OUCH!

Allie had her 1 year well check today. I will say, that as of yet, physically restraining my child so that she can receive shots has to be my least favorite parental duty.

Thats 1 and 2-

3, 4, and 5!!! Oh the agony!

She is much more difficult to hold still now and I had a bit of trouble with all my boo-hooing and all. By the way, when we were done the nurse was soothing me saying, "It's ok mom, we're almost done."

You are one tough cookie Allie! Other info we learned today, Allie is tiny. She is in 75% for height and only 25% for weight even though she seems to eat like a champ. She actually lost a pound since our visit a few months ago when she had a cold. Now that she is taking whole milk she seems to enjoy her bottles a bit more so maybe that will help. But then again the doctor said I need to be getting her off of bottles and onto sippy cups so maybe it won't be so easy.

Overall, a healthy and happy baby girl and Doc said Allie has great social skills. She even gave Doc a big hug. That was before the shots of course.

And by the way guess who has gained 14 and 7 pounds since Allie started "sharing" table food?

No not me and Kyle. These lazy bums went to the vet this week.

Oh Christmas Tree ~ Thrifty Decor Chick's Christmas Tree Tour

So this is not actually until Monday, but I want to get this post put together tonight so that I can list it first thing Monday morning, because I love Thrift Decor Chick and I am a good student like that!

When I started reading blogs a few years ago, I became quickly addicted to these home decor linky par-tays. You can find amazing ideas looking through all the posts. Trust me. Check back Monday and see for yourself.

And I LOVE TDC!! I am a huge fan and did not get to post last year because I had just had Allie and she was a little needy for the first few weeks, months, YEARS (?!?!?!?) of her life but this year I gots it together. She shares all kinds of fun ideas on her site. Please check her out! You will not be disappointed!

Behold the tree!!

They are never as impressive in the daytime as they are at night so here you go...

Ooooooooooh! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

It is nestled in the back corner of our dining room where Allison is unable to maneuver her walker over the area rug to clobber, attack, climb, dismember or set fire to it. I seem to have outsmarted the baby for at least a moment or two.

I LOVE my tree!!! When Kyle and I first got married we were poor and could not afford a fancy pretty tree like I was dreaming of, so we settled on a $19.99 fake tree from Wal-Mart for our first few years of marriage. But then I came home from teaching one winter day while we were living in California, and I found this beast of a tree set up in our tiny apartment. Kyle had surprised me and I love it still today. In fact I would like about 5 more of them to go around the house.

My grandmother has always given us an ornament each year since we were born so I had quite a collection to start with. Outside of that, I had decided that I would use gold and red for our Christmas decor colors and have tried to stick with that so that things seem to somewhat go together.

Some of my favorites....

This is the ornament I have from the year I was born, 1980...

My Aunt Linda got this once we decided on the name Allison when I was pregnant last year...

Allison's first Christmas...

The Blessings Basket. Each year we all write what we are most thankful for and store it in here to look back on...

I bought 15 or so of these after Christmas on clearance from Pier 1 a few years back! So beautiful! Originally $10 and got them for $2 bucks each.

And I just shove some Hobby Lobby BLING in there wherever it seems a little empty!

Then I wrap that sucker up in red and gold ribbon, drink the last of my hot buttered rum, and call it a day!

These are actually from my mom's tree but I am going to try to make some this year. They are angels made from the smaller Christmas ornaments and ribbon. SO pretty!

This is a smaller tree in my office where I keep my Christmas cards from year past. I totally stole this idea from someone and I wish I could credit them but it was a few years back and the hot buttered rum is keeping me from remembering!

In the daylight....just not as pretty but still a fun way to store all the cards we get each year!

I am not much for scrapbooking or really anything that would require organizational skills for that matter, but my trees kind of allows us a way to collect memories and look back on years past to see where life has taken us. God has been good to our family and although our story is not grand or extravagant it is still special. I look forward to sharing these memories and traditions with Allie each year. UGH where are the kleenex!?!!!? Wishing you all a MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Hope it is full of joy, peace, love and not lumps of coal!

Let's Just Be Honest...

...the Christmas card may not happen this year.

Everyone loves a good Christmas card right? And I mean a good Christmas card which we all know means that it includes a current picture of your family. What you may not know is that I actually keep Christmas cards that I receive each year that have pictures on them and then decorate a tree in my study with them. That way I can look back and think this was the year Landon was born, or that Brian and Sara went to Italy, or that Courtney was too lazy and sent out a cartoon stick figure drawing of her family rather than the expected picture (that one just barely made the tree girl!)

Well here is the deal. I want to send out a photo because I want to pass off the illusion that I had it together for 1 second out of this entire year and make you think that we were just one big well kept and manicured family.

My problem is 3 fold:

1. Kyle has been really busy at work and when he is not working he is wrapped in a blanket on the sofa begging for medication or mexican food which is not a part of the BRAT diet.

2. I am feeling way to fat to be photographed and though I don't feel fat I turn up fat in my pictures which means I am more that likely fat or just need a new camera.

3. My child was at one time the most photogenic of babes, but now she is just a blur who cannot sit still for the 1/10th of a second necessary to produce a photo. And if she is still her eyes are closed. And if she is still and eyes are open then I am in the picture being fat. UGH! Almost all of my candid shots look like the following pictures and the staged ones are EXHAUSTING!!

Proof I tell the truth about this fast-as-lightening baby.

I envisioned this as being our for real card with the cottage cheese Santa beard.

But every once in awhile I can get her to slow down and cuddle and boy is it nice.

Quite Possibly the Grossest Blog Entry Ever!

I wanted to title this post simply "Puke and Poop" but I did not figure anyone would check that out when it went to Google Reader. So there I tricked you!

As I posted yesterday, Kyle has the barfs. I know it is horrible and miserable and he feels really really bad. But then he also gets to sleep for 22 hours a day and so maybe I am just a little jealous. I think I could handle the barfs if I could get uninterrupted sleep for a few days.

Here he is being pitiful. Poor thing!

But don't you worry he is feeling much better now. And it appears that Allie is feeling just fine so hopefully it did not travel over to her (KNOCK ON WOOD EVERYONE!)

Well and now on to poop. I won't give you too many details (or pictures so do not fear) but let me just say that the transition to whole milk from formula has been explosive, unpredictable and super gross. And it is only day 3. Ick! Yesterday when I got her up from nap I swear there was a green haze of stink rising up from her crib. The problem becomes even more ick because Allie is pretty difficult to change now. She is too long to change on the changing table and so I usually just plop her on the floor. I give her a toy, book, cracker, whatever to keep her busy and as soon as I undo that diaper she flips and is off and I just see a blur of baby buns taking off around the corner or as it happened the other day UNDER MY BED! Yikes! So of course I am just waiting for the moment when nature calls while I am chasing down a diaper-less baby!

And although she may have some difficult tendencies, she more than makes up for it with her cuteness as shown below.

Crazy bed head.

Pondering deep thoughts on the swing.

Chillin in her cozy coupe.

I promise to not blog again about poop or puke for a very long time.

Icky, cold and wet!

Everyone in Houston is talking about snow, snow, snow! From my view out the window of my study I see no snow. Perhaps some sleet and drizzle but no snow! This my friends is snow.

And it is miserable! I will take no snow anyday over that. It is just a gross day and Kyle is home from work with the barfies and my house needs a good scrubbing but instead of doing anything productive let's blog!

Ok so now how about Allie. She is up to some cute and amazing stuff. First off the smoochies are adorable along with all the hugs she has been doling out. She will lean into you and say "mmmmmmm" and lay a big open-mouthed smooch right on you. So cute.

She is standing for a few moments on her own without any support. I predict walking in a few weeks!

And she also like to copy or mimic sounds. Sneezing, animal sounds, and singing are all hysterical to her and they all sound the same when she repeats them but it is cute and fun. And she loves music now and will clap and bend her legs in a dancing motion during SYTYCD.

To get her to smile this is my newest trick. I touch her nose with my finger and say, "toot, toot'"! Weird but it seems to work but now with the copying me she wants to do it back so it is not helping so much with pictures anymore.

Then there are not so cute and fun things happening like not sharing, poking eyes, and biting! Yea!