long time gone...

my beautiful mother. one of my best friends and greatest allies.

i dont think you can see it here, but andrew did have a few tears when we finally dropped her off. he kept asking "can i please have a ticket? can i please have a ticket?"

he asked me if he could drop the flower he picked in the water. i said sure , and then he was very very sad it was gone when he did.

me and mine...

caught a pic here of him jumping in mid air.

andrew took this picture. i cropped it and straightened it a little, but not bad! my mom was helping him a little too. but he LOVES to take pictures.

working hard..building a temple. just like the one in the picture.

check out andrews building behind abby in this pic, what a pro!

i love her chubby little smiles:) she thinks she is SOOO big. she climbs up onto everything she can. she pushes andrew around these days, but rightfully so. he is such a meanie to her! she gets tackled a LOT, and hit a lot, and anything she is playing with usually ends up taken away, because she of course goes after his favorite toys. life is interesting between those two. for me- exhausting.

andrew LOVES angel Moroni. sorry this photo could have used some editing...but no time for that right now.

ROAR!

she was very unsure about this uneven ground. the bricks were not flat, and she didn't get too far.

he wanted a picture by a wagon wheel, i sing him "Rock Me Mama Like A Wagon Wheel" a lot.

the day my mom left (thurs) , we went down town after dropping her rental car off and rode trax up to Temple Square. then we went to the Church Art Museum and then to the Nauvoo Cafe (one of the best places to eat!!). it was fun. then we went to the airport and i got lost a 100 times or so, i know my way around very well. i even ended up going on some overpass in the airport marked "Authorized Vehicles Only" . luckily it didn't end up on a runway or anything and i was able to get out...

andrews first attempt at writing his own name. he did this all on his own, and i then brought it to me, and i was stunned! i haven't been working with him lately at all with the wedding and my mom here, its just been really busy...but i was very very impressed with his letters! so far the only letters i've seen him do are U's and 5's, which plaster his papers.

he had so much fun with the fountains at the Secret Gardens.

abby was a little grump that day, we had taken her into the dr's that morning and found out she had an ear infection. andrew did pretty well though, he ended up having to get a shot (his last HIB was missing because they had a shortage) and he wasn't happy at all about that, but he was pretty good the rest of the day, other than being totally wiped out from pushing a tonka truck for 2 hrs.

abby LOVES to climb. especially stairs. only she tries to walk up and down them like we do. no crawling or going backwards for her...

at the "stinky" gardens. i called them the smelly gardens when i was telling my mom where we were going, because its probably called the fragrance gardens or something, it has all the aroma plants like mint and things like that. but andrew was then calling it the stinky gardens...haha

we went to thanksgiving point the day before she left, and andrew took this truck and pushed it the WHOLE way thru. for 2 hours. i was impressed. he didn't tire out, he even threw a fit when i tried to carry it across the parking lot when we were leaving. he had to push it right up to the car. and then he was so exhausted the rest of the day....the flowers and trees weren't all in bloom , its only about 65% they said. but it was still pretty.

the only problem with the truck situation is that he seemed to get pretty far ahead of us most of the time...it was hard for him to slow down when we were going down hills.

for andys birthday he got a sand and water table, which he has been LOVING! now we just need the weather to stay warm to he can do it! oh i can't wait for when i have a backyard. our back porch is great, but its a drop off right at those rocks, so i can't just let the kids play... abby LOVES the outdoors and every time the door opens she bolts and is so crushed when it gets shut before she can scurry out.

andrew and his cousin brooklyn, they are little buds

So i've been out of the blogging mode for the most part for a while, my mom came into town and that basically puts a screeching halt to my internet use. i could care less about facebook, email and blogging while she is in town because i see her maybe twice a year. and a lot of my blogging is for her, because she is in alaska so far away and i want to keep her and my dad and other siblings updated on my life and what we're up to everyday. so enjoy some of these pictures from her trip, we had a lot of fun, i just miss her so much now! i think i might really look into working for an airliner so i can get free flights. i've got to find a way to see her and my dad and sisters up in alaska more often. i can't stand being so far away!!! but anyways, life goes on. dan started working for the census today, he's still doing insurance, but this is just a little something extra. which is always nice...abby is taking a nap. she has her first molar in, and the other side (both bottom) is coming soon... it took at least a month for this molar to get in.