May!

May is one of my favorite times of the year! This May the highlights were going to Mississippi and our Anniversary.

Our trip to Mississippi:
Barton's twin graduated in May.  We were so grateful that we got to go join the fun!  We were there from May 7th through the 13th.  We had so much fun catching up with all of the Sloan family.  We wish that everyone wasn't so scattered across the United States; but at least we have trips like this to catch up on each other's lives.

While we were there we celebrated Barton and Brandon's 30th birthday.  Nerdy Thirdy was the theme.

Thank you everyone who sent letters to Barton!  He loved them!

Congrats Bran on the big accomplishment of graduating from Optometry School!

The pool is always on the list of things to do when we get together! 

Some of the older boys got some nasty sunburns.  This picture doesn't do the burns justice.

Abigail had a dental trama while swimming at the hotel pool.  Good thing Dr. Daddy was there!  I would have ran her straight to the ER if he and Uncle Josh weren't there.

She walking, slipped on some water and hit her tooth on a pool chair.  The tooth was intruded...aka pushed back up in the gums.  I didn't even know that that was possible!  Thankfully the roots didn't fracture and the tooth in coming in beautifully.  It isn't even discolored!

Daddy has been keeping a good eye on it with X-rays:

We took advantage of everyone being together and took some family pictures.
Grandma's Gang (Abigail is her Baker's Dozen, #13)

It had been years since we were all together!  It has been so long ago that we now have lots more kids.  Here is the last Grandma's Gang picture:

We miss you Grandma!

I love watching Abigail play with her cousins.

While in Mississippi we got to spend a little time with our good friends and business parters, the Skanchys!  We love these people.  It was so good to see them.  Glad they will always be in our lives!

Abigail LOVES sweet James!

On the 19th we celebrated our 7 years of marriage!  I am so grateful to be married to my best friend.  He surprised me and took me to the ballet.  (A big thank you to his co-resident Kristina who gave him the tickets.  And to the McCoys for babysitting Abigail.)  It was a fabulous night.  

April!

Here are a few highlights of April:

I love my big brother!  He is one of my best friends.  I was ecstatic to hear that he would be in Chicago for work.  We drove down one night to spend the evening with him.  It was so good to catch up and spend time together.  He took us out for yummy Chicago Style Pizza.

We were having too much fun to leave after dinner.  So we left the restaurant and went to McDonald's to hang out some more. 

Ballet!  Abigirl loves everything to do with ballerinas.  She usually has a tutu on if we are home and is always twirling.  She was ecstatic to start ballet lessons.  She was so excited for Tuesdays because she knew that meant Ballet.  (She is getting pretty good at days of the week and knowing the routine for the different days with what to expect).  Everything went well for the first few ballet lessons.  But then it went all down hill from there.  She started refusing to go.  Like, screaming-refusing.  Parents aren't allowed to go to class so I don't have a clue what happened to scare her away from going.  It hurt my heart because she loved it so much at the beginning.

We signed up with some of her friends.

Our Basement: Here is a before shot of our basement.  Our landlord offered to put new carpet in it.  It was pretty nasty.  So Barton and I scrubbed it down.  Barton also removed the bar.  I will have to post after pics soon.  We are still decorating it. 

These pictures do not do the nastiness justice.  It was really dirty.  But we are loving the extra space now!

Dying Easter Eggs:

The Easter Bunny Came!

On Easter Sunday we had Stake Conference in the afternoon.  Since we had so much time we spent the day with the Lofgrans.  We were able to enjoy lunch together, go to Stake Conference, enjoy Easter Dinner, carrot cake and lots of games.  We had a fabulous time.

Abigail and Jacob playing

Abigail and Jacob at Church. Abigail loves Jacob. 

Our Month of March!

 Happy Spring everyone!  We hope you are all enjoying the sun that is shining and the new life that is starting to grow.  We are so excited that April is here.  Here is a recap of our March:

#1: Abigail turned 3!
I have mixed emotions about my baby girl turning 3.  It is weird to think that she is 3, but at the same time it feels like she has been 3 for a while.  I always loved being in public with my 2 year old and to see the shock on people's face when they asked if she was 3 or 4 and to reply that she is only 2.  She is really tall and has a great vocabulary. So it is only fitting that she is now 3!

She had a great birthday.  We kept it low-key this year.   Her only request was a princess castle cake.

Here is what she woke up to in the morning: 

She loves her new kitchen!  

We took brownies to nursery.  

 

After church we spent the afternoon skyping with grandparents.  At the end of the day a few friends came for some food, cake and ice-cream.  It was a great day.  

We love our Bugaboo so much!  She is so smart and such a sweet girl.  I love her giggle and hearing her sing.  I am so grateful to get to hang out with her all day, every day.  She is sunshine in life! 

#2: We survived our first Milwaukee winter!  Yes, awful is an understatement about winter here.  I don't mean to be a whiner but it was bad.  Now that spring has sprung there is a chance that I might start liking Milwaukee again :)  For most of March it was still cold but we had a few days in the 30/40's that we took advantage of:

We made the voyage across the street to our lovely park

And we even voyaged down the street to the zoo.

#3: Some fun playdates!  Abigail loves her friends.  It is fun to watch their little imaginations and their minds in action.  One day we were having a presidency meeting when I saw Abigail's friend run across the entrance to the room in only a swimming suit.  She started calling Abigail to follow.  Abigail shouted back: "I can't, my mommy will see me!".  That caught my attention.  This is what I found.  All the girls decided they needed to go "swimming" in this "swimming pool".

A random picture of Ab's and Jacob taking a ride on Benson 

#3Happy St. Patrick's Day!  We braved the cold and headed to the St. Patty's Day parade.  Milwaukee definitely knows how to do candy in a parade.  We came home with way too many sweets. 

#4: No more baba!  In celebration of Ab's turning 3, the day after her birthday she got to go make a binky bear.  I was so nervous about how she would do without her binky.  But she has done great!  Here she is holding her two binkies that she put in the bear: 

Making the bear; putting her binkies inside.

Giving her new bear a good bath. 

It was all fun and games until we got home and started getting ready for bed.  She asked for her binkies.  As soon as I reminded her where they were she broke down and started sobbing. (Which of course made me cry too).  She cried herself to sleep in my arms that night but has been great since!  Out of habit she asked for it the next day but was fine when we reminded her.  She loves cuddling the baba bear and feeling the binkies inside.

#5 A little part of home was in our neck of the woods.  This isn't a great picture of the actual event but the Jazz came and played here in Milwaukee.  Our sweet landlord took us to dinner and to see the game.  We were booed a few times when cheering for the Jazz.  We had a lot of fun!