What's going on around here??

I wanted to post something today, because it might be a while before I post again. We have some big Thanksgiving plans that include seeing family, eating, seeing friends, eating, traveling...you get the idea! :)

A friend of mine, that is a photographer, has generously offered to help her friends with their every day photo taking by starting a message board that serves as a 'class' for us. She gives us assignments, offers advicve, gives tips and, overall, helps us to take better photos. I am LOVING it, as you all know, I am obsessed with taking pics of my girls. Our first assignment involved using natural light and I have been addicted to taking natural light photos for the past week or so.

While it's not the best photo ever, I LOVE this pic of Abby. She is so beautiful, inside and out, and I think you can just see it in her eyes in this picture. She is growing up to be such a sweet, funny, creative, determined and independent little lady. I have a feeling NOTHING will ever stop this girl from doing whatever she sets her mind to. (which will no doubt serve as hard times for us from time to time-haha-but, I wouldn't want it any other way!)

And, our little Sweetheart! It's so fun to watch her little personality develop. In some ways she is a lot like Abby (**GORGEOUS, silly, impatient-ha!**), and in other ways she is so different. She is the HAPPIEST little thing I have ever seen. All you have to do is look at her and she has a smile for you. And, she is our little cuddler. She just wants to be held and hugged and wants to be around us at all times.
A true Abby smile. It's so hard to get a real smile these days, because she is so into 'cheesing' for the camera!

And, I have been meaning to get a picture of her with wet hair and finally remembered during her bath last night. (and I wish this picture was bigger, because her eyes are even bluer than they were a few days ago) Anyways, her hair is curly when it's wet and it is DARLING! (and I think she looks like my Grandpa Lee when her hair is wet like this...he would LOVE that)

And, for those of you that know me and Abby, you knew this was coming......sweet little piggies....Abby picked the color for her. :)

'STEW-ART!' hahaha! Look what he did last night! Abby laughed and smiled about it for a while, then she was annoyed by it, of course, and finally said, 'Mom, can you PLEASE get Stewart OFF of MY potty!?' hahaha!

He's here!!!

Abby's elf arrived from the North Pole last night! :) Here he is, patiently waiting for her to get up this morning (along with a note from Santa. she left a cookie and a note for Santa last night, and she is pretty sure the reindeers came and got it for him-haha)! Her first look at him....she was not too sure about him!-haha!

Trying to process all of it!

The first thing you do is name your elf...she was thinking hard!

Stewart it is! YAY, Stewart! haha!

She seems to be more annoyed by Stewart than anything else. ha! We read all about him and I could see the wheels turning. I think once he starts hiding from her every night and stirring up trouble around here, she will really be into it. I asked her on our way home from lunch if she wanted me to make sure Stewart tells Santa tonight about what a good girl she was while we were at lunch and she said yes, so she is getting it! I think he is going to cause some mischief tonight...maybe toilet paper the bathroom or leave crumbs on the counter. ;) We shall see....

Abby's real-live baby doll!

The looks on their faces say it all...The single greatest moment of Abby's life and the most terrifying moment of Olivia's!-haha! (disclaimer: this was a closely supervised event...i did NOT find them this way-haha!, although I would not put it past Abby, which is why Olivia has to go EVERYWHERE with me-ha!)

My blue-eyed beauty!

And, typical Abby! :) I am quite certain that there is NO one in the world with more Holiday spirit than this girl here. I hope she doesn't lose momentum before the actual holiday!-haha!

Excuses, excuses...

Abby's newest thing is to have an excuse or an 'alternative answer' whenever she is in trouble or is told no. For example: say it's 20min. until dinner and Abby asks for a snack. Naturally, we reply with, 'not right now, it's almost dinner time.' and she will come back with 'I didn't mean have a snack right now, I meant have a snack tomorrow!' Sometimes this grates on our last nerve, and other times she is so creative we have to laugh. A perfect example is an event from this morning......

Abby takes a book, throws it on the floor and kicks it.

Me: 'Abigail, we do not throw books on the floor and kick them. Now, pick up the book.'

Abby: 'I didn't do that, I put the book on the floor real fast and I moved it with my foot!'

hahahaha! Oh, Abby!

Two big firsts, on her 2 mo. 'birthday!'

Olivia is 2mo. old today. We had her Dr. appt. and she is 10lbs. 10oz. and 21 1/2 in long now. She also got her shots! :( She was such a good girl, as always! :)

'Yay, I am growing!' Her Big First:

1. She laughed out loud last night, and she was laughing hard. It was the cutest thing. I was blowing raspberries on her belly and she thought it was so funny. Scott got to see her but she got the hiccups before we could get it on video.

2. She 'slept' a 7hr. stretch last night. I say 'slept' because she did get up around 1:15, but I knew she wasn't hungry, so I got her back to sleep and she slept until almost 5am!!! Holy Cow! Go, Olivia!

More Holiday Fun!

Now, here is a look you don't see everyday!-haha! Who knew stockings made such great pants!...or maybe she was using them as leg warmers! Her mail box with a cookie already in it for Santa. That is going to be one skanky cookie by Christmas Eve-ha! I think Santa is going to come tonight, take the cookie and leave her a note, reminding her to be a good girl, etc. ;)

Window stickers. The Halloween ones were such a hit, her and Scott stopped and got a bunch or Christmas ones today.

And, we finally got some lights for her little tree. So cute!

When it's too cold to play outside....

just bring the outdoor toys to the basement! :) One of the perks to not having the basement finished yet.

She cracks me up on this little bike. She rides in a circle over and over...it's like a freaky child from a scary movie or something-haha!
Hide and seek is even better in the basement! This child kills me...she can spell and write words at 2 yrs. old, but it has taken her forever to grasp the concept of hide and seek, and she still isn't that great at it!-haha!

Football! Now, here is a game she has mastered. She LOVES football, baseball and soccer (or soccer ball as she calls it). I can't wait to sign her up for t-ball and soccer this spring.

A little victory dance! Go, Abby...Go, Abby!

And, even sidewalk chalk. Opps...Scott might kick our butts for this one! Oh, well!...we aren't scared of him-haha!

Our Jolly Little Elf!

aaahhhh hahaha! We got this outfit for Abby, since she was a Dec. baby! Here is Olivia with Frosty....

and Abby with Frosty! :) (Abby was just a couple weeks old and Olivia is 2mo. I didn't realize how little Olivia is!) But, can you believe how idenitcal they are? It will be fun to see if Olivia keeps her dark hair. Abby lost all of hers (obviously), and then it grew back so blonde. And, of course, the eye color is different, but other than that, they could not look more alike! :)

And, Olivia LOVES looking at the tree. Scott took this pic tonight. It cracks me up!

Guess what Scott got???

FINALLY....the TRUCK he has always wanted (I guess the other 20 trucks he had weren't good enough)! I think this is the 4th happiest day of his life, next to the birth of our children and our wedding....this might even be better than our wedding in his book!-hahaha!


Before he took Abby for a spin around the neighborhood.

Scott says there in nothing like a man and his truck....(puh-lease!-haha!)

Dinner and Winery!

Thanks to my Mom, we got to have an actual adult night out with our friends last night. We went out to celebrate mine and Amanda's birthday. We started with dinner at Ravanolli's. It was DELICIOUS! After dinner, we headed to the Grand Opening of a winery, Villa Marie. The place is gorgeous and the wine is SUPERB!


Scott and I before we left the house.
With our friends, Kevin and Aimee.

The Birthday Girls!

Me and Missy! Missy is an old college friend and sorority sister of mine, and she happens to be married to Amanda's brother. :) Maybe one day I will pull out some old pictures of Missy and I from college to post for everyone. It would be interesting to see the difference in how we party now vs. how we parited then-hahaha!

Most of the group, minus a couple of husbands that aren't in the picture!

(Dawnjulene, Amanda, Aimee, me, Scott, Missy and Pete!)

Thanks for a great night, everyone! We had a blast! We need to get started on planning a December outing!

And, Thanks, Mom for keeping the girls!

Nanny-time!

Nanny was here to visit this weekend. We celebrated a be-lated birthday with her, and she kept the girls so Scott and I could go out Sat. night! I think the girls wore her out, but they had a BLAST!-ha! Abby works Nanny over, but I know you love it, Mom! :)


Helping Nanny open her gifts and eat her cookies!
Nanny and her best buddy!

My Aunt Karen sent Abby this dance mat and Barbie Princess dance along video. It is a HUGE hit. I think Mom and abby had to do it about 100 times. Olivia even joined the fun.-ha!

Nanny and her girls! :)

And, of course, Nanny had to play dress up with our littlest doll! :) Olivia is just thrilled about the bow, can't you tell!-haha! I always had a bow in Abby's hair, but Olivia's is just such a party, I can't help but just let it do it's thing. Maybe when it gets a bit longer we can get some use out of all the bows I have for her.

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas!

Yes, I know it is mid-Novemeber, ha!, but if it were up to Scott we would have had the tree up Nov. 1. I work him back a little later each year, so by the time the girls are a little bigger, I am hoping we can go cut down real trees each year just a couple weeks before Christmas! But, I do LOVE having the tree and decorations up. We had Christmas music blaring and got most of it done last night!

Abby has her own tree. We had to get it up first. :)
Merry Christmas! :)

Olivia watched in amazement!-ha!

Ta-da! Isn't that gorgeous!? ;) Scott and Abby did a little more work to it this morning. It has a star on top now!

Helping with the big tree!

The first ornament to go on. Scott got me this ornament the year we started dating and now we have to get one every year. It's neat to see them all: we have the wedding one, new baby one, family of three...this year we get to add Olivia!

Almost done! We have some more ornaments, etc. to add but it is up and looks great. It leans to one side because Abby put all of the ornaments on one side down on the bottom-haha! We keep moving them one by one when she isn't looking so that the tree doesn't topple over!