Rainy Day

Oops I forgot to lock the food cabinet!

Anabelle has been very busy lately

Hey Mom, don't even try to feed me, cause I can do it all by my self!!! Mmmm... these eggs are delicious!

And look I can stand now, and reach the toys on the couch too!

What's for dinner?

To Michigan and back

Last week we piled in a rental car with John's parents and drove up to Michigan to visit Ken's mom and sister. We were a little apprehensive about how Anabelle would do in the car, it was a 5-hour drive each way. John and Ken sat in the front and Sue and I sat in the back with Anabelle in her carseat between us. Belle did ok, she took some little naps and the rest of the time Sue and I tried to entertain her. At first she seemed to think, "wow! there are people in the back seat with me, this is cool!" but it quickly turned into "I am the all powerful baby and you will do everything you can to entertain me, or else I will scream at you!" This lead to countless games of peek-a-boo, playing with every toy we brought, and cleaning out our purses in the pursuit of something fun and exciting for Anabelle to play with. Magazines were ripped, crackers were eaten, cell phones were chewed on, and many objects were thrown, but we survived the car ride. Visiting Grandma Jackson and Aunt Joanne was great, we spent some time chatting on their porch and also enjoyed a nice dinner out. Anabelle had her first overnight stay in a hotel. After the long car ride, she really enjoyed crawling all over the room, and especially liked playing in the curtains.

The next day we spent a little more time visiting and then in was back in the car to head home. Although it was short, it was a nice visit and we hope we can plan another trip soon.

After our trip to Michigan we spent the rest of the week playing, catching up on sleep, eating more yummy food and visiting with family. Anabelle really had a great time with Grandma Sue and Grandpa Ken, and we were all sad to see them go.

This week things are quiet again with just Anabelle and I hanging out during the day. Sometimes she looks around like "Hey, where are all my people?"

We are now Naper- Villains

This time I have a good reason for my lag in blogging... we have been moving! On June 25th we moved to our new home in Naperville. It is a cute 3 bedroom house, with a rec room basement, and big yard. We spent the first week surrounded by boxes and unpacked at a furious pace. Within 6 days we had it 100% unpacked and put together with the exception of pictures being hung on the walls. It was a little stressful to get it done so quick, but of course now I am thankful that we put in the extra work and just got it all done.

On July 2nd we had a visit with our good friend Bonnie from Ohio. It was short, but we were so happy to see her. Hopefully soon we will get to spend some more time with her, especially now that we have a guest room =) That night Bonnie and Anabelle went to stay at my Mom and Dad's. They all had a great time together playing with Anabelle.

Bonnie and Anabelle playing

That night John and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary (1 day early). We decided to walk the 3 blocks from our new house to Naperville Ribfest, to eat some good food and listen to Sammy Hagar. Well the food was good, but it was so crowded that we could only hear Sammy a little. However, we set up our lawn chairs and enjoyed just sitting outside together and relaxing-especially after a long busy week. The next morning John and I treated ourselves to massages and breakfast before meeting back up with our Anabelle.

Grillin' the ribs

I can't believe it's been 5 years!

The night of July 3rd John's parents flew in from Texas for a visit. Since then we have been having a nice time visiting and EATING! We spent the 4th showing Anabelle why Chicago is known for it's pizza. She LOVED Lou Malnatti's and ate quite a bit. That evening we headed over to Ribfest to eat some more and watch the fireworks. It was a pretty good show and Anabelle actually liked the fireworks. She didn't fuss or cry, she just watched them. After a while she did get a little bored with them, and since she was pretty tired decided to suck her thumb and look around instead. But as usual she was a trooper and hung in there till we made it back home.

Mmmmm.... Pizza!

Happy 4th of July!

On the 5th John's family came over for a cookout. John got a chance to wear his "Party Shirt" (a birthday gift from me to him, and yes there is a story behind it) and man the grill, and Anabelle got a chance to use her baby pool again and splash around. We all had a nice time and ended the evening with some poker.

Party Shirt!

Anabelle loving her new baby pool

Anabelle with her cousin Brian

Sue and Ken are in town until Saturday and we will spend the next few days visiting with Ken's mom and sister in Michigan. It will be interesting to see how Anabelle does with the 5 hour car ride, hopefully she sleeps through most of it =) It'll be nice to see Great Grandma Jackson, and Great Aunt Joanne they haven't met Anabelle yet.

Anabelle with Grandma Sue and Grandpa Ken

I don't have pictures of the new house yet, they will come soon. Hope you all had a happy 4th of July!