Happy Birthday Abby!!!

I am not sure how it has happened but my baby is three! We have had a wonderful day celebrating Abby's big day and we still have another party planned for tonight to celebrate the new year. She is going to grow up thinking that all the parades are for her. We love our Abby! She is our family comedian. She says the funniest things...just this morning Trevor was getting her some breakfast and asked her what she wanted. She said "Well I want some Coco Roos, but those are only for special days." Trevor said but Abby it is your birthday and Abby said I know but those are only for special day. Trevor finally convinced her that her birthday is a special day and for the rest of the day she has walked around telling people that today is a special day. Some other things that we love about our Abby...
1. She gives the best hugs. She loves to cuddle and it melts my heart when she says "Mom will you cuddle me?"
2. She has mild OCD at the age of 3. She has to have her bedroom a certain way before she can go to sleep and she has to have the exact same routine. It is cute now and hopefully it will stay cute and not get too extreme.
3. Her squinty eyes when she smiles. Trevor's eyes were the same way when he was little.
4. Her voice...hard to explain but if you have heard it you know why we love it.
5. Her love for veggies...if you know her mom you will understand that one too Abby will eat broccoli and tomatoes and she really likes them.
6. The way she sings songs. She may sing them a little slower than Emma but she gets all the words right...most of the time.
7. Her willingness to share. She really is good at it.
8. Her dance moves...she has way more rhythm than her mom.
9. Her fashion sense (or lack thereof) She loves to dress herself and sometimes I have to bite my tongue and let her express herself.
10. She is the perfect addition to our family. We love our Abby.
Here are some pictures from her big day. Enjoy!

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was perfect. The favorite present was a doll house from Santa. Abby was so involved with the doll house that it took a lot of work to get her to open any other presents.
Emma with her Leap Pad from Grandma and Grandpa Manderino. This gift was a close second behind the doll house. It is so fun to watch her enjoy her toys so much.
Abby got one too and she loves her too!
The girls also got necklaces and license plates from Grandma and Grandpa. Unfortunately that is probably as close as these girls will ever some to having a California license.

These are Emma's "warm fuzzy" slippers. Slippers were the ONLY thing that she asked Santa for in her letter this year.
Her face says it all. She has wanted this princess movie for a while and it is finally hers.
Abby also got a new movie that she was just as excited about.
A princess for a princess.
I love the look on Abby's face in this picture.

Griffitts Christmas Eve

We had a great Christmas Eve together. We started the day off with a trip to the grocery store with everyone else in the greater Philadelphia area. Despite the crowded grocery store we returned home happy and Trevor and the girls decorated a ginger bread house. Trevor did a great job building the house. I was a little worried about how he would handle the sticky icing but he did great.
Emma had so much fun decorating her side of the house. She was very exact and careful just like her dad.
Abby's side of her house was more like something that I would do. She just wanted to stick the candy all over and then eat what was left over.
Emma was so careful no to put any of the same colors next to each other. She was very patient with the little tiny candy and the result was perfect.
For dinner we had lobster and spaghetti. My family use to eat it all the time for Christmas at my Aunt Rachael's house. Trevor was brave enough to give it a try with me. We learned a few things about lobster and I think that next year it will be even better. I think that I need to invest in some lobster eating tools before then though.

Christmas Nativity

On Sunday we had some friends from our ward over to our house to do a nativity with the kids. Emma was so thrilled that she got to be Mary. She was the oldest girl and really none of the other girls cared what they were. She made a very good Mary.
Abby was the cutest little angel ever. She did not really understand what she was suppose to do as an angel but she had the cuteness factor going for her.
Here is the whole group minus one who I could not get to stay in the picture and a couple of babies. We had a fun time and want to say thank you to our friends for sharing part of Christmas with us.

We Love The Big Apple!!!

Last week we went to New York with our friends the Johnston's. We decided to try to make it more fun for the girls since New York usually involves a lot of walking around looking at stuff that they don't really care about. Emma had a half day at school so we picked her up and headed for the big city.
Here are the girls on the Subway. Where else can you go and ride a boat and an under ground train in the same day. It is not the cleanest place in the world and I have to watch Abby to make sure she does not lick anything but we love it.

When we go to New York we park in Staten Island and take the ferry across to Manhattan. The girls love this part. They were glued to the window the whole time watching the other boat and trying to be the first to spot the Statue of Liberty.
Yes, Abby is asleep on a busy New York street. She was totally out! There was even a bunch of police cars with their sirens blaring and she did not even move. I guess the ferry and the subway were just too much for her.
After walking around and failing to find the Disney store we went to the giant TOYS R'US in Times Square. There is a giant Ferris wheel inside the store where all the cars have different toy characters on them. There is a My Little Pony car and a Toys Story car and lots of others. We got to ride in the Mr Potato Head car. The girls loved it and I learned something new about my husband. Trevor does not like Ferris Wheels. He turned a little green when we stopped at the top of the wheel. He does not like the car rocking and not feeling secure. He has no problem on roller coasters but for some reason the Ferris wheel gets him. He did make it through the whole ride and he put on a brave face for the girls.
After TOYS R'US we went to the M&M factory. It was a fun store, but the main attraction was the wall of M&M's. They had every color that you could think of and you could fill your own bag. The girls had a great time picking out their favorite colors and I think that Trevor talked them into some Cardinal and Gold for his USC Trojans.

Here is Emma hugging her $10 bag of M&M's. The M&M's come out pretty fast and at $10 a pound it adds up, but it was worth it.
On our way to see the tree we ran into Santa Clause. We could not resist taking a picture with him even though he charged us a $1. I think that it was well worth it.
Emma in front of the tree. She thought it was so pretty but she did tell me that it needed some decorations besides light.
Abby loved the tree. She was so happy...
I have no idea why she is crying but this is about 30 seconds later. We had a great trip to New York. We found a great pizza place in the Rockefeller center tower and then we headed home. Thanks to the Johnston's for the great company.

A Visit From Grandma!!!

Well it has been a while since I have posted anything so hopefully this will catch everyone up with what we have been doing lately. Our big news of the last few weeks was we had a special visitor. Grandma Griffitts came to play. She got in late on a Monday night and so the girls did not get to see her until the following morning and they did not waste any time. They put Grandma right to work doing one of the things that Grandma's like best...reading. Abby took right to Grandma like she did to Grandpa. She is one smart little girl.
Here is Abby wearing Grandma's glasses. They were such a fun new toy.
We also made our yearly trip to Lowes for our Christmas tree. It was freezing so we did not do very much searching. Luckily we found a great tree almost right away. I will have to post a picture of what it looks like decorated.
Emma had a great time looking for trees. She wanted to take them all home. She loved the branches laying around on the ground and she and Abby ran all around pretending the branches were magic wands.

We did a lot of baking with Grandma and this is a perfect picture of what Abby did while we were baking. She put everything that she could get her hands on in her mouth. She did not want to back she just wanted to enjoy the end result.

This is Abby and Grandma at play group. We had a great time decorating cookies, making Christmas ornaments, and playing with our friends.
Grandma brought a fun activity for the girls. It was a gingerbread manger scene that they girls could decorate with icing. Here is Abby once again sneaking a taste of something.
This picture is so cute that I think that is why it is showing up twice in this post (or I am just scatterbrained)
Emma was a fabulous cookie decorator. She followed directions very well and I don't think that she sneaked a single taste.
Way deep in thought decorating one of the wise men. She was so good by the end that she did not need any help with the icing bag.

Showing off some of the finished project.
The complete set. There is a baby Jesus but you can't see him because Abby ate the stand that was suppose to prop him up.
This was a scene that could be seen frequently over the last week. I think that Grandma read most of the books one our bookshelf.
We also had our first snow. There really was not much but it was enough to excite the girls. Even Abby was excited to play in it but she cried when she came in because she was so cold.
Emma does not get cold!!! She cold play in the snow all day long. It is too bad for her that her mom's limit is about 10 minutes.

The end of a marshmallow making session. Once again Abby is eating the results.
One day Trevor took a break from studying and we went down to the Reading Terminal for lunch. I decided to break out from my normal and try something new. I got a pulled pork sandwich and although it was good it was no where near as good as my normal turkey cranberry sauce sandwich.
Abby ate her lunch and as a reward she got a cupcake. We walked all over the terminal looking for a cupcake with sprinkles. When we found a cupcake shop I began to point out all the pretty cupcakes with purple, and pink, and yellow frosting. Abby studied the case and her eyes lit up when she saw the cupcake with the chocolate frosting. She really is her Grandpa Manderino's girl...all chocolate for her. She ate the whole thing, even the crumbs that fell on the table.

She did let her dad have a "LITTLE" bite.
Before Grandma left we had a practice Christmas so that she could see the girls open the presents that she had brought for the girls. Here is Abby with the traditional box of band aids and some warm fuzzy fleece socks.
Emma got a new book called "Ramona the Pest" She loves it!!! It is a chapter book with just a few pictures and Emma knows it is her big kid book. Ramona is quite a handful and I am grateful for my sweet Emma.
Our family also got some new movies. You can see the excitement on Emma's face.
The favorite present...aprons with matching chefs hats. I have the best looking cooks around.

Two happy happy girls!!!
We had a great practice Christmas!!! Thanks Grandma.
On Grandma's last day we went to Amish Country. We went to a cute place called Kitchen Kettle Village. This is Yummy the gingerbread man who lives in the village.
One of the stores let the girls decorate little "Yummies"
The girls were great decorators. It must have been all the practice on the manger scene.

Emma had a great time decorating the cookie but she really did not like the way that they tasted.
Pretty cute cookie complete with green slippers.
The girls had to use their new aprons before Grandma left so we made cupcakes. Abby loves her job of putting the paper into the pan and I liked it because there was nothing for her to eat.
Emma stirred the batter all by herself and she did a great job.
Waiting for the cupcakes to be done. We had a great time with Grandma and the girls are already asking when she will be coming to visit again. In closing a funny story...I was talking to Abby about all of her Grandparents. She started to say something and I could not figure out which Grandma she was talking about so I asked her and she said "The Grandma who only had one pajamas!" While Grandma was here she wore the same pair of PJ's each night. It is so funny the things that kids notice. Thanks you so much for the great visit mom and we can't wait to see you again soon!