Happy Valentine's Day!!

Just want to wish everyone a very Happy Valentine's Day!! Love you bunches! -Alli

Alli's 1st Birthday!

Alli's first birthday party was a hit! It had everything...balloons, a banner, cupcakes, good food, lots of friends and family, presents, a party dress, and oh yeah... a bloody mouth. Yes, that's right, Alli fell, hit her mouth and it proceeded to drip blood all over her and her dress. I don't think there was too much damage done though. I think the cupcake made it all better and she'll never remember a thing about that bloody mouth (except of course that we'll tell her stories about it).

That teething ring sure did make that busted mouth feel better...

That darned collar never would lay down. I guess after it got stained with blood, it didn't matter much anyway.
The cupcakes were a huge hit with all the kids...
What busted mouth?

Gavin enjoying his cupcake

Cade working on his first of two cupcakes!

Whoa- what happened to Lainey? Good thing we saved the shirt :-)

And sweet Maddy finishing her cupcake

That's our silly Alli for you!

It's soooo hard to believe that an entire year has passed from the day we welcomed her into our lives. It has been a great one and we are truly looking forward to the next year!!

Thanks so much to everyone who came to celebrate Alli's big day with her. We love you all very much!

Things to teach...

Alli has so many things to teach her new baby brother or sister when the time comes...

This is how to look as cute as possible and more importantly make your feet look as gigantic as possible when taking a picture.

Oh yes, this is my favorite! This is how you climb onto the rocking chair to get a good look at the "ish" (that's Alli's way of saying fish). If you're lucky, the algae eater will be stuck to the glass right it front of your face. Awesome! ("ish" is about the only word Alli says other than "daddy"-- poor mommy-- we very rarely hear that word)

Pull the blanket and the doll out of the doll cradle and climb in yourself. Lots of fun and it rocks! Pawpaw would be so proud. He made a cradle just like this for mommy when she was just a little girl. This particular one however belonged to Aunt Marcie who only has boys- thanks Aunt Marcie for letting me have it. Why don't I have mom's? That would be because mom decided to climb into hers (sound familiar) and broke it. Maybe Pawpaw wouldn't be so proud- sorry Pawpaw. But, I have to mention, mommy was much older than me when she did that and should have known better (remember that Becca?) Hopefully, mommy will make sure that history doesn't repeat itself. Thanks again Pawpaw- I love my cradle and mommy does too. Isnt' it beautiful. That Pawpaw is a good craftsman!

Always use both feet and hands to hold your sippy cup. I don't know why, it just seems to work better that way. Maybe that's why mom and dad call me "monkey"

Let this be a lesson... Never let mom play with your hair after your bath or this could happen to you too. Let's hope this doesn't happen to you!

That's all for now. I'm sure there will be more later. Love you and can't wait to meet you.

-Alli

Our First Family Christmas

I've discovered yet another reason to love being a parent-- Christmas! We celebrated this year as our own little family of three and I absolutely loved my first Christmas as a mom. I know it will only get better as Alli grows and actually understands what is going on. I can't wait! Even with what little she understood, I still think Alli enjoyed her first Christmas too. She started to get the hang of unwrapping presents and really enjoyed playing with and inspecting all her new stuff. As a matter of fact, she didn't want to lay down for her morning nap. I think whe was too excited to go to sleep, but eventually, exhaustion got the best of her and she took her nap after all. Good thing, 'cause she can be quite the grumpy one if she doesn't get enough sleep.
Now, my biggest goal in the upcoming years is to make sure that she understands the true meaning of Christmas and doesn't let Santa, the presents, tree, etc. overshadow the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!! We'll let her cousin Maddy who just turned 3 yrs old be a little inspiration for us. Maddy's birthday falls on Christmas day, but if you ask her whose birthday it is, without thinking twice about it, she says "Jesus"! How precious!

Before the unwrapping began.

Let's see whats in this big box.

Thanks everybody!

Alli with all her loot.

What's in there?

Playing with her new toys.

This horse is fun!

The swing is fun too!

This was a good day!

Alli & Autumn

This is a picture of Alli and her friend Autumn playing in the laundry basket. You can't tell in the picture, but they really did think it was fun, until of course they tipped it over and Autumn's finger got smooshed. No permanent damage was done. Her finger is still intact. We always have fun visiting with Autumn and her parents (Corry and Stephanie Westinghouse, for those of you that know them) and wish we could see them more often. Autumn is about 2 mos. older that Alli, so Alli learns new things from Autumn. Thankfully, I don't think she picked up that throwing thing though :-) Hope it won't be too long before we see you guys again (before the new babies at least), 'cause after that it may be a miracle if we can arrange to get together.

Random pics

Here are some recent pics of Alli being Alli! Gosh, she's cute. I know every mother thinks their child is cute, but she really is! Oh by the way, she took her first two steps yesterday with both Daddy and me there to see it. Yeah, Alli! We'll see if she decides to do it again any time soon.

I don't think she likes the Santa hat, but she sure thinks it's funny when mom or dad wears it. Still cute, by the way.

Up to no good! Pulling all the diapers out of the basket is one of Alli's favorite activities.

Daddy thought it would be funny to put Alli in the toy chest. Apparently, she did too!

Diapers, Diapers, DIAPERS!!
Again, still cute.

Aunt Marcie & Uncle Jeff visit!

My sister, Marcie, and her husband, Jeff, came to visit a couple weekends ago and we had a great time. We ate on the patio at a local restaurant and they had a fun little playground where Alli had her first sliding experience. She loved it!! And, she thought it was much more fun to go down the slide by herself with one of us holding her hand, instead of sitting on our laps (developing a little independence already). She would giggle and grin every time she reached the bottom. I think mom, daddy, & aunt Marcie had just as much fun as she did! Glad you could be there for this fun first experience aunt Marcie. We love you, Jeff, and the boys very much!

Weeeeeee!

You two look marvelous!

Action photo!! Sorry about the blur.

Thanksgiving 2005

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with the Dement family in Marble Falls. I think Alli really enjoyed her first Thanksgiving meal. We gave her a little of everything and she gobbled it up (I know that was corny- forgive me). But it's true. She couldn't get enough of all the delicious food! And of course, we had a great time visiting with everybody too. Unfortunately, we missed the Holmes Thanksgiving dinner, but we're looking forward to seeing my family at Christmas!

Who are those people?

That's much better. What a beautiful group!

Alli with cousins Lyndee and Meg.

Uncle Roger, Aunt Christie, Lyndee, Meg and Alli

She's a Climber!

It's still sooo amazing to me what a joy motherhood is. I delight in everything she does (well, almost everything). Lately, Alli has started climbing on her walker and her rocking chair and she just cracks me up. She's such a little daredevil. Here are some pics of my little climber and her death-defying stunts. Hopefully she won't repeat my mistake of standing on a toy car at two years of age. That resulted in a few stitches and a residual scar twenty something years later!

Notice that her feet aren't touching the ground, and she had no help from daddy stepping up there.

Oh yes, sometimes she chooses to crawl under things too!

Oh, there will be no sitting in the rocking chair- that's no fun! Again, she had no help getting up there. (For those of you that may be concerned about her safety, try to relax. I'm standing very close by).

I just had to include this picture of my little ballerina. What a beautiful pointed toe. I'm so proud! And, this was not just a timely picture. I had quite a few oppurtunities to catch that pose.

Caught ya!

Grandparents are Great!!

Grandma & Pawpaw, Grandma & Pop....these are Alli's wonderful grandparents! We've got some creative Grandma's don't we? Just teasing. I guess they will have to be Grandma Peggy and Grandma Elsie which I'm thinking might lead to some nicknames due to Alli mispronouncing them. And then, we will have some adorable "grandma" names. Time will tell!!

We recently had visits from both sets of Grandparents! Here are some pics from the visits. Unfortunately, Pawpaw was on the wrong side of the camera so I don't have any pics of him to include. We'll get you next time Pawpaw.

Grandma Peggy loving on Alli!

Pop and Grandma Elsie keeping a close watch on Alli

Pop and Alli on the hammock

Father's Daughter

Toilet handles, plastic coat hangers, magazines, dog toys, vertical blinds, tags, dried leaves...
Have you guessed it? These are a few of Alli's favorite things. Forget all the colorful, musical, light-up toys- she'll take the coat hanger any day over those. I hear that's not uncommon. I just find it amusing and I guess it's justification for not spending a fortune on all that stuff! Don't worry, she has plenty of it and I'm sure she'll get lots more. And maybe she'll even start to appreciate it a little more in the future! None of that has anything to do with today's pictures. I just thought it was worth discussing.

About the pictures: Alli absolutely loves to be outdoors. She is definitely her father's daughter! She practically begs to go outside sometimes. She definitely fits in around here. And hopefully that means she'll enjoy camping, hiking, fishing, etc. 'cause that's all in the near future for her!
And thankfully, she's learning to not put every single leaf and blade of grass in her mouth, which is smart because that means she gets to spend more time crawling through the grass!

Who? Me?

Can I please go outside?

I'm gonna get it!

Just hangin' out in the hammock (that's Pop hangin on to me)

I got it!