The Pink Pig

This past weekend we took Ally to ride The Pink Pig. The Pink Pig is an Atlanta tradition that has been around for years that supports the local children's hospital. It is a train shaped like a pig that goes around a few times to see a few Christmas decorations. Anyway, this was something I was dying to take Ally too b/c I thought she would love the train ride. Well, I was right on this one... she loved it. I can't wait to take her again next year. Hopefully next year I will plan a little better and not take her on a day that is snowing and has records lows in the city :)

Friday Night Football

The video above is a little taste of what playoff football is like in Georgia. Last weekend we were in the quarterfinals and played against Lowndes County in Valdosta. South Georgia football is huge. They not only have very faithful fans, they also have big football players!! We played against some of the biggest "kids" so far this season.

Anyway the game was great because it was full of excitement. The video above is just some of the video I took before the game and a little bit before overtime. Since the game was full of excitement and ups and downs, I totally forgot to take video of the game in process. I know I need a little work on that :). The video is not the best because I am using our flip camera, which does not have zoom. We love the camera for Ally just not for football games. Anyway I hope you enjoy.

Think good thoughts for us on Friday. We are now in the semi finals playing against Brookwood. If we can beat them we will be one our way to the dome. Hopefully I will better with my video by then.

Go Eagles!!

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we were lucky enough to have an entire week off of school. It was wonderful! I think it is the best decision Gwinnett County has made in a long time. I sure hope they make the same decision again next year :).

During the week we did lots of different and fun things to make it a little vacation. Ally and I went to paint pottery, we say Aunt Jenny, Great-Grandpa, and Grandma a lot. We even saw Mamaw and Grandpa on the computer too. We got to do all of this Monday-Thursday. Then on Friday morning the fun started. I think one of the best holidays on the planet is Black Friday. To give you an idea of how much I love this holiday I feel I need to share a story with you about something that happened.

So it is 3:50 in the morning and Target is getting ready to open and I am at a red light. Well, I look over at the car next to me, it is a mini van with a mom in it. So I predict she is going to Target too. So what do I do, I speed past her at the light so I can beat her to Target. Yes, that is me on Black Friday morning. I am up and ready to shop!

I actually stepped it up a notch and it worked out great. I got up at 2 AM to first stop at ToysRus, then I made it to Old Navy by 3:15, and then to Target when they opened at 4. It was great! I had a plan to my madness, but I can't share b/c I am afraid more people might join in. If you are interested let me know and I will fill you in. I was planning all week what time to leave and where to go, I know I was driving Justin crazy with all of this :) So I got done shopping by 4:30 AM and then headed home to make one more purchase online before going to bed, again. The only problem was that Justin was getting up soon to leave for Valdosta and I didn't want to wake him so I just hung out for a little bit until he was up. It was a crazy, but great morning!

Shutterfly Cards

It is that time of year again when I love going to the mailbox. I was actually getting mail yesterday thinking, is sending out cards before Thanksgiving even allowed... Even if it is not I was still hoping I would get a Christmas card in the mail. I don't have any yet, but I am sure they will be coming soon.

This year we are going to get our cards from Shutterfly because they have a great deal going for people that have a blog. I think this is great b/c I always end up posting the holiday card on the blog every year as well. I can't wait to show off the one that we finally decide on. I don't know what is harder when designing a card, picking the perfect card, or finding the best picture for the card. Thankfully Shutterfly has tons of card to choose from this year.

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

This year I am trying to decide between two. I am a big fan of Santa so I like my card to have a Santa some where on the card. This year though they have photo message cards that I am a big fan of because you get the picture and include a few details about your family as well. Here are a few of those examples-

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/top-ten-moments-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93496

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/family-letter-blue-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93496

There are many more examples of these as well.

I can spend hours looking at cards and pictures. Thankfully Shutterfly has so many to choose from.

Hair and bows

Ally will be 19 months next week and I am finally able to make this post. Her hair is growing!! We are very excited about this. She has gone from some hair at birth to bold at 3 months and now slowly but surely getting more and more hair now. With her hair growing like crazy I figured it was time for bows too. This past weekend I had my first lesson in making bows. It was a blast and I even made Ally three of them. Can you believe that?!?! I attached the bow pictures as well as a picture of Ally's hair blowing while she turns so you can see a good shot of her really growing hair.

Life as a Mom

I remember preparing to become a mother and everyone telling me I would miss the sleep and the quiet time. Yea, I do remember those great times. I also remember everyone telling me you will talk about poop more than you ever thought you would, and well that is true too. I have realized though there are a few things that people forgot to mention to me.

1. Your memory never comes back.

2. Daily I walk out of my house with banana, milk, or cheerios on stuck to me

3. I worry more of what Ally eats, how much she ate, what she didn't eat, and how much she snuck to the dog that I forget to eat.

4. I actually was excited about Halloween this year.

I decided to start this random list b/c I did one of the craziest thing yesterday that I didn't even realize until it was too late. I went to school with 2 different shoes on!! Yes!! At least they were both black and not too crazy different, but they were still different.

I love being a mom, but I have found myself doing things that just crack me up, that I would never believe I would do now. I am sure this list will continue to grow through the years and the kiddos to come. But as of now I still can't believe I went to school with two different shoes on!! I hope I might get a few posts of some crazy things that my other mom friends have done so I don't feel so bad.

Great weekend with Mamaw and Grandpa

We started the weekend with some Friday night football and then we continued the weekend with lots of fun. Thankfully Ally was on her best behavior the whole weekend and showed her Mamaw and Grandpa what a cute little girl she is. We had a blast all weekend and we cant wait for them to come back to visit and babysit :).

PJ and Ally meeting the first time

This past weekend was Jenny's wedding and everyone was in town for that. It was the first time Penelope and Allyson got to meet. I think the meeting went great, even better than I expected. Of course she got a little jealous, but not at what I thought she would. She didn't care if I held PJ, but she was not happy when Grandma held her. In fact she jumped out of my arms to go to Grandmas. I thought that was pretty funny. We can't wait for Christmas to see everyone again!!

Here are a few videos from apple picking and picking out a pumpkin

Poor girl kept picking the bad apples, so I feel like all I say in the video is No. Hopefully when you watch you will see why. She likes the ones that people have already eaten. Finally she does find a good one though.

I love you video- Enjoy!

The three most wonderful words

This past week Ally has been a talking machine. Whatever we say she wants to say it too. Somethings she is saying pretty well other things she just looks at us like, uhhh no I am not saying that. One thing we have been working on with her is saying, I love you. She has been saying it to us all week and it just melts our hearts every time she says it. Now, we might be the only ones that can tell it is I love you but to us they are the most beautiful words she has said yet.

The goal this weekend is to get a video. Hopefully it will be posted soon.

Go Eagles!!

Here are a few pictures from the first football game of the season. I was very nervous taking Ally to the game b/c this was her first game that she was very active. Well to my surprise she did great! I mean I didn't see much of the game, but we heard about two touchdowns and some other close calls. It should be a great season and I am excited I can bring her to even more games.

All Smiles, well most of the time...

This past week we started school and Ally started going to daycare full time. (This summer she just went 3 days a week for about 4 weeks). I didn't think going back to daycare full time would be a problem at all b/c she went throughout the summer and had no problems at all. She was actually happy to go I think. Well she was not a happy camper at all about starting again. I would leave her crying and trying to grab at me. It was not an easy way to start a new school year for me. I was almost in tears myself every morning. Then when I would pick her, she wasn't having good days either. We were all wondering what was going on and why she was so grumpy. It seemed natural to think it was just getting into the swing of things again. (at least that is what I tell myself). Once the weekend came around I noticed Ally had some gunk in her eyes. Each day it got a little worse, until Monday morning when she couldn't open her eye. I thought she must have pink eye. So I took Monday off to take her to the Dr. and check her out. I am still thinking she has pink eye, b/c around her eye was red and she had gunk in her eyes. Well it turns out she had an ear infection. I was like what!! I had no idea. The poor girl was so stuffed up everything was draining from her eyes. I had no idea she was stuffed up. I have been thinking back on the week and I am mad I didn't see the signs. I guess I have learned if she is grumpy and not having good days something must be wrong. She doesn't get fevers or even show regular signs, just being moody and grumpy. I guess I am learning more and more of how to "read" my child. The problem is she keeps changing her signs. Hopefully one day I will be able to catch up with her. At least we got some medicine and she is feeling much better, having great days again, and even smiling.

Even more projects

We hung up Ally's picture frame outside her room.
This was the surprise. We had to get our ceiling fixed b/c of water damage due to the air conditioner. We had water damage in 5 rooms. Thankfully it was not too bad, but bad enough that it needed to get fixed.
We finally got a new ceiling fan.

I do have to thank Justin for letting me get all of these projects done this summer. Some were done by us and some done by professionals. Anyway, it was a very productive summer and now we are ready for a very productive winning fall. Go Eagles!!

A summer full of projects

We fixed our door bell. It woks now!
We got new floors downstairs!! We love them!!
We made Ally a playroom. She loves it!!
We added a backsplash and new floors to the kitchen!!
We fixed the handle to our screen door. (Dave this is for you :)

As I type this now I realize I will be at work tomorrow at this time. And well I will be at work at this time until next summer pretty much. (OK I know we have weekends and some holidays, but just feel sorry for me for a second :). I do feel it is a time to reflect for a second though about what happened this summer and how it was as always such a success. We started the summer off with a trip to the beach. It was Ally's first time at the beach and our first family trip. The trip was a huge success and I understand why families go to the beach every year. There is constant entertainment, always a place to nap, and plenty to eat. It was great. After that we were home for a few days and then headed up to Louisville and Indiana. Those trips are always fun too b/c we get to see family and friends and find time to relax a little too. We always seem to make time for shopping too. Once we got back from those two trips our busy summer kind of started. Justin was in full swing of summer football stuff and I had started summer school. I know most people must think I am crazy for teaching summer school, but it really was not that bad. While I was teaching summer school we decided to start some of the home improvement projects we wanted to do this summer. Some were small and some were big. I still don't believe it, but they all actually got done. Including some surprise ones when our air conditioner stopped working and starting leaking. Wonderful!!

Then before I knew it I was done with summer school and I got 2 1/2 weeks to just chill with our girl. These two weeks have been awesome!!! In some ways I wish I had all of the weeks of summer, but it did make these two weeks even better. Before I know it we will be in the middle of a football season and working hard to continue the school year. It was another wonderful summer, and I can't wait to start planning for the next one :).

Let's Play a Game!

Look at the picture below. What does not belong in this picture?

If you guessed the cute pink flip flop next to the onion and green pepper you are correct. So the other night Ally was in the fridge with me while I was grabbing a few things. Somehow while I was transporting things or something, she stuck her flip flop in the drawer. Can you believe this?!? Justin and I just about died of laughter later this evening when we found this in the drawer. It all started coming together then b/c she threw a major fit when I made her get out of the fridge, but I thought it was just another one of the screaming, throwing the head back fits that we have been seeing more recently. But, no she really just wanted her shoe back. Then I felt bad, but at least I know she went to bed happy so I was able to do the same as well. I thought this was a pretty funny one so I had to share this with everyone.

Am I raising a Diva?

Check out this girl!! Can you believe her? I hope you really look at her too b/c she not only got my sunglasses out of my bag she was demanding to wear around her new shoes. But if you look closely she ended up taking one of them off. So she was walking around with my one shoe, sunglasses on, and a toy in her hand. I know it is pretty dangerous for a new walker, but I was following behind her closely to make sure she was safe.

We have also started something new this week. When she is not happy about something or wants to do something different she decides to scream with dislike. I am trying to decide what would be worse, her saying No or the scream. I am afraid the No is coming soon though. I am trying my hardest though to not use the word No all of the time so it will take longer for her to pick up. We will see though, these days ever corner we turn she seems to find something to get in to that she is not supposed to and well the word No comes out. She loves to reach for things on shelves and tables. Oh and we are really close to opening, closing, and I am afraid locking doors. Any of my parents friends that read this please let me know if you have any tips on this b/c I am afraid she will be locked in a bathroom or bedroom before we know it.

Well watch out we have a diva on our hands and she might be coming to visit you soon :)

Our Reading Machine

These days Ally is on the move at all times unless she has a book in her hands. She has learned the word book and it seems that anything she can find to read she picks it up and brings it to us. So most of the day and night we here book, book, book. It is pretty funny. The funny thing is she tries so hard to say all of the words in the book too. If you listen carefully at the beginning of the video on the yellow page she is saying banana. She says "anana". It is pretty cute if you ask me. In the video we had to take a little poop break, but don't worry we edited that part out. You will see though that didn't stop her, she just keeps on reading and going strong.

* Sorry the video is not working. Hopefully it will be up and working again soon.*

Finally!!! I can't believe I was the last!!

This past weekend I went to go visit my niece Penelope Jean in Washington DC. She was born Dec. 16th and I just got up to see her. I promise I have been keeping up with here through skype, blogging, and phone calls. I promise I am still a good Aunt and I really tried to put that hat on this weekend. I have to say it was a blast!! I mean being an Aunt is awesome b/c you can give your niece the remote and not worry about the consequences to follow. So guess what, she got the remote :). I even let her play in the sink with a spoon :). Oh yea, we broke the rules :)

It is just so exciting to see how families grow. It is amazing how our family decided to grow at once. I think it is making it even better. I can't wait for Ally and Penelope to meet in person one day. They are going to become great friends and cousins one day.

4th of July

She is always on the move now.
Our failed attempt at trying to recreate last years cute 4th of July picture.
Last year on the 4th! Can you believe how time flies!!

Fourth of July always has two meanings for us, 1. celebrating summer and America all in one. 2. summer is half way over :(. I guess that is the definition of summer for a two teacher house hold. This year was no different. We had a great 4th of July weekend. I am teaching summer school this year and the best part of the budget shortfall is 4 day weeks, which is wonderful. So I had Friday-Monday off of school. Justin had those days off too, which was lots of fun. With the 4th being on Sunday this year most of the festivities took place on the 3rd here, which worked out great for us. We started the 3rd with a parade in downtown Stone Mountain, and then Mom and I headed to Phantom of the Opera at the Fox. I know it is not very patriotic, but it was still fun. Then on the 4th Justin and I ran the Peachtree Road Race. I know it was a crazy kind of last minute discussion, but thankfully it all worked out. We are always afraid to sign up for a number because we never know if we will train and be ready for the race. Well for some reason this year, we or me actually trained and was ready for the race. Thankfully we were able to find two numbers and run the race together. It went great and the weather was fabulous for the start of the race. Then on Monday we went on a family trip to Ikea. I love that place!! They had lots of new stuff and some fun stuff to look at for Ally. We are in the process of turning the downstairs room into a playroom for her, so we found some stuff to help with that project. It was a successful trip!!

Happy Father's Day

Justin had a great Father's Day of church, food, grilling, and sports. I don't know if he could have asked for a better day. I think he enjoyed his day of being pampered with lots of little treats and hugs throughout. Above is a picture of Allyson and Daddy after church.

5 wonderful years

Last weekend Justin and I celebrated our 5th anniversary. It is crazy to think it has already been 5 years. We had a great night away while Justin's parents watched Ally for us while we went to a Reds game and grabbed a drink after the game. We even got to catch up with Katie and Neal at the game too. While at the game we started talking about our wedding day and the events leading up to the wedding. We decided that we would repeat our wedding weekend any day of the year. To this day our wedding weekend was one of the best weekends of our lives. Above is a picture of the drink we decided we earned by completing 5 years of marriage.

A few more beach pictures

First Trip to the Beach

We just got back from our first trip to the beach and I would call it a success. We went to Amelia Island, which is about 5 1/2 hours away. It was the perfect distance to spread out her naps and to not get too cranky in the car. Thankfully it worked. She did a pretty good job in the car both times.

The first time we went to the beach Ally loved all of the freedom she had. We went down to the beach after dinner to just walk around. We let her go on the sand and you should have seen her. She was off and loving every second of the freedom. I wish everyone could have heard her screaming and laughing. It ranks up there on one of the best moments we have had with her. I have never seen her so happy to be free and to be able to walk around with no boundaries as she does in our house. It was just awesome. The next day we went down to the pool and she was ok with the pool. As time went on she got better and better. Thankfully the pool was really warm so she became a fan quickly. We got her a little float so she could just relax and chill while we pushed her around. She did like that part a lot. Later we went down to the beach and she was a little more timid this time. We weren't sure what happened. She was still a fan of the sand and being free, but not as big a fan of the water. The water was still a little cold so I think that had something to do with it too. Well as time went on she became more and more a fan of the water. She learned to splash and kick the water which was fun for her. On the trip also she tried a few different foods too. (Isn't that what vacation is about.) She had crab cakes, fried pickles, a little bit of a blizzard, a hamburger, and oranges. And you aren't going to believe it, but she liked all of it. She would have eaten the entire kids hamburger patty from Chilies if I hadn't hid it from her. There is not question about it, she is an eater these days. I think she is growing like crazy. All and all the trip was great. We are ready to book another trip for next summer.

Allyson walking

It is official we have a walker!! She has been trying for a few weeks now, but this last week she has taken off. It is really funny b/c she is so determined to walk everywhere. She is not crawling anywhere anymore. Even if it is to the smallest distance, she pulls herself up to walk. I have a feeling that tells us a lot about her personality. We will see what she brings. Anyway, we are very excited she is walking and that we are starting the next adventure. I am sure the next video will be of her running. Stay tuned.

something is missing....

You wonder why I would take a picture of our counter tops. They are not new, nothing added, but something is missing. The bottles are gone!!!! Yes, we have our counter tops back!! No more bottles!!! Allyson is totally on sippy cups now. She is still adjusting and totally has her favorites that must be clean for her morning and evening milk, but other than that she is doing really well with the sippy cups. We are excited about this new stage, but also can't believe it is over. We packed up her small and large bottles yesterday to store them until the next one. It is exciting to reach these new little milestones.

Oh and just to let you know in honor of her bottles being gone we made our own pizza last night. That is where I always rolled out the dough. I haven't done it in a long time. The pizza turned out great too :)

Allyson's 1st year video

Here is the video I made for Ally's birthday party. It is a little long so get settled in. I hope you enjoy :)

more birthday pics

WOW! Has it been a week

We started the week with a great celebration for Ally's first birthday. She did such a great job and the party ended up perfect. We all had a great time. I think Allyson really liked the cake, attention, and all of the gifts. I think we might have a attention getting and loving little girl. She is the best though.

Then the week made a little turn. On Monday, I got a call at work from daycare saying that Ally had fallen. I was like ok. They then told me that she had knocked her tooth out! I couldn't believe she had knocked her tooth out!! We called the dr. and they recommended us to a pediatric dentist in the area. I then went to get Ally from daycare find her hanging out and smiling in her room. She didn't seem to have a worry in the world. I took her tooth to the dentist with us. I still hadn't seen the tooth b/c it was in the milk. When we got to the dentist it had the best waiting room for any kiddo. Allyson wanted to get down and play so bad. The only problem was that she was covered in blood from her tooth coming out. I mean she was still dripping every time she touched her mouth, which was often since she sucks her thumb. She was not a happy camper that I didn't let her play. That made waiting and filling out paper work a challenge for sure. We finally got to see the dentist and he couldn't believe her tooth, neither could I. It had come all the way out. I mean the entire root and all. He was actually impressed with how well it had come out. Since it came out so well they didn't have to do an x-ray or really look for any damage. He did look at her gums and said they looked great. He said if we wanted to look into getting a fake one we can when she turns 3 or 4, but we have some time until then. We are just going to wait and see what happens if we get another tooth for her. We are hoping her permanent tooth comes in just fine.

So far she has been doing good with missing a tooth. She is still eating and drinking everything just fine. We have noticed one change in her though. The climbing and being adventurous has stopped. She won't even stand on her own right now b/c she is afraid of falling. We actually got her a slide and climbing castle for her birthday and well she is pretty much terrified of it right now. Every time we put her near it she screams. We are hoping this will pass soon too.

I guess we now have a toddler!!

Sometimes rules are made to be broken :)

Spring time in Atlanta is great! Well besides the pollen and other allergies it is a great time of year. During this time of year there are tons of different festivals around town. We went to one the other weekend and we found the best stand of all. We found the Krispy Kream Donut stand. This stand was not only Krispy Kream donuts, but they were giving away free donuts!!! Not only just the wonderful glazed donuts, but you could get your donut dipped in warm chocolate with sprinkles. Yes, it was wonderful!! (that is what I got, Justin got a plain donut) Well with the free donuts and Ally almost being 1 year old with we decided it was only far to let her try one of the glazed donuts. Just try, I promise. Well if you can imagine she loved the donut. Loved!! It was great to see her face and then asking for more.

Birthday, birthday, and birthday...

April is one busy month for us. We start the month off with Aunt Katie's birthday (April 2), second Grandma's (April 3), next Papa's (April 16), following that is Ally's (April 23), and then finally Justin's (April 24). Yes, April is one busy month!! We also get to celebrate Justin's parents anniversary (April 24). This year was even more special b/c we got to celebrate a 60th, 1st, and 30th birthday this month. We did it a little out of order, but we had a great time celebrating everyone's special day. Justin got a surprise party a month early (I know early, but that was the only way to make it work), then a family get together for Papa's 60th, and lastly another family/friend gathering for Ally's 1st birthday. It has been one very special month!! Here are a few pictures from Papa's 60th. I will be posting soon about Ally's first. Stay tuned!

A new friend

Ally got to play with a great new friend, Colin. Adam, Gina, and Colin came to visit us on their way down to FL. We had a great dinner and then headed over to the park to work off dinner. We had a great time!