Abby's First Haircut...

On Valentine's Day we took Abby to get her very first haircut. She did really well and seemed genuinely excited, but was incredibly distracted by her old sister running around, chatting with everyone there, like the crazy child she is... the poor lady at the salon had to take her picture five times before Abby was actually looking in her direction. :) We brought her little giraffe blanket just in case of a meltdown, but never really needed it, or maybe it was because we brought it she didn't have one, who knows! Abby picked out her own seat, wore the little smock and sat there all by herself with no complaints. I was very impressed, I though for sure I'd have to hold her, like I had to with Lizzie, but boy did she prove me wrong. It's crazy how different Abby's hair is from Lizzie's, it still sticks straight up if you let it, especially in the back now that it's shorter and no more baby mullet, yay!

Abby holding on tight to her blankie!

The picture they took for her card/certificate. It makes me laugh cause you can totally see Lizzie running around in the background!

My Big Girl....

My little Abbers is growing up so fast. She starting using a spoon not too long ago, after constantly stealing Lizzie's when she wasn't looking, so we finally broke down and let her have her own. It's incredibly messy, especially with yogurt but how else is she going to learn right?! Besides she has the goofiest laugh when she uses it. Here in the pictures she's digging into some oatmeal and not doing too shabby. Still not walking yet though... I'll be sure to let you all know when she does. She could probably totally do it, but we all think she's more than a little dependent on her walker toy. She swings that thing around like crazy too, so it's pretty obvious it's not being used to support her.

Making Valentines...

Lizzie and I made valentines this morning while Abby took her nap. We've been trying to do something together lately, just her and I, every morning instead of just watching cartoons or playing on her own. Something that Abby can't necessarily do with us, so Abby's nap time has become our art/crafty time. We've done something everyday for all of last week up until now and it's been a lot of fun... wish I would have started it sooner actually. But back to the valentines, our mom's group is having a party tomorrow and Lizzie wanted to do something with lollipops, so we made little butterflies. Lizzie did everything but the original cutting out from paper and assembling the two pieces together. She helped me glue on the eyes and decorate each bug. They turned out so cute and they're so stinking simple!

Weekend Art Class...

This last Saturday we had a massive painting session in our dining room. Lizzie was itching to paint really, really bad and Heidi had just brought home a huge collection of brushes from her work, so Ben set her all up... he even busted out his own easel, paints and canvas. I can't believe all the stuff he has hiding in his closet and drawers. We seriously have a whole art store up there in his office. It was fun to watch the two of them painting side by side (sorry I didn't take any of Ben, it was Saturday morning and he was still in his boxers)! I can't remember the last time Ben painted just for fun, it was before Lizzie was here, at least I know that for sure. Lizzie was so funny with her brushes, she would take one and put some paint on it, make one single stroke, wash it out and then grab another brush. And repeated it until she used every single brush. Thanks Heidi for the cool new brushes, you made someone very happy.

The ever growing pile of brushes!

Bye, Bye Christams Tree...

Just yesterday we finally took down all our Christmas decorations. We had to enjoy them for a long while since we were gone for a big chunk of December, but now with another holiday rapidly approaching it was finally time to say goodbye until next year. It always makes me sad when I take down and box up all that stuff. I really like all the lights and decorations and the way the house looks and feels all cozy. For all the fuss he puts up, I think Ben does too. With all the stuff off the walls, out of the corners and off the stairs our house looks really, really barren now, so Lizzie and I made some new decorations today. We made crayon hearts while Abby was taking her morning nap. It was perfect since Lizzie's all about sharpening crayons lately and they look really cool with the light from the outside shining through them. All they are crayon shavings melted between wax paper and cut out. Her favorite part was sticking them on the sliding glass door. You have no idea how bad I want to rearrange all those hearts so they're not all bunched in the corner, the urge is almost uncontrollable, but Lizzie would know... she put certain ones in very specific places.

My Very First Quilt...

Seriously, I really don't know what possessed me to try and attempt this, but here it is all done. It really didn't even take me that long either, just an extended weekend... well I kind of cheated, well not really. It's completed with a quickturn (I hate messing around with binding) and it's tied not actually quilted. Sorry for all the jargon, but I don't know how else to explain it. Pretty much just looked at a blanket we already had and copied how to make it. I wanted to start out kind of small and make something that had some meaning to it. Why I wanted to use something irreplacable on my very first one I don't know, but I do love how it turned out. The front is made out of Abby and Lizzie's old receiving blankets from when the were little, little and the back is just a piece of solid creamy yellow flannel. It was pretty cool to see this useless pile of tiny blankets just sitting in their closest transformed into something hopefully we'll have around for a long time.

Sledding....

This is the last round of Christmas pictures... I promise. These were taken on the afternoon of Christmas day, down the street at Ben's Grandma's house. Her neighbors were really nice and let us completely take over their backyard and turn it into our very own winter wonderland... complete with a snow fort and a massive multi-lane sled run. It was crazy cold outside and I somehow got stuck with Ben's coffee cup outside again, but it was a really fun time and as Ben would say it was the best Christmas EVER! :)

Uncle Steve flying like Superman!

Uncle Brian... he always looks so cool no matter what he's doing.

It's grandpa Ted's turn

Ben and Lizzie constructing their fort. I wish my camera battery would have lasted a little longer so I could have taken a picture of the finished version... it was pretty massive.