Happy New Year!

Happy new year!! :)  We had a wonderful holiday season and hope everyone else did as well!

I just wanted to share a couple pics of Abby during our break.  I will write more and upload some videos once work has calmed down a bit.  :)

Sending lots of love!!!

 Auntie and Abby making snow angels!

 some super fun glasses Abby got at her friend George's 1st birthday party!

 Shopping with her new shopping cart

snow angel in full action :)

The Holidays

We survived hosting our first Thanksgiving!  Poor Miss Abby came down with a nasty cold though and of course I came down with it right before the start of the workweek.  ;)  We ordered a turkey from the John Crowe Farm one town over and it was neat to see the difference between a commercial turkey and a farm-raised turkey.  This was our first holiday without Nanie and that was difficult but it was wonderful to have crystal from Leif and my family's to keep our lost loved ones near and dear.  :)  Here is a pic of the turkey, the Thanksgiving table, and our pilgrim Abby (she made the hat herself!)

As we move on to Christmas, we've been asking Abby what she wants to ask Santa for this year.  Each time she has responded with the same answer- three goats (sometimes they're stinky goats, and sometimes they're just goats).  :)  Abby LOVES watching Frosty the Snowman and Charlie Brown Christmas right now and has a wide repertoire of Christmas songs that she belts out in the car.  :)

Sending love and good holiday tidings to all! :)

xoxoxoxo

Abby's Literary Taste

We're recovering from a bug that has kept Abby out of daycare all week.  We're not ready for cold and flu season.  ;)  Just wanted to take a quick second to mention the book that Abby has been reading lately-

A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Eighth Edition: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers.

Yup, that's the book she's been toting everywhere- she even needs it in her crib at night now to fall asleep.

I had purchased the book when I had lofty goals of taking a graduate course this semester at Harvard.  I couldn't swing it between working and my long commute but luckily the book did not go to waste.  I'll try to snap a pic of her reading it- she's wicked smaht.  ;)  Speaking of wicked smaht, we've been watching a lot of baseball lately with the Sox battling the Tigers in the ALCS.  The other day while I was driving to the store with Abby, she randomly shouted, "Go Red Sox!" from the backseat.  We are very proud.  ;)

Sending lots of love!!!!

Legos and naps don't mix ;)

Yesterday Leif and I put Abby "down" for a nap.  She had been snoozing in the car right before we got home so we knew she was ready.  The tricky little girl got her fingers on the container of legos in her room, however, by carefully working the lid off of the box and then sneaking legos through the rungs of her crib.  For the next hour, she played with legos in her crib, as happy as can be.  We kept expecting her to fall asleep but legos are way too stimulating, evidently.  :)  After an hour, I decided that the legos would probably need to be removed from the crib before Miss Abby would take a nap.  When I went in to remove them, she explained that she was playing baseball with the legos.  I couldn't figure out the logistics of her baseball game but was pleased with her imaginative world as the Red Sox are about to start their post-season journey this Friday.  Oh, and while I'm at it- Leif and I are going to the first game of the play-offs.  We have never been to a postseason baseball game and feel like Christmas has come very early this year.  Ok, back to the cute story.  ;)  I explained to Abby that she needed a nap in order to rest up to play with her auntie who was visiting for the day.  Abby explained that she needed her auntie, and then helped me put the legos away so she could take a nap.  She then sang for the next 30 minutes until finally falling in to a slumber.  She is unbelievably cute- like you-just-want-to-squeeze-her-cheeks-all-of-the-time cute.  ;)  I just wanted to write down this quick story before I forget.  The image of her playing legos in her crib kept me warm and fuzzy during the entire morning commute.  :)

Here are a couple recent pics of Miss Abby too :)

 Abby making sandcastles at the lake for my birthday :)

 Abby and her sidewalk chalk art in our front yard

 Abby's giraffe costume- we think it might be a bit too small for Halloween but we have another giraffe costume arriving shortly for trick-or-treating next month :)

Abby hanging out with Spiderman at the lake for my birthday :)

Abby in concert

Miss Abby puts on quite a concert, don't you think?  :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtRAEgUyiTA

That time we had two cats...

We had the sweetest kitty roaming our neighborhood last week.  Our neighbors Jason & Sarah took it in for a couple days and kept it on their deck.  It just so happens that I graduated High School with Jason- it finally hit the other day after talking with him during a walk- he looks so familiar because I went to school with him.  It is a small small world.  :)  They have a daughter, Calliope, who is 6 months old and destined to be a friend of Abby's in the future ;)

But...  back to this kitty...  Jason and Sarah are terribly allergic to cats and were looking for the rightful owner of this tabby- or anyone who was willing to take it in and give it a good home, either temporarily or forever.

I'll be honest, I wanted the kitty.  I want all kitties.  But we weren't sure if Orion would be ok with a new friend in the house and we wanted to be fair to him.  So, Mandy and I started brainstorming on possible adoptees as I posted pics of the kitty on our town websites.  We found a willing daddy for this new kitty and Leif and I offered to take the kitty in for the week until he was able to go to his new home.  Jason and Sarah showed up that night and were more than willing to give the kitty a new home.  This kitty was given multiple names- first it was Dusty.  Then Abby named it Fluffy, and then almost immediately retracted that name.  Then he was Duffy.  And we finally settled on Snowball II (a reference to Leif's favorite TV show, the Simpsons)

Snowball II spent two nights with us before we learned that he is a neighbor's outdoor kitty and we were instructed to not feed or take him inside.  During his stay, however, Abby greatly enjoyed his company and exclaimed "My house is full of kitties!" the first night.  We thought he was sweet too but Orion wasn't overly pleased with Snowball's company and we weren't overly pleased with Snowball's late night howling and shenanigans.

We've learned that Snowball's name is actually Rocky and we feel lucky that we get to see him around the block still.  He is very good was enthusiastic Miss Abby.  :)

PEMAQUID OR BUST!!!

We are camping next weekend and we couldn't be more excited.  We're camping at a campground that I have visited every summer/fall for the past 27 consecutive years.  This'll be Abby's third consecutive year.  :)  One of Leif and my first dates was a weekend camping here and I had my bachelorette party here.  LAKE PEMAQUID CAMPGROUND!!!

We have a photo tradition that we'll be adding to as well:

This year we're going with my mom and dad, Mandy and her boyfriend Fitzy, our friend Danielle and her son Micky, Danielle's brother Chris, and Danielle's friend Ann.  Chris and Danielle used to camp with us at Pemaquid every summer in August and this will be Micky's first trip to the campground.  :)  We'll be camping in tents this time- which is my favorite way to camp.  ;)  The campground has a fun hayride that goes through the entire campground and out on to the main road- we can't wait to bring Abby on it this year.  :)  We're hoping for some sunny weather to enjoy the water, and some star gazing at night- the stars are SO bright in Maine- you can see the milky way clear as ever.  :)  We'll have pictures to share, that's for sure!  We'll also be celebrating my dad's birthday and Danielle's birthday, both are taking place during our camping trip.  :)

Leif and I haven't taken a whole lot of time off this summer.  I had minimal amounts of vacation time left thanks to needing days off to close on our house, fill out mortgage documents, find a new daycare, etc etc so I was barely able to pull a week off in July to spend at our cottage in Western, MA.  Next year we're rationing our vacation days differently because we've missed having a significant summer vacation.  We've still really enjoyed our summer.  Our week at the lake was wonderful and we spent each weekend in July at the lake as well.  We've been so busy and are really looking forward to not having plans this weekend.  ;)

We started bringing Abby to Forge Pond- a GORGEOUS pond about a mile from our house.  She enjoys the swings and slides most and we're able to take in the picturesque view while we play.  The air there is so good and the little beach and swim area are heavenly.  Here are a couple pictures:

Abby is talking so much these days- full and wild sentences that amaze us.  Leif is usually the one who picks her up from daycare.  When I get home from work she runs to me and then tells me about her whole day without hardly taking a breath.  I love it.  She is so full of energy- we spend a lot of evenings dancing or running around the house or back yard.  She loves being outside and is obsessed with swings.  :)

I will post more pictures and stories soon but wanted to get something up on the blog to share.  :)

Sending love to all!!!  :)