Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We sure did! Jason, Abby, and I spent three nights at my parents house with my brother David. It was a wonderful break!! The holiday season always makes me look at my life and realize how fortunate that I have been so far.


My grandmother, Gigi, came over on Thursday to eat dinner with us. She looked great and seemed to be in really good spirits. Since her stroke she hasn't been able to talk but she is walking with a walker when she wants to and is pretty easy to understand.


During the trip, I asked David to take pictures of Abby (so I would have a Christmas card picture for this year). David is a photographer in L.A. and although he does not usually take pictures of children, he helped us out.

Photo Shoot Setup Pictures:




Some of David's pictures of Abby (all of my favorites are on our Shutterfly account):







Abby Updates:
- She can roll over from her back to her tummy and back.
- She grabs everything that she can and puts it into her mouth.
- When swinging on a swing (sitting in my lap), she will bend and straighten her legs at the same time that I do. It is so cute.
- She is learning to sit up and sits propped up for long periods of time in her boppy.
- When on her tummy, she is starting to get the urge to crawl. You can tell she wants to move forward a little, but she still doesn't have the coordination to do anything about it.
- She loves to wave her hands in the air (I caught her on video).

Fabulous Fall

Abby Updates

Abigail is doing the typical 5 month baby things (she is 5 months on the 17th). She is putting everything in her mouth.

She is also chatting up a storm.

Kim and Jason's Nights Out

Last Thursday, Grandma and Grandpa Allen watched Abby while Jason and I went to a company party. On Friday, Nonna and Poppa came to watch Abby for the second night of the company party (my company throws fun company meetings with parties each night). Both nights Abby had a great time with her grandparents. Thanks guys!!

Here is pictures from the company party:


Zoo
The weather has been just perfect the last few days, so Jason and I took the opportunity to take Abby to the zoo. We know that she won't remember all of the fun that we had while we were there... but we will!

Happy Birthday Dylan!

Dylan's first birthday was November 2nd. This was Abby's first birthday party to attend and she slept through the whole thing! Unfortunitely my camera died, so I didn't get to take many pictures of all of the mayham... but it was crazy how many babies were there. :)

Here is Dylan with his cake:

Here is Dylan pushing Hunter on his train toy:


Check out Angela's blog for better pictures (link on the right).

Halloween

We had a nice Halloween week this year. On Monday morning at Abby's daycare, I realized that all of the children had Halloween costumes on. I must have missed the communication that told us that there would be a costume parade on Monday... and the another on Friday (the actual day of Halloween). Luckily Abby was too young to know that her mom had forgotten to dress her up for the first parade. There were other mothers who had forgotten as well... but their children were really upset with them.

Abby was the only baby in her class without a costume... so her teachers dressed her up in a costume that had been donated to the class last year. It fit her perfectly and looked really cute. Here is Abby in the borrowed costume:


On Halloween, I did remember to bring her costume... and I decided to stay for the parade. They have a little buggy for the children to sit in. Her class (the infant class) was the last to be wheeled through the parade - and they looked so cute (and a little scared).


There was a cat, a dog, a bear, a skeleton (Austin), a Mermaid (Abby), and a pumpkin (Ryan is the youngest in the class and cannot hold his head up enough to ride in the buggy yet).


After work/school, we went to Vincent's house (Kristin and Edwin's) to eat pizza and give candy to trick or treaters. Lily, Daniel, and Lucia came over as well. Vincent was dressed as a ghost and Lucia was a ballerina. They were so cute!!

My Little Mermaid

Today our neighborhood held a Halloween Festival. I was excited to dress Abby up in her cute little mermaid costume and walk her around to meet all of the neighbors (it is always easy to meet people with a baby and/or a dog). So, we dressed her and Hannah up and took pictures before we left:




It was a beautiful day today, clear skies and 80 degrees... perfect for summer... but when you have a winter Halloween costume (as a baby) and you have been walking a few blocks with a sweater on (as a mom), 80 degrees feels like 100 degrees. We made it right up to the festival, turned around (there was no shade or air conditioning there), and came right back home. First, I took down Abby's outfit so that she wouldn't be too hot. Here is the after picture:


I will have to take Abby for a walk on Halloween night if it is cool, just so I can show off her costume.

Renaissance Festival

Today we went to the Renaissance Festival. We had a wonderful time!! We bought Abby a princess hat and instantly she became a celebrity (so many people that we had never met took pictures of her with her hat on).




We went with my parents (Nonna and Poppa) and with Daniel, Lily, Lucia, Dan, and Renae.


Renae and I rode on an elephant:


Jason and Dan played with bows and arrows, threw knives, and threw axes:


Lucia and Abby were really good the whole festival! We can't wait until next year!

Eating Cereal

Abby likes to steal the spoon and put her hands in the bowl when we are eating. She hasn't really figured out how swallow the food... but we are working on that. :)

Prayer Request:

Baby Chloe left us this week to go to Heaven. She was a beautiful little girl whose life touched many people. Please pray for her family during this sad time.

4 Months Old

Abigail is 4 months old! I love this age! We are greeted all the time with smiles and laughs. She is very predictable now (thanks to the day care). When she cries (which isn't very often anymore), we know exactly what she wants so it is easy to get her to stop.

Thursday's doctor visit stats are below:

Height: 26 1/4 inches (97th percentile)
Weight: 12 lbs 6 ounces (25th percentile)
Head Circumference: 15 1/2 ounces

Because Abby isn't gaining weight as well as the doctor would like, he has suggested that we start introducing solid food. I had been hoping to hold out until she was 6 months to do this (oh well). Friday morning we started feeding her rice cereal. She really likes chewing on the soft spoon which is the only reason that I think she takes the food at all. :)

Face Down

The thing that I have been scared of since Abigail was born happened this morning... somewhere between 4am and 7am, she rolled over onto her stomach, so when she woke us up in the morning we found her face down in bed.

Abby has always been an active sleeper. There have been many times when we have found her rotated in the bed (instead of her head at the head of the bed and her feet at the foot, her head would be on one side of the bed and her feet are at the other). This morning, not only was she on her stomach, but her head was completely at the foot of the bed and her feet were at the head. I'm assuming that this is just a general progression into becoming a mobile human... but it scares me that she isn't waking up in the same position that I put her in when I laid her down for bed.

Dedication Ceremony

Today Abby's Grandpa, David, led a baby dedication ceremony for Abby. A dedication ceremony is a time for a child's parents to announce in front of a congregation that they will teach the child to live in Jesus. It is so special that David led this ceremony. A little over three years ago, he led another ceremony for us - our marriage.



After the ceremony, the family had lunch at Grandma's house where we took a bunch of cute pictures (below are a few - the rest are on our Shutterfly website):






Prayer request:

Please pray for baby Chloe (seen in one of my August posts) and her parents Kate and Rex. Chloe is currently in the hospital and can use all of the prayer that we can give.

Jumper

Since Abby has been one month old, she has been interested in standing. The doctor taught us a neck exercise where you hold her hands and pull her up into a sitting position... and Abby decided instead of sitting, she would lock her legs and stand up.

Now that she is almost 4 months old, I thought it was time for her to spend some of her play time upright (without us holding her up). So - now we have a jumper. She isn't tall enough for it yet, but she seems to enjoy it when the CD case is beneath her. She ignores the toys but likes moving around in it.

Vacations are fun!

Jason, Abby, Hannah, and I all went to Matagorda this weekend for our first family vacation. The weather was beautiful and we spent as much time outside as we could. We literally woke up and went outside. This picture was taken right after her first bottle of the morning.


Jason played with the new boat a lot during the weekend.


Abby took her first boat ride. She was very at peace on the water... she even fell asleep at one point.



We also took Abby to the beach for the first time.




Hannah had fun in Matagorda, too.