Father's Day

This was JP's second father's day. I think last year will always be his favorite, being that it was his first and all. Last year Abilynn was a cute skinny little baby that could only kick her legs and move her arms. This year she is running and talking and telling you all about her adventures, and she has MANY!
Abilynn LOVES her daddy very much. When he gets home from work, Abi will smile and race to give daddy a hug. If Abilynn is in her highchair eating, she will turn her head around and strain her neck to try and see daddy. I love that Abilynn loves her daddy so much. JP is very pacient with Abi and they do many projects together. Abi helped him put the wagon together. She likes to play with his tools and hammer on EVERYTHING. I finally got her a toy hammer to save our floors, fingers and the puppies from getting hurt! Abilynn likes to cuddle with daddy and watch Stargate. Abilynn also likes daddy because he will give her candy and other treats that mommy won't!
I wanted to get JP a hiking backpack to put Baby Girl in for father's day. I had searched ksl and found many that I liked. I also researched how much new ones would be and what people liked about each one. I was about to buy one, when one of the girls I work with told me she was going to list hers to sale. Score! I got a great price and it can carry up to 50 lbs. It has a little bag that is behind the baby and one that is under baby. It stands up on it's own and the color isn't bad either. We tried it out for the first time at the Arts Festival. Abilynn loved it and she loved being eye level with everyone else, which of course meant many smiles and silly faces for everyone. She was also able to dance to the music in it. It is very comfortable to wear, but after two hours it does get heavy. When we ate dinner, we left her in it to eat and it was really nice. Hopefully we will put a lot of miles on this backpack!

Arts Festival

I am so far behind on blogging we are going to start at the current and work my way back and hopefully, allowing I have "free" time this week, my blog will be caught up by the end of this week.
Yesterday JP, Abilynn, and I joined Aunt Heidi and Jennifer, Cousin Kingston and Lilly and Uncle Nathan at the Utah Arts Festival. We were only going to be there a couple of hours and four hours later left! We had lots of fun and thankfully it wasn't too hot. Next year JP would like to spend a whole day to check out all the performances.
We enjoyed walking around all the booths and seeing all the neat art stuff. We enjoyed Thai food and a Navajo Taco for dinner. Then for dessert we got a crepe filled with carmel, apples and cinnamon (imagine apple pie without the crust). YUM!
Abilynn enjoyed playing in the Toddler corner and came home with LOTS of green sand everywhere. When I changed her diaper, so much sand fell out I had to vacuum it all up. She went straight into the tub! Abilynn also enjoyed the music and danced a little. She LOVED being in her backpack. She was eye level with everyone and could see all the action.
I can't wait for all the other fun activities summer brings!!

11 months old

I realized the other day that I never posted an update at 11 months, oops! So here is a VERY late update about what cute Little Miss Abilynn did last month.

*Abilynn walks!!! I am both excited and not so excited about this one. Abi took her first official steps at my Grandma's house and my Grandma could not have been more excited. I think she was actually more excited than we were!

*Abilynn still eats everything you put in front of her. She eats broccoli (If dad feeds it to her), green beans by the can, black beans, kiwis, cheerios, dog hair (Yup, as gross at it may sound this little girl eats dog hair by the clumps! And yes it is VERY gross but she doesn't care.)

*She has figured out that cupboards and draws open, and hidden inside are lots of treasures to explore and eat.

*She gives high fives.

*Abilynn now rides in her big girl car seat. She really enjoys being higher up and seeing out the windows. She also likes that she can tear the diaper bag apart while I drive. (I have learned to put the diaper bag on the floor to prevent this.)

*She LOVES going outside. When the weather is nice we are hanging out in the backyard.

*She now goes to bed around 10, 10:30. As apposed to 11 or later. She will wake up and eat around six and goes back to bed until around ten.

*Abilynn enjoys riding around in the Little Tykes car that her cousin Annabelle is so very nice to share with her. She will also push Annabelle or Tymon around in it!

*She makes a face like a Klingon. You know that guys with the scrunched nose and forehead on star trek? (Please tell me some of you know who these people are and I am not the only geek!)

*She takes two naps on a good day and one on a bad. Slowly she is fazing out the second nap.

*Abilynn loves her walking toy and runs it into walls all the time. She is getting really good at turning it and backing up. Smart girl I have!

*She rides in the front of shopping carts now. She doesn't like to face me though, so she sits sideways to watch everyone else.

*Abilynn and her cousin Tymon like to have screaming matches when they see each other. They like to see who can scream the loudest and highest pitched. It gets VERY noisy!

*She loves to play the piano. Sometimes she will sing along to the song she is playing!

I LOVE watching this little miracle grow up and learn new things. She is so smart and quick to figure things out. So much happiness and joy has come into our lives since Abilynn joined our family! I am SO grateful to be a mommy!

7 years

JP and I celebrated our seventh anniversary on Friday. I was commenting about the weather and it rained the day we got married but was not too cold. Those people who got married this year on the eighth got snow, and it was cold. JP got me roses and an I Pad, and I got him... nothing. I know so romantic of me, but for his birthday I got him a I Pod touch and nothing could have topped that. (In fact JP loves his new toy SO much I have had to threaten to take it away!) We went to dinner at the Spaghetti Factory Friday night. Then on Saturday we headed up to Midway to my Grandma's cabin/house. We stayed up there for one night and came home Sunday. Happy Seventh Anniversary JP and here is to 70 more!!!!!

10 months old

Baby girl has now been outside of me longer then she was inside of me. Crazy stuff. She will be one year in two months. Someone asked me the other day what I was going to do for her party and truthfully I have not even thought about it. I am still trying to get my head around the fact that YES I AM A MOM and YES I have been for almost a year. We, JP and me, are truly so blessed to have such a healthy, happy little girl. She has changed our lives so much and helped us learn so much. And no, JP, I am not crying right now. I get so much JOY from watching Abilynn explore and play. I also LOVE seeing her face light up when daddy comes home from work.
Abilynn is just full of energy and so curious about the world. She loves to watch dad or me and learn how to do things, like open drawers, brush teeth, do laundry, etc. Here is what she/we did this month..

*Abilynn has tried new foods again. This time it was cottage cheese (loves it), Mandarin oranges (loves them), chunks of peaches and pears (not just the pureed kind anymore), ribs, corn bread, and french fries.

*She loves to sing. While driving in the car, she will bust out into song. I am not sure what she is singing but it is really cute. She also sings while sitting in her high chair.

*She visited Yellowstone. Abilynn likes the snow so she really liked this trip. She saw bison, elk, bald eagles, wolfs, bears, and a coyote. I will post more about this later.

*Abilynn learned to blow bubbles in the bath, all by herself. She started out drinking the water and then realized if she blew air out while lowering her face into the water, she would create bubbles. This is her favorite thing to do in the bath now.

*She has learned to fake cough. It sounds very real, and like she is choking, but she has this little smirk on her face when she does it. Everyone around will become quite because they are watching to make sure she is ok. All she wants is for you to notice her.

*She also visited St. George. She LOVED playing at the park and going down the slide. She also enjoyed trying to eat the leaves, something she is quickly learning not to do because they taste bad.

*Abilynn still explores by eating things she shouldn't, but has learned to spit things out if she doesn't like the taste.

*She loves to get in the drawers in our bathroom and pull my brushes out. She then proceeds to eat them or brush Hers or Mollys hair with them. She will get VERY upset when you take them away.

*She has perfected her cry to get what she wants, aka temper tantrum. I have learned to ignore them, dad still gets caught and gives in. JP is getting better but it will still be an uphill battle to make sure he doesn't always give her what she wants.

*Abilynn will crawl into my lap. I LOVE this. We will be playing on the floor and she will crawl over to me and climb into my lap. She will then take my hands and get me to hold the toys and play with them.

*She knows how to make the sound of a car, vroom. She really likes playing with her cars too. She will grab my hand and put a car into it so I play with her. She likes me to drive the car over her head and on her back. She will giggle while I do this.

*She plays the piano. She learned this one from her cousin Tymon. I was watching him out night and he was playing the piano. Abilynn was fascinated and crawled over to try it out. She kept looking back at me to make sure it was ok. I have a way cute picture of the two pianists!

*Abilynn fell asleep in her Uncle Tanners arms the other day. He was all impressed with himself! He said "Write this down. This is the first time a girl has fallen asleep in my arms."

*Abilynn is wearing 12-18 months pants, 6-18 months tops, 12-24 month dresses and skirts, 2t-3t socks, and size 4 shoe.

9 months old

Baby Girl is growing up and learning how to get into mischief! Daddy helps her get into some mischief! Here is what she did last month.

*Abilynn has eight teeth. Four on top, and four on bottom.

*She dances, well more like head bangs, daddy taught her this one!!

*She will walk around things and can transfer from the couch to the coffee table, or one thing to another.

*Abilynn can say Mom, Dad, Dog, Turtle, Tanner, and Gram.

*She has learned she can put things inside of other things, like putting a little person into a cup, or putting her toys back into the basket she just dumped them out of.

*She waves, three different ways. One where she opens and closes her hand, one where she turns her hand, and one where she waves her whole arm.

*Abilynn has learned she can turn the pages of her books. She will sit and play with books for a long time too, turning from one page to the next. (Thank goodness for board books!)

*She has tried and likes avocado, chicken, yogurt, mac and cheese, slurpee and ice cream.

*She plays pick-a-boo.

*She loves to open draws and pull everything out of them.

*Abilynn like to brush her teeth and brush her hair. Sometimes she brushes her hair with her toothbrush, YUCK!

*Her favorite toys are empty boxes, the dogs toys, my hair brushes, and water bottles.

*She will scrunch her nose and make a silly face when people smile at her.

*She likes to play chess. Well, play with the chess pieces. She will chew on them and then throw them on the floor. Lately it is more a game to see how many she can throw on the floor before someone stops her.