Isn’t she mischievous? My baby is so beautiful. Right now she is in Washington with her mom and Jen's family. They won’t return for a few more days. I hear Abby isn’t sleeping well in the house full of babies, so Jen isn’t either. I'll try to appreciate the quiet and rest I get here. Still, I miss them.


In these photos Jen experiments with new bows. Is hideous too strong a word?

Princess Abby Holds Court

Lord of the Dance

Here are some pics from the last few days. We left Tempe and flew to Washington to see family.

Our Friends Kiri and Adalyn move to Utah, and take Kiri's husband Aaron. Here Jen and Abby say goodbye.

Abby finally meets uncle Jeremiah during our visit to Washington. Washingtonians will notice he is supporting the correct cougar squad.

Jen and Abby gets surprised in the Kitchen.

Jen's sister Tiff ran a marathon this weekend and we rooted her accross the finish line.

Isn't she pretty?

Daddy loves Abby.

Making Banana Bread w/ Abby

Here I spy on Jen and Abigail making banana bread. It tastes soo good.

The other night we attended a dinner party with Jen's schoolmates. Kim Badger loved to hold Abby, and it looks like Abby loved it too. Our little girl is sure easy going. She gets passed around like a family style Chinese dish and never complains.

Abby's Swing

Schools Out for Summer

Too bad I dont know how to link a little Alice Cooper here. So now that we're out for the summer I have a little more free time and maybe I'll update the blog more frequently--maybe. I'm still pretty busy. You see, my family (anxious to spend every minute with Abby) is under the mistaken assumption that I'm a twelve-year old and during the summer I'm free to play with the neighborhood kids. Unfortunately, the truth is that I'm incredibly busy. University professors use the summer to conduct research and write papers/books that they need to keep thier job but do not get time to do during the school year. This is very different from say high school teachers who really do get the summer off to do whatever they want. This summer I've got to research and write for my dissertation, but more importantly, I have to prepare for my exams. Before I can advance to candidacy and teach classes next fall and write my dissertation I have to pass a week long test on over 200 books, followed by another exam on 100 more or so. I've only read about 100 so far, so I've got to read about a book a day this summer and still find time to study it all. I also just received a grant to pay for travel so I can do a research trip to Utah. I also have to take a different trip to Utah to finalize the adoption of Abby (and it will be right during my exams so I cannot overlap the research trip). I also have to go spend a little time with family--a few days in Washington and a few days in California.

So that is my summer. As for Jen, she gets to play mom finally. She doesnt have any major summer projects--no exams to prep for and no dissertation to write--so she will mostly play with Abby. She does have to prep for her choirs and is thinking about her final paper topic, but she'll have much more free time.


Now, I know your not visiting the blog to hear me complain, so here are some more pictures and a short video.

Jen participated in another big concert. Am I a bad husband for not remembering which this one was? It looks like it was a major production though.

I played in the stake softball tournament. Here I drive one at the shortstop who, fortunately, was terrible. I got to first base on the error and we slaughtered them. The second game was equally lopsided, except it was my team that played terrible. I'm still working on a good excuse.

Today I remembered that Abby has a foam seat we've not yet used, so I took it out and found that she sits up quite well in it. I gave her some toys and she actually played with them (for the first time). See the video below. By the way, her eyes dont really look like that all the time, but this looked so funny I had to post it.

Abby Coos

Abby hitches a ride on daddy

Tammy and Greg Adams came to visit

Tammy and Greg have a little girl named Emma, who is one month older than Abby

Abby's great grandma came to visit. Here Abby plots to snatch Great-Granny's french fries.

More time with Grama Ruth

Abby joins us for dinner at Monte's

She is just so cute!
Both these chicks are cute!

Abby is a TV hog already. Her favorite show is the West Wing.



Abby is starting on the Powwow curcuit. Here she gets her first taste of frybread.

Matt makes a friend! This autistic boy grabbed ahold of me and would not let go, so I let him help me push abby around for a little while.

"Here's look'n at you, kid!"

The Shakespeare Family Visits

Things are going well. Abby has a hernia and is getting over some baby acne but otherwise she is just fine. She's been a little constipated so the doctor perscribed a shot of prune juice in her formula. Yuk. We aslo had more visitors this past week. Jen's sister Tiffany came, along with her three little girls.

Tiff and Abby

Kylee, Brynley, and Kennedy sit with Abby for a photo

Abby's first time in a pool. She was not too upset, but clearly it was a strange experience for her. Though she probably just thought it was a cold bath.

We took the girls to campus and Tiff treated us all to Cold Stone.

These two are a pair of clowns.

Here are the latest photos:

This year we attended the Easter Pageant at the Mesa Temple together. We sat at the front of the middle section to stretch out our legs in the walkway, but it became a problem just before and after the show when it turned out our super cute daughter was stopping traffic. Everybody passing by wanted to see her and the crowd of worshipers quickly clogged the major walkway. She gets that response everywhere she goes so I feel confident that despite my biases she is indeed a very cute baby. Even the pediatric nurses (who see lots of babies) at the doctors office take notice. Each time we visit another nurse drops by our room and says, "I'm not your nurse but I just had to see this baby I've hears do much about. Everyone says she is so cute."

We had visitors for Easter. Matt's sister Heather is on the left, beside her boyfriend Brandon, and Jen's mom (Karen) is on the right.

My work colleagues threw a shower for Abby last week. It was very nice. Thanks Emily, Elyssa, Dana, and everybody!

Last week we had our annual scout fundraiser--a chili cook off. Jen says I look sexy in a uniform, but since I disagree I'll withhold those photos (and since Jen doesn't remember how to post to the blog it will stay that way). Here you see Paul and Carly Aylworth beside Sarah and DJ Stapley.

Today Abby rolled over for the first time (though this is a photo of an earlier failed attempt).

One of Abby's favorite sleeping locations.

And here is some video from Abby's Easter photo shoot. The voices are Jen and her mother.