Abrams' Adventures

Whenever I run into anyone I know lately, they always seem to ask, "How are you doing? How's Dallas? How are you holding up? How are the girls?" So, this post is my attempt to answer how we are doing.

Dallas: Dallas is doing great. He's enjoying his time in Mississippi and is staying busy. I was worried about this deployment a lot. Last time Dallas went, he was with his two brothers and about a million cousins. (To see more about this, click here.) Dallas has a couple of cousins going this time, and I have one cousin, but as far as we can understand, they won't be in the same area and will have little if no contact. Ironic, though: My cousin (J.T.) and Dallas' cousin (Russ) are in the same section. A section is a group of about ten that you are with most of the time. Hopefully Dallas explained that to me right. Anyway, I was worried about Dallas because last time he had all of these great guys who happened to be his family members to hang out with, talk to about important things, and basically who had his back. But Dallas reassured me that there are some great guys he's with this time and everything is going well. Dallas' email address is dallas_abrams@msn.com if you would like to keep in touch with him.

These are our friends, Mike and Jill saying goodbye at the airport. Dallas and Mike really hit it off and are going to be roommates in Iraq, which is great because Jill and I really hit it off and have been buddies here at home.

Amaya: Amaya is being a crazy little girl as usual. If you need any more proof, check out my last post here. She drives me insane most days because she insists on "helping" me with everything I do and making everything about twice as hard as it needs to be. But that's okay because I love her. She's a happy, silly little girl and most of her days are spent running around in circles and talking on the phone.

Oaklie: Oaklie is also doing great. She's a wonderful little baby and is so happy almost all of the time. She's also a bit of a weirdo, which means she fits in well in our family :) Oaklie knows how to roll over--both ways. It's crazy. I have video of it if you don't believe me. Also, like I said in my last post, she loves baths. You can usually find Oaklie curled up on the closest adult's chest just like a little leech. She loves to cuddle! She's taken a nap with just about everyone in our family, but of course her favorite nap buddy is her daddy! Gotta love this little cuddle bug!

Carissa: I'm doing well, and staying really busy. My strategy for this deployment was to stay really busy and hopefully the time would go by faster, so I signed up for 6 credits, am taking care of my girls and the house, and have taken up Zumba (kind of). I'd love to say that I'm amazing and that I handle everything perfectly all by myself, but it's not true. Right now I'm basically treading water, and I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have so many wonderful family members to help me and to watch my kids and be there for me emotionally right now. I'm especially thankful for my parents and my awesome sister Meagan who has been watching my kids twice a week when I go to my class in addition to her FOUR little kids. Conference this weekend was great, and I especially loved Pres. Uchtdorf's Saturday morning talk. I'm definately going to take his advice when it comes to dealing with adversity. "Brothers and sisters, we would do well to slow down a little. Proceed at the optimum speed for our circumstances, focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most."

And I've got to put a plug in for a few other people I know that are also doing really well. My sister, Hailey ( http://www.koryandhailey.blogspot.com/ ) is absolutely glowing and preparing for her future basketball star that's coming into their family next month. And Trevor and Kay also have some great news. Trevor is Dallas' cousin who is also being deployed. They live in Rexburg and we went to Texas with them this spring (they also bailed out early because of the deployment.) Trevor and Dallas are the second picture on this post. Anyway, Trevor and Kay are awesome and have been hoping to have a baby for several months now, and Dallas told me today that they are expecting a little one in June! We are so very excited for them! (I hope it's ok to share the great news with the handful of people who actually read my blog :) )

Below are some pictures of what we've been up to lately.

And I also have some really, really great news of my own. A few days after Dallas left, he called to tell me that in November he would have a few days off, he just had to stay within a certain radius of Camp Shelby. So, we decided that I would fly down to see him and we would meet up in the fabulous city of

We're so excited to have a second honeymoon! It was such a fantastic surprise because when he flew out I wasn't expecting to see him again for another year. Needless to say, I am a very, very happy girl :)

That's all for now but we'll be sure to keep you posted on our upcoming events!

Wow! September really flew by! I still can't believe it's October. For the last 6 months, everything has been classified as "before Dallas leaves" and "after September". Now that he's in Mississippi, I almost don't know what to do with myself! Luckily I have two redheaded little girls to keep me busy! I wanted to update and show everyone what we were up to when Dallas came home on leave in September.

Dallas and Oaklie took some naps together. Aren't they so cute?

Amaya and Dallas practiced pointing

We blessed Oaklie on September 12. It was so wonderful! It was great to be able to see Dallas take her in his arms and be able to give her a blessing, surrounded by so many wonderful priesthood holders who love her so much!

We had a great barbecue afterwards with our family at Dallas' grandparents house. Thanks Grandpa and Grandma Baxter for a great party!

We had a fun backyard soccor game afterwards.

Amaya playing in the dryer

Oaklie LOVES baths! I've never met a new baby who doesn't cry when she takes a bath. She just lays there with a look on her face like, "This is the best."