Wedding

We traveled to Pennsylvania for Becky's cousin Jake's wedding this past weekend. It was a great trip - beautiful weather and a fun time with family.

Our family outside the church.

Becky and her mom (Grandma Debbie).

Beth and her dad (Poppy)

The green dress women; Emily, Sarah, Beth, Aunt Pam, Becky and Aunt Polly. It was so funny that they all wore green. I felt so left out!

us again - this time inside at the reception.

The bride and groom at the cake cutting.

Ally was so excited to dance, and he blue dress is a special twirling dress - but then when it came down to it she was so tired she refused to dance on her own and instead insisted that Becky dance around with Ally on her shoulders.

Beth and I thought the back view was hilarious!

Ally thought playing peek-a-boo with mama's face was hilarious!

Then I went around and took couples pictures:

Cousin Mandy and her husband Ed - we attended their wedding in May.

Aunt Cindy and Uncle Denny (the parents of the groom)

Grandma Debbie & Poppy Dave

Uncle Jim and Aunt Polly

Aunt Pam and Uncle Tommy

The favors were these neat boxes to fill with candy from the candy bar. Ally loved her lollipop.

In the morning Ally was showing off the wedding favors. Actually those were the boxes for Becky and I. Ally's favor was a really neat pail full of kid activities. She got a small stuffed animal, stickers (which she used to decorate our favor boxes during the reception), markers, a book and a pad of paper to draw on. It was so age appropriate and I thought a really nice gesture for the children who attended.

It was a lovely wedding and a great party afterwards. We feel so fortunate to have such wonderful family.

Mama and Ally

Creative Puzzles

The other day Ally came running to get me. She wanted to show me what she and mama were doing. I knew they were working on a puzzle, but I did not know what the puzzle was being put together upside down! It was Ally's idea..."this would be fun...and very tricky"

Ally has amazing concentration - she would take a piece and turn it around to see if it would fit with anything else, and then pick up a different piece and try again and again and again. Of course Becky helped, but a lot of it was completed by Ally herself.

She was so proud of her creativity.

And even more pleased that they put it all together!

Sleep

It has been a difficult few months for us with sleep. Ally has always been a late sleeper. She used to jump and sing and talk in her crib for a very long time before going to sleep (sometimes 2-3 hours). This summer she moved to her big girl bed and she would play in bed for a long time. She has decided she can't sleep in her room when sharing it with someone else. She also is fond of saying "I don't want to go to sleep" this is progress from this summer when she would say "I can't go to sleep" because most of the time she can, she just does not want to. But as she has matured she can now accurately describe what the situation is. For the most part Ally no longer naps. We insist on a rest time at home on the weekends, and they do at school as well. She also likes to tell us "Mommy, I am so tired" but then the sleep is hard to accomplish.

On Saturday she was super tired. I knew it and she knew it. She agreed to rest time without any fuss, I gave her some books to read in bed and she put on music to listen to. After about 15 minutes she called out to me. She looked so sad and tired. She said she did not want to stay in her bed. After some conversation, she admitted that she was so tired, she was afraid if she stayed in bed she would fall asleep, and she did not want to be asleep for her play date with Alice. She did not want to miss anything, and sleeping would mean she might miss something. Staying in her bed surely meant sleep.

So I suggested we make a sleeping bag for her and she could get a pillow and pretend she was camping on the floor in her room. She loved the idea! Its amazing how easy it is to distract a child sometimes. So we folded the blanket to create a makeshift sleeping bag and she laid down and was asleep within minutes.

I woke her an hour later so she would be awake and rested for Alice's arrival.

Play Date Fun

Another fun play date with Alice.

Decorating Halloween Cookies.

Then it was off to the park while the cookies cooled. The girls really enjoyed the monkey bars.

Alice loved to drop.

action shot

to the ground.

Then Ally would drop too.

"More" "Again...again...again"

So the mamas would boost them back up so they could hang some more.

after while they started putting their feet up

After the park it was time for a little TV - here the exhausted girls are engrossed in Curious George.

But as usual the play date ends with lots of laughter and giggles.

Sometimes the girls play very cooperatively together. Sometimes they argue and fight over things. This time they kind of did their own thing independently yet together. They were both so excited to have the play date, but then seemed happy to just be in the same house together. Us moms enjoyed the time to talk and catch up.

Long Lost Relatives

My cousin Kimn and her family came to dinner recently. They are the "long lost relatives" since they moved to Hawaii a few years ago and now we only see them once a year.

Here is Ally and Jesse - he will be 7 next month. Looking at this picture just illustrates one of the many wonders of adoption. Jesse and Ally are both adopted, and yet they look like they could be brother and sister, instead of second cousins.

Becky, Justin, Kimn, Ally, Eric and Jesse.

Sewing projects

By now I think its obvious that Becky likes to do crafty things. A few weeks ago she decided she wanted to try and make some dresses for Ally. She picked out some fabric at "craft night" with some fellow moms and we went together to choose some others and get a new pattern. Turns out the new pattern was not "Sew EZ". Fortunately when Aunt Beth was here she helped out.

Aunt Beth hard at work on the zipper.

Becky holding up the finished master piece! She sewed everything but the zipper. She was so proud! Thanks for the help Beth!

Ally enjoyed twirling in her new dress.

Becky wanted a fun Halloween-type dress for Ally and chose this neat owl fabric and coordinating stripe. Ally loved the green ribbon.