Mani-Pedi

The Easter Bunny brought Abby some fun new fingernail polish in her Easter Basket this year. She really wanted me to paint her nails, so I did her fingernails before church. She really wanted her toenails done as well, but I had already put her tights on for church, so I promised after church we could paint her toenails. She decided that since she got her fingernails and toenails painted, then I needed mine done as well. Here she is doing my fingernails

And now for my toes. She had so much fun. She wanted to do Grammy's as well, but Grammy declined the offer, saying maybe next time. For some reason, the boys wouldn't let her do theirs, hhhmmm I wonder why? She even begged Daddy to do his as well.

She had a blast and I am sure that she will be doing more nails before long, maybe even a few of Daddy's. he tends to be a bit of a sucker when it comes to what Abby wants. LOL. It is so fun having a little girl and getting to do all these little girly things. Cant wait till she is older and we can enjoy real "big girl" spa days together full of shopping, mani-pedis, and lunch dates out.

Abby's haircut better views

For family back home... This is a better view of Abby's new haircut. it is nice how the back is all one length and it even flips out like that on its own. It has been fun to do her hair every day now. We still have "Medusa" head quite often, but the hair cut has helped tame that a bit.

Sibling Love

Just have to cherish these precious moments in life. Showing love. Our little Sunshine and Abby in the middle of Costco.

Calm Abby

Abby had to use the restroom, so she decided to use the "boys bathroom" (the one downstairs that the boys use all the time). This bathroom has a very tall handle (above her 4 year old head) and a lock. I realized she had been in there for a while, so I went over to the door and knocked and asked if she was okay.

She said, "Yes Mom."

I asked why she was still in there and she said "Cause I cant get out."

I tried the handle and sure enough she was able to reach up and lock the door, but because it is such a tall handle, she was not able to get it unlocked. Now proceeds us trying to unlock the door so she can get out. It is the kind of handle that has a hole on the outside, so we try sticking stuff in to get the lock to pop with no luck. I keep reassuring her that we will get her out soon and she just stays calm and says "Okay Mom."

Enters dad, trying to stick all kinds of tools into the knob to unlock it with no luck. I again ask her in maybe an anxious voice (she is 4 afterall, trapped in a bathroom and cant get out) if she could try and turn the button on the knob.

Very calming she replies, "Mom, don't panic!" :0)

What a trooper. It took about 5 minutes total. We ended up having to take the handle out of the door, which will be switched with another door handle tomorrow. No reason to lock another child in the bathroom. I cant believe she stayed so calm and was reassuring us all was okay and "not to panic." She surprises us every day with her thoughts, feelings, dancing, and singing. What an angel.

Abby's first haircut

Abby and I had the chance to go on a Mommy-Daughter date. We went up to get haircuts and then go out to dinner. She was so excited to get her haircut and had been telling grammy for the last week or 2 that she was going to get a haircut. When the time finally came to actually get in the chair though.....She was so scared, but with the promise of getting a balloon afterwards, she was caoxed onto the chair. You can also see in these 2 pictures how long it has gotten. Except for a few trims of the bangs out of her eyes, she has never had a haircut in her 4 years of life. You can imagine her trepidation. Big chair, scary place, etc.

She finally decided that she would stick around and get it done. She really was looking forward to getting the haircut. She has such funky hair that can be very madusa-like in the mornings. With never having a haircut before, it had grown from original baby hair in various different lengths. I was afraid to get it all cut even we would have to go very short. I was therefore worried about what kind of outcome we would have.

The picture below is the actual very first cut. I am taking it from my chair as my hair is being cut as well. Our stylists were very nice and let us sit next to each other, talk to each other, and allowed me to watch her and take pictures throughout. It was a very fun time. She kept looking over at me and giggling. We will have to try an actual spa day next with pedicures and all. It was pretty fun.

Abby's stylist got done first, so while I was getting finished up, she played with her hair and styled it a bit. She put some french braids on each side, letting the back hang. It seems to flip out on its own, which is cute most days.

After the haircuts, we headed over to a little diner just down the way. Abby had a great time there as well. We ordered a milkshake to share, which Abby got most of, as you can imagine.
And she ordered a pancake, but had to have it with eyes, nose, and mouth. The waitress and cook were very accomodating.
We had a great time and will be planning many nights out like this in the future. I can see many spa days and shopping weekends in our future.

Abby's Birthday

I think I say with all the kids birthdays, but I really cant believe she is 4 already. She is growing up so fast.

This year we decided on a Teddy Bear Tea birthday party. It was centered around the fact that we got her a gift certificate for Build a Bear Workshop and her and Daddy went on a date a few days before her birthday. She had a blast with daddy on their date.

They went to Red Robin for lunch. She was so excited when they sang to her and had a blast with her chocolate sundae and balloons.

This is actually when they are signing to her. She is just too cute.

And of course, loving the chocolate sundae. Daddy had to give her a straw so she could suck up all of the chocolate.

After lunch, they headed off to the mall to the workshop. Grammy was given a Build a Bear a few days before this, so she had been asking us if she could go to the "workshop" too. She kept saying things like, "Mommy, I need to go to the workshop. Where is my workshop." Perfect timing. All the fun with Grammy's bear was build up to getting her own.

She had a blast picking out her bear and stuffing it. She picked the Hannah Montana bear of course with a cute little outfit. She was very tempted to go with the guitar as well, but decided on a pink purse at the last minute.

Her party was on her birthday. It just happened that Daddy was off that day, so we planned it around the big kids being at school and out of the way. We invited all of her friends over for a "tea party." They all brought their bears/dolls with them. When they arrived, they got dressed up for a picture with their teddy bear. We then set our teddy bears on a picnic blanket and served them tea. After our bears were satisfied, we went to the table for our tea and lunch. Then it was story time. After story time was back to the table for bear cupcakes and ice cream. Then we opened presents and sat around talking and playing. It was a really fun time. The kids all had a blast.

Abigail has grown up a lot this year. I see her getting more into the "big girl" things like barbies and dress up and even make up. It is crazy to think about. In this last year she has

• Concurred potty training.
• Learned some of her ABC's.
• Started to perform for us.
• Learned to talk CONSTANTLY. lol.
• Become a wonderful big sister to her little brothers.

It is sad and awesome to watch all these little people grow. I wish I could keep them at the little baby cuteness ages forever. but then it is also so wonderful to watch them grow and make good choices and continue to learn. It is fun to see them become bigger little people.

And in case all of that was not enough, at the end of the day we got to open family presents and have a family party. We purposely had her party with her friends during school so that the big boys would not be there (3 less kids to worry about, right). That meant that after dinner, we had the chance to open the presents from the boys and Jim and I. Grammy and Poppy came over and had some cake and Ice cream with us. For her "family cake" she wanted a barbie cake, so this is my attempt at the barbie cake. It was my first attempt. Pretty good for a first try. Now I know what not to do. LOL. It was a good cake for her though. She loved it.

And here she is opening the present from Jim and I. The boys got her some magnet dolls. You know, big wooden dolls with magnets in them with a ton of interchangeable clothes, shoes, and accessories. it has proven to be a favorite with all of the kids. Jim and I got her a V-tech motion game system. We have a ton of V-smile games and so this plays those as well as the new v-motion games. She was very excited. She also got some doll stuff with a stroller, carseat, and bassinet. She loves that as well. Overall, not very hard to please her. LOL.

Happy Birthday Abigail, we love you tons.

Roses

Jim likes to surprise me with roses sometimes when he goes to the store in the evening (usually for milk LOL). The other day he had to run to the store and came home with 2 roses, one for his wife and one for his little princess. How totally sweet.

Abby was thrilled to get a rose of her own. She was not so thrilled to get her picture taken, but she did enjoy daddy's attention and rose.

Thank you Daddy, your girls love you so much.

Christmas Carols from Abby and Daniel

Jim won a digital video camera at his work Holiday party last night. I have had a bit of fun playing with it today, so I thought I would try my hand at uploading videos to blogger.

This is a video of Abigail and Daniel serenading us with Christmas songs. She loves to sing and he loves to do anything she is doing...

I love how she has started to bow when she is done performing. I am not sure where she picked this up at, but it is just too cute. And in typical Daniel fashion, we get a little push at the end. I hope you enjoyed the video and look forward to more fun videos of the kids.

What do you get when you dont have to go to school?

Special days at home with mommy while older kids are in school bring about very special surprises. We had an impromtu shopping trip for some last minute items and Abby was able to talk mommy into getting cookies. Now if it was all of them, I would never have gotten these cookies for them, but when you only have 2 to buy for it makes it a bit easier. LOL.

Abby and Daniel both enjoyed their special little treat. Of course Abby picked a pink flower for herself. It is pink afterall and a flower. What more can a little girl want.

And for our little Sunshine, Abby picked the Sun. What a perfect little treat.

I did not get the picture of the mess that they made with the cookies afterwards. They only ended up eating the icing off the cookie and then crumbling the cookie all over the floor and smearing left over icing across the bookcase. Oh well! It was tasty while it lasted.

The Great Abby Cadaby Search

Just a testament to what our little darling has to look forward too all her life with brothers surrounding her. The other day Abby and Noah were playing, what I thought was a wonderful game together. After Noah goes off to preschool, our Little Abby was just beside herself because she could not find her precious Abby Cadaby doll. Jim and I had both seen the two of them upstairs and down playing with the Elmo and Abby Cadaby doll's so we knew that it had to be somewhere in between. So commences the great search. We looked all through Abby's room, cleaning up all the dolls, doll clothes, dress up clothes and so on. The search continued into the brother's room, just in case it got misplaced in there somewhere. We took her downstairs and check in couch cushions, in the toybox downstairs, under tables, and in closets. We still could not find the Abby Cadaby doll.



I guess it was then that I realized maybe Abby and Noah were not playing such a sweet little game after all. Jim had taken Noah to school, so I called him on the cell and asked if he was still with Noah so that he could drill him about where the doll might be, as our Abby was so distressed that we could not find her precious doll. Unfortunately, he had already headed back home. I was so tempted to have him get him out of class and interrogate him as to the whereabouts of the doll.



This prompted and even in depth search for said doll. I started looking in places that the doll might get thrown that Abby could not reach like ontop of bookshelves, dressers, and bunkbeds. We still could not find the doll. Abby was so upset at this point, wandering around the house, "Mom. Where's Abby Dabby?" I just could not understand where the doll could be. I firmly believe that there is black hole in our house. You know the one, where all the socks go, or one mitten, and things like that. But, I was certain that Abby Cadaby had not made it to this black hole. I just saw Noah and Abby with it not an hour before all of this.



Well, after much searching and pleading, we finally found Abby Cadaby. I was right in thinking that Noah had something to do with it, because said doll was stuffed into one of the baby toys and hidden under the bed. I had seen the toy earlier on our initial 3 or 4 searches of the room, but failed to actually look inside the toy. Here are some picks of her little hiding spot.



Here is the toy I found the doll in.









And here is the doll, all nestled nicely in her hiding spot.







I guess she needs to get used to it. With 4 brothers, I am sure it will not be the first Hide and Seek expidition we have to go on for favorite toys.