Dewberry Farm with Our Little One

Well, last weekend we took Abigail to Dewberry Farm just outside of Houston.  This place is every child's dream--seriously!  They have the best activities for kids and parents to do together and it was all free admission after Thanksgiving, so we were in luck.  If you live in the Houston area or come visit us and you have kids--you must go to Dewberry Farm.  Abigail had so much fun with her mommy and daddy.  We got lost together in the corn maze, rode a push cart together--so much fun--feed the goats, saw a duck race, took a barrel train ride around the farm, went on a hay ride together and looked for a Christmas tree to cut down.  We had the best family day together and we will definitely start making this a Wisian family tradition every Christmas!  Here are a few pictures from that funfilled day at Dewberry Farm.

 Peek-A-Boo our little Buggy Boo

 Ready for the school bus?  Mommy is not ready to hear this yet--she is still my baby!

 She loved the pumpkins, can you tell?

 Mommy and Abigail on the Barrel Train

 Abigail with her Great-Grandma!

Sweet Abigail

Abigail with her Grandpa!

Abigail with her Grandma



Abigail with her cousin, Layne, on a wagon ride in Nordheim, Texas



My Parents.

  My parents have loved me through and through and continue to do so everyday.  I am so incredibly blessed to have been given my parents and I truly believe I had a little to do with choosing all of them because each has shaped me into the woman and mother I am today.



My mother and myself



My sweet mother with our beautiful daughter

My stepmother, Connie, with Abigail

Our Hip Baby Girl with her Grandpa Don and Yia Yia!

Such a happy baby!

Connie made Abigail's Christmas stocking from needlepoint.  This was such a touching moment for Clayton and myself and such a priceless gift for our daughter.  Connie first made my stocking back in 1987, she made Clayton a stocking when we got married and now Abigail has her stocking--so all three hang by the fire place and we will treasure this precious gift every year.

My most generous, giving, incredible, father and I. :-)

Our Adorable Girl is 16 months old!!!

A lot has happened since I last posted.  I know it has been a long time since I last posted and I apologize for that.  Life in the Wisian household has been busy as usual.  Abigail enjoyed a nice trip to Galveston in October and as usual, she LOVES everything about the beach.  Here she is trying to feed her Grandpa Don a cracker--that is her thing now, to feed everyone else even her little baby dolls. :-)

A bucket-O-fun with Miss Abigail!

It is just so exciting being in this big bucket!!!

Abigail with her daddy and Grandpa Don--"PaPaw" as she calls him.

My patriot girl!

Me and my man--love  him so!

Can't you tell that she is a daddy's girl!

We went to the Renaissance Festival recently with my dad and Patsy--"PaPaw and Yia Yia" and here we are on the big tree swings.  Abigail was a little scared at first but quickly warmed up with mommy and Yia-Yia right beside her.



One of my favorites yet.



Abigail on her way to Addison's 1st birthday party!!  This was Abigail's first birthday party and she had SOO much fun!  Abigail is a VERY social child and loves to be around other children. She already has so many friends and doesn't even go to school yet.  We are so blessed to have such wonderful neighbors and Abigail has so many playmates who are around her age. :-)

My dad, my sisters, April and Sydney, Clayton, Abigail and I all recently went to lunch together on Clayton's day off.  It was so nice to be together with family--this was really a great day for us! :-)

So now I will catch you up on Abigail's development and what she is currently doing.

MOTOR:  Abigail is crawling and scooting everywhere! She is so fast and of course wants to get into everything that is dangerous.  Baby proofing our home is something we are constantly doing because she is so smart and will try to peel off the electric plug holders, open the gate at the top of the stairs, open the cabinets, etc.  We are trying to "out smart" our 16 month old!  She has begun to pull herself up against/on furniture, such as the couch, ottoman, etc.  She will initiate and sustain a half-kneeling position (the propose kneel)  She has begun to bear weight bilaterally on her legs in standing more and more everyday while mommy and daddy support her under her arms.  She is building strength in her legs more and more everyday and we are soooo proud of her.  It is amazing to see the progress she has made since being in that nasty cast for so long. I just cannot believe what she has accomplished on her own in these short months.  Just imagine being immobile for 3 months of your life before you ever really moved and having to learn how to walk when you have never done so--just the uncertainty of doing so might scare you, but slowly she is pushing through on her own and learning more and more about what she is capable of doing.  I hope she knows how proud we are of her--she has already overcome more than I have in her short life.  She is so much stronger than I ever could be.  She is our strength in our lives.

LANGUAGE:  My goodness, our little girl sure can talk!! She is our little parrot--repeats everything we say.  Here is a list of some of the words she is saying now.
                                 1 Want Waga "Want water"
2. Aggies
3. It stinks
                         4. Boo boo--for poo poo
5. Baby
6. Nose
7. Toes
8. Bella
9. Mommy and daddy
10. Yia Yia and Papaw
11. Nana
12. Ashleigh (her cousin)
13. Belly
14. Tee tee
15. Ishie the fishie
16. Ear
17. Cheese
18. "What's that mommy"
19. Apple
20. Cracker
21. Cookie
22. Hello
23. High five
14. Wrecking Crew--while holding her hand up to symbolize "wrecking crew"--I am NOT kidding!

FINE MOTOR:  Her new favorite thing is to color using crayons.  We think she is going to be right handed because when you place an object in her left hand she always transfers the object into her right hand.   She then initiates a pretty good tripod grasp--advanced for her age (I know this because for my job I am very familiar with pencil grasps and know exactly where Abigail should be at and she is 2 years above where she needs to be fine motor wise.) As I write Abigail is sitting on my lap coloring on a piece of paper using a pen. :-)

She has used the potty several times and we are working on toilet training now. 
That is all for now and Abigail is getting a little restless on mommy's lap so we are going to go do my favorite thing in the world--play!

Day 3 : My First Love

Well, this is one easy question to answer.  Before my first love came into my life I did have other boyfriends.  Yes, I dated other guys and none of them were "the one"--not even close.  However, I strongly feel that every relationship leads you to the "one" God made for you.  With each relationship that I was in before I met my first love, I learned a lot about myself and I could define who I really was as a person. To me, I feel that it is very important for one to truly know who they are before their "first love" comes into the picture.

Okay, okay, enough with the suspense. :-)  You must know that my first love and my forever love is my sweet Clayton.  He is everything that is right in my life.  I've loved him since the day I met him--I just knew there was something different about this one.   I remember when we first started dating I kept thinking, "please, Brooke do not mess this one up because he is someone special"  I knew I wanted to be with him forever, but never did I dare tell him these feelings until much later--only to find that he was thinking  the same. :-)  During my first trip down to his hometown of Nordheim, Texas, when I first met his wonderful family, I kept thinking, "Clayton is going to marry a lucky girl one day to be able to call these people her in-laws"  I was secretly hoping that lucky girl was going to be me--but at that point we had only been dating for two weeks. :-)

He is the love of my life and I will love him forever.  God has brought us together.  I remember standing at the alter, holding my sweetheart's hands while saying my vows, I felt the presence of God through and through and just knew everything was alright in the world because we were finally together.  Clayton and I laugh together saying that the angels danced in heaven the night we met because they knew that their hard work was complete. ;-)  I love you, my sweetheart!

Day 2 of the Blog Challenge. Meaning Behind the Name of the Blog

Okay, okay, so I am already behind with this 30 day blog challenge, but we have had a very busy few past days.  We drove the Norheim, Texas for the weekend to visit with family and friends while attending the Yorktown Western Days Festival.  I will include pictures as soon as I find the time.

Today I will talk about the reasoning and the meaning behind the name of our blog.  Well, "All About Abigail" just seemed so appropriate because our lives naturally and wonderfully changed when our sweet Abigail entered this world.  Everything in our lives has become "All About Abigail" and Clayton and I have changed for the better because of this sweet little girl.  I pray that one day we will be blessed with more children and I know we will include his or her name in the title of the blog for it will then be all about Abigail and _____; however, for awhile she will continue to have all of the spotlight. :-)

30 Day Blog Challenge

Okay, so I am going to follow my friend, Jordan, on this 30 day blog challenge.  I read her blog and I am so interested in it and I would love to share more about myself and my lovely family.  Hopefully my little life will be somewhat interesting--but I do think little Abigail makes everything a little more exciting and interesting in my life.  Therefore, I am sure I will mention my sweet Abigail and the love of my life, my Clayton, a lot for they are my life.

DAY ONE:  Introduce Yourself

My name is Brooke and I was born in Houston, Texas at Southwest Memorial Hospital (now it is Memorial Hermann Hospital).  I went to Poe Elementary school as I lived close by in the Museum District in Houston, Texas.  My parents were divorced when I was just an infant, but I have had the most amazing childhood you could imagine.  I have the most amazing and loving family and although we have all been through a lot together, we are still here for each other and I am so blessed to have them in my lives. All together I have three sisters and two brothers--I am one lucky woman, I must say!  Having siblings has been such a remarkable gift that my parents could have ever given me.  It is such a gift from God to have siblings and be able to rely on them at any point in your life. 

Back to me--see, I drift off and have a hard time talking just about ME.  I went to Annuciation Orthodox School for middle school and then Episcopal High School.  All throughout elementary school, middle school, and high school I was a SOCCER fanatic and I danced with a small company until 8th grade.  I love playing soccer and wish I could play now, but I hurt my knee my senior year, which has even limited my ability to run so I find other ways to exercise--or try to at least.

Ever since I was in the 5th grade I knew I wanted to go to Texas A&M University---I just always knew.  It is really hard to explain--just had it in my blood and no one pushed it on me--I just found it.  It was not exactly easy for me to get into A&M.  I got into all other colleges that I applied to when I was a senior, but had to work a little harder to get to A&M.  I even went and spoke to the head of the admission board to see how I could make my goal attainable.  Well, I worked hard and finally received that amazing, "Congratulations" packet in the mail.

I worked several part-time jobs all throughout college and learned so much from each job.

I met the love of my life on September 26, 2002 at the Texas Hall of Fame in Bryan, Texas ( a country/western dancehall)  Needless to say, I was smittin' with this cute boy named, Clayton.  We literally spent everyday together for the next week or so and I fell in love with him shortly after that; however, was so scared of such a strong emotion like, Love.  I was scared to have my heart broken by someone I actually loved--because let me tell you, my heart had been through a lot before the road led me to the man God made for me.

Clayton was in the Corps of Cadets at A&M.  I have been so proud of every little thing he has done and everyday I fall more and more in love with him.  Being in the corps we got to attend several events and dances (Ross Volunteers, Ring Dance and Boot Dance)  I always felt like Cinderella having to get all dressed up in a beautiful gown with hair done and opening my front door of my apartment to the most handsome man standing in front of me wearing such a handsome white uniform ready to wisk me away to the Ball!!  No joke---I felt like Cinderella and we had quite a few events llike this to go to. :-)  I still feel like a princess--always have, with my Clayton.

Well, fast forward to 2 years---Clayton graduated and got a job in Houston, Texas!  I still had a semester left in school so I was truckin' it back and forth from H-town to College Station A LOT!!  When I graduated I started my graduate studies at Texas Woman's University to obtain a Masters degree in the wonderful world of occupational therapy---best career choice ever!!!  I went to grad school with some of the most amazing people and really found some life long friends whom I truly adore! 

Clayton and I got engaged on August 6, 2005 and were married on August 19, 2006.  We planned the wedding during my first year of grad school--not an easy task.  We had such a memorable wedding and I cannot believe how incredibly blessed I am to have married my soulmate.

I graduated from TWU with my masters in 2007 and started working at a privately owned pediatric rehab clinic.  We bought our first home in 2008, got our little Westie, Bella in 2008, changed jobs to work in the school district--love it! and then found out I was pregnant with our frist child on Oct. 26, 2008!!!  We waited to tell our family or anyone at all about the baby until Christmas Day 2008.  I had to wait 13 weeks and suffer through morning sickness--a.k.a....all day long sickness--by myself.  But all was worth it when our daughter, Abigail was born at 5:56 am on July 7,2009.   She has been the answer to our prayers and I cannot begin to thank God enough for bringing me such a beautiful gift.  She is truly my sunshine girl and brings the light to my life all the time.

FUN FACTS:

I did not have a name when I was born; therefore, my birth certificate reads, Baby Girl Forester.  Took my parents quite a while to pick the perfect name and I think Brooke is pretty nice--I am glad they waited. :-)

Clayton and I still drive my very first car that my parents bought me when I turned 17 (a jeep wrangler)  I love this car and don't know if I can part from it.

Clayton and I did not find out whether we were having a girl or a boy when I was pregnant with Abigail.  I thought that she was going to be a boy the whole time and could not believe the doctor said, "here SHE is!"  I thought she was joking because I thought the whole "motherly instinct" thing was on the money---I was so wrong.   God gave me the most precious baby girl.  I quickly got home and made her neutral colored nursery very GIRLIE and all pink!  I love having a daughter!!!!!  Feel bad that I secretly prayed that she would be a girl.

I have to say that not finding out the sex of our baby was one of the most precious gifts we gave each other and our families.  It was soo excited waiting to find out until they layed her on my chest and I saw that she was a girl --I know it is hard for you to wait but it is so well worth it.  Clayton had the most exciting job making those phone calls to friends and family saying, "It's a girl!!"

I love decorating our home and I am always trying to put together a new craft.  Decorating for Thanksgiving or Christmas are my absolute favorite times. 

I pick up the house constantly.  This is the only "alone" time I get and I cherish just being able to sit at a computer.  I enjoy keeping the house clean, sterilized--I am a neat freak and simply cannot stand clutter.  I pick up a cup that Clayton is drinking from waay before he is even done drinking the liquid out it--only because I am ready to start the dishwasher and cannot stand having dirty dishes in the sink.  See, I am a neat freak!

Abigail has already started the process of toilet training and she is doing quite well with it--I am so proud of her!!

I am getting 4 of my wisdom teeth out next Friday--they are painful and need to come out, but I am nervous.

I love soup!!!

I love to bake cookies, pies, brownies!

GardenRidge is awesome!!

Well, that is it for now--I will continue my challenge. :-)