Please Stop Growing

Abbey is still growing more and more each day. She has decided that she hates tummy time. I can only get her to do it for a minute maybe two at most before she is in a full out scream. I think that she is going to roll from her back to her belly first instead of the other way around. Her daddy was laying on the floor talking to her while she was playing and she rolled up on her side, looked at him and rolled back onto her back. She could do it if she wants to, but I think she is going to be stubborn...wonder where she gets that from? Also, she can sit in her bumbo without any help and without slumping over now. It is hilarious and cute to see her sitting on the floor in it. She looks tiny with all the furniture around her. She has started jabbering a ton. She stares at me while I talk like she is listening really intently and then she starts jabbering back. Since she had started grabbing her toys I put a rattle in her hands and she plays with it for awhile. Adorable as she smiles and waves it all around. Like I said she is growing and learning right before our eyes each day. We love her so much and life is much more fulfilling with her in it.

Helping daddy cook me dinner 

Looking cute in Mommy's favorite color

Wearing her coat from Meme and Papa

You are My Blessing

This past Sunday was Abigail's blessing at church. She looked so cute all dressed up in white. We were so excited to have her blessed and even more excited that my parents were able to come. They will never know how much it meant to us that they drove six hours to be there. We will be forever thankful for that and I am sure when Abigail is older she will be too. I loved that they were there to witness the sacred moment when her dad blessed her to always live righteously. It was so amazing and I cried as I sat there thinking how thankful I am that I am married to a man who is worthy to hold the priesthood. It is such a comfort to know that he is able to bless our daughter and myself any time we need it. I am so thankful that I know I will be with my family for eternity.

On Sunday Abigail and I were off to Illinois with my parents while Nick stayed home to work. (boo) We spent four days at their house and it was a lot of fun. Abigail got to spend lots of quality time with her grammy and poppy. She got lots of great snuggles! 

snuggling with her grandpa 

snuggling with her grandma and sticking her thumb in her pappy

Today she grabbed her toys all by herself for the first time. Grammy and poppy

 had been practicing with her and of course she waited until the day after we left to do it. 

Either way I was super proud of her. 

And I'll leave you with one of my favorite pictures EVER of her. 

Seriously....how cute?

Holiday Mania

For anyone that said holidays are way more fun with children was totally right! It increases the fun factor by like a million. I wanted to do an overview of the holidays for anyone who missed out on all the fun festive things that we were up to! So here goes:

We traveled to my parents house in Illinois for Thanksgiving. Abigail was only about 3 weeks old so she slept the whole way there. I am positive our trips will not continue to be that easy the older she gets and the sooner she realizes sitting in a car seat for hours at a time really is not that fun. But for now I am thankful she loves to sleep in the car. It was the first time she got to see lots of her family and it was so 

much fun!

Abbey with her uncle Chad

with her Aunt Shelby

The day after Thanksgiving we were off to my grandma and grandpas house so they could meet Miss Abigail too. It was great to see them with her and watch how much they loved her already. She also got to meet her Great Aunts Michelle and Wanetta. 

         

And then on Saturday it was time to put up the Christmas tree at my parents house! Well, my dad and Nick put it up while my mom cooked and I snuggled with my girl. We had Christmas music playing and I loved every minute of it. My parents Christmas tree is huge and it has an ornament for every year for me, my two brothers, and my parents. They are always unique and it makes the tree have so much personality. My brothers couldn't be there so Nick had the honors of putting their ornaments on. 

Later that night Macy, one of my best friends came over to meet Abbey and I was really excited to see Mace since I hadn't seen her in months. 

And then Nick was on his way back home to start back at work and I stayed another week to spend some more time with my parents. I was very thankful that Nick was generous enough to let us stay even though Abigail was brand new and I know he missed her like crazy because we missed him just as much. 

A week later my parents, Abbey and I were on our way to meet Nick halfway so he could pick us up and bring us back home. I think this was the longest that Nick and I had ever been away from each other since we got married and I found myself getting butterflies the closer we got to meeting him. When we got there he was so excited. He jumped out of the car and grabbed Abbey out of her carseat and gave me a big hug. It was great to be back! Then, we ate dinner at Applebee's with my parents and we were off to Missouri. 

A week after that it was time to put up the Bryant Christmas tree. All of Nicks brothers and their wives and kids came over to his parents and the night was on! The tradition is that every year each person gets their own ornament from Hallmark. Holy Ornaments! Two parents, three sons, three daughter in laws, and four grandchildren. You do the math. The tree looks gorgeous afterwards and I love all the noise and cheer in the air when everyone is pulling out their ornaments and putting them on the tree. 

All of the fun wore Abigail out and she was sound asleep before we were done. 

What is Christmas without Christmas cookies? Thats what we thought! We attempted sugar cookies twice this year and both were a failure. HA! The first time Nick and I made them and the cookies turned out perfect but the icing was so watery that it slid right off the cookies. Oops! The second time we went to Nick's brothers and his wife Carrie and I made the cookies. Well we used margarine instead of butter and the cookies were so sticky we couldn't even roll them out. Oops again! It's the thought that counts in my book. 

Please ignore my husbands weird sense of humor on the poor gingerbread male/female?

On December 17th we went to see Santa. He is at the Bass Pro Shop in our town and he is the best Santa ever! He remembers the kids every year and I don't know how he does it with all the kids he meets. He doesn't just have them jump up and take a picture and then say next! He lets them read letters to him and he even took my sweet girl while she was sleeping and sang to her. So sweet! Did I mention that he actually looks like a real Santa. I mean if I were judging on who looks like the real deal he is it. In the words of my mother in law "He makes me a believer." 

"And why is the carpet all wet, Todd?"

"I dont know, Margo!"

Christmas Vacation is my all time favorite Christmas movie. I think we watched it 3 times this year. I can never get enough. And what is Christmas movies without some late night dancing with the lights off and the Christmas tree on? Miss Abigail got her first dancing by the Christmas lights with her daddy and it was beyond adorable. 

Our church Christmas party was a lot of fun. All the families brought blankets and we threw them down on the gym floor like we were having a picnic and ate dinner and watched the program. It was so cute to see all the families laying on their blankets all cuddled up. It was a success!

On December 21st we woke up early in the morning and headed back to Illinois to celebrate the Harris Christmas. The 21st happened to be our one year wedding anniversary too. We kept it low key and just went out to dinner with Abigail and my parents. My parents gave us a willow tree for our Anniversary because they started getting me willow trees when I got married. We loved it. It was fun to talk with Nick about how far we have come and how much we love where our lives have taken us. The next day was the Harris family Christmas. We went with my parents to my grandma and grandpas and Abbey got to meet more family she had not met yet. It was a fun day with lots of great food and great people. 

My mom with Abigail 

Later that night we watched Christmas Vacation. It was the first time my mom had seen it. 

I am glad we were the ones that got to introduce her to it.

The next day was Christmas with my parents and brother. Unfortunately my older brother couldn't be there because his wife just had back surgery and she needed to rest. We missed them! Abbey got so many great things. She wasn't too interested and slept pretty much the whole time, but it was still tons of fun and I know next year she will love it so much more. My parents got Nick and I everything we wanted and we were very thankful! We got an awesome deal on a canvas and decided to get my parents a picture of Abigail since she is their first grandchild and they are over the moon in love with her. 

Abigail with my dad

Earlier that morning before we had our family Christmas Krista, one of my best friends came over with her daughter Harper to meet Abigail. Abigail's middle name is Scout and we got that from To Kill a Mockingbird, whose author is Harper Lee. So we thought it was pretty cool that our girls already had a little connection, even though that isn't where Krista got Harper's name from. Harper was adorable giving Abigail hugs and kisses and telling her she loved her. She calls her A'gail Cout. I almost died from the cuteness. I hope this is the beginning of a great friendship between those two. 

Abbey with beautiful Krista 

We left late that night so we could be back in Missouri for Christmas Eve. We got home around 3 am and went to bed. We woke up the next day and Nick's older sister was here with her husband and kids and they got to meet Abigail for the first time.  We went to Aunt Kathis around 12, where we ate lunch and played some games. Nick won 10 dollars by winning the game of stacking the most cups with one hand. What can I say, I married a talented man. Ha! Then later that night we went to Nick's brother Zack and his wife Rachel's house where we had yummy snacks and played games. It was tons of fun and so relaxing sitting by the fire. 

Christmas Eve day at Aunt Kathis

Abigail with her cousin Ryder. They were so cute!

We went home around midnight, put Abbey in her bassinet, and finished wrapping presents for everyone. We cuddle and anticipated Christmas morning. We had been wanting to get Elf on the Shelf for Abigail because I love traditions and I knew she would love it when she was older, but we never took the time to go get it. I was kind of sad about that. Nick and I had decided to only get each other one present to save money for presents for everyone else. We slept in until around 9 Christmas morning. I walked out into the living room with Abbey to find Elf on the Shelf had busted out of his box and wrapped presents for Abbey and I. Plus we had filled stockings. I was so surprised. As you have probably gathered my husband is the kindest and sweetest guy EVER. I felt bad that he only had one present and he had surprised me with more presents, but he was so happy that he surprised me it didn't matter. 

Then, it was off to Zack and Rachel's for breakfast. We ate and then sat around and relaxed until about 4 in the afternoon. We headed over to Nick's other brother Dawson and his wife Carrie's house. This is where we would do Christmas with everyone. Nick, Abigail, and myself. Dawson, Carrie, Pryce and Sophie. Zack, Rachel, and Ryder (and baby B). Jeanne and Keith (Nick's parents). Nick's sister Tara, her husband Dave, and Shelby, Tyler, and Kalli. It was a full house and the presents were spilling out of the tree. It took us two hours to open gifts and in the middle of it all the power went out. I love when memorable things happen. Carrie went and gathered all her candles and as soon as we set them all up the power came back on and we were back at opening presents. Dawson had brined the turkey and it was crazy delicious. We played games all night. It was such a great Christmas! Once again Abigail wasn't interested and slept through it all. There is always next year!

Abigail with her Aunt Carrie

 After the electricity went out

Abbey with her cousin Shelby

On New Years Eve my husband went to a movie with his dad and brothers and Abigail and I were off to Target and then to my sister in law Carries. We watched Fever Pitch and relaxed until everyone got there to get the party started. We ate lots of good snacks and played lots of fun games. Then we watched the ball drop and I got a kiss from my sweetheart and then we both gave our girl a kiss. This year has been way too good to us and we are so blessed. I cannot imagine a better life and I love all of my family and friends more than they will ever know. I am so excited for what 2013 has in store for our little family. 

She didn't make it to ring in the New Year. 

And all the while we were having fun and celebrating the holidays our little girl grew right before our eyes. She went from being a tiny little newborn to learning new things every day. I love her more than anything and as sad as it is to see her grow up so fast I love seeing her learn new things. Here is a recap of some of the things that were going on that weren't holiday related.

we got smiles 

had our first shopping trip (She was born to shop and her Aunt Carrie loves that.) 

She did so great!

learned to play

Kept up on latest fashion...

learned to love bath time 

had lots of tummy time 

attended church for the first time

Learned to cuddle with her lovie 

sat in her bumbo

And turned 2 months old...