Disco Duck

My beautiful duck!

  

Abigail had her first dance recital today.  She did an amazing job ~ honestly, I was pretty impressed ~ and mommy kept it together pretty well. She started taking classes at Starstruck PAC last fall. We were blessed with a pretty amazing teacher, and Abigail made some good friends, too. She is the youngest duck in her class, so I was very happy with how well she did!

Preforming!
(2nd in on the right)

We had a great group attending to support her. All of her grandparents were there, and Aunt Allison, Aunt Renie and Uncle Kennison, and of course, "Her Pam" and Mo...

Abigail, you did an amazing job, and Mommy and Daddy are SO proud of you! Here's to many, many more years of dance recitals :)

A Lava Lamp...

Wow ~ 36 weeks and 4 days! It doesn't seem like it's possible to be this far along already. Time is flying by. The good news is that if little man decided to make his appearance today, we'd be ready!! And, for the record, I would like him to wait until next week, Monday or Tuesday (preferably Tuesday, we'll get to the whys later).

This weekend we took Abigail on some outings, just her and mommy and daddy, and on one of them I saw a lava lamp. I stared at it for a few moments and realized that I feel an awful lot like a human lava lamp... this baby does not stop moving. I think that nearly every moment he is squirming, hiccuping or rolling around. Most of the time it isn't uncomfortable, but there are moments!

How far along? 36 weeks, 4 days
Maternity Clothes? Mostly scrubs, but I love my maternity capris and am very comfortable in comfy clothes :)
Stretch Marks? Not yet...
Sleep? I wish I could get more... I have nights where I sleep great and only wake up once, but others I'm up every couple of hours and wake up more tired than I was when I went to bed!
Best moments this week? Our Memorial Day weekend! We went to Moon Marble Co., had friends over, visited friends, met baby Scarlett (the picture from 33 weeks was with her mommy ~ she arrived Sunday morning!), did a science experiment, went to Crown Center and had lots of time with Abigail!
Miss Anything? Wine...
Movement? Yes... see the post title and description above...
Food Cravings? Not really
Anything make you queasy or sick? Nope!
Symptoms? I'm officially dilated!! I'm onto my weekly doctor's appointments and was checked today and I'm dilated to an "easy 1" ~ yea! That is a whole lot farther than I ever made it with Abigail, so I'm excited!!
Belly button in or out? Out.
Linea Nigra? There is maybe a faint line very low...
Wedding ring on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time? I'm happier than before, I think, but I'm getting uncomfortable, so that might be making me moody?
Looking forward to? This weekend and Abigail's dance recital!

There are no new belly pictures (strangely), so lots of pictures of Abigail and what we've been up to will have to do!

Playing in the rain!

Playing in cornstartch and water... our science experiment!

(1cup of cornstartch + ~1/2cup of water)

Riding a triceritops at the dinosaur exhibit in Crown Center

Playing in the fountains at Crown Center with daddy

Drying off and worn out!

A 3-year olds view...

Some photographs via Abigail...

Beautiful day!

This week the weather has been gorgeous and we have been enjoying it as much as possible.

Yesterday started with me walking into Abigail's room and finding this:

She put her babies to sleep on her tiny pillow next to her in bed!

I took off work a little early and we were able to enjoy the beautiful afternoon. We decided to try out a fun project I found on Pinterest... Snake Bubbles!

Fun snake bubbles!

They were so easy to do and we had a great time playing in/with them. Abigail had a bit of a difficult time blowing them, but she really enjoyed playing with them!

Abigail liked to play in them

Doughnuts

There is a sort of Sunday morning tradition that has started in our family... Doughnuts.

Our church has them for a donation and Abigail asks every Sunday after church if she can have one. Yesterday mommy didn't have any cash, and she was in serious need of caffeine, so instead of having a doughnut at church we stopped at QT on the way home

Last night Jordan got home from drill and as we were getting ready for bed he says "I think we have a rat problem." I give him a blank stare because I know we do not have rats.
He went on to explain that he had walked through the dinning room and saw what was left of Abby's doughnut with chocolate frosting and sprinkles...


{At this point I'm sure you're wondering why I didn't throw away her half eaten doughnut. My answer is that she insisted she'd finish it after our nap, but we both forgot about it.}

2011...

What a year!?

Our lives have changed so much in just a year. It's incredible to look back and realize how far we've come.

January... Umm... I'm not sure what really went on in January... it apparently flew by.

February... Our niece, Annie, was born, as well as Abigail's friend Stella. Both are such incredible blessings!

Annie Kay

Ashley, Stella and Abigail

March... Jordan got back from Arizona and started his job at Ft. Leavenworth. This change brought our family back together and allowed Jordan and I to spend our 5 year anniversary together!

April... In April we gained a new member of the family ~ my sister got married. Abigail adores her Uncle Tim and got the privilege of  being their flower girl.

We spent lots of time outdoors with family and friends in April. We celebrated Easter in Mercer with an egg hunt for the kiddos.

Mason and Abigail hunting eggs

May... Abigail's first trip to the ER occurred in May. She fell in the bathtub (trying to get out) and bit a hole in her tongue.

Such a good sport!

The tongue

 June...We took a mini-vacation to Omaha and visited their amazing zoo, visited the Lincoln Children's Museum and Abby experienced fishing for the first time!

Abigail and the gorillas

July... We celebrated Mason's 3rd birthday in July and had a wonderful time. We also took a day trip to DeAnna Rose Children's Farmstead.

August... We spent a lot of time outdoors and at the pool (as well as in the air conditioning!!) in the month of August. We took Abigail to a movie and spent time preparing to bring Huey home.

September... What a month September was. Abigail started preschool, and is still loving it. We picked up Huey and he became a part of our family. We also learned what is meaningful in life ~ Jordan had his accident and our lives were put into perspective. We thank God for watching over him everyday and getting him through the accident.

October... Abigail turned 3 on the 20th and on her birthday we learned that she was going to be a big sister!

November... We spent time in both Nebraska and Mercer in November and had a blast each time. Huey got to go on his first hunt in Nebraska and we celebrated Thanksgiving in Mercer (as well as attending their annual craft fair earlier in the month!).

December... Jordan took over Company Command and Abigail and I were honored to be a part of the change of command ceremony. We also enjoyed spending a lot of quality time with family and friends, for Christmas and New Year's Eve!

2012... This year is off to a great start and we are looking forward to all that God has in store for us in the new year. We were so very blessed in 2011 and are anticipating all that 2012 will have to offer!

(I apologize for the lack of pictures in this post... I'm blogging from my phone and with minimal photos!)

Abigail's first flight

I think it's been a couple months now...

We took Abigail on a flight to Nebraska. She did amazing (likely better than me!) and looked adorable with her headset on.

We flew over my parents' house, Wilber and DeWitt. It was very beautiful (lots of pretty leaves).

{Untitled}

I have been MIA lately... our computer froze up and we had to have it "cleaned up", and we still haven't loaded everything back on. Oops!

BUT... we felt that this bit of news had to be shared...

Abigail is excited to announce (she will tell anyone who will listen for a few minutes) that...

(sorry it's a bit hard to read...)

The "details" for those who are interested...

My due date is June 22nd, so for those that aren't math wizes, that makes me 12 weeks a few days along. We had a quick ultrasound at my last doctor appointment (I was 9 weeks along) and got to see the tiny peanut and it's little heart flickering. We will likely be finding out the sex this time. We loved not finding out with Abigail, but for whatever reason I'm dying to know this time. One of my good friends is a sonographer (is that the right word?? she does ultrasounds) and has graciously volunteered to do ultrasounds for us periodically. She said she can tell the sex at 15 weeks ~ eeks!! That's so soon... with the holidays it will likely be closer to 16 weeks, but we are so excited!

Okay, I promise to resume regular blogging soon... I have TONS of pictures/updating!

Three!

Three years ago today God blessed us with a beautiful, healthy, little girl...




Three years later she is more beautiful and kind than I could have imagined a three-year-old being...


She has such a personality!


Princesses are her thing right now (especially Rapunzel), but little does she know that she is a princess...


Happy Birthday baby girl!!

Our little man...

Huey joined our family on September 3rd... 

We picked him up in Lincoln Nebraska and took him back to my mom and dad's where Abigail was anxiously awaiting him. She wasn't too sure of him, and his energy, at first. 

This looks like a very energetic dog, right?

 

He rode amazingly well, no accidents, or sickness, whatsoever. We got a new car last weekend, also, so that was a big concern.

Huey and Mommy riding in the new car

  

My family sleeping

My sleepy princess!

Today, a week later, she is coming around. She can firmly tell him "no!" when he jumps up on her and she no longer thinks that he is "scratching me" every time he touches her.

We are working on potty training and crate training. He is really doing pretty well, I think, given he is only 8 1/2 weeks old. We have accidents and frustrating times, though. 

Sleeping on the couch... with Abby's sock

My boys!

Chewing on his pheasant

Huey is a Vizsla and will be a medium to large size dog, about 45-60 lbs... the plan now is for him to be a semi-inside dog. He'll hopefully be Jordan's running buddy, Abigail's best friend and my protector when Jordan is away. Right now he's sleeping on the couch next to me, while J & A are playing on the love seat. They are both sick right now ~ head colds? Allergies? But, we have plans to enjoy this weekend!

How did you train your dogs? Are they members of your family? Do they sleep in the house? In a kennel? On your bed?

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!"