More Happenings

Oh you know...Abby's learning how to give me a hand with the laundry!

This weekend, we traveled to Boston to celebrate with our friends Aaron and Jenn on their wedding day! Abby got to hang out with her Aunt Chrissy at the hotel and Joe and I enjoyed a night out at a beautiful wedding with our friends.

love this man.

the lovely Mr. & Mrs.

It takes a cart to bring everything up to our hotel room. (even for an overnight!) We had fun playing on it!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

This weekend, we bought our tree and started decorating! We loved that we were doing it as three this year! It even started to snow as we got in the car to go pick out our Christmas tree.

It's really winter now! All bundled up and ready to go.

at our favorite local farm. We decided next year it will be time to go and cut down our own tree though.

picking out the tree with Daddy

exploring our boxes of decorations

loving the glittery jingly bells

and of course fascinated with the pretty lights

putting the star on top

hanging the first ornament

loving my little girl

Before the tree was decorated, Abby was afraid of it. She would reach her hand out to touch it and then bury her face into her daddy and hug him really tightly. After all of the lights, ribbons and ornaments were in place, she wanted to be as close to the tree as possible and touching every thing that sparkled! Lucky her, it's right across from Abby's high chair in our dining room. She is enjoying the Christmas season already and so are we!

Abby's First Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving started for us on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in Wappingers. We enjoyed a relaxing time with my family and even some time with friends. My Dad cooked up a delicious Thanksgiving feast and we visited with both of my parents that afternoon. Abby and Cody became better friends this visit. I think my old dog is a little more interested in her now that she drops "the good stuff" while she is eating. This time she treated Cody to some turkey and roasted sweet potatoes! Uncle Cory made Abby's day complete when he found her a good Elmo movie to watch before her nap.

After dinner, we took Abby to visit some of my high school friends (some of who were meeting her for the first time) and then after Abby was in bed we played Scrabble and had family movie night! Good times!

The day went by so quickly and was packed with so much fun that I didn't get many pictures, but here are the few I snagged.

getting ready to dig in to this yummy goodness

Abby & Cody

Cody willingly cleaning up Abby's chair after dinner

On Thursday morning, we all (my dad & Cory too) drove to Moorestown for Thanksgiving with the Cassels. These pictures should help capture the fun weekend.

Hungarian flag hung for the festive celebration

Every year, I just love that cute little turkey butter.

hanging out with G-diddy, Papa and Uncle Cory

lots of laughs. Uncle Cory is a funny guy.

"SO...can I have an Hors d'oeuvres? You guys said it was happy hour!"

"I'll try some of that!"

Look at everyone watching adoringly as Abby tries to get to the goodies

family photo

Abby's Uncles! Boys, watch out...not only will you have to get through her daddy, but these studs too!

Karaoke Night!
These guys serenaded us all, while the ladies stood on the sidelines hoping the guys would never get tired of singing and try to get us to join.

After Thanksgiving, my dad and Cory went home, but we stayed for the weekend!

time to walk off all that turkey!

hanging out with Alex

everybody takes some time to enjoy a little Elmo when Abby is around!

"G-diddy, do you like Elmo too?"

Greeley and Abby became best friends. He makes her laugh harder than any of us do!
Greeley getting upset because he hears Abby crying over the monitor.

meeting Zakiya and Matt for the first time

hanging out with Uncle Tommy

out to dinner at Uncle Brad's restaurant. Hmm...what to have?

Visiting Brad at work and enjoying a nice dinner together on our last night in town!

There's just so much that I'm thanking God for! We're so thankful for his abundant blessings!

The holidays begin

Every year, we begin the holiday season by spending a long weekend with family, our Campus Crusade family! The weekend before Thanksgiving all of the Northeast staff travels to a wonderful retreat center in Speculator, NY for a time of rest, encouragement and fellowship. We look forward to it every year. There is always lots of great times of refreshment with God and some of our closest friends (kind of like a family reunion).

This was Abby's first year and she loved it. During our meeting times, she went to childcare. When I came back to pick her up, I peeked through the door's window to watch her interacting with the little kids. My favorite was when Abby was sitting on the floor and all the (older) little girls were sitting around her and talking to her. She was just looking up at them and smiling! Bethany (below) was one of Abby's favorite "older" friends!

Abby playing with Bethany, while Tara and I caught up

meeting little Emma for the first time (I think Abby will have lots of friends that she can say "We've known each other since we were born!")

hanging out with Daddy in the lobby

enjoying the fireplace

Abby & Livy

some downtime from all of the people time...reading books in our room. Abby loves to sit with books and turn the pages. It is adorable to watch her study each page and point to the pictures.

We ate every meal with friends. Abby was playing games with John and Hayden.

photoshoot with friends!

Looking forward to next year!