July is my favorite month! 2

We traveled to Kansas and Colorado at the end of July which definitely contributes to this being my favorite month.

We had a visitor to our yard while we were in KS

You have to zoom in and look real closely to see who came walking through my parents' yard and then took the road to the ball field. Yikes! In the middle of the day!

Love board games with my sister - even if she wins them all

Abi still doesn't understand how to open a gift

Abi got to celebrate her birthday while we were in Kansas. Grammy got her a Frozen singing book, but Abi just wouldn't open the gift. Haha!

Grammy would push the buttons through the paper to make it sing and encourage Abi to tear the paper, but she just enjoyed the music the way it was.

She can't figure it out...

Grammy had to help

After quite a bit of laughing and a few rounds of Let It Go, Grammy finally helped Abi tear the paper off.

And of course, she loved it!

Now she's excited!

Yay for swimming!

We went swimming which is always tons of fun!

Can you tell Jenny and I apart? I get confused with these pictures!

Compare this picture to the next one...

...16 months earlier

We had fun repeating this picture to see the differences and how the little girls have grown!

Adorable sleeping baby bum!

I love taking pictures of Abi sleeping. Someday I'll make a video of all her sleeping pics. They're pretty awesome!

Abi's birthday present - we are all so excited!

Abi has an intense need to climb and jump and move and thanks to amazing family, she now has an indoor trampoline to burn some energy on. :)

Playing in the creek of my childhood memories

We made it to the cabin in Colorado and Abi's aunt took her down to the creek to play. Of course she loved it because hey, it's water! I love that she enjoyed it because I have so many happy memories and feelings here. So fun!

Heaven for Grandmary

I really can't believe Abi sat still long enough to fall asleep but actually I can. If Grandmary will tickle my back or face, I'll sit still as long as possible. :) I'm glad Grandmary got to enjoy this moment. They are rare.

Abi learned a new trick!

So, while we were at the cabin, Abi slept upstairs with all the cousins in a pack and play. Perfect. Except the last day, I put her down for a nap and she clearly did not want to be there. I did like I always do, put her in the bed, walked away and expected her to cry for a minute before soothing herself to sleep. That's not what happened this time. After a few minutes, mom hollered at me and said, "I hear footsteps!" So I ran upstairs to check and a happy little smile greeted me at the top of the stairs. Oh boy! So, basically she didn't have to take a nap. AND she didn't have to go to bed on time because I didn't really know how to do that - I basically just hoped she'd get tired enough and fall asleep. She didn't. She stayed up until 11pm with us while we played cards and she watched movies on the computer and danced, jumped, and wiggled around on the couch. When it was finally time for bed, I had to hold her still in my arms and walk with her until she fell asleep which only took 10 minutes - she was tired! But the next morning, I woke up to the sound of pitter-patter footsteps and then, "Yummmmm!" which is the sound she makes when she has found something delicious to eat. Well, this is the cabin so it's hard to know if she just ate mouse poison or real food so I jumped out of bed to find her and she was standing by the kitchen table staring at the bin of Red Vines saying "Yummm!" over and over again. She's not dumb. She knows where the good stuff is. :)

These are so big!

Dad took us to his uncle's house to show us the antlers from an elk that Granddad had shot. I can't believe we'd never seen them before! They're huge! So cool!

Isn't my sister talented?

Here's the amazing painting my sister did for our aunt and uncle. He made this custom frame for it. Cool stuff! I'm so proud of my family!

A nice tight spot to sleep in

So, Abi's not sleeping in the pack and play anymore. Sad day. After we got back from the cabin, we spent two more nights at Grandmary's house before going back to Kansas. I was so not ready for this stage of life! Haha! Abi had a tough time going to sleep. One of the nights, Jenny took Abi to bed to put her to sleep. It had been a while so I went back to check on them and as I got close to the room, the door opened and Abi said, "Hiiii!" I looked in and found Jenny asleep but obviously Abi was not. Haha! So, eventually she did go to sleep with me in my bed, but halfway through the night she fell out which shook her up pretty good. I tried to get her to get back in bed with me and she just cried so I let her cry on the floor and I fell back asleep. When I woke up in the morning, this is where I found her. I guess it works. Thankfully, when we got home to Kansas and then to New Jersey, she could not climb out of her crib. So, we were granted a few more months of good sleep.

Pretty much one of my favorite pictures ever!

I love that my parents have a garden and are even starting to grow an orchard. They are so cool! I love going in the summer and helping in the garden and especially with the harvest. So far, Abi has not cared one bit to be in the garden or even outside really. This trip though, she discovered the black berries while we weren't looking and we got these adorable pictures!!!

Yay for blackberries!