Easter

Here are the only picture I have of Easter :(  I haven't gotten a picture of Abigail in her Easter dress yet and by now, it's kinda too late.  I bought a dress on sale at Kmart (I will never do that again!!!)  It was not great quality and has ripped several times.  I should have gone with my instincts and made one.  There's always next year!  This first one is Abigail opening the fabulous gifts that Grandma and Grandpa Forrey sent us.  We loved the little jellybean pouches that Grandma made!!!   The next 2 are of Grandpa Richard and Grandma Susan Bringing Abby her Easter loot.  She loved blowing bubbles all day long and everyday thereafter until they were gone :)  The last one is of Abby arriving very late to an Easter egg hunt.  Mommy drove to the wrong place..oops!  There were only a few eggs left when we arrived and there wasn't a good chance she was going to be able to run fast enough to get them.  Luckily Vaughn shared with her and come to find out, it didn't matter how many eggs you had anyway because they were all empty!  You went up to turn them in for the candy that they had portioned into ziploc baggies.  They gave all the kids the same amount so she was all set.

A cold day at the park

Here is one of Abby swinging from the bar at the top of the slide.  This kid wants to swing from EVERYTHING!  She is always asking if she can play monkey.  What a character! The bottom shot is of My sister Emily's kids with Abby.  Vaughn, Isabel and Abby all decided they were going to go down at the same time while holding hands.  Isabel's arms didn't quite stretch long enough to make that a possibility so Vaughn toppled over...you can see the beginnings of him going awry in the photo.

A really, really sad goodbye.....

TO CHESTER

Chester had been a part of Katie's life for nearly 10 years.  Steve had the honor to drive him for the last 5 years.  To put it shortly....he died during the winter!  He went to a good cause a few months ago.  We donated him to Kars 4 Kids!  He will be missed!  We are all enjoying the new VOLVO and are glad it is now part of the family!

A LONG time coming!

Here are the picture that I promised months ago now of my adorable nephew Andrew.  He is My oldest brother Jonathan's son.  Andrew is always fun to have around!

WOW!!! What a day of scramble!!!

Today we woke up and had a pretty typical morning which included eating breakfast, getting ready for the day, sending Steve off to work and running the errands that needed to get done.  Abs and I were out for several hours and lunch time was creeping up on us.  We decided to stop at Wendy's for a burger.  The new rule for the Volvo, is that there is to be no food in the car, so we dined in the store.  On one side of the booth there was a Mother with her young son (I am guessing around age 8-9).  He was deaf and his mother was giving him a lesson on contractions (the shortening of a word or phrase e.g.. "God be with you" would be shortened to "goodbye").  On the other side of us, there were 3 women, from the conversation that I heard, the mother was 94 and  her 2 daughters were in their late 50's and early 60's.  Confused?  I am getting there just explaining this :)  Anyway, the 3 ladies were planning the mother's funeral.  The mother wanted to make sure it wasn't an ordinary funeral, she wanted a mexican spread instead of the typical meat and potato stuff.  FUNNY!  We finished our lunch, headed out to take Steve his lunch, and gave him a good surprise upon our arrival.  We headed home from seeing Steve, Abby took a short nap, and we were off again to go to the park.  Emily had called to invite us to meet at this park that we had been to several times.  I must not have been paying very good attention the last time that I drove to the park because I couldn't find it :) I drove around for about 40 minutes looking for this stinkin park!  I ended up going back to Emily's house, starting over and drove right to it.  I don't know what went wrong the first time.....FRUSTRATING!!!!!!!  We played for about an hour with the cousins, packed up and headed home.  We arrived about 15 minutes before Steve came home from work.  He asked me to meet him at the driveway so he could transfer stuff from the Jeep to the Volvo. While standing there waiting for him I noticed there was a NAIL in the tire of the Volvo.  Steve said it looked like it had been there for longer than we had even owned the car!!!!! How do you even tell something like that? We headed right over to Big 0 and luckily, it was covered under the warranty so they gave us a new tire free and clear.  We were thankful we didn't have to fork out $150 for 1 new tire today.  

We will see what tomorrow brings.  We are expecting my little nephew Andrew at 7:30 a.m. while his mother goes to the cannery.  This kid is a big ball of fun and energy and just wait until you see his cute smile!  I am sure tomorrow will be just as fun and interesting as today!!!  Stay tuned for pictures!

And the winner is?????

ME!!!!!

Last week we were fortunate enough to find this sweet little thing!  The best part about it is that it fits pretty well into our budget, which is hard to find these days.  Here are the stats....It is a 2001 Volvo S80 T6, and is a beautiful light beigey color.  We are thankful for Stephen who works so hard to provide nice things for us to enjoy!!!  Thank you Stephen for the fabulous VOLVO!!!!

Don't you wish!

I am sure at some point everyone has seen bits and pieces of this movie.  The Incredibles has become one of Abigail's favorites over the last month or so.  There is one part that makes me wish I were the one on a secluded island being attacked by a huge machine.  At that part of the movie Mr. Incredible hurts his back and can't move very well (a problem that often occurs with my back) At that point, the robot picks Mr. Incredible up and stretches his whole body out until you hear a big crack.  He then begins to laugh because he is back in commission and his back feels great!  So my point is that I wish that I could have my back stretched out like Mr. Incredible!

2 close calls!

Yesterday as I was doing a little damage control in the kitchen I noticed that my iPod was gone from its usual spot.  Earlier on wednesday after I had returned home from the gym, I set it on the counter where I always do.  It was GONE!!!!  I looked everywhere for it and about 20 minutes earlier, I had taken one bag of trash to the dumpster in the alley behind our house.  I turned on a show for Abby, locked all the doors and frantically ran out the back door to the dumpster.  I grabbed the bag of trash and ripped it open, out flies a gunk covered iPod.  I was happy to have found it and but wasn't sure if it was still going to work okay.  I got it all cleaned up and sure enough (for now anyway) it works great.  I think there were some little fingers that helped in that case.....which brings me to my next "close call".  Today I met my sister and some friends at the gym for a class that we have been attending together.  This class is held in the gym of the apple athletic club.  It's called stroller boot camp.....get all of your laughs out now.  This class is difficult!!!!!!!  Since Abby no longer requires a stroller full time, she gets to run around with the other kids in the gym while I sweat till I drop.  It is great!  Today after the class, I was saying goodbye to one of my friends and Emily started heading to the car with her 2 kids, a boy that she watches during the day and then Abby USUALLY follows.  I wasn't paying enough attention because she always stays near me or Emily.  I turned around from talking with this friend and she was GONE.  The first thought that went through my head wasn't worry, it was that she was with Emily, no big deal right.  I went up where Emily and the other kids were and she didn't have her.  I have unfortunately now felt what it feels like to loose your child.  I was sick at that point and practically started hyperventilating.  I went to some of my friends that were still working out upstairs to help me look.  It took about 10 minutes and then Emily found her and another child (the one Emily watches) running around.  When I saw her she ran to me saying "I missed you Mommy" which she says at home all the time.  She didn't know that she was lost.  I carefully and calmly explained to her that she MUST stay near me.  It really was my own fault for not paying enough attention to where she was playing and running off to.  On the way home after I had stopped crying, she kept pretending to cry while saying "mommy, I was lost, and I am soooo sorry for that"  As soon as we returned home, she said she wanted to watch Finding Nemo because "Nemo gets lost and his Daddy finds him, just like today when you found me."  It is very clever of her to make those connections like she does.  She is more intelligent than I give her credit for sometimes.  I am happy that she was found and don't know what I would have done, had the unthinkable happened.  I love that child so much and can't imagine life without her.....she is my little sugar-bean!  I would have been sad to have lost my iPod but would gladly give up an infinity of iPods or any earthly, materialist treasure for my sweet Abigail safety! 

We've got it BAD!!!!!!

There is nothing like an Idaho blizzard to give you a touch of spring fever!  I thought maybe this background would help us think positively that spring will eventually come.....oh and I couldn't resist putting up a new header.  I took this picture a few weeks ago and fiddled with it a bit in iPhoto (kinda like photoshop).  I know that I am Abigail's mother BUT I just can't get over how stinkin' cute she is!

Why pay for advertising when you have........

KIDS!!!!!!!

I splurged last weekend and went to the salon to get my hair done.  I ended up totally changing my look, which I now LOVE!  I got quite a bit cut off and my hair is pretty dark with blonde highlights, with a swoop bang.  Ever since I came home Abigail can't stop touching my hair, she also thinks it is great.  Besides everyone knows that after you chop your hair it is nice and soft and smooth.

Today we were driving around to pick up all my friends kids from school and Abs was just talking and talking about my hair to the other kids.  When the oldest one got into the car she immediately asked her "don't you just love my Moms new hair?"  I laughed out loud!  SOOOOOO, why pay for advertising when you have kids to tell everyone about everything!  I love that Abs is so into fashion and beauty.  She is a crack up! 

BLURB!!!!

Yeah!  I just received and email that blurb is up and running again with all of the slurps working.  You have to download the latest version but all of the blogger's out there can now make a book easily!  GOOD LUCK!  I know I will be starting my 2008 book right away.

Egg-static!

Steve and I were in the office chatting the other night about this and that when we didn't hear anything!  Usually in our house that is a sign that something is about to be in disarray or worse.  A while back you may remember a post about Abigail getting into a whole dozen eggs and smashing them on the kitchen floor?  She thought it was SOOOOOO neat to be able to crack eggs.  I don't blame her, I still like cracking eggs myself.  Well, I asked Steve to go check on her while I finished a few emails I was sending.  He started to laugh and said "go show Mom!"  She came in with this!  One of her little bowls with an egg perfectly cracked in it....no shells or anything.  She had gotten into the fridge, cracked an egg leaving no shell pieces in it and had thrown the empty shell away in the garbage!  She amazes me by what she does on her own.

Here she is showing us how proud she is of the egg in her bowl!

The Happy Couple!

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to attend the sealing of my cousin Natalie Pond.  Her husband Omar is the sweetest man!  The sealing was wonderful and I am happy that Natalie now has an eternal family of her own!  The Rexburg, Idaho Temple is just as beautiful as I remember it being at the open house.  I brought my camera just in case and ended up being the only one that had a camera with a charged battery.  LUCKY!  I snapped probably too many photos considering the weather outside had to have been around 10 degrees.....but you can never get too many pictures of a happy family right?  I am definitely learning how to even use my "new to me" Canon EOS Rebel...if that is even the official name of it.  It has an SLR something in there somewhere also.  Anyway, I enjoy taking photos, but really need to take a class or read up on some of the functions.  I thought some of them turned out well.  Natalie called me today to tell me that they went to get some of them printed and that the retailer gave them a fight about the  photos being copywrited and they weren't going to sell them the photos.  Those of you that are photographers, is that some setting I have put on accidentally to cause that to show in the file or something?  I had to laugh when she told me that they weren't going to get them because they were copywrited by a professional photographer!  HA!  I didn't even know what I was doing, I was just snapping shots.....lol!  Maybe I am better than I thought, or .......maybe not?!!!

Generic Happy Birthday!

Several of our family and a few friends have birthdays in January.  We have been a little 'off the ball' and have not sent cards to any of them!!!  So, just to cover a few bases here is a 

Happy Birthday!!!!

to all of those that we have missed already.  I hope your birthdays were/will be fabulous.  Love to all!

Steve, Katie & Abigail

Let it snow AGAIN!

Last week it seemed like we were having an early spring here in Idaho Falls.  I quite liked the weather!  Then, last night it just dumped again.  The snow is very wet and heavy and perfect for building snowmen!  Emily called and invited Abby and I over for a play day for the kids and ourselves.  We dressed the kids up in their snow clothes and sent them out to play.  Meanwhile we got busy making hair bows for the girls.  We both took a little break and put our snow boots on to help the kids build not one, but two snowmen.  So here they are playing the snow having a grand old time.  Sadly to say that my camera battery died before the snowmen were built so I don't have a shot of them.  Hopefully Emily will read this and post some :)  She has them all on her camera!!!

Princess Luncheon

Today most of the kids didn't have school so Abby hosted a princess lunch.  Pictured here from Left to Right are Amelia, Abigail, Olivia, Rebecca, Isabel & Shayleen.  They all dressed up in princess clothes and had a sack lunch.  My friend Bonnie brought all her fun colors of nail polish and painted all of the girls nails.   In the picture with Abby getting her nails done, there is a silver tray with petit fours on it.  Abby helped me make them for all of the girls to enjoy after finishing their lunch.  Isabel also brought a very fun treat to share while we watched our princess movie!  The girls ended up choosing Barbie and the 12 dancing princesses to watch during lunch.  We had a very fun time!  

Here are all of the girls taking a bite of cake.

Bonnie painting Abby's nails with cakes in the background.

All of the girls with their nails painted.

Here they are having just finished lunch and watching their movie.  I think Abby is in mid-spin in this shot.  She LOVES to dance along to movies with singing and dancing in them!  A characteristic that her parents admire and love also!

This slideshow has Abby in her element.  She loves to 'dips' with her Dad (dancing, with a dip at the end), so there are a few pics with her in her cinderella dancing shoes doing dips.  She loves to cook in her kitchen.  The other night we got out her tiny but real bake set and put her to work in the kitchen.  It was awesome how much fun we had together!  She is a natural little baker.  There are also some in here with today's fun hairdo accompanied by a ladybug clippie.  She loves nothing more than to see the finished hairdo with something frilly like a bow or clippie.  She actually sits in front of the mirror for 5 minutes telling me how pretty she looks!  I love that she does that, but realize that may turn into a bit of a problem in future years :)

TWO DREAMS!!!!

I had 2 dreams yesterday and one of them actually came true!!!!  Dream #1 - Steve and I have been wanting to upgrade our car to something a little newer so we took a spin yesterday in the Volvo you see here.  It was NICE & we WANT it, but we will see!!!!  Dream #2 -  that Abigail would actually go to bed at a decent hour and sleep in her room all night long!  About 6 months ago, she was very sick so we kept her in our room for several night to monitor her health during the night.  The habit stuck and we are just now making a break through to stop it.  She went to bed at 7:30 and I woke up this morning at 8:00 wondering where she was and what had happened to her because she wasn't in our bed.  I lay there thinking about how nice it would be for her to actually still be sleeping in her room.  I waited 10 minutes before getting up and by that time was worried that maybe something HAD really happened to her.  I slowly started up the stairs and saw a glimpse of light coming from her room.  It was very quiet, and then the stairs creaked and gave me away.  I hear a sweet little voice shout Mommy?  I asked "what are you up to in there?"  "I am having a party with my babies in here Mom!  I found ALL of my blanket and I love them!"

It was fun to have her actually stay in her room ALL night, and then to wake up and play in her room with her babies was even better!  I need be less anxious when I wake up with a childless bed and be thankful that my daughter is learning a growing EVERY minute of every day.  She is a darling child and I love her SOOOOOO much!

Anyway, one day we will own this beauty!  It has really great features.  It is a 2005 Volvo XC90, has 7 seats and the 5 in the back all lay flat for cargo.  There is SOOOO much more space than in the Jeep.  Abigail is always kicking one of our seats in the Jeep and I am ready for something larger.  Here's to dreams!

CHEESE!!!

Here are a few pictures of Abigail creating things in her kitchen and also of our family trip to the ice rink.  Abigail has been begging and begging to go ice skating since we told her what it was.  Once we got there she was so excited to get her skates on.  As soon as we hit the ice, she cried the entire time.  "I just don't want to ice skate mom" she said.  "I don't like the ice"....I had to laugh at that.  We ended up just putting her boots back on and dragging her a bit and then carrying her as we skated.  She enjoyed that much better because she had more control over her feet :)

Oh, I forgot to add this little bit of info that Steve reminded me of today.  Later that night Abigail was having a nightmare and was actually screaming the words "I don't want to ice skate, get me off, I don't like to ice skate" in her sleep!  It was priceless.....I think she will wait a few years before venturing that route again!

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