Two Already

Our little girl is 2 years old now. These last two years have gone by so fast and I can't imagine life without Abbey in it. She has been a truly a blessing to us.
Above is Abbey patiently waiting to blow out the candle and eat the frostly off the cupcake. This picture also shows off her annual birthday shirt. This year I decided to use buttons. And she loved it. She walked around all day saying "birthday shirt" and playing with the buttons.
Emma and Abbey playing with the party favors. I might have gone a little crazy buying fun favors since only three kids were at the party.
All the kids joined in to help open the presents.

Abbey you are full of life and energy. You think everything is funny so you bring so much laughter in our house. When people meet you they always comment on the joy you have and how beautiful your red hair is. You don't like to play by yourself, you are a true extrovert. You are tough, it has to be a pretty good fall for you to cry. But you have a tender heart, you give hearts and kisses generously. Right now you like Sesame Street, Veggie tales, reading books (especially Curious George) and going to the park. Your favorite foods are pot stickers, mac and cheese with broccoli, toast, gnocchi, oranges and of course any sort of treats. You would rather play in the dirt than play with dolls. We love you so very much Abbey and we are so thankful to live everyday with you.

East Coast Christmas

After Hawaii we made our way to the other side of the country. First we stopped in Michigan to see my brother Sam graduate Farris State College. We are all so proud of you Sam!
After the graduation we hit the road for the 10 hour drive to Lockport, NY for Christmas with the Marotta family. Every time we go to New York we eat like kings so I wasn't surprised when my doctor said at my prenatal visit this past week I had gain a couple extra pounds. We ate the best buffalo wings (you know Buffalo, NY is where chicken wings where invented), my mom's amazing coffee cake, seafood, prime rib, and authentic Italian bread, meat and cheeses. My parents go all out and now I need to go all out with exercising.

We also did some winter activities with Abbey that was so fun. We went sledding a couple times. Yes that is my brother being crazy in the background.
And we built a huge snowman, as you can see we used all the snow in the yard. Luckily we had two strong men, my dad and Kevin to lift the 100lb body and head .
Abbey was so in love with her snowman that she had to give him hugs and kisses. So cute.
It was a fun to be with family and for Abbey to being with her Uncle and grandparents. Especially since she was in a phase of saying "I love you Papa", "I love you Gaga (grandma)", and "I love you Sa (Sam)". What a sweet kid and what a sweet visit.

Hawaii Christmas

We are just getting back to normal around here from all of our traveling during the Christmas break. Our first destination was a wonderful vacation from Kevin's parents and sister to Kauai. It was beautiful, relaxing, and a lot of fun with family. We were in the water everyday, Abbey lived in her bathing suit and her floaty ducky thing.

This is Abbey chasing a wild chicken. They are everywhere on the island of Kauai. It is crazy to be in a parking lot for walmart and see wild chickens crossing your path. But i know what you are thinking (or at least my dad), man that girl has a Olympic runners stride on her. We have Abbey on a strict running schedule everyday to develop that natural speed of hers. Just Kidding. But that girl does love to run.
We went to the north shore one day and tried to go to this secluded natural ocean pool that happens at low tide. It is call Queens Bath. I had heard it was beautiful but dangerous at high tide. After making the mile hike to the ocean we arrive at this sign showing the total deaths in the area; 29! Needless to say we were getting nervous so the women stayed where it was safe as the men (Kevin and his dad) went to check things out. They headed out on this cliff walk with crashing big waves and I was nervous. By the time they returned, 20 minutes later I was not happy because I had started thinking the worst. see picture below (me with angry face and Abbey crying).
After that we headed to some safer waters. This is us with Kevin's sister Denise at the gorgeous north shore.
We did so many fun things...We ate a lot of shaved ice. This is so delicious with macadamia nut ice cream. yum.
We danced!
We played on a hammock in a beautiful place.
We swam with beached sea turtles.
And of course we played on the beach.
Thanks Lamb parents and Denise for an amazing vacation!

Toddler Talk

I know it is December and we already decorated for Christmas so this picture is a little late but I promised to show you the end result of our pumpkin engraving. The "lamb family" pumpkin turned out pretty good. But the "welcome" sadly never made it. Can't wait to do this again next fall.

This main point of this post is inspired by my friend Kyra as she wrote about her triplets toddler words a couple weeks back.

Abbey has been growing so fast. I am most aware of this fact when she repeats what I say or communicates what she whats whether I like it or not. I could never understand toddler talk before becoming a mom but I now find myself translating Abbey's words for others. I thought I would try to translate for you some of the cutest and funnest of her "words".

• airpain...airplane
• sh*t...shirt
• cera...cereal
• T.D....TV
• gagee...chair
• wawa...water
• ribbit...frog
• ca key...coffee
• blue blue...blueberries
• nanananana (tongue in and out)...banana
  
• chow chow... food

Abbey doesn't stop moving from the time she wakes up, she has energy and spunk, and a day doesn't go by that we don't laugh a lot together.


These are the staff kids playing ring-around-the-rosie at the staff conference last week. They played together every moment they could: hiding in the curtains, running up and down the halls, and chasing each other until they dropped exhausted into bed.

This is Abbey eating a cupcake and sitting next to her buddy Logan (right) at Kate's (left) 2nd bitrthday party.

I apologize for my absence

I can't believe it have been 2 months sense my last post. So many times I have had fun things I wanted to share but I have had some distractions. First my parents came to visit and we soaked up every minute with them. (We miss you mom and dad) But then school started the day they left and our lives are crazy those first five weeks. But the biggest hindrance has been falling asleep on the coach at 9pm and the relentless nausea very night that starts at 5pm that incapacitates me. I am being a little dramatic but you might be wondering what is going on. Well, some of you moms probably guessed it (or you already know), Yes we are pregnant again!! We couldn't be more excited for baby lamb #2. He or she is due May 6th!
This is our little lamb baby. Sorry this picture is so small. The doctor says everything is going well and we are both healthy. Praise God! Sadly I am not aloud to run during my pregnancy but Abbey and I have been walking a lot. Well, maybe this post will get me on a role again because I hope to share some of our fall adventurers.

I Love This Guy

A couple days a couple I was feeling pretty humbled. I am reading this book Stepping Heavenward and it is rocking my world. It makes me want to be a better wife and mother and love Jesus more. Hence the humbling after a long day in 100 degree heat and trying to get Abbey to nap for 3 hours and me not reacting the way I want to toward anyone. So, since Abbey was determined not to sleep we had to get out of the house. And when we got home Kevin, my amazing husband had made us dinner. It was a gourmet meal: mac and cheese, corn for the can and pot stickers. He pan fried the pot stickers so he went all out. All joking aside I was so thankful. And besides dinner we had left me a surprise: my favorite ice cream (Ben and Jerry's coffee with health bar), my favorite wine, my favorite candy (Toblerone) and a chick flick, all with little love notes. What a guy! Right?!

Berries, Pumpkins and a Pool Party

Today we did something that I am so excited about. We went to your usually berry patch and while we did pick some berries and eat a lot more, we craved pumpkins! Not the Halloween craving with mushy squishy insides and seeds. We went into the pumpkin patch while they were still green and craved a personal message in them. So as they grow and ripen our message scares the pumpkin and it comes out looking so cool. I've seen this in fancy antique stores around here in the years past and was in love. So I am so excited to see how our personal pumpkins turned out. One says "Welcome" and it will sit at our front door to greet all our visitors. And our other pumpkin says "Lamb family". I will post the finally results in October.

After that wonderful outing we joined some really good friends for dinner and a pool party. Well, it was more of a pool party for the girls. Wow if that was Friday evening, what does the weekend hold?