Abby's First Day at the Beach . . . In HAWAII!

Abby was sooooooooo excited to be in Hawaii, and especially to play in the water at Hanalei Bay! Though as it turned out, she loved watching the waves crash but was a bit scared to actually be in the water. I guess it was a bit too much. She was completely content, however, to hear the sounds of the ocean and play in the sand (as you'll see below).

Ok, I know it's not the best family pic in the world, but there was no one around to take our picture . . . one of Kauai's best features, I might add.

Raggedy Ann Halloween

Jim and I had been discussing what Abby should be for her very first Halloween -- with her beautiful red hair, the fun possibilities are endless. We considered Pebbles for a long time, but finally decided on Raggedy Ann. . . . how adorable is that!!! Especially because she is doll-sized. I enlisted my mom to help make the costume, and we actually used a doll pattern to make the clothes, lol. Some of my best memories as a child are around Halloween time. My mom would always take me to the fabric store to pick out a pattern and the fabric for my costume; after which time, she lovingly spent hours sewing it for me. It was really important to continue the tradition with Abby, and even more special that my mom did was able to make Abby's costume with me. :) I loved every minute of it. And it makes a wonderful keepsake!

So here it is: the cutest costume in the whole world on the most beautiful baby in the universe!

Ok, at this point (above) she was super tired and overwhelmed. If she could talk she would have said, "Mommy, can you PLEEEEEEEEEEASE stop taking my picture now!?!?!!"

Jim and I were Hawaiian tourists for Halloween. HA!

Baby Blues

Ok, these are the last pics for the night. I have to go to bed and get ready for ELECTION DAY! So excited about that . . . anyway, just wanted to leave you for the night with these wonderful pictures of the most beautiful blue eyes in the whole world. :) Happy voting!

Random Pics

Abby has been growing and changing like crazy! She is CRAWLING now and never content to stay in one place. Changing her diaper is an exhausting proposition, as she is constantly flipping over and twisting all around. Ahhhhh! She continues to be amazing in every way -- she puts herself down for 2 hour naps in the morning and afternoon (omg!), is figuring out how to chew food, just cut her first tooth, actually pulled herself up to standing position for the first time the other day (!), and LOVES the camera. She starts smiling as soon as I pull it out -- it's a good thing, because it's in her face constantly. LOL. She is still trying to figure out a sippy cup (she just chews on it because it feels like a pacifier). Also, we just had to lower her crib because we caught her trying to stand up and get out of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHH! Life has gotten quite interesting -- and she's only 7 months old. She is the BEST!

She Loves Brandon!

Just wanted to show everyone a great picture of Abigail and Brandon. After a busy day sightseeing in Julian, she feel right to sleep with her big brother. So precious!

A Day at the Park

As summer was winding down, we decided to spend a beautiful Saturday afternoon at Seaport Village and along the Embarcadero in San Diego. (It is way easier to have excursions now that Abigail is getting a bit older. We're not so stressed out about every little thing, and she gets super excited to see new places. Plus, now that she eats solid food, we have a back-up plan if we accidentally run out of milk . . . ) So anyway, this was our first REAL day at the park (down by the MIDWAY for those of you familiar with SD) -- she loved feeling the grass between her fingers, watching the seagulls, and playing with Daddy. Such a great day!

We're Baaaaaaaack!

Hello everyone!!! We finally got a new device to download pictures -- so here is a bunch of stuff from our last 2 1/2 months. Yikes.


So here goes . . . in August, Brandon visited and got to participate in Abby's first solid food feeding. HILARIOUS! She was so excited to try something new and was grabbing for the spoon and putting it in her own mouth. (She is definitely our daughter -- she gets WAY excited about food :).



The only way she could figure out how to suck the runny oatmeal down was by sucking on fingers in between bites.



Brandon did the video taping for us, thank goodness! It took both hands for me to feed her and keep her up right in her chair while Jim danced around us taking a million and a half pictures (he did a pretty good job!), so we definitely needed a third person to capture the moment. It was awesome to have "Big Brother Brandon" there to share in the milestone! Even though she won't remember, it meant a lot to us to have him there.


She made a royal mess of the oatmeal, getting more of it on herself, the chair, and me than actually in her mouth. You can see from her red eyes below that she was steadily losing patience, and although it was fun and new, was NOT filling her empty belly!

By the end, Abby had lost all her patience and was too hungry to mess around (literally) with oatmeal anymore. She thought food was seriously stupid. LOL.

And there it is! Abby's first solid food experience. Funny!