Our sweet girl is now a year old. She had a great party on Saturday. We had lots of family here (probably around 30 people I'm guessing?) and it was a really good time. She was sooooo tired though! It was a big day for her and she was worn out after it was over. We took lots of pictures of course. Here are some of the best...I've never seen a Minnie Mouse quite as cute as her =)

Party Planning

Guess who's turning ONE on Saturday??? A big party is planned for our sweet girl. I'm beginning to think I'm insane for inviting both sides of my family AND both sides of Jake's family to our house...all at the same time! It will be one packed house. But it will be fun! Can you guess the party theme???

Minnie Mouse, of course!!! Pictures of the party will be posted sometime next week =)

Little Lamb

Big Girl

Guess who is starting to walk!?! My sweet girl took her first steps last Friday night, 3 of them. Then she slacked off for a few days, only taking a couple steps here and there. But now she has been taking 5-6 steps time after time, all day. I can't believe it. She's going to be running through the house like a wild child now! =)

Fall

I know, I know...it's been a long time since I've posted. I honestly think that Anna is the only one that ever reads this anyway? So sorry Anna, but I might have to give this up? Anyway, we've been staying busy lately with lots of stuff. Allie is now 10 months old and almost walking. She could walk easily if she wasn't so scared =) She's got good balance and we've noticed in the last few days that she almost takes steps without realizing what she's doing. Then she quickly sits back down! haha! I'm sure it won't be too much longer...although I've had people tell me that their child would stand by himself for like 6-7 months before he walked. So who knows? She'll do it when she's ready. Other than that she is doing really good and is talking quite a bit. They say she has the verbal skills of a 15 month old right now. She will try to say anything you tell her. It's the cutest thing ever.

Over the weekend we went to the Fall Festival at our church. They had lots of stuff to do: pumpkins to decorate, a clown that made balloons, a greased pig contest, a chicken scratch game, a train for kids to ride in (they even made a tunnel for the train to go through!), bluegrass singers, soup/chili to eat, and then they ended the night with a hayride, even though we skipped out on that. Here are a few pictures:


This is the pumpkin that Allie WANTED...Mommy didn't quite agree!

Mommy and Allie decorating her BABY pumpkin.

All done!

Mommy, Allie, and JoJo the clown.

Time

Where in the world does the time go? The days just fly by soooo fast. Can you believe my Allie Jai is 8 months old now (as of yesterday)? EIGHT months old!!! Wow...it's hard to believe.

• She's into EVERYTHING
• 
  crawling at a lightening speed, all over the house...gates have definitely been installed for the stairs going down to the basement and going up to the 3rd floor
• 
  she has already conquered how to climb stairs...she went all the way up them (with us following her) like she has done it her whole life
• 
  pulling up on everything in sight...even on things that I think will be impossible for her to pull up to (like the swing which moves while she's pulling up to it! haha
• 
  saying Momma all day long
• 
  walking along the couch while holding on
• 
  occasionally standing up by herself for like 5 seconds without falling
• 
  getting a cute little tan
• 
  eating more adult foods...like watermelon, peaches, fried potatoes, etc. (she LOVED the watermelon but tried to bite it with her 2 little teeth and was getting big chunks so we had to be careful!)
• 
  getting more hair...we usually don't do the headbands anymore...just the bows =)
• 
  climbing...on everything...she somehow managed to find a way to crawl to the very highest point of her crib, thankfully I was standing there with her. (And her crib mattress is on the lowest setting!) She's a little monkey!
• 
  Scaring us to death...thinking she's going to fall or pull something on top of her. haha!
• 
  Getting a temper (She's started this little screaming thing when she wants more of something and we're not getting it fast enough for her!) Geez...this started earlier than I expected!
• 
  Learning so much, so fast
• 
  occasionally waving bye-bye and clapping her hands
• 
  giving REALLY big hugs to mommy...the kind where she wraps her little arms really tight around my neck and stays there for a little while (sweetest thing ever)
• 
  growing up right before our eyes

These are just a few of the things Allie is doing as of today. But the list seems to grow every single day. She's not going to be a little baby much longer, so we plan to cherish these days as much as we can =)
I'll be back soon to update about life in general. It's been crazy busy around here and it's not gonna be letting up anytime soon! In the meantime...enjoy these pictures!!!

Allie giving her cousin Jessie kisses, they have matching zebra ears, thanks to Nana =)

She's thinking, are they really gonna let me climb these stairs??? (And we did, but put up a gate the next day!)

Allie and Mommy. We don't have too many pics with the 2 of us (because I'm the one with the camera all the time).

Trying to use the box to help her stand

Look Momma, an egg!

Hmm, Daddy's work shoes look like a good thing to chew on...

Messy face!

Cute little outfit with pink crocs =)

Dragging toys out of her toy basket =)

Looking pretty with slobber on her face haha!

Yum-o! Watermelon!!!

She loves cameras. She usually wants to see the picture after you take it, haha!

Climbing on things she shouldn't be =)

Chasing a balloon all through the house.

Awww, they ruined all my fun of going up the stairs!!!

This is one of my new favorite pictures =)

Haha, this is hilarious...she was saying "momma, momma" and I caught her right in the middle =)

Really love this one too (these were taken today on her 8th month birthday)

Daddy was making her laugh really hard, like belly laugh!

Hope you enjoyed!!!

Milestones

Allie now has her first teeth!! Yay!!! Yesterday morning I checked for teeth, just like I do every morning, and OUCH there was definitely something sharp there. After a quick peek I discovered that BOTH of her bottom middle teeth are pushing through the gums! Yay! Gotta right July 16th down in the baby book =) She did so good with them too. No fever, diarrhea, fussiness....just chewing and slobbering! ha!

Oh and on Saturday July 12th she started "talking" sooooo much. She's always been a very quiet baby as far as "talking" goes, but just out of the blue she starts talking, a LOT! She says "mamamamama"aaalllll the time and I love it =) Most babies usually say dadadada first, but she just kind of skipped over that. She will occasionally say dadada, but not very often. It's usually mamama, bababa, yayaya. It's so precious...I've gotta get it on video soon.

Well, I just wanted to write this all down so that I can share my proud mommy moments! =)