Catching Up - Thanksgiving 2010

I decided I need to squeeze in our Thanksgiving post before Christmas Day so that I can finally catch up. We spent Thanksgiving in Lilburn, GA with Chad's family and enjoyed a good bit of football, food and family (you know, the typical Thanksgiving stuff).

Wednesday we spent some time at the Yellow River Game Ranch. This was our first trip and the best way I can explain it is as a petting zoo/trail with random other caged animals. Some animals roamed freely and would approach you for snacks, while others begged loudly from their respective cages. The saltine crackers Abigail had to offer them seemed pretty popular and she enjoyed feeding the animals while snacking on the crackers herself.

Abigail LOVES riding on Chad's shoulders but insists on "hanging on" by grabbing both of his ears. I'm not sure how that started, but she finds them to be excellent handles for her ride.

Hunter, Christopher's dog, got to spend Thanksgiving with us too and Abigail was THRILLED!!! He was such a good sport and let Abigail do anything she wanted to, usually without budging at all. I am sure he is used to it with Madison and Olivia, but Abigail didn't give him much of a break while he was there. These next pictures capture a glimpse of her admiration for Hunter.

Abigail enjoyed getting in on the cooking action as well. Grammy let her "help" with the green beans for the big Thanksgiving meal,

and Me Mommy needed her "help" with the biscuits one morning too. Everything turned out edible, so she didn't do too much damage in the kitchen.

Needless to say, after being away from home for a week and with multiple stops to see friends in Birmingham on the way there and on the way back, we had one tired little girl on our hands. This is what I saw when I looked back after being on the road for literally three minutes.

Tutu Excited - Birthday Post

Abigail turned two on November 24th! The weekend before her birthday we celebrated with family and friends at her Tutu Birthday Party. She was SO excited about her party and is still talking about it weeks later.

Here is the birthday girl waiting to greet her guests at the end of the driveway.

The party was filled with Abigail's favorite foods, so lunch included pizza, grapes and juice boxes!

Her face in this pictures looks as if she is saying, "Mom, lay off the pictures please...you're embarrassing me in front of my friends."

Thankfully it was a beautiful day - mid 70s in late November - so the kids were able to enjoy playing in the backyard. We are very grateful for a sandbox and play set as there was not much for them to do if we were forced indoors.

Abigail's Birmingham cousins drove over for the party and were decked out in their tutu attire!

The most important party of the party, if you were to ask Abigail, was the cake. This little girls LOVES cake (really any sweets) and wanted to just stare at her cake in the hours leading up to the party. A cute bakery here in Brandon did a great job with her cake and it tasted yummy too.
Here are some more pictures of the outside fun had by all. Sorry these are a bit out of order!

This is Abigail's sweet friend Mary Holland - or Princess Fairy Mary Holland in this picture. I love this picture my sister captured of MH during the blessing. She is precious!
Cousin Joshua got to come over from Starkville too and chowed down on pizza, cake and ice cream. He sat at the food tables longer than anyone else and savored every bite.


Cooper to the rescue! Abigail needed a little help blowing out her candles and Cooper was a pro.
Can you tell this little girl had a blast at her party? She left the ice cream on her face to prove it!
Happy Birthday sweet girl! We love you!

Oink, Oink, Oink

Happy Halloween! We had a great time this year and let Abigail participate in her first pumpkin carving (believe it or not...it was Chad's first time too)! She was very fascinated with the gross stuff coming out of the pumpkin and "helped" to scoop it all out.

Saturday we dressed our little pig and headed down the street for some neighborhood fun. Abigail loved wearing her costume and surprisingly left the hat on the whole time except when she was eating.

Playing with all of the neighborhood kids.
Then we went to trick-or-treat Coach and Nana's house.

She needed to immediately eat the treat Coach gave her!
Showing GG her loot.
Candy is Abigail's new favorite word and she asks for it all the time! Pretty sure she got her sweet tooth from me.

Fall Field Trips

Before we get to the field trip updates I feel compelled to show proof that our Abigail is not a baby anymore. She is very quickly becoming a big girl and pushing more for her independence everyday. "Abigail do it," is the most commonly used phrase in her vocabulary these days and applies to everything from getting dressed and putting her shoes on to buckling her car seat and using the potty (more on the potty subject in another post to come). Needless to say, it takes us a LONG time to accomplish some simple tasks in our house because of her insistence on doing things herself. Look how big she looks in one of the super cute outfits that Nana made her!

Fall is finally here....well, sort of. It is still in the mid-eighties here each day, but getting better and better. Despite the unseasonably warm temps, we have been participating in various Fall activities to welcome the season.

Two weeks ago we took our first ever trip to the Mississippi State Fair! The fair comes to town each October for a couple of weeks and is a BIG deal here in Mississippi. We went one afternoon while you could get in free to check out the Kid's Barnyard and petting zoo.





Abigail liked most of the animals and enjoyed feeding them, ... all except this interesting looking creature below. She was not impressed!
Overall, the fair did not disappoint and we look forward to going back (Mommy and Daddy especially look forward to the jumbo corn dogs and deep fried oreos!)

Our next field trip was last week to the local pumpkin patch. Our visit included a hayride, visiting the animals, picking a pumpkin and playing around outside.
We even got to see our first ever Zonkey (zebra + donkey)!

Abigail waved to every animal she saw.






Mommy will do her best to post again before another month slips by. Happy Fall Y'all!