My Birthday Baby!

I have no idea where the last year has gone! I can not believe that my baby girl is a 1 year old. I am so completely in love with this girl. She is my personal assistant, my shadow, my bug-a-boo. I love her more than I can even put into words!

We wish that you could have all been here to party with us! We had so much fun celebrating her b-day. Her actual birthday was Mommy, Daddy and baby time. We had a great picnic at the park introducing her to the yumminess of peanut butter sandwiches.

The big celebration was on Saturday. We had a fun birthday brunch. We ate lots of food, sang to Abigail, and some of the kids painted birdhouses. Here are a few pics from the party...

(Thanks Sister Bartholomew for your last minute help with the butterscotch cookies :)

She wanted nothing to do with eating her cake.

Some of the cute kiddos painting birdhouses

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Meet My HOT Dentist!

Our first year in Lexington I had some Dental Insurance that was about to expire. My teeth weren't bothering me but it had been a while since I had a regular check up so I randomly picked someone my plan covered. Bad idea! I am very particular about my teeth. I brush at least twice a day, floss at least once a day, fluoride every day, and wear my retainer every other night...religiously! I should have thought it through better when this random dentist told me I had four cavities and gum disease. Since I only had two days until my insurance expired I let her fill these four "cavities". Supper bad idea. After that my teeth started bugging me all of the time.

After one of the fillings fell out I decided I shouldn't wait any longer to have my mouth checked out. I made an appointment with the (almost) new dentist on the block. Boy howdy, was I nervous! Barton is such a good hubby and dad but I have never seen him give a shot. And before I knew it his hands were in my mouth with the needle. I was super scared but he did an amazing job! After we got over the weirdness of the situation it became more comfortable. At the beginning I couldn't stop giggling because I felt like we were 5 playing house, but by the end it seemed more real. It was fun to see in person what and who he has told me about.

In the end after he fixed two of my fillings, I give my full recommendation. He is a lot of fun to be with, very charming, and I didn't even feel the shots at all! In fact, I am slightly tempted to never brush my teeth again so that I have an excuse to see him more often ;)

I couldn't help but sneak my camera in...

Haha, as you can tell, he was not very humored by my need to document this experience :)

February

I was so sad to see February end. It was a fabulous month! I have always loved February but for a couple of reasons this last February was extra good!

Reason #1: It was my birthday month, and boy howdy did we celebrate! My sweet hubby is way too good to me. He surprised me and celebrated it every day. No kidding, 29 presents. (Wahoo for Leap Year!) I am usually not a morning person but every day I was excited to wake up and go downstairs to find what surprise was waiting for me. These surprises ranged from small to big things including treats and handyman work. So sweet. Everyday was so exciting! A few of my favorites...

One of my very favorite treats!

He re-framed a picture that hangs in our room. (The previous frame had been damaged in our move from Idaho.)

He fixed a section of my craft table.

Reason #2: My momma was in town! I love being with my mom! She is such an example of who I want to be. We have so much fun together. I love when she visits! I love having someone to talk to all day long. We did a lot of fun things. Here are a few pictures of our adventures:

Exploring downtown.

We played a lot of games. (Side note, check out the 3D version of Settler of Catan that Barton made. It is sweet.)

I took advantage of my momma's skills. We filled my freezer with rolls and strawberry jam, yumm!

Saying goodbye....Don't leave me Grandma!

Well my friends, I can't wait to see what next February brings ;)

How Much Wood….

How much wood could a cute baby chuck if a cute baby could chuck wood? 

The answer is: way too much!  Who knew that Abigail was using her crib as a teething toy?  Obviously not her own mother.  For a while she has only had two teeth on the bottom and one on top.  As I was putting her down the other day I thought “It looks like my belt scratched the top of her crib”.  When much to my surprise I looked over and found this.  Yep, worst mom moment.  I grabbed  my fabulous polka-dot pajamas for a quick fix….

Until I could better remedy the situation…

Maybe now she will stop growing so fast from all that extra fiber ;)

Weekend Getaway

One of my all time favorite things to do is to take trips.  Whether it is for the weekend or a long Christmas Break. I love looking forward to them and love enjoying the time away with my little family.   One thing that makes trips even more fun is when you get to enjoy time with family that you haven’t seen for a while. 

This past weekend we got to go on a mini trip to Indiana.  My cousin Rebecca and her hubby recently moved there and had their first baby.   We were excited to see them, meet their new baby and see their new house!

We got there Friday night and ate a yummy dinner.  The four of us stayed up for a while and chatted.  The men retired to their beds and Walton and I gabbed into the weee hours of the night.  Not only are we cousins but we were also roommates for 2 years at BYU-Idaho.  Talking so late into the night reminded me of college and all the late nights we spent chatting.  Saturday’s activities included: games, shopping at the outlets, had a tour of their cute city, yummy ice cream, delicious, food, etc.  Sunday came too fast.  We went to church, played another game, I raided Walton’s recipes, and we left after dinner.  We can’t wait to go back! Maybe we can convince some of our other cousins or roomies to join us! 

The Holidays!

 Thankfully Abigail enjoyed Christmas a lot more than sitting on Santa’s lap!

We are so grateful for the time we had to celebrate this Christmas season.  What a great opportunity to be with loved ones and to reflect on the birth of our Savior. 

For the holiday season we packed up our little car and headed to the Big Apple again!  We had so much fun with my brother Spence, his wife Wendy and their daughter Elliana last Thanksgiving.  We were thrilled to go back! 

On the way there we decided to split up the drive into two days.  We stayed the  night in Gettysburg.  Here is us with the Great President Lincoln. 

Last time we spent 95% of the time seeing the city and 5% of the time hanging out at their house.  This time we spent about 5% of the time seeing the city and 95% of the time hanging out.  It really changes things when you have a baby :)  We did one day in the city.  It was fun and great to see the sites but one day in the Big Apple was more than enough for all of us.

Time Square

                                                 Macy’s Windows

Our baby has the hardest time sleeping anywhere but in a crib.  She finally fell asleep when we were leaving.

Christmas!

Christmas morning!  There is an extra magic feeling Christmas morning with kiddos around.  Obviously Abigail is too young to know what is going on but Elliana made it extra special.  She got so excited about each present! It was so much fun. 

   Miss Abigail with her new Abby Cadabby doll.  She was spoiled by Santa, her Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and cousins.  And yet what was her favorite toy of the morning?  Mommy’s new cookie scoop :)

Spence and Barton had so much fun with the helicopter!  They had competitions with it and set up different obstacles to fly it through.

A Christmas picnic!

The rest are a few random pictures of our fun:

Abigail loves Aunt Wendy! 

Elliana made me into a princess!

We loved hanging out with the Crabtrees!  (Notice that Elliana also turned Abigail into a princess.)

Cake anyone?  If any of you have seen Cake Boss then you know this shop.  It is in a neighboring city to my brothers.  We stopped for a famous cannoli but decided that the hour and a half wait wouldn’t be worth it and went down the street to Cold Stone (Thanks Lizzy!)

Last but not least, here is a picture of the men.  Two parts to the story of this picture. First of all, these are the shelves they made for Wendy’s kitchen.  Love them.  Second of all, they decided to have a contest to see who could grow the best goatee during the holidays. 

Thanks Wendy and Spence.  We can not wait to see you again!

Thanksgiving

Hi family and friends!  We hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving this year. 

We sure did.  We went to Bran and Diedre’s house for some fabulous Sloan Family Fun.  We had a great time doing many things including: eating, laughing, playing games, going to the movies, a baby blessing, and we even had Christmas while we were there.  Here are a few pictures from the events. 

Our family picture on Abigail’s first Thanksgiving. 

We couldn’t resist, Abigail had to have her own version of Turkey.   She was not a fan.

Christmas!  On Friday the tree went up and Saturday morning was Christmas in November.

Uncle Barton and Uncle Brandon “helped” Ethan put his Kinex set together that Grandma gave him for Christmas.  They were in heaven.

Dr. Josh and (future) Dr. Barton showed the kids how to do extractions and restorations on Mr. Playdough head.  The kids were intrigued.

Abigail had lots of attention from her cousins. 

Meet Abigail’s newest cousin Bennett.  He is so cute.  They are going to be great buds!  We can’t wait to see him again.  I need more time to cuddle him now that I don’t have a tummy bug :)

Last but not least, here is a picture of Momma Sloan with all 14 grandbabies.