Home for the Holidays!

We had a wonderful Christmas season! A big part of December was spent with family and friends out West. Abby had a great time with all of the love and attention she received throughout the trip. We were able to visit both the Ashtons and the Hamiltons while we were there. The holiday was full of parties, gingerbread contests, tree hunting, Santa visits, candy bar games, white elephants, Guitar Hero, shopping, snow, Mom's good cooking and one great football game! Abby even hit a few milestones with sitting up for the first time, and trying her first few bites of rice cereal...yum! Thanks for a great Christmas! We LoVe you!
Abby made her first visit to Santa. Here she is whispering in his hear. :)












Who is this guy? Abby always has to check things out. After Santa the girls did some quick shopping and the boys found a nice foot massage chair. I guess you could say that they used their time effectively while we shopped.












Piano lessons with Aunt Suppy!












Alissa's graduation...Congrats!












Watching her first snow storm. It snowed almost every day in Utah, it was a beautiful winter wonderland, we loved it!









Christmas tree shopping...Dad led the crowd through the snow to find the perfect tree. :)









Dave, Alissa and Suppy FREEZING!

Gingerbread MaNiA!









Ben and Lizzy designed a U of U house...good times. Go Utes!












Dave, Alissa and Suppy's house won the grand prize. There was also some minor 'lifting'.













Visiting grandparents in Bountiful. Abby was happy to see them.

Christmas morning Abby got to break through the traditional wrapping paper wall. She loved all her presents but her favorite thing was the boxes and wrapping paper, of course.









Opening presents with Pops and reading with great grandma.










Penguin OBSESSION! Laura was given a penguin for Christmas and she let Abby play with it. Well, Abby LOVED the penguin and wanted to play with it the rest of the trip. Poor Laura now has a wet penguin from all of the baby Abby kisses it received. Thanks for letting Abby enjoy the penguin Suppy!









Christmas in Colorado. Abby had a great time with grandparents and cousins. Sienna and Abby bonded. :)









The dangerous Candy Bar Game. It was a battle for the 3 Muskateer Mint. :)












Grandma Peggy and Uncle Don with Abby.












Bath time!









Abby loved playing with her cousin Haley! They were given matching outfits for Christmas.









Sharing toys. Abby wanted to be a big girl like Haley and she tried to drink out of a sippy cup.







Cute Haley!














While we were back in Utah, we were able to see my cousin Michelle and her cute boy Jaxson.
We also watched the BIG win between U of U and Alabama...it was a good game! Abby loved watching it with Pops. She loves football!









Face masks with Suppy! Lovin' it!










Lunch with my best friend, Shanno.







Saying 'goodbyes'.












Abby could definitely be considered a 'frequent flyer'. On the way back to DC she got her own seat and was lovin' it.
Thanks for a great time guys! We miss you already!
A few last videos...


For your entertainment...Dad playing Rock Band.

Happy December!

It's Christmastime! We love this time of year! It's a great time of year to be with family and friends. We love the excitement of children, the music, lights and most of all, the celebration of our Savior's birth.

This week has been a busy one! Brett has been studying non-stop and Abby and I have been running errands all over. In attempts to have a quiet house and let Brett study in peace at home, Abby and I went out to see some free sights. :) We went with my friend Jessica and her baby Matthew to see the Botanic Gardens in DC. The gardens were really pretty and decorated for Christmas. We liked visiting the gardens so much that we returned later to take our family Christmas pictures, which are the ones we posted today.


The National Capital behind us is made out of parts of plants...pretty impressive! Abby loved being in the gardens!













Abby posing in the flowers and I love this picture of Matthew in his stroller, he's such a cute little guy.










Matthew and Abby strollin' around town. We also visited the tree at the Capital and here is Matthew in front...Abby fell asleep for this part. :) They are building a huge stage for the inauguration in front of the Capital right now so there was quite a bit of construction.










Abby found a new toy this week...mommy's necklace. Brett decided it would be a great idea to hook it to the front of her carseat so she could play with it...I wasn't so sure about it. Abby had a great time and now my necklace is coated in drool...Thanks daddy! :)










Abby found another favorite thing to do...play in the mirror while I do my make-up. My mirror is now covered with cute baby hand prints and of course, drool...we're big into drool right now. She'll just talk to herself in the mirror and smile, she's loves it!

Another fun event of the week was the Air Force Christmas Concert at Constitution Hall. We got some free tickets and enjoyed beautiful music...it was quite the show!
I think Brett enjoyed taking a little break and enjoyed the concert. It really reminded us of how blessed we are to live in this country. We are very grateful for all those who are serving our country! Thanks to all those who serve this nation!

To close this weeks post, I am attaching a video of Abby with her binky. She currently likes to play with her binkie more than suck on it....here is a demo:

A Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! We have so much to be thankful for this year. We count Abby as one of our greatest blessings! She has brought so much joy to our little family. We are also grateful for our extended family and friends. We are blessed!

Brett had to study for finals during the holiday break this year so we stayed close to home for 'Turkey Day.' We spent Thanksgiving with good friends and had a great time! The day started out with a Turkey Bowl and ended with yummy pies. The next day we hit the roads in search for some good deals on Black Friday. We found a few bargains, but didn't get much. We also put up the Christmas tree and decorated. We love this time of year and we're excited to be able to spend it with family in December.
Abby helping Brett study law for his finals. Poor Brett had to study all week and is still studying.










A Thanksgiving feast and our first attempt at making pies...

'Any good sales?' Abby is checking to see if there are any good deals.

I was getting out the Christmas decorations from our closet and I let Abby hold the wrapping paper...I never knew she would have so much fun. I think she'll be more excited about the wrapping paper than the presents at Christmas. She's easy to please.

Beautiful Fall!

The leaves are changing and it feels like Fall has officially arrived here in Virginia. It's fun to watch the leaves fall from our window. Because there are so many leaves here, everyone rakes them to the side of the street and a big truck comes through to take care of the rest. Our complex raked the leaves the other day, and there was a HUGE pile in front of our apartment. Piles of leaves bring back fun childhood memories for me. When we lived in my grandparents house my dad would rake the leaves and then we would hide in the pile. He would go and get my mom and we would pop out and scare her, we thought we were so sneaky. :)
Here's the pile of leaves in front of our apartment with Abby in the middle. The sun was pretty bright. :)













Abby playing in our bed.




We went over to visit Erin and Abby loved playing with Sadie and Joe. Thanks for letting Abby play in your bouncer Joe Joe. :)















Abby's favorite pumpkin, she loves to hold it.













Ready for a jog with daddy.


Here are some video clips of Abby that I took this morning:

Election 2008

Things were wild and crazy here in Virginia on November 4th! It seems like signs cluttered every inch of land with different political views and every commercial on the radio was for the elections. Brett left early in the morning to vote and got there right when the school opened. He still had to wait in line for 90 minutes. Abby and I went in the middle of the day and didn't have to wait long at all. Abby even got an 'I voted' sticker. Washington DC was nuts in the evening when the votes were being counted. We wanted to go and be part of the action, but when we found out how crazy it was we decided that wasn't safe for Abby. :) We went and walked around DC for our date on Friday night instead.
It was a cool experience to be able to vote! We are very blessed to live in a country where we can exercise our rights, voice our opinion, and enjoy our freedom. It reminded me of teaching my 4th graders about George Washington and how he could have easily become king after the Revolutionary War, but he gave the power to the people and worked with good leaders to build a strong government system that wasn't completely controlled by one person.
We are grateful to live in this nation!
Here's Abby after we voted. She's enjoying kickin' around in her Bumbo Seat.

Laundromat Adventure

Our washing machine broke last week and it is suppose to get fixed soon, but the clothes piled too high so I had to head to the laundromat. Abby was 'bjorn'n it' while we hauled 7 garbage bags full of laundry down our 3 flights of stairs to the car and back. Abby was an angel baby through the whole event, which was very helpful. I now have a whole new appreciation for having a washing machine in my house, especially with a baby. I have no idea how women survived without modern appliances in the past. I'm spoiled!
The stairs...a great muscle building workout. :)

Baby Break Dance

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