Abby Turns 1...just a little late

Where has the time gone?  It seems like I was just getting ready for Thanksgiving and now it’s almost New Years’!  I don’t think I am going to win Mother of the Year this year (since it took me over a month to post about my 2^nd born’s first birthday, and we wonder why the middle child gets a complex?) so I’ll guess I’ll shoot for 2012.

We had many celebrations with lots and lots of family for Abby’s birthday, which fell on Thanksgiving this year.  We had chocolate cupcakes that looked like turkeys, “I’m 1!” onesies, crowns & only a few fights over presents.  Overall it was a success.

It was only one short year ago I was walking up and down our street, eating spicy food & bouncing on the exercise ball trying to get her out.  Now she’s doing so much:

Walking

Clapping

Waving

Saying “Boo” & “Mama”

Eating so much we usually have to cut her off

Teething

Not sleeping

Starting to sign (food, more & music)

Terrorizing the cat & sometimes Tula

Pooping in the bathtub – almost every night

And doing EVERYTHING her sister does

She definitely has a “strong personality” and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

We love you Abigail Louise!

Welcome Baby Maddax

On November 9th @ 3:57pm, baby Maddax James was born to our good friends the Camburn family.  He was a few days early, although I didn't hear his mama complaining about that.

Since Jon & Erin decided not to find out the sex of their baby before he was born, they got a lot of green & yellow clothes.  So, after his arrival we threw a "Help start baby Maddax's wardrobe" shower.

He got a lot of good "little man" clothes for his whole first year.  I think he was pretty excited about it, although he slept through most of the shower!  Everyone had a turn to meet Maddax, even Mr. Camburn (Jon's dad) held him for the first time since he was born.

Welcome Maddax!  We are so happy to finally have you here.

Grandma Meyers (Erin's mom), Great Grandma Marilyn (Erin's Grandma), Maddax, Erin & Kate (Erin's younger sister)

My mom & Mrs. Camburn (Jon's mom) playing the diaper game

Erin with some of her spoils

Like father, Like son

The happy family

Halloween with the cousins

I'm only a month late, but here are pictures of the Halloween costumes.  Natalie was Dorothy, complete with the sparkly red shoes & Toto in her basket.  Abby was supposed to be a munchkin, however I've heard comments about her being Mork from the TV show Mork & Mindy.  I probably should have included a giant lollipop, however the mom in me was forseeing many fights, sticky everything & basically only a stick remaining anyways so I opted not to do that.  Then of course you have my adorable nephew dressed as Yoda.  It's so fitting.

Next year we'll have to coordinate the three of them with the same theme, before they start fighting back & picking their own costumes!

Baby Gap Ad

Over the summer, we had our friend Liza take pictures of the three grandkids for my parents.  We spent an afternoon in the park and after much bribing with food, crying and a few smiles, we got a few pictures we could work with.

**side note:  I had this picture on my desktop at work & my co-worked asked me why I had a Baby Gap ad on my computer.

Thirty Flirty & Thriving...

One of my best friends turned thirty this past weekend.  For months, her sister and my other friend Traci and I have been planning a "spy day" as Jess would eventually name it.  Basically a scavenger hunt.  We gathered a lot of her friends & family to participate and after many emails, some flow charts & and iPhone app, we made it happen.

We surprised her at 9:30am with her favorite custard rolls, then we kidnapped her for the day.  The day went something like this... rollerskating with Ginny (college friend) & family, lunch @ Ginny's.  Shopping for a new outfit (present from Mom), then pedicure & manicure (present from me).  New shoes (from other college friend), pie with candles, then off to Greektown, Detroit for the evening.  Dinner at Fishbones, drinks at the Casino, along with some gambling and lounge singers, then up to our corner room on the 29th floor (courtesy of Aunt Laurie & Uncle Jeff) with an amazing view, to eat cheese pizza & drink champagne at 3:30am.  Phew... it was a jam packed day full of fun.

We of course made her wear flashing gear that advertise her age & make her look fabulous!

Here are some pictures from the day.  Not sure why they are a little blurry, I stole them from Traci's camera so you can check them out on her blog here as well.

It's fall...

It's definitely that time of year.  We had our traditional Halloween festival with Nona (Phil's mom) again this year.  She was such a good sport hosting us, cooking and playing broken wrist and all.  We had a great time as always eating, picking out pumpkins, carving (although Phil and I ended up doing all of the carving this year... who was this party for again?) and spending time with Nona.

Here are just a few pictures, I'll post more later.

Binder Park Zoo

A few weekends ago, we took a big group of people to Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek. I hadn't been there (aside from the Zoo Boo in October, but that doesn't count since there are really no animals out then) in probably close to 10 years.

It was an extremely hot day, but we managed to make our way around and get the whole "Zoo Experience." We rode the tram, fed the giraffes, saw the giant tortoise, ate some ice cream and even saw a peacock with it's feathers spread. It was a pretty exciting trip.

Abby while we were waiting for the tram to Africa.

Natalie & Champe checking out the giraffes & other animals in Africa. Don't worry, the animals weren't scared off by the tiger on his bum!

this was truly one of nature's amazing beauties

Natalie after she fed the giraffes. She thought it was so funny that they stuck their (really long, may I say) tongues through the nets to get the lettuce from us. She laughed so hard at this.

Ok, the tongue doesn't look that long here, but I swear they are like at least a foot long.

Rhiannon & Alistair looking very coy

Abby & Henry all pooped out from their big zoo adventure

Happy Birthday to my favorite nephew

My nephew Thomas Champe turns 1 year old today. We celebrated over the weekend with the whole family and reminisced about last year and how we spent the whole fourth of July weekend trying to convince my sister to go to the hospital. We thought you'd never get here, but after a whole day of labor and several hours of pushing... we finally got our first look at you. Now a year later here we are spending as much time as possible with you.

It's been a year filled with fun and great memories. We've enjoyed your company, your smiles, babbles, first steps and watching you grow so fast. We are blessed to have you in our family.

Happy birthday Mr. Champe!

My Favorite Cousin's Wedding

A few weekends ago my favorite cousin Staci married the love of her life Ross (not to be confused with her brother Ross). We traveled up to East Lansing for the beautiful ceremony and spent the night eating amazing food, drinking and having a blast with family.

We brought Phil's mom along to watch the girls at the hotel while we went to the wedding. Everything went off without a hitch and a good time was had by all.

The bride relaxing before the big event:

The happy couple


The perfect photo bomb

First Annual Indiana Camping Trip

You may recall the last several years posts about a fun filled soccer weekend in Indiana. Well, last year Phil decided he’d had too much soccer fun and opted out of the annual tournament. Well, the wives decided that we couldn’t let another year go by without getting together, so we organized the first annual Pokagon State Park camping trip. By all accounts it was a great success.

We were joined by the Camburn’s, the Hunt’s & the Harbert’s. We actually did the whole camping experience, tents, bugs, campfires, raccoons & all. It just so happened that there was a triathlon being held in the part on the Saturday that we were there (can we ever get away from those things? I mean seriously!).

The weather was beautiful so we got to enjoy the amazing beach at the park. We did get rained on Saturday night for a little bit, but the Camburn’s were prepared with a great awning for us to sit under. We had some raccoon friends that really wanted to join our party, so badly that they kept creeping up towards the campfire and even ate some of our food out of the cooler when we weren’t looking! Don’t worry, the boys were armed with flashlights & rocks to protect us…. Side note – no raccoons were harmed in the making of this blog since the boys aim wasn’t always spot on.

The park held a turtle seminar at their nature center and had a few good playgrounds for us to try out. We had so much fun we are already planning our trip for next year!

the Hunt's have a lot more (and better) pictures to look at here