Turkey Splurkey & Ready for Santa!

Abby ready for her first TURKEY DAY!


This year was not only our first Thanksgiving as parents, but the first one we hosted. My parents, Grandma & Aunt Cindi & Aunt Lois - joined us for lunch and we had a great time! Ev smoked a turkey and it was awesome! We really enjoyed having everyone over...I used my china for the first time since we have been married! Better late than never...then Ev's side came over to cook out that night! We had steak & taters...and we really missed our cousins Maddie, Huntley & William...Huntley had woken up with a fever on Turkey Day...so they were "quarantined" at home. We will make up for it at Christmas! :-)

On Saturday, Ev got out all our Christmas stuff...and we got it all DONE!! YAY!! I love Christmas time! So far Abby has done pretty good with the tree! She loves it! I can't wait to see her open presents Christmas morning...she is gonna be good at that...i think! :-)

Today, went out for some much needed shopping and picked up a baby gate. We have had to many "baths" in our brothers bowl! We will all have to get used to it...brother included!

Well that is all the updates I have now!
Tootles!

YAY!!

Mommy 1 - Teefy 2

So we have begun the wonderfully terrible teething experience. I have been saying that Abs has been teething for months...she has been quite the drool bucket ;-) Well last week when our first white "toofy" broke through...I was pleasantly suprised to have no ill effects from that little guy. Well Monday morning at the lovely hour of 3am - we woke up ticked off...I noticed she was a little warm. Finally found one of the 3 thermometers we have and took her temp - 99.5. So I gave her some tylenol and we finally made it back to sleep around 4:15am then up again at 5:00 then up again at 7. Then mommy & baby both went back to sleep aroun 8:15. Thankful for my nap...yesterday was probablly my most unproductive day in a long time. I brushed my teeth at 3pm (sorry for all of you I just totally grossed out :-)) and was in my pajamas all day. I did manage to put some chicken thighs in the crockpot so we would have dinner (side note - I Loooove my crockpot!) Then after dinner we got our bath! Another Side Note - We were a happy camper all Monday...even though we had a small fever, we played, jumperoo'd, giggled & of course snuggied with momma!

SIDE NOTE: I called the nurse at our pediatrician's office ( I am a worry wart!) and she told me the only true way to check fever is by using a rectal thermometer...I don't know about other babies at 7 3/4 months...but my baby is on the move and has places to go. Well we "tried" to check it rectally, and she started kicking & dancing! Instead of hurting her I gave up...so from this day forward we will be sticking to the ear thermometer!

Well dada fed her a bottle at 7 and she just fell asleep...no rocking needed. I knew this could be good or probablly bad. She woke up an hour later - thankfully I got a bath & washed my face during her cat nap. Then the fireworks began...Abs cried for about 45 minutes...which of course made her spit up because she got herself so worked up. We tried tylenol (more got on mommy than in our mouth), tried a bottle (just made her madder) then mylicon (maybe her tum tum hurt too!). Then our grandma came over to the rescue...and my sweet little Abs reappeared. Laughing, playing, grabbing our "brothers" tail...but then the waterworks continued. So we tried Orajel & that didn't really work, then she was chewing on a coaster (a paper one...not stone :-)) and screamed...then I saw the blood. So I finally got smart & wet a washcloth & put an ice cube in it, and we held it for her to naw on. That was the only thing that seemed to work. She finally went to sleep at 11:10pm and woke up only once at 11:50pm, just to make momma jump outta bed i think :-) It seems our fever has gone bye-bye today. I am just thankful she is only teething & not getting sick. As for our new toofy, the culprit is probablly our new next door neighbor who I can see moving in :-) Hopefully once this new toofy pops through...we will get used to the teethy...I have my fingers crossed!

Tootles for now! Here are some pre-toofy pictures of Abs & dada!

Dada's sidekick - wearing shades! :-)

Ready to go see our cousin Addie get baptized

Mr. Crib....Move on Down!

So since we have a crawler ( a good one I might add) and we are starting to pull up too...we have had to drop the mattress in Abs crib down. One more level tonight too! I have put her down for naps several times and she has been completely out! But then about 2 minutes later I will be doing something near her room and feel like I am being watched. I go in her room and there are two little hands on the railing :-) and we are lucky our crib already has a "teething" guard because we like to eat it too.

"Mommy this tastes like chicken" :-) haha!

On Saturday we went out to Mimi & Pop Pops to play & to let dada fish.

Abby found a little rubber duckie...just watch the video to see where it ended up!

tootles!

Thoughts from a mommy...

As my days of being a mommy pass (way too quickly I might add) , I just thought it was time to write something to acknowlegde what it means to me to be a mother and to know the unconditional love of a child. Maybe I can show this to Abby someday, maybe I can reread this on a day that is just "one of those days!" Who knows? But here goes...

Even before my pregnancy I have dreamed about what it would be like to be pregnant, what it would feel like to carry a child that was part of me & part of my husband? Wondered what he/she would look like, be like. Would she like to dance like me? Would he play sports like his daddy? Would she be smart like her daddy? When we finally decided we were ready to take that step, we were overjoyed that it only took a few months to get preggo. The feeling was surreal and part of me thought I needed to pinch myself. Cause most women, like me, don't really "feel pregnant." Finally having a doctor say, Yes you are preggo, and seeing that little dot (or deer eye, as in my case) was amazing. Hearing the beautiful symphony that is your growing child's heartbeat is far beyond miraculous. After every ultrasound we were amazed at the growth of "Bean Marshall" and I was amazed at what our bodies are capable of doing. The most important thing I think I have ever done, was help to grow our sweet Abby. I don't think it gets much better than that. And I am no gardener :-)

I have seen so many pregnant women in the past few days... like I am talking TONS! With big ole bellies, too!! :-) Unfortunately I only knew one of them, so I could only touch one belly. It may sound funny...but I can hardly remember what it felt like to have a belly. I remember what it felt like to touch my stomach and feel Abby move, and cannot wait until I can feel that again! I enjoyed my pregnancy so much & was lucky to feel great for the most part.

As I type this I know of two women right now that will become mothers today & tommorow. Their journey of pregnancy is about to end with the most ultimate of rewards - seeing, meeting, holding, kissing, snuggling their sweet babies! It is just so neat to me! I feel like I know a secret they don't yet! Of the magnitude of joining the mommy club...what it feels like to meet your child the first time. It is far beyond anything I could ever do justice in describing. As my doctor said, right after Abby was born, "How can some people not believe in God?" So very true!

Anyways, I want to leave you with a wonderful verse that my sis-in-law Kate put on my niece's christening invite - I absolutely love it and it definatley speaks to who is in charge and who takes care of these babies besides their momma's while they are growing inside their bellies.

"From the day I was born, I have been in your care,
and from the time of my birth, you have been my God." - Psalm 22:10

I may try to make this a monthly post of mine - so I didn't "spill all the beans" today. I hope you have enjoyed reading our blog about Abby & my take on things :-) I love blogging! It allows me to share our story and I enjoy "stalking" other mommie's blogs too! I have found some truly amazing women, some that I actually know & some that I have never met, but they have all made me strive harder to be better than I was the day before, and so on....

Tootles!!

The Best Seven Months

HAPPY 7 MONTH BIRTHDAY ABBY!!

Mommy & Abby's first meeting!!

Time flies. That has never been more true since our little Abby was welcomed into this world. Our lives have changed. Much different than before, yet still somehow familiar. There are the things we used to do we get to do, but so much more meaningful. I love every morning (no matter what time it is...haha) that I will go into her room and wait for her to see me....and then the biggest smile I have ever seen. She doesn't get her morning "chipper" self from me - but it never fails. When I am in the worst mood or just tired, and I just look at this precious child and think, how can I be in a bad mood when this little person loves me! I cannot believe how much she has changed in the short 7 months she has been in our lives. I am thankful for every bit of food spit back at me, every poopy diaper, every goofy grin, every slobbery kiss! Abby, I will continue to try and be the best mommy I can for you! Thank you for being such a good happy baby who loves to smile! Your smile means more than anything!

Oh, and just so you know (if you missed my last post) we started crawling at 6 months 4 weeks...video below! She is getting the hang of it, and wants everything she sees!

Anyways, tootles from me & my little bday girl!

Our 6 month pictures!

Look AT ME!!!

Look what I can do!

So today in our Kindermusik, we were talking about our kiddos and funny things they do, etc...anyways, I was telling our teacher Ms. Lisa that we think Abs will be crawling in a week or so. Well she started to take up toys and Abs took off all the way across the quilt to the toys! We were all like OH MY GOODNESS! It was so funny! I think Abby was just showing off for the other 2 kiddos at class today :-) Anyways, she is on the loose everyone! So watch out!

This blog almost didn't make it to you...this thing is like a moth to a flame :-) Abby showed her skills the minute I opened my laptop...here she comes! I will post a video tommorow!

Today is another day that reminds me how fast this precious baby has grown. It just seems so vivid to me everytime I drive past Baptist East! I still get a little emotional (not crying, just sentimental) seriously everytime. It was the place we met our gift from God. How cool!

A cute little find in the punkin patch!

This Saturday night we took Abby to celebrate Halloween at her Aunt Hollis & Uncle Will's house. They always have a hayride and yummie treats! Abby didn't nap alot Saturday, so we knew she would be a little hard to handle on Sat night. We finally got her dressed in her pumpkin oufit! She looked so cute...but wouldn't smile...PERIOD! We walked behind the hayride this year and went to trick or treat at one house. We got a pack of mini M&M's. Then we headed pack to play on the floor....we were much happier playing with our candy than anything else we did :-) We got home earlier than expected...and that was great!! We were all tired! This morning we went to church and took Abby to the nursery at St James. It was her first time being kept by anyone who isn't related! We keep our fingers crossed that our number wouldn't pop up on the screen in the nursery! She did great and took a 2 hour nap when she got home! They must have tuckered her out! Anyways, that's all for now! Here are some fun pictures of our Halloween!

Grandpa & Abby ( the only smile she gave)

Abs in the leaves

Silly pop pop riding the ostrich :-)