One of the Guys

Allie loves watching football at Buffalo Wild Wings with Daddy. She's in heaven with TVs in every direction. She's also a fan of the mini corn dogs...then again, who isn't? I see many football Saturdays or Sundays spent with Daddy in her future!

Another Example of Not Needing to Buy Toys

Allie found this laundry basket and it quickly became one of her favorite toys. She loves to push it up and down the hallway and around the living room. I think Santa may have to re-think his purchases for this year's Christmas and get some more laundry baskets!

Oops...man down!

1 Year Pro Pictures

Nick's cousin, Laurie, is starting her own photography business. She agreed to shoot Allie's 1 Year pictures for us, as well as taking some family pics for Christmas cards. Allie was a little grumpy and it's always hard to wrangle an active toddler but I love, love, love how the pictures turned out! We were lucky enough to have one last beautiful day so that the pictures could be taken outside. Here are some of my favorites:

Thank you so much Laurie! We can't wait to have you take her pictures again!

Finally...Birthday Pictures!

Things got a little bit crazy around the holidays and I didn't get a chance to update at all. I'm trying to get caught up this week.

Here are some more pictures from Allie's party. We did a Winter ONEderland theme and I love how it turned out. We had lots of snowflake and snowman decorations and I made Allie a little snowflake jumper to wear. She looked ADORABLE! She had a lot of fun playing with her friends at the party and I hope everyone who attended had fun too! Thank you to all of our family and friends for making Allie's 1st Birthday such a memorable day for her!

Snowman pretzels.

Hot chocolate bar.

Allie's cake.

Everyone else's cake.

People were VERY generous!

The collage of her monthly pictures.

Pushing the car around at the party.

Taking a ride down the roller coaster.

Checking in with Izzy during the party.

Opening some gifts.

Loving the wrapping paper!

Getting ready for the cake!

Checking things out before taking a bite.

Mmmm...this is good!

I can take bigger bites if I use this spoon!

This face pretty much sums up the day.

Checking out her new kitchen. She had to put her jams on because of the mess with the cake.

A Few Birthday Teaser Pics...

I was so busy at Allie's party that I didn't get to take many pictures. I know, I know, just go ahead and hand me the Mother of the Year award now. Don't worry. Kelsey and Victoria have assured me that they will send me theirs as soon as they get home! Here are a couple of cute ones I managed to snap:

Dressed and ready to head to the party!

Mom, this is the BEST PARTY EVER!

She LOVED her birthday cake!

Happy 1st Birthday Allie!

Yesterday was my baby's 1st birthday! I can't believe how quickly the time has flown by. She's definitely more like a toddler than a baby now. She's walking all over the place and talking up a storm. She's even developed quite the little attitude lately. It's so much fun to watch her learn and grow. I can't wait to see what the next year brings us!

Her birthday party is today but I let her open her gifts that came in the mail yesterday. Here are a few pictures:

I'll post pictures from her party tomorrow. Happy 1st Birthday baby girl! We love you!

I Can See Clearly Now, The Goop Is Gone!

A few weeks ago we visited with a pediatric opthamologist about Allie's leaky, goopy eye. Her right eye always seemed to have goop in it and was always "wet." Tears would leak out throughout the day and nothing seemed to be helping. We learned that her tear duct never fully opened and had become clogged. He recommended a quick surgery to clean out the ducts so that the tears and goop could drain properly.

While I was not excited for the prospect of her being under general anesthesia, I knew we needed to get it done while she was little so that her eyes could develop properly and we wouldn't have to deal with it anymore.

We scheduled the surgery for November 5th at 7:30am in Dayton. We had to be at the hospital, an hour away, at 5:30am. That 4:00am wake up call came very early, but I'm glad I didn't have all day to dwell on what was coming.

We arrived at the hospital and got checked in. They brought Allie back to her room and gave her a cute little book to read while they did a mini-physical on her and explained the procedure. They brought a little car for us to push her around in while we waited, which did a great job of keeping her occupied, and we waited for the anesthesiologist. We brought along her best friend, Curious George, to keep her company during the procedure.

30 minutes before the surgery they gave her a combo of Tylenol and some drug in the Valium family to help her relax and not remember anything. It was hilarious to watch her after taking that. She could barely hold her head up but was laughing hysterically and talking up a storm. Her binky was hanging out of the corner of her mouth and drool was running down her face. She was too cute!

When the nurse came, we gave Allie lots of kisses and handed her and George over. It was hard to let her go, but we knew it was best for her. About 15 minutes later, the doctor came in and told us that everything went well and that they ended up working on both ducts just to be safe.

As soon as she woke up, they brought her back to us. They gave her 8oz of straight apple juice and she was gulping it down. She never gets juice at home so she kept looking at us and saying "yum, yum." We cuddled her while she continued to come fully out of the anesthesia and pushed her around in the car while waiting for the okay to leave. About 45 minutes after she was back in her room, we were finally free to go!

We came home and all took a very nice, long nap. It was a long day but totally worth it. Her eyes have not leaked at all since! We have her follow-up on Monday and hope to get good news!

Allie's Favorite Part Of Halloween...

is the chocolate! I let Allie eat half of a chocolate cupcake leftover from our Halloween party and she LOVED it. I felt bad because she kept yelling "more" after she was done but I thought half a cupcake was plenty for her little belly. I guess I know which flavor to order for her 1st birthday cake.

Nick's Mom came over a few days later and gave her a chocolate cookie to eat. She again went nuts and kept asking for more. I guess she has a little bit of me in her after all!

Allie's 1st Halloween

After much debate, I decided to have Allie be an Alligator for her first Halloween. Nick regularly calls her Alligator and I knew that I wouldn't have many opportunities as she gets older for that costume. I found the perfect costume on ebay (although it was a tad too small) and we were all set. I sewed a bow on the top so that people would know that she's a girl. She hated having the hood part on her head but she looked adorable!

The triplets and Ava came over to trick-or-treat with Allie. Even Aunt Holli dressed up for the fun! Everyone looked so cute in their costumes. We made a quick trip around the block before heading back to our house for a party.

Allie the Alligator heading out to do some trick-or-treating.

Daddy and Aunt Holli pulling the wagon of trick-or-treaters.

Cameron the monkey testing out some of his candy.

Cole the Horse ready to go!

Carson the puppy dog loves Halloween!

The whole gang enjoying their candy.

We had several of Nick's cousins and their children, as well as a few friends come over after trick-or-treating for a party. We set the fire pit up in the driveway and the kids all ran around and played. It was a lot of fun and so neat to see all of the kids in their costumes. We're hoping to make it an annual tradition!