This past weekend we drove to St. Louis to visit with my sister and brother-in-law, Lauren and Nathanael. We figured Abigail needed some time with her aunt and uncle. And we thought a trip to the St. Louis Zoo would be a fun way to spend an afternoon.
We think the elephant might have been her favorite.
She also knows the sounds for a duck and a snake, but I forgot to ask for those. Oma, Bapa, Nana, & Gragon are her grandparents. So far she hasn't been brave enough to try any other names. Sorry Auntie M and Lauren... and all you other aunts and uncles. We'll keep trying.
I'm feeling rich and a little bit clever today. A few weeks ago when I was driving home from the grocery store, I spied our neighbors getting rid of a perfectly good six-person patio table and chairs. We've been garage sale-ing for patio furniture for years, and this stuff looked way better than what we'd seen before. I pulled over just as Ed began tacking up a sign that said, "FREE. Please take."
Um, all right. I will, thank you very much.
I know I shouldn't care so much about getting/having stuff, but this was FREE! And I'm so excited - the set looks brand new. The other two chairs are residing on our screened porch off to the left of the photo. Plus, David and Mom2 bought me the umbrella for my birthday, and he had a chance to put it all together this weekend. So last night after Abigail went to bed, we sat outside, lit some candles, and actually enjoyed being in our backyard. How nice.
After our trip to Ocean City, we spent a long weekend in VA with David's sister. R & S have three kids. Their youngest, Anna, was born just 4 hours before Abigail. It was a blast watching the baby girls play together.
David's nephew, Adam, pulled out his guitar shortly after Uncle Vid started strum- ming. Look at how he's trying to play left-handed!
Daniel reminds me of Ralphie (from A Christmas Story) in this picture. Not sure why he donned the glasses to read, but I thought it was pretty great.
The girls spent a lot of time swapping toys, following one another around, and staring each other down. They really enjoyed having one another to play with (at least from what we could tell).
The family that bought The Little House has lived here for just over two years now. This is what it looked like the morning we moved in.
And this is what it looks like now:
I'm pretty proud of us.
Since we've owned our home we've redone a bathroom, waterproofed the basement and put in a sump pump, installed an attic fan, replaced every single window, installed central air, replaced the front door, removed some bushes and planted new ones, and pruned the trees. Oh, and of course we repainted every room in the house and tore up old carpet, too. See why. (Does that count as crucial home repair? I think it does.) I just talked with a tree guy today about taking down a tall spindly pine on the east side of the house. (I'd love to plant a dwarf Redbud in that empty spot on the right side of the photo. Someday, maybe.) On Wednesday a contractor friend is coming to price what it will take to replace our second bathroom (that we had to tear out during the waterproofing job) and better heat our partially finished basement - we want a playroom for the Babblegail. I know we won't be able to afford both jobs, but I'm excited about his visit anyway. We will be able to afford the bathroom, and it will be nice to be a two-bath house once again. We had some near-emergency situations during my pregnancy, and I want to avoid that before we start on the next one.
He's an IT guy by day, musician by night. I was a teacher... now I'm a wife/mom/woman trying to find creative outlet. We were married in June of '07. Bought our first house in May of '08. Celebrated our first baby June of '09. Waiting for Baby Boy to join us in spring of '11.
