it's the End of the World (As We Know it At least)

Life will never be the same here again.  Alli has officially started walking.  She took her first steps a few weeks ago and has been walking along things like a pro for a while, but this past week she will walk 8-10 or sometimes 12 steps away from you.  This morning she was walking along the piano bench and then just took off walking towards her toy a few feet away from it.  There was no hesitation from her.  I am excited for her and love how determined she is, even if that means she is mad at me for not letting her climb the piano! It is a little bit sad because she is not my "baby" anymore, but it is so much fun I would not want things any different! She is such a climber, two days ago as I was getting ready I looked in our closet and she was standing on top of the step stool with her arms up and a "look, mom" expression on her face. It is so fun to see her pleased with herself and her new tricks.  I love it when Ryan gets home each night because he is so excited to see what she can do and play with her.  He is such a good dad! She gets such a big smile whenever she sees him.  

Not for the Faint of Heart

The week after Christmas (I know a long time ago) Ryan was playing basketball and he got elbowed in the head and his eyebrow "popped" open.  He got home at about 10:30 and walks in asking me if I think he needs stitches.  I have no idea? I figured he probably didn't, but then he pulled it open for me to take a picture (his idea, not mine) so he could always remember how his cut looked and it was pretty deep.  He called one of our neighbors who is an ER doc and after he looked at it he said he would get stitches so the next morning the neighbor took Ryan in with him to the hospital and just stitched it up for him.  It was really nice of him and saved us a late night trip to the ER and some money!  Thanks Dr. Jones! In honor of Ryan (he keeps telling me he must not be important because I have yet to post this) here are some lovely pictures of his eye.  Before and after the 5 stitches.

I wish. . . I were more motivated!

I have been wanting to put up more pictures, but obviously haven't. Our computer has been haing trouble so I am on the desktop and we will see how this works. Last week Alli was pretty sick. I felt so bad for her, she would cough and cough and then throw up. One day she did this 6-7 times and it wasn't just a little spit up either! Her eyelids were red from the coughing and she wasn't sleeping well so she was just soo tired. She wanted to be held all the time. Poor girl, through it all though she would try to be so happy. She would look up and have this smile with her red, watery eyes and try to be so happy. We took her in to the doctor after the throwing up and they gave her a steroid pill for the croup, but she had a viral infection also so they couldn't do anything for that. Anyway, she is great. She is such a happy girl, she gives the cheesiest grins and laughs, both real and fake, especially when she knows we think she is being funny. She loves to play and will trade toys back and forth with you. She can often be found playing in drawers, opening and closing and pulling everything out and climbing the stairs. If the door to the bathroom is left open, she crawls as fast as she can to get there, especially if the door to the toilet is open.  She stands on her own for extended periods and will take up to 5-6 steps, but mostly walks along things or if she wants to get somewhere fast and she is standing she will crawl. She has 5 teeth, that she enjoys using to bite anything she can whether it is the piano bench, the step stool, mom's shoulder, or books.  If you put your finger on her gums, she will move her bottom teeth over so she can bite you-smart girl. She had her first dentist's checkup when we were at the dentist a few weeks ago and everything looks fine.  She makes lots of sounds and sometimes acts like she is really talking, it is so cute.  She likes big person food and will come "beg" for food when you are eating.  She went through a phase when she loved oranges and apples and would eat them like a grown up if we would let her.  Another thing she does is use her bottom teeth to open things-such as her treats and then she spills them all over herself or the floor :) This is a lot about her, but I don't want to forget so here it is. 

Lots to Share!

For some reason, the past while I have not been motivated to put anything up here so now that I am finally going through pictures, I realized there is a lot to share.  Ironically though, some things that I thought I for sure had pictures of, there aren't any. o/well Here goes.  We have had tons of snow the past month or so- at least a foot in our yard at any time.  One Sunday Ryan and I decided to take some winter pictures of Alli- not the smartest idea, but we were both excited about it.  We gathered all these props for this "quick" little photo shoot. Then we had to find the best place to take the pics so we went just a little ways from our house and got the first thing out.  The sun was in her eyes though, and she didn't know what was going on.  I think the pictures (all 5 that we took since it was FREEZING!!) actually turned out pretty good. After that freezing experience we decided Alli needed some snow clothes to go outside in.  We tried on many different outfits and one she was the epitome of the Christmas Story snow suit- she couldn't sit up, rolling over was so hard and crawling was really comical.  Needless to say, we didn't buy that one, but found one less bulky and I think she looks pretty darn cute in them.   She wasn't really sure what to do with the snow-at first she was very curious, but wasn't too happy when her face was cold- can't say that I blame her! 

The next excitement was for dinner one night we had spaghetti with spaghetti squash.  Well, we gave Alli some of the squash and like a smart girl, she loved it.  This picture does not adequately depict her obsession with the stuff.  After she ate a bunch, we gave her the outside with just a little bit left in and she was working so hard to get every little bit out.

Next-Christmas- Alli wasn't too concerned with Christmas except she was excited for some new toys.  When she would "open" a present and see what was excited she would squeal and try to get it from the  box.  She especially loved any toys with small kids on the box and would try extra hard to "talk" to them.  She for sure got way too spoiled, but we are still loving all the new clothes, books, and toys she got.  It was so fun to spend time with so many family members who were in town and Alli loved playing with her cousins! Poor Scott is probably still trying to recover from her craziness around him, but he was a good sport, even when she took his toys!

My pictures keep getting deleted and I am getting annoyed so I will add more and continue this later!