Cousin Week

We named the last week in May "Cousin Week" here at our house. It was super fun as Abigail and Luke got to spend quality time with all of their cousins throughout the week. Aunt Jenn, Madison and Olivia came over on Tuesday and stayed for a couple of days. There was a lot of dressing up and dancing together. The girls had a ball!

Luke liked the extra attention as well. Madison took really good care of him.
Jenn and the girls left Thursday after lunch just as Aunt Mil and Joshua were rolling into town for the long holiday weekend. Luke slept through Joshua holding him but I am sure he really enjoyed it.
Abigail's sharing abilities were put to the test all week with all of the cousins, but I think she did really well overall (we did have our moments). Below are a couple pictures of her sharing her newest prized possession with Joshua. How cute are they?

It is HOT in Mississippi, so Joshua and Abigail enjoyed cooling off in the sprinkler in our yard Saturday morning. The sprinkler ended up not being near as fun as "painting" the play set proved to be.


Monday we made our first trip of the summer to Brandon's Splash Park. Joshua and Abigail are at a great age for the splash park this year and ran all over the place. Nana and Coach treated us to a pass for the season that we plan on enjoying A LOT and that Joshua can enjoy any time he comes over. We are so excited about it!

Staycation 2011

With high gas prices, hospital bills, and such a young baby we decided taking a "staycation" would be better than traveling somewhere for a vacation. Chad took off work one week in May and we spent the majority of it here at home. I was really excited about it and Chad was a little hesitant about it. I think he ended up enjoying the week more than he thought he would and was able to mark a few things off of his "Honey Do" list at home as well. We made the most of our time together and did a lot of fun things around Jackson.

Monday we went to play at the LeFleur's Bluff State Park playground. We had never been there and were so impressed with what a fun playground it was. Abigail LOVED it and we have already been back. (Yes, she is wearing a jacket in this picture. We had a random cold snap in the middle of May and it was 58 degrees that day.)

Tuesday morning we went back to the Children's Museum. It was a great time to go as there were not that many people there at all. We spent a couple of hours there playing and took our cue to leave when a school group of 200 kids came in around 11:00am.

Abigail enjoyed playing dress up in the music/dance room.
Here she is sitting in the real car you can play in. She LOVED this because she was able to "drive" and push all of the buttons she is not allowed to touch in Mommy or Daddy's car.
Wednesday we went to see the Mississippi Braves play. We didn't make it through the whole game, but she did really well overall. She was excited to wear her baseball hat like Daddy.
We veered away from the "stay" part of our "staycation" on Friday and drove to Memphis to see Chad's Papaw Ken. He had never met either of the kids and we were excited to introduce them to him. Abigail and Luke both behaved very well and we enjoyed our visit with him.

Abigail has now met all of her living Great Grandparents and Luke will hopefully accomplish that by the end of the summer after a trip to South Carolina to meet my PopPop and Grandma Giet.
It was a super quick trip with a lot of time in the car, but both Abigail and Luke were troopers. Here are my two cute road warriors.

P.S. This trip also marked Abigail's first stay in a hotel that she can remember (she and I stayed in a hotel when she was 7 weeks old when Joshua was born). She thought it was the coolest thing ever and touched everything in sight. Jumping on the bed, playing with the phone, swimming at the indoor pool, eating breakfast in bed, watching Disney Channel ... what more could a two year old want?

Recent Abigail News

Abigail is transforming into a little girl before our eyes! I blink and she has learned something new. At 2 1/2, she is seeking even more independence and talking and acting as though she is going on 14 already. The drama she brings is probably just a foreshadowing of her 14 year old self to come as well (begin praying for us now please!). She talks NON STOP from the time she wakes up to the time she goes to bed at night. I take that back. She talks for a good hour to hour and a half even after we put her to bed too. I'm not exactly sure who she is talking to until 9:30pm each night, but they have some funny conversations. You can not get anything past this girl either. She is always listening, comprehending, and repeating what you say. Her memory astounds me as she will recall places, things, conversations, etc. from months ago regularly. She has adjusted beautifully to becoming a big sister and has BIG LOVE for "Luke Man" or "Lukey Luke" as she calls him.

Here she is below on her first day in "Big Girl Panties." She was so proud of herself, but not proud enough to keep them dry. We continue on the potty training journey and are getting better and better each day. Stopping to go to the potty is more of an annoyance to her than walking around with wet pants.

Some dear friends and neighbors of ours handed down this purple princess Pontiac Solstice to Abigail and she is now all over the roads in our neighborhood. It took her a week or so to get the hang of steering (one of Daddy's sprinkler heads was sacrificed to her reckless driving) but she has mastered it now and asks to drive her car all the time.
The beginning of summer meant the end of Mom's Morning Out at church. Abigail LOVED going to "school" twice a week and adored Mrs. Darlene and Mrs. Angela. She learned a ton too! She talks often about her school friends and will really miss them this summer. Mommy already misses Abigail's school days too. We are already counting down the days to August when she starts back in a new class. Thank you PPBC for the awesome ministry of Mom's Morning Out. Below is one picture from her end of the year party at MMO (she couldn't put the sweets down long enough for a picture).