Abbie's 6th Birthday

Our family-whew, it's hard to get a shot with everyone's eyes open!

Abbie is ready to go!  Let's do this!

Abbie had a blast at her gymnastics party!  Here she is after she did the bungee jump and her "stunts".  You should have heard her screaming (with joy)!

Abbie with her strawberry Olympic cake.

Abbie and her friend, Molly

Abbie had a mini-makeover at her friend, Kassy's party later that day.

Abbie's hair looked so pretty!  She added the headband later.

Here's Abbie after she opened a gift on the morning of her birthday.

It's hard to believe that Abbie turned 6!  She had an awesome birthday party on Saturday at Let it Shine gymnastics.  She had so much fun playing with some friends from church, school, and Girl Scouts.  We had a great turnout and all of the girls had a lot of fun!  The coach for Abbie's  party did a wonderful job.  He did a cool stunt where he ran on the trampoline and jumped over Abbie while she stood still.   They got to do the zip line, jump in the foam pit, do the big trampoline, swing into a different foam pit and do some other fun stuff.  Abbie got to do a bungee jump type thing that she loved!!

After the girls wore themselves out doing gymnastics, we went into the party room and had pizza, cake and ice cream.  Abbie also opened her gifts there.  It's nice that Abbie's birthday usually falls close to MLK day so we had a long weekend.  Earlier in the week, Matt's parents decided to drive over from Virginia for Abbie's party.  We were glad that they could come and visit!  It had been quite a while since they had come for a visit.

On the same day as Abbie's party, one of her friends was also having a party so it was a very busy day.  Kassy's party was at Divas and Dudes.  The girls dressed up as mermaids and had their hair styled, nails painted and some make-up applied.  At the party, Ariel also made an appearance.  I was glad that I had checked with Kassy's mom because originally, we were almost having the girls' parties at the same time.  Many of the same girls were invited so that would have been a mess!

For some reason, it was hard for me to think about Abbie turning 6.  I guess it's just because she's getting to be a big girl and I hate to see her growing up so fast!!  Also, I just think that "5" is such a sweet age.  They start to lose that innocence as they get older.   I had joked with Abbie that she was going to have to stay "5".  I told her that I had a special drink.  All she had to do was drink it and she would stay "5".  Of course, I was only joking.  She wasn't going for it for even a second.  =)

Happy 6th birthday Abbie!  We love you!  You are sweet, smart, silly, stubborn, spunky and you keep us on our toes.  I love it that Abbie is at the age where she gives me lots of hugs and kisses before she leaves in the morning, if I help in her class or just whenever!!

Christmas 2013

The girls with some of their gifts from Santa.

Sophie with some of the yummy sugar cookies that we decorated.

Our family on Christmas at Nana and Paw-paw's house.

Sophie, Nana, Abbie, and Phil.

Sophie loves her Rainbow loom organizer.

Abbie loves her new "big girl" scooter.

Sophie and Molly are modeling their new matching P.J.s from Mimi and Papa Tom.

We had a very nice Christmas!  The girls were up just before 7 A.M.  I had tried a new crockpot recipe for breakfast.  My parents and Uncle Phil came over right at 7 to see what Santa had brought the girls for Christmas.  Sophie had really wanted a Kindle Fire most of all and she got it, along with some clothes and lots of other goodies.  Abbie really wanted a camera and a Rainbow Loom and she got both of those things along with a teacher set and some other fun things.  They both had an awesome Christmas!  We had breakfast with Paula's family at our house.  Then, we let the girls open gifts from us and we opened our gifts from Matt's parents and his sister, Leia.  We were able to skype with them.

Then, we took our time getting ready and the girls played with their toys.  Later, we went over to Nana and Paw-paw's house for a mid-afternoon meal.  Uncle Jim, Aunt Linda and her daughter, Emily, came over and joined us.  We visited for a while and then went to the devo at Crieve Hall.  After church, we exchanged gifts with Uncle Phil, Nana and Paw-paw and opened gifts from Martha and Matt, although they couldn't be there.  We skyped with them since they couldn't be there.  It was a real bummer that Morgan was sick over Christmas.  We were very blessed!

Christmas Eve

Sierra, Abbie, Summer, and Sophie

our family at Nana and Paw-paw's house 

Keri, Carter, and Paula

Abbie's modeling her new hat!  =)

Overall, we had a wonderful Christmas!  We celebrated with Paw-paw's side of the family on Christmas Eve at Nana and Paw-paw's house.  We had some awesome food for dinner and we were able to visit with a lot of family members.  The main downside though was that Morgan was sick and so Aunt Martha and Uncle Matt were unable to come.  Morgan was sick all week so we weren't able to see them until several days after Christmas.  He had a stomach bug.  It would have been so fun to see Carter and Morgan together because they are close to the same age.  Uncle Phil came in on December 23 from central America to be home for Christmas.  I didn't take many pictures but Mike and Patti's families were there and Uncle Bobby.  

Christmas parties

Abbie at her winter party (Christmas party as I prefer to call it).  

Abbie with one of her classmates, Addison, decorating gingerbread houses.

Abbie with Avery and Kassy.

Nagisa, Allie, Sophie and Abby

Here's the girls with a different Santa.

Our family visiting one of our favorite Christmas light displays.

Each of the girls was able to decorate Christmas cookies with some of their friends.   I did not host Abbie's friends this year however like I did last year.  One of her classmates invited all of the girls over one Saturday for a cookie decorating party.  I went along with Abbie to that party and helped some.  They had a lot of fun.  Sophie asked if she could invite a few friends over to decorate cookies again this year.  The girls came over after their last half day of school and they had a lot of fun!  The girls and I also decorated some cookies just a couple of days before Christmas so that we could share them with extended family and have some to leave out for Santa.

Two of my favorite holiday traditions each year are decorating cookies and driving around and looking at Christmas lights.  We went to look at lights a couple of times but Abbie wasn't too crazy about being in the car for very long.  We picked a good night to go this year because it was pretty warm for December but it was busy.  The girls enjoyed being able to see Santa again.  Hope he doesn't forget anything!!

The girls had their winter parties at the same time.  It's the first year that I've had to try to juggle two parties so I tried to spend about half an hour at each of their parties.  Abbie didn't want any help with her gingerbread house from me anyway!!  In both of the girls' classes they had book exchanges.  In Sophie's class, they played Minute to win it, like the T.V. show but she found it pretty frustrating.  She enjoyed the crafts, snacks and book exchange though.

Pre-Christmas pictures

Here's Sophie before her violin recital.

Here's Sophie and Abbie with Old St. Nick

Sophie and her doll, Molly.

Our girls with their dolls in front of our tree.  =)

As always, December has been a busy but good month for us.  With Thanksgiving falling so late in the season this year, there was a lot to cram into a few short weeks.  Sophie had a group holiday recital for violin and she did great!  We stayed busy with lots of different things and for the most part, everyone stayed well at our house other than Sophie having a little stomach bug.  The girls enjoyed helping to get ready for Christmas!

Christmas Town at Busch Gardens

Sophie and Abbie with one of the beautiful trees at Busch Gardens.

me and my girls riding the train.

The girls posing in front of the the Coca Cola sign.

Our family with one of the pretty trees.

Lovable girls!

Mimi and Sophie by the North Pole at Busch Gardens.

Sophie and Abbie with Aunt Leia

While we were in Virginia over Thanksgiving, we visited Busch Gardens in Williamsburg.  It was so cold almost all week while we were there and some of us were trying to get over colds while we were there, including Tom, Matt's dad.  One thing is, while we were there, Busch Gardens was just open for Christmas Town on the weekends.  On Friday night, before we planned to leave on Saturday, we decided to head down to Christmas Town.  It was pretty chilly but we had a lot of fun!!  We bundled up with scarves, gloves, hats, ear warmers, lots of layers,etc.  They have tons of pretty Christmas decorations and some great Christmas shows as part of this event.  We were concerned that Matt's dad, Tom, might get too tired with all of the walking but he hung in there and did great!  The girls loved riding the bumper cars, swings, riding the skyride after dark and riding some other rides.  We also saw some awesome shows so we were able to take some breaks from walking.  We stayed really late that night because I sort of lost track of time but we had a lot of fun!  Both of the girls fell asleep on the ride back to Richmond and it was almost 11 eastern when we got back to their house!!  The next morning, the girls slept in because they were exhausted and then we packed up and headed back home.  We had a wonderful visit with Matt's family!

Thanksgiving Break in Virginia

Here's Matt up on his parents' roof cleaning out the gutters.

Aunt Leia and Abbie with her Kit doll

The girls had the entire week of Thanksgiving off so we headed to Virginia to spend Thanksgiving with Matt's family.  It was kind of a cramped ride because our mini-van ended up being in the shop for a couple of weeks, requiring a new engine, so we took our Mazda instead.  Overall though, the girls were really good travelers.  Matt's parents were able to take some vacation days as well and Leia, his sister, had most of the week off.  It was a very chilly week but we got to do several fun things.

We were really glad that we were able to go to Virginia.  I haven't blogged about it but Matt's dad, Tom, has been having health problems since this summer.  He was diagnosed with one of two motor neuron diseases which is similar to ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease.  He began having problems with slurred speech this summer and noticed some changes when he was walking.  This led to a few months of testing.  We should know for sure what his diagnosis is next month after he gets the results from further bloodwork. 

At this time, Tom is still working for the VA hospital and his mom, Teresa, is working at a school as a teacher's assistant. 

Our girls had fun doing some crafts while we were there, visiting the science museum, going to visit Santa, seeing the movie Frozen, which was really good, and trying out some new restaurants.   We also played a lot of games while we were there, especially Bingo and Uno Attack.  Abbie was the only one who got excited when she had to take more cards in her hand for Uno.