Meet "Jelly Bean" (aka Annabelle's new sibling)

That's right kids, Nikki is pregnant with Spicer baby #2.
Nikki is about 9.5 weeks and so today we headed off for the first official doctor visit and the first ultrasound.

I'm putting up two pictures of "Jelly Bean," which is the settled upon in eutero nickname. It's actually quite fitting because when you look at the pictures it actually looks like a jelly bean. The two pics are the same except one is "illustrated" to point out some of the distinct feature. The still image doesn't really do it justice. During the ultrasound you could see the heart beat flutter and the little sucker was wiggling it's little flippers and everything. It was pretty cool!

Now, this is why we've been fairly silent over the summer and are hoping to pick back up again while doing some backfilling along the way.

Sufficed to say, we're very happy and looking forward to another spring baby! Stay tuned, there's lots of fun stuff coming up soon.

Annabelle hits the beach, for the first time ever

First of all, I know, we're horrible blogging parents. Atrocious in fact. That said, we'll be picking up with more frequent blogs. Stay tuned for lots of fun stuff on the horizon.

Now, on to the fun stuff.
Monday night there was a party at the A's house because Mundi and Marlena were both back in Miller at the same time. Since this only happens every other leap year, it was certainly cause for a party. Of course, it's Miller, we don't need much of an excuse.

In any case, there was excursion to the beach and it occurred to me that Annie had never been to the beach proper. She'd been to her Gruncle Jimmy's house, where you can see the beach, but never down to the water front itself. Sufficed to say, we have a new Miller beach bum. I'll let the pics speak for themselves.







(ps, the quality of the pics suck, but they were taken with the camera on my phone, so don't judge too harshly)

Annabelle & Max go to the Lincoln Park Zoo

Saturday found us heading up to Chicago to spend a day with Chris and Sacha and their little boy Max. Long time readers may remember that Chris and Sacha both went to IU and were friends back in college. They had Max about a year before we had Annabelle and they blazed the trail for us in the parenting world. So much so that they got us into our first daycare situation with Anna. Anyway, Max and Annabelle are certainly coming to know each other. In the days leading up to the zoo outing, Sacha and Nikki both told the kids what we'd be doing, only to tick them off when they realized that it wasn't for a few more days! They kept asking, "Where's Annabelle/Max?"
Saturday rolled around and the kids were ready for ANIMALS!!!! Annabelle was growling and hooting and squeaking the whole morning and on the drive up, it was pretty funny.
When we arrived at the Lincoln Park Zoo, it wasn't long before they were looking at giraffes, polar bears, and all sorts of critters. It was a great day and we had so much fun.
Take a look at the pictures and there is even a video of the two holding hands and running along. It isn't a terribly long video, but it was enough to catch these two critters in the wild on video at all!


View the Pics & Video

Daddy's Birthday and an evening at the ballpark

Saturday was Daddy's birthday. The big 33. All I wanted for my birthday was a clear day so I could do some landscaping and a clear evening to take Annie to her first baseball game. As luck had it, we had a great day, sunny and warm all day. The evening proved to hold out just long enough for us to enjoy an evening out and watch Annie take in her first (semi) pro baseball game.
The local unaffiliated team is the Gary SouthShore RailCats. The City of Gary built a really nice minor league park for them in 2002. I have to admit that minor league baseball has a certain charm with their mascots, prizes, games, promotion, and all sorts of things.
Anyway, all I wanted was to head out to the game and see what Annie thought.
Well, she loved it! The RailCats have two mascots, Rusty and his little brother Rascal the RailCats. Annie was mezmorized by Rusty. The video listed below was just too funny and the pics are great too.

View the Video

View the Pics

Annie goes to the Shedd Aquarium

This morning Annabelle, Nikki, and I all struck out to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Annie has been in a big Finding Nemo phase lately so we figured that she might get a kick getting up close and personal with some fishies.

We got to watch a diver feed the fish in the main attraction area. Annie was ticked because she wanted to get up close to the glass but the presenter had to have us back away so she could announce the show. Later, we watched the dolphin show in their big marine mammal area. That was awesome, even for Nikki and I. Watching dolphins, 4 of them, leaping out of the water, dancing on their tails, and dancing with the trainers was pretty cool!

The up side is that being there when they open at 9am on top of being there on Daylight Saving's spring forward day meant that we were pretty much alone. By the time we left, a little after 11am, the place was just starting to get going. Once more, we got prime meter parking location. I tell you, that's the way to do it.
To check the pictures, and the single video I shot, click here!

The scariest costume in Chicagoland

Yeah, Annie hit the streets of Munster just looking for trouble on Halloween. Of course, since her dad was raised a Packers fan in the depths of Bears territory, it's only fitting that she follow in his footsteps.

Oh, and that may look like chocolate she's devouring in the second pic, actually it's the hopes and dreams of the 2007 Bears...

Ooooohhhh, yeah, I went there.

Sammy

An Apple kinda weekend

No, I'm not referring to Steve Jobs' Apple Computers. Though, as an aside, I just ordered Leopard (OSX 10.5)!

No, this past weekend saw us play host to Lainie and her daughter Reese. Reese is about 6 weeks older than Annie, and is adorable. Lainie and Nikki are old friends from their freshman year in college. Lainie and Reese came down on Saturday afternoon and stayed the night with us. At first, we weren't sure how it was going to go. Annie can get pretty territorial when it comes to her house/parents/doggies/stuff... There were a couple of shoves, but by bath time, the two of them were in the tub together just splashing away. Afterwards, Reese was running around in a diaper and a tshirt while Annie was in her PJs and the two of them were in hysterics on Pee-Ka-Boo. They were running around the main floor laughing and giggling and generally cracking each other up. By the way, now would be a good time to point out that when Annie is playing, instead of "Boo," she shouts "BEEE!!!" as she takes her hands away from her eyes to play pee-ka-boo. We're not sure where she got it from, but it's funny! After the girls fell asleep, a relaxed (and well earned) evening was had by all three adults.

The next day found us up early and rarin to go. We threw our spare car seat into the Freestyle and took off for breakfast at our favorite local pancake house where the girls were accused of being twins! Nope, but they do look similar; big beautiful eyes, sandy blond hair, and too cute for school. Yup, that'd be them all right.

After breakfast, we headed to a local apple orchard. We got there right at 9am when they opened, so it wasn't too bad. In fact, we were first at the kids petting zoo and so Annie and Reese were fascinated with the animals, especially the chickens. Annie stood there, pointing very excitedly and proceeded to tell us all about the chickens. I really wish I spoke toddler as I can only guess how terribly amazing it must have been if her enthusiasm was any indication!

After the petting zoo, we headed out into the orchard, beginning with a farm tractor pulling a big old people trailer, with almost no one else on it but us. It was pretty cool really, Reese seemed to enjoy it to death but Annie wasn't too sure about it. She kept looking at Nikki and I as if to say, "You realize that I'm not sure what the heck is going on, and that big red thing up there isn't making me feel any better about it!"

Soon enough the tractor pull was over and we found ourselves in a big row of Fuji apple trees. Of course, much of the bodies of the trees had been picked clean, but between me being 6'4" and Annie loving me picking her up to pick the highest apples, we quickly had a bag full. Annie just kept wanting to get picked up even higher and higher where she would grapple onto the apple I had pointed out to her and bear hug it for dear life. Some of them would require her to wrestle a bit until it came loose with a huge "CRACK" and a big grin on Annie's face. This kid is most definitely a doer, she likes to get in there and make things happen.

After a good time in the orchard it was time to head back to the main barn and enjoy some cold apple cider. (Did I mention it was in the mid-70's, in the middle of October?) Annie and Reese LOVED the apple cider and proceeded to demolish their own glass of it. Unfortunately, it was coming up on 11am, and the girls were starting to get a little fussy as it was coming up on their nap time. So, back to the car we went and dashed home, all the while trying to keep the girls from falling asleep. Luckily, our car has a DVD player in the roof, so that helped, but whenever Annie would nod off, Nikki would poke her, kiss her, or otherwise annoy her. Now, cruel though this sounds, it was better that than to let it really mess up her nap. On top of this though, it was really funny listening to Annie bark, "GO" or "NOT NICE" in her little toddler lisped way. We were all trying not to giggle.

Anyway, we made it home without Nikki getting cold cocked by Annie, everyone had a great lunch of fresh baked bread and homemade jam from the farm and then Lainie and Reese headed off for home and Annie took a good nap. All in all, a great weekend.

Check out the pictures, I'm sure you'll agree it was a lot of fun!



View the October 21st pictures here!

Summer Pics

Just some random pictures from the summer of little Annabelle, the terror of Munster, Indiana! Cheers!



View the September 17th pictures here!

Some great shots of Annabelle

Last Sunday we had a brunch over at my parents house. My Grandmother Eva was visiting and my parents had just finished their new patio. What better to do that have a little summer shindig.

Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Elaine were on hand to help enjoy the morning and Uncle Jimmy snapped some great pictures of the Button in action. It's no wonder she gets away with murder.

Click here for the full photo album!

Thanks for the pics Jimmy!

12 month pictures!

On Saturday, May 5 we headed out and got some pics taken. We've posted them to the .Mac pictures site. Enjoy!



View the May 5th pictures here!

New Random Pics

So, we've been a little lax on the picture posting front, it's been a bit nutty around these parts. However, please check out these pics and enjoy!



View the April 17th pictures here!

9 month pictures!

On Saturday, January 27 we headed out and got some pics taken. We've posted them to the .Mac pictures site. Enjoy!



View the January 28th pictures here!

Annie pictures from IU

The weekend of November 4th & 5th, we all headed down to Bloomington, IN to enjoy the marriage of our friends Kara & Ian.
Of course, as the home of Indiana University and the place where Nikki and I met, we had to drag her around and show her the old stomping grounds.

We've posted the pictures to the .Mac pictures site. Enjoy!


View the December 10th pictures here!

6 months old, pictures and measurements!

On Thursday, October 26, Nikki took Annie to the doctor for her 6 month check up. The stats from the Dr look good and she's doing great. Some of the highlights:
weight: 17lbs, 9oz
height: 27"
head: "big," at least that's what the doc said. He said she'll be smart though, we now have medical proof ;)

All in all, the medical lookover says that she's doing great and that she's just chugging along as healthy as a horse.

Then, on Saturday, October 28, while visiting Nikki's parents in Oshkosh, WI, we drove up to the Sears in Appleton and got some pics taken. We've posted them to the .Mac pictures site. Enjoy!


View the October 28th pictures here!

New Pics!

We've posted a new round of pictures at the .Mac pictures site. Enjoy!


View the October 5th pictures here!

More new pictures!!!

We've posted a new round of pictures at the .Mac pictures site. Enjoy!


View the August 20th pictures here!

New pictures!

So, July has been an insanely busy month, so we haven't actually been taking many pics. However, here are a few of the ones that we do have.
We've posted a new round of pictures at the .Mac pictures site. Enjoy!


View the August 5th pictures here!

Another round of pictures!

Annie has been busy and we've been trying to document it and catch it all.
We've posted a new round of pictures at the .Mac pictures site. Enjoy!


View the July 3rd pictures here!

New pictures!

We've posted a new round of pictures at the .Mac pictures site. Enjoy!


View the pictures here!

New pictures of Annie

just some random pics of Annie in the first week.
To view them:
Visit the .Mac Photo Gallery