Christmas Corner

With less than two weeks since my last post, you won't believe how much I have to share! Between Christmas, a trip to Phoenix, first haircuts, pregnancy news, and Allison having a bunch a cute moments, this blog could be quite long. I don't think I'm up to it, so I''ll have to split it out into a few posts. Patience, patience...

I guess I'll just go in order and start with Christmas. Frank and I were both very excited about it this year because we were anticipating a lot of excitement from Allison. We didn't get her much because we never want Christmas to be just about gifts at our house. We obviously want to emphasize Jesus, but also family traditions, and giving to others. So this year we bought Allison a kitchen at a consignment sale, and some pots and pans to go with it. We also got her a few books and some jewelery to play dress up with. She loved the kitchen, and we loved watching her play with it and seeing her mind alive with imagination. It was also fascinating to realize how much she watches me in the kitchen.

First thing Christmas morning.

Opening her stocking filled with some fun jewelery.

She wasn't quite as excited about that as I had expected, but she's a big fan now.













After her nap we had plans to go to my parents house to open gifts and have dinner with my family. We decided to dress Allison up in her Christmas dress and surprise everyone since since she hadn't had a chance to wear it. You can tell she felt very pretty posing in front of the tree. We took a bunch of photos, and I really can't pick. Doesn't she look like a little girl now??









The rest of these are a few pictures from my parents house. We had a great time there, and the grandkids were definitely spoiled! Allison got several new outfits, some fake food to go with her kitchen, and a grocery cart! Our house is filling up quickly! Help!

Opening a present from Uncle Eric and Aunt Amy.

It's a doll! She loves to push this doll in her new shopping cart. :)

Of course, it never takes Allison long to scout out Eric.

A new Elmo toy!

I think Amy had to pin her down for this picture. There was just too much going on!

Baby Drew was also distracted by all that was going on.

Allison opening her shopping cart.

As if all that wasn't enough fun, we had also had a visit from Frank's mom (Allison's Mimi) on Christmas Eve. She also came bearing (too many!) gifts for Allison. She got a pink portable DVD player, several DVDs to play on it, and a baby/stroller combo! I told you Allison was spoiled! She hasn't stopped running over me and Maggie with that stroller since she got it. Apparently it's really funny to hit someone at fun speed and watch them jump!

Allison had just gotten up from a nap when Mimi arrived, and for some reason decided to stay in a pretty grouchy mood the rest of the night - despite all the fun toys! That should clarify her lack of spunk in some of these photos.















That's all for now, but as I mentioned I'm very behind on posts so come back soon for more of our adventures from the last couple of weeks! On a quick side note regarding the pregnancy - I start my second trimester tomorrow and at the moment I'm not feeling too much better for it. The nausea had slowed up for a little while, but it's back now in full force. I'm not sure what changed but this is definitely going the wrong direction!! All that to say that if the next few posts come slower than you'd like, that's probably why.