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.