Regular Park Goers

We love the park. We love that the park is close to us. We love that the weather has been nice enough to go to the park lately. (Although in the smack middle of the day it is a bit warm now!) Abby has branched out and gotten braver every time we go. It doesn't happen everytime, especially if there are a lot of people around, but generally she will go up the steps and go down the big slides.

Her and I ate at the covered picnic tables last week, and then enjoyed some park time!

It took her awhile to feel comfortable enough to finally walk on top of the drain, but she does it all the time now :)

Marilyn "Abby" Monroe

She likes this big slide, but on this particular day....

... It was too hot on her little legs, but obviously I didn't know until it was too late. No more dress wearing when we go to the park. In this picture she's saying "hot, hot, hot"

A girl and her shoes

For Abby's birthday, she got a whole set of princess shoes. And she loves them! I mean what little girl doesn't love to hear the "clank, clank" the small heels make when you walk on tile floors? C'mon ladies--tell me you loved it growing up, too?!? It could be just me, I guess :)
Of course, telling me to come sit beside her.

How you doin?

Pure glee. Chasing Sandy with the stroller is quite entertaining!

Ok, this isn't the most flattering picture of Abby, but it has a story to go with it. Her new thing is to point her toe and push the button to roll the window down! (She's not doing this here, but she does always love having her leg hanging off the side) She can seriously do it because one day we were driving along, and I panicked because I didn't realize what the noise was at first. Obviously, the window locks are now on!!

We were going to Louisiana because I had my friend, Ashley's, baby shower to go to. We left later in the day than we normally do to go home because Josh couldn't get off work earlier. Josh had gone to get us some food, so I changed Abby's diaper, fed Sandy and such, and I was in the back of the car, and both girls were perched to look at me. Gotta love Abby's wand--she's addicted to that thing :)

And here is a picture of me and my friend, Michelle, before we went into Ashley's shower. Both my friends are due within days of one another!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day this year was actually Abby's official birthday! Family was still in town from her party the day before, so we were all able to go to church together and then out to eat. This weekend wore Abby out--she gave us 3 hour naps, two days in a row!

2 Mommy's and a baby :) (I don't care if she's 2...she'll always be my baby!) One of my new favs...she just looks like such a little lady!

Family picture. Leave it to Josh to look the wrong way :)

A random shot from that weekend...our little peeping Abby!

That Pop...

he's a funny guy. So, I'm forever behind on the blog. I hate that. The more behind I get, the less I want to do it. That's not entirely true. I like to blog, but I like things to be in order. I don't want to post pictures of what I took today, when I haven't posted pictures still remaining from Abby's birthday. Am I making any sense?

Back to Pop. While my mom and I were out getting the food for the day of Abby's birthday party, Pop was on Abby duty. Abby pretty much tells him exactly what she'd like him to do. She says "Pop, come on." Or she simply pats the ground beside her for him to sit, or she does the motion for "come on" and what do you know... Pop does exactly what he's told! This girl is demanding, but she realizes, when the grandparents are in town, everybody seems to listen to her :) (It's always a rude awakening for her, I imagine, when she's just stuck with good 'ol mommy and daddy!)

Again, back to Pop..I keep drifting. We walk in from the grocery store, and I can see Abby sitting on the step, and I hear Pop saying "Ok, ready, 1..2..3 smile." He had the timer on the camera going. I laughed, and I said oh that's a good idea, and he said she keeps saying and doing the sign for "more" so we've done this 5 times now. These are the results. Precious!

Well, first what he took of her by herself--
See, the patting of the ground I speak of...she's saying "Pop, c'mon!"

Pop & Abby... x5
LOVE her little hand on his shoulder...I know you can't barely see it, but it's there.

A little change...she moved to the bottom step :)

These next pictures...when I think of my sweet little Abby girl, this is the face that would come to my mind. Big smile, crinkled nose--I love that about her.

See the bug on her shoulder in this next one? She did have a small freak out moment over it :)

We officially LOVE this bike trailer! It's so cute to see her in it!

Doggone GREAT 2nd Birthday!

**This post is long......REAL long!**

My sweet, little, wonderful baby girl is growing up too fast! Yesterday was officially Abby's 2nd birthday! I can't believe I actually have a 2 year old...seriously. It kills me to think how fast time has gone by. I can remember perfectly the first few days, weeks, and months when she was first home.

Seeing her and holding her for the first time...I could never forget those moments!


Abby's party was on Saturday, and this year we had a weenie dog theme. If you can only imagine, I really LOVED decorating for this theme :) It was easy..I owned most of the decorations already!

The morning of her party, we put Sandy in Abby's bed with her. Abby thought that was amazing!
I think Sandy just wanted out, though :)

Her invitation...I took out our address for obvious reasons :)
Decorations around the house.

Pictures of Abby and Sandy playing together or just by each other on the pantry door.

In the middle it said...

I got good use out of old calendars!

The study door...12 month pictures - 24 month pictures. Oh the changes that occur.

I found this super cute "I am 2" banner on Etsy. You can visit her here: http://www.whimzycreations.etsy.com/. She does fabulous, super cute work!

I have dachshund mugs, and I have a lot of them. So I put them out with flowers in them. (above and below)

The front door poster I made.

Bone shaped PBJ sandwiches.

The cake! I think it turned out great.
I mean look at that little weenie dog! It looks just like the invite. I love it :)

The birthday girl in her super cute weenie dog shirt I found on the internet. The fabric of the weenie dog happens to match the plates and napkins and decorative wrapping paper on the study door. When the lady sent me her fabric samples to choose from, it was an easy decision!

I know you can't see it perfectly but the dog is on the front, and...
the rest of the body and tail carries over to the back!

Her friends start arriving, and the party begins...

Here is the progression of when we sang her Happy Birthday. She's such a shy thing when everyone is staring at her! But by the end, she was all smiles about it :)

OK, all these people are looking at me...
I just don't think I can take it...

This is kinda fun...

Actually, it's really fun!

Oh wow, I get to blow those out?

Winding down towards the end. Drinking her milk and standing like this....hand on the back of the hip, foot out. Oh such a girlie girl!

The goody bags. Each included a bone shaped cookie and a paw print chocolate and other random toys....and it had this super cute note on the outside (pinned with a bone shaped paper clip!). That little dachshund looks just like Sandy when she was a puppy! Whew. That is a lot of pictures, and that isn't even half of them! I downloaded all the pictures onto my computer that my mom took, and it's over 400. I'll have more random stuff I'll save for later :) Thank you to all who could come! We LOVED celebrating with you, and we feel so blessed to have you as our friends!!!