Abigail & Hat

"Oh outlet...how I wish I could touch you!"

"My hat please?"

"Never mind, I'll get it myself!"

"What's this for?"

"Now for a little ballet..."

"Have you been there the whole time?"

Cool Dude & Dudettes

Tunnels aren't just for crawling!

In My Opinion

Lowe's sells Valspar Signature paint (blue can, rust colored lid) that is supposed to be a primer and paint all in one, therefore covering in just one coat. Well, based on our experience this past weekend at my mom's...they are wrong. We had to buy another gallon of paint (which isn't cheap) to finish the job. What Lowe's didn't tell my mom when she first bought a gallon was that some people are having trouble with reds, oranges (the color we had), and some greens...they apparently need 2 coats in order to cover. Granted we would've had to do 2 coats anyhow, one with primer, one color, but it's still frustrating!

Tearing Papers

Caden has recently discovered his obvious joy for tearing up paper. He usually does it every day at least once, and will sit for awhile tearing. It's great!

Abigail and Grass

Here's what Abby thinks of grass:

When I first put her down, she surprisingly didn't seem to mind.

Then one knee popped up off the ground.

Finally both knees were up...and that's how she stayed. She lets out this little squeaky fuss until you come to pick her up.

At this age, you don't mind a picture from this angle.

Standing Up

She's on her way down in this picture, but Abby has starting standing on her own for a few seconds. It seems like she'll only do it when she's distracted with something else and doesn't realize it. Still no sign of walking on her own, but I'm guessing we are only getting closer!

OK - scratch that...she took about 4 or 5 very wobbly steps on her own this afternoon. Jason had her practicing, so I missed it, but it might happen sooner than we thought!

Baked Spaghetti

I made this on Sunday before our vacation so that all I had to do was pop it in the oven Monday evening. It's a lot like lasagna, just with spaghetti.

1 package spaghetti (14-16 oz.)
1 lb. hamburg
1 medium onion (chopped)
1 jar meatless spaghetti sauce (26 oz. - I like a little more)
1/2 tsp. season salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
5 Tbs. melted butter
2 cups (16 oz.) small curd cottage cheese
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook spaghetti. Meanwhile, cook beef with onion and drain any fat. Stir spaghetti sauce and season salt in with the beef. In large bowl, mix eggs, parm. cheese, and butter. Drain spaghetti and add that to egg mixture. Toss to coat. Grease a 13x9 cake pan. Place 1/2 the spaghetti mixture into pan. Top with 1/2 cottage cheese, 1/2 meat sauce, and 1/2 mozz. cheese. Repeat layers. Cover and bake at 350 for 40 min. Uncover and bake for 20 more min. or until cheese is melted. Enjoy!

Abby at 14 Months

Last Wednesday, Abigail turned 14 months (sorry it took me a week to post Abby). I think she's really starting to look older and is definitely getting taller. According to our bathroom scale, her weight remains around 17 1/2 lbs. Maybe she's just going to be a little peanut. She is finally wearing some 18 month clothes though the 12 mo. still fit her well.

Some things about our little girl:
1. hates grass...LOVES sand
2. very impatient - especially when it come to eating and waiting for me to cut up her food
3. continues to eat just about anything we give her
4. continues to take 2 naps a day (at 10 and 3) and sleeps from around 8 p.m. until 7 a.m.
5. down to nursing once a day
6. very opinionated...I remember when she used to play with whatever was around her, but now that she's more mobile, she has her places she wants to be and she'll let you know
7. loves to walk while holding your hand with both hands but isn't walking alone yet
8. easily frustrated and lets out a cry when things don't go her way or she isn't able to do what she wants to do
9. has all 16 teeth
10. likes to use me as her legs - she'll want to be picked up and then if I sit down she pulls at my shoulders until I stand up, then point to where she wants to go
11. continues to share her smiles with anyone and everyone and brings so much joy to our lives

Dewey Beach

Caden - "Let's talk about the beach."
Me - "OK. We're going to..."
C - "Dewey Beach in Delaware for 4 days and 3 nights with Mammy and Erin. We're going to get sand between our toes."

This was the beginning of the conversations we had ever since we first decided we were going to the beach about 6 months ago. He asked me to talk about the beach probably about twice a day. It got to the point where he just finished the conversation for me.

We left for Dewey Beach around 4 a.m. (Caden didn't fall back asleep the whole way down) on June 27th and got home around 10:30 p.m. on June 30th. It was just long enough of a vacation for me. I like the beach and the fact that the kids are entertained for hours, but the sand just gets to me. We stayed at a really nice house that we rented from a friend of my brother-in-law. It was about 2 blocks from the beach with a really busy road to cross in the middle.

Here's a little look at our 4 days:
Monday - went to the beach, came back, ate lunch, crashed on the couch, ate supper, and then my mom tried to put the kids to bed while Jason, Erin, and I watched How to Train Your Dragon on the beach
Tuesday - Woke up at 6. Caden, Mom, and Erin got up and went to the beach before breakfast to look for seashells or pistachio shells...apparently it's hard to tell the difference in the early morning light because they came back with both :) After breakfast, we walked around town, saw Snow White at a children's theater, came back to eat lunch, went to a park where Caden was thrilled that there was a sandbox, came back, crashed again on the couch, ate supper, and then took a walk on the beach.
Wednesday - Woke up at 6, packed a lunch, went to the beach for the morning and into the afternoon, came back, Abby crashed, but Caden didn't, ate supper, went back to the beach to make s'mores at the bonfire but Caden only lasted about half an hour...just too tired.
Thursday - Woke up at 6, packed up the cars, went to the beach for about an hour, left around 12, drove up to Rehoboth Beach, walked the boardwalk, ate supper at Grotto's Pizza, left the area a little after 6, kids were asleep after 5 minutes in the car and then slept until 6 the next morning.

Overall, it was a great little vacation with perfect weather! Thanks Mom and Erin for all your help!

The short hike to the beach.
Monday:

Ready to go that first day.

He wasn't scared of the water at all...but it did wipe him off his feet about 3 times over the course of the 4 days.

I tried to keep Abby's bottom off the sand and in the shade. That lasted about 10 minutes.

Some of Abby's favorite things to do were walk around the umbrella pole, walk around the cart, and walk around and sit on the beach chairs.

My boys crashed on the couch after being up since 4.

Oh - Abby also enjoyed trying to sit on the tiny rung under the bottom of the kitchen chair.
Tuesday:

Early morning shell hunting.

Before the play, we found a 'too skinny for me on this windy day' pier that Jason walked Caden out on.

They're out there somewhere...

Caden sat there for a few minutes and then went back to Daddy's lap.

Abby was getting tired, but she sat for almost the whole hour to watch the play.

See how tired she was?

The little park.

I thought this thing was fun.

Wednesday:

Abby and Caden made friends with a little Russian girl. We met them on Wednesday, and then played again with them on Thursday. The little girl liked Abby's toes. Her mom told me she was counting them. It's great how a language barrier doesn't make any difference to kids.

Caden and Jason started digging a pretty big hole. They worked on that for a long time.

This was taken right before a huge wave came up and knocked Caden over...he was done with the water after that.

Some nice people nearby offered their boat to us to for the kids to sit in. It was a big hit!

At this point Abby was practically pleading with us to take her home so she could sleep. I think she slept around 3 hours that afternoon.

Showing off the cute hooded towel from Nana and Papa.

Abby's shirt says, "My Aunt is my BFF", but she was too wiggly to be able to see that.

Roasting marshmallows (or burning them like I like them) at the bonfire.

So happy aren't they? I don't think they knew their picture was being taken.

Thursday:

Our Russian friends again.

Caden was a little reluctant to get his feet wet on the final day, but Jason was able to get him in eventually.

We were able to see dolphins (4 at this time) just about every day we were there...but they were hard to capture on camera. Good try Mom!

The boardwalk at Rehoboth Beach.
Dewey was no where near as busy as Rehoboth, something I was grateful for.

Getting sleepy.
We won this little sea lion for Abby that we have creatively named Rehoboth. We bought Caden a rubber snake that again was creatively named Dewey.