April and Family

Uncle Preston's Preschool Graduation

2009-05-14T23:17:00.000-06:00

Ally's Uncle Preston, graduated pre-school! yea! He had it at Wheeler farm. The kids had a good time running around and seeing the animals. (Preston is "thing 1 in red-he was suppose to be in yellow..lol)

Pretty new dress

2009-05-02T23:16:00.000-06:00

16months old

2009-04-24T23:12:00.000-06:00

And getting cuter every day....but don't let this sweet face fool you...she is a feisty one! :)

My bday weekend/Easter

2009-04-15T20:50:00.000-06:00

My bday weekend was a blast! It was also Easter Weekend. So I had a party combining the two. I had people over, we played Guitar Hero World tour (like Rockband but BETTER), and people could dye Easter eggs...
I had also won Britney Spears tickets from 107.9!!
Saturday, Samantha and Ally went on an Easter egg hunt...

Here is Samantha and Ally Easter morning before church..
then on Monday me and Samantha went to the Fall Out Boy Concert (pictures are on her camera I'll post later) and Tuesday was the Britney Spears concert!
Here I am with my tickets!
I also got to meet the PussyCat Dolls that were opening for Britney Spears. (they wouldn't allow pictures) :(

15 months old

2009-03-24T20:43:00.000-06:00

Ally turned 15 months old is still only has 3 teeth....1 on the top..2 on the bottom... I need her to have teeth so we have more food options!!! If you click on the pic to zoom in, you can see what i mean about the tooth situation ;)

(i know long time no post)

2009-03-21T22:42:00.002-06:00

K i'm going to cheat again and post this as IF i was posting clear back in March....

Ally got her first "big girl" car seat. Here she is her first day riding in it:

ON St Patricks day, Ally got her first non-mommy haircut. Here she is sitting in the seat with a sucker to hopefully keep her occupied while getting the hair cut. (her first time eating a sucker, and nope, she did not like it. She threw it to the ground-who's kid is this anyway??? NOT like candy???)

And here she is...not very happy about having a wet head..and it was difficult for the lady to cut her hair cuz she DID NOT want to hold still....oh well! We tried!
More posts to come......

SHAKE IT (Bday installmant pt 3)

2009-02-26T16:44:00.002-07:00

This takes place after everyone left Ally's bday party (and all the toys were still all out)... Ally is so much fun and so cute! She is our entertainment every night!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Bday cake refusal

2009-02-23T22:14:00.002-07:00

This video starts out AFTER we sung Happy Birthday and her staring at the cake for like over a minute wondering what she was suppose to do. She touched it a couple of times..but that was about it...so I tried to help her out.......

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Ho-Hum

2009-02-23T22:12:00.002-07:00

Okay so my vision is BETTER...but still not 100%. And after me being sick, Ally being EXTREMELY sick while I was pretty much blind, Samantha getting sick, and now me being sick again..I hope my month of hell is finally over...

Until then..I'm FINALLY posting the Birthday cake refusal....funny!

Trauma...LASIK gone awry :(

2009-01-30T13:50:00.004-07:00

So Wed, I had LASIK eye surgery. I was hoping to say bye bye to glasses FOREVER. Well, after my surgery, as I was hearing other patients rave about how much more they could see just minutes after getting it done..i was sitting there wondering why my vision was even worse. Everything was a white fog with blurry everything else from what I could see. The "fog" is normal and it "should go away by morning". They told me the best thing to do was go home and take a nap for a couple of hours. So I did. I woke up, still white and foggy and blurry and now the numbing drops had worn off and my eyes were killing me. I stayed awake for about an hour, couldn't see anything or even attempt to watch tv (it was just a fog of blur) and threw in the towel and went back to bed. (In the mean time I had to put 3 different kinds of drops in my eyes). Thank goodness for Samantha to help take care of Ally.

So the next morning I wake up...fog gone...blurry vision even worse. AND I was in excruciating eye pain. You know how it feels when you have an eyelash caught in your eye? Well it felt like I had an entire eyeball full of eyelashes in both eyes with little rusty knives scratching my eyes everytime I moved an eyeball or an eye lid. I could barely open my eyes and it hurt like hell when I tried. I went in for my 1-day post op appt, and describe to her my misery (I'm still wearing the ugly sunglasses they sent me home with the day before). The nurse writes down all my symptoms and asks me to try and open my eyes to look at an eye chart. (It wasn't a paper eye chart...she turned the lights off and had a projection on the wall of various letters).

They were all blurry. She tried another slide...I could tell all the blobs were bigger, but yet they were still blurry. So finally she just put one gigantic letter on there and I said, "I think that's an 'E'".... So basically I WAS suppose to see this:
But instead..I was seeing this:
Not good.

So she goes and gets the doctor and I hear her whispering, "......not normal......."

So the doctor comes in and I tell her how miserable I am and how this should be the new torture for getting prisoners to talk...so she puts numbing eye drops in my eyes and asks if its any better. OH YES! Relief at last!! I asked her if I could take a gallon of that home with me but unfortunately it prevents the eyes from healing so that was a no.

Then she puts dye in my eyes and takes a look.
Well, I guess my cornea's were not re-attaching the way they were suppose to and I had "corneal abrasions" in both eyes and my vision was 20/150. (almost legally blind). I started to sob because I had already had one annoyingly bad thing after the next go wrong every single day this week (in fact my sister joked that maybe I shouldn't be doing the surgery with all my bad luck). The doc put contacts in my eyes to prevent my eye lids from creating worse abrasions and to hopefully let my corneas heal. So I have an appointment today and then again on monday. I can't drive or go to work. I'm depending on my family to drive me where I need to go. The good news is, I'm not as blind today as I was yesterday (hence me being able to do this post) and i'm not in pain anymore. My vision is still blurry but not as bad and its hard to focus... My vision is more like this now:
Here's hoping that it eventually it improves to the first chart.

I have a new found compassion for the blind........

Ordinary Miracles

2009-01-25T22:00:00.001-07:00

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

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

2008-12-25T20:11:00.004-07:00

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

2008-12-08T18:49:00.011-07:00

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

2008-11-26T17:22:00.003-07:00

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.....

2008-11-21T23:01:00.003-07:00

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

2008-11-09T12:36:00.003-07:00

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

2008-11-06T22:11:00.002-07:00

Late update on Halloween...

2008-11-06T19:18:00.005-07:00

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

2008-10-24T16:57:00.004-06:00

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.....

2008-10-22T18:22:00.002-06:00

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

2008-10-15T21:57:00.006-06:00

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

2008-10-09T11:34:00.002-06:00

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

9 MONTHS OLD!

2008-09-24T19:34:00.003-06:00

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!

2008-09-19T18:59:00.006-06:00

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

2008-09-10T22:20:00.003-06:00

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)

2008-08-24T16:13:00.003-06:00

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!!!

2008-08-21T17:24:00.001-06:00

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!

I got jipped out of a sour face

2008-08-05T20:20:00.002-06:00

So today me and Samantha went to Applebee's for lunch. While there Ally was grabbing at everything so we decided to give her a lemon to teach her a lesson. We thought when she finally put it in her mouth we would get a good laugh, anxiously awaiting the sour face...but nope! She LOVED the lemon kept it in her mouth licking it and gnawing on it for a good 15 mintues! Even though we didn't get to see a sour face, we had a good laugh at how much she just chomped and drooled all over herself working on that lemon! Samantha took a picture with her camera phone.

Ally's hair in the morning...

2008-08-03T20:10:00.000-06:00

So the other morning when I got Ally up for the day, her hair was its normal crazy self...it made me laugh so I decided to take pictures of it in the tub....then I dumped water all over her to wash it...Ally is not the biggest fan of water in her face. LOL

7 MONTHS OLD!

2008-07-24T19:21:00.000-06:00

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Recap/Lagoon!

2008-07-23T18:52:00.000-06:00

So Saturday, Ally's G-pa and G-ma Young stopped by for a visit and brought with them Ally's newest favorite toy! Its a cute little boat that lights up and sings when you push it and Ally loves it!!
Then Monday, (which I don't have any pictures of) me and Samantha and one of Samantha's best friends went to Hollywood connection. We played miniature golf and went on some of the rides and saw the movie, "MAMA MIA". Then we went and played video games and went out to dinner later that night!

Tuesday was LAGOON!! G-ma Marianne watched Ally and Me, Samantha, and Isabella (Ally's paternal Aunt) went to Lagoon! We were so glad Isabella came because I don't like the rides that spin so Isabella was a good partner for the rides with Samantha

On the Samari

The Jet Star

Then Marianne brought Preston and Ally to Lagoon to join us. I took Ally on the 2 rides she can go on: The train and the Merry-go-round. Thanks Marianne for the Lagoon passes and for watching and bringing Ally!

Here she is on the Merry-go-round

CATCH UP!!

2008-07-18T21:33:00.001-06:00

Okay, so last week I was off of work for the WHOLE week...it was my vacation time. And since having little miss Ally, she has thrown a curve ball into my vacation plans. So due to finances, etc, we decided to take a "vacation" right here in good ol Utah and spent every day doing SOMETHING!

It started on Friday, July 18. We went and got Ally's 6 month pictures done (yeah, i know it was a week shy of 7 months...but hey it got done! We also got a family picture done too:

I'm also going to cheat by posting what we did for each day by posting that DAY on here...hehehe...more to come!

Bowling Fun

2008-07-13T20:32:00.003-06:00

We went bowling on saturday! Ally had fun watching everyone...here she is in the black lighting!

She loved the bowling ball we let her play with for a bit! The colors were so bright in the black lighting!

I got a spare on the first frame and thought..woohoo! This is going to be a good game....NOPE! Gutter gutter gutter...many gutters later...67 was my score :( Oh well, at least we looked cute!

Here is Samantha bowling! Her score wasn't much better...she doesn't use the bumpers but maybe we should have!!

Ally's first 4th of July

2008-07-08T15:11:00.004-06:00

We had a pretty chill 4th of July... No, Ally can't really stand on her own yet...I had to pose her against this flag that was in my sister's yard for the holiday and hurry and run and snap the picture before she fell over. (This was the 4th try pic)..hehe. We just lit off our own fireworks and watched the neighbors elaborate illegal WY fireworks! haha! Ally seemed to like them and wasn't afraid of the noises..(although I covered her ears just to be on the safe side if it seemed too loud).

6 MONTHS OLD!

2008-06-24T22:36:00.002-06:00

Wow I can't believe it has been 6 months already! How time flies. Well, as I have mentioned, Ally is getting quite the personality. One of mine and Samantha's favorite things to do now, is make Ally laugh. I can always make her smile, but making her laugh...that is Samantha's department. Samantha is a pro at getting her to laugh. So here is a little clip of Ally laughing at Samantha while in her new favorite thing: her Jumperoo.

(This is only 40 seconds long)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

pigtails

2008-06-22T22:35:00.003-06:00

So my sister put Ally's hair in pigtails and it was too cute! I didn't have my camera, so the good ol cell phone camera had to do...it is so cute....Ally's hair is getting lighter....and she is just getting more fun by the day!!!!

Oh I just love this sweet face!!!!! She has also developed this habit of sucking on her bottom lip...hopefully that doesn't make her get an overbite when she is older!

Happy Father's Day

2008-06-15T09:43:00.002-06:00

For Father's Day, I have been making a little slideshow for Samantha's Dad, John. I did this for all the help he was to me during my pregnancy last summer. He helped fix quite a few things around the house and made my life less stressful during a stressful time. How many ex-husbands do that?? It took a long time to get to this point, but I'm so glad we are good friends now.
Anyway, the video started out to be a cute short one, but then as I have been getting baby pictures done of Ally, Samantha commented on how she wished I would have done pictures like that of her when she was a baby. Well, I literally make 5 times what I did when Samantha was a baby. Yes, I was THAT poor and couldn't get as many professional type pictures done, but we did take a lot with our little camera.
So my slide show to John also turned into a tribute to Samantha as well. I made this just as much for Samantha so she would know how much I have love her and how many people love her too. And although I couldn't put the HUNDREDS of pictures I do have of Samantha on it (the video would be way too long and boring for that) I put a few for each year of her life and all the people that have been in her life over the years.

It is 10 minutes long.....I put this on a DVD to give to her dad today. I hope he likes it! And now everyone who visits my blog will get a glimpse into Samantha's life over the years....(p.s. Samantha's dad is a redhead, and anytime you see a redhead in the slideshow, it's someone from HIS family...lol)

For Samantha and John:

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

VEGAS!

2008-06-11T18:01:00.005-06:00

We went to Vegas this past weekend for my friend's Jenny's and her daughters baptism. So Ally had her FIRST plane ride!! I thought Ally would do great since she is SUCH a good baby and never cries, I take her to movies ALL the time and she is fine. Well....she wasn't so happy on the plane ride. She wasn't screaming, but she got fussy towards the end of the flight. I didn't know about air pressure and babies...no one tells me these things. But I figured a 1 hr flight was better than a 6-7 hr car ride each way being trapped in a car seat.

We stayed with Jenny and her family and they have a pool so Ally had one more first while in Vegas. She wore her FIRST swimming suit and went in a swimming pool for the first time.

Jenny's and Kate's baptism went well and Ally did much better for the plane ride home.

Here is a little video of some of the trip....

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

5 MONTHS (yesterday)

2008-05-25T23:00:00.004-06:00

Okay, Ive been totally slacking here...and I don't even have the MOST pics scanned in yet...but here are most of the pro pics that were taken of Ally...from 5 weeks, and 3 months...so I'm going back in time a little..but at least they are getting posted....

Ally's developed some very cute quirks. Lately she has been sucking on her bottom lip, its making her look like a cabbage patch doll! And she will only do a poopy diaper in a DRY diaper. Yep, that means right after I change a wet one, minutes later I get a nice surprise...DOH!

She does NOT like rice cereal. She gets fussy everytime I try feeding it to her. I will have to post video on that one too.

She is one of the best babies, and I can still take her to movie's and card night at friends' house, and she is just as good as good can be! Me and Samantha love her so much!

Shiba Inu's!

2008-05-21T14:22:00.003-06:00

My sister's dogs are Shiba Inu's. They recently had puppies and Ally just loves them! Here are some pics of the puppies and some with Ally...

a funny video for mom's/happy late Mother's day to everyone

2008-05-13T18:41:00.001-06:00

Which one is which???

2008-05-13T12:32:00.003-06:00

Can you guess which one is Ally and which one is Samantha?? How did I get so lucky to have 2 such beautiful babies???!!!!

4 Month Checkup!

2008-05-06T21:29:00.003-06:00

Well, Ally had her 4 month checkup yesterday and I'm happy to say she is perfectly healthy! She weighed in at 13lbs 3 oz (50%) and was 24 1/2 inches long (50-75%). Once again, she was happy sitting there all unsuspecting of what was to come. Samantha couldn't go with to this appt because she was in school, so she wanted me to video it to see if Ally turned her freakishly dark red color again and did the car alarm cry. Well...she didn't but here is what did happen....a little video for those of you who may not have kids and haven't been to one of these appts before.

But WARNING! It is sad!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I've been tagged....(6 things about me)

2008-04-29T17:20:00.007-06:00

Okay so I guess I will FINALLY get around to doing this....don't know who interesting it may be but here it goes. Most of it I'm sure most of you will know anyway.
6 things about me:

I play 4 instruments and have been in 4 bands: 2 bands as the bass player, and 2 bands as the keyboardist (piano player).
I love to travel and here is some of the interesting places I have been so far OUTSIDE of the U.S. : Amsterdam, Paris, Costa Rica, Bahamas (I guess that's technically U.S. boundries), Puerto Vallarta
I'm pretty adventurous- I've skydived, rock repelled, and river rafted and also like to snowboard and waterski when I get a chance.
My favorite food is SUSHI!! (Thai is a close second)
I love a good Chess game
I've split my eye open in the same spot twice and have had to have stitches both times.

4 MONTHS OLD!!

2008-04-24T16:43:00.002-06:00

Ally is 4 months old today and I can't believe how time flies already! She has almost slept through the night...once..so I'm still getting up 2x a night..but that's okay! She is going to bed earlier..so technically, if I went to bed as early as her I would be getting more sleep, but there is just too much to do!
I got her pictures taken at Faces photography...I will be posting the other pictures soon...but the black and white one is from when she was 5 weeks old, and the color one is her 3 month picture taken a couple of weeks ago.....

Busy busy week

2008-04-18T21:06:00.008-06:00

So this has been a very busy week (taxes, Samantha had a major project for school due today and didn't tell me about it til wed-we did finally get it finished late last night..., doc appts, never ending housework) and I have been behind on the posts I had meant to post. Ally went to bed early tonight so here I am. We will start with last weekend....

The girls and I went up (down?) to Layton to visit Ally's dad's family and to watch Ally's aunt Isabella in a play she was doing..."Willy Wonka". Isabella was Oompa-Loompa #2 and we thought she was the best Oompa-Loompa! :)
Later that night, Samantha got a 100% on Medium on a song on Guitar Hero 3 (596 note streak). Woo hoo! I don't know why I take pride in that...but for all those who play that game, that's pretty good! Especially since we don't even own the game! (I didn't get a picture of it)

Then on Sunday, it was beautiful weather so we took Ally to the park for the first time! She seemed to really enjoy herself. I put Ally in one of those baby swings even though she was a little too small. Her uncle Preston (who is only 3) helped push her in it.....We then went over to Ally's Great-Grandma Alexanders house for dinner and had a nice visit.

And finally.....Happy Birthday to Marianne (Ally's too-young-to-be-a-grandma) on Wednesday (April 16)!!! She spent it at Isabella's play and I hope everyone had a good time!!

A little humor on tax day

2008-04-15T17:33:00.002-06:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

2008-04-10T16:58:00.003-06:00

Just a cute little picture of me when I was about 5 or so....now I'm.....well....can you guess??? By the way...those bangs are from my mother's attempts at cutting hair...lol

too exhuasted to think of a clever title

2008-04-06T14:52:00.008-06:00

I've started putting Ally's hair in little pony tails and bows...and she has discovered her thumb...but she sucks it in a funny way :).

Well, it's been quite the while since I've posted last. I have been back to work for 2 weeks now and boy has that been quite the adjustment. My day usually goes as follows.... Alarm clock goes off at 5:50am. I hit snooze til 6:10am...then finally get up at 6:20. (Ally still isn't sleeping through the night...occasionally I get a straight 4 hrs in there), I get ready, then I get Ally up, change her, dress her, nurse her, then load everything up in the car: Ally in her carseat, her diaper bag; diapers, wipes, a change of clothes in case of any mishaps, blanket, burp cloth, previously pumped breast milk, formula in case she is still hungry, and a bottle. Next, my electronic breastpump with a clean bottle to pump into, an ice pack to keep it all cold, 2 bottles of water, one to drink, one to rinse the breast pump horn part thingy after I'm done pumping, my purse, a lunch for me (if i'm doing really good but most of the time I forget) and we are off to drop Ally off to the baby sitters. Then I'm off to work. Get off of work, pick Ally up and her stuff, get home, and now for all the other fun mom stuff...helping Samantha with homework, dishes, laundry, dinner, yardwork etc...needless to say, the non-critical things get set aside for later.
Ally is doing well...Marie (her babysitter) says Ally is a really good baby that hardly ever cries. So I'm happy about that. It's been an adjustment, but we are getting the hang of it ;).

Wow, quite the mix!

2008-03-23T14:51:00.001-06:00

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Ally's Great-grandparents sent me a baby picture of Ally's dad. I think she has his face on my head with my hair...lol. It is fun to see the similarities..:)
This will also be my "Happy Easter/3month old post". Ally turns 3 months tomorrow and the day after that, I go back to work :(.

Turning over!!

2008-03-20T14:10:00.003-06:00

So, last night I decided to put Ally on her stomach, which all babies hate...but this time, she was holding her head up real high and not fussing...the next thing I know...she rolls over! She had just as a surprised expression as I did! haha! So, I grabbed my camera and put her back on her stomach, and within a few seconds she did it again..(before I could even get my camera turned on). So I did it AGAIN but this time had my camera ready but she still rolled over pretty fast. Then I tried to get her to smile on video, but she really does not like the camera in her face...

An attempt at jumping.....

2008-03-17T09:49:00.003-06:00

So I found this old jumper from when Samantha was a baby and decided to put it together and see how Ally did. Well...she is still very small and didn't know quite what to do...she just hung in it and moved her feet a little but didn't quite get the jumping part down............and because she IS so small, she started to slip down in it to the point where her arm was hanging out the bottom where her legs go...LOL! Oh well, we will try again in a few weeks....

Rufus....it was fun while it lasted....

2008-03-09T21:33:00.006-06:00

For those of you who know, we attempted to get a puppy. He was given to us for free by my sisters' boyfriends mom. We thought, hey, free! Woo hoo! But having a puppy with a new baby was just too much and he kept stealing Ally's toys (which she doesn't really play with quite yet) and figuring out ways to break out of the kitchen/dining room area that we barricaded him in with the baby gate. He sure was cute with his one right ear flopped over, and loved to be held...a definite lap dog all the way, but I couldn't hold him and Ally both. Rufus was very clever and I was a little bummed we couldn't keep him but he was almost more demanding than Ally! So we had to give him back and he is now going to an older lady that will never grow tired of holding him!

Ally's Blessing

2008-03-04T00:19:00.004-07:00

Ally was blessed this past sunday. She was blessed by my good friend, Jason Osberg.

She was blessed at her Grandma Aiken's houseAlly looked so pretty in her blessing dress. It was her Aunt Isabella's. Sadly, I forgot my camera and didn't get to take the pictures I wanted to, so I used my brothers camera when he got there. But here are a few pictures from the day. It turned out nicely and I'm thankful to everyone that came!

From left to right, my brother Michael, sister Lisa, me (April), Samantha and Ally

Aunt Lexi

Grandpa and Grandma Young
Great-Grandpa Alexander

2 MONTHS OLD!!

2008-02-24T21:28:00.003-07:00

Ally is 2 months old today! She has been drooling A LOT so we have to put a bib on her. The bib is usually soaking wet after a couple of hours!

Here she is getting a bath....

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Weekend Fun

2008-02-19T15:17:00.004-07:00

The Ertmann family came down from Vegas and we spent all weekend with them. Jenny watched Ally.....
...while Jeff and Kate
and Samantha and I went snowboarding!! We had so much fun!
I look a little funny because I forgot my hat, and I had a gator that keeps your face warm, but then my forehead was cold and was giving me what felt like a "brain freeze" type headache...so I took the gator off my neck/face area (where it's suppose to be worn) and put it on top of my head. Samantha thought I looked like something from Dr. Seuss...but I didn't care! I'd rather be comfortable and look silly than miserable and lookin good ;)
Then ....
Yesterday we got Ally all bathed to take to her 8 week checkup .
Here she is waiting unsuspectingly for the nurse. She weighed in at 9 lbs 7 oz, 22 inches long. The doctor says she is looking great and is healthy!
Here she is after just getting her shots...crying...(I was crying too because she had turned such a dark shade of red...by the time we took the picture though she had breathed again and wasn't as red but it was still pretty sad:( )

My first Post!

2008-02-13T23:58:00.004-07:00

This is Ally after a bath the other night. Her hair stuck straight up and it was hilarious!

Aha! I'm figuring out my first post and now I figured out how to post a comment...but its all underlined....hmmmmmm back to the drawing board!