Abigail Is 9 Months Old!!

It's crazy to believe that Abigail is 9 months old today! These 9 months have gone by so much faster than my 9 months of pregnancy! haha... Even though she is a petite little thing, her big personality sure makes up for it!!! She loves to laugh and play with Mommy and Daddy and especially loves when Daddy comes home from work because he lays on the floor and lets her crawl all over him. He's the best Daddy ever! :-)

 Milestones: 


*She's definitely cruising around the room now, crawling and walking while holding onto her walker, moving around her play table, the couch, etc...She loves to hold our hands and walk around the apartment too.
*This past week she has started being able to stand for a few seconds without holding onto anything. It's adorable and she loves to raise her hands above her head, waiting for us to clap and say "yay!" Haha... She's so proud of herself.
*Her words consist of: "Da-Da"... "BaBa"... and "Hey"... although she has no idea what "hey" means. Haha... But one day I showed her a picture of Kyle on my phone and she said "hey!" She says it like: "heeeeeyyyyy"... haha!
*She enjoys playing Peek-a-boo... is ticklish... and loves to "tickle" us too!
*She loves to eat... and eat... and eat! An average breakfast consists of 1/2 a banana, a small handful of blueberries, and an egg yolk with sea salt. She LOVES sweet potatoes (especially sweet potato casserole!), and enjoys avocados, fruit, coconut flour muffins, and basically anything she gets from my plate! :-) Oh and did I mention that she LOVES french fries? Ok... definitely not something I want to give her from just anywhere... but she does love them! Probably because that was an entire food group for me while I was pregnant with her! hahaha...

 *Her smile is so contagious! She loves to be around people, although she still struggles with "separation anxiety" and hates to be away from Kyle or I. So it's just become part of life that she goes everywhere and does basically everything with us and we love it! We love having her apart! Besides, who could turn down that adorable smile? :-)

Abigail is doing great walking around the living room, pushing her walker. She loves it!

She can go pretty fast too! haha... I have a feeling that when she does start fully walking, we're gonna be running behind her to keep up! :-) Can you see that smile on her face?

She still looks so much like her Daddy but people are starting to say that she is beginning to resemble me too. That makes this Mama's heart happy! :-) She definitely has my petite build as she was ranked in the 30% percentile at her doctors appointment today. She weighs 17lbs 14oz. and is 27 1/4 inches long. I love that she is our small little girl!!!

Abigail Loves Coconut Flour Muffins!

Abigail's First Grain-Free Banana Coconut Flour Muffin

Now that Abigail is eating "real food" it's been a chore to come up with things for her to eat that do not contain grains or sugar and that are not highly processed! She has a big appetite too!! I'm trying so hard to keep her off grains until she turns a year old and I don't want her having much white sugar period. (If you have questions about why we are not feeding her these, read here and here for some info. I certainly don't think someone's a bad mom if they do feed their baby grains! Please don't think that! I just prefer to keep Abigail from them at this time.) Also, the fact that I have many food allergies and she is already showing allergies to dairy, nuts, and apples helps me keep her diet even more strictly!

For breakfast this week Abigail has been eating 1/2 a banana, a handful of blueberries, and an egg yolk with sea salt on it. I've been trying to decide what else I can give her for variety and I don't want her only eating fruit (we do things like avacados, squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, etc... for lunch and dinner). Then it dawned on me last night that coconut flour is not a grain. Many people, including myself, who go on grain-free diets use coconut flour to make breads and muffins instead. Coconut flour recipes tend to be super nutritious due to the coconut, which is super healthy for us, plus they use a lot of eggs, which if you're using pastured eggs... from chickens who actually roam and eat in the grass... they are also super healthy for us!

All this to say, I decided to make Abigail and I some banana coconut flour muffins for breakfast. They were very yummy and she ate a whole one and kept asking for more! (Even after eating a whole banana while I was cooking the muffins! haha...) I used this recipe and then tweaked it for what I had and wanted to use.


Banana Coconut Flour Muffins

3 Eggs
2 Tbps. Coconut Oil
2 Tbps. Coconut Milk
1/4 cup Coconut Sugar (a scant 1/4 cup)
1 Whole very ripe banana
1/4 tsp. Sea Salt
1/4 tsp. Vanilla
1/4 cup Coconut Flour
1/4 tsp. Baking Powder

Mix together wet ingredients. Add in dry ingredients and mix. Pour into 6 greased muffin tins. Bake at 400 for 15-16 minutes. They will be moist and a little spongy.

Our sweet girl...

Abigail is growing up so much! 

 She sure does love her Daddy a lot!!!

She has him wrapped around her little finger! ;-)

Her newest accomplishment is learning to "cruise." She can't walk on her own yet but she certainly can holding our hands, pushing her walker, or even helping me push the stroller. It's adorable!! She's pretty proud of herself when she does it. haha...

Maryland and Worship God 2011

I feel like this past month has flown by since Abigail and I were in Texas for almost two weeks and then nine days after we returned home, our little family drove to Maryland for five days to attend the Worship God Conference at Covenant Life Church (where Josh Harris preaches). It was such a wonderful time for us! We thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and getting to meet a couple bands and songwriters. Each day we all met together for group worship and sessions, then on two of the days, there were breakout sessions to attend.The times of singing in worship were AMAZING as approx. a couple thousand (not sure the exact count) lifted their voices in praise to God.

 Main Session

My church back in Texas sent their worship team to the conference and so we joined them for the week and enjoyed eating dinner each night with them and sitting with them during the main sessions. We really enjoyed their company! I miss them!

Before the start of a main session.

We had the joy of meeting and talking with Bob Kauflin and his super sweet wife, Julie, at the end of the conference. They are so gracious and down-to-earth. A true joy to get to know briefly!

Maryland is gorgeous!

 This little walkway was by the restaurants where we ate each night. Daddy enjoyed showing Abigail the ducks and water. :-)

 My handsome hubby and I enjoying the beautiful scenery!

The nice train conductor let us sit on her little mini-train for a picture. :-)

Not only was this trip work related for Kyle, it was also our first ever "family-of-three" vacation! (Not counting traveling to see family!) It was so wonderful to just get away from daily life and to enjoy spending time together at the conference, growing and learning together! I LOVE going to conferences and traveling and I must say, Kyle is becoming quite the traveler/conference attender as well! :-) I think it is so very important to take advantages of amazing opportunities like these to hear great preachers and teachers as they encourage us in our love for the Gospel!

The last evening of the conference, Friday night, they (Sovereign Grace Music) recorded a live album. They are hoping it'll be out near the end of this fall, I believe. It'll be called "The Gathering." The music is Wonderful!!! We are so excited for it to come out and can't wait to get our copy!

 

This conference is held every two years and we are already excited to, Lord-willing, go again and take more people with us! So if you're interested, mark your 2013 calendars! :-)