Me at 33 weeks!

Just thought you all might like a shot of me with 7 weeks to go! This was Sunday, so now it's almost 6 weeks to go! And yes, Alicia, I DID make this dress! Do I look ready yet?;0)

We've spent this week getting stuff from the attic, washing all the covers for everything (carseat, stroller, swing and bouncy seat), finishing up the nursery (I'll put a pic on when I finally get everything up on the wall-hopefully tomorrow!) and drinking more water than I thought possible (The doctor told me on Tuesday that I was partially dehydrated-hence the feeling like crud lately!)

So, we're looking forward to it! The excitement is about to begin....well, pretty soon anyway!

Abby's Strawberry Shortcake Bday Party!

Abby has loved Strawberry Shortcake since she started paying attention to TV! What was once "Cake" is now "Strawbee Cake" and when I asked her what kind of birthday cake she wanted, that was it! So there was our theme! And we decided to invite friends from the nursery at church and their families for a Strawberry Shortcake Party and BBQ! Hot dogs on the grill, potato salad, cole slaw, chips, cake and HOMEMADE strawberry shortcake for the adults! Here's the party in pics...

Abbs with her "Strawbee Cake" cake

Her presents, pre-opening...

Her silly Uncle Boo

Party Hats...nice face, Abb!

Blowing out the candles! "FFFFFFFF"

"My Dream Castle" from cousins Kendal and Tanner

Cinderella Dress-up from Myken and Carsen

Cinderella doll from Cami (and her bros, too!)

Strawberry Shortcake book from Aunt Anna and Will

Farm from Grandma, Grandpa and Sarah

Belle Barbie from Haley

Dora Playdo set from Parker (thanks a lot, Victoria!;0)

Makeup from cousins Madi, Zoie, Silvia and Jacobi

Strawberry purse and such from Aunt Lynn

Cinderella DVD from Mom and Dad

Playing with her loot after the party

Sunday morning "makeup" applied by Abby herself-I let her leave it on her face too long and she had to go to church with rose-tinted cheeks! I guess that was the point, huh? True "blush"!

She was so excited to dress up! There were plenty more gifts, and everyone was soooooooo generous! We really appreciate it!

We really had a blast and were so excited to spend time with friends and family! What a day it was!.....

Abby is 3!

I can't believe it! Our Abby is 3! I've thought a lot about her birth lately, being so close to having another one, and it is just unbelievable how fast the time has gone! So here's a trip down memory lane-for me at least! Enjoy! Abby Louise Axelson

August 16, 2005

7 lbs, 8 oz.

Abby's First Christmas

Abby's First Easter

Abby's First Summer Edisto Trip

Abby's First Birthday

Christmas 2006 Picture

Easter 2007

Edisto Beach Trip 2007

Abby's 2nd Birthday


Christmas 2007 Picture



Easter 2008



Beach Trip 2008



Abby's 3rd Birthday



Blowing out the candles!

Abby's 3rd Bday Strawberry Shortcake cake-planned by me, executed by Abby's Nana!

I'll post more about her birthday party soon!, but there you go! We are so proud of Abby and we love her sooooooo much! Happy birthday, honey!

Breaking Dawn-*WARNING! Contains SPOILERS!*

Okay, so I'm not usually one to get mixed up in the hype, but I was curious about why everyone loved the Twilight series so much, so I read the first book! Even though I liked it, the subject matter being what it was, it felt a little too violent for my taste in reads. I still wanted to read the rest, though, so I put my name on the list at the library for #2. It took almost 5 months, due to the fact that they only had one copy and SOMEBODY decided not to return it. Everyone in Florence should thank me, because I hounded the library to order another one and keep my name first on the list until it came in! So I got it, and finally got hooked! Once Meyer expounded upon Jacob's character, I was there! I also practically forced them to order Breaking Dawn, because they weren't scheduled to and I was NOT going to have to buy it, when I had gotten all the rest from the library! Plus, I had JUST finished Eclipse and, I mean, I couldn't just sit and wait when I KNEW it was coming out on the 2nd!
So I read my friend Ana's blog this morning and felt her post about said it all! I stole most of her post (Thanks, Ana!) for you all to see how I really feel about Breaking Dawn!

"Ok. I'm sorry, I liked this book. I actually really liked it. I have read a lot of reviews and most of the reasons why people DIDN'T like this book were the exact reasons why I liked this book. I wanted to get the wedding over with.. I wanted to get the the "change". The whole pregnancy threw me for a loop, but I accepted it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the whole imprinting thing. I know that many people had a problem with it.. but I thought it was great. I read somewhere that many people thought that it was a total anti-abortion book, but I didn't even think about that, so it didn't bother me.
"I think that most people are reading way too much into these books. I mean, they are books... works of fiction people. It's not the end of the world if the book wasn't exactly what you wanted. I have heard that she's not done with the Cullens though. There will be more books. They won't focus on Bella and Edward, but they will be around. In all.. I'm happy. It was what it was. I still love the books. All of them. It's something to take my mind away.. so, I'm good."

So there you go! DONE!

I need to move on!

I don't think I'm ever going to get around to the super-long post about Josh. Most of you know our story, though, so it's all good! I love Josh more than anything! He's the best!0)

I do need to move on, because I have some things I want to post about! First, I just want to say that I am sooooooo excited for my friend! I won't say her name, because I'm not sure she wants me to share her news with the world yet! She and her husband have been married for 7 years, and in that time we've talked on and off about infertility a lot. We both have PCOS, which is a big cause of infertility and we've both had a lot of problems with it! But she has FINALLY gotten pregnant! After many, many rounds of fertility drugs and several procedures, they tried IVF and it worked! She called me last night to tell me she's 14 weeks along with TWINS! I literally screamed into the phone! I AM SOOOOOO HAPPY FOR YOU, GIRL! She's unfortunately on bedrest right now, but the babies are fine and she says, "I'm okay with the bedrest-I'll do WHATEVER it takes!" She is the most positive person I have ever met!
Thank you for you great outlook on life and your constant encouragement to me, my friend, even when your problems far outweigh mine!
Yeaaa........

Our 8th Anniversary!

This post is coming soon....Our phone line, and thus our internet, has been down off and on the past two days, so I'm doing this from my parent's house...and since all my pics are on OUR computer, this most elaborate tribute post will have to wait! It's okay, though. There has been nothing normal about our Anniversary this year. We actually celebrated it on Friday evening with a yummy dinner out with my brother, Boo and his wife, Amber (Gma and Gpa kept our girls) and a fun night of shopping at Target, Barnes and Noble (a few hours too early to get "Breaking Dawn"-I should have it at the library tomorrow) & Home Depot, without the kids...Then of course, ice cream on the way home! It was a blast!
Be back soon, I hope....

Fasting glucose test!

A few posts ago, I wrote about failing my first glucose test during pregnancy, so the day after Abby and I got back from our trip, I had to be at the doctor's office for 4 hours and do the long fasting glucose test. Fortunately, I finally had Book #3 in the Twilight series and my way out of date journal to keep me busy! I caught up on several weeks of journal entries and made a huge dent in the book, in the midst of having my blood drawn 4 times, seeing the doctor for a normal check up and getting my Rhogham shot! Ugh! (By the way, I was definitely reading the perfect book to go along with my experiences that day!)

Good news! My test was normal! And that day, I bought PINK paint for the baby's room and with the help of my brother, Boo, his wife, Amber, and my mom, we got it done in one day! I'll post pics later of the new nursery!

Me at 28 weeks on July 5! And our July 4, too!

Here I am on July 5 at 28 weeks-just thought you all might want to see how big I am!

Our Independence Day was calm and peaceful. We went to the new Burger King and Josh and Abby played on the big treehouse slide, then we went to see an elderly sister in the ward who had tons of toys for Abby to play with. Her favorites were the 3 "Billy the Bass" singing fish. Abby turned them all on at the same time, so we heard the joyful sounds of bluegrass music combined almost the whole time were were there!

We then had dinner with my parents and watched all the neighborhood fireworks! It was actually a nice, relaxing day!

My trip with Abby-GA/SC Family

We started our trip saying goodbye to Josh in Greenville and going the back way to his sister, Alison's house in Cumming, GA. She has 4 boys and Abby had a blast having some rough and tumble boys to play with! And their big black golden doodle doggie named Buddy! We swam and went to Sonic for lunch and just had an all-around good time before heading to Stone Mountain on Saturday for Ryan's work party picnic! Most of these pics are from that HOTT (but not as hot as it COULD have been-it was overcast, thank goodness!) and very fun day!

Abby at the Backyard Circus, where the kids became the circus acts!

Noah being the lion and tiger tamer!

As soon as Larry the Cucumber and Bob the Tomato came out for their "Meet-n-Greet with the Veggie Tales", Abby ran up to Larry and hugged him! She LOVES Veggie Tales! Thanks to Alison, Ryan and the kids for waiting 15 minutes with us, even though they haven't seen Veggie Tales much!

On the train ride around Stone Mountain! Abby LOVES trains, but unfortunately, that famous smile did not reach her face during the train ride-she was hot , clingy and I think a little overwhelmed! So the whole train ride, I had the heat from outside, my "internal heater" (baby) and my "external heater" (Abby)-Notice my shiny face!

Us in front of Stone Mountain

Us on TOP of Stone Mountain

Abby thought at first that we were at the ocean. She said, "Mom! Don't fall in the water!" And was shocked when I told her it was the tops of the trees in the haze that we were seeing!

By 6 pm, I was ready to call it a day and was sure we would not last until the 9:30 pm laser show on the side of the mountain. I had seen it before, and even though I'm sure that Abby would have loved it in spite of her exhaustion, we left to head to Pendleton, SC to stay with my brother, Scott and his family and go to church in Seneca Ward, our old stomping grounds...

It was a lot of fun to see old friends and answer all the questions about the baby and Josh being Bishop, etc. Great fun! That Sunday afternoon, we headed down the road to visit Josh's cousin, Susan and her family...

Visiting Abby's second cousins, Trevor, Spencer and Vincent. This was when they were "being like a monkey--oohooheeheeh", according to Abby.

We stayed 1 more night with my bro and then visited my friends at the Clemson University Bookstore before heading to the Greenville area for a spaghetti dinner at Uncle Phil and Aunt Kathy's house...

Abby rode the pony with Zoie and the kids just played...they always have a blast at Uncle Phil's!

We were delayed going home with Poppy that night by a WICKED AWESOME storm! It was SWEET! Actually-that's what Josh would have said...I almost peed my pants I was so scared, but of course when Abby would say, "Mom, the ligh-ting scawe me! ", I had to say, "Naw! It's not scary!"

And just before we left, Abby donned a cowboy hat and played with hula-hoops! What a day!

We swam all day the next day with Heidi and the kids and had a yummy "Pizza House" dinner with Poppy! The next morning (Wednesday), we headed home...

We truly had a blast! Thank you to everyone who let us stay and eat your food and mess up your house! We love you all!