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.

Our Thanksgiving Trip

Abigail with her cousins, Meredith and Garrett, that are about the same age and my aunt, Susan, and cousin, Scott.

We travelled to Arkansas for Thanksgiving. We left on Wednesday and returned home on Saturday. We stayed at my Mom's house in White Hall while we were there. We had a late lunch at my Mom's on Thursday and then went to visit my Mom's extended family at my cousin's house after that.

My Mom, my sister and I got up very early to do some Black Friday shopping. We got to the 24 hour Walmart just after 4am. (Yes, we are crazy!!!) We were able to get some of the deals that were not shrink wrapped in our carts before 5am. All three of us were able to get most of the items that were on our lists without too much of a fight. None of us were able to make it to the electronics department, though so no good deals on DVDs or Wii games for us.

Friday evening, we went by my sister's house so that Rachel could play with her cousin, Haleigh. Later, Haleigh went with us to visit with my Dad and Stepmom. My Stepmom kept Abigail while the rest of us went out for dinner.

These are pictures of the girls with new stuffed animals that their Papa and Nana Lewis gave them.

Saturday morning, we got ready and packed the truck to head to Monticello for the day. We had lunch there and visited with Jeremy's family while we were there. Late that afternoon, we headed home. The ride home was a little crazy. Our 4 hour drive soon became an over 5 hour drive with all the stops that we had to make to try to keep the girls happy.

This is a five generation picture of Jeremy's family.

And, this one is with just the ladies.

And, this is a picture of Abigail with her great-great-grandmother.

Rachel's Thanksgiving Feast

On Tuesday, Rachel had a Thanksgiving Feast at school. All of the kids in her class dressed as indians and pilgrims. Rachel chose to dress as an indian so I decided to make her costume. Here she is before we left for school.

I also made these turkey cupcakes for her class to enjoy at the feast. The kids loved them!

Mommy's little helper

Rachel has always been very helpful with Abigail. One day, she shared her applesauce with Abigail. She made the biggest mess, but Abigail really enjoyed it. Here is a video clip of that feeding.

And just this week, she decided to help me by changing Abigail's wet diaper. It was so funny because she couldn't seem to keep the baby from rolling around as she was trying to fasten the diaper. Rachel never gave up. It really was entertaining for me. Here are some pictures of that diaper change.

Abigail is sick...

Abigail has kept a runny/stopped up nose for an entire month. When I took her in for her six month checkup, her doctor told me that the drainage was most likely due to her teeth coming in on the top. He checked her ears and throat and they were clear. I wasn't concerned at all since she is still teething and she hasn't had any fever at all. On Friday, Abigail started pulling at her ears and I immediately called her pediatrician's office. They couldn't fit her in that day, but suggested that I take her to a minor medical center to have her ears checked. I took her in and she has a double ear infection. She started on her antibiotics on Saturday morning. We had a very bad night last night. She cried/screamed off and on most of the night. I know that she must be hurting a lot. She seems to feel fine most of the time during the day. I think that when she lies in bed that all of the fluid puts more pressure on her ears. I sure hope that the antibiotics work quickly.

Rachel's soccer season...

is over. Her last game was Saturday. Her team won all of its games except one which ended in a tie. She really had a great time playing soccer this year. It was her first experience playing a team sport. When the season started, she really got in there and scored several goals. We had to have a talk with her about "hogging the ball" and not helping her teammates to score. After that, she seemed a little scared and pretty "standoffish". I'm thinking that maybe we confused her and that she wasn't sure how aggressive that she should be...LOL.

Here is a picture of her holding her trophy (with a blue gatorade mustache.)

Fall Fun!

Here are some pictures from Rachel's fall festival at her school, Trunk-or-Treat at our church and Halloween trick-or-treating.

She's 7 months old!

Abigail has been very busy this month. She crawls around everywhere. She can even go from room to room. The baby proofing around the house has begun. She tries really hard to stand up without pulling up on furniture, etc. She sees all of us stand directly from sitting and doesn't understand why she isn't able to do it, too. Just in the last few days, she has started trying to pull up on furniture. She has five teeth now and has another one that is ready to come in. After my bout with bronchitis, she transitioned pretty easily to formula.

She had her first Halloween this month. She also made another trip to the zoo and another trip to the petting zoo where Rachel had her birthday party. We were visited by Gramsy and Gramps (my Mom and Stepdad) this month, too.