Chile

I'm not posting in any particular order...just as I remember things. Last Christmas, we were able to spend it with Nico's family in chile! It started out with a long plane ride ( Abby slept the whole 14 hours on the plane, thank goodness) and it ended with a lot of great memories and I think I gained about 20 pounds eating all the great food! Nico's parents hadn't seen abby until we came to visit, so it was so much fun for them to meet their granddaughter. They realized real quick that she is a diva :) The plane ride wasn't bad at all and it went by pretty quick and Abby did AMAZING. I was so worried she would cry the whole time and everyone would get annoyed. But we got lucky and she was perfect. When we got to the airport in chile, we were exhausted and ready to sleep. Nico and I took a lot of naps on this trip with the time difference. I have never been out of the country, so I never really knew what to expect. Chile is Beautiful!! I loved it. Nico's parents lived 5 hours away from Santiago where the airport is at. We started driving to La Serena and we had to stop and get gas and something to eat. When we were getting gas, a guy would come and fill it up for us... I thought that was so cool! We ate tons and I was able to meet most of Nico's family. This was one of the times where I really wish I knew spanish. I wanted to be able to sit and talk with family and get to know them so they could get to know me. Hopefully, one day a miracle will happen and I will learn spanish. We loved being with Family and I loved seeing where Nico grew up. I hope abby will appreciate both cultures and learn all she can.Here are some pictures from our trip! We can't wait until we can go back to chile and eat the best BBQ's, be with family, and see new things!

On the beach in La Serena :)

Nico LOVES his fish with bread :)



I'm on a boat!

Nico with Abby and our CUTE niece Augustina!

more pics to come soon...

About time...

I update our Blog. I have never been good at keeping a journal and I wanted to make a goal to start keeping a blog. So much has happened since the last post. I will try to do everything in different posts. Where do I start? Nico graduated with his under grad in civil engineering. I am so proud of him and how hard he has worked. His last semester I hardly saw him and I'm glad I had abby to keep my busy and she is great company :) Nico's parents were able to come to see Nico graduate and my parents as well. It was great to be around family and for Nico to see how much support he has. We had a BBQ with friends and family and we are so grateful for them and their support! He started in August with his masters program in civil and environmental engineering and will be finished next December. Abby and I are so grateful what he does for our family!! Te quiero papi!

4 months!

I love this picture of abby. She looks like a big girl now!

Baby girl!

Abby's famous look
All Smiles :)
Big girl!
Trying to do the Abby Face

As I'm writing this blog, abby is laying down watching T.V. We are watching the cake boss. She loves watching T.V. Yesterday Nico came home and we were sitting in the rocking chair watching T.V. I love spending time with her. I can't believe she is almost three months. I know I post a lot of pictures…..I'm not a fan of writing a whole lot and her pictures make the blog more interesting than reading this! She smiles all the time and is starting to laugh a little! I love seeing her personality come out more and more everyday!

Abby is asleep and I'm looking at the house thinking I need to clean, but I would rather do something else….so here I am blogging! Wow! Abby is already 2 months. Where does the time go? I know it's not sleeping :) Nico and I are so happy to have abby in our family. I love coming home from work and hanging out with her. She makes me smile and we are starting to make her smile more and more. I look at her and think how did I get so lucky to have this sweet little girl in my life!

So I posted a lot of pictures, but I figured you would rather see pictures than hear what I have to say! Nico's friend, Pedro, took pictures for us one day and they turned out great!

This past weekend we spent in the hospital with my grandma. She is an amazing lady and I look up to her in sooooo many ways. SHe is doing ok now, and I am grateful we were able to spend the weekend with her. My dad was able to come down and he took some pictures of abby. I wish I had more to blog about, but for now I will post a lot of pictures of Abby girl!

Abigail Marie aka Abby girl

She is finally here! Abigail was born on August 5th and she has been wide eyed ever since. We love this little girl and I can't believe she is finally here. Nico and I were getting ready to go hang out with friends and I kept having to go to the bathroom. We had a couple of false alarms, so I didn't think anything of it. We got into our car and I felt like I had wet my pants. So we went back into the house. We called the doctor and I still didn't think my water broke, but as I was standing there talking to him water was coming down my leg and I was like ok, we are going to the hospital soon! I started feeling the contractions right away and at 3:13 Thursday morning, Abby was born. I know I skipped a lot of stuff, but I don't think you want to know all the details :) When she was born Nico was laughing because he was so excited, he always laughs when he is happy and I always cry when I'm happy. We couldn't believe our little girl was here. All the late night talks we had about what she would look like, if she was going to play sports, and how we can wait until she is here so we can hold her. She looks just like Nico and you will be able to see in the pictures. I'm glad she does :)

I know Abby won't be able to read this for a while, but I hope she knows how much we love her and will always be there for her. I LOVE when she smiles, looks up at me, all the faces she makes, the way she sleeps with her hands under her face, the way she sits in her car seat with her hands under her legs, and how happy and the love I feel for her. I can't wait to see her grow up and see her personality more and more. She is such a blessing to our family. We love you Abby girl.

Elder Mangum

Of course it's been a couple of months since I have updated our blog. With Abby coming, I hope I can be more consistent and put up a lot of pictures :) My little brother reported to the MTC yesterday. Even though we live right by the MTC, it feels like he is in a different country. I am so proud of him and have been thinking about him a lot. Missionaries sacrifice a lot for 2 years and I know that he will be such an awesome missionary. He is such an awesome person. I have not always been the nicest sister to him, but I hope he knows what a great and wonderful brother he is. I was glad I was able to spend time with him before I dropped him off at the MTC. I was the only one that I saw with other people around that was balling( Sorry if I embarrassed you, Ryan). The policeman that was there came up to me and said, " Don't worry, they will take good care of him." I have no doubt in my mind they will, but still hard to see him go. He was really nervous but excited at the same time. When I picked him up from the airport and we were getting close to our cousin's house to go say goodbye to everyone, we got a flat tire. Ryan jumped right in and put a donut on so we could make it to Big O tires. He was great and I don't know what I would have done with out him! It wouldn't have been pretty seeing a pregnant women trying to change a flat tire, haha. I can't wait to hear how he is doing and I love ya elder Mangum!