Oh my gosh - It's November

Um, sorry - it's November and the last post I did was in JUNE!?!?!? What? Where has the time gone?!?!?

I'll be brief because I could write a book about everything that has been going on. Allison-Rae is AWESOME! She is the coolest little girl I've ever known - and she's super cute too. Let's see - June-July, sitting and rolling, August consisted of many things - 2 of which were Allie's first two bottom teeth...shortly followed by 4 more in 5 weeks! September was a lot of army crawling. Allie had her first plane ride and trip at the very end of September for her boyfriend, Noah's, 1st Birthday. She got to see her cousin Max too. Between the two boys, Allie came back to MN an official crawler - and very fond of kissing blonde boys:). October was a huge discovery month: pulling up on furniture and eventually inching along it as well, waving hi and bye, Dada, Mama, later in the month Bye bye (which actually sounds more like Buuuh Baaah), and a quite whisper of PuhPuhPuh when we ask her where the Puppy is. We are freighteningly close to Allison-Rae's 1st Birthday which makes us proud, excited, and sad all at the same time - there have been a few short conversations about the impending #2 (kid not birthday)....short in a good way, we're all in agreeance that we're going for it!
Here are some pictures to guide us through the past 5 months!

1st trip to the cabin for the 4th of July!

Allie's First Tractor ride!

Proud Daddy!

Happy 4th of July!

7 Months - 7/25/11

Grandpa Dude's new toy!

Such a lovely eater

(up) Relaxing with Grandma at the cabin (down) I love bathtime!

8 months! 8-25-11

My first two teeth coming in

(above) mmmmm...peas; (below)-Dancing with Dad at the State Fair

My first Vikings Game at Chad and Leslie's House!

First trip to the zoo with Julie, Donny & Faith

My first trip. CO for Noah's First Birthday!

Up to no good!

Noah's Prized Elmo Cake!

Aunt Emma, Uncle Luke & Cousin Max

Denver Zoo!

Grammy's Skippy

Model baby in the grass

Hanging with Mama

6 month pictures

I'm sure there are many that I'm missing here, but we could be here all day! Visit http://www.allisonraenoel.shutterfly.com/ for more!

Pics and Updates for June 2011

June was an exciting month for Daddy! He turned 32 and had his first Father's Day. Allison-Rae loves nothing more than to hang with her Daddy.

And smiling...with her Daddy

...Even when Daddy thinks it's funny for her to wear a doo-rag

...and pile all the toys on at once

And Allie turned 6 months old on June 25th!!!!

I had to post this one. I have been waiting for so long to have her wear this outfit...and her head is so giant that the hat only made it to this picture and was right back in the drawer!

Hanging with Niki!!!

This is Allison playing - she is so funny with the faces and noises she makes!

So, Allison-Rae is now eating cereal at least once a day and some sort of fruit or vegetable for one of the two meals. So far we LOVE sweet potatoes and bananas. Pears are good too and luckily she doesn't hate the cereal either so that is easy. She's still back and forth with the formula amounts, but man does she take it down! Some mornings she eats 2oz, others 6 and then at day care she usually takes down at least 12-18 just during the day!

She had her 6 month appointment on June 24th which jumpstarted the food adventure. She had been getting cereal about once a week before then and now once if not twice a day. AR did fantastic with her shots, she got all hot and red in the face screaming (like the kind where no noise comes out but they are screaming inside) at first, then was easily distracted and was way more interested in eating than crying. She wasn't as sleepy as she'd been in the past after shots, but we made it through the day with no major pains (punn intended). Allison-Rae was 16lbs 10oz and 26 inches long. She fits into the 75th  %ile for her height and weight and is 80% with her head! haha! She's healthy as can be though and progressing according to every chart out there!

Alli-Rae started sitting on her own last week and is so strong! In just a week she went from falling over more often than not to me getting her from daycare yesterday and the toddlers were shaking the stroller and she just sat up the whole time! She is buzzing her lips (spitting), making all sorts of cooing sounds, smiling and scrunching her nose, laughing a little bit, and still a great sleeper!

We are so lucky to have our little bug. She is a great baby and for some crazy reason makes me want another one...soon...but not too soon!

How being a Mom changes your level of sadness...

I have had friends lose things before, love, loved ones, pregnancies, etc... and I always felt so badly for them, but being a Mom and having your own flesh and blood brings on a whole other wave of emotions when unfortunate things happen to others.

A few weekends ago we had our neighbors from down the street, Kyle and Kim over for apps and drinks. I skied with Kyle in high school, but hadn't really talked to him since and had only met his wife in passing. Having them over was great. It was great to get to know them better and to find out that they were going to be having a little girl at the end of August! We only had 2-3 months to wait for Allie to have her first neighborhood playmate!

I received a text message from Kyle this morning letting me know that Kim had delivered their little girl, Harper Rose, yesterday morning around 3am. They lost little Harper Rose to God's hands. All 2 lbs 15oz of her little innocent being. I am absolutely heart broken for them. I can't even write for too much longer. I offere to bring them dinner, I have offered our continuing prayers for them to find peace. That is all I can do.

I want nothing more than to go right now to pick up Allie just to hold her and have her help me pray for our friends Kyle and Kim and their little Angel Harper up in Heaven.

New Design & some updates!

Well, I've revamped the look of this blog...which is critical to retain my 3 subscribers! haha!

Oh well. Here are a few things that have been going on since Memorial Day Weekend:

Jason turned 32, Allie is a week away from being 6 months!!!!, and Jason celebrated his first Father's Day!

The month of June has absolutely flown by, as have the others. I had a wonderful week home with Allie the week after Memorial Day and since then I cannot believe that it has been just sthort of a month! For Jason's Birthday we had a nice evening at home (it was on a Tuesday). Allie gave him new replacement lenses for his sunglasses..which took an extra 2 weeks to ship and come to find that though they are the correct ones, they don't fit the frames, well at least.

Allison-Rae has been a busy girl though! She now rolls over all the time, still only from back to front...and struggles when rolling back to her back is necessary, often leading to frustration tears if we don't get there in time to flip her. She has grown a ton in the past month, I'm very curious to see all of her stats at her 6 month appointment this coming Friday! Outfits and pajamas that fit the week after Memorial Day have now been retired to boxes :(. I hope I get to see those cute clothes again some day! Still no teeth although the low-grade fever holds strong, the drool drips more and more by the day and the gnawing is getting super strong! We have not been doing cereal all that often. We should be up to about once a day a few times a week and we're at about once a week. I plan to get a "kit" ready for her day care next week where Nancy can attempt a daily mid-day feeding. We tried bananas a few weeks ago. I still laugh at the video I have on my phone (which is too long to upload unfortunately). AR made a face like we had just given her a spoonfull of lemon juice! Well, yesterday I gave her the full tablespoon of rice cereal which she was very eager for AND she at the entire container of sweet potatoes! She loved them! She was leaning her head out and forward and making noises that I could only take as "more more more!". So...sweet potatoes are going on the grocery list!
Here are a few pictures with updates..hopefully no repeats, but oh well if they are - she's cute enough for duplicates!

5 months on 5.25.11

Loving the exersaucer!!! This is one of Mom and Dad's favorite toys too!

I couldn't get a timely photo, but she started sucking in her upper lip and the bottom one would pout way out and to the side - her Auntie Christy (Desh) named this "the Popeye" face

4 out of 8 of the Amma Mama class babies BBQ reunion at our house!

The Fitzgerald girls. Our good friends Sara and Kevin, who we went to high school with, have Keira (left-1 1/2) and Quinn (right-3 months). It has been way too long trying to get together, but we managed to fit in a visit!

Pics from Easter to Memorial Day Weekend:

Easter outfit & the bunny from my Aunt Marion

Game faces for Allison-Rae's 1st Easter Egg Hunt

...The Egg! (found with a little help from her cousins)

Our Easter Picture...sort of

4 months old and quickly outgrowing Bumkins!

The Easter Bunny!!!!

Brrrr - but a great day with Grammy & Grandpa

Mother's Day outfit - check out the boots!!!

Um, she's just so cute I had to include this one!

Baptism day. Aunt Donna and Uncle Bryan are AR's Godparents!

My Angel

All the cousins together!!

Jason's Godparents Therese & John, their spouses, our parents and my Godparents Skip & Scotty

...and Massey

The Cavanaugh family - and my parents too! Someday we'll be sucessful at getting an all Cavanaugh family photo. I don't mind that my parents are in it though!

Allie's Baptism rock which will be placed in the rock garden at St. Philip the Deacon

...plenty more to come, but I have to upload more pictures!