Abigail's 1st Christmas at Home!

As everyone knows, last year Abigail (and family) spent her Christmas in the NICU. We wanted to make this year extra special for her...and I think we did!!!

Christmas Eve is always at my parents house. Abigail attended her 1st Children's Mass, and then we headed home for the fun!!!!


The "boys" always have oysters...this year they decided to make shooters with the oysters. It was a hit and a new tradition! After that we had a GREAT dinner! My mom does a traditional Polish dinner with some added favorites!!!! After dinner, it was time for presents! Abigail got lots and lots of presents at Grandma's and Grandpa's! Some of the favorites were a wagon, little people toys, the cutest bathings suit in the world, tickets to Disney on Ice, and an adorable book holder full of Dr. Seuss books!


Abigail kept busy taking the books out of her book container! How cute is that????

We also got amazing gifts from my parents and sisters! Thank you everyone for all your gifts...they were so generous!

After gifts, it was time to head home for our 1st Christmas at our house! Abigail went right to sleep and we prepared for Santa!

Apparently Santa is Polish cause Rob left him Spirituis!

Santa always leaves one present unwrapped...so this is what it looked like on X-mas morning!


The Ball Pit was a HUGE Success!

Abigail's Winnie-the-Pooh ride on. Everything makes noise!

Daddy taught Abigail to put the wrapping paper in a neat pile when she opens....Oh Vey!

After we opened presents as a family, Nana and Papa came over for even more presents! Once again, Abigail made out like a champ! She got a 2nd wagon (lucky girl) and a whole bunch of John Deere presents!!!!!! We also got great gifts from Nana and Papa...thank you for everything! We feel very lucky!

Here is Abigail with her new John Deere slippers!!!! Too cute!!!!

After Christmas with Nana and Papa, it was time to head over to Great Nani and Papa's for Rob's family's Christmas. The food was amazing, as always!!!! It's a big family so gifts take a long time, but it's so wonderful! We just took our time and opened all the gifts...it was so much fun. Thank you to everyone forAbigail's gifts...and for ours!!!!

I'd say Abigail's 1st Christmas at home was a success!!!!!!! Thank you to all to made it so special for her!

I apparently only take pics of Abigail...so for those who have other pics (Kate, Neici, Mom) if you could send them to me then I could do a 2nd Christmas post!

We can't wait to see what next Christmas brings!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday, Abigail Grace!

Dear Abigail,

Today is such a special day for our family. You are one today! One year ago, we were given the best gift we ever received! We were given the most beautiful, funny, strong, and amazing daughter! We have had such an amazing year with you! From the beginning, we learned what a strong girl you are! You had lots of struggles in front of you when you were born, but you continued to amaze us everyday! You spent 29 days in the hospital fighting to get strong and healthy..and then amazed everyone at the hospital when you were ready to come home at 4 lbs and still 5 weeks away from your due date! Everyday we are more and more proud of you. Thank you for the best year of our lives...we can't wait for all that lies ahead for our family! Happy Birthday, Princess! We love you more than anything!

Love,
Mommy & Daddy


A Look Back at 1 Year Ago


Abigail 2 hours old
Born at 11:15 am. Weighed 3lbs 3 oz. Length 16 inches.


Abigail in her "condo" 2 days old


Mommy's 1st hold (2 days old)

Happy Birthday, Abigail Grace Wennerstrom!

We LOVE you!

Family Traditions!

On Saturday, we started our new favorite family tradition. We went to Brookfield Zoo for Zoo lights. It was so much fun. The zoo was so beautiful...they went out of their way for X-mas. There were lights and events everywhere. While we were there, Abigail had her 1st visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus. This alone was worth the visit. It was only 9 bucks to sit on Santa's lap and get a picture in a frame! And they let you spend as much time as you wanted with Santa. We also saw a lights laser show to X-mas songs. There were carolers throughout the zoo. We can't wait to do it again next year!


Daddy and Abigail at the Entrance.


One of Santa's helpers took pics with our camera as we got our picture taken with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Abigail was screaming as we walked up to Santa...but the second she sat on his lap, she was happy as could be. Or maybe just "curious".

I have a picture in this monkey when I was a kid....so cool Abigail has one now too!

Abigail helped Daddy put the last touch on our Xmas tree...our 1st Star!

Snowed in...What should we do????

Build a house out of a cardboard box!!!!

The house has come a far way since these pics...it's getting "decorated"! Too bad Abigail lost interest in it about 10 minutes after we built it. She will still go back to it for a minute here or there-but she's back to her moving-all-the-furniture stage.

Hope you are enjoying your snow day as much as we are!

Bed Head and Channel 5 Morning News!!!!

My favorite part of the day is going into Abigail's room in the morning! She wakes up before 6am but isn't in a hurry to get up-she gets that from her Aunt Katie. (Kate, she's a lot like you more ways than one. Her favorite thing to eat right now is Tofu...she LOVES it!) For about an hour, she just talks to herself and plays with her Mickey Mouse. It's so cute to listen to. Today I took my camera to capture this great part of the day. Right away she always looks for Kramer, her partner-in-crime. She's working some major bed head!

As for the title Morning News...this is a friendly reminder that our princess is turning 1 on Monday! We can't believe our 3lb miracle is about to be one years old! We submitted a picture for the Channel 5 News First Birthdays! They usually show them around 5:30 am...we'll have the TIVO set!!! Thought I better mention it now in hopes that you may get a snow day on Friday! We can't believe Monday is the big day. Daddy took a half-day for the special event! Our plans are to take her to get her 1st pics taken and sit on Santa's lap. Then we are heading over to the NICU to bring X-mas presents to the babies and celebrate where she was a year ago! We'll finish the night with the grandparents coming over for pizza, presents, cake, and the Bears beating the Packers!

Here are two pics of Abigail playing with the lights before they went on the X-mas tree!

We hope everyone stays safe through the storm coming tonight! Rob arrived home at 10pm on Tuesday night-can't wait to see what happens tonight! Also, Aunt Julie and Uncle Joe are coming home from their honeymoon tomorrow...we can't wait to see their pics-and them!!! Fly safe!!!

The Tree

It's almost amazing to me that a year ago yesterday, I was admitted to the hospital at 30 weeks for preterm labor. December 13th will forever be one of the best and worst days of our lives. It was so scary at the time. However, we look back with such wonderful memories of all those who helped us. I was released on December 15th on complete bedrest...but that only lasted for a few days as we were headed back to the hospital on December 21st...and then December 22nd was BirthDay! Here's the little thing that couldn't wait 2 more months...she wanted to be out sooner!

Christmas Tree with the Griswolds (sort-of)

Just like Clark Griswold took his family out to cut down their Christmas tree, Rob loaded up the family truckster and took the "fam" out to get our X-mas tree. However, Rob likes to get his trees from:

After much searching, I found the "perfect" tree! Of course it was the bottom tree in the pile!

Abigail's 1st Christmas Tree!!!!!!

The ride home. My favorite part of this picture is Abigail is facing forward in her car seat in Daddy's car. You law is you have to weigh 20 lbs and be 1 year old. We're 0 for 2!!!! But that's okay...we're the WENNERSTROMS!

Pics of the tree decorated to come later.

THANK YOU!!!!!! A BIG thank you to Mo for watching Abigail on Saturday night so we could go to Staj's wedding. We had such a great night at the wedding...and wanted to thank Auntie Mo Mo for spending her Saturday night with Abigail. Abigail told me she had a great, great night and can't wait for your next sleepover!

Polar Express Party

Abigail and I had the moms from our moms group over today for a Polar Express Party...you can take me out of the kindergarten classroom, but you can't take the kindergarten teacher out of me! I baked cookies for the kids...and this is what Abigail did with the tupperware!


The kids seemed to have a great time. They made ornaments, then had hot chocolate and cookies as they watch the movie...all done in their pajamas just like the movie!


Jodie and Addison joined us for the party! Finally, a picture of Abigial and Addison together!


Abigail's new favorite Peek-a-Boo game is to crawl under blankets...she saves this game for when Daddy gets home. Today I got a great picture!

"Peek-a-Boo!"

This weekend, the Griswold's are heading to get a X-mas tree...I'll have pics! Also, Auntie Mo (and maybe Uncle B) are watching Abigail while we go to Staj's wedding....I'll leave the camera for the sitter!

St. Nick Visits the Wennerstroms...and bath time too!

On Friday night, we took Abigail to the mall to take pics with Santa, but she fell asleep and we know better than to wake a sleeping baby and put her on a big fat man, with a beard, dressed in red's lap...so we'll have to go back and do it another day!

Saturday Mommy had a shopping day downtown all day with the girls...it was wonderful! Daddy and Abigail spent the whole day together at home. In the evening, they headed to Nana and Papa's to help decorate their tree and put up their nativity scene. At night, Daddy was instructed to put out Abigail's shoe for St. Nick (we were a day late)...and of course when Mommy got home there were 2 shoes out!

Abigail's shoe is very small!

Daddy is lucky that "St. Nick" happened to buy a work shirt and tie on super sale..otherwise St. Nick would have been looking through the pantry for something!


"Elmo!"

We also have been meaning to post pictures of Abigail now that she's taking "a big girl bath". We tried to keep them "edited"! :)

Her favorite game of "catch the water"..no need to spend money on bath toys!

Abigail outgrew all her "baby" towels so it's time for her big girl towel from Aunt Katie and UB!

Wave your hands in the air....

Abigail's new "thing" is waving. She waves at everybody..and it goes on for a long time. She also likes to point at lights. Both so cute. Today we met Jodie and Addison at the mall (Addison is 6 months so they are gonna be best buds). Addison is so cute and I had my camera, but I forgot a picture...next shopping day! We had a great day...and as soon as Abigail saw Jodie, the waving began!!!! Here's a quick view of her waving....

(I have no idea why I can't get it to go straight...but you'll have to turn your head to see..)

The waving is her fun stage. Her not-fun stage is emptying the garbage and recycling can and eating/tearing all the paper. I can't even begin to estimate how much paper she has consumed. But it's forcing me to empty the garbage hourly!

BUSTED!!!!!

Here is Abigail live-in-action as I type this blog. It's my new Land of Nod catalog! :(

Also, we are still talking about the wedding. The night went too fast, but we are so grateful for all the pictures being sent! So here are a few more....

Jules taking pics with Abigail before the wedding...holding her so she doesn't puke on the dress!

During the exchanging of the vows

The Unity Candle with the moms

The new Mr. and Mrs. Joe Blandford..in the beautiful Holy Name Cathedral.


Me, Jules, and Kate with our cousins Cheri and Cassie from Wisconsin. They are so cute...Apparently Julie taught Cheri to ride a bike when she was six and Cheri never forgot...so she made sure she got a picture with Jules. It was great to see them!



1st dance..great pic of the band too!

Such a great 1st dance to Stand By Me

Have a Great Week!!!