hugs

If I had to choose one word to describe Mabel at 13 months it would be HUGS.  She hugs EVERYTHING! Sometimes it's the typical huggable items: her baby, her turtle, mom and dad. Sometimes it's the not so typical: the church program, a measuring spoon, lotion bottles.  Oh, and of course the hug isn't complete unless she lets out a very big grunt when she squeezes!
(sometimes she pats your back too)

I got this video the other morning when Mabel was giving hugs to one of her babies.  This baby was actually my baby when I was her age! I got it as a gift from my parents for my first birthday.
(I scanned in a few old pictures below!)

 

 

   

 Another thing she is obsessed with hugging and kissing is this little picture of Nate.  She found it in my nightstand one day and has been attached to it ever since.  She carries it around when she plays too. Is that the sweetest thing or what?

 

  

hugs and kisses for the picture of daddy

m.a.b.e.l.

• when asked she can point to her ears, tongue, and belly button
• she knows which things are for what: she found a q-tip and put it to her ear, gets her socks and puts them by her feet, and holds hair-clips to her forehead (it's the general area right?)
• she stands all by herself and has started taking steps on her own but she still prefers crawling or pushing her stoller around. (or pushing our kitchen chairs)

• she has 9 teeth (including 1 molar). three more on the way.  these molars have been painful for both of us.  she has been so whiny and super needy. (i have some videos from this past week I need to upload from my phone. they involve tears, snot, and meltdowns)
• plays with her pretend food all the time (that was an awesome gift from great grandma Naylor!)

• she LOVES eating crushed ice. crushed ice has saved my sanity this past week.  i give her a bowl of crushed ice and it keeps her occupied (and very quiet). 
• sometimes she hides from the vaccuum

 

• she still despises her carseat and now starts crying when we even get near the car
• still loves books and her current favorites are "The Foot Book" and "Stuff on my Cat" and "Goodnight Gorilla"
• puts her hands in the air to mean "uh-oh" or "all done" or "where did it go?"

 

• she really wishes we would let her play in the toilet. she heads straight for it any time the bathroom door is open.
• she likes wearing bracelets.
• her hair is getting longer (and curly) in the back 
• has a blast in the bathtub

 

• when we go to the store she points and gets REALLY excited if she sees kids, and if she sees picture of babies (like on a box of diapers). i guess that means we have to have another kid.
• i have started to wean her...for now we try and skip nursing in the morning. she drinks a little bit of milk from a sippy cup. it is a very slow process around here.
• at her one year appointment she weighed 21 pounds and was 31.25 inches long.
• still fascinated by airplanes and loves to point them out to me 

• says mama and dada, up, beba (baby), teeto (turtle) but mostly just makes this UH-UH? sound over and over and over again all day. it's pretty cute.
• snuggles up with turtle for naps and bedtime

these pineapple pants were made for walkin'

Last night Mabel was standing up playing with a drawer in our TV console.  I was sitting just a few feet away watching her try really hard to get a DVD case open.  All of a sudden she turned around, let go of the console, and walked over to me! So exciting! Nate came home a few minutes later and we tried to get some video of her walking.  She wanted the video camera SOOOOOO bad! Please ignore the shaky crazy ending when she finally gets a hold of it.

PS: I tried to get her to walk some more today and she refused. Little stinker.

a trip to the zoo

I have never been a huge fan of the zoo. I always feel sad seeing the animals confined to such small sad spaces.  But I know that most kids LOVE it there and Mabel was no exception.  She growled at the polar bear, went crazy over the tiger (it was like our kitty Charlie times ten!), and she thought the giraffes were pretty interesting.  But of course the very last picture of this post was her favorite thing at the zoo.

hi polar bear

the gang

 mr. emerson

the mommas trying to get pictures

 pals

 streeeeeeeeeetch!

 sweet faced soren

the spinning water ball!

A Puppy, and Hailstorms, and Coldstone, OH MY!

Earlier this month we went to Colorado to visit my family.  My Nana (my mom's mom) and her husband Arnold were out visiting as well (they live in California) so we were really excited to spend a few days with them since we don't get to see each other nearly enough!

Now that Mabel is a little bit older she is really starting to enjoy Grandma Sherrill's house and all the fun things there. She even got her own room!

Here are some pictures of our adventures:

Kelsey and her cute puppy Cooper came over to play:

Cooper has SO MUCH energy and he was really 

excited that Mabel was just his size.  

Mabel was a little freaked out by all the face licking!

Mabel trying to escape the kisses while Cooper prepares for more!

My little brother got his first job! Cold Stone Baby! One night after Mabel went to bed my mom and I went to visit Jacob and get a little treat. I forgot how rich their ice cream is! You really only need the small size.  Anyway, they were really busy and it was fun to see Jacob in a different setting than I'm used to.  He was friendly and had great customer service skills, knew what he was doing, and even sang a little song when he got a tip! Even though my ice cream was boring and didn't have any mix ins (a scoop of salted caramel and a scoop of cotton candy - I was in a weird mood) I left him a $10 tip just because I love him.

My mom wanted us to taste her amazing dutch oven ribs so we had a bbq with some family friends.

My mom realized that dutch oven cooking is not as fun when you aren't camping.

Nate was in charge of tending the coals. 

(which had to be changed every hour for five hours)

Good job Babe!

Rabbits and the cutest baby bunnies everywhere!

I tried to tell them that my mom wouldn't want to kill them if they would just stop eating all her grass, and Dahlias, and EVERY SINGLE PLANT. 

The beautiful backyard....BEFORE the crazy storm that ruined everything.

Kraig and Arnold getting some grub.

two tews

~love birds~

the view from the deck

...four generations...

I'm so happy we got these pictures.

Mabel was really happy that Kobe Kitty didn't run away from her 

(at least not ALL the time) like our cats do.

I'd like to give a shout out to Kobe for being such a good sport.

karate chop?

this little girl would swing all day if you let her

 peek-a-boo

 

Jacob got this awesome drool shot.

 

 

Mabel watching the boys play Horse.

  Kraig showed us his new baby: the tent trailer!

My idea of some comfy camping.

 

Playing out front...

and wishing Kobe could come out too.

Mabel got to take a bath in Grandma's big tub!

STILL trying to give Kobe his half of her BFF necklace.

Check out that pucker!

Kisses for her reflection...pretty much the cutest thing ever.

A big hug for grandma too!

and then it happened:

the insane hailstorm of 2012!

I started to get a little scared (tornado warnings aren't something to take lightly), when the hail would NOT stop and the power went out.  It was out for about 3 hours.  By some miracle Mabel slept through it all despite the fact that it sounded like someone was throwing marbles at her bedroom window.  My mom's plants and trees were so beautiful when we arrived, and the storm totally shredded them.  She was beyond SAD but we were all happy that no one was hurt and the house didn't get sucked into a cyclone.

The size of a PING PONG BALL!

Mabel would beg and cry to play with my mom's phone.

It opens & closes, which is a pretty cool thing in her world.

My mom and I made some dish towel bibs for Miss Mabel.

I think they turned out cute.

Jacob showing a card trick to his captive audience!

 

 I brought the wide angle lens and we got some pictures of Jacob's Eagle Project.

He painted these four wall figures at the rec center.

One afternoon I pretended like I was a photographer 

and took some announcement photos for Kelsey and her husband Josiah. 

Woah, that was weird to write. Her husband!

Here are a few pics, but the really good ones are 

going to be on the announcement so stay tuned! :)

Mabel LOVES books.

Especially THE FOOT BOOK.

Plus the best part is that grandma always 

uses Mabel's foot to read along.

We had a great trip which always makes it SO HARD to leave. :(
We'll be back to push the can of sugar soon!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

PS: My mom made some AMAZING coconut bread.

(and we may or may not have toasted slices and lathered them in Nutella)