Day 140 - Smile Simon

Tonight we had our friends the Buccambuso's over for dinner. We had a good time chatting this evening. I took a couple of snapshot's of their little boy Simon.

Day 139 - Bedtime Story

I was shooting some more pics of Abby at bedtime tonight. This time I caught some of her pulling her books off the shelf and putting them back on. I think this picture says so much... look at that serious expression.

Day 138 - My Beautiful Girl

Tonight I was taking some pictures of Abby at bath time and bedtime for a board book I'm working on for her. I was switching different functions on the camera and shot this photo. The flash is a bit bright on her face, but I think it makes her eyes really come out.

Day 137 - Stuffed

Abby has become notorious for stuffing as much in her mouth as humanly possible. She especially likes to shovel in large pieces. While eating today, I was telling her to chew and I smacked my lips which made her smile. I had no idea she had her mouth completely full of large chunks of food. It was so cute.

Day 136 - Maiden of Mischief Strikes Again

Today before FHE, I was sitting on the couch while Abby was entertaining herself. At first I didn't notice anything, but then I heard her signature concentration growl. When I looked over, I saw her pulling out Kleenex's from the Kleenex box. Each Kleenex had it's own growl. It cracked me up!

Day 135 - Home Again

Back home... time to unpack. This is what it looks like when you come home and you need to find one thing in your bag. I'm glad to be home, though we miss our family.

Day 133 - Abby's Birthday Cake

Since we were here in Arizona with some of our family, we had a little birthday celebration for Abby so they could participate. Abby opened up a few presents and dug into some chocolate cake. She went for the icing first!

Day 132 - Happy 1st Birthday Ellie!

Today is Ellie's First Birthday. We celebrated with a cake and candle. The big party is on Saturday. Unfortunately, Abby and I have to leave on Friday, so we will miss the Shindig, but we got to see Ellie officially turn one year older today.

Day 130 - Cookie Complications

We arrived in Arizona today to visit with Abby's cousin Ellie. Ellie turns 1 this week and we are all pretty excited about it! Ellie and her family just moved into a new house so we were helping with some unpacking. We unpacked a lot of kitchen stuff and I decided to make some cookies. Turns out though, that many of the ingredients were a little old, so our cookies were a little different than usual, but still good!

Day 129 - Stair Climber

Abby is getting sneaky. She keeps heading up the stairs when I'm not looking, even when I think I have them suffeicently blocked. Earlier this week we had an estimate done to get a wall and built in bookshelf put up so the stair case is not an open death trap for our baby.

Abby is getting sneaki

Day 128 - Experimental Photo

I've been trying to learn how to better use my camera lately. One of the things I have a hard time with are the close up pictures. I've learned that closeups work better when you are father away.

Day 127 - Peek-A-Boo

Abby has started playing Peek-A-Boo on her own. Today she picked up her blanket and was hiding her face then giving me a cheesy grin. It's so cute. It's amazing how fast she is developing.

Day 126 - Little Girl in a Big Chair

Abby is finally getting a little big for her bumbo (a very little, it's taking just a little effort to squeeze her legs in the holes). Today I pulled out the high chair the Wells gave us when Abby was a few weeks old. It's so big, Abby looks like the chair is eating her whole.

Day 125 - 11 Months Already

Today Abby turned 11 months old. Just one more month and I will have a 1 year old on my hand. I'm not sure how I feel about that! I've been wanting to do some outside pictures for a while, and today it was finally nice enough to go down the park and take pics.

Day 123 - An Apple a Day

I gave Abby an apple I had been working on and next thing I know she had it almost gone. She started from the top of the core and worked her way down eating everything! I was so shocked... I had no idea she enjoyed apples so much.

Day 122 - Joshie Bear

Joshie Bear has taken a side seat since Abby joined our family. I used to sleep with him every night, but since I've had my little Abby girl, I haven't needed his cuddles as much. He still has a special place in my heart.

Day 121 - Potion of Healing

Steve and I were talking about starting to take it easy on our soda pop intake. I still had a few bottles of IBC Rootbeer in the fridge and he made a joke about treating them as potions of healing and drinking them only when I really felt stressed. Made me think of Alice in Wonderlands magic treats... so I created a little message on Heritage Makers and took a photo.

Day 120 - Tech Savy

Lately, Abby has been very interested in my phone. She loves to push all the buttons and it's especially humorous when she starts her concentration growl.

Day 119 - Shovel It In

Abby has been having a great time eating. She really loves to feed herself, especially carrots, bannana's, strawberries, and avocado. Tonight for dinner; peas and carrots.

Day 118 - In Bloom

Abby and I took a nice long walk around the block. I've been working on helping her to fall asleep in other places than in my arms, and one of those places is her stroller. On our way around the neighborhood, we spotted the tree's in bloom.

Day 116 - Weed Encroachment

The dandelions are starting to sneak up in the yard. These things are so insidious and drive me nuts. With this photo, I'm working on my vegetation closeup.

Day 115 - Jumping Poses

We have a new addition to our Family Home Evening group, so it's time to do a new wheel. We decided to have a little fun with our pictures so we went out back of the Anderson's house and took pictures of us all jumping on the trampoline. We got some great photos!

Day 114 - Joshie's Legacy 4th Annual March

This year was our 4th year to participate in the March for Babies fundraiser. And it was Abby's first year. This is a family activity we partcipate in every year to celebrate the short life of our Son Joshua. I love Abby's Little Sister onsie. This year Katie & Hayden Rossman, Jenn & Bailey Sadler, and Kari & Simon Buccambuso walked with us.

Day 113 - What's That?

Abby and I took a walk down to the park today. There are some really nice park benches that I thought would be a great prop for a photo. Abby got a little distracted by a squirrel as I snapped this shot.

Day 112 - Family Cookbook

Today I started working on remaking a Family Cookbook I put together about 9 years ago. I've been planning on this ever since Heritage Makers came out with our new Spiral Bound Cookbook last year. The new version will be a Mother's Day gift from my Dad to my Mom, his mom, and his sister.

Day 111 - Front Yard Wildlife

My next door neighbor has a neat cement seat in the shape of a large turtle. I thought it would be cool to capture him in his natural habitat. Our grass is getting pretty long, so Mr. Turtle is hiding out.