Happy Birthday to Aaron

Happy Birthday to my husband, my best friend, my sweetheart, the daddy of my baby...my true love.

The Stockings Were Hung By the Chimney With Care

Stockings are a big deal with my family. They have been ever since I can remember. This year one of my favorite things about Christmas was Molly's stockings - all 3 of them.

Aaron and I have stockings from Pottery Barn that we purchased back in 2000, and I knew I should have purchased a few for the future little Abbotts, but who knew or knows how many there would or will be, so I didn't. For Molly, I searched Ebay and found one of Pottery Barn's stockings from 1999 that was similar.
My mom is amazing at hand sewing, and through the years she has designed and completed each of us a needle point stocking. Hours and hours and hours of work go into one, and I truly LOVE how Molly's turned out.

Additionally, my mom has sewn each person on her side of the family (all 25 of us) a stocking, and this year, she added Molly. I tried to help her in order to alleviate some of the work. She brought all the stuff to my house, we started working on it, I messed up part of it, she had to rip it out, and then she finished it herself since it was easier for me to just watch Molly while she sewed. It was embarrassing as I know I'm not the best seamstress in the world, but I do love to sew and sew quite often (or did before Molly came along).The great-grandchildren's stockings are hanging on the bottom, and Molly's is on the far right.

Oh, What Fun...

Molly's first Christmas was extra special for her parents. We feel that we were given the best present (almost) ever with our darling Molly. I say "almost" ever because God gave the BEST Christmas present ever when He gave us HIS SON.

Molly didn't understand Christmas or understand gifts or understand the overwhelming amount of family she encountered over the weekend, but we loved having her, watching her, and celebrating with her.

The weekend started out low-key, ramped up gradually, got out-of-control loud and fun and crazy, then slowly wound back down...to the normal every day. Here is a very edited photo recap.
~Christmas Eve at home~~Santa brought Molly a super fun activity table.~~Christmas Day at the farm~


~Santa brought the boys harmonicas. They were hysterical and actually got to sounding half decent.~~Christmas in El Reno with my mom's entire side of the family - all 25 of us together. This was the crazy time mentioned above where Molly didn't know what to think. Sadly we didn't get a group photo this year even though I tried. ~

Christmas Card Photos

A few more just for fun~

Christmas Bloopers

I love the Home Improvement Christmas episode from 1993 when Mark and three other boys line up to sing The First Noel at their Christmas pageant, and they each have a costume with a letter on it spelling out N O E L, but they get mixed up and spell "LEON". Al looks at Jill and asks, "Who's Leon?" Cracks me up!

BUT, the funniest one I witnessed in person. On December 13, 2008 at our incredible church in Arizona, Mission Community Church, a sweet family lined up on the stage to light the advent candle. Picture it with me...dimmed lights in the sanctuary, quiet and gentle Christmas music being played by the worship band, lovely candles glowing, 400 or so people in the hushed audience, and an overall very worshipful atmosphere. The little daughter reached her mouth up to the microphone to take her turn to read part of the Advent passage that was chosen for them, and she said very sincerely, "Then they (the Magi from the East) opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and of increase and of myron." My insides erupted with hilarity, and it took EVERYTHING I had in me not to laugh hysterically. I admit to chuckling, but I wasn't the only one. When Pastor Mark got up to preach, he said he had completely forgotten about the gift of "myron", and I basically had to control myself from fits of laughter for the remainder of the service. Of course she meant, "gold and of incense and of myrrh" from Matthew 2:11 (NIV).The advent candles at Mission in 2008. They were huge and amazing, and I love them so much!

8 Months

She is brave.
She crawls all over the house to find me.
I can hear her coming (especially on the tile when her hands slap it as she moves).
She sighs when she yawns.
She has 2 teeth.
She does the funniest things with her tongue (her lips and mouth, too).
She makes us laugh constantly.
She knows what we want when we ask for a kiss.
And, she gives them to us. Sometimes we don't even have to ask.
She claps afterwards - probably because we clap and cheer for her afterwards, too.
She keeps socks on her feet for 2.7 seconds.
That's why I prefer footy jammies for around the house.
She can stand alone for a few seconds.
She waves "hello" and "goodbye" if she feels like it.
She doesn't like the nursery at church (and I don't blame her).
She gets shy around strangers (and the not-so-strangers, too).
She's not too fond of diaper changing time (or clothing changing time, either).
So, we have to distract her with the "this is so cool" lotion or other thing that happens to be close by.
She sometimes has very important and serious things to tell us.
So we listen.
She can reach higher and further than I give her credit for.
So things that were "babyproofed" have been "rebabyproofed" -and- probably not for the last time.
She loves to snuggle.
She has kidnapped our hearts, locked them up, and thrown out the key.
We're hopelessly head over heels for her.

P.S. Because it's been requested, I made some changes to the settings of the blog to make it easier for some of you to comment. I don't know if it worked, though.

Well, so much for that...

I thought I'd try to post every day in December. Oh well, I had good intentions.
Last Saturday, Molly got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what she wants for Christmas. Okay, she really sat on Santa's lap and screamed until her mommy came to rescue her from the stranger with a white beard, but it was adorable and sweet, anyway. Her mommy and daddy love the photos. The official ones printed from the elves will hang with the Christmas cards this year, and then come out every year after to sweetly remember the moment.

12.4.10 The Hustle Edition

Another tradition - this time not just a Christmas one.
Running.
I hope my daughter and I are able to do this often.
Today was the first.
The Holiday Hustle at Oklahoma Christian University.
I ran the 5k pushing Molly in her stroller.
Aaron had to work, so it was Mama Power all the way.
40 degrees.
100 mph wind (honestly not too much of an exaggeration).
When I ran north, I felt like I was running backwards.
When I ran east or west, I had to steer the stroller into the wind so as not to lose her in a gust. Seriously.
When I ran (or was hurled) south - it was blessed and wonderful and delightful.
It was my first race after finding out Molly was coming, and I loved it.
Yay!

12/3/10

I like lists.
One list I add to is "Christmas traditions/ideas I want to remember when we have kids..." (which of course, now we do have a "kid")
Enter the cookie. I don't like to bake, never have.
But, my friend and former co-worker from MJHS is a fabulous baker who makes fabulous cookies to give to her fabulous co-workers (me) at Christmastime. For 5 years I was the recipient of a bag of her Christmas goodies, and then last year, even though I moved in OCTOBER - she brought me a bag of freshly baked Christmas cookies just so I would not miss out when Christmas came around. What a friend! Then, when she later sent me even more goodies in the mail (this time goodies for Miss Molly), she included the recipe of my favorite cookies. Thank you, Tami.
So, I started what I hope to do every year - make these cookies for my Molly, I mean, myself.

Dec. 2

Molly helping decorate.

The church at an intersection very close to our house has a sign with a scrolling marquee that always gives an encouraging Bible verse, gives information about upcoming events as well as weekly service times, and today, it gave me a laugh. I quote, "This week's semon..." Forgive me, but you have to admit it is comical that they left out the "r". (Aaron said it was okay to post this...)

This brings me to another sign I saw a few years back in my beloved Gilbert, AZ. On an elementary school sign, it said, "No Shcool...". I actually tried to return to take a photograph to send to Jay Leno, but regrettably, or thankfully, someone caught it and fixed it.

December 1, 2010

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...
Or at our house, just a great big mess of Christmas decorations spewing out of tubs with lots of little baby toys mixed in, not to mention a little sock here and there.

{Photo taken Monday, November 22, 2010 at Old Navy. I love the take on "Lite Brite" that Old Navy did with their decorations. I also love the giant Christmas lights they have hanging around. You can seen the orange and yellow ones to the left of us in the photo.}

Speaking of "Lite Brite" - have you seen David Crowder Band's video, SHINE? Go NOW! It is amazing.