Abigail is 2 1/2

My big girl is 2 1/2. She is constantly making us smile, and we absolutely adore her. She is beautiful on the outside as well as the inside. Abigail is very into dressing up, singing, taking care of her babies, learning, puzzles (which she is really good at) reading and being with family. She has such a heart for being a big sister. She is full of hugs and kisses for Kenzie. She doesn't show jealousy but is, most of the time, wonderful at sharing and loving. She is a smart girl who catches on quickly to all learning activities. She loves to figure out how things work also. She is super verbal and always shocks us by the words she uses and how easily she can communicate with us. She is beginning to recognize her emotions and how they're affected by hunger or tiredness. She can be a bit dramatic when it comes to being upset, which we are trying to coach her through. She is quite obedient, even though she has her moments. She loves being around family. Joy is definitely a word I would use to describe her. People enjoy her, and she is ready with smiles often. She continues to eat like a bird, getting very distracted at meal times. She has a kind heart and is concerned when people are sad. She likes to share with her friends. She is also very good at remember to say please, thank you and sorry. Very independent, she likes to do everything all by herself, stating, "I can do it." She'll often undo something I've done for her just to prove that she can do it all by herself. She's right - most of the stuff she claims she can do by herself, she can. Some of those things include, getting herself in and out of the car, buckling her car seat, getting herself buckled in her booster seat (which we have reverted back to because of her squirmy behavior at meal times), dressing herself, going pee pee on the potty by herself, etc. She is hard to convince that she cannot drive, cut her own food, tie shoes, change her own poopy diaper, etc. Her independence is nice because she can play easily by herself. She is assertive, knowing what she likes. She has been asking "why?" a lot lately. She loves to be tickled and to laugh. She can get hyper and weird at times. Favorite movies/TV shows right now include Dora, Sesame Street and Tinkerbell. Abigail likes to go to Bible Study and church activities. She seems to be more drawn to the arts. This girls amazes me, makes me laugh, and brings such a fun dynamic to this family. I love you, Shrimp!

Learning

Abby loves to learn. She knows all her letters and numbers to ten. She knows the sounds of most of the letters, although vowels throw her off a bit. She is excellent and tracing, which is an activity she wants to do often. She can count to 50 with a little prompting. She is super verbal and has a crazy memory. She remembers locations, things we've done, who has given her what gifts, vocabulary, etc. She asks a lot of questions. Here is a video and picture of her tracing skills, which she does all on her own.

Weirdo

Abby is kind of a freak show, which I love. I do nothing to inspire her crazy get ups that she comes out in. She is constantly cracking us up. She is sooo sweet but also crazy at times.

Kenzie 9 months old

Kenzie turned 9 months on January, 2nd. She is army crawling to get around and just beginning to pull herself to stand on furniture. She loves to play with her toys and pull things out of boxes. She has a few teeth coming in on top. She hasn't been horribly influenced by this...still sleeping well. However, she probably has some grumpiness related. She is 20 lbs and 27 inches long. She has really good hand eye coordination and enjoys balls. She wants to grab at everything and is very strong and persistent trying to get whatever she wants. She has become a lot more independent now that she can really get around. She likes to explore and play. She can clap up and down, put her hands up to "so big," and give a high five. She smiles a lot and has been less high maintenance as she gets older. She still smiles so big when Abby interacts with her. She kicks and giggles when daddy and grandma first appear. She also waves and has words associated with bye (ba ba) and hi (ah). She also says mama and dada (sometimes on demand), but I am not convinced she associates them with us. She eat well but definitely has an opinion about what she does and does not like. She's eating more solids...pieces of cracker, bread, fruit, cheerios, etc. She also eats all sorts of pureed fruits and vegetables. She is active and brings us a lot of joy.

Santa Photo

I hadn't posted the Santa photo yet, so here it is!

Things to Remember

* When it's foggy outside, Abigail says it's "froggy" outside.
* Her most recent Bible story recall consisted of Jesus putting mud on God's eyes, and when there was mud on God's eyes, He couldn't see.
* When turning in circles, Abigail says, "I'm getting busy." (dizzy)
* Abby calls a vest "a life" because she thinks it's a life jacket.
* Abigail opens my Bible and begins to read, "We can do the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse puzzle." She then closes the Good Book and proclaims, "It's in the Bible."
*"Thank you, Mommy, for learning me to put my shirt on a right way." (Said after I told her that her shirt was on backward and taught her to twist it around)
* I told Abby we were going to a fancy restaurant, and she said, "That's a good plan."
*Was in the bathroom getting wipes when I heard Abby yelling from the living room. I go in to find her hand full of poop and nakedness from the waist down. I scoop her up to wash her hands in the kitchen. She starts freaking out crying over her sleeve getting wet. I try to explain to her that her sleeve wet by water is not the issue. The issue is that we have poop all over the her butt, legs, hands, ground and clothes. She replies, "My sleeve is wet and THAT IS the problem."

5th Anniversary

We had a wonderful anniversary, but unfortunately, I don't have any pictures. On our actual anniversary, we went to dinner and a movie, Avatar. The day after, we went indoor rock climbing, which was so much fun. It was great to be active together and challenge ourselves a bit. We then went out to dinner downtown at Varsity Grill. Five wonderful years and so many different changes in our lives.

Daddy Date

Abigail and Jeremy had a date today. Lowe's does a free Build and Grow program. They built their own little coin bank. They also ran into the Evarts and Rich family for extra fun! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful man!

Spanaway Lights

Spanaway puts on an amazing light display for Christmas. We were able to enjoy this experience with Corey and Jenn.

The Harneds

We are blessed with the most wonderful neighbors, the Harneds. They are so sweet to us. We went over to exchange gifts with them. They always spoil our girls rotten.

Tillicum Christmas

Tillicum is an area in Lakewood that has been on our hearts for a while thanks to Jer's dad's involvment in and heart for developing a youth center there. With Jer's extended family on his mom's side we decided to adopt a couple families from that area rather than exchange gifts ourselves. It was a fun even, and it was great to be able to provide some good kids with a little Christmas joy.

New Years Day - Kerns

We celebrated our Kern family Christmas with everyone on New Years Day. Here are all the grandchildren, and I believe this picture alone is a miracle. . We also got a great picture of the entire family - another miracle with so many people to orchestrate.

So Big

Christmas Afternoon - Kerns

Christmas Morning - Durrs

Christmas Morning

Christmas Eve with Durrs

Gingerbread House with Cousins

Here are pictures from what I hope becomes a first annual event. We had our cousins, Emma and Elena, as well as grandma and Auntie Stacie over to decorate a gingerbread house and cookies, color and decorate snowmen. My sister even found these cute little aprons and hats. It was a great day of Christmas activities.

Away in a Manger

Progressive Dinner

This was our third annual Durr Progressive Dinner where we go to each house to have a different course and see each others decorations.

Whistler

We went to Whistler with our friends, the Langs. They have a gorgeous time share right on the edge of the Men's 2010 Olympic Downhill run. The Langs have three children - Hailey and Andrew who are twins Abigail's age and baby Greta. The 2 year old kids loved each other and were little peas in the pod. Jer and Greg went skiing one day and met up with some college friends. Conditions weren't great, but they had a lot of fun going peak to peak. We stuck around with the kids and were just on vacation. Jer and I escaped to the village for a few hours while the kids slept. As a group we went to a frozen lake where we took the kids on the ice and tried to sled down some hills. Hailey was the only one that liked the ice. None of them were interested in sledding. We don't have a snow bunny yet, although we'll keep trying.

Bellingham Trip

My new niece and nephew, Molly and Henry, have arrived. That meant we were able to go up and visit these precious little babies. We were also there to help. I just helped with the kids and cleaned. Jeremy built this staircase to make the back stairs more safe. We love these babies already!