5 Weeks Old

I'm a little late in posting this but Allie turned 5 weeks old last Thursday. She has become such a fun baby! She will track your face and has started to really recognize our voices. She's also starting to find her voice and makes the cutest little sounds. Sometimes she scares herself and jumps when she makes a sound. It's too funny. She likes to play with her activity gym and has started to swat at the toys. She's growing up so fast!

Newborn Pictures

We finally received Allie's newborn pictures back from the photographer and the turned out so well! We used Patrick Banfield and were very pleased. We own the rights to the pictures too so we can make as many copies as we'd like, which I love. We had the taken when she was 18 days old. Here are a couple of my favorites.

Allie's 1st Christmas

While in Texas, we celebrated Allie's 1st Christmas. Being that she is so young, we didn't go overboard on her. We left that up to the grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends and boy did they come through. Allie received TONS of presents! I tried to take pictures of the gifts as we were opening them but Allie had had enough and had a mini-meltdown so the picture taking ceased. Thank you to all of you who spoiled her rotten on Christmas. We love all of the gifts and can't wait for her to wear the outfits and play with the toys.

Nick and I call Allie our little Alligator so we searched high and low until we found a stuffed alligator for her to play with as she gets older. We also got her a sweater and a small toy but we were most excited about the alligator.

Aunt Kelsey and Uncle Marshall ordered this blanket for Allie with her name and birth date on it. You can see the shear excitement on Allie's face when I opened it! It is beautiful and looks fantastic in her room! What a great keepsake for her.

Aunt Victoria and Uncle Chris picked out this adorable hat for her. There is also a sweater and mittens to match! I tried to take the picture during the mini-meltdown so it's not very good (and I can't figure out why it won't upload in the correct direction) but she's worn it several times since we've been home and she really does love it!

We hope you and your families had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Allie Invades Texas

We loaded up the truck on the 22nd and headed to the great state of Texas to spend Christmas with my family, non of whom had met Allie. Who knew babies needed all of that stuff? The inside of the truck was packed to the brim and there was also a lot of gear in the bed. We probably could have gotten by with a quarter of the stuff we brought but we are first time parents and wanted to be prepared.

The first day we drove to just past Memphis. We stopped a few times along the way to eat and to feed and change Allie. It's kind of awkward to breastfeed in the parking lot of a gas station but you've gotta do what you've gotta do sometimes. We went on a wild search for some Memphis BBQ thanks to the GPS system and finally ended up at B.B. King's on Beale Street in downtown Memphis. We felt kind of guilty about taking a baby to a Beale Street but Allie seemed to enjoy it. She loved looking at all of the neon lights and listening to the music. After some good food, we headed about 45 minutes west where we stayed the night in the grossest hotel I've ever seen. Let's just say we DON'T recommend America's Best Value Inn, no matter how nice it looks on the outside. We didn't let Allie touch anything and got up and got moving pretty early the next day.

After a quick breakfast we headed on towards Dallas. It was pretty rainy and gloomy most of the day but not too bad. We finally arrived at Casa de Shedgar (our affectionate name for my Dad and Step-Mom's house) around 5pm. Chris and Kelsey came over that evening to meet Allie for the first time. It was so great to see their reactions to our beautiful daughter. Kelsey, who doesn't like kids, just kept repeating "I love her" over and over. It was so cute. Even Uncle Chris got in on the holding action.

My Dad and Shelley enjoyed meeting their very first grandchild! I'm not sure I've seen my Dad smile as big as he did when he held Allie for the first time. He ended up being sick for most of the trip so he didn't get to hold her as much as he wanted to but he did manage to sneak in a little cuddle time.

Victoria came over the next day to meet Miss Allie. There was a lot of talk about her stealing Allie and taking her home so Nick and I made sure to monitor all of the doors whenever Victoria was holding her. You can't be too careful right? Just kidding Victoria!

She also got to meet Kristen, Ryan (two of my step-siblings), Ryan's girlfriend Lindsey, Shelley's Dad and Shelley's brother Rob but I don't have those pictures on my camera. Allie enjoyed meeting all of you and can't wait to see you again. She's looking forward to her next trip to Texas in May for Chris and Victoria's wedding!

The 2008 Bryant Christmas Party

We celebrated the Bryant Christmas on the 20th this year with Nick's extended family. It was the first time many of them had met Allie. It's so neat to see everyone's reaction to her and just makes me so proud that she's ours. She did great being passed around from person to person, although she did get a little cranky at times. After all, she is a baby, right?

She got to wear her Christmas dress again and looked so darn cute. Of course I wouldn't expect anything less from the little Princess!

All of the Bryant kids and grand kids were there with the exception of Jake, who is in Afghanistan, and Kiel, who is in Arizona but moving home in February, so they decided to take a picture. It will be so cool to see how people (especially the kids) grow and change as the years go by. Back row: Brian, Tony, Nick, Dan, Andrew, Carson, Casey, MyKella. Middle: Jimmy, Holli, Sheri, Megan, Allie, Laurie, Laney, Lindsey, Carissa, Logan. Front: Cameron, Shelley, Andrew, Cole, Loren, Maggie, Maura.

Allie also posed for a picture with her immediate cousins on the Bryant side. From left to right, Carson (16 months), Logan (8), Cole (16 months), Loren (15), Allie (3 weeks), Cameron (16 months).


Allie also got some snuggle time with Loren who is super-excited to finally have her first girl cousin on either side! Loren's going to have to teach Allie how to be stylish as she gets older because I have no clue.

We had a great time hanging out with everyone and can't wait for next year!

Allie Meets Her Great-Grandpa

The week before Christmas, Allie got to meet her Great-Grandpa Whalen. She is his 8th great-grandchild behind Zane, Jorden, Ian, Trevor, Trent, Tyler and Cecelia! Hopefully Allie will be blessed with his intelligence, longevity (he's 97!) and good health. We can't wait to visit again soon Grandpa!

Lots of updates coming soon

I know I haven't posted in awhile but we've been really busy this past week. I'm working on uploading a ton of pictures and hope to get some new posts up in the next few days.

Allie is doing wonderfully and getting so big! She's sleeping longer and longer periods of time at night and is really starting to smile more often. We love her more and more each day!