Please vote for us at Australia zoo's website

Hey! We just posted a video called "Crocodile In Hunter In Training Academy" on Australia Zoo's website so that we can win a trip there. You have no idea how much it would mean to me if anyone seeing this can go on and vote for us and rate us. You can vote once a day from now until June 20th. You can only rate once. You must register to vote as they want to make sure it is fair. Please, please, please!!!!! This has been my dream for over 10 years!! Once you see it you can add it to your favorites which will make it easier to view every day. And please rate it as well... a 5!!! The rating may be what helps us the most. It only takes a few minutes. Thanks everyone!! The link on the top of our blogs/links on the right is for the Australia zoo contest page. Here is the video to look for:

Abi

Since I love animals so much (except for rodents that is) I really want Abi to be an animal lover. For her first birthday we had given her the Fisher Price AtoZ Learning zoo which she still just loves. She plays with the zoo itself sometimes but mostly just plays with the animals. They end up all over her room. The really fun thing to do is sit in her room with them lined up and she will name off all the animals. I must admit to feeling extremely proud when she says "nightingale" and "uriel". She knows all of them. BUT the best, in our opinion, are the ones that have a unique name. She has started calling the X ray fish "Rainbow Fish" ever since she saw the cartoon. She calls zebras "zebrabras" and Flamingos (this is our favorite) "Flangeroos" We don't know why she started doing this but we think it is so funny.
On another note, today I showed her a stop sign and said what color is this. She said "Red" and I said "What does it say?" This is easy. She knows this. She paused. I asked again. She said "It's Octagon". Wow. I've told her that but didn't know she had taken it in yet. We have so much fun with our little Abigail!

Abigail's New Room

I was going to paint Abi's room blue with clouds and a sunshine and a castle but Doug finally admitted to me that he didn't like that idea so we decided on stripes. We had no idea what a project we were taking on. We wanted pink and green and spent a lot of time trying to find the perfect colors that would look okay with her quilt but also with some of her old "baby" room stuff. This was hard. We finally used the dress she was wearing at the time as inspiration and got two colors that matched the pink and green on the dress. Doug spent hours yesterday drawing the lines all over the room and then taping. We painted the pink first and then had to remove all the tape and Doug re-taped while I tried to get Abi to sleep downstairs. She was crying and so sad. She wanted to go to sleep in "mine own bed!" We had moved her mattress downstairs and we all had a slumber party in the family room. So, then we painted the green. Doug did an amazing job of drawing and taping so the lines are as close to perfect as I think you can get the first time you paint anything. This is the first time I have ever lived in a house with painted walls. I was very nervous last night. We were up until 1:30 am finishing up but we are pretty pleased with the results. The colors are a lot brighter than I was expecting but I think they are still fun and Abi loves it. I plan on adding some flowers painted onto the bottom green section over the next few weeks some time as well as some kind of something over her bed... not sure what yet. So, it is a work in progress, but here are some pictures of it now.

My new favorites....

Well, I've covered Abi's love of all things Little Einsteins so I thought I'd post about something that has recently become a favorite of mine. Last November, while checking out Seagull book.com I saw a book cover that intrigued me. It was for a book called Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I clicked on it to see what it was and found out it was written by an LDS author about vampires. Eh? I have always liked vampires- I was a huge fan of the tv show Buffy the Vampire Slayer and own all 7 seasons on DVD- but it surprised me that an LDS bookstore was selling something about vampires. So, I checked it out at the library. I was sucked in! By mid December I had read it again and got the box set from B&N for my Christmas present, which of course I couldn't wait until Christmas to read. I have now read Twilight 3 times, New Moon twice, and Eclipse twice and am about to read them again since one of my friends picked Twilight for our book club pick for July. I am waiting for the fourth in the series to come out in August. I have also just got her new book The Host for Mothers Day and am almost done with it. It is very different from Twilight but I love it. It reminds me of an early Micheal Crichton (one of my other favorite authors) book. So, I am a member of Twilightmoms.com where almost 6,000 women and some men that are either over 25, married, or moms (if not all of the above) join to talk about all things Twilight and Stephenie Meyer. It has been on there that I have been able to follow the making of the movie for Twilight which is coming out in December. They have changed some things but for the most part have really seemed to try to stick to the story. Stephenie was even very involved in it. Anyway, I am really happy with the cast and I am so excited for this movie! I have attached at the very short teaser trailer to the bottom of my blog!! So there you have it. I, a thirty one year old mother, have become obsessed with a young adult series involving vampires and I'm not even ashamed!

Abi's first visit to the ER

Friday night was like any other. Doug was helping the missionaries make some invitations on the computer, I was in our room writing and got a call from a friend. As I was talking to her I heard Abi start to cry but it sounded like a normal cry so I figured I would just check on her in a minute. Then I hear Doug yell that she is bleeding. He came running into our room with her and there was blood all over her face and head and pajamas. I freaked. The worst injury she has ever had was a skinned knee a few days ago so the sight of blood running down her face about did me in. I took her to her bathroom and washed off the blood as much as I could so that I could see the injury. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but I still felt like it needed stitches. Doug wasn't sure that it did. After much consultation and talking back and forth I decided to go with my gut and take her to the hospital. Since we had never experienced this before I didn't know where I should take her. So, I called the hospital and asked. They told me to bring her to the ER. I asked if they took our insurance. They did. So off we went. I was feeling a little silly wondering if they would take one look at her and say "Take her home, it's fine." But they actually took a look at it and took us right back before the other people waiting. So she got weighed, checked and then they gave me some antiseptic gauze to hold on to her head and took us to a room to wait for the doctor. He took forever but finally came in. He said he would use this glue stuff instead of stitches and went to get it. Abi had to be wrapped up cocoon style in a blanket so that he could glue it shut and then seal it and she couldn't move. She was so sad it almost made me cry too. We had to stay there until it dried and get some paperwork and then were able to go home where Abi got a jelly bean and a small cup of "lemonade" (really pineapple fanta) that I promised her if she would let the doctor help her. They told me it was good we brought her in because it would have had a high risk of infection if we had just bandaged it up as well as left a nasty scar. So, she is doing well now. We had to wake her up a few times during the night to make sure she acted normal, we can't let her get wet for a few days, and we have to be careful not to let her bump it for a few days to keep it from opening back up. Doug and I have been uber paranoid. I mean, I am anyway but you should see the two of us following her around keeping our little climber from getting up on stuff. As far as we could tell she had fallen off her dresser onto a little bedside table that she had turned upside down and hit her head on one of the legs. I did find a blood soaked ball cap in her room yesterday morning which led us to believe that she was luckily wearing it when she fell and the hard front of the cap got the brunt of it so that it wasn't worse than it was. This is one life experience I hope we don't have to go through again any time soon!!

Mothers Day photo shoot

In prep for Mothers day Abi and I spent the morning having a photo shoot. I wanted a new picture of her to frame and Walgreens is having a free 8X10 special today only. So, we had a great time running around in the yard and across the street by the pond. These are some of the extra pics that I'm not getting made into the 8X10 but really loved.

Abi's Favorite

Abi has loved the Little Einsteins since the first time she saw it over a year and a half ago. She couldn't even talk yet and would dance along with the song and get so happy when it came on. This is one love that has lasted. Now she sings along with it, dances, and has parts memorized. When Doug got home from his business trip to San Francisco last weekend he surprised us both with the whole set of plush characters. Abi loves them so much. When she comes upstairs, they come with her. When she goes downstairs, they go with her. When she watches the show, they sit next to her and she has them talk and dance with the show. She sleeps with them. It is so cute.

Picking My Battles

Yesterday was a "terrible two" day. Abi was cranky and belligerent all day long. It seemed like everything was a fight which is really abnormal. So, after nap when it was time to go outside and play until daddy came home.... I decided to let her win a battle and go outside in just her pull up. I was tired of saying no and tantrums. So, I said to myself "Don't sweat the small stuff" and let her play. I know, I know. Totally out of character for me. But, she had fun. We got a long. All is well.

My Book Club

I have wanted to be in a book club for a really long time, but finding one and the time for it hasn't been as easy. So, a few months ago I put the idea out there to a few family members that I was thinking about starting an online book club. It quickly grew to about a dozen potential members and so we each picked a book and I set up the first years book list. From there Doug made me a discussion forum website to make discussing books and other things long distance easy. Now that the first month is here and the website is going, I am so excited about it. It is so fun to log on to the site and find others have been on and registered, written an introduction, or responded to a question. If anyone reading this doesn't know about the bookclub yet and wants to join go to storysorority.com!! It's going to be really fun.