5 years!

It's been five wonderful, precious, adventurous years since this day...

And I could not be more blessed to be married to a more wonderful man!  I cannot imagine going through life with anyone but my Jake (no offense to the other fabulous husbands out there- I'm sure you other girls all feel the same way about your guys!)  But I am so humbled and thankful that the Lord has allowed me to be Jake's wife and has allowed my girls to have him as a father.  He is my other half and my better half and my best friend.  

A very wise gentleman in his mid-70's at church married his wife about 10 years ago.  They are a precious couple who are both pillars at the church.  In referring to his wife, he called her his "good thing"- I think he said it's in Proverbs somewhere that it says, "He who finds a wife finds a good thing." 

Let me flip the verse a bit and say that Jake is MY "good thing"!  Happy anniversary, Love!
We are celebrating with dinner at Duke's tonight and dessert at Geoffrey's- our favorite special Malibu date spot!  Can't wait for our date, and thanks for babysitting, Les!

16 months

Well, we're halfway through her 16th month, but I still wanted to post on it for posterity's sake! The pictures are all from Father's Day afternoon.

This child is such fun.  She cracks us up all the time.  The phrase I hear the most is "Wah-dey?" or "Wah-AH-dey?", which is "Where are they?"  This applies to everything- where is Daddy, Bop Bop, Mimi, Grammy (who is now "Ammy"), the "aih-bow" (airplane), birdie, "neigh" (which refers to the rocking horse in Ammy's basement), the list goes on and on.  

She loves her fruit more than anything, but we made a breakthrough last night and got her to eat vegetables for the first time in a couple of months (other than the spinach I sneak in her cheese quesadillas!)- no kidding- my veggies only child has been on a veggies strike until this week.

She announces "RUN!!!" when she is running, and one of my favorite things she does right now is say, "HI!" to random strangers.  This is particularly funny to me when she does it at the grocery store and catches people offguard... sometimes she gets socially awkward people who don't know how to respond to a baby greeting them so clearly and boisterously.

Abby Jane loves horseplaying and has a fantastic belly laugh when Jake gets her going.  We are soaking up these days with this baby girl!!

Beaches and other good times

Happy Father's Day, everyone!  We got home on Friday from the most fabulous time with our families and with my girls!  I had over 200 pictures, so the following barely skims the surface...

Here are my childhood friends, with whom I had a girls' weekend in Atlanta that first weekend. 

Betsy, Katie, Whitney, and I have been inseparable (in heart, anyways!) since the age of four, for Betsy and Katie, and the age of nine for Whit!  It was medicine to the soul to be with them.

We got to run up to Chattanooga to see the Gregory family for a day and a half as they couldn't join us at Amelia Island this year, and it was so great to be with all of them!  Jo will laugh that I chose this pic for that day, but it was a classic moment of all the kids having a great time in the backyard... and my big sister getting soaked by her kids.

The Gross fam went down to Destin the next week, and Jake and Paul joined us a day later.  It was so fun having the whole family there- fabulous family time, great weather, great SOUTHERN beach, and wonderful pool!

Here are Sandy, Betsy, Luke (3 months), Ken, us, Cade (2) and Paul.

Cade and Abby Jane

"I LOVE THE BABY POOL!!!"

I left the Gross family trip a bit early while Jake kept Abby Jane with them... and I joined my roommates in Panama City!  We had a WONDERFUL weekend of long overdue quality time- I love those girls!
Then Jake, Abby Jane, and I joined my family at Amelia Island for the last week.  This is her first night there... so glad to be on the beach!

The fam at the pool

Happy girl with her daddy

My brother Greg and his family (Ryan-4, Scott-6, Ashley-1), us, and my mama.

It was a great trip, but we were so glad to back home, too! Abby Jane ran around like a kid in a candy shop when she got home and saw all her own things.  Hope everyone had a great Father's Day weekend!

Bop Bop to the Rescue

Jake's dad Ken flew in on Monday so he could help me fly back with Abby Jane tomorrow!  One fabulous result of that was that he has been around to help me with Abby Jane while I got us packed up.  Jake will come out to join us next week, and we're going to miss him in the meantime!!

So here are a few of Abby Jane's escapades with Bop Bop since he's been here...

She actually hung onto the monkey bars for two seconds or so all by herself!
Swapping hats with Bop Bop

I'm going to get in a couple of girl weekends and we'll have almost a week with Jake's family in Destin, then almost a week with my family in Amelia Island.  YEA for family time!

What are the odds?

My brother Greg married my fabulous sister-in-law Susan 15 years ago this July, and when he did so, he ALSO lucked out by marrying a girl who shares my big sister Jodi's birthday, which is today.  

Then Greg and Susan went on to have their oldest, Scott (turning six), and their youngest, Ashley (turning one) on the SAME DAY!  So happy birthday to Jodi, Susan, Scott, and Ashley!

These are from some beach playdates this week...

Charlotte, Abby Jane, and Campbell

Jaxon bringing a bucket up to show the girls the softshell crab in it...

Jaxon's mama, Trisha, asked Abby Jane if she would like to touch the crab (like the other children).  Abby Jane: "Nnno."

Carrie and Mihret came to play yesterday, and the girls had a great time at the beach!

"What, it's funny when I stuff multiple bananas in my mouth?"

Jake's polishing off the shotgun...

Because we are going to have THREE LITTLE GIRLS!!!  We had our first ultrasound today with our perinatologist, and they very definitely saw two baby girls in there!  Both girls looked perfectly healthy and developing right on schedule, so we are beyond thankful for that blessing.

We are so excited to have three precious girls, and bless Jake's heart for all that will come with three little ladies!!!!  We'll have to get him a boy dog someday to help even out the ratio...

Chasing Birds and Playground Bullies

We met up with Lesley and Sammy at the Country Mart this morning.  Someone had thrown some pieces of bread in the grass, and these two were making after those birds like it was the best thing ever!

As we were packing up our things, this older little boy at least three years old came over and started playing with one of Sammy's trucks.  After we took the truck back so we could go and complimented him on the balloon he had, he promptly gave Abby Jane (who was just standing there) a hard shove.  She didn't fall and didn't seem to care, but I didn't want to wait around and let him have another go at it.  I totally under-reacted and didn't say anything, but just scooped Abby Jane up and we left.  But after we left, I got all defensive.  Big three year old boy better not run into me in a dark alley! :)  Not that Abby Jane has never hit anyone before... but he was so big and she was so much smaller!  Little punk. :)