Family Weekend

Our family went to Alisal Ranch just outside of Solvang last weekend for our annual family reunion. We had an amazing trip filled with new experiences for Abigail. Our outgoing girl loved connecting with immediate and extended family and enjoyed interacting with a variety of animals on the ranch. She is becoming more and more of an animal lover every day.

At our annual morning breakfast ride...

      
                                                   
 Abigail woke up early every morning... (just too much excitement). Here she is conked out on David's shoulder following a Hay Wagon ride to our outdoor Adobe breakfast. (notice her cute cowgirl boots from Grandma)
                                               

The boys in their knickers and throw-back clothes and stogies for a round of golf.

                                    

 Fun at the pool with Mommy while Daddy and the boys were golfing

 
 

Loving Daddy's shoulders

 Petting Zoo at the ranch... Abigail was particularly fascinated in this Bearded Dragon

 And a little leery of this snake Uncle Matthew is holding

More animals...

 

Abigail is having a showdown with this noisy pig

 

And... Abigail's first time on a horse (named Cactus). This was the place where I learned how to ride a horse as a kid, so it is special to see her enjoy the things that I loved about Alisal as a kid. I know she looks like she's leaning, but she's actually petting the horse's mane. We walked her around the corral and she loved it (she kept saying, "more horse, more horse" ).

 

Spring Fun

We've been having some good family fun in the last few weeks:

 We celebrated auntie Keren's birthday...

 This is what happens when family comes over...

Hey, Hey, Party in my crib!

 And... Abigail got her first official pet last week... a few goldfish :) They were given to us and I didn't have the heart to tell the person no, so here we are. We started with three and now have two, but after a week, Abby still enjoys feeding her new pets every morning :)

Lastly, we have been enjoying the warmer weather:
Abigail has also enjoyed some spring/ summer fruit... Yummy Watermelon!

                                              

                                                 

and some fun outdoors :)

She has now mastered going up and down the stairs (although we're still right there with her), and loves to stop for a break and just rest on the stairs with Daddy or Mommy... so cute!  We look forward to more sunshine (and hopefully less gray/gloom) in the next few months!

April Fun

Last weekend we said goodbye to David's parents as they headed to Indiana permanently. Their house is in escrow and they're settling into their new church and Doug's new job as an executive pastor. We wanted to do a special outing with them before they headed out, so we took a glass-bottom boat tour out of King's Harbor. We had a fun time even though it was a pretty cold day. Here are some pictures from our adventure... all bundled up:

We saw some Garibaldi and watched them feed the fish.

Also, two weeks ago, David and I went to La Costa for a weekend getaway (finally using David's class gift from last year) while my parents watched Abigail. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed the updated grounds at the beautiful resort including the infinity pool and spas that overlooked the golf course and some pretty awesome fireplaces.

Spring Break and Easter Weekend

David had spring break last week, so we were able to enjoy some extra time together as a family. We mostly hung around town, but we took one special trip up to the Skirball museum near the Getty for their kid-friendly Noah's Ark exhibit. It was very well done and Abigail had a blast exploring the different animals and rooms of the huge ark.

We even had a small celebrity sighting... Toby from the office. We enjoyed the exhibit right alongside of him (he's in the green shirt in the background).

Our good friends the Mizells were also in town this week/weekend so we spent parts of several days with their family. We babysat their 3 kids ( two boys and a girl) on Thursday while they went to a wedding. It was a little chaotic with 4 kids in our small apartment... here's the aftermath in our living room before we cleaned up...

David tried to entertain the kids with some racing video games at the end...

Little friends!

We enjoyed a beautiful weekend as we celebrated our Lord's Resurrection. We loved having some extra time to spend with both of our families (minus David's dad) and it was fun to watch Abigail in her first egg hunt (the Mizell kids joined us too). She got so excited about each egg that she had to open it as soon as she picked it up to examine/eat the contents (cheddar bunnies or stickers). Her grandmas both spoiled her with Easter baskets full of clothes and toys including a stuffed Elmo and a stuffed Big Bird. She's one lucky girl!


Happy Easter Everyone!

Dancing Feet

Abigail loves music and frequently dances/ sways her arms whenever she hears music. I caught this video of her dancing to a song from our last music class (just excuse my voice which drowns out the music... sorry!) I love the way she wiggles her bottom and moves her whole body :)

15 Months

Abigail turned 15 months on Friday. She's a ball of energy and makes life quite interesting. She had her appointment today and weighed in at 22 pounds and measured 29 1/2 inches... just shy of "average". Abby has many new words including "Elmo", "please", "bath," and "no." It's been so fun to see her little personality develop as she communicates more and more with us and clearly understands a lot of what we say. These days she loves to hide in nooks and crannies (and boxes of all sizes) around the house and to cuddle and "feed" her baby doll. Abigail also loves to climb and has now conquered the stairs leading up to our apartment. Scary for Mommy! We love her to pieces and can't believe she's growing up so fast!

Silly girl

Loves spending time with Grandma

A few fun bath-time pics... Abigail took her first bath with a friend last week... McKenna. Our bath tub was being worked on for the day and we had just spent some time getting all sandy at the beach, so we decided to give her a bath at our friends' house. The girls were cute in the tub together and Alison snapped these cute shots.

My little love-bug

Bed-rest of sorts

I had surgery last Wednesday to repair a hernia I got from having Abigail. Two of my recovery rules were no driving and no picking up Abigail for a week. David had last week off work (ski week) and took the past two days off to care for Abby and help me recover. He did an amazing job being Mr. Mom for a week, including getting up early every day, all diaper changes, all nap and bedtime routines, and taking her to the park and to the roundhouse aquarium. She really enjoyed the extra time with her Daddy. Here are a few snapshots of their time together... working on her golf swing and cleaning the house :)

We (I) also decided that Abigail has been looking a little shabby lately due to her long straight hair (and the fact that she'll never keep in a hair clip)...
So... we decided to take the plunge on getting her haircut. We took her into Snip-its, which specializes in kids' cuts, yesterday afternoon. She did pretty well except for the first few moments when they put the gown on...

(classic, right?)
Then they started blowing bubbles and she settled down.

Yay! All done and looking beautiful!!!! She even got a special prize for being so brave.
(We all survived :)

Lastly, I just had to post two quick pictures from Valentine's Day to give my husband a few more props... He made me an amazing dinner that included rack of lamb, balsamic braised brussel sprouts, mushroom risotto, and a good bottle of red wine. He even set the table with china and crystal! It was delicious! LOVE that my man can cook!!! I'm one lucky wife!