Black and Gold Superbowl!

The Saints are geauxing to their first official Super Bowl!!!!  It means the world to the state of Louisiana and all the Saints fans that have been waiting since the franchise started.

I wish however that they had beat any other team because I hated to see Favre go out like that.  Now on to the Super Bowl and Peyton's crew.  Who do you think Archie will be rooting for?  His old team or his son's team?  Should be (hopefully) interesting.

On a side note I am hosting a Super Bowl board if anyone wants in :).

Off to Washington

On Thursday we left for Washington State to go see Riley and Austin.  It has been since the summer since Abby saw her sister and Thanksgiving since she saw her Bubba.

We had tons of fun just relaxing and hanging out and doing fun things.  One thing is Riley LOVES to dance.  Anytime you turned on music she would go at it dancing.  While there we taught her the Sprinkler, Cabbage Patch and Lawn Mower.  I think it will definitely add to her library of moves!

One day we went to the Tri-Cities Children's Museum.  The kids had never been there and we thought it would be a good place for them to go and get their energy out (and were we right).  I think we stayed there almost 2 hours and even Austin wasn't bored.  They played continuously.

Rileybug driving the ambulance

The museum had a medival room with a castle and tons of costumes for the kids to dress up in as well as a stage to perform on and a throne.  Dad took this opportunity to sit in an easy chair and relax (kind of).

Prince Austin and Princess Riley

Austin cooking us a meal in the museum's kitchen room.

The girls putting together a puzzle.

One evening we went to Chuck E Cheese with Kerry, Marc and Madelynn.  The kids played tons of games, rode some rides, ate lots of pizza and danced with the songs and tunes of Chuck E Cheese and his band.

Maddie getting stimulated by all the activity at CEC.

Riley Smiley going down the slide

The Abbster driving with Chuck E

While we were there we also played outside, went to the mall, ate Ivar's, saw movies (Austin/Dad saw Avatar, Riley and I saw Alvin & the Chimpmunks), watched Riley have cheer practice, went to Red Lobster, watched tons of movies at the house, played rounds of games (Candy Land, Memory, Scrabble, etc) and many more things.

We also did our Christmas with the kids while we were there.  We took the gift cards that the Williams and James family sent them and they got some cools toys.  We also got them presents from us. 

Austin:  New Moon game, New Moon soundtrack, Breaking Dawn book, Scrabble, PS2 game, Spiderman 3 movie and lots of clothes.

Riley:  Baby Alive doll, Barbies, Barbie clothes, Barbie movie, Belle doll and more clothes. 

Riley did want Abby and her to have a matching shirt so we found one to both of their liking:

All in all it was a great trip.  Abby did pretty good on the airplanes but it was constant work for Tracy and I to keep her entertained!

16 months big!

We skipped over Abby's 15 month old appointment and ended up having a 16 month appointment instead because Dr. Neal was delivering a little one at the time of her 15 month appointment.  So today we went and found out that she is 26.2 lbs small and 33 inches long.  She jumped from the 20th percentile in height at her 1 year appointment to the 75th percentile this go round.  She is also in the 76th percentile for weight as opposed to her 95th percentile she was at this summer.

Abby is getting so big.  She can show us her belly, her nose, ears, head and eyes.  She still only has 4 teeth but a few of them look like they are going to be coming out soon.  She is just getting so big!

Christmas Celebrations

2009 Christmas was a busy time of year....we were going to Baton Rouge for the holiday, Joyce & Dennis were going to Arkansas and to Oklahoma and the Williams family was going skiing so the weekend before Christmas we all got together at The Williams House in Richmond and had our James family Christmas there. Lots of fun things were exchanged and of course we all got our annual underwear and socks from Joyce :)...it isn't a Christmas with out them! The two things I was super excited about: Tracy finally got a jacket that he can wear (other than that Starter jacket) and I got a spa day!!!!! Abby got tons of cute clothes. After presents we all went to Texas Roadhouse for a traditional steak Christmas dinner :) LOL.

Alec unwrapping his socks and underwear!

Katie seemed a little embarrassed when she opened her socks and underwear...she wouldn't let any of us see them.

Dennis wondering where his socks and underwear are

Mom...when do I get socks and underwear?

On Christmas Christmas Eve we left Texas to travel to Louisiana. Our first stop was Lafayette to visit my Cooper, Christy, Hailey and Andrew (brother and family). We got there late and it was pretty much to bed for everyone. On Christmas Eve we were able to spend the whole morning with Hailey and Andrew. Andrew loved playing with Abby...I love that they are so close in age. We ate great gumbo for lunch and helped Hailey make cookies for Santa. Abby came away with a huge wheelbarrow of Mega Blocks.

We left Lafayette after Abby woke up from her nap and went to Baton Rouge. While there we visited Ms Sally and Mr. Aaron and Abby loved just climbing up and down the steps and playing with the big pillows (the same things her mom did when she was a little girl). We then grabbed a shrimp po-boy from Sammy's and went on to Bill and Polly's.

The next morning was.....CHRISTMAS!!!! Abby knew exactly which toys were hers under the tree! She didn't even go for Cam's presents. Santa brought Abby:

* Snow White DVD

* Chatter Elmo

* Doodle Pro

* Crayole Tadoodles

* Little People Legos

* Littple People Airplane

Leonardo Da Vinci, watch out Abigail Lindsey is about to draw!

From mom and dad she got a travel booster feeding chair. We travel so much we thought it would be useful to have.

From Cam, Abby got pajamas...yeah and they are super warm. After we got all dressed, we made the trek to Franklinton to have lunch at Aunt Margarets with her brood. Abby loved playing and seeing all of her cousins. This year, we had added a new cousin to the mix, baby Jax. He was so super tiny (1 month). Most of my mom's side of the family came from the teaching world so Abby got some educational toys (which she loved).

We left Aunt Margarets and went down the road to Uncle James and Aunt Lillian's to see the rest of the cousins and their brood. Needless to say we ate and ate throughout this day. While Abby took a nap, Uncle James and I went out to the cemetary to see mom. It wasn't the same kind of visit I usually have with her (as I felt I couldn't really talk to her or be emotional), but it was nice to see her. We left Franklinton to come back home to Baton Rouge..it had been a long day.

On Saturday, we did nothing during the day and then went to see Lindsey, Nancy Claire, Charles, Nancy, Lisa and Kyle. Of course there was food involved as always at that house. Bill, Polly and Cam came as well so Cam, Abby and Kyle all played together. It was nice to catch up with family. That night we went out to Superior Grill and had some good fun, drinks and food with great friends: Rebecca, Parham (in from NYC) and Jeanne. I love catching up.

On Sunday we went to St. Amant and spent the day (eating of course) with Lori, Kevin and Toni (sister and family). Daddy, Aunt Sue, Uncle Pops and Ms. Bobbie came out too and later that day Christy, Hailey and Andrew visited as well. After Abby went to sleep, we schooled Toni on her new Wii.

On Monday it was the long drive back to Texas. I really hate leaving family.

Abby's Piggies!!!!

So if you have seen my daughter you know that she has some curls on her. No matter what Tracy has tried, the straight hair immediately turns to curls. Well today, Jamie decided to play beauty salon with my daughter. She used the blow dryer to straighten the hair enough to get into two cute little pigtails! Tracy doesn't like them because he says it makes his baby look like a big girl....I will let y'all decide.

15 months big!

My baby girl is now 15 months old! She is getting to be such a big girl...SOOOO BIG! I feel like we are getting close to the terrible twos. She definitely has a temper in her and when she doesn't get something she wants....she definitely lets you know.

She does everything she can to keep her dad and I on our toes, but we love every minute of her. Happy 15 months Abs!

In or out?

Lately Abby's thing is climbing in or out of something. Really it is just anything repetitive (up and down, in and out, standing and sitting, etc).

Below: Sitting in her toy bins

Sarah and Chris Foster babysat Abby for us while we went to the Texas Renaissance Festival and we got out Abby's Zen Chair (it vibrates and plays music) for Max. We got back and the Fosters left and there was the Chair......it entertained Abby for literally hours.

She would put toys in the chair and then climb in it. She would then throw the toys out to see if she could get them without getting out the chair. If she had to get out the chair to get the toys, she would put them back into the chair and climb back in only to throw the toys out again. She would reach down and turn on the music and just laugh. It was several days of amusement and finally we put the Chair up when she wasn't looking one day :).

She does the same thing now with our laps. If we are sitting on the floor she will climb into our lap only to get up again to get more toys and then climb back into our laps. Silly girl!