Thanksgiving

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. We are both very grateful for Greg's job and the roof over our head. However we are most for our daughter. She has been such a blessing this year. We look forward to the many years and many blessings we will have with her in the future.

Greg's sister, Gen, joined us for Thanksgiving this year. We loved having her around. While Greg worked on Wednesday and Friday the girls went out to the movies and shopping. We saw the Twilight movie New Moon and I have to say it was probably the most ridiculous movie I have ever seen (except for the first Twilight). We were laughing so much that I'm sure the people around us were getting annoyed. It was Abby's first movie though and she did great. She played a little a the beginning of the movie then fell asleep for a while then woke up and played at the end. She way pretty well behaved through the entire movie. At least the people around us weren't annoyed with her.

Gen also helped us decorate for Christmas and rearrange our living room (again). I really didn't like having the eating table in the living room and the computers in the dinning room. The house didn't flow right. Thankfully with Gen's help the new arrangement flows more comfortably. We also have a few Christmas decorations up. Because we're going to be in Utah for the holidays we didn't want to pull out all of our decorations. So Gen and I went to the craft store and bought a two foot tall artificial tree and some supplies to make a very cute wall hanging.


Friday when we went to pick up Greg it was a clear day so we decided to go up to the observation deck on the 73rd floor of his building. It has views of the city and the surrounding area and is the tallest spot in the Northwest.


On Saturday we decided to go out to Snoqualmie to see the falls and go to lunch. It was quite cold at the falls but we were all bundled up. I wanted to make sure Abby had a clean diaper after we saw the falls and before we went to lunch so we decided to change her in the car. Abby ended up having an accident and soaking all of her clothes and the car seat. It was both funny and kind of upsetting. So, with Abby in her diaper, coat and boots we headed to the outlet mall to find her some clothes. We wrapped her up in Greg's sweatshirt to go into the Baby Gap. I'm sure we got a few strange looks.


We also had fun Saturday afternoon watching the BYU vs Utah football game. In all we had a very enjoyable weekend. Thanks for visiting us Gen!

Carrier, Commute, Call Center Baby

Hi!

One week closer to Thanksgiving and the holidays! This has been a pretty eventful week for us, or at least it has felt like it. One big change this week has been in my commute. For the past 2 1/2 years I've been taking the bus, every single day to and from work. Since my bus pass is provided by my work, it certainly is the most economical way to commute but the time it takes and the sometimes uncomfortable and crowded ride makes it less than ideal. Through some coworkers, I found a pretty good parking place downtown and, since parking is partially compensated, decided to give it a try. Wow, does it make a difference. To start, I save about about 15 minutes going in and anywhere between 15 and 45 minutes on the ride home. Even more importantly, it isn't hot and cramped and gives my schedule more flexibility. I won't be driving every day now, probably only 2 or 3 times a week, but it is certainly nice to have that option.

Debbie has been busy this week finishing up her baby carrier. She wanted to make a carrier that fit her vision of a good carrier and she figured she could do it a lot less expensively than just buying one. She just finished this week and its comfortable, sturdy, and so cute!


It can be worn on the back... or the front!


As we've mentioned before, we make most of Abby's baby food and this week we tried two new recipes. First was banana-avocado, which smells a little funky but Abby seems to like and is supposedly pretty healthy. Second was a carrot-sweet potato mix that is a little bland but should make her glow orange.

Abby continues to get into everything and move non-stop. She loves to be around us whether we are cooking or working on the computer. She wanted to help me on the computer so here she is:

She also likes shoes:
For a while Abby has enjoyed "reading" by her self. Most of the time she just pulls them off the shelf, sits or chews on them. One of her favorite things to do with her books is "book ski". It took a little while to get a good video of it but I finally got some the other day.



Also, Debbie and Abby went out for breakfast this week and while they were there, Abby was entranced by the balloons. Abby has always been obsessed with balloons, seeing one is about the only thing that gets her to pause while we are at the grocery store. This time, Abby actually got one and she absolutely loved it. Watch how clever she is with the string to get the balloon, we were shocked!

Signs, Falls, Wild Baby

Hi! Hope you all are doing well! Things are going fine for us.
This week wasn't exceptionally eventful but was a good week nonetheless. There isn't too much exciting going on with Debbie and I but there is always plenty to say about Abby.

This is the basket we keep Abby's toys in. Sometimes she likes to play with it more then her toys.

Abby has been pulling herself up to a standing position on things a lot lately and while that is fun and she is learning and growing a lot, it is also a bit scary. On Friday night she pulled herself up on our coffee table and then fell over backwards and bumped her head on our fireplace. She cried for a while but was fine, no bump or anything, but it certainly gave us a scare. Deciding we didn't want to have more scares like that till she gets a little more stable, we re-arranged our living areas. Since the main goal was to keep Abby away from the fireplace we put our couch against the fireplace which now shields both the vertical bricks as well as the bricks on the ground. With that decision made, the rest of things sort of just went where they had to. The TV and TV stand went across the room from the couch (of course!) and because our computer desk is so massive (18 square feet, I kid you not) we ended up having to put it in our dining room. Which meant that we set up an eating table (not really a kitchen table, more of a banquet table) in the living room area. It's kind of weird. Definitely function over form. It may be going a little extreme for baby-proofing but we'll try it out.

Speaking of Abby, she is a very wild and fearless baby, as you probably know. She hasn't sat still for 5 seconds in her entire life and loves activities with her parents. One game that she loves lately is run-away on the bed. The goal is basically she tries to crawl off the edge of the bed while I race around and attack her and make her change directions. Now that I'm writing about it it sounds a little crazy but so far she hasn't made it off the bed and she sure loves it. I guess flying off the bed is probably not something we should encourage though.



Debbie spent a while on Saturday making applesauce. She used Rome apples and the applesauce came out kind of pink. Both Debbie and Abby liked it a lot but I'm not a huge applesauce fan.

Abby is jabbering a lot lately and we like to try and make up what she might be trying to say. The nearest matches we can come up with for most things are "I did it" and "abra-kadbra". Wonder how long it will be until she actually means to say something...

Speaking of which, yesterday when we were on a crazy schedule and were late in getting her a bottle she signed to us "milk", something we have been waiting a long time for. She has only does this in times of desperation but it has instantly told us why she is crying and that is priceless.

Its Beginning To Feel a lot like Winter

Hi!

Soo... yeah. Somehow I (Greg) get to write on all the weeks where nothing interesting happens. This was sort of one of those weeks.

Lets see... well, first of all, it has started really feeling like winter here. There were some crazy thunderstorms earlier this week which even included a bit of snow in the town next to us (seen from my bus ride home). It is a good thing that I have 4 pairs of shoes that I can wear at work because they all do a terrible job at staying dry. You can see one pair drying off below in the background of the picture below. Oh yeah, also in the picture is Abby, she likes her drinking cup but isn't great at actually getting water out.


In other news, I've transferred to a new team at work. I don't like to talk too much about my work on the blog but it should have some new challenges and I'll be learning new things. I liked my old team a lot but was ready for something new.

Abby is doing well. She had a bit of a runny nose earlier this week but seems to be getting over it. She has been very talkative today which is fun. One of the things we enjoy doing is making her food from fruits and veggies we buy. I don't know how much cheaper it is than baby food but we know what goes into it and can cater to the foods she likes and dislikes. We recently made a squash/pear/cinnamon mix which Abby likes a lot and even to adult tastes isn't too bad. Other favorites have been green beans / peppers and raspberry-pear.




Ok, Abby is torturing the cats. Have to go save them!

Happy Halloween!

The last couple of weeks has been busy for our family. Last week Abby and I went to Utah to visit with family. It was a short trip but we were glad to see a lot of people. While there Abby learned how to climb stairs. I was impressed with how coordinated she was with out much practice. She would climb the entire flight of stairs at least, sometimes twice, a day. Which is a lot of work for a baby if you think about it. As we were waiting for our flight home in the airport Abby was climbing all over my suitcase and was having a lot of fun. She impressed many people in the airport with how mobile she was for just 7 and a half months.

Abby had a fun Halloween. She dressed up as a very cute octopus. On Friday Greg had a work trick or treat. She was so happy to be receiving so much attention. When we put her on the floor for a little bit she enjoyed playing with the extra legs on her costume. It was quite entertaining.


On Saturday Abby went trick or treating at our cousin's house. She had fun knocking on the door and was a little confused why everyone was saying "trick or treat" over and over again. After that we came home and Abby went to bed and Greg and I watched the 1960's movie House on Hunted Hill. It was an okay Clue type movie. Which I thought was perfect for Halloween because it wasn't too scary.


Over the past few years Greg and I have learned that we don't get many trick or treaters at our door. This year we didn't even bother buying candy. On Sunday though Greg was lamenting that we didn't have any candy. It does seem kind of odd that the day after Halloween we didn't have a single bit of candy. Maybe I'll have to go out and get some while it's on post Halloween sale.

Yesterday, we had a few friends over for dinner. We found an interesting new recipe for enchilada's and wanted to try it out. It called for tomatillos. Which we had never used before so that was interesting. Also, there was no actually baking in the oven. There were a few different times when the enchiladas were broiled but that was it. In the end they turned out great. It was a more complicated recipe so we probably won't make it all the time but I thought it was defiantly a keeper.

Bonus Halloween video:

The Bird

Funny story:

This afternoon Abby and I were at my parents house having lunch. Then came a thud on the glass door and I looked over and saw a small bird sitting on the deck. I turned to Abby and told her to look at the stupid bird who flew into the glass. It was still alive just sitting there stundded after watching it for jsut a bit my dad opened the door and stepped out to see if it was too injured to fly.

While we were looking at the bird all of a sudden it started flying around inside the house. I of course screamed and backed Abby and myself as far away as we could while my dad got the bird outside again where it proply layed down on the deck again totaly out of energy. My dad picked it up again and then put it somewhere less exposed to the elements.

After just a bit my dad checked on the bird and it had not moved. I told him to not let me know if the bird dies (which it probably will).

The end.

Growing up fast

Abby seems to be growing up so fast these last few weeks. In just one week she has learned how to pull her self up and stand against the couch, chairs, tables, TV stand, walls, beds, people, pretty much anything she can use for leverage. She has also very practiced at crawling. She is by far the fastest crawler of her friends. She will go all over the entire house (granted it is small) in just a few moments. We play hide and seek often and I will typically find her under the kitchen table or in the bathroom threatening to play with the litter box.

Abby's huge personality is shining through more each day. She is such a happy and determined baby. The other day she was trying to pull herself up against our bed which was just a little taller then her. She must have fallen on her bum at least 10 times and she would just get back up and try again. Eventually she got it and she looked so cute with fists full of our blanket helping her to stand. I would not be a bit surprised if she was walking before Christmas. But I must not count my chickens.

In other news, Greg played daddy yesterday so I could go to a movie with a friend. We saw Bright Star. It is about the poet John Keats. I think overall I would call it a good movie but it wasn't the heart throb I expected. We also watched the BYU game yesterday and that was fun.

We also bought a new camera this week. We have been looking around for a while and this last week Greg found a really good deal on one. It took few tries for us to actually get one. They were sold out in all the stores in the area and online. But eventually we got one. So, next week we should have better looking pictures.

Abby and I are looking forward to a visit to Utah. My sister just had a baby so we are going down there to visit the baby and spend some time with Greg's brother and sister. It will be fun.

Abby likes to help with the dishes.