My new favorite Woman...

The Pioneer Woman.

She is amazing! Have you guys checked out her blog(s) yet?!

She cooks. Is an amazing photographer. Has a beautiful home. On a beautiful ranch in Oklahoma.

I had heard of her, a long time ago, but didn't really investigate too much. Recently I purchased her book ~ not her cookbook ~ and it's amazing! This woman can write! Her book is about how she met her husband and fell in love. It reads like a novel and I have trouble putting it down at night.

I joined pinterest a few weeks ago and have pinned a few of her recipes. Wednesday night I finally got around to trying one... Cajun Chicken Pasta. A-MA-ZING!!

The Pioneer Woman Cooks for Christmas!

(Oh yeah ~ she has a show on Food Network ~ it premiered this morning!)

MISSING:

Tiny Tiny Baby:

Height: 8in
Weight: 10oz
Blonde Hair
Brown Eyes
Clothes worn
Well loved
Missing since 08/06/11 approx 1100


We were moments away from making posters that read the above information tonight. Tiny Tiny Baby (TTB) went missing Saturday morning, just before nap time. I'm telling you TTB was gone! Jordan and I tore Abby's playroom, living room and kitchen apart, but no sign of TTB!! Tonight I decided I was going to take everything out of her playroom until I found her.

I knew two things: Abigail had not left our property between the time we last saw TTB and when she went missing; and Abby was devastated!

Looks normal right?

Or does it...

Aha!!

One VERY happy Abigail!

PS ~ These pictures were taken with my new iPhone. I love it and it really takes great pictures! I "edited" them in the app Instagram. LOVE IT!

Winnie the Pooh...

Was Abigail's first movie! It was only 70min and started at 5:20PM so we decided this would be the perfect movie to be Abigail's first. We weren't sure how long she'd sit still in the theater, which is why we went with a short movie. I'm glad we did, too...

Abby and I arrived about 5:15, Jordan was in route from Leavenworth and going to meet us in the theater. We bought popcorn and a sprite (I smuggled in a juice box for little miss) and found our seats. When we walked in we were the only ones there (I was secretly thinking "phew!"), but two other families quickly joined us. A little girl in front of us had a booster seat, and I thought Abby might like one. That little girl's daddy generously offered to grab one for us, so we let him :)


As the previews were starting Abby asked "where is Winnie Pooh?". Just then Jordan arrived and was a great distraction.

The movie begins...

Abby loved the popcorn!

About half way through Abby decided that my lap looked comfier than her booster seat, so she climbed on over. She finished the movie there and overall did a great job! I don't know that we'll be taking her to too many more movies for awhile, but everyone had a great time.

The movie was really good, too :)

A "mini" vacation

Last night I started this post, but what I didn't anticipate was the extremely slow internet connection! Maybe I'm just spoiled with our internet connection at home, but... it took an hour (literally) to upload the pictures for this post... 

Onto the post!:

Last weekend we took a little vacation to Omaha. We really wanted to visit the zoo this year, last time I took Abby (Jordan was getting ready to deploy, I think) and she was really too little to enjoy it. Well, apparently 2.5 is a great age, because she loved it!!

Friday morning we ate breakfast and headed to the zoo...

The Omaha Zoo is unique for so many reasons, if you haven't been, you need to. Honestly, I think it's a must see! The first place we headed was to the Gorilla Valley and Orangutan Forest.

There are a lot of "bubbles" where the kids can climb into the Gorilla's environments and interact with the animals. It's really awesome.

Abigail and Mommy with the Gorilla statues

Abby observing

Abby and Mommy in the bubble!

Checking out the gorillas!

Up close!

Abby loved the gorillas ~ one of them almost kissed her through the glass.

The zoo has a really neat Skyfari and Abby told us multiple times that she wanted to ride the "big swing", and the fee was only $2 per person (Abby was free), so we though, why not?!

Abby and Mommy on the Skyfari!

We started at the top, by the Rhinos... and ended at the bottom by the Butterfly and Insect Pavilion.

Abby and Daddy

We rode the Skyfari back to the top (we left the stroller there) and walked back down. On our way down we went into the Exhibition, Madagascar exhibit. Then we headed to the Jungle! That is still one of my favorite exhibits at the zoo. Abigail loved the waterfalls and even walked the rope bridge!

Crossing the rope bridge in the Jungle!

Swinging on the vines

We finished our time at the zoo in the Kingdoms of the Night exhibit, and then decided it was time for lunch. Not to worry, we had some snacks along the way, but Jordan and I were hungry! Well, we were getting into the Old Market and I turned around and saw this...

All tuckered out!

We decided to let her nap and headed to Lincoln, instead. When I was little (not Abby's age little, but little) I can remember having tons of fun at the Children's Museum. So, we decided to spend our afternoon there.

She always says she's going to be an Astronaut and walk on the moon!

She loved preforming on stage!

The BIG chair! I'm pretty sure there's a picture somewhere of me in this chair, but it was white.

Driving a tractor. A green tractor! Sorry Uncle Tim! :)

Feeding the cow.

Riding a horse!

After we exhausted ourselves running around the Children's Museum, we headed to the Lincoln HayMarket and ate at Brix & Stone. Jordan ordered the highly recommended Chicken and Waffles, and I have to say, it was really good! The waffles were amazing and they have this homemade strawberry butter... YUM!

Cheers!!

"No more pictures!"

"Quotes"

Ashley at Lil Blue Boo had a fabulous quote on her blog today. Okay, she has them a lot, but today I felt like I wanted to share it with you...

I liked the photo with the quote so much I decided to visit the website that it came from and found a bunch more that I wanted to share. So, this is a randomness post, but hopefully you enjoy the quotes!

"I'll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure"

~Mae West

Abby's freind...

Yesterday Jordan had the opportunity to go to Joplin, MO and help with the clean-up effort. One of the guys he deployed with is from Joplin and still has lots of family and friends there, so Jordan and another guy didn't think twice about loading the Tahoe up with water and chain saws and driving down. Of course they didn't ~ not only was a friend in need, but I think all boys have a little "hero" in them ;)

Anyways, while Jordan was away, Abby and I played. We started our Sunday at church and then after a nap (for Abby only, unfortunately) I surprised Abby with a play date! Her best friend from Pam's invited us over to run in the sprinkler and play in the pool. Loren and Abby are adorable ~ I had my first opportunity to watch them play at Loren's 4th Birthday party a couple weeks ago (at Wonderscope). It was so fun to sit back and watch her with her friends.  She is really growing up quick and she's becoming a pretty amazing little girl, if I do say so myself.

Here are a few pictures of Abby and her friend Loren, sent to me by Loren's mommy, as my camera still has a dead battery (seriously, how can a charger be so hard to find?!)...

 Loren and Abby being Doctors. 

 After swimming, they were both texting their daddies

Cheese!

Wow... it's been a LONG time!

So yeah, it's been a LONG time since I've blogged, and I apologize. Life has been crazy, though I'm not sure why. Lots of babies have been born ~ my niece Annie, and two friends' babies ~ Carly and Stella. Okay, I realize (for those of you who know these people) these babies were born in February and March, but I haven't posted pictures or blogged about it.

These little girls are beautiful ~ all three of them! And, Abigail LOVES them ~ all three of them! It's pretty incredible. She loved looking at them, holding them, kissing them, I could go on and on.

Abigail, Me and Baby Stella

Baby Carly and her mommy

We've had dinner with friends...

Bear, Abs and Rea-Rea

Super cute outfit, not sure about the silly smile, though!

My sister got married in early April and it was a beautiful ceremony! Her photographer, Tree Jacobson, was AMAZING! My camera was dead, but honestly, her photographer was so good, that I don't care. This is the awesome slide show of the wedding pictures! Aren't they great!?

And, this one was playing at the reception (there are a couple pictures of Allison and I, and I think Abby looks a lot like her mama!).

{I tried to embed the slide shows into this blog post, but I couldn't figure it out ~ sorry!}


We went to Mercer for Easter, and Abigail had SO much fun playing with Mason. They are finally at the age where they can play together and it was adorable! They hunted for eggs and flew kites. My camera was still dead, so again, no pictures. My sister-in-law is getting me pictures, so until then, you'll just have to take my word for it on how cute these kiddos are!

Okay, I am promising to be better at updating the blog (and am searching for the charger for my camera battery).