Disney Update

Ok it has taken me a while but really did you expect otherwise with 492 pictures that were printed out of the 1602 pictures taken! We have been back for about 3 weeks and I finally have all 492 pictures printed, sorted, and in order! YEAH! You don't know how happy this makes me. I have the same 492 pictures also printed, in order and ready to start scrapbooking. :) We had an awesome time on the trip but here are a few highlights. Abbygale's favorite ride was the Mad Tea Party (spinning tea cups) at Magic Kingdom. We rode this ride over and over and over! She dressed up as Cinderella at the Bippity Boppity Boutique and had lunch with all the princesses. She was exhausted after the week and having SOOO much fun but so were her daddy and I. Here are a few pictures so you can see how much fun she had!

Annual Christmas Tree Trip

Every year we travel to Boone, NC and get our Christmas tree. We always go the Sunday after Thanksgiving and leave that morning to make it there by lunch. We eat at the Daniel Boone Inn and then make the venture to try and find the best looking tree we can! This year was no different except IT WAS RAINING! We have never had bad weather on this annual trip but this year it rained on the way to Boone and then stopped when we arrived to eat. The rain held off until after we left Kilwins Chocolate Store (always part of the annual trip) and started to head home. Besides being cold we had excellent weather when picking out our tree which we owe all thanks to our Gracious Heavenly Father who knows that I would be utterly disappointed if I didn't get good pictures! (I'm sure that wasn't His reasoning but whatever it was, I am very grateful!) Here are a few pictures from our excursion!

Disney Magic!

17 days and counting! That's how many days we have until we leave for Disney! We are so excited and despite Tony and I being in our late 20's I think we are just as excited as Abbygale. We have 5 days in the parks and one of those days Abbygale will be treated like the princess that she is! She is going to visit Bibbity Bobbity Boutique where they will pamper her and dress her up like the Princess of her choice! If that wasn't enough we will leave the boutique and head over to Epcot where we are scheduled to have lunch with a Princess! They will read a book and several Princesses will wander around and greet everybody. This as you can imagine is what Abbygale is super-excited about! I am excited about this as well because the scrapbooker in me can see the endless possibilities of pages galore devoted to this one experience! :) Because of that and the once-in-a-lifetime experience that this trip will be (I've NEVER been to Disney either) I purchased a whole separate scrapbook just for this trip! Abbygale is 4 and is already on her 3rd scrapbook so I knew that I would need to just do a complete separate book for this! I am just as excited about scraping the trip as I am going! I will be sure to post pictures on here as well but it might take a while since I'll be drowning in pictures up to my Mickey Mouse ears!

Haircut

I absolutely hate getting my hair cut. I go in with this idea of what I want to have done and to my dismay I end up leaving with something not so much like I wanted! This however is not Samantha's fault. She is the BEST hairstylist that I have ever had! She does exactly what I tell her to do. I plan a trip to see her and all week have a picture in mind (and sometimes in hand) of exactly how I want my hair to look. Then when I get in that chair all the bravery in my body flows out onto the floor and I chicken out! I end up telling her "I want this picture but not so....whatever!" She is a saint for putting up with my spacy-ness when it comes to what I want. Anyway here is a new picture of my new hair (I know that me putting a picture of myself is a miracle anyway~usually I'm behind the camera!) It's not exactly what I pictured but you get the hint!

Growing Up!

Well many of you know that my "baby" turned 4 yesterday. I say "baby" because if you give Abbygale the ammunition and say that in front of her she will tell you that she is not a baby but a big girl. A big girl. Big in terms of size, yes. When compared to other kids her age she is tall. Big in the size of the things that she knows, yes. She is only 4 and cannot only spell her name but write it too. She is very advanced in most aspects of her "book smarts" too in the fact that she can already speak two languages and we are working at home with her on addition and subtraction. All this and my "baby" won't even start kindergarten for two more years!

But before this post turns into a "look what my child can do" list, I say these things with great hesitation. I am 100% completely proud of her, don't get me wrong. I just loathe any new milestone because it does mean that she is getting older. I want her to grow up and be successful but there is a part of me that wants to 'freeze' her now! I hate the thought of her ever leaving me! :) I know most parents feel the same way (I am sure that some parents throw a party when their child leaves but they probably are the exception, at least I hope).

All this from the one that wakes up at 12:18 am on the day of her child's birthday every year just to be the first to sing her Happy Birthday! She is still unaware that I do this now, but I wonder when she goes to college if her and her roommate will appreciate this gesture of love?!

I spent much of this week reflecting on my "baby". Four years ago we were so ecstatic to become parents. I remember the first time I felt her move, the first ultrasound and of course the day she arrived. For weeks we thought she was coming early. For almost half the pregnancy I was on bed rest all but four hours of the day. We prayed she would just make it to full term...she did and even had to be induced at 41 weeks! That is Abbygale's personality though. Even that small she told you how things were. She is very much in charge of her self and very headstrong with what she wants (I have no clue by the way where she gets that!) ;) I think sometimes it's that independence that scares me. It scares me because I know she will be able to take care of herself and one day will no longer need her Mommy. Oh well, until that day comes I will enjoy every minute of my "baby"!

Interview with Abbygale

I got this idea from a friend and it turned out too cute! I "interviewed" Abbygale yesterday on the way home from school and here are her answers.

How old are you? 3
How old is Mommy? 54 (thanks for that abbygale)
How old is Daddy? 54
How do you bake a cake? Decorate it!
What is Daddy's name? Daddy Tony
When is your birthday? October 23
What is your favorite color? Purple, Pink, Blue, White and Yellow
What is your favorite animal? Rudolph!
What do you want to do when you grow up? Drive a pink car and be a fire girl!

Mud Run Update

A few posts ago I told everyone about a Mud Run in Columbia, SC that some friends and I were going to be participating in in September. Due to other circumstances it ended up only being two of us that actually ran the Mud Run. Carrie and I had a blast and Shree was able to get some great pictures of us! Thanks Shree! We had a blast competing but it was super hard. I ended up with several scraps and bruises but overall we did great. We finished the entire course in 1 hour, 21 minutes and 54seconds! The course was over 4 miles long with 30 obstacles along the way so this was a great accomplishment to me! The last part of the course was carrying a team mate 100 yards! If you were a team of four you had a stretcher to carry one person on but if you had two like us then you carried somebody on your back! Next year we are trying to get a larger group to go and compete and hopefully the guys will be able to attend then as well! It was a ton of fun but a lot of hard work too!