Family First

Yesterday was my big debut.

Every year the Himmer family, along with a few friends, puts on a Christmas concert for a group of nursing homes in Gig Harbor. The homes are called Family First. It is a group of 5 homes, with about 6 residents I believe. They are normal houses that have been converted to fit all the needs of the residents, and provide 24 hour care for them in a more intimate, personal setting than your typical nursing home. The owner, Chris Thompson, and his wife, Julie (I think), are really great people. I hadn't ever met them before, but they have been working on this business for 10 years, and really care about what they are doing for these families. It was really cool to see them all come together for a little holiday party. Chris goes to every doctors appt with each resident, and stays very involved in their lives and what he can do to help. What a great way to find a need that you can fill to make life better for people in your community. Anyway, for a few years now, the Himmers have been playing music at this annual Christmas party, and yesterday was my first time to participate. It was a lot of fun to see those people's faces light up and shake their jingle bells along with the music.

















The biggest hit of the night was Sam (almost 7), singing "Christmas Shoes" The video there is a little cheesy, but it is such a sweet song. He even got an encore, and performed again at the end of the night. Way to go Sammy!



Sam's only competition may have been Abigail, she stole the show. She was making friends everywhere she went. We were gone from 8:30 am, when we left for church, until about 6:30 pm when we got home from it all. Abigail did not fuss ONE SINGLE TIME the whole day. She was perfect. What a blessing this sweet little girl is :)

What's your 20?

I have to quickly share a conversation Charles and I had the other day, because I found it quite funny:

Charles: What's your 1040?

Me: 1040??

Charles: Yeah, it means your position, like- where are you?

Me: I'm pretty sure its 20...

Charles: Hmm... really? Why would I think its 1040 then?

Me: I don't know, maybe you are thinking of 10-4, like on a walkie talkie, or isn't there a 1040 tax form?

Charles: Possibly... ok, whats your 1020?

Me: No, I think its just, "What's your 20?" (after googling...) Yeah, see, it says so here on urbandictionary.com

Charles: Yeah... I think you're right. What's your 20?

Sleeping Beauty

I can't tell you how many times we go to get Abigail out of the car after a ride somewhere, and this is how we find her. It never seems to bother her, in fact... I think it helps her fall asleep. Crazy girl :)

Moby Man

Who says a man can't look good wearing a Moby Wrap??







Eat your heart out ladies, he's all mine :)

First Practical Joke

Abigail played her first joke on me today... I swear!

I was changing her diaper, letting things air out a little bit before I put her new diaper on, which is always a little risky. She was talking away, something she has been doing a lot lately.

All of a sudden she stopped talking. With great effort on her part, she relieved herself a little bit. I quickly scrambled to get her clothes off the changing table before they got wet. Then I looked at her and said- "You little stinker."

She busted up laughing. And I said, Oh, so you think that's funny huh?

Again... uncontrollable giggling.

And people think babies don't know what is going on...

This is Abigail in her plush lazy boy bouncer- she loves chilling in it

Picking Favorites...

Call me crazy, but I think Abigail is picking favorites already! Notice the "bored out of my mind" look in the first picture where I am holding her. The rest come from her time with daddy... I'm gonna have to try harder I think :)

Four Months

I can't believe Abigail is already 4 months old! She is growing so fast! She is really getting chunky :) With her big old cheeks and rolly polly body I just can't get enough of her!!







we were having a rough night and this was the solution... nothing like kicking back in a bubble bath and sippin on some warm milk :)

Another Day at the Office

Today we took lunch to Charles. Abigail got right down to business when we got there. I had a hard time getting her out of there for nap time.

My New Toy :)

Charles went all out for my birthmasary gift this year (Birthday, Christmas, Anniversary... all in one). He got me the camera that I have had my eye on for a very, very long time. It came in the mail yesterday and we had fun playing with it and figuring some things out last night. I have been wanting to get cute pictures of her little feet, but with my old camera, they never turned out- so I finally got some last night :)

Foot in mouth by who? CHARLES?? no...

Some of you know my husband, some of you aren't so lucky. There are a couple of things you should know about him:

#1- he really is the most caring, loving, "never hurt a fly" kind of guy.
#2- you'd never know that by the things he says to me sometimes.
#3- He can't control himself in situations with unlimited food... ward parties especially.

These three things have come together for many funny stories thus far in our marriage, one of which happened Friday night.

We had our ward Chili Cook off and Pie contest. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to make it, so I hadn't signed up to bring anything. When we decided to go, I felt bad that we weren't taking anything to share. So I had Charles grab some rolls from Costco. When we walked in, we saw that each table had a really big bowl of rolls right in the middle. So we sheepishly hid ours in the diaper bag.

Now on to the party: If you have ever eaten chili with me, you will probably remember me picking out every kidney bean in the mix. I'm not a big chili eater. Charles on the other hand, was in his element. He came back the first time from the line with four bowls of chili. He went back again, and brought another big bowl of his favorite sampling, and with a plate with four sample cups (about the size of one spoon full) for me. They were empty. He informed me that he didn't have an extra hand to get me any chili. So I laughed, and went to get something to eat. Well, about four bites of chili. That was plenty for me, since they were all very beany, and I didn't want to pick them out at the ward party.

Then it was time for the pie contest. Charles came back from the dessert table with 3 pieces of pie. Needless to say, Charles was very full and satisfied by the time we left, and raved about Chili the whole way home.

When we got home, I was putting away our 3 dozen rolls that hadn't been eaten, and decided to take one for myself, because I was still pretty hungry. Charles walked in right as I was indulging. His face was appalled as he said, "Honey! You are STILL HUNGRY after ALL THAT?" I gave him a look, and gasped at his remark. After assessing the situation without skipping a beat, Charles began his recovery "No, I mean... that's sexy babe, 'cause guys love to eat, so when you do..." As he realized he was digging himself deeper, we both burst into laughter. I then explained to him how our experiences had been very different. He had been too busy going crazy with the chili and pie, to notice how much, or how little, I had eaten.

Then he told me I had to write a blog about this, because it was just one of those moments you have to share. And I think he was pretty proud of the cover he came up with.

Mr. Fix It

Sometimes it is really nice to have a handy man of a husband. We had a leaky faucet in our bathroom, and instead of having to call a plumber to fix the leak, Charles took matters into his own hands.

He didn't tell me how he was going to do it, he just did it, and informed me that our faucet didn't drip anymore. It just so happens... its unusable now.

About 10 minutes later I went to give Abigail a bath and saw the handy work of my husband, and saw the drip continue... it actually looked like a faster drip than before, actually. I told him it was dripping again, and his response, in an irritated voice, "Well, did you touch it??"

The man knows his computers, but... well, we all have our strengths.

More Abigail Laughs

One night Abigail thought we were really funny. Here's a video to prove it!


More Baby Laughs! from Charles Himmer on Vimeo.

Reflections

It is funny how things change from year to year. Friday night we were all excited for our first Halloween in our new house. We live in a neighborhood with kids and were excited to see them in their costumes. I bought a mondo bag of candy ready for some frightful trick or treaters, hopeful that this might also provide an opportunity to meet some of the neighbors that we haven't met yet. Plus, this gave us a fun way to have Abigail in her costume and show her off to people that came by.

Abigail was sick, and cried most of the night.

We had TWO trick or treaters.

We actually only got them because we called and requested that Charles's mom bring Sam and his friend by so that we could give SOMEONE some of our candy. We put Abigail in her costume only long enough to snap a picture with her Uncle Sammy.

After we put Abigail to bed, and turned off the front porch light, defeated, I took a moment to reflect back on the previous Halloween.

I reminded Charles of how different our Halloween was just one year ago:

We were living in a basement apartment of a house and figured- no one even knows we live down here, so we probably won't get any trick or treaters. I was upstairs talking to our neighbors a few days before Halloween and she offered a bag of their candy to us because they had a lot, and that way we would have some on the chance that someone came by.

It was a bag of Twix.

We ate them.

ALL.

On the night of Halloween, we thought, eh... no one is going to come down here. Not long after that, we heard the doorbell ring upstairs and the predictable "TRICK OR TREAT!" Then we heard our neighbor say- make sure to go downstairs, they have candy too.

PANIC.

We quickly turned off all the lights and got as quiet as we could. We spent the night in the dark of our bedroom watching movies, and wishing we had a few Twix left to indulge in.

This year we sat wishing we had bought Twix. Instead we bought candy we didn't like so that we would actually have candy for Halloween.

Funny how things change.