Guess what time it is....

Time to get ready for Halloween!!! Not that we are excited here at the Carlile house or anything...

Time to get ready for Halloween!!! Not that we are excited here at the Carlile house or anything... I love this video because you can see Abe's imitation skills, he is trying to imitate Ken's ghostly "whooooo"

I hope you all are getting your costumes ready......BOO!

Vacation - El Paso and Heading Home

We had a great time back at the casa in El Paso. It was wonderful to have so many babysitters, family members around. I loved giving Gordon and Jessica a lesson in "deals" and having someone to shop with. I enjoyed our movie nights, our talks, and girl time with Jess and Mom. I enjoyed getting to go to Mom's early morning seminary class, she's a great teacher. I also enjoyed Dad teaching me to play pool at the institute. Abe had a great time and completely adored his Grandparents and Aunt and Uncle. Although, there was no doubt whom his favorite was. I've never seen him so infatuated with someone. He'd act like I didn't even exist if Grandpa was in the room. He wanted to be with him every second he could. It was really cool to see a bond between them when they've not been able to spend a lot of time together. Dad invented games for him, made funny faces and voices for him, took him on walks, gave him milkshakes, fries, and onion rings from Dairy Queen, and they had so much fun. Thanks for everything Mom and Dad. We miss you so much and were grateful for the wonderful memories we made!Abe LOVED Grandma Red's piano. He'd beg to be lifted up and let play.
Abe was crazy about G-G Jo's walker. He thought it was a great car and would beg for rides. As she pushed him around he'd "vroom".
Oh, he loved his Grandpa!! They had so much fun together.
Dad spent at least an hour pulling Abe around this way. Abe just loved it. He'd vroom and laugh and look up at his Grandpa with pure adoration. I'm sure the neighbors thought they were crazy.
Maybe he is crazy....Just kidding! We can see why Abe loved his Grandpa!

Why buy expensive toys for your children? Just visit Grandpa and Grandma! (Check out Mom's pink socks!!!)

10 Month Birthday!!

Abe celebrated his 10 month birthday while we were on vacation. It was so difficult to get a good picture of him this month. Sitting still is no longer an option for him, he loves to move! I've already chronicled many of his accomplishments, but this month he started clapping. He became an expert cruiser. He began saying a lot more sounds and some with consistency (mostly daddy, num - num, and no no). He is signing "more" on a regular basis (it is SO cute!). He is much more interactive with us as we play with him. He's up to 7 full size teeth and 2 more that have come through the gum and are still growing. He is such a happy boy still. We have so much fun with him and are starting to get excited for his first birthday!

Vacation - Albuquerque, New Mexico

So, Abe was awesome on the flight to Albuquerque. He slept from take off to touch down!! Hooray. My Mom and sister-in-law Jessica picked us up. Since we were in town, we decided to take advantage of a few sites they had. We ate lunch at Golden Corral (of course!) and then headed to the aquarium. We had SO much fun. I was glad that I'd had to fly there instead of straight to El Paso! Abe absolutely loved the fish and walked around going, "ish" "ish". It was so cute. I definately had more fun watching him then I did looking at the fish. We then went into the gardens. It was so cool. Everything is built big, so you feel really small. We had a blast posing for pictures and posing Abe too. I posted a video and then some of my favorite pictures. The rest of the pictures, I put into another slideshow. Mom took much better pictures with her much better camera, so keep an eye on her blog for more.

Sorry this is sideways, I couldn't figure out how to change it. If you listen close you'll hear him say "fish"

I love this one because of the 2 sharks. They rocked.

Something must be very interesting. We were so glad that Jessica was able to join us.This is when we really started to get silly. Be afraid, be very afraid.It's Abe, King of the Jungle.

Our last stop was the butterfly house. Abe was almost asleep, but really enjoyed the pretty flowers.

Vacation - Leaving SLC

Although our trip to Utah wasn't exactly what we'd had in mind, we were very grateful to be with the Carlile family. We enjoyed seeing everyone and loved the time Abe was able to play with his cousins, especially Clayton. Little Clay-Dog is just a couple months older than Abraham. I remember having so much fun with the cousins my age growing up, so I am glad that Abe has 4 cousins all within 6 months of his age! I am determined he'll be best buddies with them all! We also were able to visit with Grandpa and Grandma Bodily before we left. Abe terrorized all the electronics in their home, but I loved seeing Grandpa on the floor playing with my little guy. I left SLC and flew to Albuquerque to stay with my parents for a week (there were no flights to El Paso from Salt Lake) and Ken stayed one more day and then flew back to Raleigh.

They had so much fun playing in the suitcase...why spend money on expensive toys, right?
Right after bathtime...2 clean boys!

They shared and played very well together....most of the time.
What? You talkin' to us?

Abe's got his eye on something he's not supposed to have, I'm sure!

I can see some resemblance, can't you?

Vacation - Meeks

We were fortunate that while in Utah we were able to go to Wyoming and spend some time with Ken's family and the Philips family at a scout camp called Meeks. They go every year over Labor Day weekend and we had gone the first year we were married, but missed last year because I was SO pregnant. We were excited to take Abe and let him play with his cousins. Abe started to get a little cabin fever (with only a play pen to roam in he REALLY wanted to crawl again!) but he did really well and actually slept quite well in the pack n' play we brought with us. We had a great time though and I've compiled our pictures into a slideshow.

Nate

This is a difficult post for me, but it is something that has greatly impacted our lives and that is the idea behind this blog, to keep a journal and record of our lives. The Friday after we arrived in Utah, my brother in law, Nate, passed away from unexplained lung cancer. It had been a long road that started five years ago, when he was first diagnosed. His health improved and he and his wife had 2 sweet little boys. Earlier this year his cancer took a turn for the worse. Nate's faith and unwaivering trust in our Heavenly Father has touched my life and the lives of many others. It was a very sad time, and yet our belief in life after death and eternal families has sustained us. Ken and I were grateful that we could be with our family at this time and that Abe could spend a little time with Uncle Nate before he died. We love you Nate and will miss you!

Vacation ... The Neil Diamond Edition

In order to get all of our vacation in, we are going to do this in several posts. We arrived in SLC without too much trouble. We were fortunate that on our full flight the person next to us did not check in and the third person in our row was a wonderful Grandmother who loved having Abe next to her. Things went pretty well.

Once in Utah we were able to get together with some of Ken's friends from college. His old roommate Justin was getting married, so we had a great engagement party for them. It was so much fun! We played some great games and Neil Diamond even made an appearance and did a song and dance number for us! We laughed so hard. It was great to get together with everyone.Everyone at the dinner table! Our Neil Diamond performers! Mandy and Justin were such good sports and did an amazing re-creation of a performance they put on back in the college days. That dress is one of a kind.Greg and Emy's team won some Bling Grillz as their prize in the picture contest.Ken with his college roommates.
Congratulations Justin and Letty! We are so happy for you!!!