It is a boy!!

Alijah Samuel arrived Friday July 17th at 8:08 in the am. He was 5 lbs and 15 oz and 19.5in long. He is doing great. He is a great baby. Abrielle is going to do great with him. She already has done so many things that show us she is going to be a great big sister. I have not been on top of the picture taking but I hope to change that starting tomorrow. I have been sort of out due to a spinal head ache. Today I went back to the hospital and got a blood patch and I am so thankful to be feeling better. Praise God! More pics to come.

Camping trip

Well, as you would expect I do not update things as they happen. We went camping in the end of June. We got to experience a great thunderstorm, one of my favorite parts of camping. Here are a couple pics from our little trip to swim in the creek. Abrielle loved being outside all the time, riding on the quad, dragging everyone around as she explored, noticed all sorts of bugs and had lots of marshmallows (her favorite). My brother took on his camera pictures of her smore experience and the word is there is at least one worth sharing but I have not seen them yet. It was cute though, when she was eating her Smore she gave everyone a bit of it, she was very concerned everyone ate some of it. The other thing she did that was to die for was one morning we were sitting around the fire eating breakfast. My brother had not got himself food yet. She went over to the table, got a plate and some food and brought it to him. “Al Al eat!” For those of you who had to see my belly there it is.

update

I have tried several times to update this silly blog, but I keep having problems with it. Sort of made things very unmotivating to keep trying when it never works. Update to make it short. We went to Hawaii in March. Fun Fun Fun. Softball season was fun, I loved the girls on my team and our varsity won state. School ended and we have really enjoyed summer. Brent has a different summer job so he is home a lot more and that has been a lot of fun and nice. We have got a lot of work done on the house. Or I should say he has, my job typically becomes chasing Abrielle. She is loving being outside all the time. The countdown is on. Four more weeks til the new baby comes. Still no idea if it is a boy or a girl. Still working on names. Starting to really count down til July 17 when my scheduled C section is. Not too much of an update but not going to spend a lot of time when this silly thing has not been working.

poop

Abrielle and I got out of the shower and I forgot to bring a diaper into the bathroom. I sent her out into the living room to "go get a diaper and bring it to mom." She came back and was saying something while pointing out toward the living room. I said, "show me what you are talking about." I followed her out as she pointed to the changing pad. I nice pile of poop on the changing pad. She was really worried. It of course took everthing in me not to laugh.

Full of New Surprises

It seems like it has been a long time since Abrielle has had several firsts occur. What a fun last couple of weeks. Abrielle is in love with being outside. She would stay outside with her hands freezing cold all day before she would want to come in. She loves the snow. We got to go to Mammoth CA to snowboard for three days a couple weeks ago. She had so much fun. We of course had our own little sledding area out of the porch of the lodge. She would convince anyone she could to take her outside by bringing them her snow clothes. Before she even eats breakfast she is looking for her jacket and shoes so she can try to convince me to go outside. Today she got her shoe on over her pajamas. She loves to eat snow. She will just bend over and put her whole face in the snow to get a bite of it. We compromised one night and gave her a cup of snow, which she thoughtfully shared with the dogs, Ellie and Caneel. The other morning she was babbling off some long old jargon and then ran into her room, and got two boots out of her closet, one rain boot and one snow boot. Both are too big. She put them on herself and brought me her jacket. As you can sort of see she is still in her pajamas.

Abrielle has had several firsts the last few weeks. She learned to unlock the doors in the house. She now will try to turn any lock she can reach (even during music class). She is a little obsessive about some things. Locks, shoes, being outside and playing with water are what she loves right now. She also learned to get water out of the fridge. I came into the kitchen and there was a swimming pool of water and she was soaked head to toe with cold water. I got home the other night and asked Brent why her doll is soaked thinking she took it into the tub. Brent said she tried to give it a drink. If I give her a cup of a little water in it she enjoys pouring it from one cup to another. Surprisingly she usually does great poring spilling very little then spilling the whole cup by kicking it over or something when she moves to get another cup. Abrielle also entertained our Bible study last night when she learned to climb out of her crib. We all were entertained as Brent was on a mission to find out just exactly how she gets out. All this to say we have had a great last few weeks enjoying Abrielle.

Weekend of fun in the sun.

We had a great weekend getting to enjoy some nice weather in the valley. We had softball games all day Saturday, and I am fired up to get to work with these girls. Abrielle wanted nothing to do with inside but wanted to be playing outside all day. She got to go to the park and she went down the huge slides face first on her belly, no fear. One of them is really fast and good thing Nana was at the bottom or she would have done a face plant with her doll in hand in the sand. Grandpa spent a lot of time with Abrielle out front throwing the frisbee with the dogs, Abrielle busting up the whole time. As you can see Grandpa is one of the links to her beautiful blue eyes, as her Great Grandpa Paul is the other link.

Hmmm

Well, it is not every day you can post there are lots of new things going on. First, we are expecting our second little one this summer. I am 13 weeks now and due in the end of July. When I got that news I have never been more excited to not have to spend the summers in the Valley. We got this nice little surprise just before Thanksgiving. A big surprise it was, but how can you not be excited about the miracle of life. We just bought tickets to go to Hawaii over spring break and I am super excited about that. Two of my friends adopted infants in the last month. I started a new Bible study last week and it will go through the end of Feb. In three weeks softball season starts and I am going to be coaching the JV team. I am starting to get really excited about this. There are some awesome girls I will get to hang out with. And we are getting ready to go on our annual ski trip the first week of Feb. Abrielle is growing fast she is in the 96th percentile for height and 94 for head circumference and average weight. She makes us laugh every day, what could be better. We are sure enjoying her. Hope all is well with everyone. Miss you all.

So much fun to be had

Abrielle has been really enjoying having Brent home these last few days. He introduced her to egg nog. She loves it! Today we went tubing in my parent's back yard. Abrielle loved it. I could not believe she would go down the whole hill by herself without any fear. She even would go over the little jump and get a little air and would just laugh. Puppie Ellie (my mom's Christmas present surprise) was funny trying to jump on the tube with Abrielle. What fun.

Christmas Tradition

Every year we decorate sugar cookies. This year perhaps was a little more enjoyable for the few members of the family who do not enjoy this tradition as much as others. Abrielle was so funny enjoying herself, her joy rubbed off on the rest of us.