Christmas

We had a nice visit with Grandma and Grandpa R and Grandma and Grandpa K came over on Christmas Day (Uncle Chuck was missed though). Abbie very much enjoyed her second Christmas. She loved looking at all the ornaments on the tree and enjoyed unwrapping gifts. Her least favorite part was waiting for Mom or Dad to remove packaging on her gifts :-).

Here are some pictures:

Christmas Eve:





Reading with Grandpa:



Opening a gift with Daddy:


Handing wrapping paper to Mama:


Playing with her new Elmo Drum:

Christmas Day:

Our Christmas Tree:

Opening Elmo Live:

At the table for Christmas Dinner:

Playing in the basement on Fri 12/26/08:

Monday 12/29/08 - last day with Grandma and Grandpa R:

Do you think Abbie likes Elmo :-)? :

Dancing with the skiing snowman

We have a Christmas decoration of a snowman that sings and 'skis' across the floor. At first, Abbie was scared of it. But she warmed up to it and started to like dancing as it was skiing. Here are a couple videos:

Visit with Santa

We took Abbie to a local mall on Monday to see Santa. It was the same Santa as last year but unfortunately Abbie wasn't as comfortable around Santa this year :-). She burst into tears as soon as she got into Santa's lap.

Here are some pictures from the visit with Santa:

Here's a picture of Mom and Abbie in their matching Old Navy holiday shirts:

Here are pictures from when we went out to dinner for Daddy's Birthday on 12/06/08:

Thanksgiving and Playing in the Snow Pictures

Here are some pictures of Abbie on Thanksgiving (11/27/08) and on Fri. 11/28/08 playing in the snow:

Update - 11/24/08

Mom apologizes for how long it's been since the last update but things have been incredibly hectic. Abbie had her tonsils removed on Th. 11/06 and it was a tough recovery for her but she showed that she's really a trooper. Her ear tubes were clogged once again so those were replaced during the tonsil surgery (she's on her third set of tubes since January). We're hoping that having the tonsils removed will help some other issues she's been having. She has become a lot more vocal since the tonsil surgery and is pointing a lot. She still isn't saying a lot of words but she has a very good understanding of what we say and is paying close attention to what we do. The other night she was playing with an empty diet coke carton and got upset when Dad tried to take it away to put it in the recycling bin. She proceeded to get up and walk from the kitchen to the family room and stand by the door to the garage waiting for one of us to open it and then she stepped into the garage and put the diet coke carton into the recycling bin that's in the garage. Mom and Dad watched in a bit of awe as she did that :-). She is our little helper as she loves to help put things away and loves to throw out trash - she excitedly stands by the cabinet in the kitchen where the trash can is waiting for us to open it for us. We have to watch what she puts in there though - she tried to throw out her bib once :-). We may need to look for another gate for the dining room as she has figured out how to open the curio cabinet containing some of Mom's shot glass collection - for now we keep a close eye on her when she ventures that way.

Here are some recent pictures:

Trip to the Waterpark

Grandma and Grandpa R recently came for a visit and joined us on a trip to the Wisconsin Dells for Abbie's first adventure at a waterpark. Abbie had a nice time catching up with Grandma and Grandpa R and thoroughly enjoyed the waterpark. She wore herself out so much that she slept in the highchair with her head on the table for most of lunch on the day we left to go back home (look for that cute picture below). We brought toys along to keep her entertained but we would have been fine with the broom in our room and the luggage carts at the hotel. Abbie just loved the luggage carts and liked to help push them. Mom had to pry her hand off the cart the first day when we returned the cart to the lobby.

Here are pictures from the trip to the Dells:

A tired pumpkin sleeping in the car on the way to the Dells:

Helping us take the luggage cart downstairs:


Out to dinner at the local brewpub:

Ok so this isn't Abbie but Mom thought it was a great pic of Grandpa and Grandma R :-):

At dinner on the second night:


















At the waterpark:

Playing with the broom in our room:

This is what happens when you are worn out from too much waterpark fun :-):