Welcome to The Rudolph's Blog!

So this is what we've been doing the last 3 months...

2011-05-24T19:32:00.000-07:00

You thought that I was done blogging, huh? WRONG! No, I just didn't realize that it had been about 3 months since I posted. That's way too long and now I need to cram a lot into one post because I am too lazy to do more than one. Just being honest! So here I go...

Abbey is currently 21 months old. Almost the big 2! I can't believe how fast another year has gone. Heck, I can't believe how fast almost 2 years has gone!! At her 18 month checkup, she was 32 1/2 inches tall and 23 pounds. Still on track for being tall and slender- just like her Daddy =) Her growth in all aspects amazes me! It's mind-blowing how they are born so dependent on you for the basics of life and less than 2 years later, they are walking, talking, climbing, singing, etc. individuals. Abbey is still pretty easy going, keeping the same vibe as a baby, but true to a toddler, let's you know when she wants something or is bothered by something. Thankfully, we don't have many tantrums. I hope they aren't coming later! She has such a great vocabulary and communicates very well that I think that has a lot to do with it. I'm still enjoying being a stay at home mom. Soaking up every minute of it that I can! We enjoy our mommy and me classes and music classes. Filling in the blanks with day to day life and loving it =)

We took a trip in February to visit our friends the Markarian's in Broomfield, Colorado. Of course we were checking out the area as well...Jenny was nice enough to watch Abbey everyday for us so we weren't having to adhere to a toddler schedule. HUGE thanks to her. We were able to cover a lot of ground because of it. Thanks Jenny! Our friends the Christiansen's live in Brighton, Colorado which is not far at all from Broomfield so we were more than happy to be able to hang out with them as well.

As usual, Rudy has had Abbey out on many hikes. I even joined the two of them for a few of them. I think Rudy takes some of his best pictures on these hikes. What do you think?

We headed down to San Diego and stayed with our friends the Bloch's and visited the Whiteside's as well. Abbey had fun with Kanan Bloch. It was nice for her not to be the youngest for a change. We even got her saying his name while we were there! My friend Heather Whiteside has been very busy with her toddler Sierra and her twins, Reese and Rider that were born in the beginning of this year. I had visited them alone when they were only a few weeks old. It was neat to see how much bigger they had gotten in such a short time.

In March, I took Abbey to Spring Spectacular, the annual fundraiser of America's Teaching Zoo, the school I attended at Moorpark College. She was very interested in the animals and making animal noises. She even sat through the entire main show! Thankfully, there were enough animals in it to keep her attention. Snacks are always a help too! It was fun to meet up with one of my friends, Rebecca and her son Jackson, who was my second year when I attended there.

In April, to celebrate my birthday, we spent the day at the Santa Barbara Zoo. I recommend it if you haven't been and find yourself in the area. It is right by the beach and the picnic area overlooks the ocean. So beautiful. It is also not a very large zoo so you can cover it in a few hours and not feel like you missed anything. The weather was perfect so it made for a perfect day to eat our packed lunch on the grass over looking the ocean. Of course Abbey was more interested in running all over that huge patch of grass instead of eating!

Easter this year was no different from last year, the easter bunny was VERY generous to Abbey. I think there were 4 baskets for her? But whose counting?! How fun it was to watch her go through all the baskets this year as oppose to last year when we had to show her everything. How much it changes in just a year! We topped off the day by celebrating at my second mom's house with her family and my parents. Becky does an easter egg hunt for the kids and I was thrilled to see that Abbey was interested in looking for eggs. Once she caught onto the concept, she was gone! I think mom and dad had just as much fun looking for eggs and pointing them out to her =)

Well that's all for now. I hope all of you are doing well and getting ready for summer like us. We are prepared for the warm weather- Just bought Abbey a kiddie pool and as an early birthday present, my parents bought her a sand and water table. Can't wait to break them out at the first sign of heat!

Love ya!

The Rudolph's

THE GREEN BAY PACKERS ARE SUPERBOWL XLV CHAMPIONS!

2011-03-01T15:55:00.000-08:00

As I hinted in my last blog entry, there would be a blog entry dedicated to my Green Bay Packers winning Superbowl XLV, and here it is!

Some of you may know this, but for those of you that don't, I am a Packer fan because of my dad. My dad grew up in Beaverdam, Wisconsin. One of his favorite things to do as a boy was to ride his bike to Green Bay High School, sit up on a hill and watch the Packers practice. Only in a small town like Green Bay, (small but owns its own football team!) could something like this take place. No fences or security, just a professional football team practicing, you know, typical for a small town. NOT! That is why the Packers are so unique, especially in this day and age. Citizens own the team. Not one or even a couple millionaires. Everyday, run of the mill, blue collar, and I'm sure a few white collar, owners of a professional national football league team. How cool is that? Some might even call them the true "America's team" for this very reason. (Had to do it- that's for you Rudy!) To this day, Packer stock is willed to family members in wills. That goes for season tickets too. You can't purchase stock or season tickets. By willing it, it stays in the family. What a wonderful family tradition to pass down from generation to generation. Ownership in the Green Bay Packers and season tickets. Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?!

Well, we are hoping to make a 3rd generation Packer fan out of Abbey. By we, I mean my dad and I. Rudy is still hoping to lure her to the dark side and root for the Dallas Cowboys but I think it is fair to say he will have a challenge on his hands at the very least! Needless to say, we were ecstatic when the Packers made it to the Superbowl and then having them win it, AMAZING! You follow a team for years and you hope every year to make it to the "big show" but just like the movie, "Any Given Sunday," anything can happen. You truly realize how hard it is to get there so when your team does, and then wins, it's a VERY BIG DEAL! So I made sure to go all out for this particular Superbowl.

Hope you enjoyed the Superbowl as much as us, but then again, being the die hard fans that we are, you probably didn't enjoy it as much as we did! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. It's great to have the Lombardi trophy back where it belongs in titletown USA. Here's hoping for a repeat performance next year!

Until next time, GO PACK GO!

Christmas 2010

2011-02-04T16:07:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year Friends and Family!

I realize it's now February and I am just getting around to blogging about Christmas. What can I say? Time flies when you're having fun! Oh, and taking the time to type and upload pics to the blog with a curious toddler around has it's challenges...Anyway, we hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve at my aunt MaryJane's house as we do every year, with my side of the family. Abbey proved to be quite the star of the evening as she showed absolutely no shyness and took to performing karoke with my cousin Jennifer and my second cousin Trista. She grabbed that mic like she knew what exactly to do. Even showed off a few of her dance moves that we have all come to enjoy so much. This kid dances to all music including commercials! Her favorite commercial to dance to is the ipad. My dad gets a real kick out of it! She also was quite the show stopper while we were opening presents. When Abbey was 4 months old, a psychic told me she was going to be a little performer. So far, I would have to say she is right! Christmas Day we opened gifts at our house in the morning. What a difference from last year! Abbey sat quietly in her bouncer last year while Rudy and I did the unwrapping. One year later, a very different scene! Toys, toys and more toys along with ribbon, bows and wrapping paper kept Abbey very busy. It was a lot of fun to watch her but of course, after a while her toddler attention kicked in and she was ready to move on. Time for Grandma and Grandpa's house! After that, we moved onto my second mom's house, Becky and celebrated with all of them eating some fabulous food as usual. We weren't done yet though! That evening, we celebrated with Rudy's brother and his family in Moorpark. Needless to say, Christmas Day was a very LONG day for us and I am happy and proud to report that Abbey was an angel the entire day =)

I continue to enjoy my time home with Abbey. On Tuesday's, we go to a mommy and me class given by the Simi Valley Adult School. It was recommended to me by a few friends. We've already been to two classes and really enjoy it. Abbey can do a lot of exploring with toys, art projects, etc. Not to mention, be around a bunch of kids her own age. It's so cute to watch them interact. Our first day of class, a boy came right over to Abbey and pushed her down. I helped her up and told her that was her first introduction to boys. Good luck! It's a good way for me to meet other moms too and discuss where our children are at physically, emotionally, etc. If there is one thing I have learned since becoming a mom, the advice and information you can get from other moms is priceless! On Thursday's we go to a music class called Tuneful Toddlers. We moved up one age group from our last music class and I am so glad we did. This class if full of other toddlers movin and shaken so Abbey is not the only one kicking up her heels. Even though she is the youngest, I think it's good for her to see other kids singing and dancing. Monkey see, monkey do! So I think she will learn a lot more being in a class with older toddlers. Wednesday's we look forward to meeting Rudy for a lunch date at one of our favorite places, Chipotle! You can say we are regulars for sure. They have watched me go from being pregnant to having a 17 month old. The rest of our days are filled with errands, dog park visits, park playing and plenty of time at home with Jack and Pepsi who Abbey sees as play things for sure. Especially the cat! Much to the demise of my non-cat loving husband lol. Abbey adores Pepsi and can be seen regularly with her feeding her cherrios, laying on her, using her as a pillow, straddling her like a pony, etc. Jack is never left out though as Abbey is more than happy to play keep away with his toys and take him on walks. She just started showing interest in holding his leash on walks. Jack is so good with her. Once he sees her pick up the leash, he walks very slow. We were blessed with some great pets while raising a child.

I write this as we are days away from the Superbowl which, being the HUGE Packer fans that my dad and myself are (and Abbey, she just doesn't realize it yet!) we are so excited for! I took the liberty of ordering a Packer flag to hang on the house and a Packer cheerleading outfit for Abbey. The food is bought and decorations too including Packer mylar balloons and regular balloons in Green Bay colors, green and gold. Rudy is less than thrilled that the Packers will be playing in the Superbowl at Texas Stadium instead of his Cowboys but he hates the Steelers (as most Cowboy fans do) so he will be happy to cheer the Pack on to beat the Steelers. I hope you too will be rooting the Green Bay Packers on along with us. GO PACK GO! (Editors note- The Green Bay Packers won Superbowl XLV and yes, the Rudolph household went crazy! Look for a future blog entry regarding this. GO PACK GO!)

Until next time,

The Rudolphs

Thanksgiving weekend with the Whiteside's

2010-12-20T17:00:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

Christmas is right around the corner and it suddenly dawned on me that I hadn't blogged about Thanksgiving yet! Time sure flies around here. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We were lucky enough to spend the holiday and weekend with my good friend Heather and her family in San Marcos. Rudy raced in A Day in the Dirt this year and it starts the Friday after Thanksgiving and goes through the weekend. The race takes place a little less than an hour from where the Whiteside's live so when I called and asked if we could stay with them for the weekend, Heather was kind enough to invite us for Thanksgiving too. It sure made it a lot easier on us to drive down early and enjoy Thanksgiving before Rudy left the next few days to race. Thanks to the Whiteside's and the Weaver's for feeding us Rudolph's so well!

Heather and I took our girls to watch Rudy race on Saturday. We had so much fun! I wasn't sure if Abbey and Sierra would be bothered by the sound of the dirt-bikes but it didn't phase them one bit. In hindsight, it shouldn't have, those girls both have dirt-bikes in their genes! Rudy did a great job. I was so proud of him. He was really happy to have us there to root him on and we were more than happy to be there. After his race, we had some lunch and hung out for a while before the weather turned cold and windy on us. We decided not to push our luck with the kids and leave on a good note and hopefully they would nap on the way home. Like clockwork, they were out before we even left the parking lot.

After the race, we were able to have an unexpected visit with some other friends of ours, the Bloch's- Dennis and Jen and newest member, Kanan. They happen to be moving to San Diego over Thanksgiving weekend and we left it up in the air if it would work out for us to meet up after the race. Thankfully, it did! The girls entertained themselves with the stairs, moving boxes and dogs, while Heather, Jen and myself caught up on all things baby. Did I mention, Heather is expecting twins the end of January? Yeah, so lots of baby talk going on during that visit! It was wonderful to meet Kanan for the first time and get some cuddle time in with a newborn. I predict more visit's in the future with the Bloch's and Whiteside's. It's nice to have such great friends living in a nice place to visit =)

I lucked out that Heather's baby shower for her twins was the following day. Not that I wouldn't have drove down again for it but it was nice to already be there. It was a lovely shower that her aunt and cousin threw for her. That family is full of love and support for Heather and John and these twins on the way. When they say it takes a village, they are right and thankfully, the Whiteside's have more than one village taking care of them =)

In other news, Abbey and I just finished the fall session of our music class that we took through the Parks and Rec's program here in Simi. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to going again next winter session at the end of January. It was really neat to see Abbey progress from just holding the instruments to shaking and really dancing along to the music playing. The teacher informed me that next session, I need to enroll her for the next class up with how she is progressing so quickly....yeah, when it comes to sitting in the lap and doing lap songs, Abbey wanted to stand in the center of the circle and dance...hmmm....I wonder who she gets that from?! I'm also looking into enrolling her in an art class for the winter session. She's at the stage where she will sit for a while and color, paint, etc. so I think she would do well. Our fridge and cabinets are full of her art work from her one day a week at daycare. Looks like we might need to make more room! I am so thankful to be able to stay home and take care of Abbey and doing these classes together are just icing on the cake =)

That is all for now. Next post will be about Christmas which we are gearing up for this week. The house is decorated, inside and out; presents are bought and almost all wrapped and Christmas cards went out today. The only task left is to get Abbey's picture taken with Santa. I'm thinking it might be a crying shot but even if it is, it's still a memory, right?! Here's wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and don't forget to remember the reason for the season...

The Rudolph's

Happy Fall Y'all!

2010-11-15T22:22:00.000-08:00

Happy Fall Friends and Family!

We hope everyone had a fun and safe halloween. I know we did! To partake in fall festivities, we visited Underwood Family Farms for their annual Harvest Festival. It's a wonderful farm full of produce and animals. They go all out for their Harvest Festival and bring in vendors, bands, a corn maze, animal shows and different exhibits. The weekend we went, they were having a tractor exhibit. Of course, the main reason for our visit was to pick out pumpkins for carving. We had so much watching Abbey in the pumpkin patch. To our shock, she actually was picking up pretty good sized pumpkins! Her strength amazes me sometimes. We captured some wonderful pictures of her in the patch. This visit was also historic in the fact that it was Abbey's first pony ride!! I thought she might be a little too young to go on but as we were watching them go around, she was so excited. Practically jumping out of my arms to get to them so we thought ok, why not try? She was fine when they took her out of my arms and strapped her onto the pony but once they started moving, she got scared. She only made it around two times before they stopped the ride to hand her back to me. Oh well! We'll try again later cause you know it's in her genes to ride some form of horse power, be it a horse or a dirtbike!

This Halloween Abbey could partake in carving pumpkins...well kind of. Let's just say she helped mom and dad carve our pumpkins. I was surprised at how well she sat on our laps while we worked on our pumpkins. I think the whole thing was pretty captivating for her- the pumpkin guts, the sawing into the pumpkins, etc. We started a little late so Abbey went to bed before she could see them lit up but when she finally did, those blue eyes of hers got real big...you know, like her mother's can get! Rudy carved a wolf and I carved three ghosts. For Abbey's pumpkin, I had the idea to carve her name so Rudy drew it and I carved it. Teamwork! They turned out great if I do say so myself!

For Halloween, Abbey was Tinkerbell. I thought it was pretty adventures to buy a costume with wings. I envisioned her pulling them off but she actually kept them on! I also joined in the halloween spirit and dressed up like a pirate. We took her to my parents house to trick or treat as well as Becky's house where we met up with Nathan and Taylor so we could take pictures of all the kids in their costumes. Before it got too dark, we headed back to our neighborhood to trick or treat with a few of our neighbors. Everyone was really happy to see Abbey and she did a really good job of holding her pumpkin out for candy! Mom and dad were more than happy to help with the consumption of that candy. Sorry Abbey! Maybe next year...

In other news, we made the switch from an infant car seat to a "big girl" car seat. With her totally aware of her surroundings now, she was so bored sitting backwards. It was making car rides unbearable, even short one's! Abbey loves facing forward now. And I must say, it is a lot easier getting her in and out of the car. She was just simply ready to move on although mom wasn't quite ready...I did shed a tear or two knowing it was just another step of leaving her "babyhood" behind but that didn't last long once I saw how much she enjoyed it and how much easier it was on me...and my back!

Something I have really enjoyed since I have been off of work is meeting up with my friend Holly and her daughter, Zoey for weekly play dates. Holly and I went to EATM together at Moorpark College and have kept our friendship strong through the years. First bonding over animals and now with our daughters. I finally remembered to bring the camera to our last play date and snap some pics of the fun we have.

Well that about does it for the Rudolph's for now. Next blog will be about Thanksgiving. We would like to wish everyone a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving holiday. Remember to be thankful for even the simplest joys in life. Until next time, give thanks!

September Trips

2010-10-18T22:03:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family!

We did quite a bit of traveling in September. First off, we visited our friends the Whiteside's in San Diego. Rudy attended a motocross race while myself, Abbey, my friend Heather and her daughter Sierra, all went to the San Diego Zoo. I was so excited to go! God bless Heather for walking ALL over the zoo with me. Being an animal lover, I of course HAD to see everything! Did I mention she is pregnant with twins and due in January??!! She was such a trooper and took a much needed rest at the end of the day before we left while Abbey and I took off to find the chimps and gorillas. We had gone up and down, (literally- it was very hilly and curvy), twice looking for their exhibit but couldn't find it. Being a primate lover, I knew it would bother me if I left the world famous San Diego Zoo and did not see the chimps and gorillas. So, Heather and Sierra took a rest while I once again, for a third time, took off to find my primates! Just when I was about to give up, a keeper came around the corner. It was like God sent him to me as I heard a choir of angels sing out- "Hallelujah!" He directed me to an elevator that I needed to take to get to the second level of their forest exhibit. Really? Thanks for the sign-age. At that point, I didn't care, I just wanted to see them. So I finally get there only to see the chimps were already off exhibit for the night. Boo! Headed over to the gorillas to find only the male on exhibit. Oh well, I finally got to see a gorilla and share it with Abbey....well...sort of. She had fallen asleep. I imagine the hilly and curvy path I mentioned earlier put her to sleep...ho hum! But I made sure to take a lot of pics of him. He must have felt like he had had a photo shoot by the time I got done with him! After all, I had to make it worth my while didn't I? Well a BIG thank you to Heather and Sierra for being such great friends and hanging in there with us. Love ya Hezz!

The following weekend we headed to the desert for our friends Dennis and Jen Bloch's baby shower. They are expecting their first baby any day now. A boy! Being a mom now, going to baby showers have taken on a whole new meaning. I just know how much fun and love is coming their way and Rudy and I could not be more excited for them. The shower was at the grandparents house so Rudy stayed back at Dennis and Jen's house and went swimming with Abbey, Dennis and some other kids and dads while us moms enjoyed an afternoon off. It was great! The next day, the boys went dirtbike riding while myself, Abbey and Jen went out for breakfast and then hung out and talked all things baby till they returned with lunch. It was a fast but fun weekend. Thanks for having us Bloch's and welcome to the parenthood club very soon.... =)

The following week we went to Denver, Colorado. Our main purpose for going was so Rudy could go to the Motocross of the Nations. Think of it as the olympics for dirtbikes. Countries send their 3 best riders to compete for the championship. It's held in a different country every time and this time, it was America's turn. We also happen to have a lot of friends that have moved there so we were anxious to visit them all and see where they live. I would be lying if I said we had no interest in moving there one day so we also made time to check out real estate. I must say, we were really impressed by it and found it to be a place we could possibly live one day. We would have to make some more trips out there before deciding that for sure but so far, it's safe to say it's on our radar. We ended up having a wonderful trip! Meeting up with old friends and sightseeing took up a majority of our trip. I had planned on going to the Denver zoo with my friend Tami and her kids while Rudy was at the race but the morning we were supposed to go, Abbey woke up sick. I think she ate something that didn't agree with her. By the afternoon she was feeling her normal self again and we were able to still have a fun day. She was such a good traveler. No problems on the plane or long car rides. Thanks to all our friends for having us and feeding us! The Gomes family, The Markarian family and the Christiansen family- you all rock!

Well fall is here and that means football season is upon us! Abbey and I have been supporting the packers every week in our matching football jersey's. She has cowboy gear too to support Rudy's team but somehow, we haven't taken any pics of her in it yet. Oops! No worries though, I'm sure next blog I will have pics to post of her in her dallas cowboys cheerleader outfit that her Grammy Rudolph just sent from New Jersey! We have had a lot of fun teaching her to do the "touchdown" signal. She has really taken a liking to it and does it all the time now whether there is a game on or not. Too cute!

Speaking of fall, this past weekend we took Abbey to the Harvest Festival at Underwood Family Farms. It was really special in that it's the same place that Rudy and I were married. We took a tractor pulled wagon ride and actually went by the walnut grove where we said our I do's. There was a wedding going on at the time time so it was all lit up. It looked beautiful and brought back memories from our wedding day. It was so surreal to be there 8 years later with our daughter picking out pumpkins! Life is so amazing in that way =) Look for those pics in my next blog.

Until then, here's wishing everyone a Happy Halloween!

Love, The Rudolph's

Abbey Ray Turns 1 Years Old!

2010-09-13T22:51:00.000-07:00

It is so hard to put into words what an amazing journey the last year has been raising our beautiful daughter. I thought pregnancy was an amazing journey, (and still do!), but once that little one arrives, forget about it! Parenthood tops it all!

You start a family, you think you're ready, but you have no idea what you are getting into until you are in it and boy what an experience it is! Over the past year we have enjoyed every Milestone. Every "First." Every "Did you see that?!" Every "What are we supposed to do?!" Every "Is this/that normal?" Every "YEAH!" Just to name a few. When I think about the last year, I can not believe how fast it flew by. I hope I lived in the moment. I hope I took it all in as it was happening. I hope I am doing that now because in a year from now, I feel I will be saying the very same thing....

The great thing is, the "first's" don't stop! We are experiencing first's every day with Abbey as she grows into a walking, talking toddler. I have to say, and I've said it before, to watch a human being grow and develop before your very eyes, has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Life takes on a whole new meaning once you become a parent. I became a mother and suddenly, I have a whole new take on this world we live in. It's beautiful to live on this earth for 34 years and suddenly see it through a whole new set of eyes. Your daughter's. I wouldn't trade it for the world =)

Ok, enough mushy talk.... =)-

As I said in my last post, we celebrated Abbey's actual birthday (Aug 23rd) with a visit to my parent's pool. Abbey's grandparents were very happy to see their granddaughter enjoying their pool finally! Our friends the Davis's were visiting from Oregon and staying with us so it made it that much more fun to share this special day with great friends. Abbey loves the water! Never fusses to come out. I think she would stay in there all day if mom and dad could! Later that night we enjoyed a meal out and then returned home for ice cream cake. It would be the first time Abbey had anything like that. I think it's fair to say she loved it as you can tell from the pics! Our birthday present to Abbey was a purple tricycle. It's really cool because it grows with her. First she gets buckled in while we push her and then down the road, she can ride it by herself. Toys these days are so advanced in the way they are made for stages of a child's life.

That following Saturday, we had Abbey's 1st birthday party at our house. What a fun day! We had lots of family and friends over to celebrate. It was a packed house! Rudy and I made a special video of pictures to music of Abbey's first year of life that we debuted. (I think we might post it on youtube so I'll let you know.) It was a lot of work but worth the effort. We burned a disc for Abbey's baby box so she has her very own copy. It was wonderful that so many people came to enjoy this special occasion with us. I think the pictures speak for themselves! Thank you to all that attended. You made a lifelong memory for us. We opened presents the next day. Abbey really made out. Our friends and family never seize to amaze us with their generosity!

Here are pictures from her actual birthday, her birthday party and a few extra's for good measure!

Love to you all!

Brandy, Rudy and Abbey

Our Trip to New Jersey

2010-08-30T23:03:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a very busy few months since my last post. We visited Rudy's family in New Jersey and have been planning and preparing for Abbey's 1st birthday. Oh, and we have a walker! Abbey started walking at the end of July and boy, she has not looked back. Watch out! We celebrated Abbey's 1st birthday on August 23rd poolside at Grandpa and Grandma Collier's and then dinner and cake with our friends, the Davis's, who were visiting from Oregon. On the 28th, we had a big 1st birthday party at our house. It was wonderful to celebrate our first year as parents and Abbey's 1st birthday with friends and family. This has been a very memorable year for us and we wanted to share it. Those pics and blog post coming soon but first....here's Jersey!

We flew out to introduce Abbey to her east coast family in the beginning of July. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't nervous to fly with a baby. Especially on a 5 hour flight for her first flight! Thanks to snacks and a few new toys for the plane ride, it was a success, both ways! Abbey was an angel. Her happy self. No crying. I was so worried about getting glares if she was going to be THAT baby, the one who cries an entire flight, but thankfully, just the opposite. Passengers could not get enough of her. Whew!

Just my luck, Jersey was experiencing record heat and humidity. Supposedly it hadn't been that hot there for 2o years or something crazy like that. Of course this would happen when I was there! Thankfully, Rudy's parents and sister's family live on a lake. So we spent a couple days at Lake Tamarack cooling off. The water was great. Very refreshing and not too cold. It was Abbey's first time in a body of water other than a bath lol! She loved it! She splashed and kicked her feet all around. Aunt René was nice enough to purchase an inter-tube for the week we were there. Thanks Aunt René!

While we were there, our niece Grace celebrated her birthday. Trying to think of something fun to do inside to avoid the heat, we went bowling. However, the joke was on us because after we already paid and started playing, we were informed the air conditioning was not working. Nice! We still managed to have fun and play our games and head to the air conditioned car. Yeah!

We celebrated Abbey's 1st Fourth of July with a day at the lake and fireworks over the lake at night...unfortunately we only saw 1 firework and it was behind us. You see there is a home on an island in the middle of Lake Tamarack. Every Fourth of July the owners are known to put on a fireworks show. This year, they were out of town but the rumor was they had somebody else doing it for them. But that's all it was, a rumor. It was ok though, I wasn't sure how Abbey was going to react so this way, I didn't have to worry. Guess we'll just have to wait till next year to see how she handles fireworks.

Probably my favorite day we spent in Jersey was at Space Farms with our nieces, Sara and Grace. It is a private zoo owned by the Space family with an amazing animal collection. Everything from bears, monkeys, deer, big cats to a baby cow! And guess what was my favorite animal? The baby cow! I know. So funny, amongst all these wild animals, I would pick the baby cow but he was just too cute! This zoo was unlike any other that Rudy or I have ever encountered in all of our animal background because, are you ready for this- you could feed the animals!!!!! We were shocked! They actually sold cookies for the bears and monkeys and corn feed for the hoofstock. The girls brought grapes too. I have never heard of this before and I guess it is the kind of thing you would only experience at a family owned zoo but that just goes to show the uniqueness of the place. The weather was pretty hot that day but we braved it and came away with a wonderful experience. Thanks Space Farms!

Rudy and I took one night off from baby duty and let Grandma Rudy watch Abbey while we went to Warwick Drive In in New York state with René, Eric, Sara and Grace. I have fond memories of going to the Simi Valley Drive In and miss that places like that don't exist out here by us but you can still find them back there. We sat in lawn chairs under the stars and watched Toy Story 3. A really great night =)

With all our trips to Jersey in the past, I had never been to the Jersey shore to go in the Atlantic Ocean and I made it one of the things I really wanted to do on this trip. I was told the Atlantic Ocean is warmer than the Pacific Ocean too so I knew that meant that Abbey would be able to go in as well and we really wanted her to experience a beach day. After traveling a few hours and paying to get on Manasquan beach (yes, you read that right. You have to PAY to go to the beach out there, so weird!), we were finally on east coast sand. Abbey loved the water! And, the temperature was great! Way warmer than our Pacific Ocean out here. We all had a ton of fun taking turns with her in the ocean. After the beach, we went to Point Pleasant boardwalk and had some classic boardwalk food and took Abbey on a few kiddie rides. Her first carousel and roller coaster (if you can call it a roller coaster!). Thanks to the Miceli family for taking us. It's not as close or as easy to go to the beach like it is out here so we really appreciated it!

The day before we left for home, Mom and Pop Rudolph threw a huge Fourth of July/Meet Abbey party at their home. It had rained and thundered and lightning all night the night before (classic east coast weather!) but thankfully, the sun came out and it ended up being a beautiful day. We got to see a lot of family and friends. It was wonderful to catch up and introduce Abbey to everyone. Thanks to everyone who made it to the party. It was a wonderful way to conclude our trip! XOXO

That's all for now. Enjoy the pics from our vacation back east!

First Father's Day

2010-07-26T14:02:00.001-07:00

For Rudy's first Father's Day, he wanted to go hiking. We ended up going with his brother and our nephew Gage as well. We hiked in Hidden Valley Park. It was beautiful and the weather was wonderful. It was a perfect day for a hike! Abbey was great! She loves being outside. Rudy carried her in a baby carrier the entire time and she was a real trooper. She loved it when Rudy would run ahead. She loves to go fast. She is quite the daredevil as we are finding out now a days with her climbing up anything and everything. When she does start walking, she is going to be quite the handful no doubt! When we were finished with our hike, we headed over to my parents house for dinner. Rudy was the only brave one to go in the freezing pool. It was a wonderful day and I know Rudy enjoyed it. Enjoy the pics!

P.S I added a picture of the gift I made for Rudy from Abbey. A collage of pictures of just him and his girl =)

First Trip to the LA Zoo

2010-07-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

It was a very hot day but that didn't spoil the fun we had. Abbey loved the animals. Those that weren't hiding in the shade and easy to see, she pointed at, like the giraffe's. Can't miss them!

We had a really cool encounter with an Orangutan! I think it was a female and she must have given birth in the past....I rolled Abbey's stroller up to the plexi glass part of the exhibit. I bent down and was getting her sippy cup out of the diaper bag when I saw a large shadow pass by me. I looked up and there was an orang sitting right in front of the plexi glass window staring at Abbey. I looked up just in time to see the orang tap on the window to Abbey. Something we humans do to animals in cages all the time! She was trying to get Abbey's attention who was looking down at what I was doing. I immediately got Abbey's attention and pointed to the orang sitting right in front of her. Abbey then leaned forward in her stroller to get a better look at the orang who responded to Abbey by putting her face right up against the glass. It was amazing and brought tears to my eyes to see these two interacting! We had the whole place to ourselves until the other patrons noticed what was going on. We were then flooded by people. I was nearly knocked over! After all the people rushed in, the orang left. I would have too! I got a little claustrophobic by the whole thing. Unfortunately, Rudy had our camera and was at another part of the exhibit taking pics so I was unable to get any of their interaction on film. Rudy did get one picture before the orang left. A stranger was nice enough to go get him for me since I could not get out with all the people that had rushed in. I posted the pic. You'll know which one it is!

It was a really fun family experience and we hope to take her to many more zoo's. Next on the list is the Santa Barbara and San Diego Zoo. When she is a little older, I really want to do the San Diego Wild Animal Park. I recommend that to anyone! It is a really cool experience to see animals roaming free over land. Hope you enjoy the pics!

Memorial Day Weekend in San Diego

2010-07-18T18:50:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I am a little late in posting these pics from Memorial Day seeing as it's July, but I am making an effort to get caught up! We took advantage of the long weekend and spent it in San Diego with our friends, The Whiteside's. We didn't take many pics so here are a few. Enjoy!

10 Months Old Going on 11

2010-07-15T12:33:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends and Family,

As always, it has been a while since I updated the blog so be prepared for a few posts coming your way....

First off, just to bring you up to date on things around the Rudolph household- Abbey is 1o months old but will be turning 11 months old next week on the 23rd of July. I can not believe she will then be a month away from turning 1 years old! Time really flies! I have to get my butt in gear and start planning a party.

Abbey continues to bring joy to our lives every minute of every day. She is just so much fun! She is making many new faces these days which always bring a laugh on from anyone watching her. I have to say our favorite one is "squishy face." My friend Heather's daughter, Sierra made this face to and they named it so we adopted it lol! Not sure if I have caught it on camera yet but when I post it, you will know! And her sounds! She has so many. These days you can hear her saying "da-da", "ma-ma" (finally!!), "do-do" (which we think is dog), "ca-ca" (which I'm pretty sure is cat) and her newest one, "ga-ga." and "nae". Not sure where "ga-ga" came from but "nae" is courtesy of my sister in law, Rene. She worked really hard the week we were in Jersey to get Abbey to say it and it paid off! She has also taken a liking to her tongue. She sticks it out when she is concentrating on something. The funniest thing she does with it is sticks it in and out really fast and adds babbling with it. Hard to explain but so funny I had to mention it. She is not walking yet. A very fast crawler, pulls herself up on everything and everyone and creeps along, will stand alone for a few seconds but has not taken off walking. She did take 3 steps on her own a few weeks ago and I thought here we go, but nope, nothing yet. Stay tuned...

On June 30th, I was laid off from work. We had known since last year that the company was going to be closing our branch, just not sure when. Finally, we were told in the beginning of this year. I of course was looking forward to it. I knew it would give me some stay at home time with Abbey. So, for now I am a stay at home mom. I love it! Spending every minute of every day with Abbey is such a gift and I have no idea how long it will last but I am enjoying it a lot. I am trying not to stress too much about finances and the future and just be present in the moment and be grateful for the time I have with her. I count my blessings every day and there are many. Thank you Lord!

We just got back from visiting Rudy's family in New Jersey. I don't have those pics downloaded yet so look for that post in the future. We had a blast! It was wonderful to introduce Abbey to everyone. Though, they felt as if they knew her already from this blog and the many pics and texts we have exchanged since her birth. But it was truly touching to watch everyone fall in love with her. I'll write more about our trip when I post the pics.

Well I hear my baby girl waking up from her nap. Here are some photos to enjoy for now. More later!

Brandy, Rudy and Abbey =)

First Mother's Day

2010-06-03T22:50:00.000-07:00

This was my first mother's day with Abbey here. Last year at this time I was pregnant. I must say, I had a wonderful 1st mother's day! Thank you to Rudy and Abbey for making it so memorable and joyful.

My day started off with Rudy and Abbey bombarding me in bed, literally! See the picture for yourself. Then I was given two beautiful flower bouquets, one from Rudy and one from Abbey. Both had gerber daisies in them which are my favorite. After that, we went to the barn so Abbey could finally meet Straw, my horse that I lease. I can not believe that it took me this long to get her to the barn for the first time but I knew when I did, I would want to capture it on film and wanted her to be old enough to interact with Straw. Well the wait was worth it. We got some amazing photos as you can see for yourself. I had a blast introducing Straw to Abbey. I told him this is the reason why I couldn't ride him for almost a year! Straw just love's kids and he was more than interested in Abbey. I can't wait till the day she can ride him either with or without me!

I'm hoping to invoke that horsey gene she may have inherited from me. Rudy is pulling for the dirtbike gene so we'll see who wins. We'll just have to let her pick which horsepower she would like to ride! And who knows, it could be both =)

Enjoy the pics. Check out Rudy's magnificent photo skills. I'm so lucky. They are some of my favorite's!

Abbey's 9 Months Old

2010-06-03T22:19:00.000-07:00

Abbey is 9 1/2 months old now! At her 9 month old check up, she weighed 17 pounds 8 ounces which puts her in the 25th percentile. We were in the 10th for so long so I was very happy to hear this! Gotta love baby food and rice cereal. She is 27 1/2 inches tall, in the 50th percentile. She has always been average in length but something tells me she will start sprouting once those tall Rudolph genes kick in!

The doctor asked me if she was crawling yet and I had to laugh! Crawling? How about crawling, pulling herself up on the couches, tables, doors, Jack (our dog), mom and dad and just about anything else she comes in contact with. Oh and then she will show you her creeping skills as she walks along these objects holding on....which now has turned into holding on with only one hand and sometimes letting go and standing by herself for a few seconds so yeah doc, she's crawling! He told me looks like she is going to be an early walker which sets the stage for an active child. Joy! She never stopped moving in my belly so I guess I should have seen this coming. I was reminded by what the pediatrician said to me the day she was born, this one is strong and going to be active. Now how do you know that at a day old?! I guess that's why he's the doctor and I'm the mom =)

She has a toy she can hold onto and push and walk. She love's it! She actually gets mad when she comes to a wall or an object gets in her way and she comes to a stop. She can go from totally happy to frustrated at not moving any more in a matter of seconds. It's really interesting to see her personality emerge with each new milestone. I hope you can see a little of that personality in these photos. I know there's a lot but it's been a while so sit back and enjoy!

Our Visit for Sierra's 1st Birthday

2010-04-28T14:51:00.000-07:00

In April we visited the Whiteside's and stayed a few days to celebrate Sierra's first birthday. We also got to check out their new house. It's beautiful! Soooo much bigger than their condo they had before. Abbey actually had her own room to stay in!

It was a lot of fun to see Sierra and Abbey interact with each other. They are a little over 4 months a part in age. I love to be able to talk to Heather and see all that Sierra is doing so I know what to expect next from Abbey. While we were there, Abbey had a huge milestone and actually crawled! I had mentioned this in one of my earlier updates. It was so exciting to see! And of course now, there is no stopping her. She's crawling all over the place and pulling herself up on anything and everything. It didn't take long for her to realize her new found freedom!

Happy 1st Birthday Sierra! Here are some pics from our trip. Enjoy!

Abbey's First Easter

2010-04-28T14:28:00.000-07:00

I say, If you're never too old to get a visit from the Easter bunny, then you're never too young either! And Abbey was no exception! The Easter bunny was VERY good to her for her first Easter. He was even nice enough to bring candy that although Abbey may be too young to have, her parents are not......Funny how he knew exactly what we liked....cadbury egg anyone?

After a fun morning of going through her Easter basket, we went over to the Wiles house for Easter dinner. As usual, it was AMAZING food. We supplied a dessert, a cake decorated with "Happy 1st Easter Abbey!" I had decided earlier in the week that I wanted to bring something and then a cake just popped into my head. Then I got the idea to celebrate Abbey's first Easter with writing a little note on the cake. While it was my idea, Rudy more than helped out and actually ended up making the cake, frosting it, and writing on it! It was never really discussed who would do what. He just did it while I was busy with taking care of Abbey. He's so hands on, I love it and am so grateful! Every wife and daughter deserve a husband and dad like him =)

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter and hopefully reflected a little on the reason for the day. And I'm not just talking about the Easter bunny....Enjoy the pics!

A Visit with Family

2010-04-28T14:16:00.000-07:00

In March, my Aunt Dorothy Ann visited from North Carolina . My Aunt Mary Jane and cousin Jennifer also came along. It was the first time my Aunt Dorothy Ann had seen Abbey in person.

In honor of our Irish heritage and St. Patrick's Day, my Aunt Mary Jane made a delicious Irish stew which we all enjoyed along with cake my parents got for my Aunt Dorothy Ann's visit. However, the only presents that day were for Abbey!

She recieved her first bathing suit and a sun hat from my Aunt Mary Jane and two "oh so cute" dresses from my Aunt Dorothy Ann. One of them she wore for Easter, (see that post next!). Abbey had so much fun opening the gifts as you can tell from the pics. She put on quite a display opening them and yes, SHE opened them!

It was a great visit. I'm so happy my family could make it out. Here are some pics. Enjoy!

So Many Updates

2010-04-17T12:35:00.001-07:00

Hello! I can't believe it has been almost 2 months since I last blogged! Time really flies! I had to go back and read my last entry just to know where I left off. Well here are some updates since the last time I blogged:

Abbey has been sitting up by herself with no support and no longer tipping over since the first week in March. It happened practically over night. Just one day, we sat her up to play and she started grabbing toys with both hands and no longer needed to touch the floor for balance and since then, there's no stopping her! She has become quite the independent sitter. It brought some freedom to Rudy and I too! We can now plop her down with some toys and walk away to start dinner, fold laundry, etc. However, those days were short lived as Abbey is becoming more and more mobile everyday. She officially crawled on April 10th! We were in San Marino at our friends the Whitesides house. Abbey, myself, Rudy and John Whiteside were on the floor with her and she crawled about 4 crawls towards some puffs (finger foods) that were on the floor in front of her. We went crazy! And yes, I have to admit it, I did get tears in my eyes =) It was just so neat to see after the last month of her rocking back and forth and rolling all over the place. To see her actually take some crawling steps was just so rewarding! Rudy and I feel especially lucky to have seen her first crawls together. A few days ago she started pulling herself up on anything she could...couches, Jack, mom and dad, etc. Watch out world! Abbey is on the move!

Also in early March, I received some upsetting news from my daycare. My wonderful daycare lady, Hollianne, was closing her daycare. She had received an offer to teach preschool and it was just too good to pass up. So, that sent me into a crazed frenzy calling and visiting other home daycare's to find someone as good as Hollianne, if it were even possible! Luckily, after many calls and visits, we found a wonderful woman, Sheridan. She actually was referred to us by a friend. So Abbey started there on St. Patrick's day and thankfully, it has been great! Sheridan just love's Abbey and says she is just the happiest and easiest baby she has ever taken care of. (I told you we were spoiled!) The neatest thing is she takes care of another baby, about 3 weeks older than Abbey so she has a built in playmate. The other 4 kids are all 3 yr old girls and they just love Abbey. Rudy says when he arrives with her in the morning, she has her fan club waiting for her. We should all be so lucky =)

Abbey had her first cold and first fever at the same time at the end of March. I gotta say, besides the runny nose and being warm to the touch, you wouldn't have even known this baby was sick. She really wasn't fussy. She did want to be held most of the time and of course her sleeping was all thrown off with being congested. Needless to say, Rudy and I took turns getting up to check on her at night and after a few days, she was back to her healthy and happy self.

One of the newest, (and funnest!) things Abbey has learned to do is clap her hands. When she does it, it's almost always followed by her bouncing in place in a sitting position and if you join in with her, she'll just bounce faster and I dare anyone to not start laughing and bounce themselves!

This week, Abbey will turn 8 months old. It's amazing how fast she has grown in the last 8 months, and i don't just mean physically. All of the milestones are so much fun to watch her achieve. She has come a long way from that tiny newborn to a self feeder, sitter and now crawler. It seems almost magical how she has developed rapidly right before our eyes and we can't wait to see what she does next.

Here are some pictures from the last two months. I'm saving some for my next few posts of special events that happened over the last few months. Enjoy these for now!

Until next time,

Brandy, Rudy and Abbey

Abbey in Chair

2010-02-27T13:34:00.000-08:00

Just a little video of Abbey in our rocker.

Video of Abbey Babbleing

2010-02-27T13:27:00.001-08:00

I love when she does this. She holds and object and talks so sweetly and quietly to it.

Happy 6 Months Old Abbey

2010-02-26T20:59:00.000-08:00

Wow.

6 months old....hard to believe! It has gone by so fast. I feel like it was just yesterday that I had her. Time is a tricky thing. I now fully believe if you want to measure time, just watch a child grow. You parents know exactly what I'm talking about. I'm sure 6 months from now, I will be saying the same thing when Abbey turns 1...now there's a crazy thought!

The last 6 months have been wonderful, tiring, loving, overwhelming, amazing, a blessing, hard work, funny, sad, elating, joyful, etc., etc....I guess what I'm trying to say is parenthood is a journey in itself. Full of ups and downs. They say (whoever they are!) life is a journey but become a parent and life takes on a whole new meaning. A whole new purpose. It's not just about you or your significant other anymore. What you do impacts another life, good or bad. Talk about a responsibility! But one Rudy and I have welcomed with open arms =)

Abbey continues to be such a joy in our lives. Rudy and I are so thankful to have her as our daughter. I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to watch her grow. To watch a human life develop. From that little tiny newborn who could do nothing for herself but grasp fingers and suckle to a 6 month old who can sit by herself (for at least a little bit before tipping over!), pick up and pass objects back and forth between her hands, recognize the people in her life, babble, laugh, and of course smile. Ah that smile of hers. It just melts her mom and dad....and maybe a few others =) God could not have been any kinder to new parents than he was to Rudy and I. So far, Abbey is a very good, easy going and happy baby. Of course, we have no other comparison but our daycare lady, Hollianne, who has been watching children for 13 years says we "got a good one." We think so too...

Ok, enough mushyness, lol! On to the stats:

Abbey weighs 13 lbs and 11 oz. She is now 25 1/2 inches tall. She continues to be our petite little thing but her pediatrician was very happy to see that she had gained 3 lbs since her last visit in December. A big jump for her! She eats breastmilk/formula 4-5 times a day at 6 oz each feeding and is now getting solids twice a day. Only in the last 2 weeks has she really taken to eating baby food. Before that, more ended up on her than actually in her! It's so cute now, she actually does a chewing motion which is cute cause she has no teeth so it's more like a gumming motion I guess but very interesting to see her learn to eat solids of some kind.

Abbey continues to be a wonderful sleeper. She goes down around 8:00 pm and then I wake her at 7:00 am. Very rarely does she wake up before I wake her. And on weekends when we don't have to get up, she usually will sleep till about 8:00 am. Truly takes after her mother! It will be interesting to see what happens when she starts teething, gets sick, etc. I wonder how her sleep will be impacted then?

She is not crawling yet but very mobile still. She flips all over the place, front to back and vice versa. She pivots her body. She pushes up on her arms and raises her chest off the ground. She now is doing "down dog" as we like to call it. For those of you that do yoga, you know what I mean. For those of you who don't, she puts her head down on the ground, pushes her body up with her arms and raises her bum into the air. Once she learns to lower that bum and move those legs, it's all over!

Recently, Abbey and I started a mommy and me class. It runs for 8 weeks, every Sunday. We've only gone one time so far but it was a lot of fun. We sang songs and talked about our pregnancies and deliveries. After that, the next topic was sleep. After hearing the other moms talk about how little sleep they get, I almost felt bad to talk about Abbey. I even found myself trying to downplay just how good of a sleeper she is! The mom sitting next to me has a 10 month old who has yet to sleep through the night. Her baby wakes up almost every hour and sometimes stays up the whole night. I thought she was going to deck me when I talked about Abbey. I scooted slightly away from her as I spoke.....=)

I know this was a long posting so thanks for getting this far if you continued to read. lol! However, it was a huge milestone for us this month. A half a year old...so I think worthy of a long entry. We hope all of you are doing well and until next time, take care.

Love,

Brandy, Rudy and Abbey Ray

Fun with Abbey

2010-01-18T21:45:00.000-08:00

Our baby girl is growing bigger each day and developing faster than her dad and I can keep up. It's amazing to think she will already be 5 months old this saturday. Wow! The time went so fast! Now I know exactly what everyone was talking about when they said to soak up every minute of it.

We are having so much fun with her. Just about every day she does something new. A new face, sound, move, etc. It never gets old! And of course, just when you think you have things figured out, it changes....again! Well I guess it is all part of the fun of parenthood. Especially for new parents like Rudy and I.

Here are some pics from the last few months. Enjoy!

Our First Christmas with Abbey

2010-01-18T19:40:00.000-08:00

Christmas was so much fun this year with little miss Abbey around. She's already taken over the holiday as almost all of the gifts under the tree were for her! She didn't really have an idea of what was going on. Next year though, it will be a whole different story. She did manage to help open some gifts though. I think she liked the sound the paper made.

We went to my aunt Mary Jane's house for Christmas Eve. Abbey was very good and received a ton of great gifts. Some clothes and very cool toys. Including some really neat shoes from my aunt Dorothy Ann. They rattled when she moved! She wore them Christmas Day. Thanks Aunt Dorothy!

On Christmas Day we spent the morning at our house and then it was off to my parents house, Becky's house and finally, Rudy's brothers house. It was a very busy day and Abbey was excellent! She managed to fit in some cat naps all day so we were able to have a happy baby all day. I must say, so far, this kid is a good traveler! We were all beat by the time we got home and we all slept in the next day! Yes, including Abbey.

Rudy and I were so thankful to have a happy and healthy baby girl for Christmas this year. We reflected on last year at this time and remembered that we had just found out we were pregnant about a week or so before Christmas. And it was this day last year that we told our family we were expecting. What a difference a year makes.

Enjoy the pics! Oh, the picture at the end is Abbey with Hollianne, ("Nana" as the kids call her), this is the wonderful lady I found to watch Abbey when we are at work. She did a christmas pic for all the parents.

Peace, Health and Happiness to all of our family and friends in 2010!

Video of Abbey "Talking"

2009-12-17T16:15:00.000-08:00

Thought you all might like to see Abbey in her bouncer. Oh and she is making some pretty cute noises too =)

Many Milestone's for Abbey Ray

2009-12-17T15:35:00.000-08:00

Where do I begin?

Abbey is now 16 weeks old and weighs 10 pounds, 9 ounces and is 23 1/2 inches long. She is a little on the lean side but she is the queen of "spit up nation" as we like to say so the doctor says not to worry. She's maintaining and progressing so he's happy and so are we. We get to start some solids this month so I'm guessing at her next dr's appt in two months, the story may be very different! I can't wait to try that first spoonful of baby food and see the look on her face!

Probably the biggest change to our day to day life is I have returned to work. Part time for the month of December. I had hoped to return part time for good but I don't think that will be able to happen. So for now, I'm working 2 1/2 days a week. I found a lovely woman who does daycare out of her home to watch Abbey on those day's. It's great because she only has one other child during the day so Abbey gets lot's of attention! I wish I could be home all day with her but I also wish for a million dollars and I'm still waiting on that wish to be granted!

Our little girl is quite the mover. Rudy has nicknamed her "kicky". She kicked me all the time when I was carrying her so I knew she would be active! She is rolling all over the place these days! She rolls from her back to her stomach and vice versa with no problem. She mastered this in one weekend. Rudy and I are amazed at how strong she is. We pull her up to a sitting position and she gets bored very easily and soon stands up instead. She's been strong from day one so I think becoming mobile will be no problem at all, I think she might start earlier than most kids but that's just me talking! One of my favorite things she does is hold on to her feet. I couldn't wait for her to find her feet! It gets real interesting when she try's to hold on to her foot and roll over at the same time. I've never laughed so much in my life! She's always doing something to put a smile on mom and dad's face =)

Abbey is on the verge of laughing too. She teases us by starting to break into a laugh and then stops and smile's instead. Just this week she is squealing adding to her many other sounds of raspberries, blowing bubbles and the beginning stages of babbling. I swear, I could sit around and just "talk" with her all day.

Well that's all for now. The next time I blog will probably be about Christmas. Stay tuned...

The Rudolph's!

Abbey's First Thanksgiving

2009-12-17T15:13:00.000-08:00

It has been quite a while since my last blog entry. Over a month in fact! It has been real busy here at the Rudolph household. Lot's going on these day's! I sat down so many times to post pictures about our Thanksgiving and the many milestone's that Abbey has been reaching and just never actually made it onto the site to update. So here it goes...

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my aunt Mary Jane's house in Pasadena. It was very different for Rudy and I this year with having Abbey there. We tag teamed taking care of her. When she got bored with one of us, the other one would take her for a while. You don't realize how much you use a bouncer, swing, activity center, etc. until you don't have any of those items for a day! It was a lot of fun though seeing all my relatives. For some of them, it was their first time meeting Abbey. My uncle Johnny and aunt Donna came down from Seattle for the holiday. That was a real treat because the last time I remember seeing him, I was very little. All the Collier siblings were there except for my aunt Dorothy Ann (maybe next year aunt Dorothy!) Here are some photos from the day.

Gobble, Gobble!

Our First Trip with Abbey Ray

2009-11-12T21:52:00.000-08:00

We got real adventurous last weekend and went away for the first time with Abbey! Yup, we went all the way to....San Deigo. Ok, it may not be that far or that long of a trip, but you never know how it's all gonna go with a newborn! But not only did we all survive, but we thrived!

Abbey was VERY good. She slept the whole way down and the whole way home. She tends to be very good in the car but I haven't traveled that far with her so I wasn't sure how the 2 1/2 hour drive would go. We went to visit dear friends of ours, The Whitesides: Heather, John and their 7 month old daughter, Sierra. Heather and I have been friends since elementary school. We had no idea that we were both trying to get pregnant so it was a real surprise when we were pregnant within months of each other. What fun we will have raising our daughters together! Heather is the reason I started a blog. She started one when she became pregnant and I so looked forward to getting her updates that when I became pregnant, I wanted to do one too!

Rudy and I figured it was the perfect first trip to do since Heather and John know what it's like to have a baby and how your days (and nights for that matter!), can go. Abbey was awesome! I don't even think she realized she was away from home! lol. She slept through the night both nights and never became too fussy. Of course I packed like we were going away for a week but I just didn't want to run out of anything! Better to have too much then not enough I say. All in all it was a great first trip and I hope the start of many more to San Diego and other destinations. Here are some pics from the weekend and a few others from around the house.

Abbey's First Halloween

2009-11-11T22:02:00.000-08:00

We had a lot of fun with Abbey at Halloween. She had two wardrobe changes and two photo sessions! Between her dad and I, every moment of her life will be well documented! Especially by Rudy, he is so good with a camera.

The day before Halloween, I visited my work. They really went all out! Abbey took a group photo with everyone dressed up. Halloween day Abbey rocked her "baby's first halloween" bib, pumpkin beanie and pumpkin booties. For Halloween night, she was a black cat. A handed down costume from our friends Holly and Zoey- Thanks girls! Next Halloween it will be so fun to take her trick or treating. For this year, we visited the grandparents and family friends. She also came to the door with me a few times and helped pass out candy! Here are a few photos from the day. Hope you all had a spooky time!

Video of Abbey Cooing

2009-10-17T18:10:00.000-07:00

Abbey is becoming very vocal and smiling more and more each day. It's so rewarding to interact with her at these moments. Just makes us fall more in love with her! I took a 30 sec video of her on my cell phone. It's a little grainy. Try to ignore my annoying voice~ lol!

Our Little Girl is 8 Weeks Old

2009-10-17T17:41:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it. It's already been 8 weeks since Abbey has come into our lives. It seems like time has stood still in so many ways but then again it seems it has flown by too. Hard to describe. Either way, these past 8 weeks have been amazing and such a blessing. Rudy and I feel so fortunate to have Abbey in our lives. We have totally fallen in love with her!

Abbey received her first shots last Thursday. Rudy held her down while I stroked her leg. It broke my heart to hear her cry out in pain! I had tears building up in my eyes but I managed to get out of the doctors office before they fell. I guess the staff is used to it cause nobody seemed to notice! lol. She did really well though. The minute I picked her up, she stopped crying. She never broke a fever all day. She was just really tired, slept most of the day and of course wanted to be held. I was more than happy to oblige! She now weighs 8 lbs 4 oz! I have been supplementing here and there with formula to help her gain weight. I'm still breastfeeding her but she has a bit of a spit up problem so to compensate, we supplement. It's working! She has a bit of a belly and those skinny little legs are slowly getting a roll or two in them =) I'm in no hurry for her to get big though. I love my tiny little snuggly baby that fits so well on my chest =)

Here are some photos from the past few weeks. Enjoy!

Abbey's Visitors

2009-10-17T17:20:00.001-07:00

Abbey has had many more visitors since my last posting. Here she is with a few of her many fans!

Nancy and Wes are Josh's parents. Josh is one of Rudy's good friends and co-worker. Nancy and Wes were nice enough to invite us over for dinner. Nancy just fell in love with Abbey. But who wouldn't?!

My Aunt Mary-Jane and cousins Mario and Jennifer came out from Pasadena to meet the newest addition to the family. We gathered at my parents house and had a really nice visit.

My friend Angela made it out to see Abbey too. She is a fellow horse lover like myself =)

Katie and Marina rounded out the visitors....for now!

Video of Abbey's 1st Bottle

2009-09-29T18:57:00.000-07:00

It's short but sweet! Enjoy!

First's for Abbey!

2009-09-28T20:46:00.000-07:00

Hi Family and Friends!

No matter how hard I try to get on and blog, it never fails...there always seems to be something else that comes up. I am happy to get on now and update you on our little girl. Abbey has had many "first's" this month:

I had been exclusively breastfeeding until Sept 14th, Abbey had her first bottle of breast milk. Her dad had the honors of feeding it to her. She took to the bottle like a pro! No fussin or mussin. Our doctor said it would be safe to introduce the bottle since she was doing so well breastfeeding. Good news for us since Rudy's birthday was Sept 21st and we had a party to go to on Sept 19th to celebrate. I really wanted to go but in order to be able to, I had to figure out pumping and get her to take the bottle. I'm happy to say both went very easily and Rudy and I had our first outing without Abbey. It was wonderful to get out and enjoy each other's company. I really lived it up and had not one but two glasses of wine! Woohoo! Abbey was very good. My second mom, Becky was nice enough to watch her for us. Thanks Becky!

We also visited Moorpark College's Teaching Zoo for the first time on Sept 19th. This is where Rudy and I went to school and met each other. It was neat to bring Abbey to where it all began...lol...We were lucky enough to get a private tour and see all of the animals us close. It was great to see my friend Holly and her little girl, Zoey. Holly and I were classmates and were co-trainers on a very special monkey, Lisa Lulu.

Abbey was a month old on Sept 23rd and to celebrate, she slept through the night for the first time! Now when I tell people this they say, "oh, how nice for you." Well like I said, Abbey slept through the night, that doesn't mean I did! Nope. I kept waking up to check on why she wasn't waking up to eat!! lol! New mom jitters I suppose. Maybe she had a growth spurt, who knows. So far, that has been the only night but that's ok. Like I said in my previous blog, she is very kind to us and since about the 2nd week, she only gets us up once in the middle of the night to feed and then falls back to sleep for a few hours. I could not thank her more! I have heard horror stories so really, we are very happy with her eating and sleeping pattern.

On Sept 24th, Abbey did her first smile! She enjoyed it so much, she did 2 more right after the first! I was glad she did that because after seeing the first one I thought to myself, is that a smile or just gas....to prove to me it was a smile, she did two more. It was very sweet and exciting to see! What a reward for the last few weeks of taking care of her! She also has started cooing and talking more to us. The best time for this is right after she eats and she is happy and in her "milk coma" as I have come to call it. She also does a lot of interacting with us on her changing table. Her eyes are focusing more on us and now she actually follows our faces when we move and talk to her. It is so exciting to see her growing and developing right before our eyes. It's true, I can spend a whole day just watching her~ I was warned by other mom's!

On Sept 25th, Abbey visited my work for the first time. I made plans to go to lunch with two of my best friends, Violet and Isis, who I happen to work with as well. Abbey made her presence known in the office by crying or whining most of the time! But still, everyone was happy to see us. It was wonderful to see everyone again and introduce Abbey. I would say she received the most comments on her "tiny" body. She is quite the "grape" living up to her nickname from the womb. She is growing bigger though for sure. I have some newborn clothes that are a little too snug for her anymore....my baby girl is growing up which leads me to...

We end the week of first's with her turning 5 weeks old. I can't believe it. It has gone so fast, too fast if you ask me! I'm excited to see the daily changes in her but I have been told how fast it goes and now I see for myself, wow, it really does. I try to pause throughout the day and just take it all in. Parenthood is so rewarding and challenging at the same time, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Rudy and I are so in love with our little girl and feel blessed to have this experience.

Until next time, enjoy the photo's!

Love,

Brandy, Rudy and Abbey

Life with Abbey Ray

2009-09-10T16:27:00.001-07:00

Hello Family and Friends!

It seems to be difficult for me to get on the computer and blog about our little girl. I'm sure you all understand why! Our world is a little busy these days!!!

We are all doing well! Just taking it day by day and learning about our little girl more and more. Rudy and I tell each other that we must be doing something right because we are managing to keep another human alive! lol. We had our 2nd doctor's appt yesterday and Abbey now weighs 7 pounds 1 ounce. The doctor was very happy with her weight gain. And it help reassure me that Abbey and I figured out breastfeeding together. Luckily, she was always ready to eat, even right after birth so as long as I did my part, she did hers. She is even sleeping better at night and longer! I know it can change at any minute but the last few nights she has been very kind to us and has only gotten us up once to eat in the middle of the night. So, we get 4-5 hours on the front end and vice versa on the back end of the feeding. I hope this is a trend she keeps up so we"ll see!

Thanks for all the emails, texts, vm's etc. I wish I could get back to every single one of you but just know that we receive all the messages and are very thankful for the loving support.

Here are some pics from the past weeks. Abbey has had many visitors. Enjoy!

Love,

Brandy, Rudy and Abbey

One Week Ago Today...Abbey Ray Rudolph was born!

2009-08-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

at 8:15 pm on Sunday, August 23rd, Abbey Ray Rudolph was welcomed into the world! Weighing 6 pounds, 15 ounces and 19 inches long. As her dad would say, ten fingers and ten toes!

Now, let me tell you how it all started....

I woke up Sunday morning around 6:00 am to go the bathroom (shocker!) I realized that I had some "pressure" in my lower abdomen. Didn't think much of it as I had come to feel all sorts of pains and things with pregnancy! I went back to bed but never really fell asleep, I was too uncomfortable. I finally decided to get up around 7:00 am. I went out to the living room, made breakfast and started watching a movie on HBO. Unlike all the other times I had felt this pressure, this time, it wasn't going away, in fact, it was getting stronger and closer together but sporadic in duration. I thought to myself, is this what contractions feel like? How the heck do I know? I've never done this before! LOL! Besides, everyone had told me, including my dr, that I would feel them start low and then move up my stomach, where my uterus was and I would feel my entire torso contracting. Well that wasn't happening. So, I continued to watch my movie. Wouldn't you?! The next thing I remember is looking at the clock and it said 8:20 am, I told myself to start looking at it every time I felt this pressure/contraction, so I did. I looked at it at 8:25, then 8:30, then 8:35....you get the picture. It was time to wake Rudy.

I went into the bedroom and told Rudy that I was pretty sure I've been contracting since 6 am this morning and that he better get up and start timing these so we can see where these are going. Well that was like sounding the alarm on a fire cause once I said that out loud, they kept coming and closer together and shorter in duration. We had a system. I would just yell his name he would take down the current time and when my contraction was over I would yell ok and then he would read it back to me. By this time it was clear, I was in labor. Now we just had to see if it was false or true labor. Meaning, would it stay this way and increase or would it all of a sudden stop? I had to move around. I could not sit down, which drove Rudy nuts! But it was too painful to sit through them! I was much better off moving around the house so I started doing chores. lol! Rudy followed me every where I went. We did 2 loads of laundry, cut the cat's nails (Rudy was so happy about that one!), had a snack, etc..anything to pass the time.

When they got to be about 5 minutes a part, we called my doctor. The doctor on call instructed me to go to the hospital to get checked out. I just had a feeling that today we were having a baby. That once we went there, they would admit me. So, we got ourselves together, took care of a few items around the house and headed off to the hospital around 12:30 pm. We went straight to labor and delivery and they set us up in a room. We had told the nurse, her name was Jude, about our morning and she said "let's see if your one of the lucky one's" she checked me and sure enough, I was 5 centimeters dilated! I can't believe I had labored that much at home! But I was so grateful to have done that at home and not lying around in a hospital bed. So my hunch was right, they were admitting me and we were going to have a baby! Time to call the parents! Becky and my mom and dad arrived shortly after.

I informed Jude that I wanted an epidural. I remember from our birthing classes that they say to save your energy for the pushing so if you are already tired from laboring, get the epidural so you can recoup and have the energy to push. I was progressing so fast that poor Jude was running around trying to get things done! Luckily my labs were done stat and soon enough I had my epidural at 3:00 pm. Thank God too cause I was watching my contractions on the monitor and they were going pretty darn high but I couldn't feel a thing. God Bless modern medicine...

Jude checked me after I got my epidural at 3:30 pm and I was now 8 centimeters dialated! She said she could feel the head and that it wouldn't be long. Only 2 centimeters to go! I could not believe how fast this was going. It was almost too fast. I couldn't take it all in! Thankfully the epidural relaxed me and I was able to get some rest and even do some texting! I'm so glad I got it for that very reason. Relaxation. I would need it.

At 4:30 pm they started me on a petosin drip to move things along. My water still had not broken at this point. At 5:45 pm my doctor arrived, Dr. Tan and she broke my water to get things hopefully moving along. They put me on oxygen too to make sure the baby was getting enough oxygen. Poor little girl had a lot going on in her world! At 6:45 I was fully dialated and they had me do some practice pushes to see if I could feel enough with the epidural. No such luck. I was so numb in my pelvic area, I had no idea if I was pushing or not. So, they turned my epidural off so I could start to feel the contractions so I would know when to push. Bummer! Other mom's had warned me they might do this! But I figured hey, if it was going to get our little girl here, I was all for it!

Unfortunately, there was a shift change of nurses when I was about ready to start pushing again so we had to say goodbye to Jude and hello to Jillian and Deb. Thankfully, they were just as awesome as Jude so no worries.

I started actively pushing at 7:30 pm. 3 pushes with every contraction. It was hard! This is why they call it labor??!! Thank God I had Rudy on one side and Becky on the other. They were amazing! Telling me I was doing a good job and reminding me to relax in between contractions. You really go out of your body there for a while with everything going on. I was so thankful to have my wonderful and supportive husband on one side and my second mom on the other. My mother was sitting along side the room too. It was so comforting to have family there to support me. I needed it!

Well, apparently I did something right because 45 min later, at 8:15 pm, one day past my due date, and after a total of 14 hours of labor, our little girl, Abbey Ray Rudolph was born!!!! There are just no words to describe the feeling. It is truly something that must be experienced. The miracle of life is truly amazing. There will be many moments I relive from that day over and over but one of my favorites is lying there in the hospital bed and looking over at Abbey as they cleaned her up and Rudy was leaning over her and she was holding onto his finger so tightly and I asked Rudy if she was ok and she turned her little head away from him and looked directly at me with her big eyes (wonder where she got those?!) and my heart just melted.

So there it is! Our labor and delivery story of our Abbey Ray. Here are some photos from the day. I hope to get back on here soon and upload a bunch more. Thank you for all of your vm's, emails and texts of well wishes and congratulations. I wish I had time to get back to all of you but as you can imagine, we have our hands full right now! Just know that we got every single one of them and appreciate the out pouring of love and support from all of our family and friends.

Love,

The Rudolph's-

Brandy, Rudy and little miss Abbey Ray

Went to the Dr's Today

2009-08-19T01:23:00.000-07:00

Big news from my dr's appt last week to this week! Last week I was maybe a centimeter dilated, if that, but this week, I am 2+ (not quite 3 but more than 2) centimeters dilated! Last week my cervix was softening and this week I am 80% effaced! So, we are definitely heading in the right direction with my due date being this Saturday.

Dr says at this point, my baby and body can decide at anytime it's time to get the show on the road and get going into labor. Of course he can't predict when that will be. He did have me make an appt on Monday (rather than the middle or end of the week) to see how much more I have progressed and since that will be past my due date, If I have progressed further along and still no contractions, then I am a good candidate for induction should I want to do so. Rudy and I both agree, we want her to come when she is good and ready so I'm hoping we don't have to make that choice and she will decide to come on her own by next week. But we will just have to wait and see.

We're thrilled that I'm dilating at all, some women never do and I haven't really had contractions yet to work through. Maybe 2 or 3 but hardly anything to blog about. I'm not even sure if that's what they were! I feel pressure and cramping occasionally so I know something's going on down there!

Stay tuned!

Love to you all!

Brandy, Rudy and Baby Rudolph

The Nursery is Done!

2009-08-16T23:13:00.001-07:00

Now we just need our little girl to come....

Work Shower's!

2009-08-16T22:38:00.000-07:00

Rudy and I are so lucky to work with some amazing and caring people. Both of our work's through us surprise baby shower's. I only have one photo from mine, (thanks Kelly!) but I was off of work when they did Rudy's so I went and took photos. Thank you to our thoughtful employers and co-workers!

Update From The Rudolph's

2009-08-16T22:12:00.000-07:00

Hello All!

I know it has been a while since I have posted. Sorry about that. What can I say....it's been busy! Let me catch you up to speed....

Today, August 16th marks my 40th week of pregnancy-Yeah! My due date is this Saturday, August 22nd. I have been going to the dr weekly now. At my appt last week, they said my cervix was softening and I was about a half of a centimeter dilated. I have no idea when our little girl is going to come. Of course everyone has their opinion on the issue! You think I might have some inside knowledge- nope! We just want her to come when she is good and ready.

I have been off of work since August 3rd. Thank God! I really thought I was going to be able to work up to my due date. My pregnancy has just been so delightful that I thought it would continue. Not! The month of July really hit me hard with swollen feet, hands and even my face! I have aches and pains where I didn't even know I had body parts! Oh and sleeping is a hit or miss. Some nights are wonderful, other's, I was lucky to get 3 hours...if that! Not having to sit at a desk all day has really helped with my energy level too. I was coming home from work just exhausted with no motivation to work on the baby's room. Now, I can do a little here and there and then stop and put my feet up when I need to. It has really made a world of difference.

Speaking of the baby's room....it's done! I will post some photo's of that next. For now, here are some recent belly pics. These were taking last Sunday, August 9th.

A Very Special Baby Gift to Grape from her Daddy

2009-07-22T22:10:00.000-07:00

Leave it to my husband to surprise me at my shower. I thought he was just showing up at the end for some free food and to load presents! You think I would know by now.....Needless to say, I received a gift certificate for a foot massage, quote - unquote "from the professionals" he says to me. Honey, for the record, I think your foot massages are just wonderful =)

However, the real reason for Rudy showing up was so he could give his daughter a very special gift. I opened the card addressed to our daughter and it said, "It's your turn now, take good care of him." I had no idea what this meant or what was in the box. Only one way to find out. I opened the gift to find Rudy's most loved possession from his childhood, his own Winnie the Pooh Bear. Knowing how special he is to Rudy, the minute I saw him, I lost it. I couldn't even talk to explain why I was crying. Luckily, Rudy could! Rudy's Aunt Floss gave Pooh to him over 30 years ago. Ever since then, Pooh has always been with Rudy. I remember the first time I went to his house and saw him on his bed. A little odd that a grown man would have a Winnie the Pooh bear on his bed I thought at the time, but at the same time, it totally melted my heart. So he knew what he was doing...lol! Over the years, Pooh was put away and Rudy knew that one day, he would know what to do with him. That day finally came. He decided he would hand him down to his daughter. By now, I wasn't the only one crying at the shower!

And so, Pooh is sitting in our little girl's crib awaiting her arrival. Thank you Honey. I, and your daughter, love you very much.