December 2011

December was a good month for the Hirneisen's. In the beginning of the month, Rebekah and Madison had the opportunity to go on a cruise from Tampa to Cozumel. They went snorkeling as one of their excursions and enjoyed the other events on the ship.



Abigail continues to grow up at a remarkable pace. She is now putting together 3 word sentences and is very expressive. She wants to be a big kid all the time. She and Andrew share donuts when we have them. They take a bite and then butt heads...sometimes the chocolate gets a little messy.


Here she is trying to wear Andrew's hat after he came in from outside.


Madi and Andrew are both doing well at at school. Madi performed in her orchestra and choir concerts. Andrew has taken up the trumpet and is doing well with it. Andrew is also playing basketball this winter. I have the opportunity to coach his team and it is alot of fun. They continue to be great siblings to Abigail and help out with caring for her. Here is a group photo that was taken this month.


Christmas was good for all. Madi got typical teen stuff...an ihome for her room and mainly gift cards for clothes and money for her new room. Andrew got many cool 10 year old toys...an air hog helicopter and remote control car, some lego transformers and of course sports equipment and clothes.



Andrew and I both got Philadelphia Eagles shirts from Uncle Trevor.


Abigail got many cool toys for Christmas. She got a cookie monster that eats cookies, a rock'n elmo, a buckle bear, toy story character potato heads and new car amongst her many toys.









Construction on our addition has really taken off this month. We are under roof, have walls, windows and even heat. We are finalizing our appliance and furniture purchases. Hopefully, we will be complete over the next 5-6 weeks. Here are some pictures of the progress.






We hope you had a joyous and safe holiday season. Please feel free to share your own family updates with us. Best wishes in 2012.

September through November 2011

The fall went pretty well for us....we were certainly busy with Madi playing middle school field hockey and Andrew playing travel soccer. Abby continued to grow and want to be a big kid...she is looking older as well...


Andrew and Madi are great siblings. Abby loves to mock Andrew when he plays all types of ball in the yard. Here she is with Andrew....


She also got a tricycle to be like the big kids...


This fall brought a ton of rain, a hurricane with a subsequent flood, an earthquake and finally snow in October...we survived them all without any real impact...but it sure was memorable...Here are some pics of the October snow...



We also participated in Trick or Treat in our neighborhood. Madi was pajama girl, Andrew was Ryan Howard and Abby was a Lady Bug. It was a cold night, so Andrew, Abby and I made it about 45minutes and Madi her friend went much later....Abby got the hang of walking up to doors, getting candy and saying thank you very quickly...it was a fun night.



Abby now can say two to three word combinations and is also starting to sing words to songs...it is cute.
We had a good Thanksgiving with everyone. The kids got to play football with their Grandpa and cousins...and Abby's shirt says it all ( Everyone is thankful for me )



We also had construction begin on our house finally....it has been a long time coming (it seems). It is exciting but will present challenges over the next few months. We are looking forward to a bigger living room, new kitchen and a real room for Abby...



Happy Holidays to all. The post will be the Christmas..hard to believe.

Summer 2011

It has been busy but awesome summer for the Hirneisen's. After Andrew attended a basketball camp (one of 2 for the summer) we headed to our trip with my family to Williamsburg. We frequented Water Country, Virginia Beach and Busch Gardens. Abby loved the beach - she ran along and into the water.


At Busch Gardens, they had a Sesame Street area where she got to see her favorite character...she would see them again at another location later in the summer.


Abby loves the pool we have in our community...she likes to play with her cups and paint brush in the baby pool and then trot over and jump (with assistance) into the big pool. When naps mess up the pool schedule, she did spent a little time with her little pool.


Abby still loves to read her books and point out all the animals that growl and foods that she can say.


She really enjoys drawing. She likes to climb up on the chairs and color with her crayons while watching tv and sometimes speak on the phone as well...she is quite the multi-tasker.


She also likes to sit in the driveway and use her sidewalk chalk. In this picture she is also pointing out - and saying the word "plane" that she can hear and see...she also likes to point out and say the word moon.


Abby likes to pretend to drive as well - with supervision (it was Andrew's turn)...most of the time pretending to talk on the phone as well...


The end of July brought Andrew's 10th birthday. It is hard to believe. We celebrated with family and took him and his friend Luke to see Transformers -Dark of the Moon, for the second time. His presents were dominated with baseball items: a new glove, a pitch back, bases, and a "junk ball" wiffle ball set. He also got a Ryan Howard shirt.





We did take a family trip to Sesame Place to round out the summer. We had a good time. Abby got to see her favorite characters (again..)




Andrew and Gramps wore their Phillies shirts to a Phillies v Nationals game that we went to. We got to see the mascot Presidents on our way in. After 3 batters we sat for a 2 1/2 hour rain delay and saw 6 innnings....we left and found out later that the Nationals won on a bottom of the 9th inning walk off grand slam....it was a good time for everyone though.



This fall has Madi trying out field hockey and Andrew playing soccer. We look forward to watching them play...



We hope that you had a great summer...would love to hear about it...I plan on posting every couple months...so, until then....