Our life in motion.

So I know that you guys have been wanting to see some videos.  Here they are.  But don't get too excited- this little monkey usually shuts down when he sees me pull out the camera.  He definitely knows when I'm filming and doesn't want to perform.  But these are just a few short little clips of what our daily life consists of (well, when he's standing up, at least:) 

This is something he actually just did today.  He was making a "pig" noise with his trach and "wrinkling" his nose with his finger :)

                                     

This is hilarious.  It's the sign language he knows that we put together in a sentence.  

"I'm gonna read a book about poo-pooing in the potty.  And I need help"

haha... don't judge- it's cute and you know it.

                                      

Finally caught a VERY short clip of him "holding his breath" :) He's so funny.

                                     

My Uncle Ray makes this child laugh and smile like no other.  

As soon as he hears his voice at the door, he pops up and wants to play.  

                                      

                                       

                                           

                                             

Also, Tripp got the pleasure of meeing Meghan Linsey from the hottest new duo Steel Magnolia (who are nominated for two ACM (Academy of Country Music) awards this Sunday:)  Meghan is from Ponchatoula also.  We went to high school together and then she moved to Nashville right after high school to pursue her music career.  And boy did she succeed!  She and her boyfriend, Josh won on the CMT show "Can you Duet?"  Well, anyway, I'm sure you all know the rest... since then they've had quite a few hit singles :) They are awesome.  I didn't get to meet Josh... but I was so touched that Meghan took time out of her crazy schedule to stop by and visit.  Especially since we haven't seen or spoken to each other since high school.  She came with my awesome friend Brittany and her adorable little man Carter- check out those beautiful eyes.  This picture does them no justice!!
 But Tripp wasn't having it!! :)

   

Love,

Our First Field Trip!

Today our family went on our first field trip! You see, when my good friend, Amy, heard we were doing a farm theme, she offered us a tour of their farm! I was so very excited to take the kids to see exactly where milk comes from! (Ok, ok, I'll admit - I was curious too!) Top that off with a chance to visit with this sweet family and I was over the moon about the chance to venture into the country! 

We couldn't have picked a more beautiful day! After Matt gave us a little tour of his ol' stomping grounds on our drive up, we arrived to a very delicious welcome!

We were treated to some maple syrup candy! Mmmmm! So good!

As you can see, the girls were very pleased with this snack!

Then we went to see the cows! They all had different, interesting names which we enjoyed reading from their tags (or maybe that was just me?! In any case, I may have found the perfect name for a little boy should we ever have one! ...No, Amy, its not 'Exile'! Haha!)

Taitum was not the least bit scared of them and almost got licked by one! (I squealed from the shock of how long a cow's tongue is! Tait, on the other hand, didn't flinch!)

Pipey really liked the baby cow!

We got to watch them being milked! Pretty cool stuff! (Poor city girl Piper mistaked the cow's teats for more...masculine...body parts...eehehehe!)

They even got to have their fingers suctioned in the milking equipement! As usual, Piper refused but Tait loved it!

We also got to see where all the milk went to! Such a neat process! 

So there, girls! Now you know!

 I must admit though - the highlight of the trip for Piper was the social time with Amy and Joel's sweet girls! But really, who can blame her? The opportunity to run around in wide open spaces, build castles from cow feed and throw hay in each others faces is priceless when you're 3!

Thanks, Amy and Joel, for letting us explore your farm! We had such a great time!

Amy is a fellow blogger! You should check out her blog, The Great Escape!

Boooooring.

I am really very blah lately.  I blame it on the weather. Or work. We might as well throw the kitchen remodel in there, too.  (Just because I'm looking for a scapegoat to mask the real truth: PMS.  Hmph.)

The good news is that Spring Break is nine days away.  And I'm hoping to stage a little intervention.  It would also be helpful if God would send sunshine and 70 degree temps to the Bluegrass State, too. 

My intervention will include several trips - to the Lakehouse, to Target, to Starbucks, and to Goodwill.  Because finding a treasure while thrifting always cheers me up, preferably with a latte in hand.

My intervention will also include me and Cory the Corian.  In the same room.  Cooking together.  Working together.  Laughing about how it was all worth it in the end, and how I will never eat another boxed meal as long as we both shall live, amen.  I will swear off Healthy Choices forever, and promise to make homemade goods for life. 

She likes lattes, too.

However, that is not going to happen: a) because sometimes I'm lazy and Healthy Choices often taste pretty good (have you had the Asian Potstickers?!  YUM) and b) the Depot is taking their precious time setting up the installation process.

If the kitchen's not complete, hopefully the deck will be.  {Yup, that was a deck sketch a few posts back.}  A girl can hope, right?

Well, like I said, I'm pretty boring-ish.  So I'm off to eat my weight in ice cream :P

My Teacher Blog!

Hi, sweet friends!  It was brought to my attention recently that some of you may not be aware that I now post all teacher-related things exclusively at my teaching blog, The Inspired Apple.  There you will find lots about life in first grade, school-related woes, links to fantastic educators, samples of Teachers Pay Teacher products, and, of course, free printables!

Click on the button below and it'll take you directly to my site!



{PS.  Babbling Abby is about to undergo a makeover in the near future!  I'm just resorting to this old layout until the new one is ready :)  Stay tuned...}

{PSS.  OMIWORD!  Y'all!  I can see how you might *think* that "Dr.B" is my doctor...BUT she's in fact one of my nearest and dearest best friends who is a DENTIST!  A doctor nonetheless, but not an OBGYN as I think I led many of you to believe!!!!!   So sorry, but I AM NOT PREGNANT!!!!!  However, SHE IS!  And she's having a baby boy!  Which was my other "best news" - but lots of our mutual friends frequent this blog and I didn't want to go sharing her news until she had the chance to!  She tells me it's on Facebook now, so I can share away!  Ha!}

Good, Better, Best!

Hey, ya'll! This post is full of !!!!! so be prepared!!! {see?!} The good news is that we have a functioning range, microwave, and knobs on drawers and cabinets!

Our first dinner - if you can call it that - cooked on our stove since December!!!

Our dinner choice?

Grilled cheese!  It had to stay simple since the kitchen is not fully functioning.  No dishwasher or sink means no-mess meals for now.  Anything's better than boxed, I'll tell you that much!

The better news is that I finally picked out some countertops, and the Depot was running a 10% off countertops special, combined with a free upgraded edge, and a free sink!  Sign me up!  {We really hemmed and hawed about choosing a countertop, and up until yesterday we were going to go with stock coutertop.  So glad we didn't!  I love what we chose!}

I went with Platinum by Corian.  We also got a *free* Glacier White seamless Corian sink.  Perfect for sweeping crumbs directly into from my new counters! {It's amazing what things thrill me these days!}

And the *best* news is that UK is going to the Final Four!!!  So stinkin' excited!  I even woke up early to wash all our UK garb so that we could re-wear the exact outfits we wore when they won on Friday night to OSU!  My throat is raw from screaming! {There is other *best* news but I don't want to go blabbing about it on the internet until someone (cough, Dr.B, cough) says I can!}

GO CATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

The *worst* news is that BLogger is MAJORLY sucking it up right now.  Picture uploading is NUTSO!  I apologize for any ridiculously large page breaks/spacing.  It's not my fault!!! 

Tag Along Tait

I ended up not getting to do very many specific Tot School activities with Taitum this week but she was more than happy to tag along with everything that we did do! I've learned to not sweat it when things just don't work out to be able to do many Tot School things since my happy-go-lucky little girl is content to participate in anything and everything! I've also learned that often tot times happen spur of the moment and its usually her idea!

Like this feather in the jar activity...

She made a rooster craft like her sister (although I failed to get a picture of her creating it!) but was done rather quickly. She began playing with the feathers that were all over the table - lifting them up and letting them drop. Eventually I grabbed a jar that was near by and she happily dropped them into the jar until craft time was done!

She was very careful to not drop her egg during our egg and spoon races! Of course, this meant she walked very slowly down the hall and didn't win a single race but she didn't care! She was far too concentrated on balancing that egg!

She 'helped' Piper bake cookies - mostly by tasting the brown sugar and the butter and the raisins! Its a hard job but somebody has got to do it!

She made a cute little chick, too! She adores painting and ended up painting more of the newspaper than the styrofoam balls! When it was time to glue the eyes, beak and wings on, I helped her out a lot since she still loves putting everything in her mouth and the last thing I need in the run of my week is a trip to the ER because of a swallowed googly eye!!

Taitum is also a huge fan of working out! She joins me daily and does the cutest little push ups and jumping jacks but her all time favorite is strength training with the hand weights! Hehehe!

Tait was pro at this spooning activity! It was her idea to stick Snow White in the bowl and make the pasta rain down over her!

My favorite moment of the week was this one:

Tait got all dressed up for a visit from Boppa and cousin Emile with the help of her big sister...

They couldn't decide which shirt looked best and so, Tait wore all 3 of them!

I love my girls!

I'm linking up to:

Aaaaaahhhhhhh!

 C-A-T-S! Cats, cats, cats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My first grade team!  I'm going to make sure we all wear the exact same outfits tomorrow when we play NC!!!!

With A Cluck, Cluck Here....

This week we finally got more into our farm theme although we ended up mostly concentrating on chickens since Piper was just so interested in them! We also worked on the letter C (for cow or chicken!) and overall had a really great week together!

The letter C cut and collage (we added the cow to the printable).

We used many printables from Musings of Me's Farm Fun Pack including this one! Piper traced the word then went to the fridge and found the correct magnet letters to make the word! She LOVED this!

Piper stamped the letter C.

And pin poked it too!

She made letters in flour with her finger.

Here's letter C!

The most fun though was getting to vaccuum it all up!!

(Thanks to hands on : as we grow for the great idea!)

She also added the correct number of clothespin to each number card.

With the farmyard jumble (from Musings of Me) she found each letter that I called out and covered it with a stone.

She played with her farmhouse a lot!

One day she made a chick out of styrofoam balls attached with a toothpick.

Aren't they so cute?!

The girls had an egg and spoon race with plastic play-doh eggs!

Then cracked open the eggs and made little nests with mini eggs in them!

Piper made her own batch of cookies this week, too! She got all the ingredients out herself, measured and stirred, arranged them on the cookie sheet and popped them in the oven! She was very proud of herself and excited to share them with Boppa and cousin Emile when they came for a playdate! (It was a super good recipe too! You should try it!)

And their indoor picnic together was a success! Cousin Emile couldn't get enough of those yummy cookies!

Another day, Piper made a rooster!

She also planted a bean in a cup with damp paper towels so we could watch it grow! I wasn't sure this would work but...

A few days later, this is what we saw!!

That's a wrap for this week! Next week we'll hopefully get around to all the other animals that live on the farm!

I'm linking up to: