Abby is 7 months old! I still can't believe it!

I am completely amazed that Abigail is 7 months old today! It feels like just a few weeks ago that she was born. I blinked and now she is getting so big. She is saying words like: Dada, Hi, and Mom, or at least it sounds like Mom. We know she knows what dada is. She has a child’s photo album that she plays with all the time and she will put her hand on Jason’s picture and say daddy…way to sweet. We also keep a mirror beside her changing station and she will turn over to the mirror and go, Hiiiiiii. She also plays copy cat, if you hit your hand on the table, she will do the same, if you go hahaha, she will also echo. She has also started waving her little hands when we say bye bye. She truly is such a sweet little girl. I think it is funny because I said I wouldn’t be one of those mom’s that ONLY talked about their child. However she completely and utterly has changed my life and I am so in love with her, I can’t help but talk about her non-stop. I would say that about 80 percent of my updates on FB pertain to her. She is such a blessing.

Our days with her are wonderful and I absolutely love my weekends with her. We always try and do something special on the weekends, which something special to her would be extra cuddles and playtime. I love to feed her all 4 of her bottles and get to feed her both of her meals. On days that she goes to daycare, I only get to feed her one bottle and feed her one meal. Those things are so special to me, these days the mixed veggies and sweet potato bites are her favorite. She is starting to get into everything. Our house is pretty child proof due to the previous owners having children; however there are some updates that we definitely need to do this weekend! We definitely need to get some sort of cover to put on the hearth, and a few cabinets need those fasteners on them. I wouldn’t change anything about the past 7 months, I just look at her and just in awe that God would entrust us with her. Today we went to Beattyville to visit with her Grandma and Pop pa. We had such a wonderful time, however I think that Abigail gets carsick, but who wouldn’t riding backwards in a car seat through the mountains – I would probably get carsick too. She had a wonderful time getting lovings from her family; time with family is the best.

Singing / Playing Piano

It's kind of funny but I am so use to playing on the keyboard, I feel a little awkward playing on a normal piano. It is kind of like driving someone else's car, you can do it, but it is plain awkward. I know with a keyboard the way it feels with the weighted keys and I am use to it. I also know that it is in tune.  Unfortunately we don't own a piano; however we own 2 full size keyboards, one we keep at our church and one for me to play on here. Jason and I are going to Beattyville tomorrow to visit with family. We are going to be visiting the church that Jason grew up in, Grace Baptist church. It has been several years since we have been to the church; they have gone through a building project and have a whole new sanctuary that we haven’t seen yet. Whenever Jason visits he is requested to sing several songs and tomorrow we are going to be singing / playing: God with us, Surrender and You are God Alone. I absolutely love all three of these songs. I have listed the lyrics below on the songs. I always get a little nervous playing on a different piano because of the way the keys feel, and also because of my music, I'm always afraid that it will fall! If you are a piano player you absolutely know what I'm talking about, one of the songs we are doing is like 10 pages long with several repeats, and a Coda, and so I am flipping back and forth. I have my page turning mastered on my piano at home, and fully it will go smoothly tomorrow on their piano. This will be the first time that Abby has been to a different church besides Durbin, but she will have her grandma and grandpa there tomorrow to hold her while we play, I know that she is looking forward to it. She will probably wonder why she can't sit on my lap while me and Jason play / sing. I love that music is part of her.

Saturday Morning

During the work week we always have to wake Abigail up at 7:00. She sometimes starts talking about 6:45 to her friends [aka parrot, polar bear, and lion on her mobile] however she will just lay there until one of us comes to get her. The past couple of weeks though she has woken up at 5:30 on Saturday morning. When she wakes up she just starts talking…dadadadadadadadada. I leaned over to Jason this morning and told him that his baby girl was calling for him. He of course offered to get up, but I enjoy the mornings too much to let him have her. Saturday mornings are his change to sleep in and rest. Abby and I got up and ate her bottle; she sat in the floor and played with her most favorite doll buttercup. She is happy as long as she is within arm’s reach. We cuddled, and played with her rattle. Now she is napping on her boppy pillow right beside me. She is such a sweet little girl, cuddling with her buttercup. I look forward to my weekends with her so much, but they just fly by. Looks like today we will stay indoors due to the weather – staying warm in our PJ’s.

Work day with mommy

I had the pleasure of taking Abigail with me to work today. I am on a flex schedule with my job and only had to work 3.5 hours on Fridays. I love the option of a flex schedule, as long as you work your 37.5 hours they let you do it in different ways. I absolutely don’t get anything done on days that she goes in with me, so I prepped Monday’s court stuff yesterday and actually brought home stuff and worked a couple of hours when she fell asleep last night. Abby loves to go to my office; she is a child who is happy as long as someone is in the room with her. I think that daycare has done this to her, which I am glad that she loves people. I can pass her off to a stranger and she will just look at them and smile. This might be a problem when she’s older, because she isn’t allowed to date until she is 27 – and if she bats those beautiful eye lashes I know that the boys are going to come running. At my office she has so many “honorary Auntie’s”. We don’t throw around that term very loosely though, these women just love her for who she is. I feel honored that so many people at my work and church love on her and treat her like family. Jason and I often talk about how we wish that our family lived closer, however circumstances and jobs brought us to this area away from our family. Jason’s side of the family lives about an hour away from us, and my side of the family lives about 4 hours away. Abigail has only made one trip to Tennessee to see my side of the family at Christmas, we need to plan another trip once there isn’t any more threat of snow, hopefully that will be soon! Today at work there was a group of us that went to PJ Chang’s. One of my favorite restaurants, however I think it is a little pricy for Chinese food. Abigail slept when we first got there, however woke up to play before our food came. She got to get some water out of my straw and eat some Sweet Potato bites. She played “drop my toy” with Brooke and lounged back in her high chair like she owned the place. It was a time to celebrate a worker leaving our office. I think time at our office is sometimes looked to as a “sentence” that needs to be served. A lot of people work there for two years and then leave, due to a contact they sign to assist with their school tuition. I have been there almost seven years. I think it is crazy how long I have worked there, but someone has got to do it, and I have a passion for working with children that are abused and neglected. I fortunately got out of front line work though about three years ago and working as the liaison with the court systems. I couldn’t have worked ongoing front line anymore either, it is a high burnout job. However I have realized that many people who leave our agency end up coming back in several years. I think that any job in social work is high stress in some form or another. We need to pray for our workers daily, for strength and encouragement. Our job can be very discouraging with the long hours, and the bureaucracy of state government. So we said good bye to one of our workers today who will be moving on to greener pastures. I know that we will keep in touch too, if for no other reason she will want to see Abigail. Love you Kim!

Hairbows, tutu's and Flower Halo's

I absolutely love making hair bows and tutu's for Abigail. Someday she is going to look back at all these pictures and just think her mama was crazy. Something about putting together these bows from scratch, hand sewing them all with love makes them so special to me. One day I know she will look at them and know they were each made with love for her. I hope someday they will make her feel beautiful as she already is. I have had so many people tell me that I need to sale my hair bows, so I think that I am going to take them up on their offer. I posted a folder of pictures on FB. I am not hoping to make a lot of money off of them, just enough for me to buy more ribbon to make more bows.

Early Morning

I had my alarm set for 5:00 this morning so I could go to boot camp class at the gym. I woke up and looked out the window to use my automatic car starter and saw that there was snow. I have a rule of thumb to not go to the gym before work if schools are cancelled. Since my job offers no sort of closing whatsoever for snow, I have created this as my own reward when it snows. I don't enjoy the inconvenience of snow, however it does mean more time at home with family, which I can never seem to get enough of. Usually on snow days I go into work a little late and Abigail gets to stay home with her daddy. We don't like to get her out if there is any chance of the roads being bad. So after my alarm went off - I was unable to go back to sleep so I came to the TV and watched on DVR the ultimate cake off. "Really Sweet 16" episode, where they make 16 cakes for a riverboat event. I think it would be amazing to be able to make those cakes! Right now though I have very limited decoration skills when it comes to even icing cakes. I have mastered the basket weave though and will use this now to ice my carrot cakes with the cheese cream icing. So this morning I am going to enjoy my time away from "boot camp". My body is pretty sore anyway, it needs a rest. I have lost all but a couple pounds of my pregnancy weight, but it is definitely in different places! I had lost close to 50 pounds before I got pregnant and I need to get motivated again to lose more weight. Prior to pregnancy I had 10 more pounds to go before I hit goal, and I need to lose that final 10 pounds. Snow days sure aren't helping my waistline though, those are the mornings that I will make biscuits and gravy; I think I hear it calling my name right now.

Little Fellas

I absolutely love to cook and love to try new recipes. Anyone who has been to my house and into my kitchen has seen my collection of cookbooks each with their own wonderful adventures in them. I have worn several of them out. You can tell the recipes that I refer to often because there are foods of some sort splattered on them. Something about cooking makes me feel closer to my mama. My Mama and Grandmother both cooked all the time when I was a child. I think of my Mama’s cornbread, Vegetable soup and my most favorite pot roast. I think of my grandmother’s wonderful fried eggs and bacon. When I was little she would make us some eggs and we would share a plate. She would always let me dip my toast and eat most of the yellow which was my favorite part. She always kept a bag of Hershey’s kisses in her night table; we both shared a love for chocolate. Thinking of food makes me think of gathering with friends and family and sharing food that I have made is just one way to show people that I love them. Something about making something, putting it all together and coming out with something just makes me happy. It is one simple way that I can show someone that I love and care about them. I am hoping that my daughter Abigail shares a love for cooking like her mama. We have already started a cheesecake tradition together. We have made cheesecake to celebrate the holidays. We had a pumpkin cheesecake at Thanksgiving and a brownie chocolate swirl cheesecake at Christmas. She was very helpful in watching me mix and making me smile while doing so. This evening Abigail and myself made the Junior's Little Fella Chocolate Cheesecake Swirls, if you are interested in the recipe I posted it in my notes on 02-06-10. These are so easy to make and turn out wonderful. I have one recommendation though, defiantely use the waterbath, it truly does make a difference in the moisture aspect of the cheesecake. I have purchased ingredients to venture to make my first red velvelt cheesecake – yes I said it, my 2 most favorite desserts together in one pan. It is going to be amazing, even if it doesn’t turn out exactly like the picture!

Pooh Bear

This evening Abby and I were playing in the floor of her room. About 7:00 Jason and I have to get creative to get her to stay awake later. Lately we have been giving her more baths because she absolutely loves her bath time. This evening she was playing with all her little pooh character animals. She tries to hold all of them at the same time, but her little arms just aren't big enough. She will hold one of them and them mush it into her mouth. I will pick up one of them and shake it, she will drop everything she has in her hand and want the one that her mommy has and push it straight into her mouth. She is so cute trying to hold each of these in her hands all at one.

6 month pictures

We got Abigail's 6 month old pictures made today. She was such a trooper! We took a change of clothes so we knew we would be there probably an hour. They took a lot of great pictures of her and she was full of smiles the whole time!