Remember Punky Brewster?

Abby Jane in baby leggings... which are extra funny on chunky thighs!

Swinging and Dancing

As promised, the following pictures are from our playdate with our dear former neighbors, Carrie and Mihret, at Griffith Park.  

Mihret has gotten so big and so much more communicative!  It was so wonderful to be with them.  The girls had a great time playing, as always, and Abby Jane had a great time exploring the playground! 

 She also had her first experience in a swing and seemed to think it was great!  

Below is Abby Jane busting some SNL-esque moves with Jake last night while I was at a meeting.  And no worries, she didn't even get a bruise!

Fall Festivities

So we had been excited about Abby Jane's pumpkin costume, but it absolutely cracked us up after we actually put her in it.  She was oblivious to the whole get-up, which is entirely uncharacteristic of her!  Here she is with our neighbors last night- yes, there are eight children who are two and under!  If any of you have a better shot of this, please pass it along!

After the above picture (which was HILARIOUS in the making), we went up to another residential area on campus where there's older children who were actually going to trick or treat.  We took this picture at Heroes Gardens overlooking campus on our way home.
Today we had our 3rd annual tailgate party, which also acted as an excuse for the babies from our small group to get a picture in their costumes!  We also all got our barbeque and sweet tea fix.  Below is the stadium Bundt cake I had the most fabulous time making for the occasion, not that it helped Auburn any (I also did Holly's candy corn-topped double frosted brownies that is of course a big hit!)...  

  

Here is a slightly too-far-away indoor picture because for maybe the third time this year, it RAINED!!!!  But here is Em and Canon the turtle, us girls, Jen and Lucy the panda, and Lesley and Sammy the cow!
Gillean and Stewart got in on the action with the kiddos and came as Cousin It and a convincing Sarah Palin...

Stay posted for pics to come from our first time to a playground, and WELCOME to the world, Blake Slagley!!!  And that's the end...

Camping Trip

We went on our first camping trip as a little family for my birthday last weekend!  It was SUCH a great time.  We just went to Malibu Creek State Park, which is only 10 minutes from home in case Abby Jane wasn't a good camper.  But it turned out she's a fabulous camper, and we totally felt like we'd been "away" when we came home on Sunday!  Here's our tent in our pretty campsite under some HUGE eucalyptus trees...

It was COLD at night!  S'mores and hot chocolate were vital, of course.  Abby Jane's pack and play fit in the tent perfectly, so she slept snugly under several blankets, but still woke up with a red little nose!  
Abby Jane ate her meals strapped into the picnic table and was totally unfazed by the change of scenery (except for being very distracted by birds!)We went on a hike (Abby Jane's first) up to a lake and through some of the surrounding area (passing the site where M.A.S.H. was filmed) on Saturday afternoon.  We stopped by some fisherman at one point, and for some reason, Abby Jane thought it was hilarious when they casted their lines.  She started belly laughing, which they thought was funny and casted some more...Jake went on shutterfly.com and made a bound book for my bday of my girl and I (and some family and friend pics) from the last eight months as well as a few preggo pictures- it is such a treasure!  The trip was made complete with crazy coyotes howling in the night, s'mores, some serious gin rummy by lantern light (CA law prohibits fires this time of year), s'mores, freezing cold showers paid for by putting quarters in the machine (good times, I promise), YUMMY dinners, and the following video of Jake's camp chair going from a little broken to a lot broken (cool headlamp and all)...

Pumpkin Patch Drama

Today was the MUCH anticipated trip to the pumpkin patch.  Four other mamas (Les, Jen, and two other Emilys) from our small group were going to trek out to this fabulous huge place 30 minutes away (http://www.underwoodfamilyfarms.com) to see the patch, play at the petting zoo, etc.  

Well, if you saw the news today, you saw that we have those crazy Santa Ana winds going on today.  Out in the area where this farm is, it was a WINDSTORM!!!!  It was OUT OF CONTROL. Dust was just blowing across the patch and valley like nobody's business. 

 Most of the mamas didn't even want to get their little ones out of the car into that crazy wind.  I was the nuts lady who had been counting the days until our pumpkin patch excursion.  So I grabbed Abby Jane and ran over to the cute pumpkins to document her first pumpkin patch experience.  The area where they were was relatively shielded, so the wind wasn't too wild.  For the grandparents and great-grandparents reading this, I promise I did not expose Abby Jane

 to any danger to her or her health!  All I did was let Abby Jane stretch her legs and play for a minute so I could grab a shot or two. 

This is her saying "Mama, why did you just run 50 yards and plop me down in the middle of these vegetables and expect me to suddenly make a cute face?"  Can you tell that her little baby hair is flying every direction?  Bless her heart to have such a crazy mom.

A break in the wind allowed her to actually enjoy herself...
I include this one so my crazy hair can be a point of reference for the wind...
ONLY IN CALIFORNIA is pumpkin patch day not a crisp, fall, apple cider experience, but instead a 88 degree wind tunnel!!!  HA we're trying so hard to pretend it's fall...

Dedication Sunday

Abby Jane was dedicated on Sunday!  We even got to do it with the Hoffs (dedicating Lucy) and the Roberts (dedicating Sammy), which was so fun as we are all LA transplants and our families couldn't be there.  It was so neat to publicly give Abby Jane to the Lord and dedicate ourselves to be the parents to her that we are called to be!  I actually teared up when I put her in her little white dress (thanks to the Husseys!)

Abby Jane did pretty well during the ceremony.  She was the most talkative one up there, but was not too crazy, thankfully!  The family after the service...
After the service, all the families and several other couples from our small group had a picnic to celebrate.  Here is Jen and Lucy (who slept through the night for the first time that night!)
Les and Sammy- who is the world's most laid back child.  Quite the antithesis of Abby Jane and Lucy, bless his sweet heart.  We think he has to be that laid back to balance out the little ladies.
Abby Jane had a fabulous time checking out what everyone else had at the picnic. 
Thanks to the Wades for organizing the picnic and bringing YUMMY pumpkin whoopie pies!

And thank you, thank you to the Aufhammers for taking all these pictures while our camera has chosen such an inopportune time to need to be sent off for repair!

Update

I hear that sometimes moms feel isolated and lonely.  Though that's not something I struggle with, I have to think that with modern mamas being able to express thoughts, ask questions, and get such fast, knowledgeable responses, it has to make a difference!  Thank you so much- it was just good to hear that what was happening was normal.

We decided to go with a little tough love, with the goal in mind of not getting her until 7 a.m. unless she was really frieking out (she used to sleep until sometime between 7:15 and 8:00).  She went to sleep fine and woke up once at 5:30, cried for 10 minutes, slept til 6:20, cried off and on for 20 minutes, then slept until 7:45!  She woke up sooo happy and had a great day yesterday.  Last night she slept until 5:40, squawked twice, then slept until 6:40.  She cried off and on until we got her up at 7:00.  We feel good about our choice to let her cry it out a bit- especially with her being so much more like herself during the day, too.  All that's not to say we won't check on her if she wakes in the night, but waking up earlier than usual in the morning seems more of a habit that formed than her having trouble with teeth, ears, etc.  Also, for those who were concerned about her ears, I had them checked last week and they were fine- thanks for thinking of that, though!

One funny story.  She's been clapping and saying "yea!" when we do.  On Saturday, she was wearing some thick, fleecy PJs that prevented us from realizing that she had a huge, dirty diaper.  When we did realize it and Jake was changing it, she started clapping for him!!!  Bless her baby heart!  Ever since then, she's been clapping when she's excited about something- when one of us walks in the door, when she sees her Puffs, etc.  It's fun to see her express herself!