rain.

I love rain. There is just something about opening the blinds and seeing newly fallen raindrops on my window. There is just something about opening my front door and smelling fresh rain. I just love hearing the rolling thunder and seeing the flashes of lightening. It is all so natural and beautiful. Yesterday as the rain fell, I decided it was time to introduce Abbi to the rain. I opened the front door and for a while we just sat and watched. Abbi smiled, swung her feet, and said "oooooooh" and "wow".  Then she got up and started exploring. She would stomp in the puddles, hold her hands out to "catch" the rain, eat some mud, and smile the whole time. One of my favorite things is watching Abbigail discover new things, and this rain was a beautiful new discovery. 

eleven.

This cute girl is eleven months old! Even as I write that, I don't believe it. Wasn't it just yesterday, I was holding her in my arms for the first time? She is growing up too fast! 

At eleven months old Abbigail:

-Has four teeth and she is still trying to figure out how to use them. Her innocent little kisses get a little painful at times. 

-Walks around like she has been doing it her whole life. "She looks too little to be walking" is a common observation perfect strangers make as we pass.  

- Says "hi", "go", "dada", "mama", "yeah", "uh-oh" and signs "more" and "please"

-Is really good at throwing tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants. Seriously, eleven months going on sixteen years. 

-Dances whenever she hears music. It's kinda the cutest bum shake I have ever seen!

-Sleeps between eleven and twelve hours a night. We put her down at 7pm and she usually wakes up about 6:30am and she takes two naps during the day. She has turned out to be the best sleeper and for that we are so thankful! 

-Eats just about anything we put in front of her and everything she finds on the ground. She is our own personal vacuum. It's awesome!

-Loves visiting the chickens at Nana and Grandpa's house! As soon as we pull into their driveway she starts saying "bawk, bawk, bawk!" 

We are so grateful for our Abbi girl! We're grateful for her sweet spirit, her smile, her laugh, and her sassy personality. She has changed our lives so much already and we can't imagine life without her! 

Swimming...

...and that's how our day went. Isn't swimming the best?

Family Mission Statement

I know, I've been totally neglecting the blog lately. Not a whole lot has been going on and my cute little girl (who turns one next month!) has been keeping me pretty busy, so blogging hasn't really been on my mind. 

However, one thing we have done that is worth mentioning is making a family mission statement. Family is SO SO SO important to us. Drew and I decided to sit down for one family home evening and put all of our thoughts, hopes, and goals for our family into a small paragraph. We are so grateful to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. God is so good! We have so many blessings to be thankful for. We want to continually build and strengthen our relationship with our Heavenly Father and teach our children to do the same. Families can be together forever as long as we strive to keep the commandments of God, believe in Him and endure to the end. I know this! So to help our children gain knowledge of this as well, we came up with this mission statement:

We hope to enlarge this mission statement and hang it in our home for everyone to see! It has already been such a blessing to be able to look over our family mission statement and adjust our lives so that we are living in accordance with it. 

Have you guys ever thought about creating a family mission statement for your own family?

What goals do you have for your family?