Holiday Pictures November 2010

Fall Fun

I love Fall and Winter. My two favorite seasons :) Below are two of the reasons I love having a house. Abby's first experience jumping in the leaves. Forgive the picture quality. Took these with my Camera phone.

Love the tongue sticking out :)

Blurry but I love this one :)

Being silly on the swings.

Joy just beams from her :)

Loving 4!

So I have had a four year old for a little over a week and I am loving it :) I swear she is four going on 14 though. On her birthday she was so cute. We were at the store and she would say."Do you think everyone knows that I am four today?" I would say no unless you tell them :) Her response, "You tell them!" She also wanted me to sing to her over and over :} The Monday after her birthday as we were getting in the car she asked me if I thought she would still fit in her car seat because, "You know Mom! I'm four now!" She has always been a talker but boy now she is even more chatty and if she isn't talking then she is singing :) She is taking ballet and loving it. She also loves to pretend to be an acrobat. This girl has abundant energy for sure! She is set to move up to the four year old class in January. She is more then ready. She wakes spouting letters. She loves to write and can name most all of the alphabet by sight. I got her a sight word learning DVD and she loves it. And if she isn't trying to write then she is coloring or crafting. My girl can craft for hours if you let her. Her imaginary brother is also still alive and well :) She has such an imagination too. She makes up story's and scenarios and always wants us to act them out. She can be quite dramatic at times. I see acting in her future I think. She is also quite opinionated. I love that about her and I love that she feels secure enough to stand her ground. And yes she can be frustrating too at times. When she is mad everyone knows it. Thankfully she does usually apologise on her own eventually. I could gush on but it's late. I have lots of pictures to share but unfortunately my hard drive crashed and I have a borrowed computer for now {Thank you Sissy!}. Praying the IT guys can save my pictures since I never backed them up... I did save my China photos to disks thankfully. Fingers crossed they save the rest for me!

And were back

Hi! Anyone still out there? Looks like about 3 months or so since my last post. Didn't mean to be gone so long. Seems like the longer away the harder it is to come back. We are fine though. Just busy living life these days :) Time seems to be moving at warped speed. We love our new house but owning a home sure adds to your chore list. It's unbelievable but my Abba will be turning 4 this Saturday the 13th!!! My baby is growing up way to fast. She continues to amaze me each and everyday :) November 5th marked our 3rd referral anniversary. I still remember that day like it was yesterday. Go here and here for a recap :) Such an incredible day that was! So I give you my Abba in all her glory :) How far she has come since that referral picture.

Catch up posts coming soon :)

Special dress

Abby posing in her special dress handmade by cousin Wendy. We love it but we love cousin Wendy even more :) Thank you XOXO

How I LOVE that smile!!!

Dinosaurs and more

We joined the Virginia Living Museum again this year and Abby loves it! Mommy loves that a good chunk of it is air conditioned. Currently they have a dinosaur exhibit for the summer. Here was our first visit earlier this summer. A little intimidating. They were pretty big and kind of loud. She wasn't sure what to think at first.

Curiosity won out though.

And she decided they were pretty cool.

Until we found some that had BIG teeth.

Then not so much.

Cave women on the loose.

Once we finished with the dinosaurs we moved on to the aquarium and Mommy's favorite the starfish.

Such cute and graceful little guys.

Being eye to eye with a turtle is pretty funny stuff!

I think they liked her.

Bummer. Her eyes were closed.

Much better.

Oyster shell path.

A makeup less Mommy and Abby with a big scratch (self inflicted) on her nose.

Pool time

It has been so blasted hot this summer. Way above average most of the days. The heat leaves doing anything for a considerable length of time outside impossible unless it involves water. Thankfully Meema and Da had their newly remodeled back yard up and running. Most importantly with a pool perfect for cooling off and fun fountain spouts in each corner. On this particular evening we had Atlanta family and Syracuse family in town making for some extra special fun :) Beautiful sunset on the York river.

Killy enjoys the pool just as much as the rest of the family :)

Handsome Joshua

My Abba

Loves the fountain spouts :)

Night Night :)

And she SWIMS!!!

Someone is now swimming! I'm so proud of Abby that I could bust :) We had a play date about a week ago with 2 little girls that Abby likes and looks up to. They are both pretty proficient in the water. The day after the play date Abby started jumping off the side and going under willingly. The day after that she was swimming with her face in the water. All this with her life jacket still on but still a huge step for her. Today she had her swimming lesson with instructor Miss Betty. And today she started doing even more this time WITHOUT her life jacket!!! GO Abby :)

She is really swimming and not touching the step at all :)