Christmas Vacation 2008

After weeks of debating, checking weather.com on a daily basis and getting teared up whenever "I'll Be Home For Christmas" came on the radio, we decided to make the long trek to Utah for the holidays.  We traveled 17 hours across 3 state lines, through the smallest town in the U.S. and over the continental divide with three kids in tow (and that's a lot harder than over the river and through the woods), but we finally made it to Grandmother's house(s) and we were so glad that we did.  Here are the highlights (and probably way too many pictures, but I had a hard time narrowing it down.)

*New Christmas jammies*Early Christmas with the kids* Packing in a hurry*The Hotel in Grand Island, Nebraska*Doughnuts from Walmart*

*Hanging out with Grandpa* Playing Rockband *Meeting new cousins*Bandaids and Candy Canes from the information desk at the mall*

*Playing in the snow with cousins*A snowball fight with Dad and Uncle Scott*Homemade hot chocolate*

*Being held non-stop*Twilight*Classic family fun center*Costa Vida*Singing Bon Jovi on the Wii*

*Decorating Christmas cookies with Grandma*Shopping with 3 kids at Old Navy*Attempting to go to Quilted Bear with 5 kids*Family Pictures in the Snow*

Madagascar 2*Abbi's first Christmas morning*Christmas bread*Homemade Christmas candy*

Christmas dinner on the farm*Playing with 2nd cousins*Skiing*

*Girl's Night Out*Marley and Me*"Great" service at Z-tejas*Staying out until 2 am*

*Breakfast at Granny Annies*Visiting Grandma & Grandpa Cisney*Skiing again*Checkerboard gumdrops*X-box tournament*

*Riding Frontrunner*Racing Go Carts*Pedicures with the girls*Mamma Mia*Lunch with friends*

*Wrestling with cousins*Wingers*Playing in the snow again*Training Table*Playing "don't break the ice"*Seeing Crystal's cute pregnant belly*

*Going in Grandma's Attic*Chuck E Cheese*Going to Bedtime Stories*Red Robin*Abbi's baby blessing*(more pics to come!)

The Dark Knight on Blu Ray*The T-shirt game*Falling asleep at 11:45 on New Year's Eve*Trying to convince the boys to leave Utah and come back to Iowa (they had too much fun!)*

We had a great trip and can't wait to go back to Utah this Summer!

Two Months Old

It is hard to believe that Abbi is already two months old.  She is growing so fast!  She is such a good baby and we love having her in our family.  Here are a few of her most recent "tricks."

Sitting in the Bumbo chair that Santa brought for her.

Her first pigtails (barely!)

I know that everyone thinks this about their kids but seriously,  

have you ever seen such a cute baby?

Icestorms and Guinea pigs

Over the last couple of years I  have become very familiar with the Midwestern icestorms, and how they can shut down the entire town. It is not uncommon for work to be cancelled,restaurants to shut down or church to be cancelled. One thing I have not had experience with is the school closing procedures.  No one ever told me that if there is an icestorm in the forecast, (but at the present time it is clear outside), they will cancel school, put your 5 year old on a bus and send him home 2 hours early without contacting you.  As a mom, you are supposed to sit home and watch the news and wait for them to post a message that scrolls across the bottom of you television telling you which schools have been cancelled.  Had I known any of this, I would have been home yesterday at 2:00 instead of out trying to get some last minute Christmas shopping done.  I also would not have received a phone call from my very nice neighbor telling me that there was a little boy sitting outside on my front porch in the freezing cold.  Needless to say, today I feel like the world's worst mom.  I am just grateful that Ammon was very calm and collected about the whole situation, I am grateful that I made him memorize my cell phone number and I am grateful that he remembered it.  Thank you to my annonomous neighbor who was kind enough to help Ammon, thank you to Brittany for letting Ammon come to your house until I could get home and thank you to Tausha for explaining to me why Ammon was home at 2:30 instead of 4:00. Sometimes I feel like this whole parenting thing is a big experiment and I have been given three little guinea pigs to test my methods on.  Poor little Ammon gets to be the one who tests out everything first. Sorry buddy. I think I have school cancellations figured out now.

Redundancy

I know I have posted many, many times about the cold winters here in Iowa; but I still can't get over how freezing it is here.  This morning it was negative 3 degrees with a windchill of negative 25.  I thought I was going to get frostbite just walking Ammon to the bus stop.  Good thing I had Ammon all bundled up. (we also added gloves, boots and his coat hood.)

The good news is, by 1:00 this afternoon it is supposed to warm up to 1 degree. Something tells me they are going to cancel first recess again.

I have to add to this post that I just discovered that our heater is broken.  Of all the days for a heater to break.  It is 58 degrees in here, and dropping. We may be going to the mall today.

Smiling!

Abbi has officially started smiling this week.  I had to take about 20 pictures to get one of her smiling, thank heavens for digital cameras!  

When I first got the camera out she got really serious.

Then she started screaming.  I guess we'll have to postpone this photo shoot until tommorow.

That's almost a smile...

Finally,  there it is! 

  Mom is also smiling today because Abbi slept for 5 hours last night,  Hurray!  Now if only she could make a habit out of that...

Little Miss Crazy Hair

Our little Abbi has a lot of hair (for a little peanut) and it is naturally curly.  I haven't quite figured out how to get it to cooperate.  I do know that she already needs "hair product"  (i.e. moose, gel or hairspray) and that it looks much better with a bow or headband.  Still, her hair is pretty crazy and you never know what you're going to get.  Here are a couple of her "do's."

Headband aftermath.

Her first barrette (which barely stayed in).

Rockstar baby.

Colby likes to call this one "the Bernice."

Beanie baby.

Those crazy curls right out of the bathtub.

Colby has told me a couple of times, "you can do better than that!"  I hope eventually I will get the "girl hair" thing figured out!  Until then,  I'm sure having fun experimenting.

The windshield factor

Iowa is cold.  Somehow, even though this is our third Winter here, I had forgotten how cold it gets.  So, how cold does it get?  This was Ammon's comment at dinner last night....

"They had to cancel first recess today because there was a windshield of six..

(after pausing for a moment)... I don't even know what that means."

A windshield of six. Now that's cold.

It's always fun when Grandpa comes, when Grandma comes- HURRAY!

For the past week, we have been lucky enough to have Grandma and Grandpa Stewart visiting us.  Grandma and Grandpa came to Iowa to meet Abbi and to spend Thanksgiving with us.  We had a great time!  We spent lots of time hanging out, eating, shopping and playing.  We were sad to see them leave.

Abbi got lots of attention and was held constantly!

The boys spent lots of time with G & G wrestling, playing, talking, watching movies, and just hanging out.  Having both sets of Grandparents visit this month has been great, but it has led to more than one request to "move back to Utah." 

Thanksgiving day was a riot!  Unfortunately, I didn't have the stamina this year to cook a homemade feast.  We had dinner at the Marriot (which was excellent food- almost as good as mine!) and took the kids to see Bolt in 3D afterwards.  I was kind of sad to miss out on a home cooked Thanksgiving dinner, but it was sooo nice not to spend the day cooking and cleaning.

Saturday we went swimming at the YMCA.

I even got to take a couple of naps while G & G played with the kids.  

My parents braved the portrait studio with me and we took all three kids to get their pictures taken.  I thought Abbi looked like a little doll in her Christmas dress. (The boys also looked very handsome, but I didn't get a great picture of them)

They also braved the cold to walk Ammon to the bus stop in the morning.  I don't know who was more excited about this,  me or Ammon.

Thanks Mom and Dad for the fun visit and the great Thanksgiving.  We would love to have you come back any time.

I have been blessed.

This past week I have been overwhelmed with all the blessings I have received from my Father in Heaven.  I am so grateful that I have been trusted with three beautiful children and that they are all in good health.  I am grateful for my wonderful husband and for everything that he does for our family.  I have been amazed at the support we have received from family, friends, neighbors and ward members.  We have had so many meals brought over, had help getting the boys too and from school, and received phone calls offering help with the kids. Susan helped stock our kitchen and freezer, did laundry and cleaned the house so that I wouldn't have to play "catch up" after she left.  I am also grateful that I am recovering quickly from the c-section and feel much better physically than I expected to.  I was very nervous to have a baby away from all of our family and our "home," but having little Abbi out here has been such a witness to me that our Heavenly Father watches over and cares for his children.  I have no doubt that I have been blessed.

Picture disclaimer:   After looking at these pictures I realized that Abbi is naked in all of them. I guess I should point out that we have LOTS of fun, girly clothes for her, but until yesterday she was on the billi lights and we couldn't really get her dressed.  There will be many more pictures coming of our clothed baby girl.

Coming Home

Monday afternoon,  Abbi and I were able to come home from the hospital.  It is so nice to be home with our little sweetheart. 

One of the first orders of business was to put a bow in Abbi's hair. (The bow is not actually as big as it looks- she just has a tiny head!)

Grandma got these hat and mittens for Abbi to wear home from the hospital.  She was nice and warm!

Ammon and Carter were excited to share their stuffed animals with her.  They have been so sweet and such good helpers with their little sister.

We were so lucky to have Grandma Frost here to welcome us home.  She even braved the Iowa freeways in the rain to take us to the doctor and to have some blood work done.  We were so sad to have her leave yesterday.

Abbi has been on the "billi lights" the last couple of days.

Although we don't like having to lay her in her crib so often, she did sleep ALOT better last night than on Monday night when she wasn't on the billi lights. 

We think she looks like a little glow baby.

We are so excited to have our little angel home with us.  We are so grateful for her and for everything that we have been blessed with.

Abbi

Our little Abigail arrived on November 7 at 8:33 am.

She weighed 8 lbs. 5 oz. and was 20 inches long.

We are all so excited that she is finally here!

Our family (wow, three kids!)

Mommy and Abbi in their matching oxygen masks.

I guess having a lot of heartburn during pregnancy does mean a baby with lots of hair!

Mom finally got to hold Abbi after she was monitored in the nursery all morning.



Daddy's little girl.



Our first family picture with baby sister.

Carter is such a proud big brother!

Ammon adores his little sister.

As soon as I got a chance, I had to put Abbi in a pink outfit and put a little bow in her hair. This sweet little girl already has us wrapped around her little finger!

Some exciting news!

Ammon lost his first tooth last night!  He was so excited.  When his tooth first became loose he very candidly asked Colby if the tooth fairy is real.  Colby replied,  "what do you think?"  Ammon said, "I think it's just made up."  Rather than try to convince Ammon that there is a tooth fairy Colb said, "you're right, buddy, Mom and Dad just leave money under your pillow." Knowing this information,  Ammon was not in a hurry to put his tooth under his pillow last night.  Instead, he is keeping it in a tupperware to show Grandpa Frost when he gets to Iowa today (dentists like things like that).  I wouldn't be surprised if Ammon opts to keep his tooth in the tupper ware indefinitely rather than trade it in for money (he tends to be a pack rat!)

In other exciting news,  today is my last day of pregnancy!

I am going in tomorrow morning for a c-section.  We will keep you posted.

I know, I am huge!

It's a good thing I'm almost done- I don't think my clothes (or my belly) could possibly stretch any more.