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Saturday, November 28, 2009

Thanksgiving pix

Pictures courtesy of Aunt Melody! We had a great Thanksgiving day with Marilyn's side of the family, at Grandma and Grandpa Maynard's house. Of course for Andi, the day consisted mostly of being squeezed by all the Great Aunts and Uncles, Grandparents and Great Grandparents:

Great Grandma Maynard.


Great Uncle Fred.

Great Aunt Melody
Grandma and Grandpa! The weather was so nice (upper 60's!), that we got to sit outside!
Andi is always the center of attention :)

Don't we look purdy :)
The Bryans. Oh how grandpa loves to get his picture taken.
Nope, no pictures of a turkey or any other food, because you know, we didn't really eat anything at all .... ;)

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Daddy's home!!

Friday morning Andi and I finally got the long awaited phonecall....Ben's coming home!! We had the choice of waiting until 4:50 pm for him to fly to Laramie, or to drive to Denver and pick him up there at 1:50 pm. Since I had done just about all the waiting I could, I decided to leave right away, and drive to DIA!

One word: YAY!

We were wondering how Andi would react to seeing her Daddy again for the first time in 3 months, but even though she was a little hesitant in the first minute or so (heck, even I had to do a double take when he came up the escalator ... Army uniform, shaved head, -20lbs ...!!), she warmed up to him again really quickly, especially after hearing his familiar soothing voice.

Home with her daddy.
Daddy brought me an army bear!


This morning...having a blast playing on the floor!


Just for comparison with the top picture...below Ben and Andi right before Ben left:




Tuesday, November 17, 2009

A few more days ...

Ben didn't end up coming home on Sunday, and instead we get to wait just a few more days. Hopefully he'll be coming home on Thursday, though we don't know yet what time, and if that might delay into Friday.

Meantime, we are keeping plenty busy, of course. My neighbor says I'm doing a very good job acclimatizing Andi, taking her on walks with Sage even when it's cold out (though the single digits are off limits) :)

Andi's watching her mommy shovel the driveway and sidewalk from her high chair put in front of the window.


Playing together downstairs. Who doesn't like to play with measuring cups and spoons, a mini army football, package stuffing, a toy phone, a real phone and a giant dog? We all know it, kids these days like sensory overload ;)


Monday, November 9, 2009

8 months

Tuesday marked Andi's 8 month 'birthday'
... here are a couple of pictures from the last week or two:


8 month shot with Slungel






We had fun swimming with Debbie and Jo and the kids, and Debbie captured a nice shot of Andi's rolls with my camera ... this girl is healthy! :)


Playing on the floor:

In her halloween costume on Oct. 31st:


The best news? ... Ben is supposed to be coming home on Sunday! We can hardly wait .... :)

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Long time no blog...

Andi and I have been keeping very busy since my mom left, and we're definitely due for putting up another blog! Andi is doing so well, and I keep being amazed by all her developments. I can't wait for her daddy to come home and see it all! She can sit up by herself now and really loves this new perspective. She's also working on her immune system ... :) ... since the beginning of fall she's had two colds (yay for kids sharing bugs), and she also had a nasty 3 day stomach bug that had her throwing up lots, and even had us in the ER one night.
Here's just a couple of pictures from the last three weeks:

Andi's 7 month picture with Slungel.

At grandpa and grandma's Bryan's house. I can sit up now!

Future piano player.
Getting a taste of grandma Bryan's home grown, homemade carrots!

Carrot lipstick, a new trend.

I love fringe!


Smiling pretty.

Andi really loves dogs! Sage always makes her smile and giggle when she walks by, and Andi really loves it when it sit on the floor with her and let her pet Sage. Dog licks are even more hilarious! (I'm being very careful though!). While grandpa Bryan was out hunting for a couple of days, we watched Kenai. Andi loves to sit by the window and watch Kenai and Sage play.




Andi and Kenai.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Grandma and me

Grandma Mooiweer came to visit and together we ...

Cuddled and played lots...
and lots.

and went swimming,


and ate breakfasts and learned about oranges,

and learned to eat squash,

and took baths in the sink,
and visited Grandma Bryan where I got even more cuddles!,

and even got cuddles from Great Grandma Bryan!
What a lucky baby I am!

Friday, September 25, 2009

Girl time!

For the past two weeks (with one more week to go!), my mom has been visiting, keeping us company while Ben is gone. It's been a special time, as we don't get this chance very often living far apart, so we've been enjoying every minute of mom-daughter-granddaughter bonding :)

First thing that had to happen according to my mom was to finally get me a real tea pot (we've noticed that a lot of Americans get this confused with a tea kettle - used for boiling water - and very much a different thing from a tea pot ;) ), so we can have our tea and treats every afternoon. We also went shopping one day in FtCollins - mostly old town - which was so much fun! Unlike when I go shopping with Ben, I could finally take my time trying things on (over and over and over again ... ), and even ended up with a dress! In the evenings we've been having fun cooking tasty dinners and eating together. I even tried my hand at grilling antelope steaks (we all know that the grill is a man's realm), which turned out delicious - yes, I'm pretty proud.

Last Monday through Thursday morning I had booked us a cabin in the snowies, and we planned to explore the snowy range area and hike. However, we all know now that winter decided to poke its head around the corner at that time, and with it being especially windy, snowy and cold at higher elevation, we just enjoyed a few days of relaxing, reading and having more tea and sweets :) We did get to see three big moose on one of our little walks though!

Our cabin. (On one of the last days, when the sun had returned, and most of the snow had started to melt)
My mom in the snowies (Bryan family, we can explain how my mom ended up in a Huskers coat :) ..... )

Grandma and Andi snuggling in a little chapel on a hill.
Mom and Andi in the cabin.
I guess the only bonus for Andi now that her dad is not here is that there is room in her Mom's bed! Lately I've been having to get up with her several times a night, and in our small one-room cabin it was just more convenient to have her sleep with me. Pretty cozy too if you ask me! :)
My mom (and Andi too I'm sure) has also been enjoying watching Andi every now and then while I go out for a walk with Sage, or take a nap, or whatever else. Thursday night, my mom watched Andi while I went to the ladies bible study, and even though my mom and Andi had a lot of fun together singing songs, and playing and cuddling, when I came home and Andi saw me, she got so excited, and smiled and stretched out her little arms at me and was just wiggling! This had never really happened before, and I admit, it made me feel pretty special :)

Some more Andi updates: like I said in my previous post, I've been working on teaching Andi how to eat :) First up was more of the rice cereal, but that started to make her gag, and I don't blame her - that stuff tastes like walpaper paste. Because I didn't want her to become a sweet tooth from the start, I figured I try vegetables next, starting wit carrots. I thought we were off to a good start, but soon she would frown even at the sight of her bib (does she know what's coming?), and would gag, really gag after the first tastes. We have since tried squash, and sweet potatoes, and though the latter is slightly more appealing to her, she still doesn't think much of this veggie thing. This morning I finally caved, and gave her some sweet bananas - she sure likes those alright! I guess it's in her genes, and she is destined to become a sweet tooth like her mom! (I asked my mom to bring my baby book along, and pretty much every entry in there it says things like: "Wiesje likes her sweets, and wishes she could have lollipops and candy for breakfast" ... oh boy)
Andi is so excited about eating solid food.....
Talking with my girl.