First Kiss

Our sweet friends Trisha and Jaxson live on the beach, and we had the delight of playing in their "backyard" this morning.  Jaxson is one month older than Abby Jane and decided to make his move and lay a big one on Abby Jane.  Trisha had her iPhone, so we caught the moment.  Here he starts to lay on the charm...

"Please can I have a kiss?"  Abby Jane is being quite lady-like and is playing hard to get.
This is right before or after they smooched.  Precious Jaxson continued to try to kiss her, but Abby Jane limited him to only one from her.  She thought it was more fun to play with the string of drool coming from his chin.  Yes, it was hilarious and quite precious.

11 months

It's actually been a week and a half since she turned 11 months, but better late than never!  These days she...

-walks at least 80% of the time, though she is yet to do it for our friends after church!

-new words are baby, bird, ball, puppy, pig, OOOHHHH! (said with raised eyebrows)

-fav finger foods are bananas, blueberries, pieces of turkey, rice cakes, cheese, dried apples- the girl can EAT

-books continue to be a big favorite

-loves her Baby from "Aunt" Stephanie, soccer balls, riding toy, playing with Fridge Farm pieces, her riding toy and activity table

-dances and "jumps"

-loves getting in and out of her chair

-learned to "tickle Daddy" this weekend!

-is a big water girl- loves bath time and has been great in the pool in the last week, doing fine when we put her completely under water!

-waves hi and is pointing to objects as soon as her eyes open and tends to talk until her eyes are closed

-loves facing forward in her carseat!

-points to Daddy's nose and Mama's nose when asked

-plays peek-a-boo by hiding behind the coffee table and popping out!

-explores all over the apartment, pulling things from "fair game" cabinets, toting toys with her wherever she goes!

We went down to the beach this afternoon for the first time since before Christmas, and she was SO into the sand and the birds and even stuck her toes in that COLD water a time or two... after that she walked backwards when the water came close! 

It's difficult to describe the immense amounts of sand on this child's body in this picture.

Week Three

On New Year's Day, Jodi (along with Katie and Ian) drove us down from Cartersville back to my mom's.  Jodi married into a very creative brother-in-law and sister-in-law whose Christmas gift to her and Chris was a makeover of their master bedroom (click on the Gregory's blog at right for before and after pictures)!  So Jodi came down to Mom's to get the kids out of the way.  

Jake flew home on Jan. 2 to start his Jan session of class at Azusa, and our week of seeing friends began.  The next day, Abby Jane and I drove to Birmingham and had brunch with Em York at Edgar's (LOVE the new location!)  It was so sweet to get some long overdue Em time in.

Then we drove over to Stephanie's precious home and spent the afternoon with her darling family!

For those who don't know, Steph was one of my roommates at Auburn, but I have only had the chance to be around sweet Amelia and Noah a few times, which is an absolute crime!  Needless to say, we had a fabulous time just being together and letting our babies play!
On Monday, Jo and I took the kids to play at Chastain Park with Grandaddy and Joan.  It was great to get to see them again, and it was also neat to introduce Abby Jane to a park I grew up going to!
Jo and I have gotten really close ever since she went to college, and we love any chance to get to hang out!
Katie and Abby Jane sealed the deal on their best friend status over those few extra days we had together!
Abby Jane loved to help Grammy strum the guitar!
After Jo and the kids left on Tuesday, the tempo of our days picked up, and we had the delight of seeing Keri (who discipled me since 8th grade) again and introduced Abby Jane to the ladies in Mom's accountability group (who are like second moms to me).  Ken, Sandy, Betsy, and Cade came over to play one afternoon and joined Mom and I for another barbeque fix for me before leaving town.  Mom babysat one night while I went to dinner with Lauren, Victoria, and Lyndsay for a great girl's night with sweet friends!  On our last day, we got to go over to Jane's fabulous new home and play with sweet, sweet Elisha and admire Jane's cute little baby bump for the morning!  

We finished out our wonderful last day with a refreshing walk with Grace and Kim Faison and a visit with my Miss Penny.  

The Lord came through in a HUGE way for our trip home by letting our flight be half empty! So we had an open seat next to us and plenty throughout the plane for her to crawl on and look out windows.  About midway through the flight, she was doing GREAT and I was thinking that perhaps I was supermom.  And then I remembered that there was about 500 people praying for us and came off my high horse.  Praise the Lord for His faithfulness!

Week Two

On Christmas Day, we drove up to Cartersville and joined Ken, Sandy, Betsy, Paul, Cade (21 months), and Granny, who was up in Cartersville for the day.  Here is a picture from a trip to the park that afternoon of Ken sending Abby Jane down this steep tube slide that she loved going down!
That night, we went through a farm with Christmas light displays in the back of Ken's truck- it was so fun!
Abby Jane and Cade had a great time together and are probably going to be trouble-makers together as they get older since they are so close in age!   This was taken right before Abby Jane took Cade down Christmas night after he "borrowed" the walking toy she had been playing with.  Bless his heart, he was so surprised that he didn't do anything back to her after she knocked him down, even though it would have been a bit justified!

We went back down to my mom's to see sweet friends on the day after Christmas- and we finally got to meet the Booth twins (7 months old)!  Betsy, Katie, Whitney (who couldn't be there) and I were discipled by Keri (on the right) since we were 14!

Ken, Paul, Jake, and I hiked up Pine Mountain with the kiddos one morning- it was so pretty to be in the woods.  I loved this shot of Cade following his Bop Bop's and Daddy's footsteps.The classic bath picture, though this is deceptive... they were more interested in playing with their toys than each other.

Mimi and Bop Bop with their grandbabies.  Sandy had foot surgery in early December and did an amazing job of getting around and playing with the little ones despite the fact that she was still doing some big recovering.

This rocking chair was Jake's and was HUGELY popular.  We have now put together the rocking chair we received from the Demaioribus family before Abby Jane arrived- and she loves it!
Here is Jake's Granny blowing out the candles on her birthday cake on New Year's Eve!  

Jake and I got in a date and some running errands without a child while we were in Cartersville- it sure is nice to have family around to babysit!  Our afternoon date of lunch, a matinee, and dessert cost approximately $30.  The same date in LA would have cost more like $70!  We surely enjoyed the benefits of grandparents while we could!

Week One

We flew in on Friday, and our little home in beginning to get in order!  So the following is the recap of our first week in Atlanta, spent with my family at my mom's house.  

It was SUCH a sweet time of cousins, cousins, everywhere!  A constant state of motion and fun until bedtime.  We flew in on Friday and had an extended Elliott family party on Saturday night.  Here are Ashley (7 months) and Abby Jane on the night of the Elliott party in their Christmas outfits!

My Grandaddy and Joan came over on Sunday night to see all the great-grands.  Here is Grandaddy with the oldest two, Katie and Scott.

Katie (5) and Abby Jane became best friends, according to Katie and the looks on Abby Jane's face, throughout our time at home.  Katie got really good at feeding Abby Jane with me!Grammy is the Pied Piper as always, and was continuously up to her ears in grandkids.  At least two or three of the six slept in sleeping bags in her room every night, and they read books every morning before coming downstairs.

One of the greatest things that happened this trip was the christening of the "jumping room," as the kids called it.  My mom had everyone clean out this huge storage closet in her basement at some point a while back (we were conveniently on the opposite side of the country), and there is now a mattress and a ton of pillows in there- and the point is to be a fun place to jump.  There were a lot of hours logged and energy burned in there.

One of my favorite things we did as a family was sugar cookie baking and decorating, using Jodi's wonderful recipe!  Everyone participated, and we had the greatest time.  I'm hoping it becomes a tradition. 

We celebrated Christmas morning twice- once on Christmas Eve before Greg and his family drove back to Greenville, and again on actual Christmas with Jo and her family before we headed up to Cartersville.  This is the first Christmas morning, and Abby Jane's box of BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS from Uncle Greg and Aunt Susan!  That was what we asked for this year, and everyone came through fabulously!
Here are Jake and Abby Jane opening up her stocking at Grammy's on real Christmas morning.  Santa is so smart to know how Puffs can light up a girl's eyes!
Here are Katie and Ian helping Abby Jane open up her fridge farm from them!

So I uploaded 296 photos from the last three weeks to my computer last night, so needless to say, this is only a tiny sampling of all the fun that went on that week.  I'm trying to restrain myself!  Coming tomorrow are pictures from our week with the Gross family!

Still Here...

Happy New Year to everyone! We have so much updating to do, but I forgot my cord and have been unable to upload pictures from our time at home. We have had a wonderful time in the south, spending the first week out here with my family (7 adults, 6 children- so we're still man to man defense as of right now!), the second with Jake's family (Cade is the cousin who has the most toys in common with Abby Jane right now, so their interaction was a lesson in sharing and a kick in the pants!), and Friday sent Jake back to LA for his January session of being away at school and started my week here in Atlanta of seeing friends!
My big plan is to upload pictures when we get home and do one entry for each week we're out here since there's so much to show! The most exciting development for Abby Jane as she has been trying to keep up with the big cousins is her improvement in walking. She walked about 15 feet the other day, and is starting to choose walking over crawling on her own accord. It has been a delight to see those of you we have had the chance to lay eyes on, and I hope to catch more of you this week!

Family Christmas

We had our family Christmas last night before we leave for Atlanta tomorrow morning!

Abby Jane finally got her riding toy!