Too Cute

And Another Thing...

I forgot to add one of my favorite Abby phrases to my list last night. I'm trying to write them down because I know they'll disappear from her language too soon and then pretty soon after from my memory. This phrase is possibly my favorite:

• "I want 9, 10 ... (Elmos, cookies, chips, toys, etc)"--we do lots of counting at our house and not just counting objects. We count to different numbers so that we can get Abby to be thinking of something else while washing her hands, brushing her hair, or anything that she doesn't enjoy. So she's figured out that 9 and 10 mean lots of counting or objects and has used that piece of knowledge to her favor.

Watch Your Language!

A few of the words and phrases that frequently escape Abby's mouth:

• "Oh, shoo" (Oh, shoot...comes out whenever she drops something, falls, etc)
• "Oh, geez" (said perfectly, by the way)
• "No way!" (she can't just say no when it's something that really needs to be emphasized)
• "Abby's turn" (to drive, to eat, to pour cereal...and the list goes on)
• "Eat Mommy's ...(body part)" (when she's being particularly picky about the choices I'm giving her for snack, I will suggest eating hair, ears, toes, etc. Now it's coming back to bite me)
• "Daddy's going poo-poo" (even when he's not home)

I'm sure we'll add a whole lot more to the list over the next few months, but these are some that crack us up everytime. And some (like oh, shoot) that really help us crack down on the words we say because we really want to save ourselves from as many embarassing situations as possible. We'll see if it really works!

Abby's Latest Antics

• Abby is obsessed with Elmo right now. She knows all of "Elmo's Song" and loves to sing it. She usually lets us replace her name, Daddy, or Mommy in the lyrics, but last night Roy tried to sing Abby in place of Elmo. She got right in his face and said, "No, ELMO!" and kept repeating that until he sang it right. Hilarious!
• We have a fun tradition of eating an otter pop for our family dessert and watching a few minutes of "America's Got Talent" or "Wipeout" before Abby's bath. We all love this tradition. Last night I asked Abby if she was ready for her otter pop and she went over to Roy, gave him a huge hug and kiss, and told him to get her a yellow popsicle. It was said with a huge grin of course so how could he resist?
• We were driving on Saturday and Abby was hungry so I grabbed the baggie of raisins from the diaper bag. She was being particularly moody and didn't like where I placed the baggie. I tried putting it a couple different places, but she kept being really mean in saying no. Finally I asked, "Where do you want the raisins, Abby?" She gave me this look and pointed into her mouth. As I was quickly taught, a literal question deserves a literal answer.
• Abby loves her baby dolls lately. We are accompanied by babies on some of our adventures, but now she talks to and about her babies a lot more often. Almost every morning for the last week, at least one baby joins us at the table for breakfast. Abby makes sure the baby has his/her own bowl, spoon, cereal, and cup of water. Every few minutes, my sweet girl looks over and quietly says hi to her baby. It makes me excited to see how she does with her real-life baby who is coming in February.
• We've been saying prayers with Abby since she was born. About 6 months ago, she learned how to fold her arms during prayer and about 6 weeks ago wanted to start praying with help. The other night, she just started praying at dinner. Of course Roy and I were incredibly proud of her and emphasized what a good job she did. So she prayed 5 more times before we were allowed to eat.

Epitomy of Modesty

Abby's new response to compliments is to ask for more. For example, the other day a lady at the store told her that her hair was mighty pretty (and yes, she did say mighty…still makes me smile). Instead of a thank you, Abby then pointed to her shirt and started grunting and following the lady down the aisle to also get complimented on her shirt. And then her shoes. And then the hood of her jacket. But who can resist her cuteness?

Abby grabbed the camera the other day, handed it to me and told her it was time to take a picture. She then walked to the middle of the room and posed, would come back to check the result in the screen, say, “No, no, no” and go back to pose for another picture. This happened a couple times until she got the desired picture above, which we just had to show off. This is also her favorite pose to do while dancing to "Good Morning, Baltimore" from the Hairspray soundtrack, but the pose is of course accompanied by bobbing up and down and spinning. She is seriously too cute. :)

Wise Pictures

Some pictures of our beautiful surroundings! Seriously, if you were to ask us what we think of living here, our first answer would probably be about how gorgeous it is. We are enjoying ourselves and getting used to the new culture. One thing we have loved is all the live music at festivals, in the evenings at parks, and anytime there's an excuse for music. We've enjoyed several outdoor concerts already and look forward to filling our calendars with more blue grass, soul, and country music. You just can't beat it! We love living in a house, even with it's odd quirks. For example, we have 1 drawer (maybe 3 inches wide) in the kitchen, 1-2 outlets in each room (makes life interesting for Roy and all his electronics), and the floors are slightly tilted toward the back of the house (not enough to notice unless you put a ball down and it rolls). BUT, we have a laundry room (GLORIA!!!!), our own driveway, a porch swing in the front, a fenced porch in the back, and enough space to spread out and make it still look like we have a lot of open area. Abby's room is much bigger than her last room so there is plenty of space for her and the baby to share. Our new ward has taken us in and made us family. They are thrilled to have a new family in the ward since only about 30 people come to church regularly. People have already volunteered to bring dinner, babysit and have baby duty after the baby is born. Sounds good to me! So here are the much-anticipated pictures in no particular order!

Abby giving kisses to her new, still un-named, fish.

Abby covered in bubbles. Just too cute to not share!

The family on Flag Rock in Norton, VA. You can see all the valleys from this rock, with about 3200 ft altitude. Nothing compared to the mountains in Utah, but that's pretty high around here. In fact, Wise is the highest point in Virginia. You can also see West VA and Kentucky from this point (both are less than 45 minutes away from our house, as is Tennessee, but you can't see it from this point).

The family on our front porch. Abby loves the freedom of being outside so we spend a lot of time out here. And we have a swing! Yeah!

Enjoying some swinging

We Made It!

Some people may think that we dropped off the edge of the earth sometime during the last few weeks. While that may be partially true :), we actually accomplished what felt like the feat of a lifetime (at least what we hope only comes once in our lifetimes). We got home from vacation early on the morning of Aug 13, packed up all of our belongings, and moved to the opposite end of Virginia early on the morning of Aug 25. If Abby weren't so incredibly patient and flexible, if Roy hadn't been home the whole time, if the Pinkneys hadn't had an endless supply of boxes for us, and if we didn't have friends to help us, we would have been a whole lot more stressed. A move is stressful as it is, but we were incredibly blessed to pull it off so quickly and with so much help from family and friends.

We have now been in Wise, VA for a week and really like it. We found a house to rent just 5 minutes from Roy's job, have nearly everything unpacked, and have enjoyed several fun features of the area, including a a fabulous library and a folk soul outdoor concert. Wise is a small town where it seems like nearly everyone knows everyone and that's if they aren't related to them. Our next door neighbor was good friends with Roy's new boss when they were growing up right here in Wise. A lot of people have lived here for generations, many on the same land. We live in the house that our neighbor spent her whole life in until she married and moved up the hill to the house next door. Everyone is so nice here. In 4th grade, I can remember my teacher emphasizing that telling someone they were nice was not a complete compliment and that you needed to expand, but nice is seriously the best word to describe the kindness we have received from just about everyone we have come into contact with while driving, in Walmart, while setting up utilities/bank accounts/house stuff, and anywhere else we find ourselves. People have gone out of their way to help us and genuinely try to get to know us. It's wonderful! We'll have to post pictures later, but I had to post now that we finally got the internet. We do enjoy being in Wise!