Happy 1st Birthday, Abigail!

April 29, 2010

April 29, 2011
"It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to!"
(Hopefully she'll be a little happier after her nap. More pics to come.)
P.S. It was around this time last year that we got the call to come in a day early to be induced...talk about excitement!

Twelve of the many things we love about Abigail:
1. We love how you clean up after yourself, always picking things up and putting them away.
2. We love how easy it is to make you smile/laugh.
3. We love how curious you are.
4. We love how you don't watch TV as much anymore because you are moving around (see #3).
5. We love the little "oh" sound you make when you drop to the floor from a standing position.
6. We love how you take laps around the coffee table.
7. We love how you give hugs to your stuffed animals (and us).
8. We love to watch you grab a book and "read" to yourself.
9. We love to hear, "Mama" and "Dada".
10. We love how much you giggle when you are being chased in your walker.
11. We love that you love to feed yourself.
12. We just love sweet, little you for being you!

Our Girl

Here are just a few (yeah right) pictures of our beautiful almost 1-year-old baby girl. Like my mom said, what did we do before when there were only 24 pictures on a roll of film?

Crawling to Sitting

Abigail just figured out yesterday how to go from crawling to sitting and back to crawling. She has been doing so much within the past month! I love to see her crawl with something in her hands...she uses her elbows instead.

On another note...her mouth must think the number of teeth she has has to match her age in months because she's now up to 12!

"The Cookie Jar"

You may remember THIS POST from Christmas about my Grandma's cookie jar. I thought I replaced the one I broke only to find out later that the one I broke said, "The Cookie Jar", and she ended up with two that say "The Cracker Barrel". Surprisingly, there's now more to the story. I stopped at my first yard sales of the season this past weekend back home and there sat "The Cookie Jar" for $.25 (just a mile up the road from my grandparent's home). You just can't beat yard sales!

Happy Easter!

A Love for Clothes?

One of Abigail's newest "things" is that she will take the clothes that I'm about to put on her (or the ones I just took off) and hug them close to her while smiling or giggling. She also loves to grab my jeans and say "ohhhh" when I'm standing near her. I wonder if this is a sign for what is to come :)

Tangled Twisters

Here's a simple "twist" to breadsticks:
1 11-ounce package refrigerated breadsticks
2 Tbs. sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbs. margarine or butter (melted)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease baking sheet. Open the breadstick package and remove breadsticks. Gently pull or roll each breadstick to make a rope of dough about 20 inches long. Shape each rope of dough into a pretzel (or any shape you feel like making - see picture below). Place pretzels on prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until pretzels are light brown. While pretzels are baking, mix sugar and cinnamon, and place a cooling rack over waxed paper. Transfer the pretzels onto the cooling rack. Use a pastry brush to spread the butter over the tops of the pretzels and sprinkle with sugar-cinnamon mixture. Enjoy!

Any shape will do :) Caden's were actually just piles of dough, but I wasn't sure how they would bake, so I spread them out a little.

Nap Time

I went in to check on Abby after it sounded like she had fallen asleep, and this is the position she was in. It's hard to tell, but her eyes are closed in the top picture, and her head is resting on the crib. She is awake in the second picture, but you can see how she was really holding on.

After I laid her down, she finally fell asleep with her bunny right on top of her.

Due Date

A due date is explained as an estimated day on which to expect the arrival of your little one, or, according to my kids, a date to not pay any attention to. Today was Abigail's due date 1 year ago. Now it's the date that is 1 week and 1 day away from her 1st birthday (or more world-widely known as Prince William and Kate's wedding day - kind of them to choose Abby's birthday). Amazing how quickly a year can go by, and what a great year it was. We're so blessed to have two wonderful children!

A Joke

Somehow Caden has learned how to tell jokes...actually it's just 1 joke over and over again, and it goes like this:

Caden: "Why did the chicken cross the playground?"

Caden (again): "Say, I don't know, why?"

Me: "I don't know, why?"

Caden: "To get to the other slide!"

At least it's a cute one.

Tee Ball

On yet another spring-like day, Caden and Daddy went out to try his new tee ball from Uncle Brooks. He had a great time!

action shot

Gotta love that stance!

Oops!

Then they fed the Rose of Sharon bushes my mom gave us last year. He's such a big helper.

Bubbles

We are really enjoying the few days of "spring-like" weather we've had so far.

Curls

Abby has the curliest hair after a bath, but unfortunately they are gone by the morning.

Storm Door

Not only do Jason and I enjoy the storm door...

but apparently Abigail does too!

After she was done trying to shove her face through the door...

she decided to turn around and climb the stairs (her newest accomplishment).

Fun in a Laundry Basket

I think Abby was a little unsure at first...but then decided she's having fun.