HUGE snow!!!!

Wow..what a weekend!! Many are calling it the big dig from all the shoveling!! ha! I know Brandon is sore after his 4 hours of shoveling the driveway and another hour or two to shovel off the deck! I helped him some, but unfortunately we only have 1 shovel!

So here are our pictures from the big storm. We got around 20 inches I think. wow!

The first pics were taken looking out to the back deck. This was early morning, so we got another couple of inches after these were taken.

Ashley LOVED literally swimming in the snow!



Brandon's car buried!

Later on.....Brandon had about half the driveway done. Look at how huge the pile of snow is to the right of the car! It is higher than the car and garbage cans!

Mid morning, we got the girls out in it! At first, they didn't even know what to do. They just sank into and couldn't get up!! So, we had Ashley come running through it to make paths for us. You can see the mounds are over Ashley's head!

And Ashley was just in heaven!! The neighbors were dumping the snow they would shovel off their driveway, right on top of her and she absolutely loved it. She just thought it was the best thing ever! It was so funny to watch :)

Abby on the other hand wasn't too sure about it. She just stood there stunned and wouldn't even try to move! I don't think she quite knew how to with the boots on. She was happy enough to just stand there, but when we tried to put her in the snow, she cried! Last time it snowed, she liked it, but I guess it was just too much for her this time.

I think Ashley made her smile in this picture. She just stood there on the sidewalk the whole time, still as could be!

Sammi and Maddie liked climbing up onto the mounds of snow that Brandon had shoveled from the walkway.

They were like big mountains to them!

Later on, Sammi and I made a snow girl. Her name is Samantha...big surprise! lol!
She was actually kind of hard to make b/c the snow wasn't very sticky. But, we used some of the harder stuff left behind from the plow and that worked out pretty well.

Me and Abby at the neighbors! She was getting pretty cold at this point!

Time for some hot chocolate! Abigail of course LOVED her first taste of hot chocolate!

We are so thankful that unlike many, we have not lost power and our road are pretty well plowed by now. I know many in the city do not have the same blessings. All the schools are closed tomorrow, so I am thinking of what to do with the girls so they aren't too cooped up! We will just see how the day goes I guess. Sometimes it is nice to just stay in and relax, but if they get restless we might try to go sledding at Grandma's house.

It also looks like more snow is on it's way, another 4-8 inches Tues through Wed! And we are supposed to leave for Denver on Wednesday afternoon. I am praying the roads will be ok since we have to drive to Akron, OH to get our flight.

Children's Museum

Today, Sammi had a field trip to the Children's Museum with her preschool class. So, I decided to stay at the museum with Maddie and Abby while Sammi was there with her class. The day started out bad with our van not starting!! Not to place blame, but Brandon left the keys in it the day before since Abby and Maddie fell asleep on the way home from church and we just let them sleep in the van in the garage. When he got them out later, he forgot to take the keys out and it must have kept some kind of light or something on. So, the battery was drained!! Thank goodness a neighbor was home and he had one of those battery pack things that he was able to plug in and start the van with! I am so thankful for all the nice neighbors we have! So, anyways, crisis was averted and we made it there and even still had time to eat lunch at the cafeteria.

After lunch, Sammi went with her class to do an art project and Maddie, Abby and I went to check out the rest of the museum. We started out on the first floor, where they had a Pittsburgh exhibit with a big bridge to climb over and a station to make pretend Primanti sandwiches! It was great! Maddie made me a huge one with fries on it of course :)

And, this was the first time I went out without the stroller in a LONG time!! Abby walked the ENTIRE time and she absolutely LOVED being to explore and was so proud of herself! She liked these little toys in the "slide" room. Maddie and Abby both liked the dollhouse in their too and Maddie enjoyed the slide once she got over being afraid!

Then, we headed upstairs to the baby room. Abby wasn't quite sure what to do with the birdseed and tried to eat it!! So, she pretty much just wandered around after that. But, Maddie really enjoyed the birdseed table and it was hard to get her to leave!

Abigail did like riding this horsey though!

Then, we went to the water room. I was debating whether or not we should do it, but I knew they would love it, so we did! And it turned out ok! Maddie got her shirt really wet, but I had an extra and Abby could hardly reach, so she didn't get very wet at all. Both girls LOVED it up there! I couldn't decide b/w all the water pictures, so I am just posting them all. :)





And finally, who doesn't love the Mr. Roger's room :) We also played in the art room for a little bit at the end and Maddie did a sand art picture.

It sounded like Sammi had fun too and I am really glad I decided to stay with the girls! I was worried it would just be too much trouble and not worth it, but it really was a lot of fun and it is getting easier to go places again! I was amazed that Abby made it the whole way through, during nap time no less, walking by herself! We all had a lot of fun and Maddie and Abby crashed on the way home in the van and I think I will sleep pretty good myself tonight!!

Abby's First Haircut!

Abigail had her first haircut today! Sammi and Maddie were getting their haircut by our new, favorite local hairdresser and so while we were there I asked her to trim up Abigail's hair too. She has the strangest hair with a huge cowlick on the side and the hair line starts really funny in the back. I pretty much messed Maddie's hair up when she was a baby trying to cut her bangs and it took months and months to grow it back right. So, I decided to just let the professional do it this time!!

Here is the before, with it all in her eyes! (And you can ignore how awful my hair looks!)

During.....Sammi took all these pictures and did a pretty good job I think!

After!! She has a funny look on her face b/c she was eating M&M's! She was shaking she wanted them so badly! Ha!

Since her hair naturally sweeps to the side, she just angled the bangs so they will continue to sweep to the side and we can hopefully just keep growing them out. So, she might end up looking different than the girls and have long hair and no bangs! We shall see!

It is of course strange to see my baby with a haircut as now she REALLY looks grown up!

Walking!!

For my friends and family not on facebook, we had some exciting new this weekend! Abigail is finally walking! She has taken little steps here and there for about a month. But, she just lacked the confidence to actually let go and walk. Then on Saturday, she finally realized she could do it and started walking everywhere! We are so proud and her little waddle walk is just the cutest thing! She looks like a little duck :) Sammi and Maddie are so excited for her and exclaim (very loudly!) every single time she is walking, "Look! She's walking!! she's walking!!", which by now (Monday) is about every minute!

So, I am a little sad that she is officially a toddler, who really does toddle! But, I am also excited for Abby and love her little ducky walk. I am also happy that I can actually set her down when we are out in public, instead of having her crawl all over a filthy floor or having to carry her. She is getting heavy! Soon, my problem will probably be getting her to not run off!

Anyways, here is a video of her walking on Saturday.

I think this one is just funny. We were trying to get a video of her walking, but apparently Maddie was just too funny to her to keep going! ha!

Grandma's 90th birthday

I thought I would post some pictures from my trip to Colorado with Abby and my Mom and Dad. But first, I just had to post this picture of Abby playing with her new bath toys. I just think it's hilarious and captures her personality perfectly!

So, anyways, we left Monday afternoon for Colorado by driving through snow and sleet to the Akron/Canton, OH airport. Fun times! But, Abby did great on the plane ride out. There was lots of leg room in front of us, so she was able to just sit on the floor or stand in front of us and play. She was tired by the end, but never really fussed!

The beautiful Rocky Mountains. I could live out there just to be able to look at these everyday!

We spent most of our time visiting family. My Grandma on my Mom's side (who turned 90) lives there and is the only relative left on that side besides my Mom. And my Dad's side of the family, including my Grandpa, Aunt and Uncle and 3 cousins also live there. So at least we were able to see everyone in one trip.

Abigail absolutely LOVED my Grandpa! She just got a kick out of him and would snuggle with him and try to get him to tickle her :)

Here she is with my Aunt Tracey!

And with Brendan, my youngest cousin. He is auditioning for a special music school in Denver that is similar to CAPA. He is really talented!

My middle cousin, Cole. He was kind of nervous to hold Abby and said he didn't know what to say to her! He was funny. But, I told him you don't really need to say or do anything with Abby, she thinks your funny if you just look at her!

I guess I never got a picture of my oldest cousin Thomas, who just turned 18. But, I'm glad we got to see him too :)

We also visited my friend Megan and her family. Megan used to live in my neighborhood growing up till they moved to Denver and I've known her since I was a baby! It's nice we can see them when we go to Colorado. She has a son who is almost 4 and a daughter who is about 6 months older than Abby. They were funny together and her daughter kept trying to give Abby her binky :)

Abby snuggled right up to Megan too! She just loves people!

Oh, and another big thing happened while we were visiting Megan. Abby took her first, real, actual steps! She has taken a few shuffle steps prior, but when she did she didn't even know she was doing it. This time, she took a shuffle step, then stopped and got her balance. Megan said, "Come here Abby". And Abby purposely took an entire step forward! So that was exciting. She has done it a few times since, but it still seems like she will never actually walk. :) I'm sure in few short months though I won't even remember her NOT walking!

I just really liked this picture of Abby. It is just so "her"

We also spent some time visiting my Grandma in the nursing home. She hasn't been doing all that great, but seemed somewhat better while we were there. She is just tickled that Abby has red in her hair since my late Grandpa also had some red hair! On Thursday, we celebrated her 90th birthday together by having dinner and some cake all together. It was kind of hard to throw any kind of party when she was in the nursing home, but she had lots of friends and visitors that day and in the end I think all she really wanted was us there sharing a meal with her. I'm so glad that I got to be with her on such a special day in her life. I did take a picture, but it didn't turn out too well, and doesn't even really look like her. So, I am posting this one from a year ago instead. It's hard to believe this is the same person and it was sad to see her the way she was this past trip. But look how fat Abby was a year ago!! Hard to believe that's the same baby either!!

Friday we headed home, but this time we got a cramped, tiny little plane with no leg room. This made it harder to keep Abby happy, especially since she didn't nap all day and was tired. I think twice she had screaming fits where we were the annoying people on the plane with the screaming baby. But, thankfully we were able to calm her down both times, I think with food. She pretty much ate the entire 3 hour flight! Good thing I packed lots of snacks! Then, we had to drive in some MORE snow in Akron, but finally made it home around 10:00 at night.

I really missed the girls and Brandon and I'm pretty sure that was the longest I had been away from them. Maddie especially had a really hard time. She had countless meltdowns and would call me on the phone crying and crying. I felt so bad for leaving her and if I go again to help my Mom, I think I will have to take her with me. She is just so sensitive and any change to her routine really traumatizes her! I went for a little walk on Saturday, and she had a meltdown b/c she thought I was leaving again....poor Maddie! Sammi missed me too, but it didn't really bother her that I wasn't there. She called me the one night after I hadn't talked to her all day and said "Mom, I'm just saying goodnight......goodnight" and hung up! ha! And I know the girls also did a lot of fun things with Daddy. They went out to eat and went to the movies and the library, among other things. And they made me lots of pictures on their new art easel. So, it wasn't all bad and I know Brandon appreciated having all that time with them.

Christmas 09

I have a lot of pictures to share, so sorry if you get bored! I guess I'll start with Christmas Eve!

This year we decided to go to Sammi's preschool's church, St. Paul's for the Christmas Eve service. Our church is now half n hour away and my family was going to the late service, so we decided it would be easiest to just go to church close to home. Plus some of our friends go to St. Paul's, so it was nice to see them. The service was all for the kids, pretty much done by the kids, so that was nice. Here are the girls all dressed up!

After church, my Mom, Dad and brother came over for a pizza dinner and to open presents. Sammi and Maddie opened these ones right away since they were pajamas for them to change into!

Abby opening her first present. I think it was a book. She didn't open too many after that. It was hard though keeping her out of every one else's presents once they were opened! She was into everything and being a little trouble maker as usual :)

Sammi and Maddie got scooters from Grandma and Grandpa! They were so excited and had to go try them in the garage right away, even though it was kind of cold out there.

And they were very excited to leave out their cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer. We won't tell them that later on, we found out our dog Ashley ate all of them!! We forgot to lock her up after we put them out! Thankfully, she didn't get sick after eating so many!

I won't get into all the details, but Christmas Eve with Grandma and Grandpa was very exciting and everyone got nice presents!

Christmas morning, we actually had to wake the girls up at 7:45! It was surprisingly very low key and quiet and just nice.

First, we went down to the family room to see what Santa left in our stockings. Abby was very excited about her first toothbrush! The girls got some little things socks, markers, stickers, candy and gum and were most excited about their spin toothbrushes! And of course a "belly button" orange was in each of our stockings as it has become tradition!

Then, we went to check out the presents under the tree and eat some donuts :)

Sammi, was so sweet and said that this was her favorite present.....a washcloth that I knitted for each of the girls!

And they got from Santa, a Barbie and the Three Musketeers doll, which was about the only thing they asked for! They don't look excited in the picture, but they were!

They also got an Art Easel from Santa along with some new art supplies. They both love this and I can see them spending a lot of time using it in the future.

Brandon got this biggest present this year....an Xbox 360! He was pretty shocked since I rarely go for big gifts like that. But, we have had the game cube for 8+ years and he has wanted one for a long time and we had the money for it this year...so I splurged and got it for him! Brandon likes the shooting games and football, but I also got a Family Game Night game that has all sorts of board games on it, so I will enjoy playing that Brandon. Anyways, Brandon got for me one of my favorite movies...Back to the Future! And I got new pajamas and slippers and a nice Lands End tote bag for my knitting things. Oh, and this knitting book which I am sooo excited about!

After presents, we relaxed and opened some of the boxes, then finished packing up for Harrisburg. We were a little nervous about the weather since they were calling for ice, but it seemed to be turning to rain, so we left on time around 12:00. The trip was not great though, with really high winds and fog and rain. And as it turns out, Abigail was developing a fever so she pretty much cried the whole way there. :(
But, we made it safely and as soon as we got there, we ate an enormous, wonderful meal with all of Brandon's family. It was nice that everyone could make it up and be together.
Then, we opened more presents! Maddie got this real life baby doll from Uncle Nate. It even wears real baby clothes! She of course loves it and takes very good care of it! And she got a baby My Little Pony from Aunt Vickie that she loves to take care of as well :)

I didn't post a picture of everything, but Sammi got a lot of really nice clothes and puzzles, the new Tinker Bell movie and a few other things from Pap Pap and Nana. And she got a Barbie that has a dog that walks from Aunt Vickie. They were very excited about that!
Brandon got the Transformers movie and a gift card and I got a really nice food processor that I wanted! And Abby got a cute ducky toy and some clothes. We also did a grab bag of dollar store items that was fun!
Here is a picture of some of the aftermath! It was very loud and chaotic, but also lots of fun.

Except for poor Abby, who had a temp of 103 after dinner. :( Poor thing was just so achy and miserable. She didn't sleep too good Friday night, but at least by Sat. her temperature had gone away.

Saturday, we just spent visiting and relaxing. Abigail was feeling a little better, although still tired. She just snuggled up to everyone! She doesn't even know Brandon's Uncle Jack and she just laid on him for a long time! She doesn't seem to have any strangeness and just gives so much love to everyone!

The girls had fun playing up in the loft with Nana

And also snuggled up and watched the Tinker Bell movie together! Even cousin Lily joined them for a little!

Nana likes to collect those things they sell at Hallmark every year that sing and dance and Abby just loved them! Sammi always enjoys them too, but it was cute watching Abby get excited about them and she even learned how to push the buttons to turn them on!

Last picture, I promise!! We tried to get all the cousins together for a picture! You can imagine how getting a 5, 3, 2 and 1 year old together would go :)

Saturday night, Abby had a hard time going to sleep and woke up with another night terror. (She had one last week during the week too). Maddie got them at her age too and I guess just the over stimulation and tiredness from being sick triggered it. Abby and I leave tomorrow for Denver, CO to see my family including my Grandma who is turning 90 years old! We will be gone till Friday and I am already missing my girls. It will be hard to be away from them and I am just hoping and praying Abby handles all this traveling ok. But, I am also excited to get away for a week and see my Grandma and other family. I guess my Grandma isn't doing too well and Brandon's Grandpa isn't doing too well either. So worrying about them put a little damper on the Holidays. But, we still very blessed to celebrate Christ's birth and are very thankful for all the blessings God has given us this year!

First snow

As you can imagine, the girls were very excited about the first big snowfall of the year! I was anxious to see how Abby would react since she obvious too little to notice it last year. And she loved it!! She was just thrilled with the snow and probably would have just sat there in it for a long time if I would have let her!

She thought the girls and Ashley running around in it were hilarious and so exciting!

Sammi and Maddie LOVED making snow angels! Even Maddie jumped in and lasted much longer than she did previous years!

And the girls had a blast having a snowball fight with Daddy! Ashely really enjoyed that too!

As we were playing outside, we got a little surprise! Santa came on the firetruck!! Abigail DID NOT like the sirens!! Poor baby!

Here comes Santa, Rudolph and an Elf! We were wondering if our new neighborhood would do Santa on the firetruck, so the girls were excited with this surprise! Tomorrow night, we are going to Grandma's house where he is coming again!

Sammi actually went up to Santa to get her candy cane. Maddie was a little shy, but took one from the Elf. And Abby just cried from all the noise!

The only bummer is our new yard doesn't have a hill for sledding. But, Grandma has a huge hill so we'll just go there for sled riding fun!