Catching Up Again

Once again, we find ourselves a little over a month behind. July was a very crazy month. But as they say, "Time flies when you're having fun." We had a very fun month leading up to our big move. We will try to catch up quickly.

In this post, we want to include a few random pictures that don't necessarily go with any of the upcoming posts.

Nikki had wanted to get her hair cut for quite awhile. She finally did and she is loving it. Here are some pictures of her new do. She says she can't make it look like it did when she left the beauty college, but it is really a cute haircut.

One Sunday afternoon, we went for a walk to the duck pond, and this is how Allie was relaxing in the stroller by the time we got home. She loves to put her feet up on things.

The next picture is one of Allie all ready to go to church. She is just so cute, and this dress and bow look great on her.

By the way, Nikki made the hair bow. It was her first attempt. It turned out pretty cute.

Feeding the Ducks and more

We recently went to the Nature Park to feed the ducks. Allie really enjoyed it, and once again was very upset when we left. Here are some pictures from the little adventure.

At one point, some geese came up from the pond. This one wanted to goose Nikki. And Allie wasn't so sure about it either. It just stood there and honked at us.

Next are some pictures showing Allie's enthusiasm for going outdoors. She found her hooded sweatshirt, put it on as best as she could, and pranced around the living room waiting for us to take her outside. (Note that the sweatshirt is on upside-down and only one arm is in.)

She then finished off with a headstand. Crazy girl. We love her!

It seems like Allie is beginning to play pretend with daddy's old pinewood derby car and her elephants. Here is a video of her with the derby car. She also ends with a headstand here, too.

Happy 1st Birthday!!!

Allie turned 1 year old last week. We didn't get to celebrate on her actual birthday since we got to help Jared's sister, Michelle, and her family move into their new home. But our friends, the Navarros, were really sweet and had left a gift for Allie at our neighbor's house. When we got home we went over to pick it up, and then we let Allie open it when we got home. Attached to the gift was a really big and cute bug balloon, which Allie has continually enjoyed since receiving it. She liked the tissue paper that was in the bag, and then this was her reaction to her first baby doll.



A few days later, we had a great little birthday celebration with some family. Between the three little families here in Idaho, there were 5 birthdays within a week of each other. So it was a combined birthday bash at the Carpenter's home.

Here are some pictures and videos of Allie opening her presents.

Some fun blocks!

The cousins all enjoying "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What do you see?"

Excited about her new PJs

As we have mentioned in previous posts, Allie loves elephants. She will even make elephant sounds as she plays with her 5 different toy elephants. So we decided to do an elephant theme for her birthday.

Daddy did a great job on the cake for Allie!

Elephant cupcakes for the guests- a combined effort

Anticipation

During the song

Ewww, what is this stuff?

First Reaction to the frosting

Eating some frosting

Happy with sugar and no more pressure to eat the cake

The last year went by so quickly. Our little girl is growing up so fast. She is such a joy and we are so grateful to have been blessed with her. We have learned a lot as we have tried our best at raising her. We'll surely learn much more in the future. We'll keep you updated as she continues to grow up.

Approaching 1 Year

Allie will turn one year old in six days. It seems that her learning is just taking off. Since the last post, she has caught on to so much more. We'll try to catch you up on some of what she is up to.

First off, we should update you on her teeth. She had actually sprouted two teeth the last time we posted, but somehow we forgot that. She got her first a little after 9 months, and then the second shortly after. She still has not gotten any more than that. It seems like she has been teething lately, but we can't feel any that are about to come through. So we may be waiting a little bit longer. It will be nice when she has more teeth and is done teething for a little while.

Allie's two front bottom pearly whites

Allie learned a new trick in the last week or two that makes us all laugh. She will do a "headstand" and laugh as she looks through her legs or arms and legs. When we start laughing at her, she will laugh even harder.

It took several attempts to get the picture above. We would try to imitate her "headstands" in attempt to get her to do them. Daddy snapped the next picture when Mommy was trying to get Allie to do a "headstand".

Allie's climbing is improving and expanding to new heights. She still hasn't climbed up onto the couch or onto a chair, but she is beginning to see the possibilities that boxes and other items offer.

We wanted to share a few videos with you, but once again, Blogger seems to have it out for us. Maybe in the future we will have better luck. We'll just write about what you would have seen in video.

Allie loves carrying heavy things. It doesn't matter how awkward it is, if it is heavy, she will try to carry it. She is really pretty strong. Some of the items that she has carried around include: a bag of carrots, Daddy's work boots, her duck (not super heavy, but definitely awkward), her diaper bag, a bottle of soap (the big bottles that you refill the little ones with)... The list goes on.

Something else that Allie loves is Nikki's cell phone. She will grab it whenever she can and push on the buttons really hard. She will push so hard that she will shake and turn red. She likes seeing the picture of Mommy and Daddy (especially Daddy), and she knows that pushing the buttons allows her to see it.

Another trick that Allie has learned is to blow kisses. She caught on really quick when we taught her. And something that we didn't anticipate was that she would associate it with saying "I love you." But whenever Nikki would leave for work, she and Daddy would say, "I love you," and then blow kisses. So now when Allie hears us say, "I love you," she will blow a kiss.

Allie wants to be just like us and go up stairs one at a time. She will hold our hands and take big steps so that she can go up just like we do.

Now for a few more random pictures.

Mommy and Allie

Laughing and being goofy on Mommy and Daddy's bed (notice Mommy's cell phone in her right hand)

Allie's Pigtails

One thing I forgot to mention above: Allie is learning animal sounds. We can ask what a doggie says, or an elephant, or a sheep, or an owl, and she will almost always get all of those right. Her favorite is definitely the doggie's "woof, woof" (very high-pitched). She will make the sound anytime she sees a dog in a book, in real life, on TV, or even when she sees some other 4-legged animals.

Memorial Day at Mesa Falls

We got up bright and early on Memorial Day to get up to Mesa Falls before the crowd came. Well, actually Allie woke us up nice and early, so we decided to beat the crowd. We've been having pretty yucky weather, so it was a very pleasant surprise to have a beautiful day for our little adventure.

If you remember, Nikki went to Mesa Falls with Allie and her brother, Monte, last summer. But Jared had never been before. It was something that we wanted to do as a family before leaving the area. It was a fun little trip.

Our little family at the Upper Falls

(Our pictures are in a weird order, but we can't fix it because blogger isn't cooperating. sorry)

Lower Falls from the lookout

Allie is such a nature girl. She loves the outdoors, and she was thrilled with just about everything on this trip: the trees, the birds, the sticks, the water. As we walked to the Upper Falls, she found some sticks to carry. The first was just a little piece of wood, but then she found herself a walking stick. It was so cute to see her walk around with it. She would walk a little, stop, and then point to things. Then she'd continue on her way.

Allie discovering a pine tree with Daddy

Mommy and Allie by the Upper Falls

Daddy and Allie by the Upper Falls

Now admiring the falls and rainbow

Allie's little grin on the way back to the car

Now for a few pictures of the Upper Falls by themselves. The waterfall is absolutely gorgeous, and the rainbow is spectacular, too.

11 Months Old!

Allie turned 11 months old last week. She is going to be 1 before we know it. She continues to get busier and busier, and she is still such a happy baby. First we want to share some pictures of her that our good friend, Vivian, took when Allie was actually 10 months old. Vivian is also one of Nikki's coworkers at the pediatric clinic, but she is an aspiring photographer. She is building up her portfolio, and she really takes some great photos. Check out her blog to see family pictures of us, too: www.vivianmathiasphotography.com. If any of you are in Rexburg, you should look her up.

What a cutie!

Allie in her Easter dress - precious

Now to catch up with what Allie is up to. She still loves to be outside. Maybe I should say that she LOVES to be outside. She will always bring us her shoes and coat, hoping that we will take her out. If either one of us leaves or goes outside without her, she gets very upset. When she gets to go outside, she is extremely happy and fascinated with the world around her. She loves to pick up dead leaves, dandelions, rocks, and sticks. She will just wander around finding new things. She has also started waving to cars as they leave the parking lot. She wants to be outside rain or shine. There was one day when she kept trying to get Daddy to go outside with her, but he wouldn't because it was cold and rainy. Finally, after much prodding on Allie's part, Daddy decided to bundle her up really well and go outside. He figured that she would not enjoy the rain. But much to his dismay, she still enjoyed being outside and even cried when he brought her back inside. We will take her out a few times each day, weather permitting. Below are some pictures of Allie and Daddy outside.

About to pick up a dead leaf. You can see her pointing at it - pointing at things and making high-pitched squeaks is one of her newly-found joys

She also still enjoys looking out the window, though she would much prefer to be outside. Unfortunately, the weather in Rexburg keeps teasing us. We will have a few days where the weather gets up to 70 degrees, and then have it drop and snow some more. Below is a picture of Mommy and Allie looking out the window.

When Allie is on the couch with us, she will try to climb up the couch to the windowsill. She is getting better at climbing. Luckily, she hasn't applied her climbing skills while on the ground too much. She hasn't tried climbing up onto the couch or onto a chair, yet. I'm guessing that it just hasn't occurred to her that she could. Once she catches on, we will be in trouble. Below are some pictures of her climbing higher and higher on the couch. (We were just barely out of view of the camera - ready to catch her if need be, especially in the last picture.)

We haven't been taking as many pictures of Allie, recently. I am guessing that that is normal. So there won't be any pictures to accompany the rest of the text.

Allie is beginning to be a little more cuddly. It is only on her terms, but is has been quite nice to have her want to sit on our laps and cuddle a little bit. She also cuddles with her big stuffed duck. She'll kind of jump on it and cuddle into it. It's really sweet. I guess one of the times that Allie is most cuddly is when we are reading books to her. She has fallen in love with books. She will bring them to us so that we'll read them to her. It is near impossible to resist. Her favorite book right now is, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" She will have us read it over, and over, and over... We definitely have it memorized. Sometimes we will hide it from her so that we can get a break. Horrible, I know.

Here's a list of things that make Allie happy and smile:

• playing peek-a-boo
• playing patty-cake
• dancing (her dancing and her watching us dance)
• playing chase (where we'll chase her down the hall and then she'll chase us back. Recently she enjoys being chased by us and her duck - we'll hold her duck and quack at her as she runs away squealing)
• drumming (playing Daddy's drums)
• yogurt - she gets really excited when she sees us grab it out of the refrigerator
• being outside
• seeing Mommy and Daddy kiss

Here's a list of her words, or at least the ones that we can decipher:

• Dada
• Mama (sometimes, but especially when she is frustrated)
• Hi (she has not said it for awhile, but she was really good at it before)
• Diaper
• Dut (duck)

She is such a smart little baby. We are continually impressed by her. We love her so much, and she makes us smile and laugh all the time.