I Am A Broken Record!

When does this stage end? I feel like I say "no" 100 times per night when Abby is eating dinner and dropping her food onto the floor. She looks us in the eye and opens her hand. When I say no, she often shakes her head no. She also doesn't drop her favorite foods- there is never bread on the floor.
I assume this is normal- how long does it last? I am freshening up on the Uh-Oh song from Love and Logic this week and will deploy it soon.

New Years Eve Day

We had a fun-filled day to end the best year of our life! We stopped in Party City to pick up a few more items for Abby's 1st birthday party. Can you guess which party theme Daddy wanted? We drove south to deliver birthday greetings to Jacque and my Dad. Jacque's birthday is New Year's Eve and my Dad is in January. We bought Dad this tacky yard art and I'm think he liked it? We decided it was a bird and would be great to leave a message outside their RV when traveling. We also brought Jacque Bath and Body Works, an annual tradition, and made a birthday cake. It was a gorgeous day, so Dad suggested Abby take her first golf cart ride. She loved it! Kyleigh and Cohen love taking rides on the cart, so I'm certain Abby will take rides for years.
Happy Birthday Granpa and Jaja!

After doing a few things around the house, we put Abby to bed and enjoyed an evening in with our friends Mo and Jessica. We ate a buffet of appetizers, played Wii, and dominoes. Jessica and Mo have a new baby girl who is almost 1 month old and almost 4 pounds! She is still in the NICU downtown, but is doing so very well. Praise the Lord!

It was a far cry for NYE last year when we brought Abby home or the years before when we celebrated out on the town!

Abby's First Boyfriend

Abby loves to read books. She turns the pages for you and picks out her favorite books for reading time before bedtime and nap time each day. She has her favorites. One of her favorites is the First Words book by Bright Baby. The first page makes Abby get a big ol' grin on her face and look at me and giggle. What is on the first page?Yep, a picture of a boy. Her first crush :)
Daddy is in trouble!

I Kept My 2009 Resolution!

I am proud to report that I have kept my resolution from 2009, it isn't even thought of anymore. That is a rare thing.... so who is this guy and what does he have to do with my resolution? This is Bobby Bones and he is the DJ on a local top 40 radio station. Last year, I gave up all top 40/hip hop type music. I listen to christian music about 75% of the time and country music the rest of the time. I knew it had stuck when Marcus got in my car and changed the station. A song was on the radio and I asked him who was singing. It was a major hit this past year that I hadn't even heard.

I have found that giving up that music, the commercials and the DJs that go with it have been good for setting my mind in the right place each morning. It also puts better music in my head for the day. It is pretty easy resolution if you remove these stations from your radio presets.

For 2010, I want to make praying before a meal a habit. We do it ocassionally, but not when we eat out or eat in the living room. I'm hoping Abby starts eating later (she eats at 5:45) so we can all sit, pray and eat together.

Good luck with your new resolutions- I hope they are successful.

Peek-A-Boo

Peek-A-Boo Momma...
I see you!

Abby Gets Whole Milk

Abby visited the doctor this morning and we got confirmation that her respiratory infection is all better! While there, her pediatrician confirmed that she can have whole milk. This thrills me!

When we left the doctor, we bought whole milk and gave it to her for the first time at lunch. Here she is signing the word drink.

Like a champ, she has done well without a bottle at lunch or with her snack this afternoon. She really had weaned herself from the post-dinner bottle already.

Our kitchen counter looks so empty without the big bottle drying rack on it!

A Few of Her Favorite Things

One of the benefits of a holiday season birthday is that Marcus and I were able to spend the entire day with Abby! Her school is closed all week, so we are off and enjoying time together! Today's focus was all Abby and we spent the day doing her favorite things! This morning we watched her Praise Baby DVDs in our birthday cake jammies. Abby can still watch these videos over and over! Her face lights up when the blue DVD logo comes on the screen. She will normally make eye contact with you and give a big grin. It is her way of saying Thank You!
After breakfast and a short morning nap, we got dressed to go have some fun! While I got ready, Abby enjoyed a blow dry session. She loves a breeze in her face- blowing your breath on her, the wind, nasal aspirator, you name it!

Can you see the red in her hair? Weird, huh? It will be blond in the rest of the photos from the day.

I don't know that shoes are one of her favorite things, but she is my daughter, so let's assume so! I found these bright glittery shoes for $5 at HEB Plus. They are a fun imitation of this pair that I adore! Based upon some recommendations from friends, we went to Extreme Fun at Anderson Mill this morning. The place is full of blowups and they have a toddler area. Marcus and I were so scared of "big" kids hurting Abby. She was afraid of nothing! Look at this kid going head first over and over down the toddler slide!

She had so much fun on the slide, crawling on the blow ups, bouncing, and watching the other kids. We have noticed that went Abby gets fussy, we can usually just leave the house and walk a store and she'll perk up. She likes to look at people!

We left the bouncy house and headed to lunch. We ate Mexican food to ensure Abby had her very favorite food for her birthday- avocado! She ate a full half of a sliced avocado, cheese quesadilla, rice, and refried beans. Don't worry, she had vegetables with dinner :)

Happy One Year Old on our way home after our fun day!

She'll also stick her tongue out for you if you do it first. She finds tongues to be hilarious!

After her afternoon nap, we did one more fun thing- jumping on the bed with Daddy! Marcus will hold her vertically over his head and then "drop" her onto the bed so that she bounces. She will land and immediately roll over, sit up and get in position to go again.

We had such a fun day with our sweet girl and are looking forward to celebrating her birthday on Sunday with some of our friends and family. Our first guest list was well over 100 people. Yikes! We paired it down and will still have a full house. We are excited to celebrate our baby girl and our friends and family who helped us get to this day.

Joy Joy Joy

The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with JOY!

- Psalm 126:3
Happy First Birthday Sweet Abigayle!

Love, Momma and Daddy

Monday Funday!

I am off work all week for the holidays and today was Marcus' one day in the office. So, Abby and I ran some errands this morning before meeting Marcus for lunch. We went to Target to buy some items for her upcoming birthday party and this little stinker decided that while still stapped in, she could turn herself around and get the toy she wanted. It is like she was thinking I wouldn't catch her! She was pretty proud of herself and kneed in the basket (still strapped in!) while being pushed around the store and waved at people. She currently does the beauty pageant wave, so it was like she was in her own personal parade in Target. I was laughing the whole way!
Then, we met Marcus at Chick-fil-a for lunch. Abby had her first chicken nugget. She ate it all. I am certain had she not liked Chick-fil-a we would have had problems. She ate lots of Chick-fil-a before she was born! Marcus and I joked that it was my last meal while pregnant, one year ago today!

After lunch we went to the mall and got our ears pierced! Call me crazy, but I love a little girl with her ears pierced. Marcus just asked that he not be with us. She took it like a pro and cried for a short while until I distracted her with a bottle. She even sat still for the second ear!

What a fun day!

Tomorrow is the big day- I am so very excited for us to spend the day together doing fun things and giving Abby all of her favorite foods!

Hello Mr. Aidan

Sunday night since my Mom was still with us, we had a date night! We were scheduled to deliver food to another family in our Sunday school group and meet their new baby boy Aidan. We took them chili and cornbread and chocolate chip cookies just before dinner time.

I loved holding a sweet baby boy! He was very attentive and made the cutest little dinosaur noises. His parents love those little noises, except when he makes them all night long! Afterward, we went to Cover 3, an upscale sports bar in north Austin. Marcus had an ahi tuna burger with the best Parmesan fries and I ate a spicy chicken enchilada. My food was wonderful, but I found a large bone in my food with a couple of bites left. They handled the situation well and I would highly recommend the place. Great selection of food and lots of TVs for the big game.

First Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at home with Abby and Marcus' and my Mom here. On Christmas Eve, Mom and I baked and prepped the food for the coming day's meals. Abby assisted us with sprinkles on the cookies for Santa. :) Marcus' Mom arrived in time for dinner. After putting Abby to bed to dream of sugarplums, we ate beef tenderloin, roasted potatoes and peppermint pound cake. Afterward, we exchanged gifts. On Christmas morning she woke us up before 7 AM and saw her new kitchen by the tree. It has been great entertainment for us thus far. She also opened lots of toys from Nana and Grammy including this stuffed Yoda that she loved months ago in the store. She remembered him!

Abby had pancakes for the first time on Christmas morning while we ate monkey bread. She ate 6 small pancakes, about 2 regular sized cakes! I was certain her tummy would hurt, but she didn't seem to mind. We can now order out with her for breakfast!

After breakfast, we opened our stockings and played Wii and chicken foot (dominoes) most of the day. We ate a smorgasbord of appetizers for lunch and had a traditional dinner with a honey baked ham. I waited in line for over 1 hour on Wednesday for our ham. It was worth the wait- yummy! It came fully cooked, boneless and sliced. I highly recommend it.

It was a Merry Christmas for us all!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

I'll Never Tell

I'll never tell what I was doing behind the scenes to get her to laugh this hard!

I Gave In

and let Abby try candy. Just one little dum dum and she knew just what to do. I was watching her carefully awaiting the stick in her mouth or her letting go, but she gripped that stick and licked that lollipop like a professional. I'd like to encourage you NOT to blow this picture up unless you are a fan of dried up snot from here to kingdom come. I only fight that battle if we are leaving the house.

Just A Swingin'

Since the slide was a big hit on Saturday, we took Abby Lu to the park to try out the swings on Sunday. Can you tell how much she squealed with delight? How about now?
Marcus would guide her swing with a gentle push toward me and she would kick to try and touch me. It was great fun for us both!

We also tried pushing her softly without Marcus touching her the whole time and let her swing on the big kids swings in his lap. She loved it all.

I can't wait for Springtime when we can play here more.

My Little Stinker!

Sunday afternoon Abby and I attended Kiersten's 2nd birthday party. We had a lot of fun which is not evident by the lack of pictures I took. Marcus didn't join me and I felt like I spent the afternoon preventing Abby from opening their presents, crawling down the steps into the backyard, crawling up the steps to their bedrooms, putting her mouth on Kiersten's baby sister's toys, and generally keeping Abby quiet.

Kiersten had a lady bug party and was so cute showing off her presents and playing with the kids. It was a great trial run for another party we will have in just 2 weeks. I have work to do!Anyway, I dressed Abby in this precious new dress made just for her by her fashion godmother Johnna. Get this- it is made from 2 dishtowels at the $1 spot at Target. Yea, 2 dishtowels sewn together with a loop on top for the ribbon. Abby has a Santa head on the front and a second one on her booty! So cute! Thank you Johnna! This sweet innocent face found her dress ribbons to be a little bothersome and in the car ride to the party, she untied them and pulled them out! So, we arrive on time for the party and I look and her ribbons are in her hand and her dress is open and folded over to her belly.

She then proceeded to get all cranky with me that we had to sit in the car for 10 minutes while I figured out her to run the ribbon back through the long holes to make her dress work again.

Forget the cute little bows, girlfriend is getting super tight double knots next time!

Little Dardevil

Marcus and I are not wild and crazy people, but I think our child is fearless. We'll need to find someone to ride the roller coasters with her at Disneyworld. My heavens! We took her to the neighborhood playground Saturday afternoon to get out of the house and enjoy the sunshine. We thought she might like the kid's slide in our laps. Um yea, she preferred to go by herself head first. Marcus sat at the top and would set her up and then I'd have my hands at her body as she went down. She laughed, smiled and kicked with glee. We did this slide a good 15 times before trying the big kid slide. Yep, she liked it too!

I have a feeling we'll spend more Saturday afternoons here in the Spring. Plus, it is a great pre-nap workout for her!

I Did It!

Today I enjoyed my reward for losing 20 pounds- a Peppermint Chocolate Milkshake! I've had a couple of recent weight loss questions, here is my story-

I started Weight Watchers in early August. So, I have lost 20 pounds in a little less than 5 months. It is a not an overnight pill popping success. I am watching what I eat, most days. I have some seasonal favorites (Blue Bell Peppermint Ice Cream and Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes) that I still eat; however, I am making conscience decisions with each meal. I eat yummy cheat foods when the meal choice is out of my control, like Mexican food lunch with friends. When the meal choice is in my control, I try to make it count. We eat pretty healthy at home now and when I run out for lunch I work I stick with meals I can trust. I do not work out. I don't enjoy it and I just can't give up the time with Abby and Marcus.

I gave up sweet tea in mass consumption. I still drink it, but not nearly as much. Starbucks sweet tea has less calories than others, so I have it more than Chick-fil-a. I also found you can order split tea (half sweet and half unsweet) at Chick which has helped.

I weigh myself every morning. Some days I am amazed I lost or didn't gain knowing that I wasn't successful that day, but I make up for it the following day.

I am 10 pounds below my baby weight which is every woman's goal for the upcoming first birthday. I would like to lose another 20 pounds to be at my wedding day weight. That would be wonderful for my 11th anniversary next summer.

I have bought some new clothes, but also have a pretty big wardrobe that fits from about 2 years ago when I was this size. My biggest loss has been in the middle section and I've been told in my face. That is a great place to lose it. I also am finding that my shoe size is going down. My shoes fit, but new shoes fit better in a half size smaller. Odd!

A cheeseburger tastes good, but losing 20 pounds really does taste better!

A Major First for Marcus :)

We left Abby with her first babysitter last night and no joke Marcus asked if we could call and check on her before we had even left the neighborhood. Mary is Marcus' coworkers daughter and we were at her house for his company Christmas party. We had Abby playing at the party and then brought her home and put her to bed. Mary just hung out and listened for the monitor. Abby never made a sound and has no idea there even was a babysitter! We came home about 11:30 and Mary was just hanging out watching TV while Abby slept. It was wonderful!

Here is a question since we are so new at this- what is the going rate for a babysitter these days? I think I made $5 per hour 20 years ago.

What A Day!

We had an action packed Thursday! I went to work on Thursday morning and then left to have lunch with my friends Brandi, Andrea with Lila, and Mary who is visiting Texas from Switzerland. We all worked together at KW and keep in touch via blogs, emails and Facebook. We ate at Maudies and had the best queso! Abby Lu was home sick, so Marcus stayed with her yesterday morning and then brought her to me so he could go to work and I could go home with her. She has a respiractory infection and ear infections. She is happy as can be and then busts out in an awful cough. We spent the afternoon in our jammies watching cartoons and drinking Pedia-lyte.
Then, after Abby went to bed last night, I went to a cookie exchange at my friend Tabriah's house. There were 6 of us and 30 dozen cookies. Can you say sugar rush! We had the most fun chatting, avoiding saying the word "cookie" to win a prize, and eating holiday foods.

I brought Peppermint Snowballs in the bottom left corner. I'll post the recipe on Your Little Birdie this weekend. Enjoy!