What we've been up to:

Kite Flying....

Boat Repair...

toe grabbing....
and hot dog eating on the porch!

We love spring !!!

Pro Pics

I've decided to do pro pics of Allie at 3, 6, 9 & 12 months just like I did with JD. The problem is that Picture People here closed! So, this time we decided to try Sears Portrait Studio and I will never recommend them to anybody. I was not impressed at all! I can list about a dozen things I didn't like about them. Next time I think we'll try JC Penny for just pics of Allie. I think next time we do family pics like we did this time we'll fork over the cash and just hire a professional photographer to do it.... and maybe go somewhere like the beach or a really nice park instead of a studio. I'm thinking next spring might be a good time for that. Anyway, here are the pics we ended up with:

Tooth #2

Allie's second tooth finally broke through yesterday after weeks of constant and excessive drooling and finger chewing.

She has also (finally) started gaining an adequate amount of weight. I took her in for a weight check last Tuesday and found that she had gained 11 ounces in 13 days... which really shocked me. For the entire week prior to her weight check she had been nursing the same amount of times during the day but was nursing for shorter periods of time. We had also started giving her formula bottles at bedtime but could only get her to take 2 ounces at a time... which is not much for her age. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I was told she was gaining about three quarters of an ounce per day. I just hope it keeps up! She has her 4 month check up on May 10 so we'll see how she's doing then.

Lastly, I've reintroduced eggs into my diet. I really don't think eggs were the issue and so far she's doing OK. I'll give it a few more days and then try reintroducing seafood.

Super Dad!

I can't imagine having kids with anybody else! Dave is so great with the kids and is always trying to think of new ways to make my days easier too... for example:

Dave stopped at Wal-Mart randomly the other day and got JD his first Big Wheel. He told JD it was a reward for doing so great with his big boy bed.... then he told me it was really for me. Hopefully a way to get some energy out of the boy to make my life easier (this kid has a lot of energy. In fact, I've coined the term testosterone-y to describe him!) Unfortunately, his feet don't reach the pedals yet so all he can do is scoot. But it has lots of cool buttons to push and I'm sure it won't be long before he's zooming all over the place on it!

The other day while I was feeding JD breakfast Dave was playing with Allie...which resulted in jumperoo time! I wasn't planning to put her in it for a few more weeks but she does great! She can't jump yet but loves to sit in it and look around at all the colorful toys. And JD, of course, is thrilled to show her how everything works!Lastly, Dave was on Allie-duty again while I dealt with JD (seeing a pattern here? JD is going through another round of separation anxiety or something...it's exhausting!). Allie was visibly tired and we knew it was time for her to take a nap. Problem is, she has these busy little hands that constantly rip her binky out of her mouth and then she roots around looking for it, meaning she can't fall asleep. Dave came up with this ingenious and hilarious solution. He put a bottle nipple in each of her hands and she seriously closed her eyes and went right to sleep! This is a "supervision only" solution but I thought it was pretty funny! What's even funnier is that she held on to those nipples in her sleep for at least an hour!

Mommy's Day Out!

I'm not sure if all of you know but one of the perks Dave gets as a result of graduating from the PGA PGM program is free admission to tour events....including The Masters. So last Thursday Dave spent the day in Augusta for round 1. Seeing as he was so stressed when it came time to go to FL to finish the PGM program and I was so proud of him when he passed all of his tests with flying colors (still am), I was MORE than happy to tell him to go, have a great time, and don't worry about the kids and me (even though I was slightly jealous inside... The Masters is a lot of fun...even for a non-golfer like myself).

Here's the proof that I have an awesome husband: He said to me the other day... "Why don't you go to Monday After the Masters".... I called a friend, he pulled some strings to get us tickets and I got five glorious hours walking around a beautiful golf course, among celebrities, in the sunshine WITH NO KIDS! Dave stayed home with both children and I enjoyed an afternoon with a girlfriend!

In true Dave fashion, when I got home both kids were happy and close to naked. I don't know what it is about Dave but he likes his kids to be stripped down to diapers... here is what I came home to: And here are a couple of pics from my afternoon:

Me with country music singer Steve Azar

My friend Christene with Darius Rucker from Hootie & the Blowfish

22 Months... Big Boy Stuff!

JD is 22 months old today and we've been breaking out the big boy stuff lately. Now that it's warmer at night we've pulled out the lighter jammies.... all in size 2T! Not only are they a big boy size, they're not the one-piece footie pajamas that he's used up until now. His PJ's now have two pieces! Here are his favorite. He loves the monsters and runs through the house making monster noises at us!Not only have we pulled out the big boy PJ's.... we got rid of the high chair! JD thinks he's big stuff sitting at the table with Mommy and Daddy now. I've cleaned up the high chair and put it away but will have to pull it out again in a couple of months for Allison!

And to top all that off...... JD is sleeping in a big boy bed tonight. I almost cried as Dave took the front of JD's crib off. Although I'm not sure if that's because by baby is getting bigger or if I knew it would probably be a long night of JD getting out of bed and pounding on his bedroom door.... we'll have to wait and see how the night goes!And yes, if you can tell in the last picture, he got a long overdue haircut this evening.

3 Months

Allie is 3 months old today. I always say this but I just can't believe it's already been three months!

We've had weekly visits to the pediatrician for the past few weeks. Her weight gain is still slow, she even started losing weight at one point, but now she's back to gaining about a half ounce per day. That's normal, just on the very low end of normal. As of yesterday she weighed 11 pounds, 9 ounces which puts her in the 34th percentile is 23.5 inches long, which puts her in the 64th percentile. Since birth Dave has been calling her Mini (as in mini me) because she looked just like me when I was a baby....now we've started calling her "Skinny Mini" because her pants keep falling down!

Skinny or fat, she is an absolute joy. As you can tell from the monthly pic, she is still very generous with the smiles and she talks and talks and talks.... and I mean talks. I think we'll be getting notes from her teachers saying "Allie will not stop talking during class". She has recently started laughing too, which is the best sound in the world... tied with the sound of her brother's laughter, of course.

Easter at Grandma's

Whew! What a day we had on Easter! We got to my parents house around 12:45 in the afternoon and ate an amazing lunch around 1:30. After lunch we just kind of hung around, talking about the upcoming wedding (my brother is getting married NEXT MONTH!) and watching JD run around like a crazy person. Around 3:30 we walked down the road to their neighbor's house who has a mini bottle hunt every year. So we hung out and talked to people over there for a little while and went back to my parents house. Grandma and Grandpa hid some eggs for JD who just loved finding them! We finally got home around 6:30. JD slept the whole way home and Allie talked to the little stuffed ladybug hanging from her car seat handle. At one point she even started laughing, which is something she's just starting to do!

Anyway, I got a few pics and I made my little family sit in the front yard for a family pic. I figured it's not often that we're all dressed nicely and even coordinating (JD and Dave in green, me in pink and Allie in pink and green!)... here are a few pics from our day:

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny visited our house last night! Dave and I dyed eggs after JD went to bed. JD refused his afternoon nap yesterday and was in no mood to be handed an egg (even a hard boiled one) or a cupful of dye (especially a cup full of dye)! But the Easter Bunny hid them all, as well as JD's Easter basket and JD had a ball finding all of them!

Also last night (and yesterday afternoon), I made this year's bunny cake! When I was a kid my mom would make one every year. It always had white icing with coconut.... yummy! But Dave doesn't like coconut so I make a chocolate bunny for him. I usually use jelly beans for some of the face but I kind of ate them all before I got the cake made... I love jelly beans, this is the only time of year you can get the good ones and they're the only candy I can eat this year because of my dietary restrictions! Oh... and you try making a big bunny cake with homemade chocolate frosting and homemade buttercream knowing you won't get to eat any of it! It's pure torture.... but worth it if Allie's belly isn't hurting her!

Here are some more pictures of our Easter egg hunt. We're going down to my parents house for lunch and, no doubt, more egg hunting! I'll post pics of that when we get back!

The Easter Bunny hid JD's basket under this table...he found it right away!

He likes his new toothbrush!
This kid is good at finding eggs! Granted the Easter Bunny didn't hide them very hard but JD caught on right away and every time he spotted an egg he'd point, say "there it is" and run to put it in his basket.
JD got special bubbles in his basket. They didn't pop when they hit the ground and we had bubbles everywhere!

Cuh cuh cuh cuh

Now imagine the title of this post being said by an almost two year old to the cadence of the word "helicopter". Yep, that's his version of helicopter!

Our wonderful neighbors Kevin and Tiffany invited us to join them at their church's Helicopter Easter Egg Drop. There were 15,000 eggs. Yes, you read that right, 15,000 eggs! I bet next year they'll double that amount based on the amount of people that showed up for this. It was insane! The traffic was insane too.... it was at a standstill and backed up for at least a mile. Crazy! But the church did an awesome job and it was a lot of fun.
JD was in love with and terrified of the helicopter at the same time. Where we were standing we could see where it was landing to load the eggs and JD was intrigued. When it flew over us, though he put the death grip around my neck, buried his head in my neck and even started shaking a little. He quickly forgot how afraid he was when they started dumping the buckets of eggs, though and when it flew back over us to reload he waved with me and said "bye bye". After they let the kids onto the field I swear all 15,000 eggs were gone in less than three minutes. There were kids everywhere! JD got a few eggs, opened them to find small toys and then all he wanted to do was walk over and see the helicopter where it had been landing... but the helicopter was gone.Right now, while the kids are sleeping, I'm boiling eggs. I think we're going to see if JD can follow directions enough to help us dye a couple of eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide tonight! Then I have to bake cakes and make frostings for the traditional Easter Bunny Cake. Once JD goes to bed tonight we'll leave their Easter Baskets out for the Bunny to fill with all kinds of fun stuff!