Christmas in Vienna!

Yesterday we celebrated Christmas here in Vienna. Santa made a special trip to visit us early and brought Anna a tricycle, Abby a ball popper, and Abby and Anna a Snow White Cottage tent to share. We had a fun morning opening presents, a fun afternoon playing with presents, and a yummy Christmas dinner.

oooh, a new drill for Dad!

ahh, a new Sesame Street book (with felt pieces to move around!) for Anna!

oooo...new earrings for Mommy!

what did I get mom?

"I don't know what this is called, Mommy."

"Don't worry, Abby, no one does."

"Well, it sure looks fun!"

Sesame Street Live!

Matt and Anna went to Sesame Street Live this morning! They both had a great time :) Matt found a way to buy special tickets so they got to sit in the third row on the isle. Matt knew the third row would be fantastic, but he had no idea sitting in the isle of the third row meant that Anna would get visits from the characters. She got a visit from Prairie Dawn and Abby and a hug from Cookie!

Enjoying some treats before the show:

Here they come:

Anna, starstruck:

Christmas preparations

We've been busy getting ready for Christmas! Anna has had fun:

making cookies:

decorating cookies:

and making a gingerbread house:

And Abby has been busy working on sitting up so she has two hands free to unwrap her presents!

I'm ready!

We've also had a lot of fun opening our two advent calendars (wooden with treats! and a cool digital village), listening to A Night Before Christmas read to us by Nana on a digital book, watching some cool internet entertainment created by Uncle Pete, waiting to see where the Elf visiting our house will move each night, playing "hide the sheep ornament" on our Christmas tree, driving around town to look at lights, setting up Anna's new Nativity set, going to Anna's Christmas concert at school, going to the local high school Christmas concert, making Christmas jello, and of course, eating Christmas cookies! Wow, I didn't realized how busy we have been until I recorded it. Well, it's been a great Christmas season so far and it's only Dec. 14th. We're looking forward to a lot more fun here in Vienna and a fun trip to Albany next week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great trip to Albany for Thanksgiving! It was such a blessing to spend so much time with family and see good friends too. Here are some highlights from the trip:

Now there are 4 cousins! Baby Kieran is so cute!!

That's funny, Great Grandma!

Aunt Diane is snuggly!

Do I look extra small in Uncle Dan's arms?

Painting time with Nana!

Is the chicken done yet, Liam?

Playing one of many new (old) games Uncle Pete found in the basement

Anyone who spent the week with us knows what Anna is waving her finger about...

no pictures, please!

Long time buds and their babies :)

hanging with Mommy's long time friend, Bridget :)

Hungry Bear & Indian Princess

Abby has been a hungry little girl this week! She's been nursing more and eating about twice as much solid food as just 5 days ago. Maybe I should prepare myself to get the next set of clothes out? 

 I'm hungry!

Anna had her Thanksgiving feast at school yesterday. She brought strawberries and grapes in to help her class make a fruit salad for the feast. At school she made an Indian Princess necklace and hat. She's been enjoying playing "dress up" this week and her new hat and necklace are nice additions to her set of dress up clothes.

I love my Hungry Bear and Indian Princess :)

First time on a swing!

Anna & I decided to try Abby on a swing yesterday for the first time. She did great! I had to stuff a few things behind her to secure her in there. Once I did that she was snug as a bug. Anna got on the swing next to her. Then Anna got some big pushes and Abby got some little pushes. They both loved it!

Abby has also been trying out some slides (on Mom or Dad's lap), which she loves. And yesterday she crawled through a few playground tunnels. She gets so excited when she gets to do a "big girl activity" like Anna. I really didn't have to work hard to catch a smile in the picture above. It was glued to her face during the whole ride!

Professional photos!

This morning we got professional photos of Anna & Abby. They came out great! Here are a few of them:

Grandma & Grandpa visit

Yesterday and this morning Grandma and Grandpa visited on their way back to Albany. Anna, Abby, and I have all been a little sick the past few days so yesterday Grandma made us some chicken soup and Grandpa made himself into a pillow:

This morning everyone was feeling better:

So much better that we were able to celebrate Abby Cadabby's birthday with a blow-out bash:

These are the leftover birthday hats from my birthday party. We only had 8 of them. As you can see from the pictures we had many more than 8 guests at this party. It was very troubling for Anna that everyone didn't have their own hat. Therefore, one of the main activities at the party was moving the hats around so everyone could wear one for a period of time. We also ate our food (in fact, if you stopped eating your food, Anna would remind you, "Daddy, keeping eating your carrots!") and sang, If You're Happy and You Know it. It was a great event!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today I turned:

This morning Dad & Anna made me a birthday cake. (Before breakfast! It was the first thing Anna wanted to do when she woke up :)

Then at lunch we had a party. Anna & Abby had a great time:

And so did Mom (and Dad):

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

Teeth!

You may remember that 2 years ago to this day (my birthday!), Anna got her first tooth. Abby almost got her first tooth today. She's been working on it all week, but we felt the first little point last night. She did get her second tooth today as she woke up this morning with two little points. They are the bottom two bunny teeth. Hopefully this will give her some relief as I think they have been bothering her. It's hard to tell, though because she also had her six month appointment on Friday and got 4 vaccines - ouch! This could also bee the culprit of a little extra fussiness too :(

Simultaneously, Anna has been working on her two year old molars. Both of the bottom ones are completely in and the top ones are half way in. I think they are bothering her a little too since she has had her hand in her mouth and has been choosing yogurt for many of her recent meals.

On the move!

Here's Abby showing off some of her new moves:

Happy Birthday, Abigail!

Abby is 6 months old today!

Abby is full of smiles right now. She smiles when strangers say "hi" to her, when we sing to her, and when we play games with her. She especially likes peek-a-boo, "riding the animals," and bouncing on someone's legs. She is always busy exploring new toys and watching what Anna is doing. She loves it when Anna plays games with her. Her favorite is when Anna reads the book, From Head to Toe by Eric Carle. Each page shows a body motion like clapping or kicking your legs. Anna does the motion and asks Abby if she can do it too. Abby tries to do it herself, although sometimes she gets some help from Mom.

Abby is still busy moving all over the place. She seems to have (temporarily?) lost interest in getting up on her arms and knees. Instead she's been getting faster at her military crawl. If she wants to get somewhere (usually to Anna) she can really do it fast now. She can't sit up on her own yet, but she can sit up in the high chair now. She enjoys sitting with us during meals and sometimes she eats along with us. In addition to green beans she has tried peas and carrots, both of which she liked a lot!

Happy Birthday sweet Abby Jane! We love you so much! We're so thankful for all the joy you have brought us in the past 6 months!

Halloween fun!

We had a great Halloween! To get ready for the big night Matt and Anna took a bunch of walks around the neighborhood to check out all the "spooky" decorations. Anna loved looking at our pumpkin all lit up as well as some extra skeleton decorations that Matt and Anna put up on Halloween day. Anna was especially excited to put her Mini Mouse costume on and go trick-or-treating! She was a little tentative at the first few houses, but she caught on quickly. It was so cute to hear her say, "trick-or-treat" after knocking on each door. She was really excited to fill up her pumpkin with treats! Abby was a really adorable horse. She enjoyed trick-or-treating too. And it was extra fun to have Corinne join us for the celebrations as well!

After the girls went to bed, Matt and I had fun reminiscing about past Halloweens and we both decided this was our best Halloween ever.