Here are a few pics of Abi's goings on lately...

There are a bunch from her birthday. We were homeless in AR at the time and Nic got to come down for a few days, so we celebrated at his parents house. We had Abi's traditional birthday dinner of spaghetti and Mommy's funfetti cupcakes. Which she loved...as evidenced by the food all over her face!

The other pics are from her time here in Vegas. She's spent most of her time here hanging out with her grandparents, since they've been here the whole time she has, swimming, and seeing the sights in her new hometown. We took her to see the "fishies" at the aquarium at the BassPro shop at the Silverton Casino, and were pleasantly surprised by the arrival of a mermaid! Abi wasn't impressed though, as you can tell, by the DEATH GRIP she has on her Papaw's arm. This was taken right before she took off running for her Mama!

My favorite picture though, is the one where she is lying on the floor wearing her "horsie". She was so ready to go swimming she didn't even want to stop long enough to get her suit on! It was so funny!

Enjoy! and maybe now everyone will stop bugging me for pictures...if you want to see the baby, just come visit!!!!!

We are still sailing away...and I am still loving it!!!! This really is a fun vacation! We've been to several more islands and hotspots. We really liked pirate's bight on Norman Island, and there were a million people at willy Ts when we went there. Then we had lunch at Cooper's Island and sailed over to visit Virgin Gorda. We had great burgers at a restaraunt at Briar's Creek, a private resort where non guests are only allowed at the restaurant, and the easiest way to get there is by boat, so we didn't get to go there last trip. We are snorkeling at the Rhone, a shipwreck Nic has dived before, tomorrow then I think getting set up to take Jeff and Angela off to the airport, since they aren't staying the whole time. We'll still have 5 more days when they are gone though!!!

The only downside to my trip? My biggest worry on a vacation is that I will lose a contact, which I have never done,but always worried about. I even made a trip to the eye doctor before we left for some fresh lenses...fat lot of good that did since after a whole 3 or 4 days one of my contacts managed to disappear from my eye! I've been gimpy ever since and I feel like I'm missing a ton of scenery since I always have one eye or the other squinched shut. Not very fun... :(

My other problem is that I seem to develop an allergic reaction to the sun after a few days and now I have broken out into a rash. It itches!!! My idea of a good vacation involves tons of time laying out and reading...both of which are nearly impossible now.

I'll quit complaining now and keep posting updates if I have access!! Be home soon!!!

We are on our 4th day in the BVIs and this is one of my favorite vacations ever! We arrived Friday evening and spent the night at trellis bay in Tortola. The next day we sailed to the other side of Tortola to go to Sopher's Hole. We bought some expensive groceries the picked nov up and headed to my new favorite island...Jost Van Dyke. It's the most laid back chill place I've ever seen. Perfect to flop in a chair and listen to music and watch the waves. We went to the famous Foxy's Taboo for my favorite island food...conch fritters. Yummy to my TUMMY!!!!!! Then we spent the night at white Bay and took the dinghey to the soggy dollar bar where jeff, nic, angela, and I spent the evening with some new friends sitting one the beach by ourselves in the dark since the island is not developed at all. In fact, it's one of kenny chesney's favorite spots to visit when he's at his home on St. John. All the restaurants on the island have t shirts and stuff hanging from the rafters(even a razorback flag, that we all signed, of course) and have the stuff there said something like...kenny! I'm a huge fan. Or tell kenny I said hi! He's really made Jost Van Dyke famous, but the popularity is much deserved! If anyone ever has a chance to come here, it is worth it and you would love it. We are back on Tortola today to restock a little ( jeff eats a LOT!!!!)and have some lunch, so I'm putting the wireless feature on my new itouch to good use while we are waiting for our lunch. Then we are headed to Norman Island and Willy Ts. I'll keep you posted on our travels as we end up with wireless...


Mom, I'll call you and abu in a couple days... Hope she is being good! Thanks to my sister Kaci for babysitting and making this trip possible!!!! Tell Abi I love her and I miss her and I'll be home soon. Love you all!!!!

I had my cousin, Robyn, take some pictures of Abi at the Old Mill the other day. We did the same thing at this time last year, and I kind of wanted it to be a tradition. Well...it didn't quite work out like that, considering that anytime Robyn pointed the camera at Abi, Abi would turn around and run away crying. We couldn't get her to stop! Anyways, we did manage to get a few good pics. Here's the best of the bunch...sadly...






I don't have much else to post as we are still in AR waiting to move to Las Vegas! Nic is loading our stuff today and headed to Vegas. Then, on the 5th, we are going on a vacation with his parents. They've chartered a catamaran for 11 days and we will be gone for 12 days altogether. I am SO EXCITED!! It's going to be Larry and Betsy, Jeff and Angela, and Nic and I, along with a couple of friends of Larry and Betsy's and their 12 year old son. I'm hoping he and Nic will get along and can play together, since my red headed hubby can't really lay out and doesn't read, so I'm worried that I will bore him...since those are my 2 favorite things to do on vacation! Anyways, we are going to cruise around the British Virgin islands for 10 days and just relax and have a blast...and we aren't taking Abi! She gets to spend some quality time with her Nana and her Aunt Kaci, who's going to babysit for her while Nana is at work. We get back from our vacation on the 17 of June, I'll spend the 18th with Abi and then I leave for Vegas on the 19th (mine and Nic's anniversary!). Then Abi will head to Mt. Ida for about 10 days and Larry and Betsy will drive my car, my baby, and my dog out to Vegas for me! I'm glad Abi is getting some serious quality time with her grandparents, but yeeeeesh! Nic and I will have to reteach her that she isn't the sun that the world revolves around after all! It will be tough to be apart from my baby for so long and I know Nic and I will be missing her, and that she'll be missing us, but I feel very blessed that both sets of her grandparents feel so comfortable keeping her for even extended periods of time...especially as we keep moving further and further away and weekend or overnight trips aren't really feasible! Anyways, enjoy the pics and I'll have lots more to post after our visit to AR and our trip and our move...once I unpack the camera cord that is!

I found this on my computer that I forgot to post. This is the sound I wake up to most mornings, though it is not usually quite so loud. My baby girl is definately a morning person! She's always in a good mood when she wakes up and when I go in there she's usually standing in her empty crib, because she has thrown out her blanket, babies, and paci. The paci always ends up behind the crib, and the first thing she does when I get her out of bed is run to the side of her crib calling for it. I have to pull her crib out so she can squeeze back there to retrieve it and pop it in her mouth. She then runs for her highchair where she promptly tosses it in the floor in favor of food. (Life will sure be different for her when we move, as we will be working on potty training and losing the paci all at once!) She's picking up stuff super fast now too! I noticed her doing the itsy bitsy spider motions the other day (which I never taught her, and have no idea how she learned) and mom swears she heard her singing "Zacheaus was a wee little man" which I'm guessing she learned in the nursery. She's talking more and more and is SERIOUSLY getting an attitude and her temper matches her hair -- FIREY! She is hilarious and we have such a good time playing together...I'm totally enjoying being a stay at home mom!

Finally got a chance to post! We've had a lot going on here the past couple weeks (more about that when we know something for sure!) so I haven't had enough time to get a post together. On top of everything else, I've got 2 papers and a final to take before the end of the month. To say that I am stressed is a SERIOUS understatement!

Anyways, here a few of Abi's recent goings on!

One day, it was so cute! Abi brought her babies into the living room and decided to put them to bed. She gathered pillows, and blankets, and babies, and put them all to bed. She's such a little Mommy!


These are from Easter. She would absolutely NOT pose for a cute Easter dress pic and these were the best I could do. We had a great Easter though. Nic's resort was actually CLOSED (which they NEVER do!) so he got to go to church with us for only the second time since we got here. We all got up and dressed in our Easter best and headed to the church Abi and I have been going to...and there was no one there...NO ONE! I guess I missed the memo about the Easter Sunrise service! So I grabbed my handy dandy phone and googled "baptist church" and found one just a couple miles away. Praying that they had a regular service we headed over there and we got lucky because they had 2 services for Easter and one had just started. I hated seeming like a "Chreaster" (I heard that term on the Christian radio station on the way to church. It's a term for all the people who only go to church on 'Christmas' and 'Easter'...hence 'Chreaster'!) but I fixed that the next week when Abi and I went back by ourselves. I really loved this church! It's Southern Baptist, which I've never been to, but it was a really fun, contemporary service and as long as we are here, I am going to go there from now on.




I just think she looks cute here!



Another little Mommy picture. Nic and I got a Magic Bullet (which is AWESOME!) and we've been having shakes (for Nic) and fresh fruit/yogurt smoothies(for me) just about every night! One night, she pushed the laundry basket over, climbed on top of it, and then stood at the counter while I was working! I'd like to think she was trying to help...but she was just begging for a taste!

Here's some pics I forgot to post. When Nic and I were on vacation, my sister took Abi to Playtime Pizza in Little Rock, with her husband, Clint's, neice. Abi loved it! She loves riding those little rides at the mall or wal-mart. I can't wait to take her somewhere like this myself. Enjoy!

So, today, Abi and I went to an easter egg hunt, aka parental torture. Why, you ask? Abi acted like today was her first time out in public...ever. They had a clown/comedian do a show before the hunt, which was cute, I assume, because I spent most of the show in the vestibule with Abi playing with a gentleman she decided was her surrogate grandpa. He was so nice, playing peekaboo with her, and swinging her around, and carrying her around. She decided he was her new favorite person. Don't get jealous, though, Nana and Pop and Bebe and Papaw, I'm sure she's already forgotten him in eager anticipation of our trip to AR next month.

Then the torture really started, for both of us this time. They sent us outside to get ready for the egg hunt, where we lined up in full view of all the eggs spread out on the lawn and proceeded to...wait....and wait....and wait some more. At which point Abi became the stereo typical temper tantrum-throwing, red-headed two year old. She screamed for probably 5 minutes while we waited for either additional helpers or additional parents with a full lawn of eggs just out of reach. As soon as they started, I grabbed her and ran toward the farthest marker so that she could grab her eggs without interferance from the masses of 1-4 year olds beside us.

She knew just what to do too, which was amazing considering that she's never done an egg hunt. Luckily I had grabbed a walmart sack on my way out the door, because she filled her little basket quickly. I dumped it once without any opposition from the "boss", when it needed to be emptied the second time I got a look that said "what do you think you are doing with MY eggs?" and the third time? FORGET IT! She knew I was stealing her eggs at that point and to get that basket I would have had to cut off her arm first. That was fine though, because the eggs were pretty much gone by then.

They asked us to empty the eggs and return them (apparently they recycle the eggs for next year) so Abi and I found a seat on the grass and emptied her candy out of her eggs. Then I had a new distraction...and a new problem. I gave her a few bites of a tootsie roll, when a kind church member offered to take our picture, and she would NOT be still. I'm not even going to put up one of those pics. The same church member fell for her pleas of "can-nee, can-nee" and gave her the most ginormous piece of candy from her basket - a nestle egg about the size of a lego. Which Abi promptly shoved into her mouth and since the candy was so big she couldn't close her mouth to chew and drooled chocolate brown slobber all over her white easter shirt.

When it was time to go, I, of course, took the candy away to put far from little fingers in the front seat, and Abi, of course, proceeded to scream her head off like her mommy was secretly beating her inside the car. I wiped her down, popped a paci in her wide open screaming mouth, and we headed for walmart, where she nearly passed out in the cart. She managed to wait til we got home though, when we BOTH took a nice long nap.

Grabbing her eggs:






Wondering why she can't cross that orange line to go get some more eggs since the ones in her area were all gone???


Her candy mouth picture. Hee hee. Notice that in half of these she is running away from me. She DID NOT want me messing with her haul!

Happy Easter everyone!



We were at Wal-mart the other day when I heard them announce that they were doing free photos with the Easter bunny. So we headed over there, washed Abi's face, and took a pic - luckily she had a cute outfit on! She liked the Easter bunny WAY more than Santa -- see?!?!? She's even smiling!

So I finally have a few cute pics to share!

Abi still doesn't have much hair and her talking is still more like babbling than regular words (but mommy understands!) but she is getting so big and so smart. She sings Twinkle, twinkle, and the alphabet song. She can also count to ten, even if she doesn't do it in order (1, 3, 9, 8, 2, 9, 8!). Her favorite cartoons are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (she can sing the Hot Dog song, and always calls for "O'Toodles") and Little Einsteins (she follows their directions, like "pat your knees to make rocket go" and "raise your hands and say blast off"). She loves to color with any thing that makes marks. You have to watch her with sidewalk chalk though, because if she gets it in the house it quickly becomes "furniture" or "kitchen floor" chalk! Maybe I'll get her some of the Crayola color wonder stuff for her birthday? Anyone have some and like it?

Just a girl and her dog! I caught her like this the other day. Daisy is so good with her, she pretty much lets Abi do whatever she wants to her and never complains.



We were watching the movie Bedtime Stories (which was totally cute and funny!) and I started singing the closing credit song with a remote control microphone. Abi is very into mimicking these days and of course she copied me! (Another thing she copies: when you are watching tv and something surprising happens and you cover your mouth and gasp! She does that too now!)


Another mimic. She's cleaning the couch with a baby wipe. She also cleans her face, the dog (who then eats them and subsequently throws them back up--GROSS!), her own babies, etc, etc....



And last, but certainly not least, I got Abi some new summer shoes (flip flops just like mommy's!) so of course we had to try them on. She LOVES them! She wore them around the house the rest of the night, and any time they came off (because they are still a little big!) she would run straight to me and sit down so I could put them back on. So cute! Of course, also like Mommy, I plan to buy her these Old Navy flip flops in every color they make them in -- wooo hooo!

So I had a conversation with Abi this morning...probably one of many to come. Here's the transcript:

me: Abi! I looooove you!

Abi: (non-chalantly) I know.

That was it. No, "I love you!" or even "thanks", just "I know". Duh, mommy!

More to come, I just didn't want to forget our little "conversation".

I haven't posted a lot of pics of Abi lately. So even though we haven't had much going on around here, we have had some nice weather and Abi and I took the opportunity to get out and enjoy it. I cleared the deck of all the leftover snow (check out some older posts to see exactly how high it used to be) and blocked it off with a baby gate (since the yard is still filled with hard packed snow). I put some toys out there, gave her some sidewalk chalk, and she LOVES it. Now, when she isn't out there, she grabs on the door handle and tries to open it herself. Too bad it is going to cool off again. On Monday it was 70 degrees and tomorrow it goes back to 45...boooo.

Here's a few pics of Abi enjoying the weather...while it lasted...

Some random happy baby pictures...


Playing on her tricicle


Getting her chalk out of the trunk



Coloring with her gimpy smile

And now for our cruise...

I don't have tons of pics to show off, seeing as how this was our 8th or 9th cruise and we've kind of been there, done that. So I stole some pics from Angela's facebook...and here we are.

Here's our ship: Definitely the largest we've ever been on. The majority of rooms have a balcony, and there are hardly any rooms that just have an ocean view. We got a great rate on an inside view cabin, and arrived the day of departure expecting a room similar to what we always have. When I saw our cabin assignments the week before our cruise, I noticed that mine and Nic's room was different than others. Instead of being oriented vertically, like they usually are on the deckplan, our room was oriented horizontally. I was worried that our room would be smaller than normal, or louder, or something and considered asking to have it changed, but I decided to wait it out. I was SO GLAD I did!!!! This was the best room we've ever had...It was HUGE!!! If you ever have a chance to stay in a room like this, take it!!



Here's a random formal night pic...aren't we cute???


A group pic...on a water taxi in Cabo San Lucas...my favorite port on this trip


Here's a couple of pics from one of our favorite shore excursions, and something we've never done before. We did a zipline tour in Puerto Vallarta and it was really fun. I'm not scared of heights at all, so if you are, don't try this one at home. weeeeeeeeee........


I had a blast, but not as much fun as Nic did! He was the craziest one out of all of us. Here he is hanging upside down on a run, and this wasn't the first time...or the last...that he did that.


That's all I got for today, but we are expecting some springy weather, even up here in the great white north. It probably won't be enough to get rid of the snow yet, especially at my house, that never seems to get enough sun, but still...spring is spring right??? I'll try to take some pics of Abi out enjoying the sun (with sunscreen, of course!)

(Are you happy now, DeDe??? Somebody's bored!!!)

I'm getting nasty phone calls and comments about how I haven't been a very good blogger lately. I don't have tons of new photos of Abi, since we have been on vacation lately, but I do have lots of vacation pics.

Our trip had 2 parts. We spent a day in LA before our cruise left. None of us had ever been there (besides LAX) so we were all excited. I was dying to check out Gromann's Chinese Theater, where celebrities have been putting their foot and handprints (and nose and even guns) in cement for the last century. I was looking for Marilyn Monroe's square, and it's hard to imagine all the people who have walked that same path.
Our hands were the same size...How cool is that????

Had to get my cute new shoes in a pic!


Next door to Mann's was something I was hoping we would get to check out: THE OSCARS! We beat the ceremony by 24 hours but there were still tons of tourists (including us!) taking pics of the set up. I watched the coverage while we were getting dressed for dinner on the cruise ship and saw lots of places we had seen and a few where we were even standing.

We got a few pics of the Hollywood sign from the Mall that surrounds the Kodak Theater, and I really wanted to go to Sprinkles for a famous cupcake, but our GPS died and we couldn't find it. I'll get one next time though!