Watch Abigail Hope Grow

Halloween & Cub Scouts

The last week of October was Spirit Week at school. Here is a picture from twin day!

On Friday, she decided to be Wednesday Addams for Halloween Costume day. She was recognized for having one of the best costumes!

Parents were invited to come to her Halloween party at school.

They played games and decorated a pumpkin.

On Halloween night she went as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.

The wig didn’t last long but she trick-or-treated for about an hour and a half.

On November 1st, we went to a local Day of the Dead Festival. She did crafts and got her face painted.

We also decorated pumpkin cookies this weekend. Abby has no interest in carving pumpkins so we skipped that this year.

Abby had her first Cub Scout Outing this weekend as well!

We also went on a hike, made pine corn bird feeders, learned about camping essentials, and how to tie a square knot. She had a blast!

We had a parent teacher conference and noticed her name on this bulletin board in the hallway.

Her teacher had only good things to say about her in the conference. Abby is excelling at reading and math and got 100% on all her assessments. She is also kind, polite, and a natural leader. Her teacher said she could teach the class and frequently helps her classmates to understand their assignments after she is done with her work. We are so proud of her!

Abby is Six! (And Fall Break)

This was taken the night before she turned 6. It was her last day of being 5.

She had a squishmallow themed party at Chuck-e-cheese or as she calls it, “Chuck’s house.”

Eating Pizza with friends/cousins at the party.

She is playing with slime and wearing a new princess dress that she got. Life is good!

Her Nana (Jennifer’s Mom) brought two of her cousins up for the her birthday weekend. Abby stayed with them in the hotel and went swimming in the hotel pool.

We had a separate celebration with Shawn’s parents. Shawn’s mom is on hospice and is not well enough to go to Chuck-e-cheese.

After the birthday party was over, we went to great wolf lodge (in door water park) for a couple days.

They had an arcade and this was the first time she has gone to a place where you get physical tickets.

They also had bowling! Abby is pretty good. She got one strike and a couple spares.

When we got home, Mom and Abby went for mani/pedis

Her hair looks so pretty in this picture!

She went to a street festival with her best friend, Ivy, and spent the night at her house.

We finished fall break with our yearly birth family visit to celebrate Abby’s birthday.

Mikayla gave Abby a matching bracelet that “magically” connects with Abby’s bracelet. She hasn’t taken it off yet!

While on Fall break, she went to her yearly doctor’s visit. She is 4 feet, 4 inches tall and weighs 96 lbs. she is very healthy and has no medical problems other than eczema.

Things are great!

Abby is loving Kindergarten. Her teacher comments all the time about how bright and kind she is. She has gotten rewards for being a good listener, helping others, and staying on task.

She got pretty good at the climbing wall.

Abby is playing soccer again this fall. Shawn is her coach.

And she is in dance again and this time her friend Ivy is taking the class too.

Back to school

On August 5th we went to Abby’s school and met her teacher Ms. Shields (left) and assistant teacher Mrs. Kay’s (right).

Afterwords, we went to celebrate the start of school at Olive Garden.

The day before school started, she lost one of her front teeth at the pool (it had been loose for a few days). The tooth fairy brought her two gold coins ($1 each).

August 13th was her first day of school!

She spilled grape juice on herself at school breakfast but her teacher took this picture and sent it to me.

Her teacher reached out and sent me the following message: “Just wanted to reach out and tell you how amazing Abigail‘s first day of school was! She is an amazing listener and has a very kind heart. I cannot wait to have her back tomorrow for another great day!”

She liked her first day but said it was too long. She was exhausted when she got home.

Vacation Time!

This month we went on vacation in Colorado. Abby had never seen mountains before so we decided to skip the beach this year and show her something new.

Before our vacation, Abby and I celebrated the 4th of July at the zoo.

Shawn had to work all day on the 4th so after the zoo we went to a cookout at a friend’s house. Abby had a ball playing with other kids. We Shawn got home that night we shot off fireworks from our back porch. Abby doesn’t really like fireworks because they are loud so I didn’t get any good pictures.

To prepare for vacation, Abby had her first professional mani/pedi.

She loved the nail salon and now wants to go with me every two weeks. Since she is five, we are going to limit her visits to special occasions.

We flew to and from Denver for our vacation. Abby is a great flyer and was excited to watch Wicked and The captain underpants movie on the planes. When she grows up she wants to be a pilot!

In Colorado, we went to a Bigfoot museum. Although Abby maintained the Bigfoot is not real she had fun seeing Bigfoot “artifacts.”

Abby loves hotel life. She is excited every morning for breakfast and the waffle bar. And we went to the hotel pool everyday of our trip!

Abby really like all the dinosaur bones!

We went to both the Denver and Cheyanne Zoos.

At the Denver zoo we got to see a hippo play with a ball which was really cool.

The highlight of our trip was going up to the top of Pikes Peak. Here is a Bigfoot crossing sign that Shawn and I had stopped at before Abby was born.

This is our family at the top of the mountain.

There was still snow on the mountain top!

Abby through snowballs at the side of the mountain.

Abby also panned for rocks about half way up the mountain.

Also this month, We saw the Smurf movie and How to train your dragon.

Thank you to whoever sent the space Barbie. She loves it!

Here is a cool video of her jumping into the pool.

This is Abby jumping off of the diving board for the first time! She is so brave!

Sweet Summer Time

Abby’s summer is off to a great start!

We have a pool membership and go several times a week! She is a little fish . . . I mean mermaid!

She is still in swim lessons and doing very well. She moved up to the school age class and is already the best swimmer in her group.

She has been spending a lot of time with her BFF, Ivy.

They are not going to the same school in the fall and are really going to miss year other.

Shawn ran a 5K and Abby ran the kids 100 meter dash. She liked it and we are thinking about trying to get her into some track and field activities.

We took a quick trip to Tennessee to go to her cousin’s birthday party!

While we were close we had to take a trip to Dollywood Splash Country. She loves the lazy river and wave pool.

The most exciting thing to happen with Abby is that she performed in her first Dance recital. She is absolutely gorgeous in her outfit!

Along with her family, her friend’s came to see her perform! It was very sweet and meant at lot to Abby.

We are so proud of her! She got in the car after and said, “Mom, I. Loved. That. I want to do more recitals!”

Abby is silly and her latest trick is to turn every thing into a mustache.

This week Abby has been going to vacation Bible school and has made a ton of crafts and learned about Jesus! This year’s theme is bugs which I thought Abby would hate but she seems fine with it.

Abby loves our cat, Pippa, and carries her around all the time. Pippa is a good sport but sorta has a look on her face like, “I can’t believe you let this kid do this to me.” Haha!

Graduation & Mother’s Day

On May 9th, Abby graduated from preschool and we couldn’t be more proud of her!

She even sang a solo! Abby is a little shy so I was surprised when she volunteered to sing at her graduation but she did an amazing job!

The kids all sang a couple of songs during their graduation ceremony.

There was a reception to follow the graduation ceremony and Abby put M & Ms on her cake.

Abby’s teachers had some very nice things to say about her.

I took her picture with my graduation hat. She looks so grown up!

On Mother’s Day, Abby and I wore matching dresses and we went to a Mother’s Day brunch buffet with Shawn’s family. Abby had never been to a buffet (or at least she didn’t remember going to one) and really enjoyed going up for more plates of food. One trip, she just came back with three grapes!

Abby took this video of herself whistling!

And this is just a silly picture that I love!

Spring Break & Easter

We have had a really fun spring starting with Spring break in late March/early April.

We started Spring Break by seeing Peter Pan the musical.

Abby loves to play beauty shop (services include hair brushing, face jewels, make up, and nails).

We also went to the aquarium. Abby loves the tanks where you can “go inside” the tanks.

We also went to see Disney on Ice which was fun. Abby was disappointed that the little mermaid wasn’t featured but liked it other than that.

It has been very windy and she has enjoyed flying kites.

On Palm Sunday, we had our annual Easter Egg hunt at our house.

We also had snacks and made sun catchers at our Easter Egg Hunt.

The Easter bunny came a day early on Saturday.

Abby “wrote a letter” to the Easter bunny!

Shawn had to work all weekend so we woke Abby up at 4:30 in the morning to see her Easter basket and then Jennifer and Abby went to Knoxville for the weekend.

When we got to Nana’s house there was another Easter basket . . .

Abby enjoyed spending time with her cousins.

On Saturday afternoon, we went to Nana’s church for there Easter celebration which included, you guessed it, another Easter egg hunt.

They also had bounce houses, snow cones, and a petting zoo.

On Sunday afternoon, we went to see the King of Kings movie. Abby says, “I didn’t like the King of Kings movie. I loved it!”

Abby is still doing well with her swimming lessons.

She loves dance class!

Abby is starting to jump rope.

She can pump her legs to swing by her self.

She loves Barbie dolls! Thank you to Lisa and David for sending this ballerina Barbie!

She is also an expert whistler and whistles all the time. I will try to remember to get a video of that.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

They had this set up and her dance class.

Abby had “Donuts with Dad” and preschool and all the kids made their dad a tie!

We went to see the new Snow White movie and Abby loved it!

Just a random selfie she took with her stuffy.

There is not much to report. She is loving swim class and dance. She is very smart and a good problem solver. We continue to work on her reading and she can read/spell about 30 words or so. She is also funny without meaning to be. My most recent favorite quote:

Me: Abby, I just need you to not say “mom” for like ten minutes. (I was feeling a bit overwhelmed)

Abby after a pause: So . . . Should I call you Jennifer, or what?

Haha! All my stress melted away! She is such a joy!