Month Three

One morning when we were living with Brian's parents while our house was being built, Abby took her morning nap in our bed. As she was stirring, I took pictures of her and then laid down beside her and took more pictures. Looking at these pictures makes me misty-eyed for some reason. She was just so sweet and wonderful and cute and I'll never forget that morning and the hundred more amazing times that I've gotten to share with her.

I know babies grow fast, but I can't get over how big Abby got in three months time. She was a runt at the beginning, but certainly caught up later!

Month Two

Abby started sleeping through the night when she was 5 weeks old. We feel very fortunate that she was such an easy baby. We just hope our second one is just as wonderful.

We don't know what prompted this face, but we love it!



One thing that we noticed right away about Abby was her crazy toes. Her big toes were always arched and her feet were always wiggling, and they're still like that now.

Twelve Months Of Abby

I've been looking back at the pictures we have of Abby and thought I'd share some of my favorites.

MONTH ONE


Abby is just two days old in this picture. You can see the lopsided cone where she was trying to go through the birth canal crooked. Isn't she precious?

She was so tiny nothing fit her the first couple of months, not even her headbands.
This is her first birthday cake ever, of course celebrating her first month. We said we'd celebrate every month with a mini-cake, but it didn't quite work out that way.

Okay, so she was only a month old, but we like to think of this as her first smile caught on camera. Look at that little spark in her eye!

It's A...

BOY! Yay!





Here he is sucking his thumb. Aww!

At the Door

Abby will usually bolt out the door the minute I open it, but this time the sun was streaming in and she decided instead to play in the light. I love moments like this!

My Sister Needs Help

My sister, Missy, is an extremely talented graphic designer who eventually wants to quit her job at D Magazine to stay at home with her baby. She's looking for someone who knows a little about creating websites to help her get her invitation business up and running. If anyone knows of someone, let her know. Here's the link to her blog. http://johnandmissy.blogspot.com/

By the way, if you need invitations, announcements, etc, she's the person to go to. Her designs are fabulous!

BOY or GIRL?

We find out this Friday whether its a boy or a girl. What's everyone's guess?

Abby's First Birthday

First Birthday

Abby turned one on the 26th so we had a little party to celebrate. I threw together a quick montage of her big day.

Blizzards, Family, and Abby's First Christmas

Christmas for us was great. We were worried cause Brian was one of the unfortunate ones that got stuck in the Denver blizzard. He was on business and was supposed to be home the Wednesday before Christmas and didn't get home until Christmas Eve-Eve. Fortunately his sister Kristine lives up there and so he was able to stay with her and wait out the storm. We are so grateful to her and to everyone who prayed Brian home.

The good thing about situations like that is it makes you extra-extra grateful for spouses and family. Suddenly all the presents, parties and plans that we had made seemed so insignificant. All I wanted, all I needed was to have my family together for Christmas, and I learned that nothing else in the world matters except being with the ones you love.

We went to Brian's parents on Christmas eve and had a wonderful prime rib dinner (mmm!) and got to hang out with all the brothers (except Elder Kevin) and their wives, which was great fun. The fourth brother, Eric and his family, just moved down this week to join the family business and we're excited they're here! Now we just need for Marianne, Jill and Kristine to move back home!

On Christmas morning we went to my mom's house and had brunch, and opened stockings and presents. I think the whole family was here this time, except for maybe two people, so it was wonderful that we could all be together. I love the traditions that both of our families have and I'm so grateful that we get to be with both families during the holidays.

For some reason I've been super bad about taking pictures lately, especially at family parties. The only Christmas shots I got were of Abby on Christmas morning.

This is Abby discovering her Santa toy. Darn Santa gave her the good stuff so then she didn't want to open the other presents.

Dress #2

I love this dress on her with her little black stockings and shiny shoes. All she needs is a big black bow on her head.

Dress #1

This is one of Abby's Christmas dresses. For some reason we ended up with four. Hey, a girls first Christmas has to be special, right? What a priss!
In this shot, she was shimmying back and forth in her chair and flirting with the guys in the room. Look out, boys!

Thanks to Brian's dad for taking these great shots!

Free Money! (The Repealed Federal Excise Tax is Retro-active)

After a long-running legal dispute, the Treasury Department announced in May that it would no longer collect the outmoded tax, which was originally established as a luxury tax on those wealthy enough to own a telephone.

The IRS agreed to offer taxpayers refunds, which are estimated to total $15 billion.

The Dallas Morning News did an interesting article.

You can look up your phone bills and find the actual amount or request a standard credit depending on the number of exemptions you claim on your W4.

•$30 for one exemption.
•$40 for two.
•$50 for three.
•$60 for those claiming four or more exemptions.

This is a credit, not a deduction, so you don't have to itemize your taxes in order to take advantage of it. The IRS will soon be releasing a form on http://www.irs.gov/.

An additional website is also setup to help get the word out.

http://www.refundphonetax.com

Christmas Work Party

One thing that I always look forward to is Brian's work Christmas party. The party coordinators always come up with creative ideas to make the parties interesting and fun. This year's was no exception and we really did have fun. Any negative comments I may have made on my previous post only reflect my picky, uncomfortable, pregnant self and were not meant as a slam to the company or to those who work so hard to plan the parties.

See Mom? I can feed myself!

Books on the Window Seat

Abby has been really into books lately. There have been a couple of times where all she's wanted is to sit on her window seat and play with the books. The other day Brian was putting Christmas lights up outside and Abby stopped to say hello.

Desperate Measures

We knew that a Christmas tree would be way too tempting for Abby, so Brian built a podium for the tree. It's pretty tall, and looks kinda silly at first, but it keeps the Abbinator at bay.

Abby manged to get a hold of the lights, so we baby-proofed some more. "Just inspecting them, Dad!"

Abby and Ben

I watched my sister's baby, Ben, on Monday and he and Abby had a great time playing together. Can you believe he's only 6 months old? He's almost the same size as Abby! What a cutie.

The Big 30

Ugh. So my 30th birthday was on the 24th. It's actually not that bad to be 30 so far. On Thanksgiving my family presented me with "30 Memories of Mandie" written by my family, and designed and framed by my fabulously talented sister, Missy. All the memories were really sweet and meaningful to me. Thank you to everyone that contributed!

Abby in Black and White

The Stage of Cuteness

We can't get over how big Abby's getting and how much fun she is! This is definitely the cutest stage! (Okay, we say that at every stage...) The other day she accidently marked her face with a watercolor pencil (get it wet and it writes) and so I marked up both of our faces and Brian took a picture. Oh, you can see a glimpse of my short hair too. I'll take a better picture later.

Abby's Favorite Past Time

Abby loves to stand in front of the the TV while it's on and talk to the objects on the screen. Although it is extremely cute, I'm afraid she's going to damage her eyes. Should we be worried?

Deck the Halls

We plan on putting up Christmas stuff this weekend even though it's one week earlier than usual. I guess I really have the Christmas spirit early this year. It's Abby's first Christmas (labor on Christmas day last year doesn't count) and the holidays seem so much more special because of it. Abby's even gotten into the decorating spirit by sprucing up our bathroom with greenery and toilet paper.

Our Big Announcement

We're expecting baby no. 2!

I'm 11 weeks along and the due date is May 31, 2007. We're super excited, although initially very suprised. But we can't think of a better suprise to get!

Aaargh!

Brian and I dressed up as pirates so of course we made Abby our parrot. We had lots of fun as a pirate family. Aaargh!

Like a Kid in a Candy Store

Saturday was our ward Halloween party and Brian and I volunteered to make witches brew, complete with dry ice. (mmm!) We had a ton of dry ice left over and Brian got a little crazy with it. I've never seen him have so much fun!

We Share Everything

It started last week when Abby woke up with a runny nose, then Brian started complaining of a sore throat, then the next day I got one too. Next thing we know, we're both laid up in bed, coughing, wheezing and sneezing on a beautiful Saturday. Abby's little runny nose only lasted for a day or two, Brian's just getting over his, and me? I guess I got the worst of it, cause I still gots it. I've felt so bad I haven't even wanted to blog. Gasp!

Bubble-Doos

Abby loves bubbles, and we do too! Before our batteries died, we caught a couple of bubble-doos on camera. This is the Elvis-doo, or the Ace Ventura.

Not sure about this one...maybe we could call it a fro-hawk.

Abby's new car seat

We waited way too long to get Abby into a convertible car seat, but we finally forked over the money and got her one. She loves looking out the window and feeling like a big girl, and it's so comfy she almost always falls asleep!

Oh! Am I not allowed to do this?