The First of Many Visitors

 

With graduation right around the corner, visits from family have started.  My beautiful sister Elizabeth, her fun hubby David and their cute baby Monson came from Utah. 

We had such a fabulous time.  It was so much fun.  And as always, it went way too fast!!!  We played games, went shopping, toured Kentucky, stayed up way too late, ate yummy food, etc.  Here are some pictures from all of our fun!

 Abigail always loves to help with babies.  She was always ready to help Monson with a bottle, chased him around trying to cram food in his mouth, and loved to find him toys.  A little too much help :)

 

We played lots of games.  

We had to do something "Kentucky-ish" so we headed to Keenland!  This was my favorite thing that we did while they were here.  Twice a year Keenland, the local horse track, has horse races.  On Saturdays they have a big yummy breakfast and you can watch the horses warm up.  There were also activities for kids. 

Lizzy and Barton watching some races:

This picture is one of my favorite photos of the trip.  Aunt Elizabeth was wonderful and helped alter some of Abigail's winter jammies into summer jammies.  This is Abigail modeling her new "bracelets" that Aunt Elizabeth made for her out of the scraps.

 Barton has found a new love, rode biking.  He and David went for a ride.

The very exciting personal tour of the Dental School.  This is Barton's operatory. 

 

Spring is beautiful here in the Bluegrass State.  We went to the Lexington Cemetery where Spring is in full bloom.  

Thanks Elizabeth, David and Monson for coming.  We can't wait to see you again!  

And to the rest of you, you have approximately 47 more days to book your stay at The Sloan's Inn and Suites.  Don't wait too long, the dates are filling up fast! 

Around The World And Back...

Okay, we haven't really been around the world and back but we have been busy traveling.  We have been busy visiting 5 different states in the past few weeks.  It has been a lot of fun to see so many of our loved ones.  Here is a brief summary of our travels:

Let's start with a few happenings before the big voyage:
A few days before we left we had our annual St.Patty's Day (Potato) Bar with a few friends.  Knowing Daddy wouldn't be there for Abagail's birthday, we added cake and ice cream to the festivities:

 The night before we left for NYC we let Abigail open up her birthday presents early:

Who needs to reach the peddles when they have a cool Daddy to push them around!?!

Hello New York City!
My sweet cousin invited us to tag along on there Spring Break Trip to NYC.  We were sad to leave Barton (he couldn't miss school), but we were so excited to go and stay with Spence, Wendy, Elliana and the Boys!

While we were there Abigail turned the big #2!

 

Abigail and Ellianna were able to have a lot of fun cousin time:

It takes a good friend to share the marshmallows out of one's Lucky Charms.  It takes an even better friend to help you eat the cereal part that is left.

 Here are a couple of site seeing pictures:

As close as we could get to the Statue of Liberty, due to damage from Super Storm Sandy

A view of NYC

Hello Ohio!
We decided to stay and play at Suseann and Billy's house for a few days, until Barton was ready to pick us up for our next stop. Abigail is always spoiled with attention whenever we visit the Meaders.  She was in heaven.

Hello Indiana!
For Easter, Barton came and got us and took us to the Bate's house in Indiana.  We love spending time with Walton, Michael, and Madison.

The Easter Bunny visited Saturday morning.  Thankfully Abigail warmed up to the idea once she saw the basket full of goodies.  Prior to that she told me that she was scared of the Easter Bunny and didn't want him to come.  I am pretty sure that is due to a not so happy encounter with the Cat in the Hat a few weeks ago.

 

We had a fun Easter egg hunt with some of the Bate's neighbors.  Abigail was too concerned with what candy was inside of the egg to really care about finding other eggs but she ended up finding a whopping dozen!

Unfortunately Abigail had a tummy bug early Easter morning.  Her and daddy had quality time at the Bate's house while the rest of us went to church.  We then had the traditional yummy Easter dinner.  Poor Abigail was a bit disspointed to only get to eat Pedialite and rolls.  But she was a good sport about it.

Hello Wisconsin!
We then continued our journey to Wisconsin.  We went to look for a place to live for the next couple of years.  I wish I took pictures of the area to share with you all, but reality hit of how sad i am to leave my much loved life in Lexington.  As a result I was a grump and didn't take pictures with the camera.

I did take this picture on my phone to send to Momma Sloan. We got to have dinner with her brother and his family.  It was so much fun!  Momma Sloan grew up in Wisconsin/Illinois and therefore we will have extended family not too far away from our new home.  I am really excited to get to know the Zielke side of our family better as we will be living so close to them for the next couple of years.

Hello Tennessee!
After Wisconsin we headed down to Tennessee for General Conference weekend to see our good friends the Newsomes.  We loved watching conference, had a lot of fun playing games, eating yummy food and hanging out.

Barton and the girls enjoying conference

One of the best parts of the trip was that Barton and I got to sneak away to do a session at the Nashville Temple:

The Best Month of the Year

Happy March to everyone!  I am always sad to see February end.  As many of you friends and family know, my birthday is in February and we don't just celebrate it one day but the whole month is declared as "My Birthday MONTH" :)  Okay, it is more of a joke than anything but I still uphold it as my birth-month.  Well, as all Februarys are great this one was no exception.  Here are a few of our highlights from the Best Month of the Year....

We have to start off with our number one highlight, Miss Abigail.  She is growing and developing so fast.  It amazes me how fast she is learning.  For example, at the end of January I was busily doing something while she was coming down the stairs.  It hit me what she was saying.  She counted to 10 in perfect order!  I knew that she loved counting and loved numbers but I had never realized what she could do by herself.  She is growing up so fast.

She is my little helper.  This month she started helping me bake and cook.  Whenever she finds me cooking in the kitchen she starts saying: "baby help".  She then pushes over a chair and helps me stir and pour.

 We took Abigail bowling and she loved it!  She loved pushing the ball on the count of 3.  She enjoyed cheering everyone else on.  (She also loved putting her face on the ball.....gross....This is good for me right, having a toddler is helping me not be such a germaphobe, right?:)

 

 The Big Birthday Bash!  Thank you to all who made my birthday so great!  I had a awesome day.

 

Valentine's Day!  I love holidays.  Nothing beats a nice romantic candle lit dinner with your toddler to chaperone you and your hubby! (For those of you who can't tell what Abigail is saying here: "Eye, Love, You"  This is how she has said I love you for a while.  It is so cute!)

 

Here is Abigail making valentines.  She loves art projects.

 

Valentine's Day Party!  We threw a Valentine's Day party for Barton's Dental Buddies and there wives.  We ate yummy food and played the Newly-Wed Game (won by the Skanchys)!  It was so much fun.  Thanks to everyone who was able to come!

 

 Love these ladies!

Tooth-Prom!  Instead of going to the overpriced Dental School Dance we went to dinner and played games with fellow Dental School friends.  It was so much fun.  I am going to miss all of these guys so much!

 (Oops, took this pic at dinner after Ben and Amanda had already left)

Besides the above we were also blessed this month with an adorable new niece Baby Claire.  We have also been busy with preparing for the big move.

Happy March to everyone!  It looks like March will be Abigial's Birthday Month as she has been talking about her birthday everyday since mine. 

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

...Utah!  We had a great blizzard over the weekend.  It felt like a little piece of home.  Kentucky doesn't get too much snow.  The average has been just a couple of snow falls per winter while we have been here.  And it usually doesn't stick.  So it was fun to have snow for a few days.

Not only did we have snow over the weekend, we had some visitors!  We love the Newsomes!  Our good friends who use to live next door came and stayed for a few days.  It was fabulous!

Kat and I went to the wedding of a sister in the ward we use to visit teach together.  When we got home everyone was outside working on some snowmen:

 The guys with their finished snow-couple

 Us ladies needed to take a picture in front of the snow-couple too, even though I can't say we did more than talk while the men were hard at work :)

 Abigail is always begging to go outside and blow bubbles.  Due to it being too cold we haven't done it for a while.  As expected, blizzard or not Abigail loves her bubbles.

 It was so good to see the Newsomes!  Abigail adores Aimee.  I kept catching them holding hands.  It was so sweet.  This is them holding hands while Aimee was finishing her breakfast.