ALMOST double digits!!

Yesterday was Wes and I’s 9th wedding anniversary!! Yep, 9 years ago we were celebrating with everyone at Little Brasstown Baptist Church, then the Gathering of Angels reception site, near Murphy, NC. What a fabulous day that was!!

Now here we are, still married and I think we have done pretty well for ourselves!! It hasn’t always been easy, but Wes has been a wonderful partner, friend, and now father, and there is no one else I would rather have by my side than him. I love you sweetheart!!

Lately...

Ever since we have been back from the beach, I feel like our life has been SO busy! We had my family up for Memorial Day weekend, which I realized I haven’t even posted any pictures of, and then we have been taking advantage of the long summer days by going on the lake as much as possible. When I say “the lake” – it’s not like we have one in town to go to, so it’s more like about an hour or so drive to Lake Keowee, which we have realized is the closest. And this weekend we went to Wes’s parents, so we were on Hiwassee Lake. It is wonderful to be able to enjoy our boat again…it makes me feel a little better about the payment we make on it each month… a little better.

In Abbie news, she hit the 13-month mark on Saturday. And I haven’t even posted her stats from her 1-year check up – which were 18 lbs 14 oz, and 27” long. OK, I have a confession - I am totally guessing on the length. I mean, it sounds right, but I lost the paper so don't quote me on that one. Anyways, I digress. Dr. Morgan said she was talking and annunciating like a 2-year old. Yep. She is a smart one, that child of MINE (oh yea, and Wes’s)!! I counted at least 45 words that she says the other day!! She is practically running everywhere now, and is just doing all kinds of new things. She can also help me count to ten – I started doing this to distract her when I was changing her diaper. But she won’t say one – I say one, she says two, I say three, she says five and so on!! I am trying to teach her to say how old she is, but every time I say one, she says two – you get the picture! Also her newest thing is to put the cell phone up to her ear and say hello. It’s so cute. She can say nose, ears, mouth, eyes, and hair and point to them all. Let’s see, what else? Oh yea, teeth. She has four on the bottom now, and her top two are finally coming in. She has one poked through and I can see the other one. I am hoping to have a little break from this soon, because her sleeping is being affected. And I swear it messes up her stomach too. She did sleep through the night Thursday and Friday, but she is like a little rooster, sometimes waking up at 5am!!! I seriously PRAY all the time that she will start sleeping just a little later!! Someone told me that by the time they go to school you are having to drag them out of bed – well, right now I am looking forward to that, because I don’t even have to set an alarm clock to get up for work in the mornings!

Well, I have written enough. Here are some pictures over the last few weeks…

Kissy Kissy

So apparently since Abbie is now 1, she thinks she should have a boyfriend or something. Mrs. Pam, her fabulous sitter, tells Wes and me that Abbie and Nash, another precious one-year old, kiss all day long. Friday morning when Wes dropped her off, Nash was there, and gave Abbie a very sweet smile, and Abbie proceeded to get out of Wes’s arms and hobble over to Nash so she could kiss him. Now I haven’t seen this first hand, but she has been opening her mouth lately when she kisses me, so I assume that is what she is doing to Nash too. Oh well. At least she’s not kissing Emily or Addison, the other girls there, right??!! She definitely takes after her Daddy. Mommy never behaved like this….

Turning ONE!!

Well, it has come and gone. Abbie's birthday, that is. We are now the proud parents of a one-year old! Hard to believe! I can't even begin to write all the things we are experiencing and the emotions and on and on. I have been actually avoiding blogging for a few days because I felt so overwhelmed with what to say! But I will try not to drag this out too much. We had a fabulous week in Hilton Head Island, SC. It really was an enjoyable vacation, our resort was very nice and kid friendly, the weather held out for the most part, and overall Abbie did really well. Our days consisted of bike riding, walking on the beach, going to the pool, then napping in the afternoon. At night we either grilled or went out to eat. Wes went fishing most days - they didn't catch much except shark, but he seemed to have fun anyways. It was just a great week with family, and the break we needed from the daily grind. Oh, and Abbie LOVES the pool. She would stick her face right in the water, go in the fountains, she was just full speed ahead! She would play all morning if we let her, then crash for several hours in the afternoon!

So on to her birthday - she turned 1 on Wednesday. We got her a cake, and celebrated in the afternoon by singing to her and opening presents. She LOVED the cake but I think the sugar high got to her a little bit. I think next time I will just give her smaller piece!

What she is up to these days:

Taking several steps!! Yes, I have a video too, I will try to post it if not in this one but in the next. The video was literally almost the first time she had ever even stood up all by herself, and then she started taking steps. It was crazy. But tonight she walked all the way across her room and into the bathroom. She was SOOOO cute - she had this big smile on her face and she was saying GO GO GO!!

Talking like such a big girl! She has so many words. I swear she is so smart. I am sure I will miss a few, but she says Abbie Go, Gotta Go, Please, Thank You, Bless You (when someone sneezes), Bye-Bye, Hi, Night-Night, No, Yes, Nurse, Eyes, Ears, Nose, I think I could go on but I won't bore you!! ( :

She has two teeth and eats "adult food" - three meals a day, with an afternoon snack. She is completely off the bottle, drinks whole milk out of a sippy cup during the day, then nurses in the morning and the evenings.

She is sleeping SO much better all of a sudden! Since my last post she has done so well. What a difference good sleep makes for the both of us. I still wake up some nights and go check on her, or find myself waiting for her to wake up, but I guess after one year of not sleeping a full night that can be expected!

She loves to look at her books, play with her baby dolls, push her stroller or car around. She loves hats, sunglasses, and other things she can't always have.

We also just switched her to a forward facing car seat! It's like a whole new world for her. We have the DVD player set up in Wes's truck, and she is now obsessed w/ Elmo!

So anyways, I wanted this to be a shorter post, but it's a novel. Sorry, but this is a big deal! Wes and I are so very blessed to have Abbie and we find her nothing short of WONDERFUL. I can't imagine our lives without her now. It's amazing how much we have gone through this year, but it's been the best experience of our lives!

TEN!

That's the number of hours sweet pea slept last night WITHOUT waking up! I know, I could hardly believe it myself this morning. She has gone about eight hours before, but I am not sure about nine, and definitely not ten. So I was pretty stoked, to say the least!!
Just wanted to share my excitement with you on this landmark day!!

I did NOT go to Chick-Fil-A the other day for lunch with the intent of getting a salad, then a grilled chicken sandwich, only to get a regular chicken sandwich and LARGE fries and drink.

I have NOT been checking my bed, my hair, Abbie’s bed, her hair, and EVERYTHING else for ticks ever since we found three on Brandy last week. Notice we don’t worry about Wes’s hair too much – hee hee.

We did NOT give Abbie froot loops and ranch dressing this weekend (no, not together silly) and she did NOT still smell like ranch this morning even after a bath!

I did NOT let Abbie cry for a minute at 5am this morning, only to regret it and wake Wes up to go in and rock her so I could get another minute of sleep.

That was fun. Now back to regular blogging.... Abbie will be the BIG ONE two weeks from tomorrow! Really??!! And almost as exciting as that - we will be in Hilton Head in two weeks! And almost as exciting as that, well not really, but still - My iris's are finally blooming - well actually just one, but ain't it pretty??

And I am desperately trying to find a new background for my blog. I went to CutestBlogontheBlock.com, where I found my current layout, but it told me I had to download Internet Explorer 8 or something like that, and since I use my work laptop for personal, I wasn't sure my company would like me doing that. So I am open to suggestions on where to find other cute layouts. I need a new one bad!

And oh yea, I almost forgot! Stellan went home today! Well actually he and MckMama are still in Boston, but they fly home tomorrow. Please keep him in your prayers as he takes this big step, that his heart will stay regulated and he will be healthy!

Finally!

After almost 6 months of living in this house, we finally got Abbie's name up in her room. Actually, I wanted to do this in our house in Salt Lake, but never got around to it. So anyways, one more thing to check off the list!

We had a fabulous weekend of nothingness here. Beautiful weather yesterday, so we gardened and grilled and just piddled around outside. Abbie is pure genius. She is saying everything we say, seriously. Tonight I was telling her to be gentle with Brandy, because she tends to hit her right on the nose, and although Brandy tolerates it very well, it's not nice, so anyways. She proceeded to repeat the word "gentle" to me - it was more like "getle" but hey, I was impressed. And she is also saying shoe, chair, turkey, teacher, thank you (sounds like "tick u"), the list goes on. Like I said, if she hears us say it more than a couple times, she is saying it. I am struggling with Wes to not teach her choice phrases at such an early age. I told him he'd be sorry! ( :