Baby Armani

So I bought this baby doll with car seat for Ally back in November and planned on giving it to her for Christmas. When Christmas came I thought I had gotten her too much so i put it away for her birthday. Then her birthday rolled around and I thought she had enough baby dolls and I should return it to Toys R Us. But of course the receipt is no where to be found. And after about 20 minutes at the service desk at Toys R Us waiting for them to look for the receipt through my phone number, they told me they could not take it back. I left totally annoyed but Ally was pretty psyched to see that the doll was coming back in the car and asked for it immediately. And it turns out that the doll is pretty great and is her new favorite. It came in a car seat/carrier which reminded me of Armani who we just saw in her seat the other day. I said to Ally "this looks like Armani's seat" and she thought this was great and patted her doll saying "Armani" and kept calling her Armani..so cute! This is the first doll she has named.

She is so in love...

She played with her all morning... buckling her in her seat:

Reading to her:



Carrying her around:

And I thought I should post a picture of the real Armani since she is the in one who inspired all of this play:

How cute is she?

Knee Deep in Paint

or it felt like it anyway...it snowed for most of the day today so I decided to break out the finger paints.

She loves to paint...I love how she really gets into it:

Birthday Party

I think that we can finally say that Ally's birthday is finally over...with her actual birthday and her party being so far apart and her being home sick in between this birthday seemed to go on forver! So after cupcakes at school on Monday it is now officailly over!

She had blast at her party...it was fun to see her so into her birthday this year. She spent most of the party dressed up in one way or another:

Nana got her a bunch of cute new clothes which she thought would be boring to Ally, but she was so wrong...Ally needed to put her new hoody on right away and go check herself out in the fireplace "mirror"

She was also fascinated with the new books from Nana and Papa..her she is reading with Auntie Lindsey



Party guests, Nana and Papa:

Aunties Lindsey and Amanda and Grampa:



Holly, Ally and Auntie kelly checking out the reflection from Ally's dress:

The cousins munus two:

The Pablo pinata:

And finally, my favorite photo from the party:



Phew, this was a long one for me!

Basketball

Our Saturdays are filled with basketball games now and since this blog has been leaning heavily on the girl side i thought it would be nice if i posted a couple pics of the boys.

This is Max's first year of basketball...he was so excited and was missing having a sport in his life since the end of football. I forgot how funny it is to watch first grade basketball...it is amazing how far they come by third grade. Max is such a hustler..love this about him.

And Brandon's games have all been so exciting this year...really close games and he has made some critical points ...here is one from a breakaway in this weeks game against the Newfields team...



(my basketball photography is horendous!)

I have lots of pics from Ally's birthday party this weekend that hopefully I will share tomorrow. And I think the terrible twos have already it hit and she has only been two for one week!

Poor baby...

sick on her birthday...



She had a fever and a bad cold...she was getting tissues all day (and wipes her own nose now!). And the blanky did not leave her side all day:

She would perk up from time to time during the day but for the most part was real mellow. She had found her presents in my bedroom early in the morning and would say "presents" and bring me up there several times throughout the day...she was pretty good about waiting for her brothers and daddy to get home but I did let her open a couple a little early. Her favorite present by far was a little bag of doll accessories:

She especially loves the little "chair" (its actually supposed to be a potty). She has been sitting her baby near her so she can play with her. Here they are playing farm:

We had cupcakes (she'll get her cake on Saturday at the family party) and sang to her after dinner

and ended the day with her favorite activity...a nice long bath:

And I am happy to say she is now feeling much better.

This morning

when I went to wake up Brandon I realized that I had not tripped on or stepped anything on my way to his bed. I asked if the cleaning fairy had come last night and he told me that after I put him to bed he got the urge to clean up his room! I almost fell over! I guess he will do anything other than go to sleep!

Look what a great job he did:

And his bed which is usually covered with stuffed animals AND books now only had stuffed animals:


height="426" border="0" />

So for I guess i can't be mad at him for staying up too late!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!

Today she turns two...



I just cannot believe how fast these two years have gone. This day is bittersweet for me...two is the end of baby hood which makes me sad but I am also so excited for what this year holds for her. She is already talking more and more everyday, even some small sentences and i know it will not be long before we are having whole conversations with her. This year she will (try to?) learn the potty and move into a big girl bed (and hopefully stay in it all night long!). Her play is starting to change...she is pretending to cook for us, etc...I love watching it get more complex.

So yes, my last baby is growing up...sigh...

We did a two year old photo shoot the other day with my white seamless background. And even though I have the camera in her face every day I haven't done anything formal like this with her since last year:



She has changed so much (and so has my photography!)



She had so much fun doing this photo shoot...she would take direction from me so well which is weird because normally I have a hard time getting her to even look at the camera! And then every few shots she would come over and want to look at the pictures on the camera.

So Happy Birthday Baby Girl! I love you the whole world!

Bubbles in January

I do not think we have ever done bubbles outside in January. Today was so beautiful we pullewd them out..



The snowsuit was not needed for warmth, just to keep her dry.

Been neglecting the blog this year:) Going to try to work on that. I have been trying to get organized around here and also needing to focus on work a little more...hoping to find a better balance this year. I've been inspired by Ali Edwards to have a word of the year. Last year my word was "create" and I did lots of that last year. This year my word is "balance". Kids, husband, work, scrapbooking, photography, house, etc...This is a challenge for me! So I will work on balancing these!

Happy New Year!!!!

Love the promise of a new year! Lots of goals, however I worked on none of them today, except eating more fruits and veggies...made it to the grocery store and stocked up today before the snow really started coming down. We decided not to brave the elements and just stayed in and chilled...did some scrapping with my new goodies.

I started a new Photo a Day album and really hop I can keep up with that! Here is a couple form today--

Fun with Pablo:



Still playing around with my new flash...loved this one of Ally:

Happy New Year!