The Holidays Are Upon Us!

Well the holidays are just around the corner. We got our pics back from our holidays shoot with Becky of Captured with Care Photography and they were amazing. We ordered our cards through costco and now we have to get our letter together! Its going to be a doozy, as we never got cards or letters out last year due to me being so sick with Abby. Its interesting it has actually brought up a number of emotions in me that I had no idea were inside me about it. Something about that 1 year anniversary of the terribleness that I went through the first trimester with Abby and what I put everyone around me through while I was just trying to survive... I don't know, I can't explain, it; I just never want to go through anything like that ever again! But I'm past it and have my beautiful sweet Abby now. :0)

We got our tree this week. We got a smaller 5' tree and put it on our coffee table. That way its nice and tall like a big tree, but lighter, and easier to manage (not to mention cheaper) and there is room for the presents underneath and all around! Ryan made the mistake of asking Rory what color tree she wanted and she answered Purple. Ryan told her it only came in Green but she was very upset. lol. She was very excited to decorate it too. I didn't even care that not everything made it onto the tree, or that the distribution of kinds of ornaments was not even. I'm just happy she got to be a part of it!

We recently got a new camera (a Sony) and we are loving it. It takes the best automatic shots, and has really awesome "expensive camera" settings to get the shots you want but in a point in shoot (panorama, blurred background settings are two of my favs). Its crazy to think that we got it for around $250 which is like half of what we paid like 7 years ago for a "fancier" bigger camera that doesnt take as good of pictures without messing with tons of settings manually. Technology sure does move quick.

Abby is doing great; I actually got wonderful sleep last night. We went to bed earlier than normal, Abby went to bed later than normal, and I got to sleep in an extra 30 min today becuase Ryan has the girls today. She only woke up at 2:30 and 4:30 (normally its around 1am, 3am and 5am). Its so funny how different she is turning out to be from Rory. My Mom has suddenly been reminded that Abby acts exactly how I did as a baby. Every time something comes up shes like, "Oh yeah... Yup! Thats just how you were!" lol. (Rory was the easiest baby ever; happy to go to anyone, happy doing anything, hardly complained at all about anything, slept through the night no problem even though she was small). Abby wants to be held almost always, but if she is awake she wants to be facing out and able to see everything that is going on. She loves to be entertained and is totally fascinated by the TV (Rory had no interest and even to this day gets restless at about the hour mark of any movie). If I am around and in the room, she rarely goes to anyone else, and she LOVES to nurse. The second I get home from work - even though she is not really hungry and just got a full bottle like an hour before - wants to get some Mommy time in. She also loves rattles and chew toys (Rory never played with them at all), and is drooling up a storm. I think she will probably get her first tooth long before Rory did (at 11 months). Even their poop schedule is totally different. Abby is multiple times a day, normally at the tail end of a feeding. Rory was a crazy huge one only once every few days.

And Rory, while looking just like me is totally different than I was. Apparently I was (yes I know, gasp) very quiet and reserved as a young child, and preferred to play by myself off in a corner. Rory is just a total ham, jumping around like a hooligan singing and dancing. Her vocabulary and speech continues to improve and impress us. She talks about and understands concepts now, not just verbs and nouns. She talks about things she might do or might happen "someday" and tells us that she wants a pink pony when she grows up. I told her one day that she made me "this" happy, and she replied, "me make happIER!" I've begun correcting her when she says "me" and it should be "I". Sometimes she whips out 5+ word sentences and I'm just amazed. When did our little baby girl turn into a little girl?

I'm just totally in love with both of them! Of course that is probably the sleep talking. :0)