Wild Animals...

This Valentine's Day was one of the best that I've been able to have with Robbie and this year we even got to share it with our beautiful little girl (Yes, we did last year too, but she was only a couple days old and we had just returned from the hospital the day before Valentine's Day). Every year since I've known Robbie he has been busy at the flower shop ~ but this year, he was a free man. We treated ourself to an amazing family day of fun. We took Abigail to the Wild Animal Park and we had such a wonderful time watching her point at all the animals.











After we got home from the Wild Animal Park we were invited to join our HomeGroup for a Valentine's Dinner Party at our friends Brandon and Crystal's home. Abigail really enjoyed getting all dolled up to visit and flirt with her friend Austin. It was so cute to watch the two of them play together - a couple of our own lil' wild animals. We had a really great time with our friends for Valentine's day!!

Here's a little video of their peek a boo around a chair - so stinkin' cute!

Here's another cute little snipit of the two of them when Austin kept stealing Abby's pacifier. Even when he had his own blue one, he still seemed to want Abby's pink one...haha...

A Dr. Seuss Birthday Party

"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive

more Youer than You!"

- Dr Seuss, Happy Birthday to You

We had so much fun on Saturday for Abigail's 1st birthday party. Even through the rain her friends came out to celebrate her! We had a bunch of books out for the kids to "read" and toys and puzzles. The kids seemed to have a really great time all playing together. We are so fortunate to have so many wonderful families that have children around Abby's age!! They are going to have a lot of great fun growing up together!

Here are the twins, Chase and Nolan, the two Lilly's in

attendance, and Ms. Abigail!

All the parents had a great time watching the kids have fun too!

This is why we had a book party...Abby will find her books out of all of her toys. She prefers them over any of her noise toys and everything!

There's Austin standing at the stand up toy.

Abby is such a great share-er. She's sharing her block with Isaiah.

Andrea and Lilly, enjoying Abby's rocking couch.

We're glad Brandon's back from Iraq! Abby liked "reading" with him.

Grandma B (Betty) and Uncle Andy!

We had a great time making a mess with toys, but then of course, we had to make a mess with a cake. I really wanted to make a cake for Abigail's first cake, so I found a really great recipe using a lot of ingredients she's already been exposed to. The only problem was that I couldn't find one ingredient for the frosting, so I thought I could improvise when I got home. The only thing I had was a raspberry flavored substitute, which ended up making the cake a bit tart. Needless to say, when Abby went to try her cake, she wasn't all that impressed. The inside was delicious, but the frosting threw everything off. All well, maybe next time. She still enjoyed making a mess with it and she fully enjoyed everyone singing Happy Birthday to her!

When it was all over, she's still cute just chillin'.

These were the little party favors that Abby helped put together for her friends at the party. Just a bag with a cute little book as a little gift with some stickers and a pencil. The outside of the bag said, "Books are great, reading is fun. Thanks for coming, to see Abby turn 1."

Party, party...

I'm so excited...Abigail's 1st Birthday Party is coming up this Saturday! We sent these out as a bookmark for a "book" party with lots of Dr. Seuss stuff (I'll leave the significance of Dr. Seuss for another post sometime)...

We're eager to spend some fun times with friends and family and hopefully just walk down memory lane of the past year! I still cry watching any home videos I have of her first couple of months - am I going to do that for the rest of my life?! Anyways, more to come on her party, I just wanted to share how excited I am that it's coming up and getting closer!

For those of you interested...we are doing a book collection for children's books up to 6 yrs. old. I'll be sending a shipment out to the charity organization Reach Out and Read. If you want to read more about this charity go to their website. I'm really excited to do this because I'm always reminding myself how blessed I am that I get an opportunity to have books and read to my little one - many others don't have such the luxury. And a 1st birthday party is a great time where the presents don't really mean much to Abby, and maybe when she's older she'll appreciate what we chose to do with them instead. Who knows...it's just fun to give!