You know you want some!

Every year my mom comes up with a gift to give to all the teachers at her school. This year we came up with some cute JOY blocks. They really turned out great and everyone loved them. So, we decided we would try our hand at making and selling them. So, you should check out our shop! Oh, and if you are local, contact me directly to save on postage. We are also planning on expanding, so if you have some other word you might like, leave a comment and we will look in to it.

9 months

Can you believe it? 

 Today we went to Abbie's 9 month checkup. Here are her stats.

Weight: 20 lbs 5 oz (77th percentile)

Height: 29.4 in  (96th percentile)

Head Circumference: 17.25 in (46 percentile)

She is still very tall, and is thinning out a little. This comes as a bit of a surprise because this girl sure can and does eat a lot. But she is also very active- I guess it is paying off. :)

I am happy to report that she has been sleeping through the night for a few weeks now. Letting her cry it out that one night sure paid off. She usually gets up around 7am about the time we like to get up, so it's perfect. She has 3 pretty regular naps during the day, unless I throw her off her schedule. Getting her to fall asleep is not much of a pain anymore. Usually she will go down with out a fight, sometimes she will cry for a few minutes. Don't get me wrong we still have those days where everything is off, but it is so much better now.

As mentioned before, Abbie likes to eat. She has 3 meals a day of baby solids plus milk, a couple of snack times of milk, and then most of the time she bugs us while we eat and so gets some of our food. Plus I think she could eat an endless supply of cheerios. The doctor assured us that this was fine- supposedly babies are smart and will stop when they aren't hungry. Also, she has 2 teeth now, both on the bottom. They aren't fully in yet, but she sure puts them to use.

Every moment she is awake she is moving around (unless sick or super tired). There is no sitting nicely on my lap or anything like that. She can stand without holding onto anything, but only for a few seconds before she gracefully lowers herself to the ground. I think it scares her. She explores everywhere and finds everything. I end up cleaning the living room floor several times a day. I also try to keep the bathroom door closed because for some reason that is her favorite place. As you can imagine, changing her diaper is quite a challenge. The trick we've learned is to do it while she is drinking her bottle or eating something with her hands- like cheerios. (Seriously, we love cheerios!! They are also very handy at church.)

She always knows what she wants and usually gets it. If she doesn't, she whines to let us know that she is not happy. She babbles all the time- sometimes to herself, and sometimes having a conversation with us.

She is usually such a good girl, and puts up with a lot from us. We are so blessed to have such a sweet girl. We love her so much and love that she makes us laugh all the time!

Christmas countdown

I decided this year I wanted to come up with something fun to count down to Christmas as well as something that would help up remember Christ. I came up with a countdown chain. Every day we take off a link and read the scripture about Christ that is written on it. We also do a Christmas related activity.

Dec. 1- Thursday

Scripture: Matt 18:20 

Activity:  watched “Christmas Spirit”

Dec 2- Friday

Scripture: Mosiah 3: 5-6, 8-10

Activity:  went to the Festival of Trees 

We had lots of fun. There were lots of amazing trees. Someday I would love to buy or donate a tree. Abbie enjoyed the lights and the yummy treats :)

This is what I came home to when I got home from the Temple friday morning. So cute! She was so tired but wouldn't go to sleep in her bed. Little stinker. So, she eventually fell asleep like this.

Dec 3- Saturday

Scripture: Luke 17:12,14,15,17 

Activity: Ward Christmas party(s)

Our ward had a catered breakfast party. Yep, Abbie sat in her own chair while we ate.

 And, Santa came to visit. I love this picture! She really liked his beard.

We ended up going with Brandon's family to their ward Christmas party also. Two free meals in one day! And then we went to a wedding reception.

Dec 4- Sunday

Scripture: 3 Nephi 17: 5, 6, 9 

Activity: watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional

Dec 5- Monday
Scripture: D&C 88:6-13
Activity: Tonight we are going to drive around and look at Christmas lights

So far I am enjoying doing this countdown. 

 I will end with these cute pictures of the princess of the house. So funny. She pushed this box over to the chair, climbed onto the box, got a little freaked out, saw the stuffed animals on the rocking chair, and stood up and grabbed them. Then she couldn't figure out how to get down so she stood up again and accidentally pushed the box away from the chair and was dangling off the chair. She eventually just let go and fell down and was totally happy.

Does the vacuum freak you out too?

I wrapped some Christmas presents a couple of days ago, and Abbie found them. I had to find another place to keep them because I was afraid she was going to open all of them :) Sorry Abbie, you will have to wait til Christmas. I think she is going to love it!

A random video. I started taking it because right before she stood for a couple of seconds by herself, but she wouldn't do it again.

She is always exploring and finding new 'toys'

She is super funny playing with this toy, and she can actually click it correctly sometimes.

Today when I turned the vacuum on, she immediately freaked out and crawled behind my legs. She held on and followed me the whole time- it definitely made it a slow process. I had to be careful as I walked because her head was sticking out through my legs. What a silly girl! I sure hope she gets used to the vacuum someday.

Thanksgiving break

Wednesday we went to Trafalga with B's family. We had lots of fun playing laser tag and  mini-golf. Afterwards, we got pizza and ate it at the park in the dark. It was quite fun, except for the chilly weather.

Thanksgiving Day was fantastic. You seriously couldn't ask for a better holiday. We started out by getting up a little early, thanks to Abbie. We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, and just hung out for the morning.

For lunch, Grandpa Crowther took us, Brandon's fam, and the Daynes fam to Marie Calenders. It was kind of weird to me because I have never gone out to eat on Thanksgiving before. But, it was still fun because we got to spend time as a family and eat yummy food. Speaking of which, Abbie had a blast eating a ton of our food. Oh, also notice her cute turkey headband :)

Afterwards we headed to my family's house to get ready for Thanksgiving dinner. I made these super cute edible turkeys. Most of the family was there, and we had the traditional turkey dinner, and then played games. I seriously can't believe how much Abbie ate! I swear she ate just as much as anyone else.

Black friday really turned out to be black thursday night. We (my parents and sisters) went to Walmart about 10:30 pm. Brandon stayed home with Abbie. I was so excited to get a few $5 books for Abbie. We then went to Target- my favorite- at midnight when it opened. It was seriously the longest line ever! But no worries, I think we got everything we wanted. Brandon and Abbie joined up here because for some reason she thought getting up in the middle of the night would be fun. I think we got home and crashed around 2 am. Unfortunately, I only got about 5 hours of sleep because Abbie got up at like 6:45. We pretty much spent the rest of the day hanging out, playing games, and doing more shopping. 
We did go to the mall so that Abbie could see santa. I thought for sure she would hate it and cry.
 Nope. She sat on his lap completely content, and enjoyed petting the fur on his coat. It really was cute.

Yesterday, I finally got to make up some sleep. Yay. We .had a lazy morning and then did a little shopping  in the afternoon. My mom and sisters came down in the evening and watched Abbie while Brandon and I went to the Temple. Even though I go regularly, it had been a really long time since we had gone together, so that was nice.

Today I am grateful for good books to read. I am thankful that Brandon worked half a day so that we could spend time and have fun with family. I am thankful that Abbie is a funny girl and makes me laugh several times a day. :)

Today I am thankful that the weather was nice to me while I was driving. I am thankful for the yummy dinner that I didn't have to make thanks to my mother-in-law. And, I am thankful that Brandon encourages me to do good things.