Random December Pics

I tend to take a lot of random pictures. And they mostly just sit on my hard drive. And since this is my journal right now, I thought I'd just throw together a post of random pictures. Just so they don't get lost!!

I swear he thinks he is a person sometimes. It cracked me up to see Max using the pillow and covering up with the blanket!

Blurry picture, but Abbi loves her walker. She gets stuck sometimes - like she is on the chair here - but she can really cruise with that thing!

Abbi still loves to chew on everything. And I had to laugh at this picture because it is totally Abbi - one sock on. For some reason, it's impossible to keep both of her socks on. She's always pulling one of them off!

Max actually looked at the camera - twice! He's usually quite camera shy.

Just one of my cutie!


This is obviously after Christmas. And I've decided that I officially need a designated toy room. I need a bigger house!!


My beautiful baby girl.

11 Months

I know I've said it before, and I know I'll say it a million times more, but I can't believe how time flies. Only one short month until my little girl turns one! She is changing every day lately, it seems, learning so much, and I can't believe how much more I love her every day!

At 11 months, Abbi:

• LOVES books. She will seriously sit and play with them for hours every day. And she definitely has her favorites. I love it when she grabs her book and crawls over to me, handing me the book, which means she wants to sit in my lap while I read it to her. (And yes, this bookshelf is supposed to hang on the wall. But we haven't gotten around to it yet. Which actually is ok, because I decided that her books need to be on the floor where she can get them since she loves them so much!)
• Is saying "mama" and "dada" regularly, but no other words. She makes all kinds of babbling noises, and I can tell she is trying to talk to us. She also knows what Santa says - it's some form of "ho, ho, ho" and although no one else would be able to tell that's what she is doing, she does it every time she sees a Santa!
• Speaking of Santa, she loves all things Christmas related. Loves to look at snowmen, santa, and has been very good around the Christmas tree!
• Celebrated her first Christmas. Although I'm sure she didn't quite understand all that was going on, it sure was fun. And she really loves all her new toys!

• Still sucks her thumb (but only when she is tired) and has a new fascination with sticking her finger in her mouth. She always puts everything in her mouth anyway, but she really loves this finger for some reason!
• No walking still. But she is able to stand on her own forever, and loves walking with her walker. I think it will be any day now.
• Loves to eat. She's not picky at all, and will pretty much eat anything I give her. Favorites are Cheerios and graham crackers. She does like to share her food with Max, though, so I think half of what I give her for finger foods, Max ends up eating. And since Max loves cheese so much, Abbi will never eat it - she just hands it over to Max and laughs!
• Drinks tons of water. It seriously surprises me. Sippy cup must always be present!

• Is up to 6 teeth. The two very front aren't all the way in yet, but they are close. I love this picture because you can kind of see her scraggly teeth!
• Is full of laughter. She really is a happy baby, and doesn't cry too much.
• Loves babies and little kids. We bought her her first baby doll, and she cuddled that thing like crazy! (Until Alvin the Chipmunk came along...) Whenever she sees another baby or a picture of a baby, she squeals with happiness.
• New favorite game - pulling everything out of something then putting it back in. It doesn't always end up back in where it's supposed to go, but she loves pulling it out, putting it back in, then usually pulling it out again!

• Loves bath time. She didn't love taking baths when she was littler, but now that she has discovered splashing, baths are a favorite time of hers. I no longer think I can get away with staying dry while bathing her!
• Does not like to sit still. Feeding her is next to impossible because she always wants to stand up in her highchair.
• Loves peek-a-boo. Especially if she is the one hiding. Give her a blanket, and she'll want to play peek-a-boo with you forever!

• Sleeps decent at night, but is an early riser. She'll usually be up around 5am every morning. Sometimes I can get her to go back to sleep for an hour or two if I put her in bed with me, but a lot of the time, she is up. Too bad I can't get myself into bed earlier at night!
• Is learning to show us what she wants. She knows that when she wants Cheerios, she just drags one of us to the cabinet. Or if she wants to nurse, she points at the Boppy pillow. Such a smart girl!
• Loves to look out the window, and always gets excited if I am holding her when I let Max out in the backyard and she gets a glimpse outside. I know that she is going to love it when Spring comes!

I love watching her grow and learn, but I'm kind of sad thinking that she will be turning 1 so soon. Where did my baby go? But I sure do love her and I can't imagine my life without her in it!

Christmas Day

What a wonderful Christmas!! We decided to go really low key this year, only buying things for Abbi and Max. We didn't get anything for each other. And guess what - it really made for a wonderful, low stress holiday. No worrying about what to get or where the money was going to come from. Just focusing on Abbi and the reason for the season. We might do this every year!

The morning started off with Abbi checking out what Santa brought her. She must have been a good girl, because she got a Sing & Discover Story Piano and a chipmunk stuffed animal. (She has this obsession with the Chipmunks. Several months ago, we went to a movie with Josh's parents. Abbi wasn't into the movie, so the majority of the movie was spent walking around the hallways with her daddy. There was a big Chipmunks figure in the hall for the upcoming movie, and Abbi fell in love with the 3 little guys. From that point forward, any time she'd see anything with the Chipmunks, she would laugh and smile so big!)


Then she got to open her other presents - a lullaby seahorse, a new pair of jammies, and a star stacker that makes noises. And Max was quite happy with his new squeaky toy and pigs ears!


She needed some help opening the presents, but got the main idea. I'm sure she's going to love it next year!


We then enjoyed our Christmas morning tradition of German scones and honey butter. Josh looks forward to Christmas morning just for the scones!!


We then headed over to Josh's parent's house for Christmas lunch. Ham, rolls, and soup - our bellies were quite full! Abbi scored some more presents - a baby laptop, a turtle toy - and her favorite gift this Christmas - Alvin. She seriously wouldn't let go of that Chipmunk and tried crawling around while carrying him. It was hilarious to watch. She gives him loves and kisses - I've never seen her love on something like that!!

To end the night, we headed down to my sister's house for more food and presents. I am so blessed to live so close to both of our parents and families and to get to spend the holidays with all of them. We truly do have the best families! And it was a great Christmas. I had been looking forward to Abbi's first Christmas, and it did not disappoint. It's just disappointing that it is now over!

Merry Christmas!

A very Merry Christmas from Josh, Deborah & Abbi!

Lights at Temple Square

It has been many years since I had been up to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square. And then talking to Josh, he couldn't ever remember going, and he grew up in Utah! Since it was Abbi's first Christmas, we had to make a trip up to see the lights.

We had attempted to go a few times before, but for various reasons, it just didn't end up happening. I was determined to go before Christmas, though. So on December 23rd, we headed up. We decided to ride Trax so that we wouldn't have to fight the traffic, plus neither of us had been on Trax for years, so we thought it would be an adventure.

We should have known that Temple Square would be busy considering it was 2 days before Christmas. And, boy - was it busy!! And not only that, but there were flurries coming down, and the sidewalks were SUPER slick. Needless to say, it was a bit of a circus, and really difficult to walk around for Josh and his knee, but we survived. And the lights were gorgeous. Too bad I don't really know how to take a good picture in the dark. Hopefully I will be better at that by next year so that I can capture the beauty of the lights at Temple Square!

Abbi on her first Trax ride

The beautiful temple

Another shot of the temple and lights

Josh & what you can see of Abbi

Can you tell it was cold out??

me & Abbi

Our attempt at a family photo

All About Abbi

I may be a little biased, but I seriously think I have the cutest little girl EVER!! I had to have some pictures of her for a Christmas gift for my parents, and after attempting forever to get them done at home, I realized that it just wasn't going to work. I was afraid it was going to be too cold outside, but it was actually quite pleasant, and Abbi loved being on the chair and having her picture taken! I know this is a lot of pictures, but I love this little girl!

Trimming the Tree

I was so excited for the Christmas tree this year. It's Abbi's first Christmas, and I know she won't remember any of it, but I wanted to document everything. Well, we had it all planned out. We were going to go get our tree one day, but then it started snowing. We didn't want to have to be out in the snow, plus we didn't want a snow covered tree in the house! So we waited a few days. I was all ready to go. We drove to the tree lot, and as I was getting Abbi into her coat, I realized I had forgotten the camera!! I could have driven home to get it, but didn't. So we have no pictures of picking out the tree. It's ok, though. It really didn't last too long. It was so cold, so we quickly picked out a tree so we could get back to the warmth of the house.

Josh setting the tree up before bringing it inside

Abbi helping me with the lights

Abbi was intrigued by all the decorations. I was actually afraid that she would be in the tree all of the time, but she has been really good. I had to tell her no a few times that first day, but she has more or less stayed away from it since then. I'll sometimes catch her going that way, but when she sees that I'm watching her, she changes direction!

Bulbs in green, red and silver

We didn't do anything fancy this year. Just ornaments that we have had. I love the cinnamon ornaments that I made probably 7 or 8 years ago. They make the house smell amazing! Many of them have broken over the years. I think that next year I will make a new batch!

All lit up

There is nothing better than sitting in the living room at night and being able to look over at the Christmas tree all lit up, with the smell of pine and cinnamon in the air. That's what really makes it feel like Christmas to me!

Mitchell Gift Exchange

My 2 favorite people!

On my side of the family, usually we just rotate families for gifts. We have a $50 limit, and you either get something for each member of that family or a family gift. Well, this year, we decided to change things up a bit. It was getting difficult to buy something for a whole family for $50! And we also decided that the kids are the ones who enjoy it most, so we did a kid gift exchange instead. They each drew a name of one of their cousins, and then they had a $5 limit to buy a gift.

We got together on December 6th to celebrate and exchange gifts since Kacy's family was leaving the next week for Australia. We started with a Mexican feast, then sang a round of the 12 Days of Christmas before the gift opening started. Here's how some of the evening went - in pictures!

Kirra opening her gift

Abbi's first present! I'm pretty sure she had no idea what was going on.

The cutest gift EVER. I'm pretty sure Kacy spent more than $5 on this. She made the skirt and matching doll -I really think she should make them and sell them! I'll post a better picture of them soon.

Abbi had Brooklyn's name. She bought her a package of nail polish and some nail stickers.

I think Asher likes his stuffed animal!

Finn opening up his present.

My attempt to take a picture of everyone. My family is getting so big that it's hard to get them all in one shot!