Friday, February 10, 2012

A day in our life....

The cutest girl ever...(I'm the mom, I can say that) In a puma jumpsuit!

"Hey, look what I found!"


"Mama, don't tell me NO"

"This is soo cool!"

"Whaat? I didn't do anything wrong!"

Blue Eyes

We had naked time when Abby spilled her milk on her shirt....

Then momma was a cooking machine....We got a new freezer in the laundry room and it has changed my life! I now can plan ahead for meals, shop the sales, buy in bulk!  It is great!
So, one thing I HATE doing is cutting onions...I always end up crying and then the house smells like them all day.  Now, that I have room, I can spend a ton of time cutting up onions, freezing them in baggies, and then when I need them to cook, I already have them all ready to go!

Onion madness......(it is hard to tell they are onions because there are SO many! - or it is a terrible picture....)


Mascara face.....



And...we call this the lego train....Abby stands up on to reach in the box, pulls out a block, then as she stands up again the box slides....She made a lego train of all the legos she pulled out while playing...


That's a day in our life!



Thursday, February 9, 2012

Abby's first birthday party!

The birthday girl! (I think she is getting more teeth...In almost every picture she has something in her mouth!)
 Goodie bags for the cousins!  I wish I took a picture of the butterfly hair clip I made them!  Bummer!
 Before the fruit was cut up for a fruit salad...the caterpillar says, "On Monday she ate through one apple, but she was still hungry...On Tuesday, etc."
 Flowers and a butterfly cake
 Mama and her baby
 Dad-o and his baby
 No big deal, just chewing on a hammer.
 Sam LOVED reading with Lynn...I mean, look at her face!
 Nana and the Bubba
 The God parents!
 Uncle Andy drove all the way in from Chicago.  We missed Auntie Brittany, but will see her soon in DC!
 The game show host...Holy cow!  Those are Uncle Steve's pants (Yes, Steve has an uncle who is also named Steve) from when he was younger!  This is his shirt too...the blazer was a goodwill find.
 Craig and Lynn
 The cutest outfit ever from Great Grandma Klenke!
 Grandpa Paul
 Grandma and Grandpa
 Yum, I could get used to this sugar business...(She is wearing a very hungry caterpillar onesie!)

 The prizes for the game show winners.  Baby food jars with M&M's in them.  The lid of the baby food jar has a magnet on the outside and on the inside is a picture of Abby....So when they are done with the M&Ms they can use the top as a magnet with a picture of our sweet little nugget!
 A book for everyone to sign so we can remember her big day (The Very Hungry Caterpillar was our theme)
 Decorations and the slide show...Dad made a great slide show of all sorts of pictures of Abby...It was so cute!  



 All the food before I got it all ready...we had pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, and fruit salad.  I am glad I took a before picture because once we needed to eat, I never had time to take a picture of it all put together nicely....So, this is what you get :)


 Sam is in LOVE with Abby!  Abby loves her too...Whenever we go over to their house Sam comes in the kitchen, Abby starts jumping around in my arms and laughs...It is so cute!
 Love from Auntie Jen
 Auntie Jen is so much fun!!!




All in all it was a fantastic day!  We loved having family over to celebrate our little girl!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Spa Day!

Abby and I had our first spa morning today!  So fun!

For Abby it involved:
1. A bath (super scrub of her hair...)
2. Nails clipped (toes AND fingers)
3. A small snip of the hair that has been hanging over her ear that has been bugging me for weeks!
4. A morning nap

For Mommy it involved:
1. A shower (yes...Sometimes this doesn't happen around here)
2. Shaving (I even went ABOVE the knee....I know, wild, huh?)
3. Removing nail polish that should have been removed weeks ago and re-applying polish to my toes (should have remembered the name, it was "bronze shimmer" or something like that...it seemed like a good fit for how I was feeling this morning)
4. Face mask (egg yolk and honey...we will see if it works!)
5. Eye brow tweezing
6. Hair cut (yes, I do it myself and go to the salon once every 1-2 years....People think I am crazy (i.e. the people at the salon who have to cut my hair after I haven't been there for a long time)...But, I save money, and I think my hair looks OK.
7. I put conditioner in my hair and left it in for 20 minutes...Therefore creating "Leave in Conditioner" we will see if it made my hair softer, I think it is the same.
8. Crest White strips...Not sure if one application will do anything, but figured since I had the conditioner in my hair and the mask on my face and the polish on my toes, one more thing "on me" wouldn't matter.

Now, Abby is sleeping and I am supposed to be packing up stuff we sold on ebay and responding to emails...But I am blogging instead.

A GREAT way to start the day!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

12 Months

Oh...Baby girl, you are 12 months old and I can't imagine life without you.
(all I did to this picture was "I'm Feeling Lucky" I used the settings on my camera to try to catch your eyes and drown out the rest of the picture....I think I did a good job of catching your beautiful eyes!)

Still getting teeth!  Only 6 in there, but you still chew on everything!

Our favorite time is when you give cuddles....I love this picture.

With Daddy and some of your birthday decorations

A "weak sauce" "SO BIG!"  You hold your hands out when we say, "How big is Abby?"

Your favorite toys are the remotes and the lotion containers....You cry when we take them away.

You are sleeping great.  You still sometimes "call out" in the middle of the night, but that only lasts about 1 minute max.  I love this about you.

You are an eating machine.  You eat anything and everything: pizza, lunch meat, all kinds of fruit, almost any veggie, yogurt, cheese, pulled pork, potatoes, and the list goes on and on.  However, one of your favorite foods are peas...You will pick those before anything else!


You get fussy when you are hungry.  Our dinner time is usually around 6:00pm, you need to eat by 5:30 or that last 30 minutes is very difficult.

You are a crawling machine.  Whenever we let you "get out" of our "safe living room area" you go right for the stairs.  YOU LOVE THE STAIRS.  Your crawl up about half way, turn around, look at me and smile.  You love crawling up those stairs. Just today I pulled all the cushions off the couch and loved watching you crawl on the floor, the cushions, and the couch.
One of your favorite things to do is pull your hair clip out of your hair...Then you try to put it back on.  When I put it back on, you pull it out again about 3 seconds later.  That is a fun game...


You are great at going to bed and down for naps.  We lay you in your bed, you grab your pacifier, and fall asleep.  We love it.

You only nurse at night and in the morning.  Occasionally, I nurse you during the day if it is easy, but you have been doing great work drinking whole milk from your sippy cup and from bottles.

Recently you have been trying to play with the remotes and our cell phones.  We take them away from you and give you other things to play with and you cry.  We are starting to see a little personality come out....We call you a fuss bucket when you do that.

You love waking up from nap and watching your Baby Einstein video.  It keeps you entertained for at least 15 minutes.

You independently play wonderfully!  You crawl to your basket and pull all your toys out.  You especially love playing with your Legos and Wood Blocks with Daddy.




We got you some new shoes today!  They are a little big but we wanted some that we could tie so they would stay on your feet better (you kick all the other shoes off!).  Your right foot still turns in and you like to stand on the side of your foot.  We were hoping these shoes would force you to stand with flat feet.  You weren't crazy about them right away...But you did like using them to kick while you were sitting in your high chair.  It made a lot of noise and Daddy didn't like it :) Hopefully you get used to these shoes and they help straighten out your feet.

We went to a Physical Med and Rehab doctor today and he wants you in PT/OT three times a week. He wants to get you a special shoe/boot to help keep your foot straight.  It was kind of a lot to take in today and we weren't really expecting that kind of a report.  We knew the shoe/boot was coming, but we weren't expecting to hear we need to do PT/OT THREE TIMES A WEEK!  I guess it's good mommy isn't working, huh?


You LOVE to wave at people.  It is your favorite thing to do.  Whenever we go to a store or out with the stroller, you wave at everyone.  It is so cute and you get so many people to pay attention to you.  They all comment and say, "Oh...She is so sweet...."

A friend sent me this link....Thanks Cathy!

http://www.koaa.com/news/one-year-ago-today-high-temps-were-below-zero/#.TyoMcvPINQA.gmail


The top news story of the day in COS last year on February 1.  And, I told my mom she didn't need a big jacket, COS has great weather....Surprise, surprise!  I still remember Melissa running into King Soopers after we talked at the car for about 3.5 seconds (I gave her the keys to our second car so she could 1. Get on base and 2. help me deliver Abby!).  We were all running on adrenaline, but the cold still got to us and she ran super fast into King Soopers!


One year ago today high temps were below zero

Posted: Feb 1, 2012 9:02 PM by Mike Daniels
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This year we enjoyed a mild start to the month of February, that was not the case one year ago today. Icy arctic air covered all of eastern Colorado. February 1st 2011 the daytime high temperature in Colorado Springs was 2 below zero and in Pueblo the high was 6 above. Today the high in Colorado Springs was 50, Pueblo 55.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

One Year, Really?

This post is hard to write...Last year at this time I was in labor.  Not super intense labor.  Right now I was at the point where I was telling Melissa, "I can do this...This isn't so bad."  She quietly nodded, smiled and said nothing.....Knowing what would come in the future....

A few comparisons last year to this year.....
A trip to the post office sending Steve a package in Afghanistan.....
Driving Steve to school with my precious baby in the back seat.

Having my waters break at the post office...
Drinking water from my hospital water cup.

Wearing several layers because it was freaking cold outside....
Wearing a t-shirt and jeans all day.

Eating Jello during labor because I couldn't eat anything else....
Eating ice cream with chocolate sauce on it.

Sleeping off an on after I got the epidural after a full night of contractions....
A full nights rest in a comfortable bed with no contractions or interruptions.

Wow...Looking at this, today is a much different day than what I did last year!  I'm loving my life today.  Having Abby is a dream come true.  Today I looked at her so many times and tears were brought to my eyes.  I am beginning to understand the father's love for me.  Thinking he loves me SO much more than I love Abby.  That kind of blows my mind...

This year...


Last year....