Picking up the Camera Again...

(Abigail playing Peek-A-Boo)
It's Tuesday evening here, and the house is just a bit quieter now that little miss Abigail is down for the night. With no wild little girl running around both Jill and I try to enjoy a little down time before we too call it a night, and lately it's been spent trying to catch up with the evenings broadcast of the Olympics. Of course, it also provides a chance for us to blog, and tonight I figured I should take lead since I finally broke out my camera after a 10-day hiatus.

So, why the camera drought? Well, I guess I've just been overwhelmed with work and stuff and for those who don't know, taking photos like I do usually requires a lot of time processing afterwards. With Abs sick most of last week, taking photos was the last thing on my mind. And with Anita and Wayne here this weekend, I honestly just didn't get a chance since the weekend seemed to absolutely fly by. Just ask them. They arrived on Thursday evening, and before we knew it Sunday morning had arrived and they were headed back to Tampa. Abby had a great time with them, though, including a trip to the Georgia Aquarium on Friday. Here's some photos they took:

Alright, the initial reason I dusted off my camera and began taking photos was because I had to shoot a self-portrait for my professional bio. You see, I at first tried to find a photo I already had that could work, however it seems Matt here likes to only make faces at the camera instead of just simply smiling. Now I know that may not be all that surprising to most of you, but I really did think I could at least find one. Sure, one of our wedding photos became an option, but it would've been a little cheesy to use one of those with me all dressed up...not to mention it was nearly 4 years ago. :-)

And no, this one didn't make the cut, but I figured I'd post it anyways...

Okay, enough about me. I know most of you want to see Abby photos, so keep scrolling and you'll see photos from two separate sessions. One was us playing in the sunroom before dinner, while the other set is of the silly girl making faces and playing peek-a-boo in her high-chair after dinner.

Silly Girl

We had a great visit with my grandparents over the weekend! Abigail had a runny nose the entire time and since Monday has had off and on symptoms that I'm not sure where the fault should lie, a cold or teething. Abigail spent all day Tuesday sleeping on me! I wont lie, I did enjoy it a good bit. Abigail was just so sad and pathetic, it's no fun when she doesn't feel well and even worse because she cannot explain what's wrong.While she still felt slightly feverish yesterday, and slept on Matt for almost 2.5hrs while I went to an evening Zumba class, she's almost back to 100% today. Abigail is eating better, but not as well as she normally eats. I will allow a lot more when she's not feeling well, which is why I allowed her to climb in and out and bounce on the baby bouncer today. Until I realized...I was shocked! I should not have been shocked, Abigail is a climber. After I grabbed my camera (which was right next to me) and took a quick pic, I asked her to sit and she obliged. What a good girl!


Upon downloading a video from Saturday, I realized there were a few pictures I never downloaded from my camera. Enjoy!
Mommy's Sunglasses, December 16th

Abigail, The Shredder, January 26th
The last time Abigail was 'sick' I allowed her to shred some tissues because she had fun and wasn't being whiny. Like I said above, I will tolerate/accept much more when Abigail doesn't feel well. Turns out she wasn't sick, she had two new teeth breaking through.

Abigail Loves Bananas, February 5th

Playing with Evie, February 7th
The girls had so much fun playing together before the Superbowl. Abigail really liked the shopping cart and actually climbed into it! She lounged in it as if it was a recliner, and I pushed her around the house while she was in it (probably not the best example).
Crazy Hair with Daddy, February 15th

Weekend Recap - Snow, Family & Olympics

Happy President's Day, everyone! Oh yeah, in case some of you have forgotten or just didn't really celebrate this day a whole lot, I'm reminding you. It's an easy reminder for me since this is a public holiday according to my company and therefore I get today off. Anyways, I figured I should do a little recap of our weekend since we did have an adventurous one with both the arrival of Jill's grandparents (Abby's great grands) from Tampa and also several inches of snow to the Atlanta metro area.

On Friday, Grandma & Grandpa Henriquez got in town a little before lunchtime and the girls headed out for pizza in Marietta Square. Meanwhile, my lunchtime was spent having a business lunch with potential new employers in Buckhead, which went great by the way. Still seems to be a few more meetings shy of working out the details, but things are progressing forward as the road to my office closing March 31st grows shorter. Speaking of interviews, I have a 2nd opportunity calling that will have me leaving the house here shortly for that at 4pm. Okay good, but let's go back to Friday. So as I was walking out of the lunch I noticed the snow coming down, so I hit the road and after a little bit of traffic issues thanks to the weather I did finally make it home. Once home, we all got to really enjoy the snow that was coming down fast and heavy, and it wasn't long before the kid in me was ready to head outside to have some fun. So after a little bundling up, especially for Miss Abigail, we trekked out into the snow....me, with camera in hand:

02-12-10 from Jill Barnes on Vimeo

The snow eventually ended later that evening, so we all had a home-cooked dinner and enjoyed watching the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. On Saturday morning we woke up to a gorgeous winter wonderland with snow blanketing everything. Add in the bright sunshine and blue cloud-less skies and it made for a photogenic morning worth capturing. And I'm glad I did take several photos before we headed out for breakfast because the snow began to melt fast and by later that afternoon our front yard was almost entirely snow free.

As for the rest of the weekend, it really seemed to fly by. On Sunday we made a trip over to Buford to visit with one of Grandpa's cousins, then made a stop at the Dekalb Farmer's Market before heading back home. That evening my parents (Nana & Poppa) made the drive up and we all went out to dinner at the famous Marietta Diner, which is really great by the way. Anyways, the weekend came to a close last night, but did stretch into today since I was off from work. Grandma & Grandpa Henriquez left for Pigeon Forge this morning after breakfast and the day has flown by since. So that's a wrap I guess. Snow, family and Olympics were the highlights to a great weekend. I know Abigail had plenty of fun with her great grands, and I know they enjoyed every moment they had with her, too.

Daddy's Turn to Blog (Photos Galore)

Hello, my name is Matt (Abigail's daddy). Why the intro? Um, well, can you remember the last time I blogged? I couldn't, but thankfully Jill has kept this thing rolling along over the last several weeks. And for the sake of all you out there in blog land who love to know what we've been up to and see photos of Little Miss Abigail, I'm back to blog a little today.

So, in case some of you out there don't know, it's been one heck of a wild rollercoaster for my professional life lately. I've been working on a consulting project with my Philips Design team since October that has all but consumed my work mind, but when you're playing a role in redesigning the packaging for a national fast food chain, I guess it's okay to be dedicated. Of course, I've also had to deal with the news that my office will be closing and I will be left without a job after March 31st, so it's been a little bit of a double whammy lately. When it comes to my job, I'm not usually up for blogging about it, but with it being the source of our livelihood, you could say that it is very important. And since my days at my current employer are numbered, it's definitely weighing on my mind these days. Yet when some doors begin to close that usually means others are soon to open, and in my case it seems that I may have doors both closing and opening simultaneously in the coming weeks thanks to me having a really great interview with a company here in Atlanta. Without spilling the beans and/or jinxing myself, I'll just say that I will be meeting with the general manager of that design center over lunch on Friday where we'll be discussing my career a bit further. So for right now, I just ask for your thoughts and prayers that this could be the right fit for me and things will just "work" out. I know God has a plan for me and us, and I'm always amazed at how he continues to bless us. If it's his will, then this could be a really great move for my career in a very precarious time. :-)

Okay, so of course my intention was to update you on the job situation first in case any of you were wondering and I haven't had the chance to speak to you about it. My second objective in this streamlined blog I'm putting forth is to share stories and photos of Little Miss Abigail. After all, she's the light of our lives and everyday brings new and exciting things as she continues to ride her incredibly fast-paced learning curve. I'm just amazed at how much of a little girl she's become. She's so smart and even showing more independent enthusiasm to figure things out on her own. Not to mention the words she's beginning to learn and speak. Of the words she does know, I would say her most used would be "UP", which she says often to indicate that she would like to be picked up to see what's at our eye level and maybe point out what she wants. The other cute thing that she's doing is brushing her teeth, especially when she notices Jill and I brushing our teeth. Hopefully, we're creating good hygiene habits early and I know her Nana, the dental hygienist, will appreciate knowing that her granddaughter is learning the ropes at such a young age. As for other stuff, well, it seems like there's just too much to write about. When it boils down to it, Abigail is just growing up and becoming more and more of a little kid by the day. I know I'm really looking forward to Spring so we 3 can get back outside and play more, and of course give me more opportunities to snap photos. Ha!

Okay, so over the last few weeks we've been fairly busy. I'll start off with the most recent photos I have, which would be from our most recent trip to the GA Aquarium. As some of you know, we asked for moolah for Christmas so we could buy season passes to local attractions in the ATL, and the aquarium was definitely high on the list. And so Jill purchased season tix and we got to use the back on January 30th while our good friends Garrett, Danitza and baby Vicky were in town.

On January 22nd, the two of us had a little fun in her new tent gym in our woodsie room...

On January 18th, it was meal time, which was then followed by bathtime...

On January 16th, we had a long day that began with us hosting a pot-luck brunch and having both old and new friends over to the house including Julie, Shawn & Desmond...

And later that evening, we had the Barnes family Christmas finally, that had been delayed quite a bit due to an incredibly busy December...

Day 3: Paci Free

I'm not sure if it's actually Day 3, it might be Day 4 but 4 and free do not rhyme. Matt and I haven't been good at keeping tabs on the six pacifiers within the last couple weeks. Sometime last week, I needed to boil the pacifiers but couldn't find all of them at any given time. Since I didn't have a clean paci, I wasn't offering a dirty paci to Abigail. She hasn't seemed at all bothered by the lack of paci, so I haven't offered it at all. Looks like we're well on our way to being completely Paci Free!