Catching Up

Well, as you can see, it's been a while since my last post! I believe the last time I wrote something I was desperately waiting for Abby to be born! Abby is now 1 years old and is full of energy and fun, and some temper tantrums too (she is learning though that tantrums don't work with getting her way :-)

I guess I should give a quick snap shot over view of what has taken place in our life the past year since Abby was born! September 7th, 2008 Abby was born at 5:30am after about 30 hrs of labor (that was fun!) I was determined to have her all naturally with no drugs, but she was turned the wrong way inside me which caused extremely painful back labor. I was able to stand the pain for about 16 hrs but then just couldn't take it anymore! So I got an epidural. Finally I was able to get some time to rest and actually sleep! When I woke up my water had broke and after about 20 mins of pushing our little Abby came into the world and breathed her first breath of fresh hospital air! They plopped my bright pink little bundle right on my chest super close to my face. She opened her mouth so wide to let out a cry and I exclaimed, "My you have a big mouth!" She has grown into her mouth now which is laced with the most beautiful pink lips that are great for kissing! The next few days and weeks were a blur of diaper changes, nursing, diaper changes, and more nursing.


Christmas came very quickly and we spent the holiday with my parents in California.
Shortly after Christmas we got to vacation with our friends, the Tuners, in Mexico!
We had wonderful time doing... nothing! I remember Abby was 3 months old we went and the night before we left I looked at Eric and asked him if we were crazy for taking our 3 month old across the border. Maybe we were but things went smoothly and we had a blast! An average day was spent sleeping in, waking up to the ocean waves crashing on the shore, eating a yummy breakfast, taking a walk, going back to sleep, eating some lunch, reading a book, trying to get Abby to poop (that's a whole other story!), eating a delicious dinner with the Turners, playing games, putting together puzzles, and then crashing late at night. It was fun!
In February Eric's dad, Kevin and stepmother, Barbara came for a visit.
Eric and Kevin talked about hunting and guns and other things of that nature while Barbara and I realized we both have a passion for herbs and learning natural ways of healing our bodies! She has been studying herbs for many more years than I have so she was able to impart some herbal wisdom to me which I excitedly soaked up!

March brought a trip to Texas for Abby and I. My sister, Angela, and her family had moved out there from Colorado, and my parents and other sister were all going out there to visit so I decided to go along also! They live in a gorgeous home outside of Dallas complete with an in-home theater! It was pretty sweet!

The month of April brought fun and sadness for us. On April 1st I miscarried. It was very painful both physically and emotionally. I never had thought that would happen to me. I will post another blog about this experience another time. A few weeks later, one of my best friends, Krystle, and I went to California to spend some time with my parents. We had a great time laying out at the beach and then a terrible time trying to find Krystle's wedding ring. She thought she lost it in the sand when in fact it had gotten lost in the lining of her purse! Few! We were all quite relieved when she found it! Also in April Abby went to the zoo for the first time! She loved all the animals. I got quite scared at the lions cage however, when the male lion decided to charge right us! I jumped back so fast nearly falling over the stroller! The lion came to a halt right at the chain link fence which separated us. We were only a few feet away from him! And of course in April there was Easter! He is risen! We celebrated Easter with the Turners and we were able to get some really cute family photos that day.
In May we decided to do an overnight camping trip in Box Canyon. We loaded up Eric's jeep with all our camping supplies and headed out! At first I was not so sure if I would like camping with a little baby but it all worked out fine and dandy and we had some good family time. May also brought a huge surprise visit for me from my sister! Eric decided to fly my sister out to surprise me as my mother's day gift! (Next year's gift will be hard to top! :-) I was totally floored when I walked into the Turner's living room and my sister was sitting there!!! I gasped and fell to my knees! It was such a wonderful moment! I had been wanting to see my sister so bad because she was going to Slovakia for the summer for a missions trip. We had so much fun together that weekend playing with Abby, going to lunch, and reliving past sister moments.
June brought Father's day and a trip to Oklahoma. For Father's day I decorated our living room and dining room with cards hanging from the ceiling which said things which Abby was grateful for in Eric. He loved it! Our Oklahoma trip was to visit Eric's dad and stepmother. We fell in love with the land out there. It is so green! We had so much fun with them and I also got to meet Eric's older brother and his family for the first time! They have three kids, 2 boys, and little girl who is the same age as Abby. We did a ton of four wheeling, exploring the land around Kevin's home, and we also enjoyed all the scrumptious home made meals that Barbara prepared. The end of June came with some more sadness for us. I had a second miscarriage. We lost our little on June 29th. I was only maybe 4-5 weeks along this time. We were a bit better prepared this time to deal with what we knew would be coming. Eric and I spent time alone together just enjoying each other and talking about our little family.

July brought another vacation for us! (we were blessed with lots of vacations this year!) It's been a tradition that every other year my family goes to Maine for a weeks vacation on lake. It's so beautiful there! I've been to Hawaii too but I have to say that Maine is my favorite vacation spot. It's always super relaxing but full of fun. We rented a boat and did tons of water skiing. It rained a bit more this year than I would have liked but we still had a blast. On July 26th we had a new member of our family join us! Emily, Eric's sister, gave birth to little Sophia Elizabeth Parmelee. She is such a sweet bundle of love! Welcome to the world Sophia!!! We love you!
August was a little slower for us (thank goodness!) Abby was able to spend lots of time with her cousins and she also learned how to walk!!! My parents and sister (who was back from Slovakia!) came and spent a weekend with us. We had Abby dedicated at our church and threw and early birthday party for her while they were here. We had pizza for dinner and played games like bean bag toss, musical chairs, who knows Abby best trivia, and then had cake and ice cream! Abby of course loved the cake and ice cream!!! (pictures coming soon!)

This month (September) has been pretty "normal". I started watching a little girl part time during the week while her mom works. Her name is Sienna, she's 11months. Abby loves having another little girl around, although she doesn't like learning to share. We are working on that. Today Abby hit me for the first time. I sat back in shock! Then I looked at her very seriously and told that she is not allowed to hit. She didn't like that either so she threw a fit. What's mom to do then? At his moment she is bringing me one of my shoes and getting frustrated at me because I don't know what she wants me to do with it. I can't quite figure out what she wants! She just moved on to a new toy for now. Few!

I hope you enjoyed my huge catching up blog! Be back soon! (or maybe next year hahaha!)