I lost my camera cord for a couple weeks, so I have a lot of posts to do today!! Here's a post from another trip to the waterparks a couple of weeks ago. Abi really does love it there and would probably go and have a blast every day if I would let her!

Here she is on the baby slide with Daddy. She sort of liked it, I thought, but check out her stomach muscles, she looks like she's trying to stop, but can't!! Poor baby!



Here's a happy picture of her in the water swing. She TOTALLY loves the water!!! If you look close, she's kind of blue...she's FREEZING!! But she doesn't care, she will still scream if we try to take her out of the water!


Here's Abi and Mommy floating in the lazy river. I love the tubes they have here. I've never seen anything like them, but they are perfect for small children!


Here she is lounging and having a snack at the end of the day...


And then she collapsed! She just couldn't play any more!!!!


More to come....

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!!!!

My CAMERA BROKE!!! Which is why it had been so long since I've posted, especially considering the big move. We are all settled in now, and photos are coming featuring my new house...I just have to clean up first! That's my goal for this week. These are a few random pictures from this summer that I found when I finally got to upload the pics from my dead, old camera. Some are from Abi's swimming lessons (of the 8 that we paid for, we only got to go to 3!) and one she is even under water! There is one from the week we spent frying on the lake - you can tell how hot it was from Abi's glowing, sweaty face! There's one of the 2 of us from 4th of July in Gulf Shores. And finally, one of Abi and Daddy that was taken here in WI when we went to this little park zoo. They are looking at the gigantic white-tail deer that they knew Grandpa would think was a waste! I'll try to post again soon!

I know I always say this when I post, but it's true! SOOOO much has happened since the last time I posted. Abi is walking and running and starting to climb. She can blink her eyes at you, nod her head, spin in a circle, stomp her feet, and dance. She can also play "Where's Abi?". She covers her eyes with her hands until she decides to come out of hiding. It is adorable!!!!!! She still isn't talking much beyond mama, dada, and byebye, but she can do the sign for "more" - and she does it OFTEN!! She is a little pig! She can eat so much food at a time that it astounds me, but she is still long and skinny like daddy.

We are making a big change in a couple weeks. We are moving to Wisconsin Dells, WI. I'm excited to make a move, but anxious too. I'm not a big fan of winter, as some of you may know, and WI has pretty harsh ones. I've heard though that you get used to them with time. Hopefully, though, we won't be there long enough to get TOO used to them! I've got a few pics to post of our summer, although, we've been so busy that I haven't taken too many pics. I've also got a picture of our house to post and I'll post more when we get moved in. Enjoy! And I promise not to wait so long for my next post!!

These are some of my favorite pictures from our 4th of July vacation to Gulf Shores, AL. We had a blast and we hope we can make it an annual trip.

Hello! Long time, no post! Not really, only a month or so, but hey. I officially have a walker now. She's practically running. She's a big pig too! At her 1 year Dr. Appt. the Dr said she had gained over 3 pounds in 3 months! So, she's finally over 20 lbs. and she is 30 1/2 inches long.
Windy, Megan, and I just got back from our trip to St. Louis for a few days. We had a BLAST! Even though I missed Abi, it was great to get away. We went to the spa one day for a massage, mani and pedi. Then on Friday we went to a Rascal Flatts/Taylor Swift concert. I love love love Taylor Swift, so it was SOOOOO good to see here. Life is really good here. Although everyone is talking about moving.... So here are a few pics from Abi's b-day "party" and something I had made for Father's Day.




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HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY AGAIN!

This is where I get my pictures done. It's a new site that does great work. Check it out!
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WOW! I cannot believe it is Mother's Day already. This time last year, I was hugely pregnant and waiting to meet the as yet unknown sex of Baby Byers. Now we have spent almost a year (YEAR!?!?!?) of time getting to know the light of our lives. I can't even remember what life was like before Abi arrived. Here is a look back at Abi's time with the women in her life. It is my sincere wish and hope that these women will be as important to her in her life as they have been to me. I love you all, and so does Abi. Thank you for all that you have done for us over the years, especially now that I know what a struggle it can be sometimes!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!

It's been a long time! I'm just going to post a few random pics, to show how much she has changed! She has 2 bottom teeth all the way through, 1 top tooth peeking through, and 1 more top tooth that will pop out any day now. She started taking one step a couple of times on Saturday, but that is it--no walking yet. She is stubborn and such a CHICKEN! As soon as she realizes she is walking, she drops down and crawls. If we are trying to get her to crawl to us, she will walk as far as she can holding on to something, then the lets go, wobbles and stands for a second, then drops and crawls. CHICKEN! Oh, well, really I'm in no rush for her to walk, but it is just so exciting! She is still waving bye-bye, can play "So Big", and can clap her hands. She mostly eats toddler food now, I'm just finishing off the baby food I have left. That's what Nic likes to feed her, because he is too lazy to clean up after her big girl eating frenzy. That's our life in a nutshell, hopefully I can keep this updated better!

Like mother, like daughter! Here is a pic of Abi stealing Daddy's wallet and all his cash...She's ready to go shopping!!!


Abi's first bath in the big girl tub, she LOVES it!!! She loves splashing and eating the bubbles and playing with her toys and trying to drink the water.


April Showers, bring May flowers!


Her first taste of EVERYBODY'S favorite....Grandmommy's spaghetti! Oh, so yummy and oh, so messy!


She also looooooves chocolate. She didn't eat a whole lot, just shared mommy's popsicle. She made a big mess though, and kept taking big bites of popsicle. SOOOOO cute!

Two posts in a row! I'm doing good! Today was Abi's 1st snow! We woke up to about 3 inches of snow outside. Of course, we had to bundle up and check it out! She definately liked the snow more than she liked the sand last week, and, of course, she had to eat some. If I'd had the stuff, we would have made some snow ice cream, which I haven't had in FOREVER, that my daddy used to make whenever it snowed. Anyways, here are a few of my favorite pictures. I hope you enjoy them as much as Abi and I enjoyed taking them. We were just sorry Daddy couldn't be here for her first snow. :( He's working in KC for a few days. Oh, well, though, as you can tell, we had a blast!!!!!!!!!!

I know it has been a while since I posted, but between the holidays (which I still haven't posted about...) and having a baby that is talking nonstop and getting into everything, I haven't had time. Abi still isn't crawling, but she is SO CLOSE. She is scootching forward and backward now, so it won't be very long. She is talking up a storm! She can say nana, mama, dada, and bye-bye. And she can wave! Next up is clapping.

Back to the reason for the post, we just got back from Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands after a wonderful week of fun in the sun! We went with Larry and Betsy, a couple friend of theirs, Melinda and David, and Jeff and Angela. It was so much fun introducing Abi to so many new things: sand, ocean, and she LOVES to swim (i.e. splash in the water) So here are a few of the pics from our trip. Enjoy!!!