Happy 3rd Birthday Abel!

Our 3 year old!!

Abel had his 3rd Birthday on Nov. 30th. I cannot believe I am the mother of a 3 year old!

We celebrated a little bit this morning before Dad went to work (had all but one present opened before 6 am....jealous? :).
Here he is opening some presents....

Shirt and pants from Uncle Nick and Aunt Kelly!

A tractor from Grandma Beda! Dad enjoys this one too:)

Abel's surprised face. :)

Waiting to blow out candles

Green eggs!!

Dad made breakfast that morning...green eggs (Sam he is!) and pink pancakes...we got food coloring for making his birthday cupcakes yesterday and now he wants everything dyed!

This year was a lot of fun. We decorated with a few balloons on his bedroom door and decorated the table and his chair...he was very excited when he woke up and saw the decorations. A little more of a reaction this year than last.

Abel and Woody!

After breakfast we gave him his present from us. It was all Dad's idea:). When we were at Disneyland at the beginning of the month he suggested that we buy Abel a Woody doll. We were able to keep it hidden from him and he was quite surprised to open it. He didn't put it down the whole day (except nap, bathroom, and church). He loves it and it even had to be put on the top bunk to go to sleep tonight. :)

We also celebrated at church with cupcakes that Abel and I made. Abel picked the different colors to make the frosting and we made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. It was a fun thing for us to do together. Abel had more fun trying all the different colors of frosting than actually making them, but what can you expect! (it was tasty!) Everyone enjoyed the cupcakes and Abel got a few presents from people at church. All in all I think it was a pretty fun 3rd birthday!
Here he is eating a cupcake with all the leftover frosting, multi colored cupcake! Yum:).

It is odd to think that 3 years ago he was just my little baby and now he can walk and talk and run (and sass a bit...). He is so much fun to have around and even in his 3 short years has been such a blessing and comfort to us.









 


Here we are with our little Abel!






Happy Birthday Abel!

Thanksgiving

We hope that you all had a very blessed Thanksgiving. There is much to be thankful for in our lives and we often forget that...more often we forget the one we should be thankful to for all of our blessings. The morning after Thanksgiving we were blessed to have the opportunity to thank God for the blessing of our new little baby once more. We had our 20 week ultrasound (a week early...). It is always amazing to be able to actually see your baby before he/she is born!
I thought we would share a couple of the pictures we got.

We are so thankful to God that He has graciously blessed us with another child to care for!

On a side note...Abel went with us to the appointment today. I had told him this morning we were going to the dr.'s office to see the baby. While in the room the radiology tech said something to the effect of "I am not a doctor." So, Abel from then on, every 2-5 minutes asked, "Why is she not a doctor?" It was really funny...he just couldn't wrap his mind around it!

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving to everyone!

Where all your dreams come true...

Yup, we went to Disneyland!

We have been living in Bishop for a year now. One of Samuel's aunts (Margi) lives down by L.A., so, we FINALLY went down there! It is about a 5 hour drive in good traffic (which we got on the way down) and more like a 6-7 hour drive in bad traffic (which was the way home). Not too, far, but far enough that it is a very special trip.

The night we got there we actually went to the airport to meet up with one of Margi's cousins. They had a layover in L.A. on their way to Malaysia. They took us out to dinner at Red Lobster (haven't been there forever...which is a good thing because their biscuits are REALLY good!). It was fun to meet more of the extended family and hear about some of their adventures.

The next day, Thurs., we went to the "most magical place on Earth". It was Abel and my first time to Disneyland. I was really excited! We were blessed to go on a school day in the middle of the week right before a holiday. We only had to stand in line for about 20-30min. which meant we got to go on a lot more rides. Abel was pretty excited as well and had a great time on all the rides. He is a lot braver then I ever gave him credit for!

 

This was our first ride."Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters" Abel and I went on it twice. It is Samuel's Aunts favorite ride...and Abel's now too. He is still talking about "shooting Zurg".

 This is on the "Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage". Abel thought this was pretty neat as well...there were a couple parts that made him a "little nervous" (his words).

 Abel is the one that asked to go on "Dumbo the Flying Elephant". Like I said, he is a lot braver than I gave him credit for!

 Meeting Mickey Mouse! Not sure what Abel thought of him really, he wasn't scared, so that was a plus!

T-I-double G-ER! One of Abel's favorites, though you can't tell from the picture...He was a little bummed that Pooh wasn't there, but he was super excited to meet Tigger and Rabbit. He went right up to both of them and shook their hand (paw?)!
 We stayed for the parade and I'm glad we did. The whole day Abel was asking to see Donald Duck. He finally got to see him in the parade and boy was he excited! Another exciting thing that happened was that Abel got to meet Cinderella and she even gave him a kiss. I was probably more excited to meet Cinderella (she's my favorite princess!) then Abel was, so I didn't think to get the camera out...:)
It was a really fun trip. We also went to Costco and Walmart (Fun stuff:)!) for some stock up items.
We enjoyed visiting with Margi and it was good to get away for a bit. We don't often leave Bishop (not much to go to that's close) so it is always fun to go on a trip.

We took the plunge....

...we got a dog.

Some people that we have met here in Bishop fostered 5 puppies (they got them when they were a day old!) and the mom (instead of them being raised in the animal shelter). So, they asked if we would come over and help "socialize" them by letting Abel play with them. We had talked about getting a dog in the past, but Samuel and I really couldn't agree on what we wanted out of the pet and where the pet would be (inside or out) and other issues, so we had put it aside. However, this "socializing" opened the door again. We went once and neither one of us was really attached and Abel didn't know what to think of them, so we thought we wouldn't get one. However, we went again...that did us in! So, we now have a dog (btw, it is an inside dog...I win! :).

His name is Owen, he is about 9 weeks old. He is really doing very well. Better than I expected. He is pretty much potty trained (a lot faster than Abel...) and it was easy to get him to sleep in a kennel. He has woken up about 4 in the morning the last two mornings...so we will have to work on that.

Abel is slowly getting used to him. He isn't very tolerant of when Owen jumps on him and has come to me crying, "Owen is trying to fight me!" (it was hard not to laugh). I think once Owen calms down a bit then he and Abel will be great pals!


In other news....we have had no heat in our house for the last 2 weeks and will not have any until this coming Tues...usually not so bad in Bishop, but it has turned very cold recently. It has been down in the 40's in the morning (in our house) and gets to maybe 58-60 by the afternoon. We have a space heater in Abel's room and in the living room, which if you sit by those, it is quite pleasant...:) We are going to be getting a new wood stove this next week. The old one was not very efficient and also quite dangerous as it did not have a liner in the chimney or a pipe from the stove to the chimney, so a lot of creosote was building up (which is very flammable). The chimney sweep told us to keep a fire extinguisher by the stove and be ready for a chimney fire...so the church decided to get a new stove.:)

We are also taking a min-vacation soon. We are going to see Samuel's Aunt Margi in S. Cal. She is taking us to Disneyland (mine and Abel's first time!) and also (this is REALLY exciting!!) to Costco!! We will also get to go to a Walmart which is almost just as exciting. I know it sounds silly, but when you have to buy food in Bishop most of the time it is very exciting to go to less expensive places.

Samuel and a member from church cut down one of the big trees in our front yard this week...I am still listening to a chainsaw as I type. It was a fruitless mulberry and it was starting to rot in the middle. Very scary since it is very close to the house and pretty large, so who knew if a good wind would bring it down? Plus, we are getting some good fire wood!

That's it for now...I will take lots of pictures of Costco..I mean Disneyland. :) for you all!