tis the season...

for sugar cookies!

Gotta love decorating cookies with the fam :)

to the library!

This little one is always ready to go

Pumpkin patch

So much has changed between now and last October. This time last year Abigail was just a tiny little thing who slept through our trip to the pumpkin patch, but this year she was wide awake, stomping around, and pushing the wagon.

she was pretty interested in the pumpkin carving

done!

being pulled around the yard by her daddy

Copycat

For the last couple months Abigail has been mimicking different little things. For example, whenever she finds a purse, she puts it on and wears it around.

She also tries to wear my mom's reading glasses when shes plays with my mom's phone because that how she sees her me-ma do it. She puts the glasses on her neck and holds them with her chin while playing with the phone. Last week Abigail started helping me do the laundry. She stands on her tippy toes to get the clothes out of the washing machine and then carries them to to dryer. I never thought doing the laundry could be fun, but it is when you have a little helper :) But the cutest thing Abigail has stared to mimic is praying. When we all sit down for dinner and pray, she puts her little hands together by her face, and it is the sweetest thing :)

VENTURA

This weekend we went for a little trip down to the beach with Tim and his family. We left during her nap time so she would sleep on the way down there. She only slept for a hour, but we arrived at the Camarillo outlets before she got too cranky. We did a little shopping at Fossil, had lunch, then went to the hotel.

what's more fun than me-ma's phone? old hotel phones because they have buttons and cords.

Each time we go to the beach Abigail enjoys it more than she did the last time. This time I pointed out the seagulls to her and she would put her little hand out towards them and try to call them over to us. Tim made her sand castles and she loved destroying them. She also learned to say papa :)

i can't get enough of that curly little head!

Baking

I've been really into muffins lately. It started when I was trying to find good healthy things for Abigail to eat for breakfast. I found this recipe for morning glory muffins and tried it out. I changed it slightly. I use whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, and left out the nuts and raisin for Abigail. They turned out great. Then second time I made them, I wanted to add more good stuff (veggies) so I shredded up a zucchini and threw it in. I also used less oil. They were still delicious. And I felt pretty good about eating a muffin that had apple, carrots, zucchini, and a minimal amount of sugar.
Then I saw a recipe for butternut squash apple hazel muffins and I had to try it. I made one batch following the recipe pretty closely, and then I used the left over squash for a batch of morning glory muffins. Both were delicious.

One of my favorite things

The fair!

 I love the fair so much. I couldn't wait to take Abigail. I wanted to show her all the animals. When we got there we went into the petting zoo first. She loved it. She went around petting all the goats like she does the dogs. I think it was totally worth the 16 dollars to get in and 5 dollars for parking :)

We also looked at the cows, chickens, bunnies, and pigs. I think she liked the cows the most. Then we made our way over to the art exhibits because I enjoy checking out the art too.
In a few years she'll be tall enough to go on the zipper, and then we'll really have some fun!

It's finished!

About two months ago I felt like I needed to sew something for Abigail. I found a simple peasant dress pattern online and started sewing. I finally finished it last night! When I started making the dress it was supposed to have long sleeves, but I made the sleeves too tight and then didn't have enough material to make another set of long sleeves, so it ended up with short sleeves :)

Now it's time to start working on a halloween costume!

Long Beach

We had a pretty nice day out. The aquarium was a little busy, but the weather at the beach couldn't have been better!



on the way there

feeding the lorikeets

watching the sharks

enjoying the beach

Later when we got home, Abigail added another word to her vocabulary, "bite," as in, "what you're eating looks good and I would like a BITE."



No more pacifier.

Before Abigail's birthday I told everyone that I would take away her pacifier when she turned one. Well, she turned one and it didn't happen. She only used it to sleep at night, but I kept postponing breaking her of the habit because I wanted to sleep at night too.
Today, thanks to Tilly, who finally chewed up her last pacifier, Abigail had her first pacifier free nap and she slept for a hour and a half. Not too bad. I was really surprised. I thought it would be harder to get her to fall sleep and I certainly did not expect her to sleep that long. I hope tonight she does just as well :)

Ariana pulling Abigail on the quad.

Yesterday we went to a friend's house for quilting and a play-day. Grandmas quilt and babies play :)

And now she's a toddler. Although Abigail took here first steps 2 weeks before her first birthday, she didn't really start walking until a few days ago. 3 weeks after her birthday. I love watching her grow, but I miss my tiny little crawling baby!