Halloween Fun

We hope that you all had a fun and safe Halloween!  What a great way to ring in the Holiday Season.  I love this time of year!

We did a couple of fun things for Halloween.  First of all, the Ward Trunk-Or-Treat.  It was fun to dress up and see all of our great friends in costume.  Unfortunately it started raining soon after the party started, so it didn't last very long.  Here are a few pics:

 Yabadabadoo!

It was so cold by the end of the trunk-or-treat.  Poor Abigail was freezing!  Thankfully we had grabbed some layers on our way out the door.  Don't worry, her feet weren't bare the whole time.

We love our local bookstore, JosephBeth.  They do awesome story times for toddlers.  They had a Trick-or-Treating event the Saturday before Halloween.  Abigail's boyfriend James joined us.  It was a lot of fun:

 We love James!  Isn't his costume adorable!?!  He is Max from Where the Wild Things Are.  SOO cute!

We carved Abigail's pumpkin.  Yes, the pumpkin.  The same one mentioned in the post about the pumpkin patch.  Abigail loves her pumpkin so much.  She decided that she wanted a Cat carved into it.  Okay, we persuaded her decision a little.  She really wanted a fish.  She loves fish!  She also likes cats and dogs.  Daddy thought a cat would be easier so we helped her change her decision from a fish to a cat.

At first she didn't know what to think about the pumpkin pulp.  She kept trying to put it back into the pumpkin. She enjoyed touching it a lot more when we pulled out bowls, spoons, and a pot for her to play with.

Last, but not least, the actual Halloween.  Barton wasn't able to play due to an interview so Abigail and I partied with the Warren ladies.  We love these ladies.  They are fabulous!

Fall Fun in the Bluegrass

It is so beautiful here!  I love fall in Kentucky.  Driving in the country is amazing, the trees are so pretty.  I will miss fall in Kentucky when we leave.

We have gone on a few fun adventures.  We hope that next fall Barton will have more time to tag along. 

We went to a Corn Maze with some friends; the Tophams, the Petersons and the Jacksons.  They had lots for the kids to do, it was a blast.  I love watching Abigail explore and enjoy the world.

The petting zoo:

"Baaaaaaa!"  Abigail loves animals!  The sheep is the first animal she could correctly imitate.

The hay ride:

 Abigail's favorite part:

The pumpkins!  She had so much fun picking out a pumpkin.  She was so excited.  It was hilarious to watch her try to pick them up.  We helped each other pick out the prettiest one.  It sits on our porch and everytime Abigail sees it she gets so excited and talks to it.  She even runs to the door to check on it.

We also were able to go to Old Friends Horse Park with our ward's play group.  It is a horse farm for retired horses. As mentioned above, Abigail loves animals and had a blast going to see the horses.

  Yes my friends, sometimes I have to put my OCD tendencies to the side for the enjoyment of my baby.  But don't you worry, I had a big bottle of hand sanitizer to combat all of the horse slobber!

Abigail and her BFF Meda!

Shocking...

Can you believe it? 3 new posts!  I played a little catch up today on recent happenings from our lives.  You see, I have a love/hate relationship with blogging.  Most of the time I am really bad at it.  In fact, keeping journals is one of my weaknesses.  But as with any weakness, we should set goals to conquer them and make ourselves better people.  I have realized that I should try to keep the blog better updated for a little while to see if blogging is or isn't for me.  And if I voice my goal out loud to others I am much more likely to follow through. Therefore all my friends and family out there:  I, Emily Sloan rededicate myself to blogging.  I am going to amaze you all with my blogging updates.  Just you see.

Much Love,
Em

Utah and Arizona

We have been blessed with 4 new babies in the Crabtree Family this year!  Almost doubling the grandchildren, from 5 to 9.  Wendy and Spence had two darling boys in July. (Who I am still dying to meet!) Elizabeth and Rebecca both had their babies in September.

Well, fortunately for me my Mom couldn't be in two places at once to help!  So my parents flew out Super Aunt Lu to help save the day!  While my Mom went and helped Rebecca in Arizona, Abigail, Grandpa and I helped Elizabeth in Utah.  We had so much fun!  Elizabeth's kids did amazing.  They were so good!  And of course I got to spend some time with Lizzy, her new baby, and my dad.  After two weeks of being Super Aunt Lu, Abigail, my daddy and I drove down so that we could meet Eliza and spend a little time with Rebecca, Jeremy and my mom.  I loved all the time I got to spend with everyone.  Here are a few highlights from out trip:

Pictures from Utah: 

Baby Monson.  So sweet!  He is so stinkin' cute.  I love his facial expressions.He is adorable!

 (Abigail had fun with Grandpa and her cousins while Mommy ran errands :)

 The park

Megan and Abigail at the Children's Museum.  It was so much fun to watch then play lots together.  They are going to be great friends!

 While in the west I was blessed to attend a couple of beautiful weddings!  My cousin's and my college roommate's weddings.  Here are a couple of pictures from my roommate's wedding:

 Two of my fabulous roommates from college, Alesha and Coralyn.  I love these ladies!

 I was so honored to be able to attend Ad's wedding and wedding festivities.  We were roommates for 3 years, I love her tons!

 Pictures from Arizona:

 12+hr car ride.  Poor baby slept a total of 2.5 minutes, yes, minutes my friends!

Grandpa's camera girl

Check out Beautiful Eliza, aka Liza-Love.  I love her.  She has the most elegant little face! So, so sweet!

My Toddler

That is right my friends, we officially have a toddler on our hands! Our little baby is growing up on us. 

A little about Miss Abigail:

Her Favorites:

-Daddy and Mommy

-Her Baba, aka Binky (Don't judge me people :)....for the record she usually only gets it when she is sleeping)

 -Reading any kind of book!  The poor kid we sat by on a recent airplane flight wasn't getting any studying done because Abigail was so interested in his text book.  This happens lots! She loves, loves, loves books!  In fact sometimes when I need to shower and get ready she is content just sitting on a chair with a pile of books. 

-Giving her baby dolls hugs

-Bubbles & Balls

-Singing Songs (Her Favorites include: Wheels on the Bus, I had a Tiny Turtule, Insy wheensy spider, and Monkeys in a tree)

-Playing any kind of piano.  My favorite is when it is a real piano with a music book on the stand.  She plays a variety of notes, then flips the page, plays another melody of notes, and flips the page again, doing it over and over. 

-Cleaning up- Hopefully this one lasts!  She get's so excited.  While she does it she repeats up, up, up!

-Going outside

-Being thrown around by Daddy

-Fishes, Kitties, and Doggies.

-She loves to Dance.  She recently learned how to twirl.  She puts her hands above her head as she does it.  Super cute.

-Praying.  She loves to pray.  Her nightly prayers are starting to become so sweet.  She tells us what she wants to pray for before we say our prayers and it is so cute.  We usually end up praying 2-3 times per nightly routine.  How do you say no to praying? 

Some words she signs:

Please

Thank you

Milk

Water

Cracker

Apple

Pear

Bus

Cat

Doggy 

Horse

fish

book

Wash hands

Baby

More

Flower

Bug

Shoes

Outside

Bye

Grandpa

Grandma

Bird

Phone

All Done

Down

Apple

Pray

Hat

Her most used sign: Again.  She wants everything again, again!

My Personal Favorite: "I love you!" It is really cute.  She points to her eye, folds her arms across her chest and then points to you.

Some of the words she says:

Dadda

Mamma

This

That 

Hi

Yeah! (Ask her any type of question and she responds with "Yeah"!  Super cute)

On

Hot- When we give her any kind of food at dinner she asks "Hot?" And she then blows on it just in case.

Off

Papa- for Grandpa

Bubble

Pop

Baba-for her Ba-Binky Friend

Baby 

Bye

Eye

Ball

Hat

Fish
Apple
Jump

We love our Bugaboo so much.  We are so grateful that we have her.  She brings so much joy to us every day.  

Summer Trip

The other day I was excited to get fall decor out.  As I started to lay the vines of crisp colored leaves on the piano it hit me that I wasn't ready for fall!  I wanted summer back.  We didn't go on enough bike rides or waste enough time on the side of the pool, basking in the sun.  We didn't blow enough bubbles or eat enough yummy watermelon and potato salad.  Well, after days of wallowing in sadness with a half decorated front room I have decided to suck it up and just be happy for what we did do.  The following is a bit of what we did this summer...

Barton's summer was filled with different externships.  In fact, besides not trenching through the cold on the way to the bus stop he probably didn't even notice it was summer.  His first internship was the Pedo-Van.  It required him to travel to a rural community in Kentucky a week at a time for 5 weeks.  Instead of  braving the dark alone at night Abigail and I  decided to go home and spend a few weeks with family.  It was sure hard to be away from my sweetheart, but oh did we have fun! 

Here are a few highlights from our trip:

Time with Grandpa!  Abigail loved all the attention that she got from Grandpa!  Funny story, one night I put her to bed.  My sis and I ran to the store leaving Grandpa in charge.  when I got back, there was Grandpa and Abigail sitting at the table having a good old time eating cookies.  Supposedly she woke up and wouldn't go back down.  Deep down I know that Abigail is Grandpa's favorite and he couldn't stand the thought of loosing playing time :) 

Lots of girl time!  My sisters are wonderful.  It was fun to spend time with both of them.  Rebecca flew in a little while after we got there.  It was fun to eat bad things and chat the nights away :)

Baby shower: I can't believe that my little sister is a mom to a beautiful baby girl.  I am so happy for her!  Her baby is gorgeous   While in Utah, we through her a baby shower.  It was so good to see extended family and friends that I don't get to see very often.  And I have to mention that for the first time of my life I was officially the skinniest sister!  Sure, both Elizabeth and Rebecca had a human living inside of them but I am still taking the credit for it!

The canyons.  Not much to say, but a long standing family tradition.

Cousin time.  I had just about decided that everyone was just teasing me that my close cousin Rachel had gotten married.  We weren't able to make it to the wedding and never meeting Josh before I decided that it was just a practical joke they were playing on me.  Well, she is either really married or really good at playing jokes because I finally met this so called "Josh" and loved him!  We went and stayed the night with them and had a good old time.  Abigail even got to help feed the chickens and she stocked the cat.

The Bartholomews!  We got to meet up with some of the Bartholomews for lunch.  This family is one of my favorites.  I love them!

We did lots of other fun things including: the park, the Children's Museum, a playdate with my cute Cousin Mandy and her kiddos, and a movie night with Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Gary! We love you all and wish we were closer! 

A little catching up to do....

Hello friends and family!  It has been a while since I have posted anything.  Abigail and I just got back from Utah, but before we post about that I thought I'd catch you up on a few things that have happened....

In May we celebrated  5 years on our journey of eternity.  5 years!  Boy, does time fly.  5 years including 1 baby, a move across country, two different Universities, 7 different apartments, lots of laughs and a LOT of love!  I am so, so grateful to be married to my BFF!

We had the opportunity to spend the weekend in Louisville.  It was so much fun!  First time leaving my baby but thanks to our good friends, the Skanchy's, who watched Abigail, we had a blast.  (And yes, I am glad that when we got there and I had the breakdown that we should go back and bring her with us Barton talked me out of it :)

In April we went camping at Mammoth Cave!  It was so much fun. We went with our good friends the Newsomes and our nieces and nephew.   Besides stinkin' allergies and Abigail not sleeping it was a perfect weekend!  Abagail's favorite part of the trip was the hammock.  We also enjoyed the hike into the caves.  We were shocked at how well the kidos did with so many stairs.  The only complaining came when they found out that they didn't get a reward for not complaining...haha...maybe we bribe them too much :)

  
In May we were also blessed to see Momma Sloan for a weekend.  Barton's sister graduated from law school so she came to town.  We hate being so far away from her so any minute we get with her is treasured time!

Out with the old, in with the new....In June we lost our great neighbors but gained new great neighbors....
 
Boyd and Kat Newsome have left us.  They were such great neighbors.  There have been a lot of game nights, barbeques and lazy days of hanging out.  Having such good friends has made it much easier to be away from family.  It was so hard to say goodbye but thankfully some of our other good friends, Julie and Scott (or as we call them Sculie and Jott) have moved in.  They are fabulous!  We lived around the corner from them in our old apartment so it is nice to have them close again.  And not only have we been blessed with good next door neighbors but there are 3 other amazing families who we are good friends with on our street.  I love it!  I am going to have a hard time when most of us leave next spring. 

Sculie and Jott, Barton, Boyd and  Kat...Sorry about the baby fingerprint smudges..

Well, that is a small catch up on the main happenings of this summer.  I will post soon on Abigail and all of her developments, boy is my baby growing up.  I will also post soon on our great trip to Utah.  Love you all! Em