Baby Shower!!!

Some sweet friends threw our little sweetie and I a baby shower on September 8th.  I enjoyed so much the opportunity to be with some close friends and to celebrate the life that is bubbling around inside of me!  It was a gift card and frozen dish shower, which made for a fun little twist to the normal baby shower!  My freezer is full, but not near as full as my heart!  It was such a fun day!! 

Amber, what were we thinking not having you in the family shot!?!  It's only because of you there were pictures in the first place!!  Blame it on mommy-brains, I guess.

Our sweet girl, hours before she broke her arm!  Little did we all know how much those frozen meal-gifts would come in handy very soon!!  We got home from Lubbock the next day at about 4 after being up most of the night and a surgery for our princess.  Needless to say, it was a wonderful blessing to not have to cook or order-out the day after the shower!

Side shot of the hair-do

Our bigger baby being loved on at the shower too.  Luke turns 18 months in a few days.

Some sweet gifts

The hostess gift.  Such a thoughtful, sweet idea!

The hostesses and I from left:  Jeri, Stacy, Nancy, Me, Megan, Kathy

A close-up of the hostess gift in its new spot

 Okay, okay, so I'm kinda PROUD of it!!! :o)

When I got home from the shower, I took all of the Walmart gift cards and any cash gifts and purchased two much-needed items.  Did you know that play-yards don't really last past about 4 babies!?!  One of the mesh sides of our most recent one had a hole in it that over time little fingers made get bigger and bigger until it eventually got ripped out.  Not that it mattered at that point anyway, I couldn't put a new baby in it!  Did you know that I now find infant carrier-style car seats unnecessary?  The infant car seat we have expires in May, but I've no doubts that it already needs replaced.  I find that I never carry the seat around anyway because when I get my littlest out of the car I always put it in a sling or front-pack carrier so that both of my hands are free to hold a hand or two or just stuff!  Whitley's mom bought one new car seat for a shower-gift and I purchased with those aforementioned gifts another one exactly like it.  So now David, Luke and the new baby all have the same brand & style convertible car seats that should last them a long time!  YAY!  Obviously I really like the Evenflo Symphony, in case you ever wondered anything about my favorite baby equipment!  The funniest part about that is the first one we got for David a couple of years ago and Nana purchased simply because I liked the name!  Of course, my violinist mother-in-law thought it was great too!  HAHAHA!  They knew how to market to Gayla Bradberry and I.  Turns out it is really awesome!

Such blessings & love back to you all, 

from our family to you and yours!

Abigail is NINE!

Last year for her birthday, I did an "Abigail in review" picture-post, so this year I thought I'd just post a few of her actual birthday/week.  

We didn't know that Abigail was a girl because we chose not to find out for the first two kiddos.  For some reason I had made it up in my mind that she was going to be another boy!  So, when she was born I honestly felt shocked!!  The doctor announced a girl but didn't realize we didn't know, so when I gasped, "A GIRL!?!  ARE YOU SURE????!!!" it was rather comical!  Especially when Dr. Rakov said, "Young lady, I have HAD anatomy class, and THIS is a girl!" We named her after two incredible, brave, beautiful, strong women in the Bible, and if anyone has proven to be incredible, brave, beautiful and strong it has been our Abigail Ruth.  Need I mention her last few days?  I'll probably be blogging about that soon!

First kisses from Isaac

Snuggling with Mommy

Wrapped in the sweet blankie that was made by her great-great grandmother when her Mommy was born.

A bit of cuddling with the boys!

Little lambs :)

Her birthday party yesterday was lots of fun!

I have to say something about the 'X' on her arm that I just didn't think to wipe off.  The surgeon talked to us right before surgery and then said to her, "Now Abigail, I'm going to put a pretty mark on your arm.  Do you know why?"  She giggled that "on-morphine-sort-of-giggle" as she was looking at the X and then she said, "Well, X marks the spot!"  He confirmed by saying, "Yep, gotta make sure I do surgery on the right arm!"

Her first soccer game was supposed to be yesterday too...  

We just got her a new ball instead of going to the game!

Love from our family to you and yours!