Abigail is 9 Months Old

Abigail is 9 months old and is a very busy baby. She is into everything. She can crawl so fast now that it is hard to keep up with her. If I blink, she can go from the living room to the kitchen...LOL! She is cruising around holding the furniture, too. I thought that she would be walking by now, but she hasn't yet. She is the sweetest baby. She has the best temperment and is happy almost all the time. She loves to laugh at her sister (who is very funny.)

Abigail had a few "firsts" this month. She got into the dog food and water for the first time. She fed herself for the first time. She had her first Christmas. And, she got into the dirt in our one and only houseplant for the first time.

She is still eating baby food, but also eats some table food. She now has a total of 8 teeth. The molars are coming soon. I can see that her gums are swollen already. Also, when we removed our live tree from the house, her nose stopped running so maybe she really was allergic to it.

Here are some pics from the last month (excluding Christmas.)

Our Family Christmas

We always stay in town for Christmas. On Christmas Eve, Rachel and Jeremy went shopping for me. Rachel had already purchased gifts for Jeremy, Abigail and Snowy. Later, we all went to the book store and to eat at Olive Garden (Rachel's favorite place.) When we got home, we let the girls open their gifts from Gramsy and Gramps (my Mom and Stepdad.) They also opened a gift from each other. Of course, Rachel helped Abigail open hers. Just before bed, we baked candy cane shaped sugar cookies for Santa and left out some reindeer food, too.

Rachel woke up before we did on Christmas Day (which is a first.) She was so excited. She came running into our bedroom to tell us to come see what Santa had left. She said, "Santa did a really good job. I love Santa." She played with a few toys and then asked us to wake Abigail so we did. She stayed up for about 45 minutes and was ready for bed. After she napped, both girls unwrapped a few more presents before lunch and then opened more after we ate.

We had a great day together. Santa brought a Wii game that we could all play together, Mario Kart, and we played that quite a bit in the afternoon while Abigail napped again. Rachel also got a couple of other games that we played (Wii games and board games.) We also watched Kung Fu Panda in the evening.

We were in the middle of watching the movie when Jeremy started to feel sick. He ended up with a stomach virus and was really sick all night. He has been in bed all day today. I hope that he feels better tomorrow. At least we enjoyed most of the day together before the virus kicked in.

Here are some pics from Christmas Eve and Christmas.

Abigail Fed Herself

I was planning to give her a bath anyway so I gave Abigail a bowl of baby food and a baby utensil to feed herself. She tried the utensil, but opted to use her hands instead...LOL. She was eating by the fistful. I snapped a few pics when she got started, washed some bottles and snapped a few pics when she was done. Hope you enjoy this little slideshow!

Merry Christmas!

Here is a copy of this year's Christmas card. I hope that all of you, our family and friends, have a very merry Christmas!

I know that we will enjoy our first Christmas with Abigail. And, Rachel is at such a fun age. She is so excited about Santa coming. She even said that she plans to clean her room before he comes. (I'll believe that when I see it!)

We are planning to spend Christmas Day at home. We will let the girls sleep as long as they want. When they wake, we will let them see what Santa has left for them and open gifts. Jeremy will cook breakfast and I will cook a late lunch. The rest of the day will be spent playing with new toys and games.

Once again, from our family to you and yours, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Some Fun Videos

Has Rachel been naughty or nice? Watch this video to find out!

http://family.go.com/santas-list/video/79620-recagcsmommy/

Here is a video of "Santa's New Helper"!

http://www.freesantavideo.com/offers/video2.aspx?refer=STAF&sessionid=5bc433a4-f902-4a05-8c36-be5ab64ae4ad

Has Abigail been naughty or nice? Watch this video to find out!

http://family.go.com/santas-list/video/79665-recagcsmommy/

And, I realize that this is sooo last year, but I had to "elf" our family again since we had a new addition...LOL! This video will expire on January 15.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas Cards & Santa Pics from Christmases Past

Here are our Christmas cards and Santa pics from the last four years. It's amazing to me how much Abigail looks like Rachel did on her first Christmas.

Christmas Portraits

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get these taken in time for Christmas cards. We were just too busy to have portraits taken any earlier than we did. These pics were taken on Wednesday. I think that most of them turned out great. The last few of Abigail by herself on a black background are her 9 month portraits. Hope you enjoy!

Our Christmas Decorations

Well, we finally got the tree decorated. I just haven't had time to post pictures until now. It turns out that Abigail is most likely allergic to our live tree. We've had to start giving her a daily dose of Zyrtec for her allergies. Hopefully, this will help with her runny nose.

We put out all of our normal decorations inside this year even though we have trouble keeping Abigail out of them. We also let Rachel get her very own tree for her room this year. She was so excited about it. We decided not to put any decorations outside this year. We just didn't have time.

Here are some pictures of our tree and other decorations. I also included some pictures of gingerbread house, too.

Broadway's Christmas Pageant

Our last two weeks were busy with preparing for and performing in Broadway Baptist Church's Christmas Pageant, "Rejoice!" Jeremy and I sing in the choir. And this year, Rachel got to be a "Christmas angel" in the show and she was so excited. Abigail also made an appearance during a few performances as a "shopper" during the shopping scenes. There were six performances which started on Thursday evening and went thru Sunday evening. The show is such a blessing to those that are involved with it and to those that come to see it. All four of us were so exhausted by Sunday evening. We are glad to get back to our normal routine. Here's a video clip of Rachel dancing during "Christmas Angels".

We have our Christmas tree...

Yesterday after Rachel's performance, we went to the Christmas tree farm to pick out our tree. We started the tradition of picking out and using a live tree when Rachel was 2 years old. It is really fun to go and pick out the "perfect" tree. We really downsized this year compared to the last two years. The first year that we went, we came home with a huge tree that we had to trim a lot for it to be able to stand under our 12' ceiling. We learned then that trees growing in a field look a lot smaller than they actually are...LOL! Here are some pics of us at the tree farm.

And here is a picture of the bare tree in our living room. It looks pretty sad right now. We won't be able to decorate it as a family until Saturday afternoon since we have Christmas pageant rehearsal at church tonight and in the morning. Since Jeremy knows how impatient I am, he didn't even bring the lights and ornaments down from the attic when he brought down the tree base. I'll post some pics when we get it decorated. :)

Rachel's Performance at School

Rachel and the other four year olds at her school had a Christmas performance yesterday afternoon. The kids are wearing shirts that have Christmas trees on them that were made using their handprints. They turned out really cute. As usual, Rachel was acting pretty silly most of the time, but they did a good job overall. Here is a video clip of one of the songs that they sang, "Happy Birthday, Jesus."


***You will need to pause the music player at the bottom of the page (the big red box) to hear this video.***

Today is our 14th anniversary!

It's hard to believe that we have been married for 14 years. Where does the time go? Like any married couple, we have had our share of ups and downs. But, through the years we have grown closer together and we are truly blessed to have each other and our beautiful girls.

Here is a slideshow of us through the years.

There's no stopping her now!

Abigail is now 8 months old. She is a very busy baby. She is constantly on the move. She can crawl really fast now. She also pulls up on just about anything (even on our dog and on other babies in the nursery at church.) She will also take a few steps while she holds onto the furniture, etc. I think that she will be walking by Christmas. Abigail now has six teeth and I think that she has some more coming in. She is such a good baby. She is happy most of the time (as long as she has food in her tummy...LOL!) She still looks like her Daddy, but she also looks a lot like Rachel did at that age.



Here is a slideshow including pictures of her from the last month.