Beautiful Day

One day last week was just....beautiful. Warm and crisp and lovely. Abby and I spent some good time in the back yard this morning soaking up the sun, tormenting Red and pretending to rake. She's quite the big girl these days. Isn't her GapKids jacket fabulous? i know. And before you ask me, I checked. It doesn't come in my size. Or yours. :)

Dead Giving Life

Two fabulous things recently came from the death of this tree (and if you ask my mom, it's been dead a long, long time...) :


roaring fires at night and an advent tree. I can take ZERO credit for our first ever advent tree (my advent calendars in the past always simply included chocolate - what's not to love?!) -- all of it goes to Hillary. I just utterly ripped off her fabulous idea and didn't listen to those voices in my head that said, "This is a lot of work. You have gifts to buy and lunches to make...!" Lo and behold, 24 hours later, the advent tree was born, with a verse for every day this month, leading up to Christ's birth. Grant reads one each night at dinner. I must say, it's the highlight of my day. Funny how that dead tree gives life to our home every night.




84. roaring fires
85. twinkly christmas lights
86. The Bible!
87. Abby's open ears when daddy reads

This Season Last Season

It's been quite a year -- Grant was just saying how glad he is that this year isn't last year. We were "out of the woods" with Abigail regarding surgery but still watching her closely for sickness and weight gain. When I look back on these pics, I'm amazed at her chubby cheeks!

This year we kept up the tradition of looking for the ever elusive $29 tree and decided to go for broke and spend THIRTY-NINE. We went crazy! And, it's the best tree we've ever had. Even if the men that sold it to us didn't have teeth. Really.




We did most of the decorating after Abby went to bed. Here she is the next morning....

Of course, Raggedy Ann was her favorite ornament to look at (placed just out of reach on purpose!)

A New Favorite Book

Lately, this is Abby's new favorite book. (just not the Spanish version!)

Yes, Abby is going to be a big sister.






Yes. It's true. After years of trying to conceive Abigail, we have been blessed with another child on the way! We are beyond thrilled and know that since this wasn't a trial, we'll have another one coming around the bend (one is always on the way, isn't it?). But it's nice to know that God has given us some trials in the past few years so that we can be ready to exercise that muscle of walking by faith again soon. And, to top off the excitement, when we went in for an early ultrasound to check for heart issues (so far, so good) we found out that it's a boy. A BOY! (What do I DO with a boy?!)

81. dreams coming true without long bouts of prayer
82. mercy on us who deserve so much less
83. blue, blue, blue!

In the Genes

Is a love of paper in the genes? Abby spent about 30 minutes today chilling on our bed, stacking and organizing old letterpress scraps of paper that I have laying around. By the way she was inspecting them, you'd think each one was different (they almost all the same).

Pop Pop

Grandma and Pop Pop's house was a really big hit this Thanksgiving but I have to say that Abby had a special thing for Pop Pop which was really sweet. I have a video of her bringing him toys so he can play with her. Really cute. Today, Grant decided to join Abby and I while we walked the dog. I said, "Abby! Do you know who's coming with us to walk the dog?" And she said without a moment of hesitation "Pop Pop?" When I told her no she said, "Grandma?" Then tonight at dinner after we said grace, I asked her who we are talking to when we pray. She said, "Pop Pop?" Grant and I both had a good laugh.

We have a little picture bible that Abby sometimes looks at. There is a picture of Jesus riding a donkey with a little girl reaching up to Him. She loves to look at that page. After we told her that we talk to Jesus when we pray she said, "Donkey?" -- which I think means that she is putting together that Jesus is the one riding the donkey. It's amazing to see her little mind work.

And here she is with a fabulous hat. We got our first "christmas treats" bag today from a friend and Abby grabbed the red cellophane and quickly put it on her head. She made a day of it. Love the "new" toys that don't cost a thing!




78. picking up baby dolls (once i thought this might never happen)
79. christmas music
80. advent calendars (yes, i'm starting Abby early!)

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. What an amazing time of year.


Abby spent her Thanksgiving in record cold temps in the desert this year. That means not a lot of swimming was going on and we had to wear jackets when we went to The Living Desert and rode the carousel (she wasn't that into it). But she loved petting the goats (with an immediate hand wash afterwards!)




The rest of the time was spent following around her older cousins, playing pat-a-cake, ring around the rosey-ing, running from the camera, having tea with her new tea set and walking around a house that's much, much larger than ours.




And sometimes, she would even comb the carpet (if you know Grandma and Pop pop this isn't surprising!)




and on Thanksgiving, all the cousins had gobs and gobs of chocolate...



73. The gift of not cooking this year
74. Followed by no dishes!
75. Lots and lots of help with Abby
76. Abby loving her family
77. Unspeakable peace