More Play Dates . . .

Before I discuss fun Friday, here are the before and after pics of our new air conditioner that we had to shell out the big dollars for. Here is the sad looking old unit before they hauled it away:
and here is our shiny new unit:
they also did a lot of changes for the upstairs to heat and cool it properly. Emily and Abigail's rooms have been cooling sufficiently on Thursday night and Friday so we are glad about that.

Yesterday we met Julia and family at the mall to eat lunch and ride the carousel:
They also had fun playing at the indoor play area.
Abigail enjoyed playing with my purse while she watched from the sidelines:
And now Rachel's single stroller basket is the favorite seat for all girls:
In some sad news, our sweet Abigail burned her hand Thursday on hot food at the sitter's house. On Thursday night and Friday she had water blisters on her fingers:
Although we were very distraught that her hand had these big blisters, I felt a little safer knowing the skin underneath was protected . . . but last night at dinner the big blister broke . . . so now I'm all worried about infection:
She is still crawling so I keep thinking about all the nasty stuff that could infect her skin. So say a little prayer for Abigail's hand and that it heals properly with no infection. I tried to put some medicine and a bandage on there this morning but she immediately started picking at it and wouldn't leave it alone. So it's just going to have to heal by itself. Sweet baby.

Zoo Again!

We went to the zoo today with our friends Rachel, Julia, and Lilly. We had such a nice relaxing time today. We took our time at each exhibit, enjoyed lunch, and let the girls play at 2 of the play grounds. We were there from 11 - 3:30! Of course Emily and Abigail crashed by the time I got on the interstate to head home.

When we were in the parakeet exhibit a nice lady gave us her bird seed stick that she bought. She was done letting the birds eat off of it and let the girls enjoy watching the birds eat the rest. I've never paid for the feeding sticks before so this was a nice treat:

When we got to the enclosed lemur exhibit there was a lemur sleeping right at eye level with us so it was cool to get to see him up close:
The girls enjoyed playing in the big bird nest that's in the lemur exhibit:

We got to see the baby giraffe:
I saw the red panda for the first time ever. Lilly's glasses fell down in his area so he might be sporting some sunglasses next time we go see him:
Rachel only had a single stroller so when Julia got tired of walking she climbed in to the basket underneath. She was reading the zoo map and looked so cute hanging out under there:
At the playground Abigail enjoyed laying down on my legs and chewing on my camera strap. I think she was delirious from the heat and lack of sleep:
Today was the first time I skipped Abigail's 4:00 bottle. Girlfriend has less than a month to get off of high dollar formula! So I put her in her chair to feed her some yogurt for the first time in place of her bottle. She started eating it and then after a few minutes she looked at me and just started crying so hard like I had just pinched her or something. She laid her head down on her tray and was just crying and crying. It dawned on her that I had jipped her. I took her out of her seat to hold her but she kept tried to wiggle down . . . crying the whole time. So I put her on the floor and she laid down on the floor with her feet tucked under her and her bottom sticking up and put her thumb in her mouth and kinda sniffed and cried a little more. I sat next to her rubbing her back. About the time I was about to cave and make her a bottle because I felt so bad for her, she perked up and started smiling at me. So I put her back in her chair and she gobbled down a cereal bar. So we made it thru day 1 of dropping a bottle. We'll see how the rest of the week goes . . . who knows . . . if she gets hungry enough she'll just go in search of food under the kitchen table like she does every other day:

Home Improvement

We were late on getting the memo, but apparently September in our current home is the month for home repairs. In Sept 2009 we had a leak in our roof and while Joe was in the attic looking for it his foot went thru the ceiling. Well this September our air conditioner decided to die and our garage door spring broke! So we are shelling out lots of dollars this week to get both fixed. For September 2011 we are packing up and moving in with friends for the month : )

In the midst of the heat, I have done some organizing in Emily's room and changing furniture in Abigail's room. My friend Jennifer inspired me with how organized her kid's play room looked. So I followed some of her ideas and cleaned up Emily's room. I designated each bin for groups of toys and straightened up her book shelf. Trust me . . . this looks MUCH better than before:
I also took a rocking chair out of Abigail's room and rearranged the furniture. Here is the best before pics I have since I never really got a picture of her room all put together. Look past the cuties in the picture to see the old arrangement of the room:
Here is the new layout. There is more room now. This room is hard to put furniture in because one wall has a big window and the other wall has a big mirrored closet and door taking up space:
I also have to share my bargain shopping. As I've stated before I have an obsession with Emily and Abigail matching. Well when I shop at consignments sales I have to suppress that desire . . . however, I bought an orange dress for Abigail at a sale a couple of weeks ago and paid $6 for it. I went on *bay to see if I could find a matching one for Emily since the dress was a popular brand . . . and I found one in her size. I bid on it and actually one. I paid $12 for her dress (including shipping) . . . not bad! So for $18 my girls get to match : )
Also, in the hopes that fall weather will actually make it to the south this year, I went ahead and made them some pumpkin shirts to wear next month . . . come on cool weather!
And just for fun here are some misc pics from this weekend. My parents came for a visit and we had a great time together:
This morning Emily was watching her favorite show and Abigail kept trying to join her:
And last but not least . . . Emily dressed herself this morning. She found these socks and told me they were her frog socks and she was a ribbit frog. I know the two service guys that came to our house today (garage and a/c) got a kick out of this outfit:

First Haircut

Abigail got her first haircut on Friday! She did a great job and looked like such a big girl sitting in the chair. Here is the before picture:
Here is a lock of her hair to go in her baby book:
Emily got her haircut too. The hairdresser gave Emily some sticker earrings and sprayed her hair with sparkles. Emily LOVED it!

11 Months Old!

Abigail is 11 Months Old Today!!!!

She gets up on her knees now and crawls on all fours instead of scooting. She LOVES to carry around a wet washcloth after her bath and we have to trick her to give it up before putting her to bed. She also loves carrying around a diaper because it crinkles. I've tried giving her burp cloths and dry wash cloths to see if she just wants something to carry around but she's not interested in those : ) She gets her feelings really hurt when something is taken away from her that she's playing with (which happens almost daily with her big sister). She signs more and waves bye and says "b" when waving. She also claps her hands together and says "p" for patty cake. She loves to point and jabber and is a sweet sweet bundle of joy!

I didn't realize how much lighter her hair has gotten this summer until I went back thru some older photos. Her hair color was dark brown in April:

Happy 11 Months sweet Abigail!

Apple Pickin'

On Saturday we met some friends to go apple picking. This is our 3rd or 4th trip to these orchards in North Georgia and we always enjoy going. We spent the morning checking out their stores, picking apples, and then eating barbecue for lunch.

I felt like I was a step behind at the orchards this year so didn't get much picking time. I miscalculated how long it would take Joe and Emily to fill up our apple bag and stopped to feed Abigail. By the time I found them our bag was full. So we did pick about 3 or 4 apples together here:
but I was a little bummed about missing out. I'll just make sure I keep up with my fast paced husband and first born next year : )
Our new friends at church were able to join us this year:
Emily had fun eating the apples and Abigail even tried several bites of apple as well. On Sunday night I cut up an apple for Emily to eat and when Abigail saw it she started signing "more" for me to give her some too!