She's growing

Some how my little girls are always small for their age. Pediatricians tell me it's genetics and not to worry (why didn't I get that genetic make-up to show through in me I will never know). However, when I took Abby in for her 9 month check-up about 5 weeks ago, the doctor was really concerned because she stayed the same weight (15.13 lbs). I wasn't too worried considering the fact that she had grown an inch in a short period of time. He gave me calorie suppliments to add to her food and said to use things fattening like butter on everything. Well, I don't really cook with much butter or salt, so that was a bit of a change. The last several weeks I haven't been giving her the calorie suppliment, but have loader HER foods up with butter. She also has become a VERY GOOD eater lately. Today, Dan took her to the doctor (long story why I didn't) today because she hasn't been feeling good. They were shocked to see how much Abby had grown. She's now 17.12 lbs! That's 2 lbs in about 5 weeks! This is totally different than what we're used to with her. Instead of below 5%, she's not around the 15%!! I'm so proud!

Have you Ogoed?

Last weekend we were able to spend some time with Dan's brother, Jonathan. He's working in Nantucket (must be rough) on a fishing boat! Friday night we picked him up at the ferry in Hyannis and Saturday we played! It was so nice to see him and we can't wait until he finishes work in the beginning of November so we can spend TONS of time with him while he hangs out with us for a few weeks. He is an awesome young man and we're so glad he's apart of our family. Here's just a few pictures from Saturday.

We went to the Amesbury Sports Park. They have tubbing, HUGE soccor fields, OGO (the human hamster ball) and next year there'll be a long zipline.

In the summer, the OGO is filled with water so it feels like you're going down a big hill in a washing machine.

There are only 3 places in the world you can do this at: New Zealand, Tenessee and Massachusetts!

Mckenzie loved cuddeling up to Uncle Jonathan (yes, that's his real hair color)!

The new model for Desitin

This is what happens when Dan watches Mckenzie...


Today I had a dentist appointment and when I got home, I couldn't help but smell Desitin and sure enough, I found Dan scrubbing down Mckenzie in the bath tub. She had covered herself head to toe with the stuff. Dan said that he had been working and realized that the house was too quiet. He found Abby in our closet (like usual) and Mckenzie in Desitin. It's not too much of a surprise considering the fact that she has always LOVED eating the stuff (yes, Desitin is the stuff you put on babies bums when they have diaper rashes. I know, it's gross that she puts it in her mouth) and she loves lotion. At least it's not something worse like vasaline where it'd take FOREVER to get out of things. Dan was able to scrub her down and now she's just our Desitin smelling 2 year old daughter. Oh the joys of parenthood! :)

9 MONTHS!

Holy Cow! Abby has been outside of me longer than I was pregnant with her! She's growing up so fast and I love her completely! She brings continual joy and happiness and I have no idea what life would be like with out her. Abby is learning so much so fast. She's become quite the cruiser and gets stuck in between things all the time. She still loves to stick things in her mouth (I really should write down all the things I've found in her mouth and diapers). The last few days she's been learning how to wave. It's so sweet to see her excitement in things. Her hair is growing fast and since I have no desire to cut it, she looks a little shaggy at times. Oh well. She eats NON-stop and big servings too. A couple of days ago she had 2 PACKETS of oatmeal for breakfast. I was so impressed. It reminds me of how Mckenzie used to eat an entire In-N-Out burger by herself. With her no teeth and sweet dimpled smile, you can't help but feel happy and want to smile too. Her hearing seems to be getting better as she gets completely excited when she hears her name and responds to everything! She loves to snuggle still and she eats up all the attention! She LOVES the water and would spend all day in the pool if I let her. I took the girls to the pool the other day with some friends (one lives in the apartment complex too) and we were there for over 2 hours, most of which was Abby playing in the pool. We look forward to her 1st birthday in a few short months! We love our little Abigail so much and are so grateful for her. The picture I added with this post is of Abby and her daddy. She has recently become a HUGE fan of her daddy and absolutely loves playing with him and finding ways to keep his attention.

Kimball Farms and Wayside Inn

Sorry ladies, the worlds greatest husband is taken! Swo you'll have to settle for atleast the world's 2nd greatest husband. Yesterday was our 5th wedding anniversary and only a couple of times (I'm not exaggerating) he's been able to surprise me. Trust me, he tries hard too! Well, we take turns planning our anniversary and this year it was his. Apparently, he's had an idea of what we'd do for a good while and was so happy that I hadn't figured it out. Well, two days before the "big day" I figured it out. I was THRILLED!!! Even though it wasn't a total surprise, it was one of my favorite things I ever done with Dan. Sorry, I'm a little long-winded. Yesterday, Dan left work early, I picked up our babysitter and we were off and Dan even drove! We first went to Kimball Farms. It has YUMMY icecream, minature golf and bumper boats. Dan had a decent game of minature golf and me, well let's just say I understand what Happy Gilmore felt like before Chubbs taught him how to putt.


Then off to the Wayside Inn for not only dinner, but we stayed there too...WITHOUT kids (please don't take this the wrong way. I love my kids!). For those of you that don't know, the Wayside Inn is one of the coolest places in Massachusetts. First of all, it's the oldest still running Inn in the country. It first started in 1716 (for lot's of cool info. about the place go to wayside.org) meaning it's older than our country! Also, if you know the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, then you know his 1863 book called "Tales of the Wayside Inn", this is where he got the idea. He had stayed at the Inn and well, wrote the book. Anyway, it's not just an Inn, but a restaraunt that has INCREDIBLE food. Dan took me there for my birthday in July and I was so excited to go back. So, we had a spectacular evening of food and history. There is a calm and cozy feeling to the Inn as you walk around and absorb the history of it. There's only 10 rooms and 2 of which they say are haunted (Dan wants to stay in one of those sometime, but there's no way you'd get me in there). One of my favorite things about the room is that there are little notes hidden throughout from other passerby's. You end up spending half the night finding and reading the little notes. The grounds of the Inn are absolutely beautiful and it was so hard to leave this morning to come back to reality (althought I did miss my little girls). The pictures don't do it justice! Thank you, Dan for a most AWESOME wedding anniversary!

(Have you ever seen this place on a greeting or Christmas card???)

5 YEARS AGO...

5 years ago we were married and sealed in the Denver LDS temple. It's fun to look back at our wedding day and the excitement of it, as well as the many things we've done these past 5 years together. From our completely long-distance courtship and engagement, to our yellowstone honeymoon adventure, to teaching snowboarding lessons to 11 year olds, to Jessica graduating and becoming Dan's "sugar-mama", to Cancun/Cozumel, to the adventures of pregnancy with Mckenzie and beyond, to another knee surgery for Jessica, Dan graduating, moving to AZ, having our little Abigail, to moving to Massachusetts, we've had fun. Times have been good, other times a bit more difficult. Through it, we've come closer together and I love him more today than I did when we got married (though hard to believe). Daniel is an INCREDIBLE husband and father who tries so hard in his life to always be improving. He puts his family as first priority and is always finding ways to teach our little girls about Jesus. I feel blessed and honored to have him in my life! This probably sounds all cheesy, but then again Dan would say that I am a bit cheesy.

MEMORIES

I'm sure most of you in the "blogging community" have either done or seen this. I just didn't want to feel left out and I thought it'd be a nice addition for when I turn this blog into a hard copy family journal. So, PLEASE do this for me! Here's what you do.

1. As a comment on our blog, leave one memory that you and I (it can be about Dan, Jessica or both) had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't have a blog, you can still participate. If you don't want to play on your blog, that's fine. Just write something on mine. Just click where it says comments at the bottom of THIS post and go from there.