The Corlew Family

2008-12-08T20:43:00.005-06:00

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

2008-12-04T13:21:00.004-06:00

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

2008-11-03T11:38:00.005-06:00

Big Girl

2008-10-30T20:44:00.002-05:00

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

2008-10-14T19:27:00.001-05:00

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

2008-08-07T10:02:00.007-05:00

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

2008-07-17T11:00:00.003-05:00

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! =)

July 8th already??

2008-07-08T13:26:00.011-05:00

I know, I know. It's been forever since I've blogged. Life has just been so busy! Having a pool in our backyard seems to take up most of our free time these days =)

Life is going good. We're still trying to get settled into the house. I'm trying to get a few decorations here and there. This is a big house, and we didn't have near enough decorations for it. Jake doesn't seem to care and doesn't think we should spend much money on it, but it drives me insane to look at empty walls. I love to have a well decorated house, so I've been going a little crazy. Hopefully it will get better real soon though!

Jake is taking an evening position at the hospital. It has it's pros and cons, but I guess we'll try it out. He's just sick of not getting to sleep at night, and I don't blame him. He will still make the same pay, and he will have every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off (yay!). His hours will be like 12 noon - 10:30 pm. So it's going to suck being by myself all evening 4 days a week. But I have a friend who is at home by herself a lot too, so maybe we can hang out.

In June we got to see all of Jake's college friends at Greg and Stephanie's wedding. We had a great time, but it was the first time that we've ever spent the weekend away from Allie. I was about to go nuts by the time Sunday rolled around. Allie was sooooo excited to see us though, and we were definitely excited to see her =) It was really great to see everybody though, and I'm hoping we can make plans to get together again real soon. Rodeo anybody? =)

The weekend after the wedding we went to Branson with some of my family. It was Allie's first vacation and she did great. Sometimes I think she's better if we're out on the go, instead of at home! She got really sick of her carseat on the way home though, but it still wasn't too bad.

So here's the Allie update. She's SEVEN months old now! I can hardly believe it! At her 6 month check up she weighed 14 lbs 14 oz, so I'm guessing she's about 15 1/2 now MAYBE 16, still only the 25th percentile...so she's a tiny thing for her age. She's trying to crawl, although I'm not sure she will...she seems to be satisfied with scooting! ha! She gets on her knees and everything, but hasn't quite figured out the whole moving her arms with her legs thing =) And she's pulling up out of her crib now...which is really scary to her momma! I'm so scared she's just going to tumble right out of it onto the floor! I have a feeling we need to be getting the baby gates bought REALLY soon =) But she's so much fun and has such a cute personality. She scrunches up her nose when she smiles and it's the cutest thing ever. If only those little teeth would pop through! Oh and she loves the pool...she's not scared of the water AT ALL!

Okay, I could go on and on about Allie...but I need to go so I can play with the little munchkin. Of course I'll leave you with pictures =) PS--Anna, we need to get together soon so you can take pictures of my growing baby girl!

Such a big girl in her pretty dress.

Look, she's almost crawling!

The pool is so much fun!

Splash, splash!

I love Daddy.

After her bath =)

This is what I came in the room to find one day...doesn't she look guilty! hehe! She wanted out of that crib bad!

Allie playing with her cousins, Will and Jessie, while we were moving Jake's mom out of her house.

Happy 4th of July!!!

Before church =)

Summertime

2008-06-04T21:18:00.006-05:00

Okay, so I haven't been very good about keeping up with this blog. Afterall, it IS summertime now. We've been soooo busy! We have an awesome backyard here at our new house. So it makes for a great place for guests. We've been having BBQs and stuff lately. We have lots of family over every weekend and we've had some friends over too. We got our pool up and going the Saturday before Memorial Day too. It was really cold at first, but it feels sooo good now. Jake and I both love to swim, so we've really been enjoying. We haven't really let Allie get in it too much yet though. I think it's still a little cold for her. But I bet it will be warm enough this weekend. She has been in my parent's hot tub though, and she loved it! She's a little water baby =)

So between having guests over, taking care of the flowers, yard, pool, the house, and most importantly Allie......we have been super busy. But I like it that way. After this weekend we have plans for the next 2 weekends. June is gonna be a busy month!

Allie is still growing like a weed and will be 6 months old (already!?!) on Friday. She is sitting up by herself now and trying to crawl. She will get up on her knees but can't quite figure out what to do when she gets there. She does move all around in circles though and sometimes she goes backwards, it's so cute =)

Have I mentioned that I have the best husband ever? He came home this morning with an early anniversary gift for me. A Wii!!! I've been wanting one for so long! And not only did he get the Wii, but also the Wii Fit and Mario Karts game! He's so good to me =) We played the Wii Sports tonight and it is so much fun! I love the tennis...and I was pretty darn good at the bowling. I'm ready to try out the Wii Fit and the Mario Karts soon!

Here are some recent pictures:

This is my mom letting Allie pet their dog, Dixie. Allie and Dixie love each other =)

Awww, sleeping on Daddy.

Look Mommy, I'm sitting up all by myself....and I have a suntan! haha

Is that not the cutest thing ever?

This is fun Mommy!

This and That

2008-05-21T21:32:00.005-05:00

I've been slacking here lately on blogging. There's just been so much going on and I haven't had much time or energy to sit down and write it out. So once again I'll do a quick bullet post to keep caught up. I have some pictures that I want to share too, but I don't really have time to upload them right now.

Jake's dad left yesterday for active duty...he will be going to Kosovo. He's been training for a couple months now out of state, but he came home this past weekend so he could say goodbye before they head overseas. He'll be gone close to a year. He was an emotional wreck when he left =(
My grandpa had his surgery to remove his bladder, due to cancer. They ended up removing his prostate too, just to be sure. The surgery went good and all the test results came back good and showed no cancer in the lymphnodes. He's still sore and recovering, but he gets a little stronger everyday. He was in the hospital for one week.
My sister came home to visit for the first time since Christmas. She and Allie were big buddies and my sis really did not want to leave her. Hopefully she'll try to come home more often now!
My first "real" Mother's Day was great. Jake and Allie got me a new table and chairs set for our breakfast room. It's really cute...I need to take a picture. They also got me a movie and a package of socks. Haha, Jake bought me some socks because I could never remember to buy myself any =)
My MIL has been trying to sell her house since right after we bought our new house and she still hasn't got an offer. Now that my FIL is gone overseas she is having to handle everything by herself...so she's really stressed. Please pray that the house sells really soon!
My little baby girl is sitting up by herself now. With no hands on the floor to hold herself!!! She's such a big girl. I should have started working with her on it sooner, I think she could have done it sooner if I would have tried it. She learns everything so fast! She's went from not sitting up at all like 2 weeks or so ago, to holding herself up with her hands on the floor, to no hands at all. She is pretty balanced too, she only tips over every great once in a while =)
Allie broke out in a rash over the weekend. It was mostly on the backs of her arms, like where people pick her up. The only thing we can think of that was different was my MIL wore a different lotion. So we're thinking Allie is allergic to Breathe Romance lotion! I guess she's gonna have sensitive skin.
Oh and she slept in her crib ALL night from 8:30-6:30 the night before last! First time that's ever happened...too bad it didn't happen again last night! haha!
We're still trying to get the house decorated. I REALLY need to get some stuff hung on the walls. It's driving me insane.
We're opening our pool this coming weekend! We have no idea what we're doing, but we'll figure it out. I'm sooo excited to have our own pool. We'll have a blast. And just wait until you guys see a picture of Allie's bathing suit! Precious!
Tomorrow starts off the 100 mile yard sale and me, Allie, mom, and my grandma are going! Yay! =) I'm looking for a good playpen that we can put out by the pool for Allie.

Well, I can't think of anything else major that is going on right now. I'll try to get a picture post up soon!

5 months...already!

2008-05-06T21:09:00.004-05:00

Our baby girl is 5 months old already. I can hardly believe it. Time just flies by so fast. Sometimes I wish it would slow down just a little so I can enjoy her at this age for just a little longer. =)

She's such a good baby.

She is learning so fast and is doing so good.

She is incredibly fun.

I can't help but smile when she gives me that big grin of hers.

She gives "kisses" now and who wouldn't love those nice, slobbery, wet kisses? I sure love them.

She almost has her 2 bottom teeth in. I can see the impressions of the teeth, but they haven't popped through yet. She hasn't been fussy or had fever or anything though.

She tries to wave bye-bye. She will raise her arm in the air for a second and stare like she's trying to get it to work right =)

She is starting to sit up all by herself. She can sit up if her hands are on the floor.

The PAT lady said that she is "advanced" for her age.

She loves to stand.

She gets bored very easily...Mommy has to keep her entertained every few minutes. I don't mind though, I think her getting bored easily means that she's smart =)

She loves her baby food and always eats it all. Green beans and peas were her least favorites, but she ate them anyway! She's a little piggy.

She is getting better with sleeping. She has started taking good naps during the day in her swing. And she is always dead tired by 8 pm every night, so I just lay her in the crib and she goes right to sleep. She usually wakes up in the early morning hours (2-4) and either eats or just wants to snuggle with me. But I'm still waiting for the FULL night of sleep...

She seems to be getting stranger anxiety, which I've read is common at this age. If a stranger tries to hold her or get close to her she sticks her little bottom lip out and starts crying and wants her mommy. My mom took her to church a couple weeks ago and she did NOT like the big crowd, they had to leave with her b/c she was screaming!

She takes her pacifier in and out of her mouth (mostly out) and she sometimes throws it. She's getting good at throwing things.

She is starting to gain weight. She is still in 0-3 month if it's pants or skirts. But she can wear 3-6 if it's dresses and sleepers. She's just got a tiny waist I guess.

People tell us that she looks like both of us. Sometimes a person will say she looks JUST like Jake. And then 5 minutes later another person will say she looks JUST like me. I think she's a good mixture of us both. And she looks like Allie.

We bought her a high chair and she sits in it like a big girl. She hardly ever makes a mess while eating since we've started putting her in there.

She has started eating her toes! It's so funny!

She's changing everyday and is so much fun. She's more joy than I ever could have imagined. She's my baby girl. She's my Allie Jai.

From the past...

2008-04-29T21:37:00.006-05:00

Just thought I would share a few engagement and wedding pictures...and I have to throw in a few of Allie too =)

Okay I hear a little baby girl on the monitor so I better go see what's up =)

I've gone and done it

2008-04-28T13:50:00.000-05:00

Well, our friend Anna talked me into starting up this blog so that we can all keep up with what's going on in each other's lives. Hopefully I'll update regularly. It's quite busy around here though, with a new house and an (almost) 5 month old!

I guess I'll start this first post off with a picture of the three of us. This is Jake, Ashley (me) and our precious baby girl, Allie. (Don't pay any attention to the undecorated house in the background. This is right after we moved in!)