God Bless the USA!

I hope your 4th of July holiday was super special. Ours sure was! Jen & I had planned to take our families to the Hometown USA festival in Dunedin, FL. We had missed the fireworks locally the week before, so Dunedin was a close alternative. Beside - there was a baseball game, carnival type stuff for the kids to do, an Jimmy Buffet cover band concert & the fireworks. The best part was - it was FREE! We really like that part on our limited income these days. Anyway - when we got there, Jen found our other sisters already there! Stacy and Heather each brought their families as well! Coinky-dinky huh? Anyway - the baseball game got rained out do to the all day down pour. But the concert was still one! Of course the stuff for the kids was called off too, but that didn't stop them from running out on the field in the rain (no dangerous FL lighting to worry about!). They had the time of their lives! Then the fireworks afterwards were pretty cool too. Another year of fun & pictures to celebrate the birthday of our country. God Bless the USA!

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Toddler version of falling asleep in the recliner!

We had dinner at Grandma's yesterday evening and Abigail didn't quite make it through! Earlier in the day we had errands to run, so she napped in the car for about 25 minutes or so. I left her at gram's to take her nap & have a few hours of quiet time to myself before returning for dinner (tacos ~ YUM!) Needless to say, little missy here didn't take a nap at all, so she was too tired to even eat! Caught it all on tape! Love having a camcorder! We let her sleep for awhile - only to wake her to go home. Boy that was fun ~ NOT! She is not a happy camper when she gets woke up!

Lawn Work

We've been working on Grandma's yard for the last week or so. It is so blasted hot here that we can only work a couple of hours in the morning before we melt. Anyway, weeding and planting and carrying cement pavers from the store to the car and the car to the backyard and then once again in the right place (only to discover at least half of them had to be moved yet AGAIN) does have its rewards. Yesterday we took time to play in the hose before we wrapped up for the day. Sabrina and Abigail had an absolute blast! I really think it was Abigail's first time playing in the hose. Grandma ran to get the camera because she was having so much fun. Her denim skort was soaked and slowly began to fall down. Just look at the photos ~ it was HILARIOUS! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time! BTW - the yard is almost done!

Abigail discovered that by jumping up and down, she could hit herself with the spray of the water.

See those bags of mulch? Those 20 bags also had to be carried from the store to the car, from the car to the back yard, then distributed to their final resting place. We are not yet finished distributing those 20 bags.

The skirt is going...

going...

GONE! She will love these pics one day!

Catching Up

It's a new year, so time to return to the things of the past that worked well, and drop those that didn't! I enjoyed keeping our family blog. I can't really recall why I got off pace - life got in the way I guess. Actually - it was Facebook, to be honest! I've posted most of our updates there in the last 5 months. Still - something about the permanency of our blog that keeps me coming back. Look for more to come!

Marine Quest

We headed to downtown St. Petersburg, FL, for a free day of marine life exhibits at the Florida Fish & Wildlife laboratory. We had a really great time, in spite of the wretched FL heat. Mercedes wasn't up for participating in a lot of the exhibits, but all of the girls really enjoyed going through the exhibits to complete the scavenger hunt. We finished the afternoon by having lunch at a local park. Enjoy the pictures!

Barbie

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Pool Time!

Here is a snippet of our summer fun poolside! Abigail is quite the swimmer and is learning to go underwater and hold her breath! She is taking swimming lessons for babies starting July 11th. I'll let you know how that goes.



As for now - we are day two into taking away her pacifier, her bottle and nighttime feedings and her lullabye music in an attempts to retrain her sleep pattern to fall asleep - and stay asleep - on her own. I have yet to have a decent night's sleep since I was 7 months pregnant while I'm here at home. Who says working out of town once in awhile isn't a good thing???

Mother's Day 2009

I received my first homemade cards and gifts this year for Mother's Day! I cried! It was really sweet. The day care center made the two picture poems and handprint shown below. They wrapped them in a nice box, filled it with candy and sent it home with Abigail on Friday when Gram picked her up. It was so very sweet! I put it in her baby book for safe keeping.


Sal got me a wonderful body pillow, as the one I got last year was accidentally left behind in a hotel during my business travels. He also surprised me with a dozen roses and a beautiful card and poem. But my best gift he gave to me was that he agreed to go to church with me and Abigail as a family. After church we all took a nap and headed to Gram's for dinner. Jen and her kids were there, as were Stacy, John & Bryce. Aunt Nancy and the girls came for awhile as well. My second Mother's Day was a wonderful day filled with family and love! Thank you, Sal!