle of cuteness.