Up

Yesterday afternoon Doug suggested we go on a little family outing so we headed up to a theater to see Up. Abi was so excited. I did my usual sneakiness and brought along some home popped popcorn and drinks... shameful I know.
Abi did great during the show. It kept her attention and entertained her. It was so much fun. We all liked the movie. It's one of my favorites I've seen in a while.
One of my pet peeves the past few years is how every animated movie seems to have either (or both) some huge message in it (like Happy feet- which I thought was really cute until I got the 15 minute presentation on Global Warming at the end.) or really inappropriate humor because they think us adults can't enjoy a kids movie without that thrown in. Those two things drive me nuts.
This had neither. It was great. It was funny, heartwarming, and just visually fun to watch.

Later last night after we got home Doug was upstairs on the computer and Abi and I were downstairs. She went up to visit him and came down with his bowl of gummy bears. He didn't even notice she had stole it from him until he came down and saw her with it. It was pretty funny. But the best thing was that I saw one more crazy quirk I seem to have passed on to my kid. I cannot eat candy that has different colors in it without sorting them into the colors and then eating them in such a way that I end up with one of each.
So, I look over at Abi and see this....

Wow. She is mini me.

The Runner

Friday morning it was finally nice and sunny so Abi and I went over to the track I like to walk on for a little walk. She did almost a mile herself before she wanted to get in the stroller for the rest of the time.
She actually ran the whole thing. She would run until she was a bit a head of me and then stop and wait for me to catch up and then run again.
Sometimes she runs with great form, other times she runs a little like Phoebe on Friends. It is very entertaining.

Our Baby Kitty

You all know about Abi's many imaginary friends. Her new thing is pretending to be a baby kitty. She sometimes becomes "Fluffy"- a little white cat. When this happens she becomes very snuggly and talks in meows an a very high voice. If you forget and call her Abi during this time she will not answer you or will remind you her name if Fluffy.

Saturday

Saturday Abi had her second Primary activity. While we waited for Doug we played outside for a few minutes. She made a dandelion home for a Polly Pocket.
I think this has been one of my favorite of her outfits she has put together by herself.

They had a really cute "build an eternal family" theme. Abi had so much fun. She saw us once before we left and freaked out because she thought we were there to take her home and she didn't want to go. I took this picture of her when it was over with her loot.

That night we got together with some friends for a BBQ and games. Abi had so much fun playing on their swing set and trampoline that when it was pretty much too dark to see outside she was still the last kid out there.
At one point she wanted to play dress ups so she and Alissa went down in their basement to play. I snuck down to get a picture which made Abi really mad.

The guys played Bocci ball (don't know if that's how it's spelled) for a while and then we all played board games while the kids played. It was such a fun evening.

Do you Buzz?

A while back I came across a blog called The Buzz where they post about all sorts of good deals and freebies.(The Buzz) Through the link on that blog I became a Bzz Agent which means that every once in a while I get sent something for free to review.
My first item was a Glade motion detecting air freshener. It is great and hangs in Abi's bathroom.
This week I got these razors....

So, if you like getting free stuff... check it out.

Liar Liar Pants on Fire

Just so this isn't another picture free post.. here is another picture from Abi's photo shoot a few weeks ago.

So, on to the story.
Abi and I were not getting along tonight. She wasn't listening to anything I said to her. She wouldn't do anything I told her to do. I was crankier than usual. We were both tired. None of this mixes well. I was mean mom.
So, I decided that tonight was the night she needed an early bedtime. I put her in bed and tried to rub her back. This will usually work after a few minutes of struggle. Not so.
Finally Doug came in and I told him to put her to sleep and went downstairs. A few minutes later he came down and told me she was fast asleep.
"How?" I asked. She does fall asleep quickly once she stops fighting it but it's usually me that gets that done.
"I counted to 200."
This is a trick that worked once.
I was finally at ease, able to relax. I was working on some trip plans and see movement out of the corner of my eye. In comes Abi still in her pj's but with a tutu on and a headband on her head hippie style.
I brought her up to show Doug that she tricked him-she does this sometimes and he didn't believe me when I told him that once.
So, he calls her a little trickster and I take her into her room. She is playing with her Little People. I told her she was supposed to be asleep since by this time it is a half hour past her real bedtime. She says,
"But daddy said I could play with them."
"Really? He told me you were asleep."
She gave me a sheepish grin.
So I came to our room with her following behind.
"So, Doug. Did you lie to me when you said Abi was asleep?"
At this point Abi busts up laughing in the hallway and Doug starts chuckling.
"Is that her?"
"She told on you."
"Yes." he admitted.

Eye Dr. Fumble

Funny story. Hopefully you won't mind another picture free post. Last night I had to go to the eye doctor to 'finalize' my prescription for contacts... never had to do that before but whatever. Anyway, he was asking me about how many kids I have and told me he had a lady come in the other day that had 6 kids under 10 and talked about how hard that would be. Then he said, " I mean, what are you, a Mormon?" It caught me off guard and I just started laughing.
"Well, I've only got 1 1/2 and I'm a mormon."
"You are? Seriously?" He looked so shocked.
We went on to discuss being Mormon and the misconceptions people have.
He even asked if we were 'allowed' to use birth control.
I just thought it was so funny.

Imaginary Friends

Abi has been on quite a kick the last few months of having imaginary friends/creatures. A few months ago it was the Easter bunny. She would talk about it, show me where it was, and feed it things.
Then it became a crocodile. Poor Alisse would come over for school and Abi would ask her if she wanted to pet the crocodiles. Alisse would say "Where?" and Abi would then show her the croc family living under the coffee table while Alisse looked at her like she had lost it.
So, we've gone through many, many of these friends lately. Her newest one is Abigail. Yes, she has an imaginary friend that is exactly like her with the same name. Today she fell asleep for a nap (shocking!) and the first thing she asked me when she woke up was if Abi was locked in her room upstairs and she ran up to check.

Model Girl

We left early the next morning and went to the lake where I was able to get pictures in the sailor dress and then we drove to an old girls boarding school by the lake and went back to their garden and pier for the other dress. It was so much fun. Afterward we celebrated with a breakfast picnic.My main reason for this photo shoot was to get some pics to send to the Grandma's for Mothers Day. Here are a few of my favorites....

Mothers Day Swap reveal!

This was such a fun swap for me. I pulled out my mom's name and my sister got me so it was a huge family thing. I had so much fun putting together the package for my mom.
I got the package from my sister a little over a week ago and had to open it to get out a dress she sent for Abi that Courtney had outgrown and so I decided to set out the things inside on the table. I wanted to open them so bad! But I did wait until this morning.
Look how pretty they looked on the table!

Here is all the swap package goodness!

She had fun little tags hooked on to everything.
Her favorite things....
1. Scrapbook supplies to use for tropical type vacations (her favorite thing to do and place to go)
2. A gardening shovel and seeds- can't wait to use these and actually have some flowers in our yard!
3. Popcorn in a cute little popcorn box- one of my favorites too!
4. A manicure set and french manicure polish! Yay!!
5. Giant Chewy Nerds- I already ate them a little while ago
6. Diet Pepsi- yep I drank this already too. It was the first one I've had in 3 months so it was so good.
7.A copy of LDS Living Magazine because she loves living LDS- I love this magazine too so was really happy to get this as well
8. Some yummy gum
9. Some Utah truffles because she loves Utah- can't wait to try these!
10. A temple recommend holder with her favorite picture of Jesus on the cover
11. A really great book she made with Mormon ads to use for a church book
12. A notepad for making lists
13. A really sweet Sisters plaque
14. A magnetic picture frame for the fridge with a picture of her family
and 15. some really cute white flip flops..
It was such a fun package and I love everything Steph!! Thanks!

So what did all of you get? I was going to use Mr. Linky below to link to your pages but I couldn't get it to work so just comment on here once you have your post done and I will add a list of links on the bottom of this post. Thanks again everyone for taking part in this. I hope you all had fun. I can't wait to see what everyone got!!
Happy Mothers Day!

Check out what Julie J. got here. She also posted what she sent since Brinn has a private blog!

Jinii posted about her package here. It is a private blog so if you are not one of the readers here is a picture of what she got: Brinn sent her her favorite things to take to the pool!

Check out what Stephanie W. got here.

Check out what Amy B. got here.

Check out what Stephanie F. got here.

Check out what Tanya got here.

Wendy's blog is private but here is a picture of what Jamie sent her. She loved it!

Check out what Janna got here.

Check out what Julie V. got here.

Check out what Karen got here.

Check out what Marcia got here.

Happy Mothers Day!!

First, a shout out to my wonderful mom! She has taught me everything about being a mom and I hope that Abi and I will have the relationship that my mom and I have when she grows up.
My mom is the coolest. She is so much fun and since we like most of the same things we love hanging out together.
She is also such a great grandmother and can always be found reading or playing with one of the kids. Did I mention the woman also runs marathons?
Yeah, she is amazing. Happy Mothers Day Mom!

Now, to the one who made me a mom... my sweet little Abi...
This is the card she painted for me during school the other day.

She wrote her name really big for me inside.

Abi can be challenging sometimes because we are a lot alike and she is so stubborn. Neither one of us wants to give in. She is emotional and active and so funny. And then she is also the sweetest little creature... affectionate (to some of us) caring, imaginative, and loves a good laugh. Another stand out about Abi is her very distinctive sense of style. This is what she is wearing today.. (if you can't tell, it is a white tee shirt with a red dance leotard, green pantaloons, leg warmers, and a headband.)

This was Friday morning. Notice she has a headband around her head hippie style in it too. She does this a lot.

I love you Abi!! Thanks for making me a mom.

I hate it when she's sick!

Thursday night Abi fell asleep on the floor and wasn't quite herself when she woke up an hour or so later. She wouldn't eat dinner at all. Then she went to bed at pretty close to normal time even though she had taken a very late nap. Yesterday she woke up and said she wasn't hungry so she didn't eat anything but did drink some milk. She was acting totally normal besides this so I wasn't sure what was going on. We had a movie with some popcorn and she ate a few bites but that was all.. then for dinner I made her some Dora chicken noodle soup. She ate about half a bowl and then was done. She went to bed pretty quickly. Then this morning we heard her crying at about 6 am and Doug went to check on her. She wasn't in her room. We found her downstairs on the couch. She said she was hungry so I made some eggs and raisin toast and put it at the table but she wouldn't go over. We just thought she was grumpy (note to self: when Abi acts grumpy in the morning she is usually sick) then after a little while she kind of whined and then burped really loud. It was then that I knew she was going to throw up.
I carried her into the kitchen to try to find a big plastic bowl but we didn't get it in time so she threw up all over herself and the floor. It wasn't too gross since she hasn't been eating anything but I mopped the floor and Doug got a bath ready for her. We cleaned her off and set up a little bed in our room for her. She has thrown up once more already. Every few minutes she'll cry a little and grab the garbage can but nothing will happen. She's drinking water but she looks so miserable. It makes me feel so sad.
Like I've said before since she is so rarely sick- when she is I feel so nervous hoping it's not too serious and wondering what I should be doing more than I'm doing. It makes me feel so helpless.
Anyway, rant over...

Moments with Abi

Starting from the end of the day...

This afternoon Abi was playing with her polly pockets in the family room and fell asleep just like this- still wearing her bride to be veil and high heels!

We spent a long time this afternoon making cards for each other. Can you believe how long her hair is getting?

These are just funny

Mothers Day Swap reminder

Just a reminder to all of you participating in my mothers day swap that your packages should be going out now!! Have fun!

Mothers Day Giveaway

Click on the link below to check out this awesome Mother's Day giveaway!

Foxy

Yesterday Abi and I started the day early by going down to the lake and doing a Mothers Day photo shoot. It was great. We took some pictures in her sailor dress on the beach with the lighthouse in the background and then drove over the Kemper hall and took pictures in a fancier dress in their garden and on their pier. (I'll post some later)
When we were done I noticed some unusual slinky movement down the street. I could tell the animal walking along the sidewalk was a fox. I love foxes! I grabbed Abi and threw her in the car, seat belted her in, and drove out of there as fast as I could to try to get closer to the thing so I could show it to Abi and get a picture.
I was too late.. kind of. As I got closer to it, it got closer to a lady working in her garden. She sprayed it with whatever she was working with and ran into her house. It ran into her backyard so I got this picture of it retreating.
Oh well. It was really cool to see a fox of all things just roaming around Allendale.

Biking girl

We hit the garage sales in our area today looking for a bike for Abi and a double stroller. We ended up getting a dinosaur toy and at the very end I found a bike.
Abi had a meltdown early in the day when she wanted a fairy toy and I wouldn't get it for her because she didn't listen to me. This was a SERIOUS meltdown right in the middle of some one's yard so I promptly dragged her back home and she had to spend the morning with Doug while I searched.
All of the double strollers I found were either more than I wanted to spend or not in that great of condition so I'll keep looking....
This bike isn't the cutest one in the world either but it works and is the right color, is big enough to grow with, and was only 5 bucks! Sweet.
Abi was really good for Doug all morning and told me she was sorry when I got home so I dragged the bike out to show her. She was so excited!
She rode it all the way down to the corner and did the best she has ever done on a bike! Now we just have to go get a helmet... but I think I'll get that new.