Thanksgiving in Pictures

We met up with about half the Zwahlen clan for Thanksgiving halfway between all our houses in a town/city called Moneta. Grandma and Baba Z rented a house on Smith Mountain Lake, a little bit south of Roanoke, VA. We had a lot of fun together, but Abby and 3-year-old cousin Zach probably tripled the amount of fun we all had even if we put it all together. The whole trip was worth it just to watch those two play. It was also fun to watch Abby play with 6-month-old baby Ethan and talk in her high-pitched Mommy voice. We had a fabulous Thanksgiving and a great weekend eating, relaxing, eating, shopping, eating, cooking, and canoeing with family!

Musical Genius

If we ever have time to edit and upload the videos Abby and I recorded over the last week, you can witness the fabulous voice and song choices of my girl. She has been missing Roy lately when he goes to work so we record books or songs for him to watch when he gets home and that helps her not miss him so much. Being a well-rounded child, she also enjoys playing various instruments simultaneously and trying to dance at the same time.

Recipe, Anyone?

I am in hot pursuit of a Thanksgiving recipe and would appreciate anyone's help so if the following ingredients sound familiar to you and you have the recipe, whip it out for me (please) and send it my way. And yes, I have already googled it, asked relatives, looked on several recipe websites, checked out the jello, Philadelphia cream cheese, and cool whip recipe websites, and tried to remember it. It's Zwahlen family tradition to eat it for Thanksgiving and the recipe card is currently lost and I'm not about to be the one to break tradition! :) Plus, it's one of my favorite salads we eat at Thanksgiving dinner and several family members have been looking forward to partaking it's green yumminess (plus, at this point, I really can't actually eat the traditional salad of lettuce, etc because it just doesn't even sound or taste good...can we blame the baby?). Thanks for any help in advance!

The ingredients I know:

1 box cream cheese
1 container (I think?) cool whip
1 small box lime jello
1 can (small or big, not sure) pineapple

Santa Train

We discovered our favorite tradition so far of southwestern VA yesterday, an annual event called the Santa Train. We are very much in railroad/coal-mining country and there are little events to celebrate each. The Santa Train is amazing. It's been running from KY through VA to TN for 67 years. The train is filled with pallets of gifts for kids, everything from balls, airplanes, and cars to school supplies, coloring books, picture and chapter books to dolls, babies, and baby accessories. The train stops at 15 small towns on it's journey and while Santa and his helpers (including Ashley Judd, who was the celebrity guest this year) throw food, candy, dolls, and balls off the caboose, other volunteers walk the crowd passing out backpacks filled with goodies, wrapping paper, and other treasures. Abby ended up with a great picture book, candy, toys, and a backpack filled to the brim. It's such a neat way to welcome the holiday season and so fun for all the kids. You couldn't help but be excited as Santa pulled in with so many people around you cheering and clapping. Abby kept looking at us and saying, "WOW!" In an area where so many people have so little, it is amazing to see how much they give.

The Santa Train just pulling in to Fremont, VA

and Abby's response to the crowd's noise level.

Right after Abby discovered there would be presents involved in the proceedings.

On a sillier note, here is Abby's new pose. I may have posted other pictures before with her in this position, but it is becoming a more prominent stance now. She just cracks me up. She looked adorable this morning for church (and her hair, which is featured below, is a style I saw on a little girl when Abby was not quite 1 and I've been waiting for a year to copy it, and it actually turned out pretty cute). So I grabbed the camera on our way out the door and tried to get her to stand in the hallway for a picture. Of course duck had to be in the picture and of course she could only be silly, but still, this is the personality of our girl and we love it!

Miss Personality

I thought about titling the blog "Little Miss Personality", but I've been thinking that Abby isn't so little anymore. And she definitely does not have a little personality. I've been pretty boring lately and haven't told as many stories. It's not that we don't have them, it's just that I'm too lazy or tired or distracted to type them out. So here's a short make-up post of stories of our lives.

The other morning, Abby and I were lying in bed and the baby started kicking. I put her hand where he was kicking and told her to feel for baby Sam. She then grabbed my other hand, placed it on her own stomach and told me to feel for baby Lissy (her 6-month-old baby friend). Apparently we have a few more lessons to cover before the big shock comes of baby Sam arriving at our house.

Roy was asked to work in the Elder's Quorum at church, the organization for men. Since we moved in over two months ago, people have been teasing him that he would be the new bishop (the man in charge of the whole congregation). Needless to say, Roy and I both felt like we dodged a bullet with his new assignment. Not that he would be mad or upset if he were asked to do a big job, but we just are relieved that we have a little bit of time to figure out our lives here, continue the what seems like endless arranging of our home, and preparing Abby and ourselves for a new baby.

I have been debating about whether or not to document this particular Abby word, but have been encouraged to do so. Abby loves fire trucks (that is her fire truck hat in the above picture). She just can't say the word correctly. She just chops off the middle letters of the word so it comes out sounding really wrong. We're working on it, but she sees a truck (any truck at all is now a fire truck) and gets so excited that it pops out wrong. And, being in the southwest tip of VA and in mountain country, there are lots and lots of trucks.

We spent Friday and Saturday in Knoxville, TN because Roy had the ethics part of his Bar exam. For those of you who don't know, Roy did not pass the Bar this time around. He missed it by 7 points so we know we have a great shot next time. Anyway, Abby and I joined him in Knoxville for some exploring, shopping, and playing. We have pretty much no shopping here besides Walmart, Kmart, and Lowes and Knoxville has Target so I had huge incentive to go. Anyway, I'm really excited because I got some really fun things to finish the decorating of the kids' room so if all goes as pictured in my mind, we should have a very cute brother-sister room in the next week or so. I'm so excited to start working on it!

Fall Colors

We had to take advantage of the beautiful fall colors and take a few pictures. Here are three of our favorites!

Name the Movie

Abby is never really quiet for more than a minute or two and I love it. She is often heard counting, talking to the closest baby doll or Elmo, or just talking. But just as often as she is talking, she is singing. And as the completely unbiased mother, I think she has the most gorgeous singing voice. This is one of her favorite songs of the month. Can you figure out what movie it's from?