Go Bengals!

Our niece, Izzy, passed down this adorable Bengals cheerleading outfit to Allie this year. It is super-cute and has become her staple outfit on Sundays during football season. Maybe we have a future cheerleader on our hands? Aunt Kelsey would be so proud!

My Mom's Godson, Kevin Huber, was drafted by the Bengals this year as a punter and is doing very well. It sure makes watching the games more interesting when you know someone personally. Allie cheers her heart out every Sunday for him. We're hoping to get her down to a game sometime this season to cheer in person.

Congratulations Kevin! We'll be cheering for #10 all season long!

Happy 2nd Birthday Boys!

The triplets celebrated their 2nd birthday with a dog themed party complete with hot dogs, dog puppets, dog tattoos, dog hats, dog collars and a big dog birthday cake. It was so cute! There were lots of kids there to celebrate with them and everyone seemed to have a wonderful time.

The boys have grown and changed so much this year and have become little boys instead of babies. They are walking and talking and love playing with Allie! Elmo is among their favorite things, along with dogs, cars, playing outside and of course Ma and Pa. They're as sweet as can be and such a joy to have in our lives.

I took a ton of pictures at their party. They can be seen here: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZtW7hy4btWLEGg

Happy 2nd Birthday boys!

2009 - 2 Years Old! (Cole, Cameron, Carson)

2008 - 1 Year Old (Cole, Carson, Cameron)

2007 - Home From The Hospital (Cameron, Carson, Cole)

She's Getting So Big!

I find it amazing how Allie can look so different depending on her outfit. Some days she looks like a baby still and others she looks like a miniature three year old moving around my house. I was getting her ready for church the other day and couldn't believe how old she looked! Where did my tiny little baby go?

Happy 9 Months!

While we're catching up on posts, I have to wish a Happy 9 Month birthday to my precious little girl! I can't believe how quickly the past nine months have gone by.

She's changed so much and has developed quite the little personality. She's crawling around like a crazy lady, has 4 teeth, gives high and low fives, claps, waves and is just a true joy! She still loves to swing in the backyard and go for walks with Mommy and Daddy. She's becoming more independent and loves to feed herself finger foods. In other major news, she also has enough hair to really wear bows! No more tape for her!

Where did my tiny baby go? She weighed in at 18lbs 3 oz and was 27.5 inches long! She has to see an eye specialist in October for her leaky eye, but we're hoping it clears up before then.

Happy 9 month birthday baby boo!

Congrats Kelsey & Marshall!

After our trip to Florida, we came home to quickly do laundry and hit the road for my sister's wedding. We headed to North Carolina on Tuesday night to help with some final preparations. We had a wonderful time hanging out in Raleigh with Kelsey and her friends for a few days before heading down to the wedding site. Allie tried to steal Aunt Kelsey's wedding shoes, but Aunt Kelsey got them back.

The wedding was absolutely beautiful! Kelsey was a stunning bride! Allie was the flower girl and was quite adorable, if I do say so myself. It was so much fun to get to spend time with my extended family and meet Marshall's extended family. Allie danced the night away and even made it to the after-party!

Congratulations Kelsey and Marshall! May you have a long and happy life together filled with lots and lots of babies!

The rest of the pictures can be found here: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZtW7hy4btWLD4g&emid=sharview&linkid=link5&cid=EMsharview

Crawling is for Suckers

Allie has decided that the regular method of crawling just isn't good enough for her. She prefers this method:

Not Sure Why We Buy Toys

We seem to spend a lot of time and money researching and buying educational toys for Princess Pea. I'm starting to think this is totally not necessary because her favorite toys seem to not be toys at all. Nick jokes that he's buying her a case of bottled water for her birthday because she loves playing with the bottles. Here are some of her other favorites:

The exersaucer is a toy, but this is not how you're supposed to play with it.

The carseat seems to be entertaining as well.

The best toy of all? The tupperware cabinet!

Perdido Key 2009

Nick's family goes on a family vacation each year, usually to Florida. This year the destination was Perdido Key, FL near the Alabama border. We rented three condos on the beach and had a blast! We drove 12 hours through the night to get to Florida and Allie slept almost the entire way. We got checked in and the fun began!

We shared a condo with Nick's sister and the triplets. All for kids seemed to like having one another around to play with. Allie liked stealing all of the boys' food, sippy cups and binkys. She also learned some new words from the boys throughout the week, mainly "no-no." She now tells on herself while she's doing something she shouldn't be which is hilarious.

Allie didn't seem to mind the sand and actually liked the ocean. The zero-entry pool was another big hit with Allie and the boys. They could walk or crawl in and out of the water as they pleased which was so nice.

Nick spent one day deep sea fishing and caugth a 6 foot bull shark! I didn't take Allie to the dock when they got back so I've only seen it in pictures.

Allie had an allergic reaction to just about every sunscreen we tried. Her poor little face swelled up and got all red and splotchy. Her pediatrician recommended asking the pharmacist for suggestions and we finally found a winner in Blue Lizard Sensitive sunscreen. No more problems the rest of the week!

All in all it was a fabulous vacation! We enjoyed some delicious food, wonderful weather and great time as a family. Here's a group shot of all of the kids.

I took way too many pictures to post here (surprise, surprise I know) so you can see the rest of them here: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZtW7hy4btWLDwA

Our Little Superstar

We had Allie's 6 month pictures taken at JC Penney and were very pleased with how they came out. While we were there, they asked me to sign a release for them to use Allie's pictures in their advertising. I signed the release, not really thinking anything of it. They called while we were in Florida to let us know that they had chosen one of her pictures to be on display in the store. Of course we had to go in to see it and take her picture next to it. Yes, we're big dorks. If you stop by the JC Penney at Bridgewater Falls, be sure to look for her picture on the wall!

Hanging Out At Home

When we returned from Shadywood Farm, we had 3 days to get ready to leave for Florida. This meant that there was lots of laundry and packing to do and a lot of time spent at home. It was kind of boring, but Allie didn't seem to mind. She got to play in Mommy & Daddy's room which doesn't happen very often. Here she is playing on our bed:

One of her favorite activities is crawling up and down the hallway, especially if we're chasing her. She'll crawl down to the corner and just sit and laugh. It makes me question why we buy toys when things like this keep her so entertained.

She also got to sample some new finger foods in an attempt to keep her entertained and away from the suitcases. She seemed to be slightly more interested in playing with the food and making a mess than she was in actually eating the food. Oh well, she's still the cutest baby ever!

Shadywood Farm '09

We spent the majority of the month of August traveling as a family to various locations across the country. We were away from home for 19 out of the first 24 days in August and either visited or drove through 9 states (Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Virginia and North Carolina). Allie was a total trooper the entire time. Much better than we expected.

Our travels began with a trip to Butler, PA for the annual family reunion at my Grandma's farm. It was so wonderful to spend 4 days with family and just relax by the pool. We also got to meet the twins, Sophie and Sebastian, for the first time. They are a few months younger than Allie and it was really neat to watch the three of them, plus big sister Charlotte, interact. We didn't get a chance to visit the cows at the dairy farm next door but hope to do that next year. We had a great time and are looking forward to Shadywood Farm in 2010!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip.

Allie and her Great-Grandma!

Hanging out with Daddy by the pool.

Enjoying a picnic in the grass.

Allie loved the mirror at the top of the stairs. She kept giving the baby kisses. It was so cute!

Miss Sophie being her adorable self.

Big smile from Sebastian!

Allie loved swimming in the pool.

Sophie must have told Allie a really funny joke.

The three babies. I think they're second cousins or something (Their Mom is my Dad's cousin).

The rest of the pictures from our trip can be found here:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZtW7hy4btWLDDA

We'll see everyone again next year!