Summer Days!

For the 4th of July we had a party at our house with lots of friends. We actually celebrated on the 3rd and watched fireworks later that night. We barbequed and played games with the Portugals, Gonzales, Rowles, Petersons and Brysons. Here we are hanging out in the backyard.

The kids played Red Rover and Abby had so much fun running around. We also had an adult Wheelbarrow race. Unfortunately I have no pictures of that.


Abby was in heaven playing with all the kids.

Abby loves wearing daddy's hats!

Last week, we went to a Round Rock Express games with the Jensens. Abby loved watching all the people and eating nachos with me.

Abby loves to wear my sunglasses. She is such a nut!

This summer has been so fun and busy. We are constantly playing with friends, going to the pool, and having fun together!

Utah Trip

Abby and I went to Utah from June 15th to June 22nd. I was invited to run the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay so I jumped at the chance to have an excuse to go visit family! I flew out with my friend Leilani (thank you Leilani for saving me on the plane rides!) and Abby but unfortunately we had over 2 hours of delays! I won't go into it but Abby had 2 melt downs and didn't fall asleep until 1:15am Texas time. I stayed with Wendy and Aaron for the first part of my visit and Abby had so much fun getting to know her cousins. Here are some pictures describing my trip!

Ashley Horlacher came to see me on Wednesday with her little boy Maddox. He is 3 months older than Abby and my first time to see him! They were so cute together! Here they are sizing each other up at the Zoo!

Abby and I rode the tram to see all the fun animals.

The kids played and had no problem climbing over each other. Abby can hold her own!

Ashley, Maddox, Me and Abby

On Thursday, Wendy drove me to Logan with all the kids to Aaron and Kenzie's house. Us women went to the Downeast Outfitters tent sale. I got 5 shirts and a purse for 24 dollars! We all ate watermelon and ran around having fun. Abby loves watermelon as you can tell from the following pictures.

Barnes followed Abby around the entire time. It was so cute! He was at her crib the minute she woke up from her nap and said "Hi!"

I love this picture with the juice dripping off her chin!

The following morning, Aaron drove me to the start of the Wasatch Back which happened to start at his work. He gave me a quick walk through of his building/factory and hung out while we waited for the start. There I met the girls I'd be with for the next 30hrs and 51mins. We had so much fun! Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the whole group but here I am by the van with my number in Park City at the finish line. I was runner #5 and ran 3 legs totally 14.6 miles. My first run was 7.4 miles uphill but I killed it! It was easier than I thought it would be. The hardest run was my final leg of 3 miles! I was just too tired!

After the race, Julie and Spence picked me up in Park City. Abby and Maddux got along so well. He is pretty quiet so Abby seemed ridiculously loud compared to him! Here they are in the tub playing with the water and drinking from their New York cups.

They played together on the playground and followed each other around.

Christina had her baby James the day we left. Abby said "baby" for the first time when she saw her cousin. I let her hold him and she kept petting, hugging and rocking him. It was so cute!

Our final stop was the Haleuas. Blake is 1 month younger than Abby and as you can see he is already eating out of her hand! They were very fun together.

Christy, Abby, Blake and Jackie.

Thank you everyone for making for Utah trip so fun! We hope to see you all again soon!

Hi?

If you ever get a phone call from me or John and no one responds, now you know why. Abby loves talking on the phone. I don't know how many people she has actually called but she's a pro at hitting redial. Abby chats away and even pauses for a response. The funny thing is she won't talk if there is actually a person talking back to her. She will just smile or hand the phone to me. What a nut!

Abby's 1st Haircut!

Abby got her first haircut on May 24th. Her hair is below her shoulders so we thought it was time to get it trimmed since her ends weren't very even. Our friend Christine Mead came over and cut Abby's hair real quick while she had a KitKat in each hand. Abby was so good and just sat on her chair eating her chocolate. Here are a few pictures.

San Diego!

John, Abby and I went to San Diego May 7-15th and had so much fun! I will describe our trip in pictures so get ready!

We first went to Old Poway Park and rode the train! Abby has so much fun with cousins Damon and Gavin.

Abby and Damon has fun running around and playing together.

John and I got a time share right on the Harbor for the week. Mom and Dad Quiggle kept Abby for 2 nights while we had a fun time by ourselves! Too bad I could never sleep in. We went to Point Loma in the morning and here is the old lighthouse.

We had Abby withdrawals before too long so went to my parents house to find Abby loving her time without us! Grandma and Grandpa let her color with markers (her new favorite pastime). Here she is doing 2 naughty things: 1 - coloring with markers and 2 - standing on a chair.

The next day we went to La Jolla Cove and saw all the sea lions. They had their pups with them and they were soooo cute.

Abby kepts pointing when any of them moved. And check out the creepy smiling guy in the background.

Then we went to Pacific Beach for lunch and let Abby run around in the sand.

She sat down right as a wave came and got soaking wet. Luckily, she loved it and kept running around in circles laughing!

She was so wet and cold that we had to strip her and give her daddy's shirt for the car ride home.

Abby loves water. We had so much fun in the hot tub. John and I would toss her back and forth and Abby thought it was the best thing ever!

We also went to Seaport Village where Abby could run around. We found me a new toe ring and enjoyed the hammock shop. Abby freaked out when we laid her in a hammock because she had no control so we decided no hammocks for us.

On Wednesday, we got together with our friends Jordan and Lindsey Scott. We drove up to Orange County and ate some yummy Cafe Rio then went to Laguna Beach.

Abby and McKenna played very well together. Sometimes they got a little grabby with the bucket but both kept smiling and laughing. McKenna kept spitting her binkie out, leaning down and eating mouthfuls of sand. It was so funny. Abby never ate any sand. She was actually a very clean baby! Yea!

Here are the boys going out for a dip!

On Thursday, we had a little get together at the Quiggle house. Luckily, 3 out of towners were here at the same time! Friends from Poway High and RB High came to hangout and see each others kids. Here is the crew! I miss these girls!

On Friday we went to Coronado Beach. John and Mike (his bff from college) went golfing in the morning at Coronado's golf course then met us at the beach. Once again Abby was a wonderful beach baby. She would sit on the towel and play with the sand.

She even lounged in my chair when I wasn't looking.

Abby's cute little face!

Friday night we went to the Padres' game. We had high tickets but they were great!

Here is a video of Abby at the beach. She went crazy running around and enjoying it all!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Quiggle for letting us come visit and have such a wonderful trip! We love and miss you!

VanDerwerken Family Update

So it's been almost a month since I have updated my blog! I've been a slacker I know. Here are some pictures of our life. We invited some ward members and one of John's co-workers to dinner and Family Home Evening. Heidi Gonzalez was so sweet with Abby and let her sit on her lap and eat all her food. As you can see, Abby loves chips and dip! Well she actually loves to dip food into anything.

Abby's always been independent but she really wants to feed herself. Abby loved her bean and chicken burrito for dinner!

Abby is a TALKER! Abby walked around the house "talking" on the phone. It is so cute. She even pauses between sentences for replies. But when you get her on the phone with a real person, she just smiles and won't talk. To make her happy, I'll let her have the real phone for a little while. She pushes button and calls someone every once in a while. Luckily, Abby runs to me to give me the phone when she does that.



Abby is also a very dedicated piano player. She plays for at least 15 minutes a day. She absolutely loves it. Sometimes I'll hear her singing along. Her new favorite is to sit on my lap and play while I'm playing. She turns the pages in the hymnal for me and puts my hands back on the keys when I stop.

I talked John into doing a 10k with me so here is a picture of us doing the Texas Longhorn Run on April 24th. I did the Blue Bell 10k Fun Run on April 10th and there was all you can eat ice cream so I had 3 servings! That was really yummy and fun!

Abby loves to go through my drawers and put my clothes on so here she is with a bathing suit on her head. She ran all through the house wearing it. She is too cute!

Abby found my ref/coaching bag and played with the whistle. I showed her how to blow in it and she did it right away! In order to show her that I was blowing I made a noise too so you can hear her blow and make a noise while she whistles. My baby is so smart! Although she insists on using the whistle upside down!

This is when I first caught her with the whistle. Her little guilty hands are trying to cover it up.

Abby loves to play in the cupboards in the kitchen. I have cleaned out most of the breakables so she climbs in with her blankie or dog and closes the door. I can hear her talking, singing and laughing. Sometimes I'll knock on the door and she opens it to smile at me.

John is still playing sports all the time. He plays softball and basketball right now interspersed with golf and tennis. He's still a CSSS (Manager) at State Farm (has been since February if you didn't know).

I am still working at Hellas for 2 1/2 hours a day then playing with Abby the rest of the time. The High School Lacrosse season ended so I'm no longer coaching but still finding time to play every once in a while.

Abby has 5 new teeth. She got her 3rd bottom tooth May 5th and her first molar on May 6th. Since then all 3 of her other molars have made an appearance. They aren't completely in yet and it looks painful but Abby has been happy and cheerful like always. She's still independent but is starting to become more cuddly and kiss on command. She gets ridiculously jealous when John leaves/comes home from work and doesn't kiss and hug her first. Abby says the following words but not perfectly: buh bye, night night, dada, daddy, mama, bird, ball, doggie and thank you. I'm hoping to take Abby to get a haircut soon because her hair is getting so long! She looks a little shaggy so a quick clean up will look good! San Diego post soon to come...