Author: sara

Uncle Claude and Abigail helped me with Andrew’s room today.

Here is a painting done by Uncle Jason:

This is a quilt given to us by Uncle Sam. It’s been in the family a very long time. The quilt squares tell the Mother Goose nursery rhymes: .

Well we finally got our blog running again- it’s been almost a year! Sorry about the disappearance.

Abigail is almost 2 now. She turned 22 months yesterday. We are expecting a baby boy this week.

We are doing well. We are loving living in Eugene. It’s a lot of fun. We enjoy having family just 10 minutes away. We feel very settled here. We are really enjoying living in South Eugene. We are so close to so many parks. Abigail and I are always heading off with the stroller to one. It’s great exercise and a lot of fun.

Here’s a picture of the three of us on the 4th of July:

And another of us cherry picking:

Abigail just loves fruit- we have taken her strawberry picking, cherry picking and raspberry picking. As you can see from her cherry stained face, her favorite part is eating while we pick.

Kyle has taken up running- here he is doing the Butte to Butte on the 4th:

Abigail just loves cheering on her dad. She hasn’t stopped talking about the race yet. Abigail and I did the last part of the Butte to Butte. She loved seeing all the runners and all the action.

Here are some more pictures of her:

One of her favorite pastimes – going to parks:

She loves the water- if there is water anywhere she runs to it and gets soaked:

We just finished swim lessons last week:

Here we are at Salt Creek Falls:

I hope everyone is enjoying summer. We will post more soon.

Abigail’s baby cousin, Nathaniel Peter Elstrott, arrived Friday. He is 8 lbs, 21 inches. He is adorable and has got the softest, sweetest cry.

We went to the hospital yesterday and celebrated his birthday with champagne and cake.

Here’s Abigail checking out her cousin:

Gaby and Jason are very proud.

Well I got a 5:45 am wake up call today from Abigail. Instead of getting annoyed if she won’t go back to bed, I give up and go running with her. I still have pregnancy weight to get rid of anyway! (Only 5 more pounds now! Yay!)

We had a blast this morning stopping in the park in the middle of our walk and swinging together watching to sun come up. She was laughing so hard.

Here she is eating strawberry pancakes this morning- her new favorite:

Here she is helping around the house:

Swimming with cousin Gillie:

Hanging out:

With Mom on her birthday:

Helping open presents:

With Daddy in her new dress:

Getting her piggy toes wet:

Visiting with Aunt Sophie:

Well yesterday Abby was up for 18 hours straight without a nap- 5 am until 11 pm! It was a mess. I guess it was a growth spurt or something.

Today she is back to her old self- let us sleep in til 7 and she’s taken both naps today and now she ‘s asleep for the night hopefully. It’s so nice to have our baby back. Yesterday Kyle had to come home so I could take a nap because I couldn’t keep up with her by the afternoon.

She’s all over the place as always. She says Mama and Dada now! Her first word was Mama. She can also wave goodbye. Oh and she can dance- we have a video- Kyle will have to post it. She also is getting pretty good at eating finger food- she likes grapes, cheerios and bananas. She also likes tofu!

Sunday we had a baby shower for “Aunt Gaby.” Here are some pictures:

We had beautiful weather for the party. Our garden looked so pretty :

She loves looking out her window in her room :

She is such a big girl now!

Her first time in a swing:

Swinging with her friends:

She got to see her Grammie, Grandpa and cousin Peyton at the end of May:

She will be 9 months in 3 days on the 13th. I can’t believe it!

Well Abby hasn’t said mama or dada yet but today she was talking/babbling up a storm – probably because we went to see Obama (for the third time!!) at Waterfront Park- there was plenty of action.

Tonight she kept saying ba, baba. So I guess you could say it’s her first syllable. We have no idea what it means (she doesn’t drink from a bottle so it can’t be bottle) but exciting nonetheless to hear your baby try to talk.

Here’s our little girl all over the place:

She can pull up on anything:

and she’s great at getting herself down safely now:

Saturday we headed to the tulip fest and met up with my parents:

Here she is doing her daily pushups:

Here she is at playgroup yesterday – we had stop taking pictures because she was pulling her friend’s hair:

Last night she had her first swim class:

Friday she started climbing stairs! Today I found her trying to head upstairs on her own!

Needless to say she is wearing me out on a daily basis!

Abby had her first graduation- from our Moms Group on her 6 month birthday. Here is the proud graduate:

Well on March 12th Abby took her first plane ride. We went to Louisiana for a week. She got to meet her baby cousins for the first time:

Her first carousel ride during her first trip to the zoo:

Her first time to a wedding:

Her first time to LSU where Mommy went to school:

She met her great grandmother for the first time in New Orleans and saw her great grandfather’s house in Baton Rouge for the first time:

Her first Easter:

Abby has tasted bananas and pumpkin so far. She loves bananas but didn’t like the pumpkin. Here she is pigging out ready for more:

We went to Eugene over the weekend. Here she is at her daddy’s birthday party:

She could really get into the party this time- helping to open presents:

She still loves playing the piano:

Look what she got from Meme and Pawpaw:

Here she is in her Pocahontas suit:

The first big change came at the beginning of the month when Abby decided to stop sleeping so well for us. She now wakes every 1 to 3 hours. We are exhausted and our house is looking like an explosion.

She has started solids. She is eating the rice cereal. Kyle feeds it to her. She has figured out to open her mouth when she sees the spoon. And this weekend she figured out how to swallow. She closed her mouth for the first time and smacked her lips instead of leaving her mouth open and letting the food pour out! We bought her a highchair so we’re ready to go.

She rolled from her back to tummy this weekend for the first time. And ever since she is all over the place rolling all over the room. You cannot leave her alone anymore! She gets herself in uncomfortable spots and starts yelling. She is trying to crawl.

She has stopped losing hair and is now growing some- and it’s much lighter- we think she’ll be a blondie.

She also starting teething this weekend. So we have our hands full with all the excitement!

Here are some photos-

Abby on a stroller ride in the sun.

Abby hanging out in her buddy Noah’s exersaucer. (Hint, hint: Mom, Dad I want one!)

Abby reading her first Valentine!

Hanging out with Mom in the sun

Sunbathing beauty!