What's New with Us...

Hmm...what's new with us? Nothing, actually. But since the last time I posted anything on here, I guess there would be a lot of things that are new. Garner started crawling. A long time ago. So long, in fact, that it seems like he has been crawling forever. I think it was November 20th when he first crawled? I have the exact date written down. He has gotten so good at it. He crawls like a pro - on his hands and knees, belly off the floor, and he is pretty fast! Shortly after that, he started being able to sit himself up from the laying down position. I was very impressed at how early he was able to do this. It took Abby a long time to be able to do that. On Dec, 17th we went to get him out of his crib and he was standing up holding on to the side of his crib. This quickly became him pulling up on everything! He just cruises from one thing to the other around here now. He will sometimes pull up on something and then lift his arms up for a few seconds like he is trying to stand up by himself. Just a couple of days ago, I was laying on the floor playing with him and he had his feet on the floor and his hands on my stomach, and he let go and slowly stood himself up for a few seconds - all by himself! He is getting so big! And he is into EVERYTHING! But he sure is cute! He is eating stage 3 baby food now, but he really just wants our food. And he gets it a lot. His favorite things to eat are yogurt and cheese! I diced some cheese up in to really small pieces the other day and he went crazy for it! He loves it! He now weighs 22 pounds and is 28 (and some change, I think) inches long. He is growing so fast! And he has such a great little personality. We are just enjoying every minute of that little guy.
Speaking of big - Abigail Raye gives new meaning to the word. She is getting to be such a big girl. She is so tall and she is talking so big these days. She really has a big vocabulary. She knows all of her colors (she has for a long time now), all of her shapes (including oval, which I think is kind of hard), and some letters and numbers. She is starting to do weird "kid things", too. She is REALLY in to pretending. She is rarely Abby these days. She is usually a kitty, a dog, Mama (and I am Abby), sometimes Daddy, the other day she was Kaylee (and I was Dana), Miss Lou, a froggy... you get my drift. She likes to pretend like she is "falling in the water!" or "stuck" and I have to come save her! She will gasp and tell me, pointing to nothing, "There's a mean monster (or alligator, spider, etc) in there! We gotta get outa here! Hurry, let's run!" Unfortunately, another thing she is doing lately is telling us, "You are hurting my feelings!" when we discipline her in any way. We do not react the way she wants, but it doesn't seem to be stopping. I don't know. Anyway, she is so adorable and so sweet! She really makes me laugh.
As far as Angelo and I go, nothing is new. Angelo graduated! That is exciting! But neither of us have found a "real" job yet. Hopefully it will happen soon.
And now onto pictures! Christmas came and went and I never put up any pictures. Is it too late to do that? Probably, but I am going to anyway. Just a couple actually.
We woke up on Christmas Eve morning as if it was Christmas morning. Abby and Garner never knew the difference. This picture is not great, but it actually includes all 4 of us, so...
Here is Garner with his Sheriff car Santa brought him. It makes a Siren noise and says some phrases from the movie Cars. When he is in his room playing, every so often on the baby monitor I can here, "Boy, your in a heapa trouble!" And when I go check on him he always has that car upside down inspecting the wheels.

We went several places that day/night, but we ended up at BiBi and PaPa's house. Here is Garner loving on Tio.

Aunt Patti and Abby made dinner!

Oh, I miss Aunt Patti dearly! We were lucky to spend a lot of time with her, but I am ready for her to come back already! Abby and Garner love her too! Abby found my scarf on my bed the other day and she asked, "Who's this is?" "Mine", I said. "No, it Aunt Patti's!" Then she wrapped it around her neck and said, "I'm Aunt Patti!"

Anyway, on Christmas morning, Angelo put us in the car about 4 am and drove us to my mom's.



Here is Aunt Kelly before she had Madison Elizabeth, Garner and Abby's newest little cousin. I am sorry to have I have no pictures of this darling little girl. I am still waiting on someone to e-mail me some. I guess I am just going to have to go down there and take some of my own.
This is Abby and Kaylee "sharing" Abby's new car! If you can't tell by looking at their faces, they are not too keen on the idea of sharing the driver's seat.
We had a great time, but we were very tired when we got home!
I don't have any pictures of Kelly's baby, but we did go see Marla's new little one, Grace, on a day that our camera was charged! Isn't she sweet!
Poor Parker (Marla's other daughter)! Abby and Garner terrorized her.
They played with her toys, ate her food, sat in her mommy and daddy's laps! This is very hard on a 2-year old who is now having to share her house, her mom and dad, and the center of attention with a new baby!
Garner and Abby sure seemed to enjoy it though!
I just love that picture of them! They look like partners in crime to me! I love walking in on them and seeing them like this, playing side by side!

He really looks like they are up to no good in that last photo.

I had to include this picture. My friend Emmy stopped by the other day and Abby was giving her make-up tips. In this particular shot, I believe she is explaining that the blue stuff (the eyeshadow) goes on your cheek! (Mama doesn't wear a lot of make-up!)
These last pictures are just some of them when we were playing in the back yard a couple of days ago!









They sure do make me happy! It is really easy to get a little down when both you and your husband are looking for new jobs and can't seem to find one. But all I have to do is look at those little faces and I am reminded just how lucky we are - in MANY ways! We are truly blessed and I feel guilty for ever feeling anything but!