Hugs and Kisses

Dear Abigail,

Happy Valentine's Day!!! You will always be my valentine, always. I love you more than this blog will ever be able to say, and I also think you are just so darn cute!!!!! Look what a year can do...

And then...Ellie Turns One!!

Dear Abigail,

You are so lucky to have 2 cousins so close in age to you! Ellie's big 1st birthday party was one week after Clara Lee's, so we were in birthday party mode. While the events leading up to Ellie's were not as dramatic as CL's, it was just as much fun. Lots and lots of kids showed up, like LOTS of them, and you didn't know what to do.

Thankfully you had balloons to keep you occupied, and of course, Ryan was there, so the 2 of you played together most of the time. For whatever reason, you love to play in Ellie's jump-a-roo thing-a-ma-bob, even though you are WAY too big for it. Everytime we go to Uncle Jaybee's you run straight to their closest to play in it... who knows...

And Ellie was so precious. Here's a shot of her before the cake...

And here's a shot after...

CLEARLY she loves her sugar!!! And Aunt Steph is CLEARLY more calm than your momma, because I would have been, well, stressing to say the least!!!!

We had a real good time, and ended up staying for a long time and even Aunt Amy and the gang stayed all night!

The next day was the super bowl AND we had an open house and because Ryan's parents are super nice, they let us come over to their house super early. That just meant more time to play with your boy Ryan!! The 2 of you are really starting to play together, or well, at least acknowledge the presence of the other! And you are learning what the word "share" means. You've never really had to deal with that, so it's a good thing to have play time with Ryan!

And yes, you are wearing Titans gear, even though they were not in the Super Bowl - Daddy says we always cheer for the Titan, regardless of who is playing. You had a blast playing with Ryan this weekend, and what a great 1st birthday!!! Once again, so many more weekends like this to come!! Hugs and kisses...

Clara Lee Turns One!!

Dear Abigail,

Can you believe it? It's been a whole year since we took that dangerous drive into Memphis, snow everywhere, threats of ice, spending the night at a hotel beside the hospital, all to be there when your cousin came into this world. It was well worth it, and we figured it was a once in a lifetime kind of thing, right? Well, apparently your BCF is setting a trend because along with her birthday was snow and ice and dangerous driving AGAIN!! We (Mommy & you) came in on Thursday to Papa Robs & Grammas, where we had the intention of staying there all weekend, and Papa Rob was going to watch you on Friday while I helped Mimi get her house ready for the party. I was super excited because Papa Rob was going to have to watch you all by himself and even change a diaper!! Come to think of it, maybe he had something to do with the snow... anyway, Thursday night the news is going crazy about the snow and ice, and, because I have been burned one too many times with the threat of bad weather, I just ignored it. Papa Rob, however, was not, but you could tell he wasn't completely sold on it. So we decided to just wait until the morning. Well, morning came and it was crunch time. Do I go to Mimi's without you, do I go with you but leave all our stuff at Papa Robs, do I just stay at Papa Robs - oh man, it was wearing me out not having control of the situation. Well, eventually Papa Rob said he thought I should get on the road ASAP and pack everything, including you. THANK GOODNESS I listen to my daddy because we were completely snowed in by 10 that morning at Mimis! Boy did it snow - I really don't recall ever getting this much snow, and of course, I didn't have any snow gear for you or me. I didn't even have your cute Uggs that would have been perfect. And, now Daddy was still in Nashville, snowed in, of course. Here's some pictures of Mimi's house with the snow. Isn't it lovely...

So after much debate, Aunt Ash-ash decided to go ahead with CL's party, and while it probably was ultimately the best decision, boy did it come with some complications. Aside from the fact that everyone was stressing about everyone else driving in the terrible conditions, we also were trying to get ready for a party! Here's a brief summary of how the party went... the ceiling in the kitchen started leaking, exactly where we had the cake to be displayed, CL was playing in the swing and completely flipped over making a huge HUGE knot/bruise on her forehead (not to mention the tears shed), and then she was playing with something (we still don't really know) and fell again and busted her lip open and got blood all over her fancy smancy birthday outfit and this was ALL before the party even got started!!! BUT, your Aunt Ash-ash kept it together, a heck of a lot better than I ever would have, and after getting the blood out, drying it with a hair dryer, fixing CL all up and getting her a bottle, the party turned out pretty dern good! A lot of family ended up showing up and she got so many toys and there were balloons and of course cake, which you would not partake in, once again. I didn't get a ton of pictures, and unfortunately, Daddy was never able to make it in, but you told him all about it when we FINALLY got home - Sunday! Here's a few pics from the party that I did get...

Here's CL after the bumps and bruising she went through...

Here's cutey-patootey John Michael...

And here's you singing Happy Birthday with Mimi...
And then you just being goofy...
Here's our attempt of trying to get a picture of all the kids - it didn't go so well...

Oh, and your BFF stopped by just to play with you (and to slide down the big hill in the back, but that's another story, another day). You hid the balloon from her over and over and over again, and she never could find it! You are a good hider, especially with balloons...

All in all, it was a fabulous party, a memorable party for sure. And afterwards, Mommy and Sarah and Em and Kateland and Pic-pic all went sledding on the big hill. You didn't have any clothes to go sledding, so this is what you did...

That's you watching Elmo with Mimi while she scratched your belly. I'm not sure it gets any better than that little girl!!

Like I mentioned earlier, we weren't able to get you out in the snow at Mimi's, but once it warmed up a bit, I was able to take you out in it at home. You loved it, too. You like wiping it off everything with your glove, like you were cleaning house or something! It made me laugh, and got me excited about our ski trip we have coming up very soon! Here's a few pics from playing outside at our house a couple days after the snow came...

Oh, and I almost forgot. Your poor Daddy was snowed in at home all by himself for a couple days and was so excited to see us when we finally got home, but he was even more excited about the snow cream he made! See, his mommy, your Nana, always made snow cream in this big green bowl (along with some incredible slaw, so I've heard) and so Daddy made some for us!! As we've mentioned before, you aren't too crazy about sweets, so we weren't too surprised when you pushed it away, but it didn't matter because Daddy is carrying on the tradition with our family!!!

What a fun, fun birthday party weekend!!! Lots more to come, I am sure. Love you baby girl!!!!