365Project.2015 | Week 31

Lest things become too dusty around here, I'm going to update a week at a time (even though I've missed three ...) I generally blog on Sunday afternoons, but we spent two Sundays traveling and then this weekend I was prepping for the "official" start of our homeschool year, so I lost my window. However, the big push this weekend has given me a bit of a breather, so here I am. :)

Day 207. Our church had a "short" day with the second service immediately following a potluck, so we got to explore Daddy's new trail in the evening. He and Peter used the John Deere back in the woods on Saturday and were able to blaze quite a nice trail.

 It's amazing how much less overwhelming all of the brush piles, etc. are when there's a trail.

 Sometimes the smallest things speak the loudest in the midst of chaos. ♥

And then sometimes you have to learn the hard way that tall grass can hide deep puddles ... thankfully the damage was no worse than wet sneakers and jeans. :)

Day 208. The last week of July was crazy busy with VBS at Nanny & Poppy's church in the morning and VBS at our church in the evenings! As crazy as it was, the kids had so much fun spending the mornings with Nanny, and Mommy and Abby enjoyed some quieter play times. :)

Day 209. And then the siblings come home and Mommy got distracted ... again. Yep. Abby knows how to take good advantage of Mommy being distracted. ;)

Day 210. It's official. :) Happy birthday, Abby-girl! We love you, Sweet Pea!!

 It's hard to believe how much you've grown in the last year! ♥

On her one-year birthday, our Abby-girl ...

• crawls everywhere, climbs stairs, pulls up on anything, and walks when she has something to hold on to.
• loves to open and close doors and drawers. 
• eats anything we give her .. until she's full. The she "ejects" additional food with her tongue. :)
• still wakes up around 11:30 pm each night ... and more often when she's teething.
• has eight teeth, with very swollen gums seeming to indicate that molars are on their way. 
• loves to read Brown Bear, Brown Bear and will make growly noises for the bear. 
• still seems to be making more "sounds" than "words" ... but they're very word-like sounds ... ma-ma, da-da, ba-ba, and na-na being the most common. 
• is starting to learn the signs for "more" and "please."
• claps her hands when she gets excited ... Daddy's arrival being one of the most celebrated events of any given day. ♥
• weighs 19.0 lbs.
• loves animals ... Toby, horses, cows, birds, squirrels ... anything of that nature completely captures her attention. 
• adopted her official favorite buddy just a couple days after her birthday ... and Hannah was privileged to be the giver. ♥  

One of Hannah's VBS prizes was a grey stuffed lemur, and she decided to bring it with her on vacation.Well, we all realized pretty quickly that Abby thought "Killie" (short for "Kilimanjaro") was the best. buddy. ever. Abby's definitely blessed with a pretty awesome big sister, because Killie now officially belongs to Abby. ♥ And Killie goes everywhere that Abby goes. :)

We love you, Abby-girl!

Day 211. For our evening VBS, Mommy was helping with the toddler class. Duplos provided the lesson illustrations each night. :) I honestly had a lot of fun putting these together each afternoon ... and the kids enjoyed being able to help, too. :)

Day 212. As Peter's request, I came to the last day of morning VBS so that I could "hear them sing" and it was well-worth the drive! :) What a delight to hear the walls echoing with kids singing such enthusiastic praise! ♥ (The decorations and the organization were also some of the best I've seen ... and I've participated in/organized a lot of VBS's over the years.) :) Thanks so much to each one involved in Camp Kilimanjaro! You all did a great job!

Day 213. In the midst of vacation prep, Peter and Daddy had fun putting together a model kit Peter received as a VBS prize. :)

And that brings us to August and new territory ... 

Stay tuned. :)