Abigail's First Date

Abigail suddenly proclaimed, "Bye, Bye, Mommy. I'm going on a date all by myself." I had to get the video camera ready and inquire further.

Katie & Kelsey's Birthday

We went out the other night for Kelsey & Katie's birthday. We went to thai food - Indochine - downtown. It was so nice to get out with some ladies!

First Person Drawing - Abigail 29 Months

I showed Abigail how to draw a person, and this was her first attempt. Not bad!!

Changing Kenzie

While I was in the other room, I heard Abigail saying, "Kenzie peed." That made me curious. I walked in, and I found Abigail trying to change her diaper.

Kenzie at 8 months

Our little Kenzie is 8 months old. It's amazing how quickly it goes by! One of these pictures reveals the two teeth she grew this last month. She handled it really well! Kenzie is laughing a lot. It's easy to get her to smile and crack up. She is "speaking" a bit but spends more time quiet - unless she's complaining. She continues to smile whenever Abby wants to love on her, which is often. She is getting around quite easily - virtually crawling. She wants to be grabbing at everything, and I predict she'll be a climber. She is a good eater and a good sleeper. She seems like a tough kid, not phased by her extra hard loves from her sister. She waves too! She can stand when propped up against things. She is great in the car and loves being around other people. She can feed herself puffs and teething biscuits. She enjoys being a the table with us. She gets bored in one place for too long, so we move her around from the floor, the exersaucer, our arms, the jumper and the high chair. She gives big smiles when we make her dance, do patty cake or sing to her. She continues to delight us, and she has the most beautiful eyes ever!

Christmas Wreath Craft

Part of the Christmas season for us has to include Christmas crafts. Here's our first one. Making a wreath out of toilet paper rolls. I have a book on making things with stuff you have around the house. We had a great time painting, cutting and gluing!

Trimming the Tree

Christmas music and decorating. I love this time of year. Abigail hung about 20 snowflakes in the exact same spot. I moved them after she went to bed. :-)

Christmas Wonder

The first images of Christmas. I love her outfit too - pajamas, princess skirt and bunny slippers. One of our Dickens Village houses has a woman in a wedding dress spinning around. Since Abby is the flower girl in her Aunt Julie's upcoming wedding, Abigail loves to turn the houses on so she can see Julie turning around.

Christmas Tree Hunting

We went down to Schilter Farms to search for our Christmas Tree to cut down. Success! Great prices and great trees. We also had fun as a family. There are some funny pictures in here of Abigail deciding to hug and kiss every tree her size. It was cracking us up.

Puzzles

Abigail takes after her mommy and loves puzzles. She is pretty good at them too. She picked this one out at the dollar store. She has a chore chart where she earns magnets by helping me empty the dishwasher (she does the silverware and puts away her dishes), clearing the table, setting the table, sharing, saying please and thank you, picking up her toys and cleaning her room. Each time she fills up a row of helping she gets to pick something out at the dollar store. The puzzle and a pair of dress up shoes were a fabulous pick. She knows herself well.

At the Park with Daddy

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The Friday after Thanksgiving I went wedding dress shopping with Julie. She found the most beautiful dress, and we had a lot of fun. It was the first time in a long time I had been away from the girls for so long - the first time for Kenzie. They were in capable hands with daddy. They went to the park, which is wonderful because I'm one of those wimpy moms who doesn't take them out in the cold. They also did dinner with Great Grandpa Durr and Grandpa Durr.

Kenzie Eating

Abby loves to help Kenzie eat. Kenzie is a pretty good eater, but she does have an opinion about which foods she likes. She keeps her mouth open and makes a face to the vegis. She's eating all sorts of pureed food, teething biscuits, formula (I finished nursing at 8 months) and Puffs. I'm not very brave when it comes to solids because of choking fears.

Turkey Cookies

Jeremy Leffel Photography Session

We just did a family photo session with our wedding photographer, Jeremy Leffel. He does an amazing job and is super reasonable. If you are looking for someone to do your pictures, I highly recommend him. There are tons more on our photo website. We are so excited to have these treasures. We took all of these pictures in Wright Park, where we also took a lot of our wedding photos. We tried to recreate some of the pictures from our wedding with our expanded family.

Kenzie's Getting Herself Where She Wants to Go

The Wall

Before (2 pictures above)

(After)

The Wall...I can't believe I haven't mentioned the wall. A bit ago, I mentioned to Jeremy that I thought it was time. Time for what? A wall. Our master bedroom has been open to the living room since we bought this place. It makes no sense, but that's just the way it has been. Therefore, we haven't had an oasis...a place to escape if we want to nap or be alone. I told my hubby that I was ready to take this step, and he literally came home and began tearing up carpet. My ridiculously talented husband has now finished this fabulous project. Why did we not do this ages ago? We haven't purchased the blinds for the french doors yet, but they are coming. I have posted a before picture too so you can see the amazing skills Jeremy has. It looks like it has always been there.

Thanksgiving Art

This is just a little Thanksgiving art project we did. We went hunting for pine cones (in the cold and dark mind you) and traced her hands. Each hand she said something she is Thankful for. In this order: sister, rain, daddy, mommy, Abby & Ben (Miller).

Bath Time

Girls' Night Out

Last Friday night we went out while 3 or our husband watched 12 kids. The kids survived...maybe even thrived, and we had a great time. We went to Mexican food and then went go-cart racing. I was a tad competitive and fairly aggressive on the track, and I had a blast. Thanks, Guys, for orchestrating this.