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. 

Happy Halloween

Some of you may remember that Colby thinks that Halloween should be celebrated only one day a year, on October 31st.  I, on the other hand, think it should be celebrated the entire month of October.  Apparently, Iowans agree with me.  As a general rule, Iowans are party animals when it comes to Halloween celebrations.  Here is a summary of our festivities (and I have to add,  because of my lack of energy this year, there were actually two events that we had planned to go to and didn't- party on Iowa)

Fall Festival

The local elementary school held their annual fall festival last Saturday.  Cambells and Fluhmans joined us for carnival games, cookie decorating and dinner.  The kids got to dress up in their Halloween costumes and had a great time.

Carter decorating his cookie.

Waiting in line to play carnival games.

Still more waiting in line (but all that waiting was worth all the candy and prizes).

Pumpkin Carving

For F.H.E. we carved Jack O 'Lanterns.  The boys designed their own faces, and both wanted "really scary" pumpkins.  As you can see, they were thrilled with the results.

Colby did most of our pumpkin carving this year...

With a little help from the boys cleaning out the pumpkin "guts."

Trunk or Treat

Our ward had a trunk or treat on the night before Beggars Night.  It was a fun night, with lots of candy!  We loved seeing all of the cute costumes.

There was some miscommunication about what time the trunk or treat started, you will be amazed to hear that we showed up at 5:50 and the trunk or treat didn't start until 6:30.  Ammon waited very patiently.

Beggar's Night

Iowans don't trick or treat on Halloween,  they actually go trick or treating on Oct. 30- or Beggar's night.  I think it's a strange tradition, but the kids didn't seem to mind (it's candy either way, right?)  The Nance's came and joined us for dinner, then we headed out for some serious trick or treating.  We lucked out and had beautiful weather this year for Beggar's night (I am hoping this nice weather continues for a couple more weeks!)

Our little spider.

Ironically enough,  Oct 31st was the only night this past week that we didn't celebrate Halloween.   I guess we know who wears the pants in this family!  We hope you all had a wonderful October and a great Halloween.  I, for one, am excited that it is finally November!

Crazy Eights

I've been tagged by my friend Sara:

Eight TV shows I like to watch:

1. Grey's Anatomy

2. The Office

3. CSI

4. Law and Order

5. The King of Queens

6. Seinfield

7. Super Why

8. Sid the Science Kid

Eight Resturaunts where I like to eat:

1. Costa Vida

2. Wingers

3. Cool Basil

4. Texas Roadhouse

5. Mimi's Cafe

6. Sweet Tomatoes

7. Applebees

8. Panera Bread

Eight Things that happened today (this will be boring, because it's only 1 pm)

1. Made breakfast

2. Walked Ammon to the bus stop

3. Learned how to make eggrolls at cooking club (and they were awesome, by the way)

4. Ate lunch with Colby (he actually authorized a visit to the school, which happens about once a year!)

5. Took Carter to Preschool

6. Reattached the velcro to Carter's Halloween costume

7. Read my email

8. Did the dishes

Eight things I am looking forward to:

1. Halloween (and Beggar's night)

2. November 7th

3. Colby's parents to visit

4. My parents to visit

5. Thanksgiving

6. Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving

7. Christmas

8. Colby's graduation

Eight things on my wish list:

1. A foot massage (hint, hint, Colb)

2. A healthy baby 

3. Not to have to go back to work

4. Healthy kids

5. A house

6. A yard

7. To be able to be with family for Christmas

8. To be able to be with Colby his fourth year of school

Eight people I tag:

1. Kristen

2. Kami

3. Melanie

4. Lisa

5. Jen

6. Michelle

7. Marcie

8. Crystal

Fall Fun

Last night, Nances invited us over to continue the tradition of making haunted houses.  We had a great chili/soup/bread dinner and had a blast decorating our houses.  Thanks Zack and Lisa!  We got great pictures of the Paynes, Ellis and Pinegres, but somehow didn't get a picture of our great hosts (I think they were keeping busy preparing frosting and cleaning!)

This week, Carter got to ride on a school bus for the first time! We went to the pumpkin patch with his preschool class, and he had so much fun!  The highlights of the trip were seeing the farm animals, playing in the corn and on the pile of hay and picking out his own little pumpkin.

We love fall!  We are enjoying every minute of this fun season.