Abby is Six

Abigayle Ana tuned six last week! It is so hard to believe. We celebrated that evening with her grandparents and had dinner, cake and presents. We also watched some video that we had taken of Abby from birth through about age two. It was quite emotional for me. You see, for some reason, turning six was a hard one for me. At five, I still felt like she was my baby in a sense. She wasn't in kindergaten yet, she was still with me the majority of the time. Now that she is six, it feels like she is a kid now, like a big kid. One of those kids that I used to look at in the play area at the mall and think, "oh great, a big kid's coming in here and is going to trample my little toddler." Now she is one of them.
Abigayle was born on a very cold January day. As a matter of fact, we came home from the hospital to find that our pipes had frozen and we had no water. (I was not too happy about this!) Anyhow... having Abby as my first child was such a blessing. She was an angel baby, actually I called her my "textbook" baby. She did exactly what the books said she was supposed to do. She was easy going, fat and happy. Her and I spent every day together, just the two of us for her first three years of life. I have so many great memories over the past six years. One of my favorite memories is when she would dance as a baby. Abby loved to dance, and still does. I would put on a song, and she would stand up, as she was just pulling up at this age, and bounce up and down and laugh and giggle. She was hysterical. She hasn't changed much... she's still my easy-going girl, aside from some 6-year old drama, she is a delight. I realize how lucky I am to have a daughter like her. I have been trying to remind myself as Abby, and my other two little ones, grow right before my eyes, how quickly this time will pass. I feel like I blinked and Abby is all grown up. No longer a baby, she doesn't need me as much anymore. My prayer for Abby is to continue to grow, to walk with Jesus, and to stay true to who she is, which is just perfect to me. Happy birthday Abby, I love you.

Allyson the Pig

Allyson has started this new thing where she snorts when she laughs! It is absolutely hilarious and now she just does it all the time. Well, yesterday at lunch, she was on a snorting roll! She was cracking me up :) Check it out:

What I've been up to!

So, this is kindof a silly post but I just feel like writing. Some of my favorite things lately!

I've really gotten into coupon clipping. I found this great blog: www.frugalinvirgina.com and it's awesome. I guess you can say I've been totally inspired by it and have taken on a whole new hobby of obsessively clipping coupons and trying to save money. It is a lot of extra work, but it's totally worth it and the feeling I get when I save a lot of money is a total adrenaline rush! Today I went to KMart, where they were participating in double coupons up to a $2 face value, and I bought $80 dollars worth of cosmetics, cleaning stuff and medicines for $32. (I also bought some invitations for Abby's birthday party which I didn't have a coupon for :) Anyhow... it's really been a lot of fun.

My new camera! I am totally obsessed with it. It's a super nice Canon Powershot and it takes great pictures. I love taking pictures of my little girls. I would love to one day get into photography a little more and maybe even make an income on it! I think I could be really good at it.

Something else that had been put on the back burner for a while was reading, but I just finished reading Twighlight last week. (thanks Clancy!) Oh my... it was such a great book and I can't wait to get the next in the series.

I am also trying really hard to stay at home more and get organized. I've realized that with three kids under the age of 5, that being organized is almost a must. I am really trying to squeeze in the time to get things nice and tidy around here. I hate looking for something and not being able to find it!!

And, I can't believe that I haven't mentioned this yet, but we are also remodeling our home. We bought our house 2 years ago from my parents and it was like a dream come true for us. We started our family young, and for so long, home ownership was like a fantasy. When we had the oppurtunity to buy my parents house, the house that I pretty much grew up in, we jumped on it! It was a great house to start off with, but we have taken great pride in personalizing it and making it our own. We have done so many things. We painted the outside from what used to be a somewhat burnt orangish color, to a grayish-blue color. We replaced all the windows and re-trimmed them and got a new front door. We put recessed lighting in some bedrooms and hallways, put down hardwood flooring in the hallway upstairs and also fenced in the backyard. We also replaced the front porch with this "Trek" boarding stuff and it looks great! Needless to say we have been very busy improving our house and we have lots more planned this year!

I also weaned Audrey this week and have been sleep-training her to sleep in her own bed. It went really well, and as of Thursday it will have been 2 weeks that she has been on bottles and in her own bed! It's kindof sad that I will never nurse another baby again, but also very uplifting. It's really nice to start getting back to focusing on me and have my body back, somewhat ;)

With that being said, next month, I am getting a gym membership and hitting it hard to lose the rest of this weight! I miss the gym so much. It used to be a very important part of my life and I can't wait to get back in there. So, hopefully, you will be seeing a new, slimmer me this summer!

A Box....

So simple.... yet, to my girls, soooo much fun! We had some boxes hanging around after Christmas and the kids had a great time getting creative with them. As you can see below, with the help of Daddy, Abby turned two boxes into a robot. She thought this was so cool, and the funniest part of the evening was, and I hate to say it, but was when she fell because she couldn't see where she was going. I laughed for almost an hour, as a matter of fact, I'm still laughing thinking of it. She was a good sport though, and was giggling away inside her box.


Here is Audrey playing the box that became Abby's robot head.

And my sweet girls playing in the robot's body.

They had a great time. It's amazing how many things you can do with a box!

A Look Back at 2008....(and a look forward at 2009!)

Happy New Year! I can hardly believe that 2008 has come and gone. This year has been a great year for us. We have done many things together as a family, but this year's most special moment has been the birth of our third beautiful baby girl, Audrey. Here are some pictures to highlight our year:

At the beginning of 2008, Aaron and I took a trip to see his brother and his wife in Maryland. In this picture I am about 7 months pregnant.

We also got a bit of snow that month. As a matter of fact, I believe it's the only snow we received last winter. I bundled the girls up and we had a great time sledding down our driveway and making snow angels.

Abby turned 5 on January 22nd. We celebrated with about 12 of her friends and had a great horse-themed birthday party.

In March, we celerated Easter. We enjoyed a lot of fun activites and here are Abby and Allyson dying easter eggs.

Abby lost her first tooth in March also! She then lost her second tooth about 1 week after the first. Now she has 4 more loose teeth!

On April 5, Allyson turned 2 years old. We had a Dora party for her. Then on April 8th, we welcomed Audrey Elizabeth who came into this world weighing in at 8 lbs even. She has been an absolute delight. She has the best tempermant and has just been happy ever since she entered the world. She is exactly like her great grandmother whom we named her after.




In June, Abby's best friend Sam came to visit us. Abby and Sam grew up together, literally, as if brother and sister, and she was heartbroken when we moved away. (so was I!) Abby and Sam still keep in touch and his visit was such a great time.


We enjoyed going to the spray park in our town with Sam.




I love this picture of Allyson at the spray park. She didn't understand where the water went!



Abby also learned how to swim this year. She took swim lessons last year, but did not really take to the water so well, but this year, she was great!


We also went to visit my parents in the beautiful mountains of West Virginia in June. We really love going there because it's just so peaceful and we can really just enjoy the outdoors and just take a step back from our hectic lives.



Abby started horse lessons in September. This was a dream come true for Abby who has been in love with horses for about 2 years now. I thought maybe it was just a phase, or maybe I was hoping, but it hasn't gone away. I think it's in her blood though because we have quite a history of riding horses in my family. I grew up on a horse farm and my mother taught lessons and we had horse shows on our farm.





I also hosted a girls night here in September. It was a fabulous time! These are some of the best girlfriends a girl could ask for. We have all been friend since grade school, and even though we are all at different points in our lives, we still know what it means to be friends, best friends, and I cherish the moments that we spend together.


Also in September, we surprised Abby and took her to the Foxfield horse races. We lined up my mother in law to keep Allyson and Audrey and told her it was going to be a special day. She had no clue where we were going, and it was a great day with her.

And, in October we celebrate Halloween, and I love this picture of my three little kittens.

We had a great holiday season, filled with great meals, spending time with family and remembering those that have gone on before us.

2008 was a great year for us. With 2009 upon me, I have a lot of things I would like to do and or change. First and foremost, I want to be the best mother and wife that I can be. I want to spend more time on the floor playing with my girls and just cherishing every moment I have with them as they grow right before my eyes. I also want to become more involved in church and become closer to God. I also want to live a healthier life, and I wouldn't mind losing a couple pounds!

Happy New Year everyone, and may it be a good one!

Sisters

I absolutely love this clip of Abby playing with Audrey. Abby is so delightful and always a great big sister, as you can see!