JP here we come!

Well, it isn't too long now and our adventure will begin.  A fourteen hour flight and an extended amount of time in Japan will be all kinds of amazing and crazy I'm sure.  This is Brandon's final "long" trip for the project he is on (or so they say - you never really know for sure with Toyota).  So instead of being apart yet again we decided we would all go to Japan.  We are staying in an apartment outside of Nagoya and have weekend/exploration trips planned for almost every weekend we are there.  Brandon will be working all week, so I am prepared to get out there and figure out the train system so the kids and I can have fun while Brandon is at work.  Luckily we have a lot of resources, between friends of our that live over there, the many trips Brandon has taken, and Japanese natives to guide us, I have a pretty good list of activities for us to do!

I'll definitely be posting pictures while we're over there.  We are so fortunate to have such great neighbors who are willing to stay at our house while we are gone.  We are also going to take advantage of the time away by having a sun room put on (I'm pretty sure) and our roof done.
I don't have much more time here to do some MAJOR packing for the four of us!!!

Where's your tongue?

Yesterday I randomly asked Abe where his tongue was and he knew!!!  I was so excited (it's the little things).  It reminded me of when Adi started recognizing body parts.  I went back and looked at a video from her and they are exactly the same age.  I thought it was funny they did this at the exact same time!

Adison Mae is 3

I can't believe our baby girl is 3 years old!!!  This little girl is such a blessing to our family.  Her spunky and independent personality adds a lot of life to this house.  It seems like she has grown so much in this past year.  She is much more aware of the world around her and is interacting in it wonderfully.  She has dear little friends, she loves make believe play, and has an imagination that amazes me.  She definitely has a strong personality, but I just love it when I see a sweet and generous side of her coming out as she interacts with others.  Three years have blown by!  We love you more and more every day!!

Squinkie bed!

Adi is obsessed with squinkies!  These two made a squinkie bed with Brandon's mill.  Adi just adores working out in the garage with her daddy.  I am pretty certain we have a little garage worker on our hands (I hope Abe joins along in about a year)!  I just love these two!

Grandpa in town

My dad was able to come and visit for a few days.  He even made it for Adi's birthday!  The kids had a great time playing, and I really enjoyed seeing my dad and the extra help of course.  Thanks so much dad for coming to visit!  We love you!!

Abe's had from Alaska!

Adi playing catch with Grandpa

Sweet little face!

Adi saying, "Don't you even think about it."  That kid loves getting tickled!

Abe loves riding on shoulders!

Abram is 10 months (a few days late)

10 month stats:
Height - 29 inches
Weight - 20 lbs 11 oz

Health -Yes, this gets it's own section.  Unfortunately, Abe has been sick this entire past month.  It has been a rough month for this poor little guy.  He got hand foot and mouth disease Father's Day weekend, and it honestly took him a while to recover from that (and he gave it to Adi).  He had less then a week before he got a virus the week of Fourth of July.  The high temp lasted a couple days - it turned into a bad cold and pink eye.  Then he was getting better and after two days of recovering his high fever spiked again.  Then he got an ear infection at the beginning of this week.  My poor little man is having a bad reaction to the antibiotic from the ear infection and is being switched today.  He now has a bad case of diaper rash!  Throughout all this he has had pretty high fevers which I am just starting to learn that maybe high fevers are just what he gets when he is sick.  Through it all he has tried to be in pretty good spirits, but honesty he has just been a bit cranky and I don't blame him one bit.  We're praying that he has built up some great immunity this past month and we can put all this sickness behind us. 

Sleep - When he is well he is sleeping through the night and napping twice a day.  

Eating - Abram is such a great little eater.  I have trying to get him to take formula out of his sippy cup and he doesn't want any part of it.  I am going to try and get some new sippy cups to see if that makes a difference.  I would really like to get him transitioned out of bottles before his first birthday!

Milestone - This sweet little guys is clapping, playing peak-a-boo, and waving hello and good bye.  We just love him to pieces.  Oh yeah - did I say we have a little climber on our hands - well, we do!!!  

I'm sure I should probably remove him from the dangerous situation, but the camera happened to be right there in both of these instances.  He literally is almost on top of a table in seconds. 

This was our few day gap when he was feeling ok!!!

Tomatos & Life

Adi and I took a little break from being held prisoners in our house this morning and went out and picked tomatoes while Abe went down for his first nap.  It was already crazy hot out there at 7:30 this morning!  Adison begs to go out in the garden to pick these sweet little things.  She even tells me it is no problem for her to go out there while I stay in here and hold Abe.  It makes me so happy that she enjoys the garden as much as I do.  I have an abundance of cherry tomatoes this year, and despite the lack of rain they are doing pretty well this year!
Our poor little man got sick AGAIN.  Yet another virus floating around at the Haight house hold.  I have started to wonder if there is something I am doing or not doing to make him get sick so much.  I then thought maybe there is something wrong with him.  It just doesn't seem normal to me that a baby can seriously be sick more then well for the last 10 months of his life.  The doctor we saw reassured me that it is completely normal, and that some babies just get sick more often then other babies do.  I guess the only up side is that he should be building up some pretty good immunity.  Now just praying that he stays well and that the rest of the house doesn't get it!

Saying Good Bye

It was a whole lot harder then I thought it would be saying good bye to this terrific dog today.  He has been through a lot with us in the last 12 years!  To name a few: graduation from high school, college, marriage, moving across the country, moving into our first house, the birth of two children, and I am so sad to say it was time to say good bye.  He's been declining pretty rapidly in the last 6 months or so.  He has been such a wonderful dog to us.  He was so loveable, great with kids, never ran off, and man oh man did that little guy love me.  The unconditional love of a dog is really indescribable.  He will surely be missed - we loved you Coop!!!