Colds, Backaches, and Springtime!

Last month we had so many issues. Abby got her first earache and first real cold. She was up every 30 - 60 minutes crying and grabbing her ear. Poor girl slept on me all night. Luckily she was better after a trip to the doctors and starting some yummy Amoxicillin. A week after starting the Amoxicillin she got a full body rash. Turns out that she's allergic to Penicillin. She loved the Amoxicillin so much that she cried when she couldn't have it anymore. Then, I get a cold and Abby gets another cold! This time it settles into her chest and she gets a nice cough to go with her runny nose. Luckily she has been better for the last week but she still has a bit of a cough that comes out every now and then. I get another cold as well and I'm still dealing with it. Unfortunately my ears don't want to unplug and my nose likes to have some congestion. John came down with a sore throat over a week ago and got my cold as well. Poor boy is in agony. You'd think he's never had a cold before. But here is the story to top it all:

Two weeks ago, John was carrying Abby out to the car for me one morning. She is putting up a fight and John is wrestling with her in his arms. He made a sudden movement and hurt his back. John drops Abby, she lands on her feet because she is a cat and he can't move. I take Abby over to Tina's house then come home to check on John. He has crawled back into the house and is on all fours. John can't move and is in HORRIBLE pain. So I call our friend Jeremy, who is a chiropractor, and tell him what happened. We are both laughing hysterically because I think John is a drama queen and is over reacting. 30 minutes later, we are at Jeremy's house where John finds out he popped a rib out of place in his back! His back muscles and abs have been cramping which was causing a lot of the pain. Once Jeremy popped the rib back in place, the pain subsided a bit. Unfortunately his body wanted to seize up at any sudden movements, so John had to move around like a 90 year old man all day to keep from cramping up. I played nursemaid to two babies that day since Abby was still sick. It took about 4 or 5 days for John to be able to move around like normal. Let's just say we hope that NEVER happens again!

It's been in the 70's here and we are loving it! Abby thinks it's time to go to the pool and be outside. Here she is with her swimsuit on reading a book in the laundry basket. Abby loves to read! I think she might take over her Mama. I used to lounge around in the summer reading books and laying out by the pool. I think I have my little California girl!

Abby has been loving the weeds. She has been picking flowers all over the yard. While I'm weeding, she runs around and picks the flowers off the weeds. Oh, and she is always in a skirt or dress. She is just too cute to not put lots of pictures on here!

We heard an airplane and Abby loves to look for them.

Now we are in the backyard another day but Abby wants to pick all the flowers again! Abby doesn't like to have bows in her hair. She would rather have nothing or just plain bobby pins. You can see the bobby pin in the pictures above.

Abby has become quite the musician. I can't play the piano without her taking over. I love this video of her playing and singing. I keep trying to get her to say "Bye" but she keeps saying "One More!"

Birthdays

For Abby's birthday we went to Kirby Lane Cafe for breakfast. She loves pancakes and Kirby Lane Cafe have the best pancakes so she got to order whatever she wanted. She also got to wear whatever she wanted for the day. Let's just say Abby was a spoiled PRINCESS.

While Abby was napping, we got her presents all ready. We set up her tent and arranged the presents inside just for her.

She was so excited to open everything. You can tell she has a bit of a bedhead.

Abby got her own computer to play on. She loves it!

She also got a poofy blue skirt from Mom and Dad and a dress and toy from Grandma and Grandpa VanDerwerken.

After opening her presents, we went to the outlets to go shopping! Abby got 3 new dresses. She is such a dress fiend that she had to wear each one for a little bit that day. Here is a new dress from Grandma and Grandpa Quiggle. I put my Tiara on her and she walked around like a true Princess for the rest of the day.

That night we dropped Abby off with some friends and went to Benihana! I got my own balloon hat.

Our friends the Perrills, Brysons, and Jimenez' family came with us. We had such a great time!

The next day Abby was so excited to get "Ballerina Belle" from our friends the Brysons. She takes Belle everywhere with her. Once again, this is an after nap picture and another dress from the Quiggle Grandparents.

That night we had cupcakes! Abby loves anything with the word 'cake' in it. Daddy had to help blow out the candles.

Here we have Abby in the VanDerwerken Grandparents dress playing on her computer.

A true dress up queen!

I can't believe my baby girl is 2 years old! She loves to throw tantrums (she goes from 0 to 100 in .3 seconds), dump water on the floor to clean up, color, eat whatever mom and dad are eating, read books, DANCE, pick flowers, order Mom and Dad around, go to the library just to drink from the drinking fountain, look at pictures, talk on the phone (sorry to anyone who has received an unsupervised call) and loves anything PRINCESS!

New York and Snow!

We took a family trip to New York in January. Abby loved getting to know her Grandma and Grandpa VanDerwerken and her Aunt Jenny. We had so much fun. It snowed on us 3 times so Abby got to know what cold really means. Abby didn't like to get dressed up in warm clothes and just wanted to run around in a onsie all the time. She is such a Texas girl. On our first Saturday there, we went out to the Farm to go sledding. We bundled Abby up nice and warm but she wasn't ready for the freezing cold snow to splatter up into her face. Here are some pictures of her and John sledding on their first run. Both are action shots.

This hill is definitely steeper than this pictures looks.

John was so proud and had so much fun.


Abby thought she could probably do without the wet cold. She didn't like to keep her gloves on either.

We tried to go down as a family but Abby hated it so much she screamed until Grandpa saved her.

Here she is happy again to not be touching the snow.

Abby liked the "Get the snow off your boots" dance Daddy taught her. She stomped around the porch until we made her go inside.

We got to see a lot of friends while we were there. Julie and Miguel went to dinner with us and thought Abby was the biggest crackup ever! We also saw other friends from John's high school but unfortunately we didn't get pictures with them.

We tried sledding a second time. Abby didn't mind sitting with me as John slowly pulled us along. As you can see it was snowing that day.

John's friend Brian Sascawitz came sledding with us! I couldn't get up the hill in my slippery boots so he had to help me up the hill every time!

Abby enjoyed watching this time. We didn't make her go down the hill.

Abby loved Grandpa's "Man Cave" in the basement. It had a nice fire, big tv, and her own personal rocking chair. Here she is giving me the stink eye.

We went to dinner at Aunt Arla's house and took our final family pictures there. Abby loved being spoiled by Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Jenny. I think she had at least 5 fruit snack packs a day, got to do whatever she wanted, and watched Thumbelina, The Little Mermaid, and Snow White over and over and over. Every time we pass their picture Abby yells, "Gramma, Jenny!"

Here is a picture of John's Aunt and Uncle Wilding and cousins. Abby thought they were so funny.

We had a great trip and can't wait to come back but preferably when it isn't so cold.

It's A Girl!

John and I went to my ultrasound appointment yesterday morning and found out that we are having a very fiesty little girl! She didn't stop moving the entire time. She put on quite the production for us. Our little one rolled, kicked, punched, sucked her thumb, puckered her lips, waved, brought her feet all the way up to her head, it goes on and on. I loved watching her. The ultrasound technician even said "Well, by the amount and way she's moving, she already has good muscles". John and I looked at each other and thought Oh No! Another early crawler and walker. My favorite part was when the technician was trying to get her to move her head so he could get a certain picture but she didn't want to. At first she started shaking her head no, then as he started to push and prod and jingle her around she finally got fed up and punched him! It was so funny (but kind of hurt because I was stuck in the middle)! We can't wait for this little girl to come to us.

New Years

For New Year's Eve, we went to Buca di Beppo with our friends the Brosies and the Dentons. We had just a good dinner. After eating we went to Chili's and got some Chocolate Lava Cakes. Soooooo good!!

The next day we went to the Brosie's house and had lots of fun. Abby got to ride in Tanners new car! They were so cute driving up and down the block. Abby sat and smiled like a little princess.

It was a great way to start the new year!

Christmas 2010

Here are some Christmas pictures:

Santa brought Abby a Red Rider Tricycle! She loves it!

Abby's stocking was so full that goodies were falling out of the top!

Here we have Abby surveying her loot. As you can see, she loved it all.

Abby "riding" her bike around.

John got some of his favorite things.

Abby received this table and chairs from Grandma and Grandpa VanDerwerken. She loved it right away. It is now a permanent fixture in the family room.

After opening our stockings and presents, we went to a friends house to play some Wiffle Ball! Unfortunately it was too windy and cold to play for long so we just ate and vegged out. Here we have Abby brushing with Daddy's toothbrush. She loves to brush her teeth!

Abby had so much fun with her stocking. Here is a little preview of her getting something out of her stocking. Let's just say the stocking took a long time because she wanted to wear or play with everything as she took them out.