We have had a very busy summer since my last post.

In June:
Abigail gave her daddy a very memorable book.

Chilled at the pool.

Drove a golf cart.

In July:

Abigail was bitten mercilessly by mosquitoes while watching fireworks.

Went to a wedding.

Slept in a tent & dressed up like a little lamb.

So far in August:
Abigail played with her cousin & tried her hand at being a big sister.

Sat on a swing.

Had a picnic with her Daddy.

In June our baby was growing.

In July our baby was still growing.

The family camping event this year had the theme “Nursery Rhymes”. Abigail was the lamb from “Mary had a little lamb” and I was the Old Woman in the Shoe though I took my “costume” inspiration from the line “she had so many children she didn’t know what to do.”

In August, you guessed it, our baby was still growing!

This was yesterday at 33 weeks along.

We got a couple more cute family shots in July & August so I thought I would share those also.

I don’t really have the time or energy to do “classic” scrapbooking. Then, I found this great site called shutterfly.com where I uploaded my photos and created this great book for Abigail. I filled it with pictures of her aunts, uncles, cousins & grandparents. There are also pictures of Abigail, Terry & I. I am so excited for this to arrive in the mail so I can hold it in my hands!

Click here to view this photo book larger

My little baby

Isn’t much

Of a baby

Anymore

Happy 2nd Birthday Abigail!

Terry & I have been having a great time playing with our new camera and figuring out how to get some really great pictures with it. We went out to the Crosby Nature Area across the river from Fort Snelling 2 weekends ago and we got some awesome pictures.

The river was pretty high and many of the trails were flooded but it made for some good opportunities.

I really like this shot of Terry standing at the edge of the water.

There were two dogs having a great time swimming and chasing sticks so I took advantage and got this shot.

Seeing spring & new life show up after the winter.

Terry got this one using manual focus (something I haven’t yet ventured into).

After grabbing some lunch we went to Terry’s sister’s apt to pick up Abigail. She had a great time hanging out with Tracey at Underwater World at the Mall of America and playing at her apartment.

I think her expression is just so cute, almost like she doesn’t want Terry to take anymore pictures but she still likes it when he does.

Abigail has started blogging again. Read what she wrote yesterday.

Tonight we were at IKEA sharing an ice cream cone with Abigail when she told us her first knock-knock joke.

Abigail: knock knock
Terry: who’s there?
Abigail: Hannah (one of her dolls)
Terry: Hannah who?
Abigail: um, ice cream (then she giggled)

Hopefully this will just be the first installment of original jokes by Abigail!

Alternative Title Chosen by my husband : How a crazy lady spends her Saturday.

After reading some of the first hand accounts from the Little Rock book signing (some people waited 4 hours) I knew I needed to arrive early to the Mall of America on Saturday for The Pioneer Woman Cooks book signing. The signing started at 1pm so I thought arriving at noon would probably be a good idea and get me in and out a little faster. I told Terry we needed to arrive early and he suggested 10am. I laughed. I thought it was absurd to arrive that early. I know she has a big following but come on. Well, it turns out (and it usually does) that my dear husband was absolutely right in his 10am assessment.

So instead of heading right to the Mall of America at 10am we went to Jo-Ann Fabrics so I could pick out buttons for the sweater I just finished knitting for Abigail (I think I am as shocked as you that I’m posting knitting to the knitting blog ). Might as well show a photo of it in it’s unblocked state (the edges will lay flat once I’m done).

I found the buttons I wanted pretty quickly then hopped over to the flannel aisle to find something to line a baby hat with. Abigail decided she needed to carry the bolt of fabric which worked out fine until she decided to start unrolling it on the floor. Then she had a tantrum. I was very appreciative to Terry since he was able to bring her out to the car while I waited to get my fabric cut. I could hear her screaming the whole time it took them to get out of the store. Fun times.

After all that we went to the Macaroni Grill for lunch. Terry had a gift card from his birthday and he was feeling like pasta. We had a nice time, Abigail really liked her macaroni and cheese and we really enjoyed helping her eat her caramel sundae.

We didn’t arrive at the Mall until 12:45 so I was feeling the pressure of being late then I got into Nordstrom Court and couldn’t see the end of the line. I was glad Terry dropped me off and went to his aunt’s house because it was going to be a long wait.

I didn’t get any great line pictures but this lady did! When she shows the line snaking past Caribou I was at the far left edge of that picture by Hanna Anderson (I can’t actually see myself but that’s where I was).

I met some really great people in line that for some crazy reason I didn’t take any pictures of. I think the Mall air must have clouded my picture taking sense. I also managed to have the camera on the wrong setting the entire time I was there.

About 30 minutes before my turn I noticed someone familiar up on stage getting her books signed. It was ChrisAnn from Love Feast Table! We met at the Mckmama Mudd Lake gathering and have been following each others’ blogs & twitter feeds since then. She has a picture of both of us posted here in her Pioneer Woman post.

Finally after 5.5 hours of standing, knitting, chatting, texting, calling & staring I got my 1.5 minutes with Ree Drummund The Pioneer Woman. She is just as charming & funny as her blog portrays and she’s even more gorgeous in person. I’d say the only thing that would have made it better is if there was Chocolate Sheet Cake at the table with her!

Ree, it was so nice to meet you and I hope you come back to visit MN again! Thanks for being just as gracious with me as you were with the hundreds before me!

Saturday kind of got away from me in regards to cooking but it was a great day for hanging out with Terry & Abigail. Abigail even napped in a big girl bed for 2 hours!

After she got up we went to the Mall of America and walked around. I picked up a couple things from Old Navy with the 30% off coupon I had and another bread pan from Le Gourmet Chef. Now I have two bread pans the same size and one that is wider. The bread recipe I have from my mom makes 3 loaves and I couldn’t make it because I didn’t have 3 pans. I could have made two loaves of bread and turned the rest into buns but I didn’t really think about that until just now. It will be nice to get ahead on my bread making. I was using my bread machine to mix up enough dough for one loaf but then I would have to make bread every couple of days and that got to be too much. Now I can have two loaves waiting for me in the freezer and when I pull the last one out I will make 3 more loaves!

Sunday we went to the early service at church (9am) so Abigail could get an earlier nap in and I could start cooking! While I started on a Hamburger-Barley Soup, Terry started working on homemade flour tortillas from The Happy Housewife. He did a great job on the tortillas. They were so soft and tasted great with the leftover Chicken Mexican Skillet, a little cheddar cheese and some salsa.

It was fun to have both of us working in the kitchen, listening to the radio while our sweet child napped for the second time in her big girl bed.

Here is my Hamburger-Barley Soup recipe, very slightly adapted from the Better Homes & Garden’s Cookbook. Original recipe can be found here. What follows is my adaptation.

1 lb hamburger
1 c diced onion
1 tsp minced garlic (1 clove)
2 c thinly sliced carrots (4 medium)
1 c celery (2 stalks)
6 c beef stock
29 oz diced tomatoes
8 oz tomato sauce
1/2 c barley
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp oregano, dried
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

I started out with a tbsp or so of olive oil in a big pot. Tossed in the onions, garlic, carrots and celery and stirred them periodically while I defrosted my precooked beef (I got a good deal on beef and cooked it all up then froze it in 2 cup pkgs–2 cups cooked is equal to 1 lb raw), then tossed in the beef and continued to cook until the carrots were almost tender.

I also had homemade/leftover beef stock/broth (i’m not sure what the difference is) in the freezer. I used all 6 cups I had because I really wasn’t sure what I was going to do with a leftover 6 oz since the recipe called for 42 oz. Now add all the remaining ingredients, bring to a boil then simmer for probably 45 minutes or an hour because I didn’t buy the quick-cooking barley. It would have cut down the simmer time to about 20 minutes if I had.

It was a Sunday afternoon and I wasn’t in any rush to get a meal on the table so I didn’t really keep track of the time. I ended up with about 3.5 qts which fed us for two suppers and 1 lunch for each of us (excluding Abigail since she doesn’t have to bring a lunch with her to daycare).

This soup has a really good flavor and Abigail loved it.

Abigail is such a cuddler lately! She loves to come up next to us on the couch or chair and be held, it is so fun!

Abigail had her 18 month check-up on Friday (Nov 6).

Weight: 33lbs 1oz
Height: 34.25 inches
Head: 18.25 inches

She is growing just fine and got herself 4 bandaids to bring home.

We were going to bring her to daycare late but got a call before we left for the doctor that they were going to have to close early because both of the ladies weren’t feeling well. So Terry came home early so I could go to work for the afternoon.

Abigail had a good nap, a late lunch and then the two of them piled in the car to head over to Como Zoo. Unfortunately, they got there just as it closed for the day. So instead they walked around a park nearby, saw some ducks, played in the leaves and shared a granola bar.

“Daddy, why are you taking pictures of me chewing?”

Terry & I were chatting on our way home and realized we were really close to each other and Sam’s Club. We met up there for some free samples, cheap supper, 25lbs of flour and a set of half sheet pans. I’ll tell you later what that last item was for!

We walked down the toy aisle with Abigail and she immediately latched on to a big box filled with a doll stroller, pack’n'play, bassinet & diaper bag. She was so excited about it that she wanted to pick up the box and bring it with us! I had to explain to her that we couldn’t bring it home now and she might get something like it for Christmas and she finally released her hold on it and we walked away. There was a little bit of crying and stubbornness but she did very well overall.

Though she has a renewed passion for “Rock-A-Bye” recently (not just the song but also being rocked in our arms over and over and over) there are only memories left of her time as a baby. Our sweet little girl is now 17 months old.

She doesn’t sit still long enough for us to simply stare at her like we did in the past. Our evenings have become more fun as we play with her dollhouse, take her doggie on a walk around the house and put her stuffed animals in her highchair complete with bib when they are hungry. She loves story time in the evening and tries her best to copy us when we add actions to the stories. She will start spinning in a circle when she wants to play “Ring Around the Rosy” and she will do it over and over until she can’t stand up anymore!

Abigail is a baby no longer but we wouldn’t want it any other way!