Checking In

Let me start with a pic of Abbster I snapped earlier tonight on her rocking horse. Words cannot express how appreciative we are of Cheryl for making this for Abby with her own two hands!

How did this weekend go by so quickly?? And how is it already mid-November?? And why is it that Sam's is already playing its Christmas music over the speakers (and has been for about two weeks now?) My goodness. People are already out and about shopping for Christmas--and can somebody please explain to me why they would make the aisles so dadgum narrow in Allen's new Toys R Us? Anyone?! OK, enough ranting. I just can't believe it's already time for the holidays!

So, not too much has been going on around here. Uncle Chris came in town for a visit this weekend, and he and Abby had the BEST time playing together! Abby has been blessed with the best aunt and uncles!

Here they are doing what they do best: goofing around!

And yes, I DO exist! A rare picture of me and Abby. :)

So, for those of you who know Abby, you know she is quite the entertainer. This girl is go-go-go all day, and she absolutely loves an audience! Lately, I've noticed she has turned to some interesting forms of entertainment. Here are just a few:

1. Stacking on her sippy.
Her Happy Meal toy was this talking giraffe (which she absolutely LOVES), but better yet, she loved stacking it on her sippy. When she was successful, she would squeal with delight and clap her hands, as she is doing in this picture. Note the McNugget on the sippy too. Two items. Very impressive. :)
2. Inserting straw in juice.
Side note: She says juice like this: "jhoooooooooooooosh." It takes a full 5 seconds for the entire word to come out. It's hilarious.
Here's the play-by-play:

Eye on the straw. She's about to pull it out. The straw is out. Now, she's got to put it back in. This takes lots and lots of concentration, folks.
Will she do it??



Can she get the straw back in??



I know you're on pins and needles....



Yippeeee!! Success! The straw is back in its juicebox! She is SO proud of herself. Can you tell?! Sweet girl

3. Anything and everything is a shoe.
How is it that things like old wipes cases are one of her favorite items? Roo is absolutely obsessed with putting things on her feet (mainly our shoes), but here she is with the wipes case as footwear.

It's as though she's thinking, "Dada, get this thing off me NOW!" She'd better get used to that pain. As a woman, don't most cute shoes feel like that?!

Abby will be 18 months on Tuesday. Where has the time gone?! Here is Abby one year ago this week.And here she is now, ALL GIRL. Where has my baby gone?! Miss Abbster loves to "text" on her "cell phone" that her Papa gave her. (Don't worry--it's fake. Although around here, I'm pretty sure some kids her age probably have their own Blackberrys!) I've heard that they grow up way too fast, but boy, I never really got it until Abby was born.

I'll write more about her life as an 18-month-old in a couple of days. In the meantime, I hope life treats all of y'all well! :)

New Favorite Picture

Feliz Cumpleanos!

Today is my sister-in-law's birthday. Technically, she is my brother-in-law's wife, but I've never considered her that. To me, Emily really is like a sister. She is my Sister Tenner.

I met Emily when she started teaching at Pearce, where I was already teaching. She taught senior English, and I was teaching sophomores and juniors, and by her second year of teaching, we were teaching the same grade level, so we spent our Sunday nights at our dining room table, surrounded by pizza, calendars, literature books, and highlighters. Beginning with those looooooong Sunday nights of planning, Matt and I got to know Emily more and more, as she began to hang out with us more and more.

Over the next year or so, Emily became one of my absolutely best friends, and little did Matt and I realize that she would eventually become our sister-in-law! I have been SO very fortunate. I can honestly say that Emily isn't just like family to me; she actually is family to me. How great is that? I get to share the most important moments of my life with someone who is so special to me. I don't have to call her and tell her how my Thanksgiving was; she's there sharing it with me. When we told the family that we were pregnant with Abby, I didn't have to call her later and tell her the big news. She was there to share in the delight with everyone else. I feel blessed beyond belief. To think that that curly-haired, "shy," goofy gal down the school hall would eventually become my "sister" is beyond words.

Emily and I have both lucked out falling into the Tenner family. Honestly, we could not have asked for better parents-in-law.

So, here's to you, Baxter. You have made my life, along with Jason and the rest of the Tenner clan, more complete. :)

Over the past three years, I have been lucky enough to share in many of Emily's most important moments, and she in mine:

An engagement. (I thought that ring would NEVER come!!)
Bridal showers (I absolutely LOVED being the scribe!)
The bachelorette party. Emily, you really should wear boas more often! :)
The BIG day, October 6, 2007. What a beautiful bride! Abby's birth. Emily was there, newly engaged by the way, waiting and waiting with the rest of the family. Here is her first picture with Abby.
Abby's baptism. One of the most special moments of my entire life.
Football games.
And now their pregnancy! I am so lucky to get to watch Emily grow not only in belly size (ha!) but in her love for their little baby boy!

Five things you may not know about Emily:
1. She can speak Spanish. Sometimes, at a mexican restaurant, she'll order her food in Spanish just to impress us. I'm so jealous.

2. She is a Heck of a domino player. Although she claims to be a Domino Virgin, she kicked our butts so badly that we began to think she was Miss Metroplex Domino 1997. I'm fairly certain people who haven't played dominoes before don't say things like, "Oh, is there 15 on the board? Then tee up the blank." Seriously.

3. She (and myself included) can do a DEAD-ON impression of Tituba from The Crucible and Daisy from The Great Gatsby. I'm not kidding. If you heard her Tituba impression, you would swear there was a large Barbados slave standing before you. Simply Oscar-worthy. :)

4. She has a heart of gold. Emily is one of those people who actually listens to what you have to say. She always asks how you are doing. She would much rather ask about someone else's well-being than talk about herself. Very selfless. That's hard to find nowadays.

5. She is head over heels in love with my brother-in-law. In the 10 years I have known Jason, I have never seen him happier than he is with Emily. He lights up like a Christmas tree when she's around. The two of them can make each other laugh, and their marriage is built on love for one another, laughter, and the love of all things Murder She Wrote. :)

Deep Down, Emily is...

...a rock star at heart...... ..a Guitar Hero freak
...the only person in the world who could have this much fun at Halloween dressing up with Jason as White Trash. :)
...the Queen of Funny Faces.

...and the best aunt for Abby that I could have asked for. Jas, you picked a good one.
Personally, Emily, I think we are both two lucky gals!!
Happy birthday to you, Emily! Here's to many, many more!!! :)

Tidbits

Well, there's not too much to report on our end, so I thought I'd post a few pics.

Yesterday, Abby made her third (yes, third!) trip to the doctor in the past three weeks. She has this virus that she just can't seem to shake. I swear her nose has been running off and on for over a month now, and she's developed a nasty cough along with it too. After her double ear infection, we went to see Dr. G. because she had developed pink eye, causing her to miss Mother's Day Out last week and her class picture. No fun! Luckily, that cleared up in time for Halloween, and she was able to make up her individual picture but not her class picture. Oh well. I guess we'll just have to Photoshop her in. :)

Well, the eye infection had returned yesterday. Argh! Luckily, a couple of eyedrops and some teaspoons of Triaminic later, Abbster is back up in running. I'm trying to keep her away from kids for a couple of days until she is fully recovered. Rick and Evelyn (Matt's parents) are coming in this weekend, so here's hoping Abby is back to 100% by then!

Things Abby does pretty much on a daily basis:

This morning, at Kohl's, she waved to almost every single person she saw. In the past, I encouraged her to wave, but she has started to do it on her own now. Especially at cars. If we're in the front yard playing, and a car drives by, she stops what she's doing and waves at it. Too cute.

She asks "What's that?!" about 100 times a day. No joke. She points to EVERYTHING and asks "What's that?!" Here is our routine at breakfast: She points to spoon. What's that?! I respond, It's a spoon. She points to yogurt. What's that?! I respond, It's yogurt. She points to the baby on the yogurt. What's that?! I respond, It's a baby. Say 'baby.' Abby says, Bah-bah. Good, I say. She points to waffle. What's that?! I respond, It's a waffle. She points to spoon. What's that?! I respond, It's a spoon. You get the idea. It's a vicious cycle!

She can spot airplanes like nobody's business. As soon as she sees one, she freaks out! She points to the sky. What's that?! It's a plane. What's that?! It's a plane. What's that?! It's still a plane. Ha!

She can now roar like a lion. Impressive. (A huge Shout Out to BFF Ellie who originated the Lion Roar!)

I've taught her how to point to her tray or to herself when she wants something--mainly food. I hated when she'd get all "grabby" and fuss, so now she points at her tummy or her tray. It's pretty funny because when she sees something she wants, she jams her finger into her tummy over and over and over, like she is SO excited to eat a Nilla Wafer she can't stand the thought of waiting any longer for it!

She can recognize so many objects in her Picture book. Duck. Moon. Clouds. Fish. Ball. Bear. Baby. Spoon. I'm still completely in awe of how quickly children pick up on things.

I know there's more, but I'm tired of typing, and I need to post some pics. :)

Abby is totally into painting at the moment. Here she is, Future Picasso.
Actually, her favorite thing to do is dip the brush in the water. The brush makes a "ding" when it hits the side of the glass, and she just thinks that's the funniest thing ever! So, she just taps her brush in the water over and over again!
Just a happy shot of Miss Abby. Notice the Crazy Hair on her left. It's ALWAYS been like that!

Case in point: Abby at one month, one day old. While she obviously doesn't have as much hair as she does now, you can see that even at a very young age, her hair on the left side was quite unmanageable!
She LOVES to dance on the water line cover in the front yard. She is one groovin' gal!!

Those gorgeous Tenner eyes that I, again, can take absolutely NO credit for!

Happy girl at lunch
I just love pigtails and jumpers. Thanks, Nana, for this weiner dog jumper!! Ready for church

Oh, and last but not least, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Tech's huge win over Texas this past weekend. Even though Abby's monogram is ATM, I have a feeling she (along with our money) will be going far, far, far away to Tech for college. At least if Matt has a say in it! :) Here is Matt with Little Red Raider Roo. She had the best time cheering on Tech. Too bad she missed the second half--what a game it was. I was actually rooting for Tech. (Things are much happier in our household if Tech wins!) We'll see how they do against OSU Saturday. It's a big game!

Happy Almost Friday, everyone! Enjoy the Fall weather!

We're Off To See The Wizard...

BFF Ellie and her parents joined us last night for some good ol' fashioned trick-or-treating. Here is Abby and Ellie looking out the windows for the trick-or-treaters. They really enjoyed when the kids came to the door in their costumes. We had oodles of trick-or-treaters too! What fun!
After passing out some candy, it was time to get dressed up. Here is Ellie as The Lion. While we all thought she was unbelievably adorable, Ellie had other thoughts. She DETESTED that mane and let us all know that she wanted the darn thing off! Luckily, we were able to snap a couple of shots with her wearing it.

Here are Matt and Jordan with Dorothy and The Lion at a neighbor's home. All we needed were a scarecrow, tin man, and Toto! :) We only hit up two houses before we decided that the girls weren't going to eat any candy and they weren't really sure what was going on!

Within minutes, BFF Ellie had had ENOUGH of that darn costume. So, she decided it would be much more comfortable to go as herself!! Half-naked baby coming through!!

Abby being chased by her BFF. Note the new purpose of the wagon: to hold the lion costume!

Hilarious.

Abby was the caboose. I'm sure she's thinking, "There's no place like home...there's no place like home!"

Back in the wagon, laughing at something.

Finally, we were back home! Nobody told me that trick-or-treating was such hard work!! Here are the happy Twinkies.
This is usually what's going on when we're tying to take their picture!!

Eric, Jordan, Matt and I decided that trick-or-treating should be easier next year, when they're 2 1/2!!! Or is that wishful thinking?!

I hope y'all had a very Happy Halloween!! Happy November, everyone! :)