Cuteness Overload

These pictures are from different times over the last month when Allison was looking super cute, but I didn't have time to post them. You wont believe how much she's changed!


This is Allison opening her first Christmas present that she got in the mail from her Great Aunt Sheila. She really got into ripping the paper. It was a great book about a school bus!


Later that day, we delivered 200 cookies to our neighbors and since it was really cold outside we finally got a chance to deck her out in the cute pink hat with matching mittens (compliments of Keith and LeeAnn - thanks!). The neighbors all thought she was adorable, and I agree. :)


This is Allison taking a bath in our kitchen sink for the first time. Normally, she just takes a bath with me, but we were low on time so we stuck her in the sink, and she was thrilled with her own personal hot tub! Allison has always loved bath time, but we have now incorporated bath toys, so it's even better. She has a set of colored plastic rings that she slams in and out of the water. No surface is dry when she's done, but we love watching her play!


OK, I HATE this picture of me, but how could I not love this picture of her after her bath in the sink?? Have you ever seen a bigger smile on a baby duck??


This one still blows me away. She is learning to crawl and we frequently find her on all fours in her crib scooting around to get to stuff. In fact, we had to do an emergency lowering of her mattress because I found her crawling up the side of her bed. She still only scoots backwards when she's on her own, but if I hold her feet she will very slowly pull one hand back at time (all the way back to her ear like she's gonna punch the floor) and then slowly move it back down till it's about an inch forward from where it was. She repeats this alternating hands till she gets tired. She doesn't really get anywhere yet, but she totally gets the concept!


Here's another perspective of her being on all fours. Look at that sweet face! It also reminds me of her Uncle John's most famous question: "Does her mouth ever close?" lol. It's true that most of the time she sits with her tongue out while drooling. We are hoping she grows out of that by Pre-K. ;)


Sitting is currently her favorite play time position. She no longer likes the confinement of her exersaucer that used to be so dear to her! My mom got her this table thing that plays all kinds of noises and music, and she can sit there for half an hour playing the same tune over and over.


Here's Allison playing/slobbering on Frank's iPhone. If it didn't have a protective case I'm sure it wouldn't be working anymore!


She has also learned that if she pulls herself up on the table while sitting, she can play on her knees. She's very steady like this, but I still get scared that she will bump her head.


With just a little help from me, she can also stand and hold onto her table. I was really nervous about letting her go long enough to take this picture, but it was worth it. No falls yet!


Finally, I got Allison a sippy cup that has a top that more or less resembles a bottle nipple. She likes to chew on it and really enjoys the freedom to be in control of her water. She still wont feed herself food, but she loves throwing it over the sides to a very obliging Maggie.


I just thought her intense face was too cute. I hope this gets me back in everyone's good graces!

Come back!

I've noticed from my google analytics that most of you have stopped checking my blog, but who can blame you? How could I expect traffic to stay the same when I haven't blogged about anything of much interest in quite a while? Well I can't, so I'm begging everyone to come back! I promise I'll try to be better at keeping fresh Allison pictures up.

Since it's been so long since my last real post I'll have to rewind a little before I can get to stuff going on in the present. I mentioned that we were headed to NM after Christmas to spend a week with Frank's family, and I have SO many pictures to share, but I'll have to narrow it down to my favorites for time's sake.

It's difficult to cover an entire week of activities in one blog, so I wont give too much detail.

Day 1: Fly to Albuquerque, run errands, meet the Riedels for lunch, drive to Ruidoso. Long day! Here are some pictures:


Allison with her Uncle John. They were buddies by the end of the trip.


Lunch with the Riedel's


Allison loved Frank's cousin Marna!...


...and her great aunt Sheila.


Allison wasn't going to miss out on an opportunity to eat, although she was just as interested in licking the table as she was her applesauce. It's a good thing I'm not a germ freak.


She CRASHED soon after that. I felt so bad for her. Minus the short nap in the car after our flight, she had missed all naps that day! Poor baby...


Day 2 was spent at the Farmer family reunion. It was only about an hour drive from the cabin we were staying at, so we were able to make a day trip of it. I somehow managed to miss out on the picture taking there, but I do have a really cute one of Allison and Jen (Frank's sister) at Wal-Mart that night. Check out her jacket!



Later that night Allison was having fun with Papa Mickey. They hadn't been together since she was 5 weeks, so it was really fun to see them play.







Our third day Frank and I went to Ski Apache, which we can actually see from the cabin! It couldnt have been a better location. However, that ski trip convinced us that we definitely need our own ski stuff. We waited in line for almost two hours, yes HOURS, just to rent skis. We almost left and got our money back, but I'm glad we didn't.

Once we finally got to ski, I did pretty good. Definitely better than before, but I think I need to go more than once every two years if I'm ever going to improve. I can't wait till we have kids old enough to go with us so we can teach them.

Here we are before we left. Doesn't Frank look he should be named Hans and trained to kill? haha.





OK, so I didn't do that good skiing. I got suck on this small slope.



...and right after that picture I feel right on my face. I was pretty irritated that Frank never fell, yet he had "wonderful" tips on how to get back up from a fall. I eventually lost my cool when his tips didn't work so I made him fall on purpose to prove that his instructions were terrible. He's been blaming me for a pain in his hip ever since. :)





The rest of our trip was spent relaxing at the cabin, soaking in the hot tub, playing the Wii, reading, and sleeping. Allison was horrible most of the trip by my standards, and that was embarrassing. I'm used to her napping at the right times, and going to bed without much fuss, but she would scream and cry every night at bedtime and refuse to take naps during the day. I'm hoping that next time we go there she will be old enough to be told to behave.

I also have to note that our flight back with her was one of the most embarrassing experiences I've been through. She cried for the first 20 minutes or so, and then finally fell asleep in my arms. Not bad, right? Well she woke up about 10 minutes later and was mad as a hornet. She screamed (I can't express that enough) for the rest of the flight. We had people turning around in their seats to stare at us and the flight attendant stopped by twice to ask if we needed help and if we had remembered to bring a bottle. We tried everything to calm her down - toys, rocking, bottle, Tylenol, etc. but nothing would settle her down. When we landed she sat quietly and waited while everyone filed out (go figure), but Frank and I were so mortified that we were afraid of making eye contact with people. NEVER again. She will be on a hefty dose of Benedryl before I will set foot on a plane with her.

Other than that terrible 2 hours, the trip was wonderful. We got to see a lot of family, ski, and relax for a whole week!

I have ton of new pictures of Allison to post, and I will try to get to that tomorrow!

My New Job

The wait is finally over! As of this evening Frank and I have completed our store! We are so excited to share this with everyone! Click here to see what we've been working on!

Seven Months

Has it really been SEVEN months since I had Allison? The phrase "time flies" seems like an understatement. She is changing so much lately, and to me, seems to be acting more like a little girl every day. Her first tooth is slowly (and painfully) making it's appearance. I only get glimpses of her first pearly white when she laughs, but it's definitely there! She is also experimenting with little samples of smashed table food. She likes it when I give her little drops of water from the end of a straw, and she likes to chew on tiny bits of bread. We have even been mean enough to give her a taste of a lemon. :) Her mobility is also changing because as of last night, I put her on her tummy and she pushed up on her hands and then pulled her legs under her so she was on all four! If that wasn't cute enough, she started rocking back and forth, shifting the weight from her hands to her knees. I think we will have a semi-crawler in the next month or so. She still loves to stand best, and can support herself by holding on the coffee table or the couch. She doesn't have the balance to stay up, but she has the strength.

Right now Allison has a nasty cold, but in staying true to our monthly portrait tradition we braved the windy weather for about 15 minutes to capture her cuteness.

Just an update on everything going on - we plan to launch our website this week. We had some technical delays, but we are back on track, so stay tuned. I also have an entire post to do on the vacation we just returned from, but I'll have to save that for tomorrow. Enjoy the photos!