Monday, December 5, 2011

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Preparing for Christmas has been a whole new adventure for our family this year. Every step of the way has been filled with wonder and excitement. Last year, it was fun to spend our first Christmas season with Abby, but this year it has fun in a new way.

Last weekend, we got our tree and spent the evening decorating together. At the tree farm, after Joe inspected EVERY tree to find our "perfect" one, Abby and I went inside to get our special treat.


The tree was fun, but add an apple cider donut and smiles abound! She had no idea it would get even better.

When Abby woke up from her nap, she ran into the living room and shouted excitedly, "ABBY TREE!" She has reminded us exactly whose tree it is everyday since.

Opening the boxes of ornaments was so much fun. Every box literally brought a new gasp of amazement from Abby. "Oooooooo! Mommy PEEEEEEEAS! Abby do."

We were wondering what it would be like to have a tree full of sparkly, enticing, breakable ornaments+ lots of candy canes + a curious toddler, but the result has been pretty typically Abby. When it comes down to it, she is such a good listener. She doesn't touch it! That's not to say she isn't tempted. We have actually caught her multiple times pacing in front of the tree and pointing at ornaments. We started telling her to look with her eyes and not with her hands. I wasn't sure how much of it she really understood until the next day when I saw her pacing again. This time, she stopped in front of her favorite, untouchable ornament, stuck her little butt out and got her nose up really close to the tree and started saying "eyes! eyes!". What can I say? She was listening to her Mommy and looking with her eyes!

Decorating our new home for Christmas has been really special. It's so cozy and festive.

Some other funny highlights from the past week:

Abby is such a little mommy. She carries her babies everywhere. I walk into her room when she is in there playing alone to find her rocking her baby to sleep (saying "Shhh shhh shhhh" and kissing her on the forehead). She brings babies to me with a changing pad, wipes and a diaper and asks me to help her change them. When we tell Abby it's time for dinner, she runs to find a baby and bring her to the table to eat. She even insists her baby prays with us. She really wants to take her baby into the bathtub, but I'm thinking her talking baby doll wouldn't survive playtime in the water. There are some days when Abby just wants to be the baby again. So, the other day she brought out her baby's cradle and her baby's blanket and showed me who the baby was!

One afternoon, Abby woke up startled (and early) from her nap. I think she had a bad dream. When I got her out of her crib, she fell back to sleep immediately on my shoulder. This was my sweet view for the rest of her nap. There is nothing better I could have been doing that afternoon.

Abby has taken a new extreme liking to the sea otter stuffed animal Grammy and G-Diddy brought her back from Alaska this summer. The thing is Abby is convinced her sea otter is actually a mouse, also known as "MOUF". She takes him everywhere and now sleeps with him every night. When Joe goes in to get Abby from her crib in the morning, every other stuffed animal and blanket has been thrown out onto the floor, but Abby is holding onto Mouse nice and tight. The other night, Abby decided Mouse needed some dinner too. What she really wanted was for his face to be right in her macaroni and cheese, but I convinced her that would make him pretty dirty and smelly. So, we got Mouse a bowl of his own food (cheerios) and he munched away by Abby's side!


Enjoying every minute of this sweet blessing God has given us!

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving was a great time with family. So great in fact that I didn't really get a lot of pictures.

We started our trip with a day in my hometown going out to lunch and spending the day with Grandma and Uncle Cory. Then, we went out to dinner with Papa. Papa even babysat for Abby when she went to bed so Joe and I could meet up with some old friends.

A couple of Abby's favorite things at my dad's house are blowing bubbles with Papa and Uncle Cory's room. She goes up and sits with Cory while he plays video games and asks him to play quad racing videos for her. Seriously?! She started doing this completely unprompted and made her uncle the happiest guy ever...especially since he is convinced she will be a professional quad rider when she grows up. We'll see about that one.

Joe disappeared within minutes of our arrival at Grammy and G-Diddy's house for Thanksgiving. This guy didn't even need to have stomach full of turkey before he found a place to take a good Thanksgiving nap.

On the other hand, Abby ran off to play some chess and hang out with Greeley.


Uncle Cory found her and hand delivered her back to us in a basket.

One of my favorite parts of the day was when all the guys went outside to play some football. Abby wasn't going to be left out. Uncle Bradley even brought out a special football just for her. It really was one of the sweetest sights. Abby running around and playing football with all the special men in her life: Daddy, Uncle Bradley, Uncle Tommy, Uncle Cory, Papa and G-Diddy. It's not everyday a little girl gets to make memories with all of her uncles and grandfathers at the same time.




As always, dinner was a delicious feast! Abby's place setting made me smile. I loved her mini fancy silver fork.

Some of Abby's other favorite things at Grammy and G-Diddy's are:

her basket of blocks

playing her Daddy's organ

playing with Grammy's old Ginny dolls
(She even got G-Diddy and Aunt Cyncy up there!)


reading stories and hanging out with her uncles

Abby also loves helping Grammy unload the dishwasher and getting cups of ice from the freezer!


Saturday, December 3, 2011

Sweet October continued...

The end of October/Mama's visit as captured by Mama's camera:


Dinnertime is always filled with lots of songs (and hand motions)!

Always excited after a trip to the library...after all there is a whole new stack of books to read.

Abby wasn't feeling good, so she took her nap on Mommy and Daddy's bed that afternoon.

Abby loved to help Mama cook and loved to eat seconds of everything she made.


A glimpse into our animated story time before bed...



Snuggled right in and relaxing with Mama.









We visited my dad's house when Mama was here and got to spend our last afternoon with my sweet puppy, Cody. He wasn't really a puppy anymore. He was actually 13, but he was my baby and the best dog anyone could have ever had. We are all brokenhearted because we had to say goodbye, but thankful to have been blessed with the best dog anyone could have ever hoped for! So many years, so many sweet memories and such a good friend. We love you Cody!

Abby adored Cody too!

When Abby is at her Papa's house, they love to blow bubbles together. When they are done, Abby runs around the house yelling, "Papa! Moh Buboooos!" until he starts blowing them again!

Papa and Abby taking a walk together in the yard.