Ally's 1st Birthday (part 1) aka: "Its my party and I'll cry if I want to"

I've been slacking on this thing...so here are some updates:

Ally sat on Santa's lap (picture coming soon, just have to scan it in..etc)
Ally is walking and has been for 3 WEEKS!! (video coming soon also)
Ally turned 1 year old yesterday!! (video of that too coming soon!)

Ally had her birthday party on Saturday and was NOT very fond of the whole birthday cake experience, but liked her presents...


Everyone special in her life came and saw her for her party including a special visit from her dad who came before the party on Saturday, and also on her actual birthday yesterday.
She had a good Christmas this morning too! (haven't uploaded the pictures from the camera yet...so once again..coming soon!)

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas........

But I thought I would post her ultra funny sad birthday face.

good food, good times

So a couple of weeks ago, my friend Eric and his wife Sherridan were in town for Thanksgiving. (I actually had quite a few friends in town that week). But this time we all went and ate dinner at Stoneground. The food there was AWESOME!! The restaurant kind of comes across like a little dive bar pizza type place with even a couple of pool tables in the middle of the place. But then they bring out this gourmet looking food and it was one of the best meals I've had in a LONG time!! I had the pork tenderloin and it was served over Polenta (which I have never had before now) and it was WONDERFUL! I recommend it!

Another funny hair pic of Ally to add to the collection... This is what her hair looked like after rolling around and playing in her crib for a few minutes.....

11 Months Old

Ally turned 11 Months old on Monday. Still not walking without holding onto something, but walking all over the place holding onto walls, furniture, my legs...She is quite the scaredy cat when it comes to letting go. She has taken a few small steps from the coffee table to the couch, but only because she has something to hurry and grab onto instantly. It's so funny to see her panic if she can't reach something as fast as she thought she could.
Samantha does an excellent job being a big sister. No one can make Ally laugh as hard as Samantha can! :)

I love my two cute girls so much!!

Twilight.....

Okay, just got back from the movie.....

Let me just start by saying, I HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK. And after seeing the movie.....I HAVE NO DESIRE TO READ THE BOOK!!!

I'm sorry, but Bella is a whiny, boring character VOID of any real personality. And I was not really that impressed with the actor who played "Edward" either. Most the girls I was with (it was an all girls outing with my sister and Samantha etc) liked the movie, but i was just "eh".

The guy I couldn't take my eyes off of, however, was the character who played Edward's "father". And that mega hottie is actor PETER FACINELLI

Oh yes. He is SOOOOOOOOOO hot!!!! The whole movie I was thinking, "oh just let that whiny girl die and give that hot Dr. more screen time! mmm mmm mmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!

Samantha swears up and down the book is better and that I should read the book because the movie left out a lot of details... yeah yeah yeah...whatever. BORING. I did notice that the author of the books, Stephanie Meyer was in a real quick short scene that most the audience I was with completely missed.

So all you Twilight fans...I am curious to know if you like this movie or not.....let me know.

Samantha's growing beauty

Samantha has changed so much over this past year and has gotten even more beautiful. I hadn't noticed how much until this last visit to our photographers. I brought Samantha with for Ally's 9 month old pictures session and had a couple of pictures done of Samantha as well...and I was taken aback at how pretty she has become with her new blonde hair.

This first picture was taken back in January.....Samantha has gone from this:

To this:

Ally's Halloween pictures

Late update on Halloween...

Halloween and the week proceeding it was very fun. I went to 2 Halloween parties. One was at the top of the Wells Fargo's building on the 23rd floor and it was AWESOME! I was a "dark Angel" and my date was the Joker. And can I just say, he was THE BEST JOKER there!! I didn't know what he was going to be so our costumes didn't really match each other but it sure was fun! This was on the Saturday BEFORE Halloween....

It is always fun going to parties to see what creative costumes are out there!! I love Halloween!!

Then, on actual Halloween, Samantha didn't really want to dress up, but wanted to have spray painted hair, so this is what she looked like:


So what might you be wondering was the FINAL choice for ALLY'S costume??? Well, I really had it narrowed down to the clown and the bunny (which I got her pictures done in both) but because the bunny costume is warmer for the chilly weather, she was a bunny!!
Ally wouldn't wear the head piece, so I just put a cute bow in her hair!
So while Samantha went and hung out with her teeny bopper friends, Ally and I went to Gardner Village to see the Witches. We got there kinda late in the game but got some good pictures in anyway!






Then later that night I went to my 2nd Halloween party with the Joker once again. THIS time, I decided to change my mask and outfit to be sort of a cat woman ;)
My brother Mike, and my sister's long time boyfriend Andy decided to be the the guys from Dumb and Dumber. It was HYSTERICAL!!
Mike's girlfriend Chelsey was also part of the movie as Mary (the girl both guys are pining for). She was carrying around the briefcase that Jim Carrey's character finds to bring back to Mary. It had fake money hanging out of it that had "I.O.U.'s" written on them (like in the movie) and was also carrying around the dead bird named "Petey" that they sold to the blind kid. LOL!! SO HYSTERICAL!!

10 MONTHS OLD

Ally is 10 months old today and just started TEETHING!! FINALLY! Yes it has made her a bit grumpy, but for the most part she is still sweet. She crawls super fast now and gets into even more things. She walks along furniture and will stand without holding on for a few seconds..but she is a wimp about taking any steps yet! She shakes her head "NO" when she doesn't like the food I'm trying to give her and follows me all over the house.

We got her 9 month old pictures done a couple of weeks ago and here is one of the proofs they sent before being printed...(the photography name and website won't be there for the final finished product, in case you were wondering)

Halloween costume maybe's.....

So I have Samantha's old Halloween costume from 13 years ago.. (a clown), but I thought maybe I'd take Ally out shopping and see what else was out there...I tried these outfits on her and here she is in them at the store....(picture taken with the cell phone)

Which one will she be?

A bunny?

A kitty cat?

A clown?

PUMPKIN CARVING FUN

So this past sunday we went over to the Carlings for a pumpkin carving party. Here are some pictures from the day. Oh, and I also have pumpkin carving tips for all of you out there:

Cut the BOTTOM of the pumpkin off, NOT the top! This way, you are not reaching down in the pumpkin to light the candle and burning your hand, AND people stare at your pumpkin wondering how you got all the guts out of it!

Also, when you cut the bottom off, don't cut a smooth circle because that makes it harder to fit the pieces back together so you want to cut some distinctive large jagged grooves so its easy to put the top back on the bottom piece!

Here is Ally sitting amongst the pumkins to be carved

This is Alice, the pumpkin party thrower...I was going to tell her not to cut off the top of the pumpkin but she had done it before I noticed :)

I HATE cleaning out the pumpkins so I asked Nick to scoop out the guts for me!

Here is Ally sampling what pumpkin tastes like. She was not a fan.

Here I am carving the pumpkin...



And here is my finished product! (I didn't have any of those cool pumpkin designs so this is just me winging it)

Funny t-shirts

I have MANY funny t-shirts and I couldn't resist to buy this one for Ally:

9 MONTHS OLD!

Ally is 9 months old today! I can't believe how time has flown! She is such a joy to have! She seriously is so happy and smiley and fun and just makes mine and Samantha's day better because she is in it!

Ally is officially into everything! Her newest messes: sneakily crawling into the bathroom, pulling herself up and unraveling the toilet paper EVERYWHERE!! She can now open cupboard doors and pulls whatever she can out of them; Opens up her baby wipes and tries to pull out as many as she can before I catch her and say NO! ; Likes to play in doggie food and water dishes (at my sisters house although my sisters dog usually watches her closely and blocks her from getting to his food:) hehe)

Cute things she does: claps her hands, can twist her tongue sideways, likes peek-a-boo, jumps on the couch to music. The other day she lost her balance and fell forward and reached out and caught herself with her arms and hands! I was impressed! No more faceplants for Ally anymore!

Everyone thinks us girls are SO "photogenic". :) ha! I decided to post some not-so-flattering pictures that are also pretty funny....:) (most of these are older ones) I guess you could call these the "outtakes" haha

Ally's first playdate AND pony ride!

Ally had her first playdate with her half-brother Bryson and Bryson's cousin Brock. Bryson and Ally are exactly 9 months apart and Brock and Ally are about 3 weeks apart. With them all being so close in age we thought they would have lots of fun together! Bryson probably had MORE fun because he is the only one who is walking so he could climb and explore more than Ally and Brock could.

This is me and Erin with our kiddo's at the Children's Garden at Thanksgiving point.

Ally and Bryson at the "Kitty's Dance Hall". LOL Their EARS are the same shape and angle! :)

Here Ally is with Brock. LOVE his blue eyes!

All three cuties together....its nearly impossible to get all 3 looking at the camera at the same time!

Okay NOW take the picture...doh! Now ALLY isn't looking!

Here Ally is on her FIRST pony ride!!

She was smiling and really liked it at first...but then after a couple of minutes she decided she wanted off this bumpy ride!

My attempt at pretending to be a photographer at the lily pond. :)

Blond Blond Blond

So, I was so unhappy with Samantha's "blond" highlights, I took her back to the salon to have them add more so she would look more blond since that IS what I paid them to do in the first place...and I'm MUCH happier with the results! I am as dark as a brunette as Samantha WAS, but now we are both part blondy's! :) Ally's hair is also getting more and more blond. Her hair is blond at the roots and brunette at the ends...its my hair in reverse!! haha! So here are my two almost blondys!

8 MONTHS! XIN CHAO! (Hello in Vietnamese)

Ally is 8 months today!
She is in a cute little Vietnamese outfit my sister brought back from Vietnam while she was there on a Humanatarian Dental Hygiene trip for school. I've been waiting to post about it til after she sends me some pictures from her trip and tell you some fun things about Vietnam but she has been soooo busy she hasn't had time! But I will post eventually!

Now that she is crawling everywhere, she is also getting into a lot of things. So she has also learned what the word "NO" means, and it REALLY hurts her feelings when she hears it. Ally also gets her feelings hurt and cries if you say her name in a grossed out or annoyed way (like this morning, we were playing and she puked on me and my bed and I said, "oh ALLY! EWWW!" Her little bottom lip curled under and she started to cry.) I didn't even say it mad or anything, just a little grossed out and I had a scowl on my face which also makes her cry if I ever scowl (like at a stinky diaper or trying to wipe a snotty nose). Now I have to pretend I like to do all those gross parts of being a parent because it hurts her feelings if I dont! She is pretty tender hearted but still so so sweet!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAMANTHA!!!

Samantha is OFFICIALLY A TEENAGER!!!!! Yep, she turned 13!! She got Guitar Hero 3 for her birthday from her Grandma and Uncle Mike! Here she is holding her "guitar".
She got a 507 note streak on EXPERT!! Yep, she is pretty good! If only she was as good on a REAL guitar!


For her birthday, I took her to a spa to get her hair done, cut and colored and eyebrows done. This is the "before" picture in the waiting area (taken with my cell phone).
This is her "after" picture. The highlights are hard to see (much to my dismay, I wasn't there for the whole process, I took Ally for a walk around the mall) but I LOVE the cut and LOVE the eyebrows!