Happy New Year

To ring in the new year, we kept it pretty low key with a visit to Aunt Sue's holiday party. Ally was not behaving very well that day and she really didn't seem to want to be out and about so we only stayed for a few hours and left right after midnight. Ally fell asleep before the ball dropped and before I could really get any photos of her. She did look very cute in her striped sweater dress and white furry boots.

So much has changed for us in 2009 and we are looking forward to bigger and better things to come in 2010. We wish for health and happiness for everyone in the new year!

3 Months Old

Allyson turned 3 months old yesterday! She is getting so big and has learned lots of new things this last month including how to grab toys (and clothes and hair) and put things in her mouth. She loves to play on the floor with her toys but still prefers laying on her back to her tummy. She has not yet rolled over but we expect that to come soon, she can get herself rocking pretty well now and is starting to use her arms a little. She is still very awake and active during the day and sleeps between 6 and 8 hours at night. I have been trying to get a bedtime routine together with her but it hasn't really been very effective yet. I haven't been able to just put her to bed when she is awake which is something I need to work on. She normally falls asleep after a feeding between 11 and 12 but I am really hoping we can move things up. Ive been trying to take her into her room for some quiet time and feeding a little earlier each night but the holidays have kind of put a kink in that. I start work on Monday so I hope it wont be too hard to adjust the schedule now that she will have to wake up earlier to allow me time to feed her, dress her, get her to daycare and myself to work by 8am.

This month included another trip to Wisconsin for Ally to celebrate her first Christmas as well as a few other holiday parties in town. She saw her first snow and her set up her first Christmas tree too. She has been keeping busy on her wiggle worm play mat and enjoys going to women's basketball games to cheer on the Boilers and watching Purdue men's basketball on TV at home. She doesn't have her next doctors appointment until next month but we are sure she is growing like crazy. She is almost out of her 3 month size clothes and is moving on to the 3-6 size, which has now been rotated into her closet and drawers. Here are some of our favorite photos from this last month. Enjoy!

A Baby's First Christmas

Thanks to some cooperative weather, we were able to get home to my parents for Christmas day celebrations. We left early on Christmas Eve and went to my dads for the annual "Christmas Eve ham" with my grandparents. Allyson is great in the car and slept almost the whole way. We were concerned about the weather but we left early in the morning and the threat of bad weather must have kept everyone off the roads because there was no traffic and it ended up being one of the quickest drives ever. Our Christmas eve tradition also includes watching Christmas Vacation but Ally missed out on most of that as she was tired out from playing with my dad and grandparents. On Christmas Day, we got up and opened presents with dad before heading over to mom's for the big family event. Ally had gotten so many Christmas outfits when she was born, it was hard to decide what she was going to wear first! She had a few outfit changes on Christmas Eve but managed to stay in her red and pink party dress for most of Christmas day. She was able to meet my aunt, uncle and cousins that she wasn't able to see last time we were home and spend some quality time with grandma Marilyn in the rocking chair. Of course she missed out on all of the delicious food and slept through the presents but she had fun playing and was exhausted at night. Santa brought Ally lots of great toys and cute clothes at both of my parents houses...she is such a lucky girl! We came back home on Sunday to have another Christmas with her other grandparents. The car was packed so full we barely fit but the weather cooperated again for the most part and we came home to a slippery highway and lots of snow. Ally again slept through the presents and we couldn't fit them in the car so she still doesn't know what kind of goodies she got. Ella stayed with Karl's parents and spent Christmas playing with Bob and getting lots of attention and love. She is now back to her depressed self at home but has lots of new toys and treats to enjoy. We had a great time celebrating the Holidays as a family and are very thankful for all of the gifts we received!

For the first time, I decided our house needed some holiday decor so I surprised Karl with a tree. Ally and I decorated it with some lights and ornaments, nothing too crazy but enough for us. We also got new stockings and hung them up by the fireplace. Over the years we have received a few ornaments for special occasions but we never displayed them until now. Honestly, I was surprised I even remembered where we put them. I am looking forward to doing this with Ally each year and adding new ornaments to the tree. She loved the lights and colored balls already so it will only get better!

Holiday Cheer

Happy Holidays!

Love: Karl, Erin, Ally & Ella

Big Girl

Now that Ally can hold her head up well, we decided to test out the Bumpo seat. She didn't hate it but she certainly wasn't too excited about it. She really likes to hold her head up and look around and can sit up when someone is holding her but she didn't really know what to think of doing it alone. Ella was very interested in what was going on as you can see.

I just thought this shirt was so cute! Ally looked so grown up wearing jeans- if only they weren't so hard to get on and off when its time for a diaper change. She was pretty happy playing on the floor the other day so I tried to capture a smile but the camera just doesn't seem to take the picture fast enough to get it.