this little piggy

We visited Grandpa Debenham this weekend and he had a little gift for Abigail- this little piggie hat- and she actually kept it on long enough to snatch a few photos!

The First Sleepover

... Without Mommy

Geared up at Grandma's house

Excited for all the new toys she'd have to play with.

Mommy and daddy got to go to Pine Valley to celebrate aunt Krissy's birthdday. No babies allowed.

Courageous

We rented this movie from redbox over the weekend and we enjoyed it so much that I had to blog about it.

Be prepared for a pretty long, teary movie- but instead of degrading you and making you a worse-off-person after watching (as many movies do these days), this does just the opposite. I'll leave it at that! An exceptional Sunday, Family Home Evening, or weekend show!

2 other uplifting things I've come acrossed I may as well mention here-

SOS radio and the "Focus on the Family" talk show weeknights at 9- (right when I'm driving home from work) Such good stuff to fill our minds with!  Here in St. George the station is 89.9 FM,

but you can listen to it on your computer too by clicking www.sosradio.net/playlist/listen .

30 day challenge is to only listen to Christian radio (you can download
 their app)and see if it changes anything for you- It has for us actually!

And Lastly- this book is the best one out there if you or someone you
 know is struggling with any kind of addiction- "He Restoreth My Soul".
 It's been a total life-saver to a loved-one or two.

I'm glad we came acrossed these things so I'm passing them on to you if you want a little extra goodness!

Abby turns 1

Abby was pretty chill for the entire evening.

Can you spot the birthday girl?

We celebrated Abby's birth last Saturday evening with a bash! I was so glad that we worked a time when my grandparents were passing through town and could bring my mom along with her. I also have one of the sweetest friends in the whole wide world that made a 4 hour drive with her 18-month-old Crew for the party (and to tell us that she's expecting another baby). Unfortunately, she was so sick from the pregnancy that a few hours before the party started, she headed back home!

I thought she'd enjoy a banana cupcake cause bananas are one of her fav foods right now, but she wasn't too excited about it.

A lot of these decorations were recycled from another friend's a baby shower. Handy, huh? I loved how our house felt with all the positive energy there from Abby's guests. I completely enjoyed myself.

Abigail and her first stroller. She has really enjoyed all of her gifts- thank you to everyone!

Josh and his Momma. I am so happy to have them home from Brazil!

The little girls playing in Abby's room



The big boys watching the game on the biggest screen they could find- (our laptop). PS- this is one of my favorite rooms in the house- that desk we found at a thrift store and paid a painter to spray some paint on there- we didn't sand or prime it, and it turned out beautifully! (After I glazed it of course- I have to take some credit!)

Abby trying to steal anything of Kaya's... So typical.

Here's Abby and the grandma's on her Real birthday (Sunday).

 

"Uh oh" and sweet bedtime...

So I took abby in for her 12 month check up and after we'd got most of the chatting out she looked at Abby in the eyes (who was standing on her lap), and said, I'm suprised that she's not communicating more with you. No words or actions? I said, no not really. She said- "I feel like she's totally capable of more"--- I went home wondering if I was not doing enough to help her talk. The next day came Abby's 1st real word. "Uh oh!" It came out of no where- I said it when she dropped something off the high chair- and she repeated me! You could see the little wheels turning as she tries to figure out how to make the sound. So darling.

Here are a few other cute things I wanted to share- Some of them happened like 6 weeks ago, they're all a little scattered.
I really have been enjoying putting Abby down for bed lately. We snuggle in our cozy chair in the dark and I get to daydream while my little bundle sinks into dreamland. One night when I was patting her back as I usually do, and her little hand decided to pat mommy's shoulder too.
Another favorite moment of all time is how she had just finished her bottle and usually that's when she's almost asleep- but she sat right up and got her face close to mine and gave me the cutest squintee giggle. We gave eachother a few rounds of eskimo kisses and she LOVED it- she was squeeling with delight. I thought- oh crap- she'snever going to want to go to sleep now... ButI set her down in her crib anyway and she just snuggled with her blankie and was content to lie there hunched over with her bum in the air- her sleep position of choice these days.

She makes the cutest noises! She has a purr and loves to yell "Yeah!" all day long. "WowAwaWa..." is a typical sound for when she's playing with the dollhouse.
Abby has a hard time sleeping at church - too many cool people she could flirt with... Somehow I got her to fall asleep in my arms in the mother's room though and for one meeting she slept like a baby. The next meeting was going to start soon so they started playing the prelude music, and in her sleep she started bouncing to the music! She woke up a few seconds later, but she always has a pretty big reaction to music- She LOVES it :)

Our First Woodbury Christmas

This was the 1st year we put up a tree! I got one at Tai Pan at their after-christmas sale last year- I didn't know where we'd be this year--- but I knew it would be the Woodbury's turn instead of being at my parent's in Salt Lake, as usual.
 Here is our very own gift display from Santa on Christmas morning.

Abby's face when we went to get her out of her crib to open presents. We opened gifts after we'd gone to church, ate a "Christmas Miracle" breakfast, and everyone had a good nap. (the reason it was a miracle breakfast was because we were craving sausage- but we didn't have any... Josh thought that we could make sausage- and I didn't think it was possible. Thanks to allrecipes.com, we had some of the best sausage ever!)
 So about 1pm, we had our "Christmas morning" and opened some necessities, some AWESOME toys, and some thoughtful gifts from loved ones.

New Socks Scavenger Hunt. Am I the only one that has a hard time finding gift ideas for the men in my life? I figured I'm prob not, so I'll share my fun idea- Get a pack of his favorite kind of socks and fold them into balls. Put 1 on the tree with the 1st note attached with ribbon."follow the clues..." I had him outside (clue- baby it's cold outside), in the oven (some like it hot), to about 3 other places and ended in Abby's room with the box of the rest of them (pictured). Love, Abby. He had fun figuring it out.

Abby got a fun walking toy. She's really enjoyed it!

We're really enjoying feeling mostly settled in our new house! We feel way blessed to be here.

Good News for Blogging

1- We finally got our black-friday laptop!!! I love it! I think it was worth the wait. Time for some major blog catch-up.

2- I figured out how to make it easier to leave a comment here. I'd been told a few different times that it was IMPOSSIBLE to get a comment to save, so it should be fixed now. Comment away :)

And- it's Christmas Eve. That's also very good news.