We're still here!

Wow, this is perhaps the longest I've ever gone without blogging.  Over a month!  It's been so long I'm not even sure what we've been up to.  I basically posted that we were having another girl and then disappeared.  I finally got my energy back about a month ago and have been making use of my new found energy by going, going, going non-stop.  It's amazing, I haven't NEEDED to nap in so long.  Quite refreshing, actually. 

But first a quick update on Baby Baker #2.  All my appointments have been going well so far.  I'm fine and our baby girl is doing well too.  She continues to do the jitter bug in my belly to her hearts desire and I don't mind one bit.  I'll admit, I'm one of those people that LOVES being pregnant no matter how bad the first 20 weeks are.  I will throw up 50 more times if I had to do it all over again (although according to Bryce, we're done after this one.  Boohoo.).  I'm actually not as swollen as I was before at this time.  Oh, I'll be 25 weeks as of this Saturday.  As my doctor said, I'm 2/3 of the way done.  Woohoo!  It's getting harder for me to reach my toes and I have to sit like I have a stick up my butt (my rotational scoliosis is bothering me - only on the left rib) but otherwise, I'm feeling good.  I discovered compression hose this time around.  They are awesome. 

As for Abby, she's definitely going through yet another growth spurt.  I swear she'll be taller than me by the time she's 15.  She is actually napping EVERY DAY (this hasn't happened since she was 22 months old - it's a big deal at our house) for a good solid 2-3 hours and eating like a horse.  I feel like I'm feeding a teenage boy.  I hear "Mommy, I'm hungry!" about 20 times a day.  Her snacks in between meals are just full on meals between meals now.  Pants that I rolled up 2 weeks ago are fitting just right now.  The sleeves in her new 3T long sleeve shirts are shrinking by the day.  It's amazing.  She continues to have awesome conversations with us that crack us up.  Her ability to string logic together astounds me.  No more white lies with her, she'll know if something doesn't add up and she'll call you out too.  And her memory continues to be awesome (like my Dad and Kirk's).  If you go back on your word, she'll call you out there too.  She's still SUPER observant like me.  It's a gift and a curse.  I think she'll grow to have my OCD tendencies (sorry Xiao baby!).  We see signs of it already.  She is SOO excited about being a big sister soon.  She even told her teachers "When my mommy pushes the baby out, then I can hold her and feed her bottles."  *sniff*  So sweet.  (Side note, she says "pushes the baby out" because when asked how the baby gets out of my belly, I stupidly responded "I push her out."  Haha - it wasn't a lie and that seemed to satisfy her curiosity so there you go!). 

I have to say we did a great job getting Christmas decorations up early and Bryce made our yard look nice and festive.  Abby really GETS that it's Christmas this year so we made sure to do everything right.  At school, they are teaching and talking about Christmas too so she comes home telling me about ginger bread men, how you have to be a good girl in order to get gifts from Santa and she even learned to sing Jingle Bells!  Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer is still a favorite of hers (from when I first sang it to her in Taiwan because I ran out of nursery rhymes to sing).

Another reason why I haven't blogged is because we got a new camera and I'm still getting used to it.  The "continuous" photo numbering is not working so each time I upload pics, it starts back at IMG_001 again.  So frustrating.  So since my pictures are all out of whack, I'm just going to start from wherever.  I hope you enjoy these pictures and keep your fingers crossed that it won't be another month before I update again!

Chowing down on biscuits and jelly for breakfast.  Looks like we need to make this more often!

My mom got her this "princess dress" for fun and here she is singing and playing the piano like a regular musician.  I have a 10 minute video of this that is hysterical to watch.  :)

This is one of my favorite smiles.

Daddy and his little pink bunny after he just got back from a 6 day work trip.

I love this picture.

Daddy's little helper.

Inside decorations were done - time for some books!

We were able to squeeze in a super fun playdate with Audrey!

We set out to make a ginger bread house at Grandma and Grandpa's but I didn't know you needed a bazillion hours in between to let the icing set.  So it's still incomplete but at least Abby had fun licking the icing!

Luckily Grandma had a back-up project lined up so we made lots of reindeer ornaments instead!

And lastly, here's Daddy and Abby canoodling during a nap.  I love it.

I swear Bryce was meant to have little girls.  :)