Shaving w/ Sponge Bob

Santa brought Luke a Sponge Bob shaving kit...he loved it. I think he has seen his Daddy shave a time or two. After a little help lathering up Luke looks like an old pro!!

Merry Christmas

I have been trying to post these Christmas pictures for weeks now. I finally had to do it from our laptop. For whatever reason I couldn't get these to load from the desktop.. so Merry Christmas very very late!

Can you tell we woke him up? He still looks glassy eyed.

A gift from Mommy and Daddy

My brother brought his Xbox over. Luke LOVES to play games. At one point Luke tried to show David's dad how to play. I wish we had gotten this on video. Luke was hysterical explaining how to play!!

Eli and his great-grandmother on my side

Eli and his great-grandmother on David's side ..

Note, I had to go back in and change the name. I had put down this was Luke instead of Eli. My friend Morgan brought it to my attention that I labeled this picture and the one above with the name of the WRONG CHILD - ha ha!! Thanks for catching this Morgan. I'm a goof!

These were Luke's Christmas PJs that my granny (Luke and Eli's 's great-grandmother) gave him when he was born in 2005. It was tradition on Christmas Eve for granny to give the smaller children PJs to wear to bed that night. Unfortunately, granny passed away this September, before Eli arrived. However we know she was here with us in spirit and was looking down with love as Eli was sporting his Christmas PJs bought by granny in 2005 and hand-me-downed from Luke.

The World's Largest Sno-cone

Ok, here is the story. While walking the strip in Gatlinburg, Luke wanted a shaved ice. Since it is not peak season half the stores are closed, and the half that are open don't have shaved ice, but mainly because it is the DEAD OF WINTER. But that doesn't stop David. He finds a little store that has shaved ice on the menu and asked the guy behind the counter if it is really available. The guy said yes, but that it would take a little time while he sets up the machine and gets a new block of ice. When all is said and done, this was the final product. David said it was the best $4.00 sno-cone he ever bought. Believe it our not, between the two of them they were able to eat it all the way down to the cup. By that time it was mostly syrup and to sweet to finish. Somehow they were able to avoid brain freezes and only suffered from red tongues and sugar rushes.

Tiny Dancer!

This is a little clip of Luke showing his dancing skills during our family trip to Gatlinburg. The video was taken with David's phone so it isn't the greatest but we couldn't miss him cutting loose. The best part was we didn't even have to put money in the game, he just jumped up there and started dancing.

My Little Loves

Eli's Birth (More Pictures)

This is my FAVORITE picture. I don't know why but I suppose it is the smiles on every face, except Eli's. I love that you can tell David is smiling for the picture even with his mouth covered and the nurse is smiling while trying not to be so "in the family picture" with us. This was a great day and I am so happy to have my 3 boys (4 if you count the dog) in my life.

First picture of our family of 4. Please excuse the puffy face. They pumped about 2 bags of fluid in me in a 2 hour period or less. No good pictures can come from that much fluid!!

This is my other FAVORITE picture. Look at Luke and how much he loves he new baby brother. This picture melts my heart.

Big brother is already helping out!

SO SWEET!

My boys!! I love you guys!

My 3 boys at home....

McWane Center - Polar Express PJ Party

The tornado tunnel..it was a little windy!


Playing in the "snow".. It felt really weird - wet but dry at the same time.


The "snow" packed like sand. Luke and I hate sand. If they could invent something similar to this for sand I would enjoy the beach much more.


Having a snowball fight


Luke and his buddies - Brayden (L) and Ben (middle)

How cute is this???

Luke and his buddies, plus one - Dalton (far left) Notice that all 4 boys have on action hero PJ's.. Star Wars (Dalton); Batman (Brayden); Spiderman (Luke); and, Bakugan (Ben) - typical little boys!!!

Being a big brother is quite the adjustment so I thought that Luke needed some time out alone with his friends. I decided on a "boys night" out so we asked all of his guy friends from school if they wanted to go to the Polar Express Party at the McWane Center. This was a fun little trip. Luke's friends Ben, Brayden and Dalton were all able to go. The boys had the best time together. Let me just say four 5 year olds at one time is loud and roudy!! The kids got to play in the Winter Wonderland exhibits, visit with Santa and have snacks before catching the movie Polar Express at the IMAX. It was a great time and I've decided that we need more "boys nights" with friends in the future.

If you are wondering my mom was more than thrilled to keep Eli for us while we took Luke out for his "boys night".. thank you mom for keeping Eli, I know it was just terrible for you snuggling with a one week old all evening - lol!!!

Pictures with Santa

Eli was 5 days old when we went to visit Santa but I didn't let him sit on Santa's lap this year... I did snap a quick pic of his visit though..

Belly Shot - almost 39 weeks and D-day..

I thought I would post a couple pictures of me right before Eli was born. This is on Saturday Dec. 11th before Eli was born the following Wednedsay, Dec 15th...I'M HUGE!!!!!! I can't even believe I'm posting this side shot from inside the house - I'm a beached whale!!!!!!

No one thought I would make it to my scheduled c-section date - not even me!! As you view the beached whale pictures you understand why no one thought I would carry to term...but...we did and David was able to be off Christmas Day and spend it with us as a family of 4.

Abston Family Christmas

Trying to capture a family photo... Not sure why the red eye is still in these pictures..oh well just ignore the glaring eyes - lol!

Santa's little helper!

HUGE MONSTER TRUCK - Remote control vehicle... HUGE!!!!

Luke and Alysse

It was freezing outside so we didn't play too long with the monster truck. Plus Luke kept running into the road because of the truck so we went inside.

The cousins - Daylen, Alysse and Luke - silly kids!

David told Alysse she must have been kissing boys since all of her teeth are missing!

These pictures below are too cute. Luke was watching Daylen play his game. Luke has really gotten into gaming products lately but I refuse to buy him anything just yet.