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).
Here she is sitting at her desk.
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 was so excited!
Walking into the building.
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!
We went to the Denver Science Museum.
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 liked climbing on all the rocks!
The view from the top!
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 went strawberry picking.
She loved it!
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.
She loves Elsa again.
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!
This is her whole preschool class.
The kids all sang a couple of songs during their graduation ceremony.
Abby with her teachers.
Abby with her “BFF” who also graduated.
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 loved it!
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.
She had an Easter party at school . . .
. . . With another Easter egg hunt.
Cute little bunnies!
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 . . .
. . . And another Easter egg hunt.
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 we went to church!
Here is Abby in her Easter dress!
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!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Abby had a Valentine’s Day Party at school and handed out valentines to her friends.
The day before they made bags for their valentines.
Jennifer was out of town on a work trip on Valentine’s Day but she still got her dinner of heart shaped chicken nuggets, raspberries, and Mac and cheese!
Abby has started taking ballet and tap dance lessons.
She really loves it!
As you can see she is a head taller than the other 5 year olds in her class.
Abby is a girly girl and really into “spa days.” Here we are with a face mask!
Here she is “laxing” in a friend’s jacuzzi tub!
We have had a lot of snow this year!
She will play in the snow a little but she told me that she “is not a snow girl, she is a summer girl.”
Her favorite part of snow is coming in for hot chocolate!
A few days ago, we made snow cream. Abby can do it all by herself!

Tooth Fairy & New Years!

Abby lost her 1st tooth! You can see that the new tooth is already coming in.
She was very excited and didn’t want to give her tooth to the tooth fairy before she got the chance to show it to everyone. So we carried it around in a little bag for a few days. 😳
She finally put her tooth in this little tooth fairy pillow and the tooth fairy left a sparkly five dollars!
We rang in the new year at home!
We had sparkling grape juice, watched the ball drop, blew horns, and kissed at “midnight.” She only made it to 9 pm but we had fun anyway.

Merry Christmas!

Abby is not a fan of Santa so again I had to be in the picture with her.
At preschool, they made Santa shirts and wore them for their Christmas Party.
It looks like they had fun!
Abby was excited about Christmas Morning!
Her big present from Mom and Dad was a Barbie Dream house. She wanted a “Barbie house with a slide and a toilet” and she really has played with it so much.
We went to Shawn’s parents’ house for Christmas dinner.
We had her friends over for a little party a few days before Christmas. They decorated brownies, played, and exchanged presents. Abby has become an expert brownie maker and can make brownies (from a mix) all by herself! Her favorite part is cracking the eggs.
We went to Knoxville to have Christmas with Jennifer’s family.
My family always has a birthday cake and sing happy birthday to baby Jesus!
We ate, read Christmas books, decorated cookies, and opened presents. Abby really enjoyed being with her cousins.
Daddy and Abby after presents.
Of course we had to go to Dollywood since we were so close!
This was Abby’s favorite ride! She did ride her first (and maybe last) roller coaster. She did not like it but I am very proud of her for trying something new and scary. She is a brave girl!
We even got to pan for gold! That was always my favorite thing to do at Dollywood!

Happy Thanksgiving

I take a picture of her with this pillow every Thanksgiving.
We had a nice thanksgiving. We host it at our house every year and eat a turkey that we raised on our farm.
Her preschool class had a Thanksgiving feast as well.
We went to see Moana 2 the day after Thanksgiving
Nana and Papa got to come with us (Shawn had to work)
We have had snow twice since Thanksgiving
Snow Angels are Abby’s favorite!
Someone gave Abby a science set for her birthday and she has loved doing science experiments on these cold days.
Abby had a friend over to spend the night for the first time. Both girls did well and there was so much giggling! Here they are dressed up as ladybug and “lady cat noir.”
We went to visit Santa but Abby is afraid of him so Jennifer ended up in the picture too!
Abby is counting down to Christmas with a Miraculous Ladybug advent calendar. Everyday she gets an ornament to put on the tree in her room. It is the first thing she asks about when she wakes up in the morning.
Abby has her first “wiggly teeth”