GREETINGS FROM WISCONSIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





You may have noticed that I've been updating this a lot more lately. I decided that since we've moved so far away that I should do everything I can to keep all of you at home involved in our day to day life. (And we bought a new camera, so we are taking tons of pics, and now they are easier to upload!)

We are finding lots of things in Wisconsin to keep us busy. Our leaves have fallen, or are starting to fall, and Abi loves to play in them while Nic is trying to rescue our house and driveway from them. They end up "playing" in the leaves at least once a week!

Abi and I went to a MOPs (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting today. As far as I can tell, we both had a blast! I really enjoyed the chance to meet some new mommies, and the opportunity for socialization for Abi too. This time we talked about sibling rivalry, which doesn't really apply to me, but the subject changes every meeting, which is every other week. On the off weeks, they have a play group that meets at the church, which was next on my list of things to find, so now I crossed off two things at once!

I talked to one mom, who told me about winter last year and how she and her kids had MAJOR cabin fever. She said besides MOPs and the playgroup, that really the only other place to play is at McDonalds. MCDONALDS???? Nic and I made it our goal for the day to find a better place for me and Abi to hang out...and we did!! One of the things that WI Dells is famous for is indoor waterparks. Almost all the big resorts in town have one, including The Wilderness, which is where Wyndham is located. Employees get to use the facilities for free, we only have to go pick up a wristband, which we did today and we had a great time!

Check out the resort here: http://www.glaciercanyonlodge.com/ . There's even a live webcam in one of the waterparks. Maybe one of these days I'll tell someone when we are going and you can watch for us! There's tons of indoor activities at the resort for me and Abi to check out when we need to get out of the house. There's a GIGANTIC playground, with a separate area for toddlers, an arcade and 3 (yes 3!!!!) indoor waterparks. All we have to do is send Nic in for a wristband and 2 minutes later we are good to go! Hopefully the snow isn't TOO bad, so I'll be brave enough to go. Otherwise, we'll have to wait for Nic to be off to drive us over. I've heard that they plow the roads pretty fast, so we'll only be snowed in on the days it actually snows. That doesn't sound tooooo bad, right?











Here are a few pictures that give you an idea of what the waterparks look like.





This park is great for kids! It has a HUGE bucket at the top of the play area that holds 1000 gallons of water and dumps every few minutes. This is the before:





This is the after:

I've got a lot to talk about this time. We've been really busy!!! We went to Branson for a week. We were waiting for my friend Megan to have her baby...and she did! Jackson Edward was born on October 23 at 5:46 pm. He weighed 9 lbs and 10.7 oz (BIG baby!) and was 22 inches long (tall too!) and his mommy had him with NO EPIDURAL!! She is a SUPER WOMAN and I would know, because I was there for the delivery! It was so cool, and I am so grateful to Megan and Jess for including me in something so monumental.

Then, in our whirlwind trip, we headed to Benton for Kaci and Clint's wedding (there are a few pics of that below) where Abi had her first (and probably not the last) run as a flower girl. She did pretty good considering that she is only 17 months, with a 17 month old attention span and she looked totally adorable to boot!

We got home just in time for Nic's day off, Friday, which also happened to be Halloween. But first, Nic and Abi had to do some yard work! Nic raked the leaves while Abi got to play in them. She had a BLAST!!

After a good nap, she was ready for Trick or Treating. Nic, Abi and myself dressed up in our Arkansas Razorback finest, figuring, correctly, that it would be our only chance to wear our gear this year, since we now live too far away to go to any games. A few people way up here in WI even knew who the Razorbacks were! Probably because they whooped up on us in a bowl game that we went to in Orlando a few years ago. Well, as you can tell, things are going pretty well here. It hasn't been too cold here yet, though, so I may be singing a different tune then! In fact, for the first few days of this week, it will be really warm - up to 70 on Monday, then the end of the week goes down to 39. 39?????? :s I'll never survive this winter!!!!