Scott & Ashley come to visit!

We were so excited to have Tyler's sister Ashley and her husband Scott come visit us in Florida before we moved. They got in late Thursday night and we spent the next day at Disney! We started the day at Hollywood, then Ty took them to Animal while I went home to let the kids nap. Then they came home exhausted in the evening. Scott had a bad migraine so he was done for the day, but Ashley and I went back to Magic Kingdom for a super fun girls only night!

Saturday was Abbie's birthday party (Post coming later)

Sunday we went to stake conference and then spent some time driving around some of the Disney Resorts. Too bad it started pouring rain while we were at the first resort! We all got pretty wet but then headed over to the Wilderness Lodge and hung out in the cozy lobby playing games and checked out the stunning grounds. We then all headed back home for naps and dinner and games that night once the kids were asleep. Turns out Ashley and I are a pretty amazing Sequence team, totally dominated the boys and I won my first game of Monopoly Deal, and then won again and again. Sorry everybody else...

Monday we had it arranged to go to Universal Studios but with rain in the forecast again, I wasn't sure I wanted to take Jackson and Abbie. So I ended up staying home while Ty, Scott and Ashley went. It didn't end up raining too much but it was super overcast and chilly (for FL standards) all day so the park was pretty empty! They had a great day and rode all the huge roller coasters and rides without having to wait in many lines.

That night we had to take them to Four Rivers BBQ, and of course they loved it! This was Tyler's last night with them, since he had to fly to Philadelphia in the morning.

The next day was perfect weather for a beach day, so that's where we went. The van took it's first trip to Clearwater beach and Jackson learned about the DVD player in the back .. we hadn't mentioned it to him before :) But it was perfect, Abbie slept the drive there while Jackson watched a movie. We had a great few hours at the beach, seriously having Ashley and Scott there to help haul the stuff and play with the kids made my life easy! Jackson loved playing in the water with them and building and digging with Scott. After some yummy ice cream we headed home, Abbie slept the drive home and Jackson watched another movie. We got home, cleaned up and then I drove Ashley and Scott to the airport.

It was such a fun week with them and Jackson loved playing with his Aunt and Uncle and especially zooming around with Unlce Zoom, i mean Uncle Scott :)

After Abbie's Birthday

Abbie's birthday was on Friday and the next day I got to go up to the Munns' ranch with the young women.

Abbie went with me and Jackson stayed in town at his good friend David's house. Abbie loved seeing all the animals, but didn't love it when I put her on the horse. The past couple months she has gotten so excited when she sees any animals. All her favorite books are her animal books. She makes little noises when she sees them it's pretty cute.

We got our license plate for our van and I thought it was very appropriate. We're planning on holding on to our FL plates as long as we can.

Jackson discovered he loves salsa

Abbie discovered she loves spaghetti, ok lets be honesty she loves all food!

I decided to go dark with my hair

And we finally went blueberry picking! They've advertised it in our neighborhood the past three years and we finally made it this year. It was a lot of fun and we discovered Abbie loves them just as much as Jackson.

That night we came home and decided to try out the pool for the first time of the season. Jackson has been doing swimming lessons and he's gotten so good already! He had his same teacher as last year, Miss Shannon. She was excited to see Jackson again. Last year he did not like floating on his back, and this year he learned to love it! He also learned that goggles are pretty awesome too, last year he wouldn't even try them on. I'm so proud of him and how much he has improved already.

Wow

Wow, it's been over a month since I last posted about Easter and Abbie's birthday. So much has changed since then. Scott & Ashley visited, family pictures, Jackson in the hospital, our last days in FL, Terry & Vicki visited, moving to CT, our first week in a hotel and our first week in our house. Is that about it? I think so...

Last night we finally got my computer set up and we just got internet on Friday so this is the first time I've sat at my computer in weeks. It feels good. Life is starting to get normal again, well a new normal, but it's calmed down and we're grateful for that.

Now I'm going to try to blog about the recent events before my memory explodes with everything in it recently...

Easter

I guess I'm a little out of order now, posting about Abbie's birthday before Easter, there's a first time for everything, right?

Either way, March 31st we celebrated Easter and enjoyed our first time around with two kids. Last Easter I was 4 days away from having Abbie! It's crazy how much has changed since then, our family is so much more fun with Abbie in it :)

On "Easter Eve" we had Jackson's friend David over for a play date, they had fun going on Easter egg hunts together. They would take turn hiding the eggs and the other one would go search. This reminded me of what Paige, Michael and I did when we were younger, "practicing for Easter." Jackson went on a neighborhood egg hunt that morning so he was excited for the bunny to come to his house the next day. We also died eggs with the boys and they had lots of fun!

Jackson would always "guide" David...

Dying Eggs!

 And luckily for Jackson, the Easter Bunny did come to our house! Both kids had lots of fun looking at their baskets! They both got cute swim suits, books, candy, toys and the movie Wreck it Ralph which Jackson now loves!

What, mom? Now we get to look for more eggs??

Can you spy the egg on the baby stroller? It took Jackson a minute...

Abbie was totally with it, pretty pro for her first Easter :)

Jackson spotted this one pretty quick and thought it was so silly that the bunny hopped up there!

Finding more eggs outside!

Jackson loved his new magnifying glass the best!

Letting Abbie try her first Jelly Bean!

Taking a picture with these two was nearly impossible.

They are pretty cute though :)

The day got crazy from there! Tyler had meetings, I put Abbie down for a nap, and (as normal) then had to wake her up to make it to 11 am church on time. We took the pictures right before Abbie's nap and Jackson was more interested in complaining about his new shorts (which he now wears just fine) and throwing the Easter Grass to look at the camera. Then after church we cleaned up our house and got ready to host 3 other families for a big Easter dinner. I got off way easy and just made the potatoes and a fruit salad. The Carters, Mullins, and Beverlys came by with our combined 11 kids 5 and under. It was a little crazy with that many kids, Abbie was the youngest so they were all mobile! But the adults did get to sit around and talk for the majority of the evening which was not expected! But having 19 people in your house can be a little loud. We had the movie "The Testament" playing on tv for the kids and it was fun to see the older ones explaining what they knew about Jesus and his resurrection.

And did we take any pictures of the whole group? Of course not, that would have been too smart!

Just kidding, I just found this one that Tyler took. All the boys (three 5 year olds and Jackson) had fun shooting hoops for an hour or more! The 7 girls had fun playing with the few girl toys we have in the house :)

 

My One-Year-Old Girl!

I just put my one-year-old baby to sleep. Are you allowed to say "one-year-old baby" as a phrase? She still is my baby even though babycenter.com will now send me emails stating "your toddler this week." Either way, my girl had a birthday today and I can't believe how old she is! March and April will always be a fun time for us with Jackson's birthday, Easter & Abbie's birthday all within a month. I recently realized Abbie will actually turn 8 on Easter Sunday, so that will be super neat.

But today she turned one and we had a great day celebrating her. Tyler was out of town, sadly, so it was just my kids and I. At first Jackson wasn't so sure about Abbie having a birthday, because of course he wanted it to be HIS birthday. But this morning he was so cute with her and when he saw all the balloons he couldn't care less that they were pink and on her door and high chair this time instead.

She was born at 8 am but she slept in today til 9, a great bday present for mom except Jackson was up at 7:30. But as soon as she woke up we went upstairs and threw some more balloons in her crib. She was so happy and loved seeing all the balloons on her door as well. I was surprised at how sweet Jackson was to her. "It's your birthday Abbie! Happy Birthday Abbie!" over and over. She had been crying before we got in the room but she did not cry for the rest of the morning. She hardly cried all day! I hadn't even gotten her out of the crib yet and noticed Jackson went downstairs but before I knew it he was back in the room with one of her presents. "Here Abbie, open your presents!" Once he realized most of her presents were shoes and clothes he didn't mind letting her have them. I did have one toy for him to open to, so that helped I think.

Loving her balloon wake-up call.

Didn't even plan her matching jammies :)

Thank you Nana for the adorable shoes, the present Jackson brought up!

For breakfast she had a birthday donut which she absolutely loved! But she made quite a mess of herself. Wow that girl gets messy, she loves wiping her hands all over her hair and eyes just to make it that much more fun to clean up. This time she needed a morning bath for sure. She played around a little in the morning before having a quick nap. Then we headed to Jackson's swimming lesson at noon.

Birthday girl!

The "before" shot

Just getting started

When all was said and done.

She immediately tried putting on her new clothes, something Jackson would never do!

Jackson "helped" her open most of her presents!

Happy girl!

Today Jackson had to get in the pool wearing clothes and shoes to simulate what it would feel like to drown and to ensure he can still float and swim with all that heavy stuff on him. He did NOT want to go swimming with shoes but he did so great and as soon as the clothes were off he did so well. He loves swimming so much and has already improved a ton!

Abbie was too engrossed in her book to notice Jackson screaming about swimming in shoes

After swimming we met some friends at Chick-fil-a for lunch! Abbie's friends Colin & Allie were there (both just 2 months older) and her little friend Paris came at the end too. She sat in her high chair for well over an hour and was so great. She loved her grilled chicken nuggets, fruit, and she got sips of chocolate milk and lemonade. She also had their waffle fries for the first time and loved them! And of course we ended off the lunch with an ice cream cup which she and Jackson shared somewhat willingly but it was gone pretty quick :)

With Colin, baby date

I caught her flirting with the people at the other table

Home for afternoon naps and then a chill day at our house this evening. We went to the park after dinner so Abbie could swing and check out the dogs at the dog park. The girl LOVES animals, especially dogs. I just put her to bed and honestly she has been an angel all day.

Before her nap

  

When did she get so big?

I love this little girl so much!

She is such a good little girl. She puts up with a lot from her older brother, so she is super easy going. Finally she is starting to sleep better at night. We're not all the way there yet but it's been a vast improvement since the bad habits she got into at Christmas time. Now on her good nights she will go to bed around 8:30 and sleep til 6 am when I'll nurse her and then she'll sleep for a couple more hours. I'm only nursing her twice a day usually now. Just at bedtime and that early morning time. I will probably be done in a month or so, just when Jackson finished too. She doesn't like bottles but will drink out of sippy cups very well. She loves her water and I'm trying not to giver her juice but she tends to steal sips of Jackson's whenever he has it. She is doing ok with milk but chocolate milk is the main way I'll get her to drink it right now.

She takes 2 naps a day, but can be flexible if we are out and about. She goes down for naps so easily. She cuddles up with her blanket and a binky in each hand and one in her mouth and hardly ever cries at naptime. I put her in her crib awake and she'll be asleep in a few minutes. She is also an expert at falling asleep in her carseat and in her stroller on Disney days. She LOVES Jackson even when he drags her around the floor and tries to wrestle her. She loves any attention he gives her. She loves animals and while she is not super vocal yet, she makes the same little sounds when she sees dogs, lizards, squirrels or birds outside.

She is not walking, I really thought she would be by now! Because of that and her lack of hair it is hard to look at her and think she's ONE? But she can crawl super fast and cruise around on furniture with ease. She has taken a few steps, her record is 8, but she has no interest in it. She could do it if she wants to, she just doesn't at this point!

She loves looking at books and playing with toys, especially ones that make music. Whenever she hears a song she starts bouncing and dancing. Her favorite things to do is climb up on things, especially Jackson's picnic table and hand things to people. All day long she hands me toys, books, food and gets such a kick out of it. She points all the time. If she wants something she points, if she sees something interesting she points. She doesn't do much whining or screaming. She's either happy and quite, happy and softly babbling, or crying.

We love our little beauty girl so much and can hardly believe it's been a year since she was born!