My baby is 1!!

Well, she's not technically one until tomorrow, but I've got a spare minute now and you never know when one of those will come again! Anyway, Sadie is an adorable little girl who makes us laugh, scream, and cry almost every day. She's a mover, climber, and shaker! She started walking when she was 10 1/2 months and she hasn't stopped since! She also loves to climb anything and everything. Tables, chairs, beds, couches, and the toybox are a few of her favorite things to climb. She has now figured out how to climb down from most places, which means a lot less bumps and tears at our house. She loves to dance and is a great addition to our family dance parties. She loves her bottle and luckily she has tranferred over to regular milk with no problems. I was a little sad when she lost interest in nursing, but now it's nice that I don't have to plan our day around nursing her. She's sort of in limbo when it comes to solid food. She doesn't love baby food anymore, but she's also not quite ready for most table foods. So for now, her diet consists of a little bit of baby food, lots and lots of cheerios, crackers, yogurt and anything sweet. Hopefully she'll decide to eat more regular food soon since she's on the small side already! She weighed 16 lbs 3 ozs at her 9 month appointment and I would guess that she's not much more than 17 lbs now.

She likes to give hugs and she's learning how to give nice slobbery kisses. She babbles quite a bit, but the only "word" she has said so far is "ba" for ball. She's said mama and dada a few times, but not regularly. She's also finally decided to let mommy get some much-needed sleep. I hope I'm not jinxing anything, but she's slept through the night for 4 nights in a row now. All I have to say is it's about time! She also takes two naps that usually total about 3 hours. She loves playing with her big sister, even though big sister is usually not too happy about it! So far, she loves people and will go to most anyone, but I think she's starting to get a little attatched to mom. Anyway, that's my baby girl in a nutshell! We're having a few parties for her this week, so I'll post more about those later. We sure love Sadie and can't remember what it was like without her in our family! Happy Birthday Sadie Mae!

Christmas

I thought I had better blog about Christmas since I feel like I can't blog about anything else until I get this one done! Anyway, Christmas was a lot of fun this year, especially for Abbie. She got into the whole Santa Claus thing this year, loved playing with our nativity sets, and LOVED opening all her presents. Lance even sent her on a picture scavenger hunt to find her big present (a binky baby) and she really loved that. I'm guessing that's going to become a tradition! Sadie had fun too, although she wasn't too into opening her presents. She was mostly into eating everything in sight. Especially anything sweet! Man has that girl got a sweet tooth! Anyway, it was a little bit of a different Christmas since it was Sunday, so we got ready and went to church, and then we had to rush to G & G Johnson's house so we could call my brother Connor who is on a mission in Texas. After that, we had dinner, then went to G & G Moss' house to hang out with them and play with cousins. All in all, it was a great day! Here are some pics of our Chrismas morning...

Daddy helping Sadie open a present

Sadie inhaling a whole piece of chocolate orange

The best pic we have of both girls by the tree

Daddy and his girls!

Abbie trying out her new doctor kit

Mommy got a serger for Christmas. Hooray!

Abbie absent-mindedly feeding her new baby doll

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve started out with the traditional breakfast with the Johnson's. We went to Granny Annie's again and it was scrumptious! Abbie had no trouble scarfing down several large pieces of bacon and a whole patty sausage. She's a carnivore just like her daddy!

The whole gang at Granny Annie's

I have to post the pics where Abbie is actually smiling cute (these are few and far between lately)

Later that afternoon, we went to the Satchwell Family Christmas Party where we ate more delicious food, read and reenacted the nativity, opened cousin presents and pajamas, and tried (unsuccessfully) to get cute pictures of the girls. I cannot believe how difficult it was to get any good pictures! They were way too preoccupied playing with cousins and their new toys. Oh well, maybe next year!

Sadie was a sheperd in the nativity. Abbie refused to participate! hehe.

Abbie with her new binky baby (the only thing she asked for for Christmas)

Sadie talking on her new toy phone

Our pathetic attempt to get a picture of all the girls in our matching PJ's (my mom made all of these! Super cute!)

Another failed attempt at a family PJ picture! Oh well!

By the time the party was over, it was already time for bed, but we couldn't forget to leave cookies for Santa and sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn. Abbie was so excited, but luckily she was so tired out that she went to bed without too much fuss.

Abbie leaving cookies for Santa

Moss Christmas Progressive Dinner

This year for the Moss Christmas Party, we had a progressive dinner. It was a lot of fun going around to all the houses, eating lots of yummy food, playing games, and opening presents. We love getting together with family, especially at Christmas time.

Sadie showing off her new walking skills and her cute new boots

Haley and Jackson showing off their Micheal Jackson dance skills

The entire Moss clan

Abbie and Bryson with their cousin gifts and hats from Great Grandma Moss

Sadie and Daddy opening presents

All six Moss brothers singing to Mom and Dad Moss

Johnson Family Christmas party

This year we had the Johnson Family Christmas party at Chucky Cheese. None of us had ever been before, and let's just say that Abbie was in heaven! She loved trying out all the little rides and games. Sadie had fun tagging along. Then it happened...Chucky Cheese himself came out! And Abbie screamed a blood-curdling scream that was heard throughout the land! Haha. Anyway, she was deathly scared of good ole' Chucky, but we managed to avoid him for the most part and continued to have fun. Her favorite was riding in all the little cars and playing Whac-a-mole. We also had fun climbing around on the playground stuff. I finally convinced her to go up by herself so I didn't have to stuff my adult-sized self into those little tubes. Anyway, it was a lot of fun getting to eat, play, and catch up with family.

Abbie and Sadie going on Safari

Abbie riding with a non-scary Chucky

Playing Whac-a-mole with Dad

Sadie's first horsey ride

Mommy and Abbie exploring the tunnels

Sadie had so much fun, she fell asleep in Grandma's arms

Decorating the Tree

The weekend after Thanksgiving, Lance hauled all our decorations out and we got started making our house look like Christmas. Abbie was so excited to start putting ornaments on the tree. She was an expert! The one branch that she decorated had more ornaments than the rest of the tree put together! I would have left it that way, but unfortunately she decorated a branch that was within reach of the "ornament snatcher" (a.k.a. Sadie). The entire lower portion of our tree is now bare! At least all of our ornaments are shatter-proof! We had lots of fun though. We love Christmas time!

Abbie getting ready to put her ornament on the tree

Silly poses from the gang

Abbie and Sadie mesmerized by all the sparkle and shine

The ornament snatcher in action

Making sure no one saw her mischeivious ways

Abbie's Cardiology Appointment

We only have to take Abbie to cardiology appointments once a year now, so that's really nice. Because we don't go very often, Abbie gets a little nervous since she's not familiar with the people or the procedures. This time around, we tried to prep her with everything that would happen so she wouldn't be too scared. Usually she has to get an echocardiogram (like an unltrasound on your heart) and in the past, she's had to be sedated for those echos since nobody expects a baby or a little toddler to stay still for 45 minutes while some strange person pokes and prods at them. Anyway, this year our cardiologist decided against the echo because he didn't want to sedate Abbie. This was somewhat of a relief for us because Abbie has to get an IV to be sedated and that is just not fun for any of us. Dr. Puchalski thinks that by next year, Abbie will be old enough that she won't have to be sedated, so we'll resume the yearly echos next year. We did have to get an EKG, which was a new experience for us. They put a whole bunch of little sticker things all over your chest, and then they hook wires to each of those stickers. Abbie did SOOO good! This was by far the best she has ever been at the doctor. She shed a few little tears here and there, but she was so good at holding still and staying quiet while Dr. Puchalski listened to her heart. Nothing new to report about the condition of Abbie's heart. There was some leakage of one valve and some narrowing of another valve, but that's pretty much the same as before. Her pacemaker is still working great and has another 6 years of battery life left, so she won't have to get that replaced until she's 8 or 9. We feel so blessed that our little girl is healthy and active and we're so thankful for the great doctors and nurses at Primary Children's.

Being so still while getting hooked up to the EKG machine

Wow that's a lot of wires

Just a comparison of last year's appointment. What a difference a year makes!