Decorating for Christmas

Last weekend we decorated the house for Christmas. Ally was so excited to have the stockings up she would not stop using the couch as a "tumble track" which is a long trampoline at gymnastics.

I finally persuaded her to stop for a picture.

Last year's favorite ornaments, Rudolph and Clarice, Santa & Rudolph and Jessie & Woody. They are all still favorites this year.

Ally and Becky decorating the tree.

I unpacked the ornaments.

One of this year's ornaments - Ally was so excited to see it. Becky was so excited to find it at Target!

Becky and Ally worked to hang it up.

Its Cheer Bear!

Yes Aunt Suzie - Ally's prize from beating you at the fair is now immortalized as a Christmas Ornament at our house. And it is still a favorite animal to sleep with.

Later that night, Ally and I cuddling next to the tree.

Also for the record - the gigantic tinker-toy structure next to the tree is Kitty's house and Ally refuses to take it down. Becky and I are hoping when we start putting gifts under the tree we can easily negotiate is dismantling.

Building at Preschool

At Preschool they have started working in small groups. The children voted on the groups and there are 3 - The Baby Group, The Letter Group and The Construction Group. We were surprised but thrilled to learn that Ally chose the Construction Group. Since I work in construction her teachers asked if I might be willing to do something construction related with the class. I explained that most of my involvement in construction is management, but that I would love to do a building activity with the class. So when I Parent Helped I brought in 3 kinds of pretzels, rods, sticks and nuggets and at Ally's request, graham crackers, along with cream cheese, hummus and soy nut butter (its like peanut butter but safe for kids with allergies). We spent the beginning of the day making buildings, which they the class ate for snack! It was loads of fun.
Ally was determined to make a tall wall out of graham crackers.

With her final creation!

Eating the buildings at snack time.

We also brought the song and the book, 3 Little Pigs to share with the class. Ally really enjoyed sharing this with her friends, and they had so much fun dancing and goofing around to the song.

It was a great day.

So grown up

This morning I was home with Ally - which is unusual for us, since typically her babysitter Lauren gets her up and dressed and takes her to school. But today I was Parent Helper at school, so Lauren had the day off and I got to take Ally to school. I was busy getting our lunches ready so I asked Ally to go in her room and get dressed. I pick out her clothes the night before, so the outfit is my choice. Before I knew it she had her pajamas off, her shirt on and was putting on her pants, ALL BY HERSELF! Then she proceeded to put on her underwear, pants, socks and shoes and even combed her hair.

My little girl is not so little anymore, and she is growing up more and more each day.

We've known for a while she was capable of getting dressed, but Becky and I usually help, so today was the first time I witnessed the whole process without any assistance from a grown up.

Listening Skills

Ally likes to listen to books on CD. One of her favorites is the princess stories of Ariel, Belle and Snow White. Thanks Grandma Debbie and Poppy for giving Ally a couple more for her birthday - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is great, and Ally still loves Clifford so that was a good one too.

It brings back such fond memories for me, because when I was a little girl my Grandma Mimi would buy a book and then tape herself reading it out loud and then send us the tape and the book. We also had some books on records, I especially remember Peter Pan. So have Ally experience stories in a similar way makes me a bit nostalgic for my childhood.

Feeling Under the Weather

Last Sunday we had planned to go to the Aquarium, but Ally woke up with a cough, a low grade fever and her voice was hoarse. So the moms decided it would be best if we stayed home and tried to get Ally healthy so she could go to school on Monday. Ally was bummed about no Aquarium, so we buoyed her spirits with the first viewing this season of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!

She was pretty thrilled.

Gotta love Burl Ives as the snowman.

After her nap Ally cuddled with me in the rocking chair for at least 30 minutes. Times like this are so wonderful. Ally can be so cuddly and loves to snuggle.
I asked Becky to come take a picture, because I really wanted to remember how it feels to have my big girl all cuddled up with me. I remember when she was just a baby and would just snuggle in, and its so sweet that she still likes to do it sometimes.

But once she woke up she was silly and asked me to take a picture of her on top of mama with the hood pulled over mama's head.

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving was at Grandma Barbie's and Grandpa Frank's house. My older brother Frank came, as did my younger brother Kurt with his wife, Christine and his 3 kids, Kaitlin 5, Jackson 3 1/2 and Meredith 20 months. It was lots of fun.

Grandma bought Peppermint Ice Cream for the kids - and it was pink. Ally loved it! Becky, not so much, I wish I had a picture of her face when she tasted it.

Uncle Kurt & Jackson (Kurt & mini-Kurt) painting a bank.

Meredith enjoying playdough, while the big kids painted.

All the crafting!

Grandpa Frank reading a book to Ally & Kaitlin

Yes I bought them matching pajamas - they loved it!

For Christmas my brothers and I bought my parents each a new flat-screen TV. Here is my mom with hers.

The sunrise in the back yard on Thanksgiving morning.

Grandma Barbie with the grandkids and their banks.

Thanksgiving Day - the craft was making chocolate covered pretzel rods with sprinkles. It was great to see how much Ally and Kaitlin played together, but these pictures really show their cooperation skills. Here Ally is pouring the sprinkles, while Kaitlin hods the pretzel.

Then on the next one, they switched, and Ally held while Kaitlin sprinkled. I just supervised to make sure the sprinkles didn't end up all over the floor. They figured this process out all on their own.

This picture cracks me up. Meredith is looking at the camera, Grandma Barbie and Jackson are intently working on another pretzel rod, and Ally and Kaitlin are slurping up the leftover sprinkles!

Christine makin' gravy! For the first time ever my mom let someone assist with making the gravy.

Me, Christine and my mom.

Sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner.

Dad and his older sister, Aunt Linda. (the kids got a kick out of Grandpa Frank
being Aunt Linda's "baby brother" and Kurt being my "baby brother")

Kurt & Christine.

The girl cousins.

On The day after Thanksgiving we went to the Children's museum. Ally really enjoyed playing the "Diner".

Yes the sun was so bright Barbie had to put on her sun glasses. I think Becky's look says it all.

I finally got a picture of Ally with Uncle Frank! We were so glad he could join us, even if it was at the last minute!

We drove home on Friday night after dinner. We had a great time with my extended family, but it was good to get home and have the weekend to recover and get ready for the week ahead.

Ally's Photo Book

Every year for Ally's birthday I put together an actual photo album / scrapbook of pictures of Ally from each month of the year. Its fun on her birthday to look at past years and to see how much she has grown over the year.

This year Ally wanted to help with the book. She helped chose what pictures and what color paper to mount each photo on. But most importantly she wanted words. To Ally a book should have words. In years past I just date each photo, frankly its hard enough to get the photo album completed by the day of the party much less journal each photo. So this year I started about a month before the party and made time for Ally to help.

This is the cover page of the book.

Ally took this picture of me writing one of the pages. She asked how I could "write so fast" She so much wants to write and is just fascinated with how easy it is for grown ups. She dictated the caption for every page.

An example of one page before the text- this was January, that is Special Kitty in pristine condition!