Delayed Christmas Gift

Today Ally and I headed to Target after ballet for her to use her gift card from Christmas.

Ally picked out a book and a toy pet dog.

A dog that you feed and it poops.

A HUGE thank you to Gruncle and Aunt Suzie for gifting Ally the ability to buy such a lovely new toy. She has named it Cutie Pie.

Ally was so excited about her new book she started reading in the car.

Proof it poops.

My cutie pie with her Cutie Pie. 

Today Ally went to ballet and danced! The past 2 weeks she has done barre work and then sat and watched but today we talked about it and with her teacher and she participated in the whole class! No leaps or jumps but glides and steps and movement across the floor. 

I was so proud of her. And she was smiling the entire time. (The room has mirror walls so I know she was smiling because I could see the reflection.)

We also all got our hair cut today and Ally  looks so grown up. 

Formal Day at School

Yesterday was Formal Day (aka Dress Up Day) at Ally's school. 

Ally was pretty excited to wear some fancy clothes.

Ally wore her dolphin necklace and a silver bracelet, with her teal tulle dress that we have had for 2 years from Olive's mom's shop and a soft and fuzzy purple sweater. 

Its hard to chose formal shoes that fit over her ankle brace, but her new Uggs seemed to work, and were appropriate for school. Ally's old Uggs have been trashed by her ankle boot. The boot ripped them apart and the sticking is actually coming apart! 

Outside in her dressy coat. Ally commented that she was glad it wasn't too cold, because this coat isn't very warm!

Such a happy girl. It was a fun way to end another difficult appointment-filled week. 

Ally is working hard and has so much more work to do. 

Olive turns 9!

We think Ally has been at all of Olive's birthday parties and this year was no exception.

Olive had a swimming sleepover party at a local hotel. Her parents reserved a suite of rooms for 1 night. The girls swam, watched movies, had dinner and breakfast and swam some more.

Walking to the rooms with her friend Maya and mama.

All excited by the suite of rooms!

Ally with Olive, Maya and Alma. Ally couldn't wait for us to leave.

The rooms had an interior balcony that looked over the hotel. We took these pictures from the elevator.

Pizza dinner.

The party guests: Olive's cousins Marley and Seger, Olive, Ally, Daniela, Maya, Alma and Ellie in the front row. 

Watching the movie Minions!

Olive's parents had rainbow swirl bagels shipped in from a place in NYC! and Olive's mom made cream cheese with sprinkles. 

Ally had a great time. There was as is typical a little girl drama at bed time, with tears from most of the girls, but all in all, fun. 

A fun relaxing weekend

Last  Saturday it snowed most of the day. We only got about 5", unlike Grandma Debbie and Poppy who got 18"! But enough so that the sidewalks and streets are covered in salt. So we had to but Cloey in her rubber booties. She does pretty well with them. It's to protect her feet from the salt, which gets stuck in her paw and then she limps and hops.

While Becky walked Cloey Ally cleaned penguin's cage.

All by herself.

While Ally cleans the cage, she puts Penguin in her hamster ball and Penguin rolls all over the house. 

Clean cage and hamster back inside!

Sunday was a beautiful sunny day. We headed off to church after a leisurely morning at home.

And ate lunch out after church. Ally had her usual turkey burger no bun or condiments, French fries and chocolate milk shake.

Then later at home she burned off all the calories on her gymnastics bar! 

Becky napped

Not a bad weekend at all!

Guatemala Girls January 2016

Gabi hosted a fun sledding winter get together.

Ally

Gabi 

Roxie

Rosa and Alice

Alice requested the annual picture of them on the stairs.

Life is moving along

Some delfines of me and Cloey. She loves to sit on head while I watch TV.

Ally's new mattress arrived!,,

She loves it!

Ally started physical therapy at Children's hospital. 

One night Ally did her homework on her iPad. They were supposed to draw a picture dictionary for spelling words. 

Swimming is really good for her physical therapy. 

Aunt Beth came for dinner with her friend Ryan. Beth brought Ally a new bracelet.

They played a serious game of Sorry.

Life seems to be moving along pretty well. Ally still hurts a lot but we are lining up new therapists and trying to ignore the pain and still have fun!