I was naughty...

...and stayed up late to finish Abby's pencil holder. I know, I'm trying to get to bed earlier, and I have to work tomorrow, but how sad for hers to not be done all day....and look how cute this turned out:


She picked out the kitty cat fabric All By Herself.


It's amazing how much faster projects go when you've already completed one (ie, aren't winging it), dinner's not on the stove, and no children are climbing on your lap.



I've already found that the pencils slide out too easily--crayons stay in place much better. I'm either going to have to put wrappers on the pencils to give them a greater coefficient of friction, or break out the puffy paints and put some grippies in the slots.


Well, my crafty quota is fillled for the month. It's going to be worth a short night of sleep to see their excited faces in the morning! (at least, that's what I'm thinking right now....)

Busy Girl!

Thanks, Aunt Chris!

Abby loves her silk fairy skirt (currently a silk fairy dress).

New pictures of Abby from Davis Photography

http://proofs.easyphotoview.com/OnlinePhotos.asp?CategoryID=5754

Click on Abigail Blehm to view.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Abby!

It's hard to believe a whole year has gone by! You are definitely a princess....you sleep like an angel but when you're awake, you will not stand to be out of contact with one of your four chosen caretakers for a second! One of my favorite sounds is the "pad, pad, pad, pad" of your hands smacking the floor as you crawl down the hall to find me. You can stand up by yourself but refuse to take any steps unless you have a firm grasp on two adult hands (one hand is not enough). You have a fabulous sense of humor and love to be tossed in the air by Daddy. You love your big brother and start out each day looking for him. When he falls asleep next to you in the car, you pull on his shirt and tell him to wake up--you can't understand why he's not playing with you! We love you very much.....

"My Father's Joy"

I really, really wanted to get a newborn picture of Abby, so we took her in to Chad Mahlum
when she was 1 month old. I wanted a picture of just her, and he suggested having one of us wear a black shirt to hold her but fade into the background. Since my black shirts all had spit up on them, Ben got the honor. He got peed, pooped, and spit up on during the shoot, but he also got this great picture. And it is especially significant to me because of the meaning of her name--my father's joy.