Dear Abigail...

Dear Abbyroo,


I sat on the couch with you this evening and let you drink your night night sippy of milk. I looked over at your daddy and said, I can’t imagine how life could be any better. While you drank your sippy I played with your toes saying this little piggy went to the market, this little piggy stayed home etc… You love this game. Your feet are so ticklish though we can hardly get though it!

You have turned in to such a helper girl. You like everything in its place. The channel changers in the basket, your toys in the box, your shoes back in your room. Once we finish a bottle of water or can drink you always carry it to the table. You don’t like it to sit on the end tables. I am hoping you stay this way! Haha it makes it easier on a mama when you want everything in its place.

Last week we starting making space for our Christmas tree. We moved several of your “livingroom” toys to your bedroom. We talked about how big girls keep their toys in their own room. As soon as I would take handfuls back in your room, you would make 2-3 trips bringing them back to the livingroom. We did this several times. I finally waited until you went down for your nap and moved them. You woke up and you were so happy to see them all in your room you just clapped! It makes me sad that you go back to your room so much now though. I will be in the living room and you will head back to your room and say for maybe 5-8 minutes and come back. You are making frequent trips back there.

November has been a rough month. You have had 2 ear infections this month! You got one towards the beginning of the month in your right ear. We took you to the doctor on November 8th. They put you on a 10 day antibiotic. A couple days later you started pulling at those ears again and we took you back to the doctor and you had double ear infection. They put you on a stronger antibiotic and it got rid of it this time! I took you to the doctor again just yesterday due to your 101.3 temperature. I would rather pay a copay and them tell me your just fine, than wonder in the wee hours of the morning how you are. You are such a happy child and don’t hardly complain when you don’t feel well.

You are starting to talk a lot more. You repeat about everything we say, or give it a good attempt. Your able to identify your belly button, ears, eyes, and nose. We are working on head and mouth now. Also if I say “where’s Abigail” you will pat your chest. This is my favorite :-). Which I think about everyting you do is just precious. You also sing “e-i-e-i-e-i-e-i-ooooo” all the time. Your able to answer to “what does a cow say” “what does a sheep say” and “what does a puppy dog say”. We are working on kitty cat now. We also love to blow kisses!

We had a wonderful thanksgiving. We went to your Nana and Poppas house for dinner. You always get car sick on our trip to Beattyville, I wish there was something we could do to help this. You ate turkey, mashed potatoes, corn pudding, baked beans, roll and banana pudding. Your cousins, Aunt, Uncle and Nana and Poppa love you so much.

Well sweet heart, I just rocked you and put you down to sleep. Good night princess. I can’t wait to see you tomorrow. Your smile and face brighten my day and give me more joy in my heart than you can imagine. I love you Roo!

Mama :-)

50 free Christmas (holiday cards) offered by Shutterfly!!!

I can’t believe that Christmas is just a little over a month away. It’s hard to believe that this is going to be our second Christmas with Abigial. Time sure does fly by, I know that I have said that most frequently in this blog, however it is so true. Someone told me today that it was only going to go faster once you have your second child. So I have seen on several of my friends pages on facebook that you can get free Christmas (holiday cards) from shutterfly if you have a blog. I thought I would give this a try. We have ordered several of the photo cards from shutterfly. It is one of the most convenient ways we have found to do Christmas cards. They have a lot of amazing designs, and you can even choose how many pictures you want to use on your cards. Their website is very user friendly and you can upload the picture right after you choose a card. Another feature they have that is very convenient is that you can save your card for future ordering or use. Simply click this link and it will take you directly to their site: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards


Some of my top pics this year include:

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/merry-modern-collage-christmas-card?sortType=1&storeNode=93496

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/merry-plaid-christmas-card?sortType=1&storeNode=93496

and finally this one: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/mod-snowflakes-story-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93496

it is going to be very hard to decide which one we order this year! I know that our friends and family will be very excited to receive their Christmas card and of course we will save one for Abigail’s baby book. I will show off a picture of her any chance I get.

Since I’m on a shutterfly post this evening, if you have never tried photo books (http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-books ) you have got to give them a try. I stopped scrap booking about 3 years ago when I discovered these wonderful creations! Since I have a child and one on the way I sure don’t have time to scrapbook anymore and these are just as special and unique.

Merry Christmas! Take advantage of the 50 free Christmas (holiday cards) offered by shutterfly by simply visiting: http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Wreath

We made our Christmas wreath today!  It took a little longer than I thought it would, but while Abbyroo was down for a nap I made and finished it.  So it prob took about an hour and a half. 

To start I used a floral wreath.  I bought a large roll of Christmas ribbon, and also floral hooks. 

I wrapped the ribbon all the way around the wreath.  This step wasn't I guess necessary, but I wanted to make sure that all of the green was covered.  I guess you could spray paint it if you wanted to.

This is what the finished wrapped wreath looks like.

I used 3 different kinds of ribbon, plus the ribbon I used for wrapping the wreath, so I had 4 different patterns of ribbon.  I cut it into strips about 5-6 inches each.  To be honest I didn't measure them, and they were all not the same length.  I wrapped each cut ribbon into a circle and used the floral pin to pin the ribbon onto the wreath.

I pinned them about as close as I could get them to each other.  Also all my ribbon was "wired", it gave it a good texture.

I started by going all the way around the top.  I also pinned the ribbon into the insides and outsides of the wreath. 

This is my finished project!  Right before I heard my sweet little girl talking in her crib telling me she was awake.

We hug it on our door and are admiring our work!

This was the first piece of Christmas decor we have hung up :) 

Dear Abigail,

My sweet Abbyroo,


I ask myself at least once a day, where has the time gone? You were 15 months this past Friday, and it feels like you should just be 15 weeks old. You have grown up so much in the past few months, and turned into such a little girl. You are changing daily. Your hair has grown so much, you are getting tall, and you’re fitting well into your size 18 month clothes. You go to your 15 month peds appointment on Monday. I look forward to seeing how much you weigh and how tall you are. I know that the doctor is going to tell us that you are just perfect!

You are a child that loves to show us how you feel. You wear your expressions on your shoulders. When you are happy you light up ear to ear, and when you are sad, you pucker those lips and you let us know. You hug us all the time. You try and kiss us, by sticking out your tongue and giving a little lick. After you lick our cheek you make a little smacking noise. It is just precious. Your hugs make my day. Your daddy and I will be on the floor playing with you, and I will lean over and hug on daddy and rub his chest and you try to get me off of him so you can lay your head on his chest.

You are saying a lot of new words lately. Some of your new words are “up”, “Book”, “Thank you”, “Shoe” and “bath”. You are saying a lot of other words but these are the ones you use often. You say thank you a whole lot now. You will say it when I give you something, and also when you give me something. You say it more like “Dank Du” though. You will come up to me while I am washing the dishes or doing something in the kitchen and lift your arms up and say “up”. You want to be in the action, see what mommy and daddy are doing. You love to say “book”. You love to read, and if we ask you to get a book, you will run back into your room and either gets your “Mother for Chaco” book or your “That’s not my penguin” book, those 2 are your favorites.  I try to read you your "I'm a big sister" book at least once a day. 

You melt my heart about everyday by something that you do, but recently after bath time you will sit on my lap and I will use the hair dryer on your hair. A couple of times you have gotten your hair brush and brushed my hair. You were just as gentle as could be. You love your bath time. I ask if you if you want to take a bath and you say “yes” and go to the bathroom. You have a sweet little sound you make when you want something, is like the word yes, but it is more of a mumble that starts low and gets higher. I will definitely have to get that on video. The only thing that you love more than bath time is being outside. We don’t really have any outside toys in the backyard yet besides your swing and wagon. You will find to rocks and think that they are the best things to play with. The other day you found a stick and kept putting it in a bucket and getting it back out. You also like to pick up leaves and our back yard has a plenty of them right now!

This past Saturday we put you down for your nap and your daddy and I were on the couch and we could hear you talking. Your daddy went back there and you were sitting up in your bed playing with your glowworn. Daddy asked you what you were doing and you laid your little head back down and went to sleep. I think you are too smart for your own good. I ask you if you need a diaper change and you go to where we change your diaper. I’m not quite sure what it is about the basket on the end table though you won’t ever leave it alone. You love to get daddy’s keys out of there and head to the door. You try your best to get one key and reach it to the door knob. We ask you to bring the keys to us, but you won’t, but you will put them back in the basket. I’m not sure why you won’t bring us something we ask, you will only put it back where you got it. You are such a helper girl though. You love to be in the center of what we are doing. Daddy was unloading bottles of water into the fridge this evening and you stood there and handed him all 24 bottles to put in the fridge. It took you all about 10 minutes to load the water, but you sure had fun helping your daddy.

You have always like music, but the past couple months you have been doing the cutest little dance. I call it your step dance, because that is basically what it is, little tiny steps very fast. Where we have hardwood floors in our house you can hear yourself walk, and you will be standing there and some music to a show will come on you will start your dancing. It is so funny; it has made me laugh out loud. Not only because you are so cute doing it, but because you get the cheesiest little grin on your face because you know that it is something fun.

Your daddy has taught you how to “tickle” my feet. I will lie on the couch and put my feet on your daddy’s lap, and several times he has helped you tickle my feet and I just “laugh and laugh and laugh”. You think it is so funny. Now, you will come tickle my feet on your own, which is quite often, because my shoes come off as soon as I walk in the house. You laugh so hard as soon as you get your hands on my feet to try and tickle them. 

We went trick or treating this past weekend and you had so much fun.  Your cousins came over and went around the neighborhood with us.  You and Anderson rode in the wagon most of the time.  You kept getting Anderson's candy and taking it all out of his bucket, and putting it back in.  I was proud that you didn't try and eat the candy, you were just content taking it out and putting it back in.  You were the cutest little lady bug I have ever seen, and I have the pictures to prove it! 

You are just precious Abigail. I can’t believe how much you have grown. These 15 months have flown by; I know that the next letter I write you I will talk about how quickly time has passed. I showed you something pink and something blue the other day and asked you if we were having a little boy or a little girl, you grabbed the pink item. You may be right Abby, and we may have us a sweet little girl in June. I guess we will find out right after Christmas what we are having! Boy or girl though, you will be the best big sister anyone could ever have. I love you!

Mommy :-*

PS: You love my chicken pot pie :-)

$2.00 well spent - Happy Fall!

Well I have to give credit, where credit is due.  I kind of stole the idea of making a wreath out of corn husks from http://www.howdoesshe.com/corn-husk-wreath-tutorial website.  I thought this was a very cute clever way to make a very inexpensive wreath.  I knew it wouldn’t last year to year, but thought it would be a very inexpensive project.  I am very cheap person, always looking for a bargain and a way to save a dime, so instead of buying the corn husks as she recommends form the Mexican food store, we have a very good friend that is a farmer that said he would get me some corn husks.  He insistent that it would be no problem.  So the total cost for this wreath for me was $2.00!  I think that is a bargain, and to be honest I was going to follow the directions that were provided in the tutorial that I listed the link for, but as I started working, I liked the way that this turned out and looked better.  So, if you can get a hold of some corn husks, or if you want to buy some for about $5 at the Mexican food store, this is a must!  I can’t wait to put up my new wreath after the trick or theaters are done on Saturday.  Bring on Thanksgiving and Turkey!

I know that these corn husks look nasty, but they turned into a beautiful fall wreath!

These were the corn Husks we used.



You will Need to purchase a foam wreath, and some Floral Pins.  The wreath you can purchase these at the dollar store, and the Pins you can get in the floral part at Walmart for $1.00



You can get them other places too, but of course Walmart is the cheapest.

I put all the corn Husks in the sick and rinsed them in Cold water.  They are realy still until they soak in water for at least 30-45 seconds.  They start to give then.  I used just regular siccors to put the end of the corn husk off so that the pieces of the husk fell part.

This is one of the Husk sections.  I took one section and folded it in half from top to bottom, and then folded it over.  So it was folded into a quarter of the size.  You may have to trin the bottoms off, I did this after it was folded.

I used the floral pins and pined 2-3 husks onto the wreath.  I did the top of the wreath first.

I also pined them to the inside of the wreath so all the foam would be hidden.

I actually did the entire top before I did the inside, because I wanted to make sure I had enough husks, but it wouldn't matter which order you went in.

After I did the inside I did the outside of the wreath.

Wala!  I kinda made a little bow at the bottom right, just did the same pattern and circuled it all the way around.  I thought it turned out pretty!  We will be putting this on our door after the trick or treater's leave!  Happy Fall!

Dear Abigail,

Dear Abbyroo,


I truly think you are one of the smartest kids I know; you pick up on stuff so quickly. We ask you what sound a cow makes and you go “moooooo”, we ask you to do your elephant and you put your little arm up by your ear and lift your hand, we ask you if you need a diaper change and you go back to your changing table; you do so many things that just amaze us. You are starting to put words together like, “good girl” and “bad no”. We ask you to get us a book and you pick out the same book every time, “That’s not my Penguin”… You love to be read to, you love to listen to us talk, you will sit and play with your shape sorter for 45 minutes at a time. It takes you a little while but you can put every shape where it belongs. It amazes me how hard you work at that, and when you are done you bring it to me to dump your shapes back out to do it all over again.

But, I don’t only think you one of the smartest kids because you learn so quickly but also because you have taught me so much!

Abigail you have taught me that laughter is the best medicine. Your smile can turn any bad day into the perfect day. As long as I know my baby girl is happy there is nothing better in the world. There are several ways that I can “no fail” make you laugh: Tickle you under your chin and say I’m getting ya getting ya getting ya… I will do This little piggy went to the market, this little piggy stayed home… When we go “we we we we we we” all the way home, you crack up! Other ways we make you laugh are by swinging you around, playing super girl, sticking our tongue out at your, making pooting noises, and acting like your feet stink. We are on the changing table and I will smell your feet and start coughing and go shewwww and you love this. You think this is so funny. Your laughter is the best sound in the world.

Abigail you have taught me a lot about patience. You started walking at 11 months old and you would fall over and over and over and over, you never cried you just got right back up again. You will bump into furniture and just turn around. When we started letting you feed yourself your own food you would miss your mouth a lot and you would just reach down and get another one. It takes you a while to eat your dinner, but you just sit there and enjoy the food and feed yourself. You are a patient little girl, and the way that you work your puzzles, you can sit there and work on one for 20 minutes before it is completed.

Abigail you have taught me that you shouldn’t be ashamed to ask for help. For some reason you like to squeeze in small spaces, or go behind a chair that is up against the wall. You love to do this for some reason but then you can’t get out. You get stuck and you raise up your little arms and ask for mama or dada for help. Although you will ask for help you do so much independently. You like to brush your own hair, you have to use your own spoon now, you held your own bottle very early, you like to try and do most things by yourself.

Abigail you have helped me learn to go with the flow. Weather we are on our way to church, going out to eat, or on our way to daycare. Things usually don’t go as planned. This has been hard for me because I am a person of schedule, if I arrive on time I consider that late, I think that being 15 minutes early is being on time. However we will be buckling you in your car seat and you would spit up, throw up, we we would forget something. I have learned that this is ok; we didn’t have a reservation at cracker barrel, and just because it didn’t go as scheduled doesn’t make it a bad thing. It definitely takes more planning to leave the home, I feel like when we started out we carried a suitcase, now we have narrowed it down to your little preschool backpack.

Abigail you have made me fall in love with photography. You have grown up so fast and changed so much this last year and I never want to forget it. I’ve always had a love of taking pictures, but you have given me a desire to take better pictures and more creative pictures, but more than picutres I think the videos are more important. Its hard to capture that moment completely in a picture. You have grown and changed so much this past year! Someone who I hold close to my heart reminded me when we brought you home from the hospital about the things that matter. She said to me that the dishes can wait, sweeping the floor can wait, that I need to enjoy those awake moments with my little girl. You are so precious to me, I just want to inhale you! I love to hold you, hug you, smell you, just anything about you.

Abigail you have taught me that you are the most adorable child in the world. Hehe, there is nothing in this world like a mother’s love. Along with this love of course I think that you are cuter and sweeter than any other child. I can stare at your face all day all day long. Don’t get me wrong I think other kids are cute, but of course you will always be cuter to mommy.

Abigail you have taught me to take the time to listen to people. You listen to your mommy and daddy so well (as long as the tv isn’t on). It is amazing how you responded to my voice the 1st day that I held you in the hospital, you recognized me. I have always been amazed what kids come up with and will repeat what you say, and I know that you will be no exception. As much as you love to be read to, I know that you will have the best imagination.

I love you Abby! I hope that we can continue to learn from each other our whole lives!!!

Love,

Momma :-)

Big Sis

Dear Abigail,

I haven’t written you a letter since your 1st birthday and we are due! We told you on Wednesday that you are going to be a big sister, I know that you didn’t understand what this meant but you squealed and clapped when I told you. You seemed very excited and we know that you are going to be the best big sister in the world. You have been saying the word baby a lot this past month so I honestly think you knew I was pregnant before I did. I want you to know that you are the center of our world. We love you so much and couldn’t imagine the joy you have brought to our family. Every day I am amazed by you. I look forward to every moment with you.


I love everything about you. I love the way you pucker you lips and lick my cheek, I love the way you keep your little butt up in the air when you sleep, I love the way you run to your piano as soon as we walk into the door, I love the way you laugh when I stick my tongue out at you, I love your laugh, your smile, your toes, and everything about you. You bring so much joy to my day. My favorite part of my day is when I get to pick you up at daycare and I see you running towards me with your little noises “ah ah ah ah”. You don’t know it but I stand outside of your classroom window 2-3 minutes every day before I pick you up just to watch you. I love to see you play with other children. Today when I picked you up I saw you rolling a ball back and forth with a little boy. I’m not too concerned at this point since you are only 14 months, but I don’t want you to get interested in boys yet, you have your whole life for that.


You haven’t felt good this week. The past 2 nights you have woken up several times throughout the night. On Wednesday I was able to just sit there with you and rock you. I love just looking at your face, stroking your hair and singing to you my sweet child. I never want anything to hurt you or make you feel bad. Your daddy got up with you last night and he sat on the couch with you. He loves his time with his baby girl. I wish you were a mama’s girl, but you most definitely prefer your daddy over me right now. You will sit on his lap 1st, give him hugs first, and sit in the floor and play with puzzles with him for an hour. But I have to admit you think that I am the funniest person in the world. I can make you laugh and that laugh truly melts my heart. That laugh is the cure for a bad day; it makes everything in the world for that moment just perfect.


My precious Abbyroo I love you so much! I hope one day you read this and realize how much you are loved! I look forward to spending this weekend with you; we aren’t doing anything special, just spending every moment together. I look forward to rocking you to sleep tonight, it is one of the few times you will let me hold you these days!


Love you!
Your Mommy
:-*

Giggles, smiles, and 80 degrees

What a wonderful afternoon in the park, giggles, smiles, and 80 degree afternoon in October…

Dulce de leche... aka very simple apple dip



This is a pretty fancy name for something we don’t consider that fancy. This is the Spanish word for caramelized milk. There are a lot of different ways to make Dulce de leche, and we made it a way, that I’m sure there is a warning – not to do! I’m sure if this was in a book, it would say; please do not try this at home. However I have made this for years, and I know friends and family that have and have never had any trouble. I think the concern is that your can will explode and you will be cleaning Carmel off of the ceiling.

We made this for Apple Dip every fall. It is so good, however oh not so good for you. That is why we only made it once a year, and go on a long walk after every time we eat it. It is so good! You need to try this!!! However if for some reason your can explodes, remember that I did put a disclaimer in the above paragraph.

What you will need: Eagle Brand can of sweetened condensed milk, deep pot, and water. This is it.



Take the wrapper off of your can, put it in a deep pot and make sure that it is covered completely with water.  This is so important that your can is covered completely with water.  Bring water to a boil.  I let this boil for 3 hours, checking it very frequently and adding more water to it.  I think the reason that there are disclaimers in making this is because if you start to dry boil the can, it will explode.  It is sooooo important to have the can covered completely with water throughout the whole process of boiling.

After the can had boiled for 3 hours I just turned off the water and let it sit in there until it was completely boil.  We actually went to the park and ate dinner and then it was cool, I would allow it to cool for at least an hour before trying to handle it.  If you choose to remove it before cooling use tongs and you will need to to let it cool completely before opening your can. 

So I opened my can and wa la, a can of oh so yummy Carmel! 

Very yummy thick Carmel.  This is perfect Apple Dip!

Indulge, I know I will :-)  it is even better the next day, when it has been in the fridge over night. 

Our Halloween Wreath

Halloween is getting close!  Its funny because I never really cared anything about Halloween until I had a child.  Last year Abigail was a frog, we did trunk or treating at the church and stayed at home and passed out candy on Halloween.  She was the cutest frog ever.  This year she is gonna be a lady bug.  I can't wait to put her costume on her.  I even picked up some black creame face paint to put her a few dots on her face.  Were so excited about Halloween approaching this year!

Abigail and I made the above wreath this evening.  When I was a little girl, my mom and I made a very similar wreath out of white trash bags for Christmas and put a red bow on it.  However in this one, I used black fabric.  How a fun way to help decorate the house for Halloween.  This was a very easy project and something very easy you can do with your kids!

I purchased 2 yards of black fabric.  I bought the cheapest that I could find.  The above fabric was 2.50 a yard with 30% off, so I call that a good deal!  You will also need a wreath frame, I purchased the above one at Hobby Lobby for $1.99.  They have 3-4 different sizes.  This one was the 2nd largest one. 

I found this a lot easier to use my rotary cutter and rotary self healing board for this.  You will need to cut the fabric in 1 in strips.

After all the fabric is cut in one inch strips, you will then in turn cut them in 6 inch strips.  So your strips will be one inch by six inches.  It isn't important that your strips are all the same.  Some of my turned out an inch smaller because I didn't want any extra fabric.  I think the last one one each strip were about 5 inches, and they blend in quite well.

This is so simple it is crazy!  All you do is tye your strips of fabric onto the metal frame.  I did the 2 center strips first and then the outside edges. 

It was amazing how much fabric could fit on there.  It looked very full and then I was able to keep pushing the fabric around and tying more strips on there. 

I added the entire 2 yards of fabric.  You can kinda spread it out and fluff it a little.  We thought it was soooo cute!



I left the ends unfinished so it will unravel a little and look more "spooky"



This is the back of the wreath, I pushed all the ties so they came out on the front.

This was fun too, to make some spooky letters to add to the wreath.  You will need Mod Podge, a sponge brush, some news paper to lay your letters on, and some sand paper.

I purchased these letters, they came 2 to a pack for 99 cents.  So we thought we would spell the word BOO, so I only had to spend $2.00 because I got 2 Os and  2 Bs. 

These is all purpose acrylic paint, 99 cents - what a bargain.

I only put one coat of paint on my letters.  Once they tried, I turned them over and painted the back, ensuring that the sides were covered too.

I actually did this before I painted the letters, I traced them onto scrap booking paper that I wanted to line the letter with.

Cut the letters out

Used the sponge brush and Mod Podge to glue the paper to the letters.

Once the paper was dry, I used sand paper, and actually a nail file to sand the edges to ensure the paper blended with the letter well. 

Coated the top of the paper with Mod Podge.  I did 5 coats, waiting 15 minutes between coats.

Make sure that the letters dry all the way.

Once the letters were comply dried, I used a high gloss clear acryllic sealer to coat the letters.  This will need to be done outside - this stuff can stink up your house really fast!

I used jewelry string to tie the letters to the wreath.  I wasn't sure the best way to attach the letters to the wreath.



And lastly I hung it on our front door to welcome our trick or treaters!!!