Our Little Abigail - Entry 4—December 24, 2007

I can't believe how much Abigail has grown the last few weeks--not only physically but in what she is able to do. I weighed myself and then weighed her with me two days ago and she is now 14 pounds. She has been wearing 3-6 month clothes for a few weeks and even some 6-9 month outfits.
On Thursday, December 20th, Abigail rolled over on her own for the first time from her stomach to her back. She was pretty suprised and I was very excited. She now loves to sit up (with help of course) but she wuld surely do it on her own if she could. She thinks she should be crawling already and she is really trying. She does manage to scoot a little bit. She is just in a hurry to grow up.
We tried putting her in a walker toy and she actually likes it (for a few minutes that is). She is now very interested in toys and is grabbing them and sometimes putting them to her mouth but she still thinks her fingers taste better than toys. A few of her fingers are red from sucking on them so much.
Abigail has developed a flat head which we are trying to help her fix and she also has a bad case of cradle cap but these problems are starting to go away a little.
We're pretty excited to open presents with her tomorrow morning. I think she is going to have fun with her new toys.

A Christmas Suprise for Uncle Kyle

I'm oh so cute!

Me and my bear

Me and my chub
My Dolly

Our Christmas Letter—2007

This has been a great year for us—primarily due to our newest addition to the family. Abigail Maye was born at the end of September and is such a cute thing! We love her sweet and feisty spirit! We’ll get back to more details about her later.

Our year started off with Richard in school at UVSC and working at Western Standard Publishing. Richard is the CTO or Chief Technical Officer for the company. He has done a lot this year in helping his company do a project for the government. His boss repeatedly tells him he is so glad he hired Richard. Richard just finished taking his tests at school and we’re hoping he’ll be able to test out of a few more and actually be done. Prayers are appreciated in this area. Richard is still serving as an Elders Quorum instructor and together we put together the Ward Newsletter. This summer he built a trebuchet with his brothers and a friend. On their first attempt to launch it, the counterweight broke through the support, ruining the whole thing. They at least had fun working on it.

I started off the year working at Micron for Hoffman Construction as a buyer in the purchasing department. In February or so I began to feel really sick. We thought we might be miscarrying again but at about 6 weeks, we realized we were pregnant. At about 3 months I told the VP of the company that I was pregnant and within 2 weeks, I was let go. Interesting how those things happen huh? It really was a blessing to get away from the environment of that job. I wasn’t able to get another job—who is going to hire a pregnant woman? Oh well. I was able to do some odd jobs for a previous employer and we managed. Because I wasn’t working, I was called to be a part of Activity Days and I have loved being around all of those girls.

The only trip we took this year was to St. George in May for a vacation that we won. Our main project this year was building a pond & waterfall in our backyard. We were surprised at how easily we put it together. We started to buy goldfish to fill it and we figured a lot of them would die. We were wrong and we now have 22 goldfish with the longest at about 5 inches (they all started around an inch or so). They are now enjoying the winter inside our garage. Richard was also able to help his friend do a lot of projects on his house, which Richard was happy about. He loves to help people and build things.

There are several other great things that have happened this year. Well, this one actually started at the end of last year. Brett & Jenna moved into our ward last November & have become life-long friends. We have spent a lot of time with them this year and have loved every minute. We’re so grateful that they moved in and that we have become such great friends. Another great thing is last month, one of Richard’s friends got married and we are so happy for him. Also, my parents were able to visit over the Thanksgiving Holiday and we are so glad they were able to come and meet Abigail.

Speaking of Abigail, she is absolutely adorable and we love her so much. We can’t imagine life without her and it is amazing to see her change almost every day. She slept through the night on December 10th and we are so grateful for that. She also has started to laugh and talks up a storm. She loves her Daddy and he certainly loves her back.

This has been a wonderful year and we are so glad to have friends and family to share our news with. We’re so thankful for our little girl and that we are sealed together for Eternity. We are grateful for our home and for all of our modern conveniences. We are most grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and His atonement and what a far-reaching blessing that is. We wish you health and happiness for the upcoming year.

Love, Richard, Dedra, and Abigail

The Best Thing

So last night we decided to let Abigail sit up in the bathtub. While looking down at her rolls of flub and the little ducky floating around in the tub, she did the unthinkable--she laughed. It was so cute! It didn't last long but Richard and I agree that it was definitely a laugh. Now the question is: Was she laughing at how many rolls she has or the duck? Or maybe she was laughing at the water? Who knows with this one! :)

"Meditation" and other cute pictures

The Best Daddy

Abigail sure loves her Daddy and she knows when he's around, it's play time. Richard just finished everything for this semester of which we are very proud of him. He is trying to test out of some classes and we hope that will take care of all his coursework and enable him to be finished with school. Everyone's prayers would be greatly appreciated to help him to pass all of the challenge exams.

Guess What!?!?!

Our amazing little girl slept through the night! She slept for a little over 8 1/2 hours thanks to prayers, inspiration, and Baby Wise.

A Warm Surprise - Entry 3

So a few minutes ago I was sitting on the couch with Little Miss Abbie in my lap. She began to have some toots and then a few minutes later she really got down to business. With her, you never can tell when she is done so I was giving her a few minutes to get it all out when I noticed that my leg had become quite warm--a little too warm if you get my drift. I still don't know how that much fluid can be in one little girl! :)
This occurence of fluid leakage makes me think of that commercial where the people are wearing vinyl because of the bad pet hair problems and at the end, the woman says something to the effect of "Let's have kids!" If she only knew... :)