And We're Back!

Where have we been you ask? Well every few months, I have to take a little blog sabbatical. Blogging is great fun and reading my friends' blogs is even more fun. However, blogging itself is time-consuming and everyone needs a break! I saw that my blog started leaving me comments in prior posts that it wanted to be updated, so here we are and this is what we have been doing the past two weeks...

We took a trip to Columbus two weekends ago to visit my parents and my sister's family. Moira is growing so much and her hair is getting darker and fuller. She is so cute and well-tempered (unlike someone else we all know...ahem...Gabby...ahem). Gabby started saying "Grandma" and "Grandpa" finally! She also will call them by name when she sees their photos at our house. Her favorite thing is telling me she is calling "Grandpa" on her fake cell phone.

We had to cut our visit to Ohio a little short because on Sunday Gabby began running a fever. We left in the late morning while the others (being the good Catholics they are) attended church. Later that night, Moira also began running a fever. Turns out that Gabby had an ear infection and Moira contracted Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. Both girls are making good recoveries and don't seemed to have passed their illnesses to one another. Gabby and Jack became good traveling buddies on their way to and from Ohio.

The weather has still been fairly chilly, but is starting to warm up for the upcoming summer months. Yay! We have been waiting patiently. In the meantime, my friend Kelly and I have been walking at the mall once a week to get some exercise in a warm environment. We always bribe our girls and tell them if they behave in their strollers on the walk, they can play in the quarter-operated cars at the mall. We are cheap and never pay for the cars to move back and forth, but our girls are young enough that they don't know the difference. Here is Gabby in her favorite of the vehicles--the rocket ship! Ground control to Major Mom!Gabby found a new friend in our house to play with. I have a set of VERY special amish dolls sitting on the window seat in our living room. These dolls are so special because my grandmother made them for me before she passed away. In addition, the bench they sit on was hand-crafter by my brother-in-law Brian as a wedding present. I would be REALLY upset if anything happened to these dolls. Gabby has always ignored their presence...until this week. I was doing the dishes in the kitchen and she walked by holding the girl doll. She doesn't seem to care about the boy doll yet, but I'll give her time. Maybe once she hits about 7th grade she'll start to notice the boy doll. Ha!

Charlie came over for his weekly "daycare" day with us and I had to take a photo because, for once, his hair was not standing on end! He is starting to look like such a big boy!Kenton and his stepdad Roger spent this past Saturday hanging cabinets in our home office. It is really nice to have so much storage, but it was an all-day event to get everything in place. Kenton's mom and Gabby's cousin Emma came over to hang out with us for the day. Gabby and Emma have always played together pretty well, but this past weekend I was reminded for the first time of the age gap between the two. Emma wanted Gabby to play with her doing things Gabby was just too little for. Someday their 3.5 year age difference will seem like nothing! Gabby and Emma definitely enjoyed playing on the piano together. We'll have to work on their wrist positions, but Emma did learn what all of the pedals do.

Gabby has become quite the artist over the past month. She LOVES to color and that is her favorite hobby (besides carrying her baby around of course). Here she is in action coloring and playing with her blocks.

We've rounded out the week with a wonderful picnic lunch with Grace, Clare, and Ryan today out on our deck. I didn't get any photos while the other kids were here, but hopefully Kristy will share the ones she took. I did take some photos of my beautiful girl later this afternoon. The light was just so nice and she was such a ham.