From 6 to 8 months

Well, we've had some problems with trying to get this post out to you all. We had written about 8-10 paragraphs or so about Allie, and then it wouldn't post. There was some sort of error. Then we were going to copy it to a word document and try again after re-signing in to the blog, but the computer shut down and we lost all that had been written. So we want you to know just how much time and love went into this post.

We need to catch you all up on Allie's life. When we last wrote on the blog, Allie was 7 months old, but we only caught you up to her 6 month stats and abilities. We will try to get you caught up to where she is at today. A lot has happened since we last updated the blog. It has been a lot of fun watching Allie grow and develop and learn new things. She is such a smart, fun, happy, and cute baby.

As we wrote before, Allie started army crawling just before turning 6 months. Then she started pulling up and walking along furniture a little before and around 7 months. She was walking along furniture before learning to crawl with her tummy off of the ground, so we were afraid that she might just skip crawling and start walking. Luckily, though, she started crawling with her tummy off the ground about 1-2 weeks after the last post. She has gotten to be a fast little crawler and stays very busy. She'll crawl around, pull herself up, walk along things, just stand and wave her arms, then crawl or walk along things to get to a new area to play in. She is a very busy baby! Very busy. Usually she is pretty good at entertaining herself, though there are times (generally when she is nearing a feeding or nap time) when she will be busy, but needs one of us to be right by her side. She has not started walking, yet. But she did take 2 small steps yesterday. She is able to push and walk with her walker quite well. Luckily, though, she will often default to crawling if she is wanting to get somewhere quickly.

Allie imitates sounds. The first sound that she started copying was probably blowing raspberries. She had been able to blow raspberries for quite awhile (I think she started around 4 months?), but then she started copying us when we would do it. We tried to record a conversation that her and Daddy were having in raspberries, but when she saw the camera, she decided that the conversation was not meant to be public. Other sounds that she is good at copying include: "a-ba-ba-ba," a smacking the lips sound (sometimes when doing this she will stick part of her little tongue out, which is really cute), grunting, laughing, and singing high pitched tunes (like when we sing a song that has "oohing" in it).

Everything about sleeping has changed in the last few months. Somewhere around 3 or 4 months, Allie had a week where she would sleep for 9 hours each night. We were so excited and loved it. But that ended up being a tease. She added feedings back in and she got to where she was waking to eat every 3 hours again at night, in addition to eating every 2 hours during the day. We knew it wasn't an issue of hunger, so something needed to be done. We had an idea of what needed to be done, but we got an extra needed nudge when Nikki talked to one of the pediatricians at work. We have a one-bedroom apartment, so Allie was in our room. We had hung a sheet from the ceiling, but she knew we were still there. She would stand up and lean as far as she could to try and see around the sheet, and then yell/cry at us. So the first thing he said was to move her out to the living room. The next two issues were contributing to the same problem. Allie's schedule changed at some point, and her feedings changed from when she woke up to just before naps and bedtime. So she started getting in the habit of having us nurse her to sleep (well, Nikki would nurse her to sleep). In addition, we were still swaddling her. So the next issue was that she needed to learn to fall asleep on her own. We needed to put her down awake and unswaddled. We implemented all three immediately. Jared started putting her down awake for naps and we did likewise at bedtime, where she got to have her own room in the living room. It was hard hearing her cry and scream so much at first, but it has really helped. Now the shortest she will go is a 6 hour stretch, and last night she even went 8.5 hours. She sleeps about 11-12 hours in total each night with only 1 or 2 feedings. It is great getting more sleep. She will still usually cry herself to sleep, but it isn't as bad as it was before. Sometimes after a few minutes of crying or screaming, she will start singing to herself and sings herself to sleep. It is really cute. We have a little pink elephant in her crib, and sometimes we will find her cuddling with it and/or singing to it. She is such a cute baby.

There was more in the previous edition of the post, but we can't remember all that we wrote before. We'll likely remember and include it in a post later.

Now for the fun part, the pictures! She is getting to be a little ham. She smiles real big almost anytime we hold the camera up. She also stops doing whatever she was doing that we were wanting to catch on camera. Oh well. Enjoy!

Allie Exploring

Allie loves to stand!


Bath time in a swimsuit. We had tried getting a video of her, but it didn't work out.

Having Fun

Just a cute shot and wanting to get the camera

Standing again

Mommy and Allie

Daddy and Allie

Meal Time - She is still working on the sippy cup thing
Some of her favorite foods now are: yogurt and meats (chicken and turkey, especially - just the Gerber pureed kind)

One of Allie's favorite places to be: at our feet. She also likes to stand on feet, which we are pretty sure she gets from her mommy.


Next are a few videos. We have a lot more to show you, but we are having difficulty getting them to upload to the blog. Hopefully we will be able to share more in a post very soon.

This video shows her shaking her elephant rattle and doing two of her favorite things, standing and making noise.

This video shows some other things she likes to do: play and stand under the table; and wave or flap her arms. Here she is combining the two.

First trip to Temple Square

Before leaving this neck of the woods and heading to the great unknown, my parents decided to take a random trip to SLC and see the lights and attractions at temple square. The trip was full of fun adventures, including getting lost, freezing temperature, getting lost, fun friends, getting lost... ok they only got lost a couple times- but we survived. :) I really enjoyed the lights.

Despite being bundled I still got really cold. Here is Daddy and me all bundled up. I think they just wanted to dress me up like a shepherd. They insisted on keeping my head covered with the blanket.

We had this picture taken right before leaving, I'll be back someday when it's warmer!

After that outing my parents let me swim in the warm bath tub (someone had pooped in the real pool). I really enjoyed myself. It's there that I discovered the taste of water, it's grrreat!

Aren't I cute! (I am getting a little chub!! Check out those rolls!!)

Mommy and Daddy visited with their friends down there, and they also went through the temple while I got to play with/meet a new little friend, Elizabeth Clements (Mommy's mission companion's daughter).

The cutest kid on the block

I am growing up so fast... so fast in fact my parents haven't had time to put my 6th month stats up yet. They are finally getting to it. So here we go. I was 14 pounds one ounce (12th percentile), a whopping 26.25 inches tall (64th percentile), and my head circumference was 9.75 inches smaller then my height (16.5 inches) -I'm so smart I can even do math! Anyway that puts it in the 30th percentile. I'm more proportionate now, my height is slowing down-thanks Mom!! Anyway there's my digits and here are some pictures of me, showing off my natural curious self.

Exploring the underside of the exersaucer- very exciting!!

That exersaucer was exhausting (this is how I sleep, once I struggle free from my straight jacket of a swaddle)

Allie's 1st Christmas!!

Better late than never, right? We just like to keep the Christmas spirit alive. We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season.

We had a very nice, relaxing Christmas morning at home this year. Allie actually let us sleep in, and then we had fun watching her open presents. We video-taped her opening some gifts, but for some reason, we cannot get the video clips off of the video camera. She had fun ripping the wrapping paper, and she especially enjoyed eating it. She got some very fun gifts, including a ball popper from Grandma and Grandpa Carpenter, rings that stack, blocks, books, and a move and crawl ball that sings. She also got a very cute crocheted hat from Grandma Carren and other clothes. She also received a beautiful cross-stitch birth announcement from our good friend Becky Lee.

Here are some of the pictures. Sorry again that we cannot share any videos from Christmas at this time.

Allie with her stocking

Another one of Allie with her stocking

Playing with her stacking rings

Allie in her hat from Grandma Carren. So cute!

Having fun unwrapping gifts

She liked gift bags, too

Opening another gift - it was a really cute dress

The beautiful, and cute cross-stitch from Becky

Becky framed the cross-stitch for us. It is in a white frame. It really looks good. The white spot in the picture is from the flash - sorry. We just included this picture so that you could see the words and detail around the words better.

Thanks everyone for helping us have a wonderful Christmas! We hope everyone is having a wonderful start to the new year. May it bring us all more wonderful blessings!

The Beginning of the Unknown...

We're finally catching up on the blog. A lot has happened in the last month. To start, Jared graduated from Brigham Young University - Idaho with his Bachelor's of science in Mechanical Engineering on December 19th. It was a wonderful and exciting day. Here are some pictures from his graduation.

President & Sister Clark and Elder Scott

Jared receiving his diploma cover from Elder Scott

The Happy Family

Jared's Mom and step dad, Dick, joined us for the day.

Jared's sister, Michelle, also joined us.


Daddy and Daughter

So now, as the title of the post says, it is the beginning of the unknown. We do not know what the future holds for us. Jared is applying to graduate school all over the country. Three applications have been submitted and three more will soon follow. We are just waiting to hear where he gets in so that we can pray to know where is right for us.

Since Jared's job was a student job on campus, he is no longer able to work there since graduating. Nikki has picked up more hours at work, and Jared is Mr. Mom. He has applied to Bambino's, some sort of Italian/pizza pocket place. Once his graduate school applications are all submitted and he has retaken the GRE, Jared will likely focus more on applying for jobs. He will retake the GRE on January 27th.

We are considering buying a new car, but are not sure if we will be able to afford the one we would really like to get. Both of our cars are paid for, but one is a 1995 VW Golf with 190,000+ miles on it, and the other is a 1993 Ford Ranger, which actually only has 77,000 miles. Depending on where Jared gets in, we could potentially be moving across country, and it would be good to get a more reliable family car. The car of our dreams right now is the Hyundai Elantra Touring, but because it is really new, the only option would be to buy a 2010 (which = more $$ than we have). We are probably going to sell both of our cars and get a newer one, but we don't know how new or what kind of car, yet. Any recommendations?

Something else that we are trying to decide is if we want to move for the last 6 months or so that we will be here in Rexburg. Our contract will end March 31st, and signing a new contract would mean another $15/month increase in rent. That increase would make it $40/month more than when we first moved in. So we have some decisions to make.

All in all, we are doing really well. We are happy and healthy.

Deck the Halls!

Merry Christmas!!!

Okay, so it isn't Christmas, yet, but we are getting ready. Above is obviously our family picture. We just took it at home, so it was hard getting Allie to smile. It was hard enough getting her to look the right direction. (Our trick: we put Baby Einstein videos on the laptop by the camera.) We are pretty happy with it.

Next are some pictures of Allie by our Christmas tree. It should have been easier getting her to look the right way and smile, right? Not at all. She was completely distracted and mesmerized with the tree. We took countless pictures. Here's some of what we got.

Look at that tree!


This one makes us laugh. Cute, but not what we were going for.

There we go!

Here's another one with our stockings in the background.

This one is probably our favorite. So Adorable!


Here's a picture of our little tree in its designated space.
Eventually our stockings will be hanging from the windowsill on either side of the tree. But we haven't bought the hooks for them, yet.

We bought the stockings online at personalcreations.com. People ask if Nikki made them. She wishes she were so crafty. But they are so dang cute in person that they were worth the purchase. We also got Allie her first Christmas ornament from the same site. It is so cute. We are planning on getting her an ornament each year so that she has her own set when she gets older and is on her own.

Allie's First Ornament

We checked our mail today and found several Christmas cards. We obviously didn't have them delivered today, but we hadn't checked our mail for several days. We were so grateful for all of them. We let Allie play with hers from Great Grandma and Grandpa Kauer. It went straight to the mouth. Here's a picture of her enjoying her card.

In our last post, we forgot to share this next video. Allie is a very active baby. She has not stayed still since she was born. She has always liked to move, and especially kick her legs. Here's just a little sampling of how she can get her feet going. She will often do it even more, but the camera catches her attention.

6 Months Old!!

Allie turned 6 months yesterday. It is really hard to believe that she has been here for half of a year. Our lives are much busier than before, but we wouldn't trade having her here for anything. She is such a happy baby. She makes us laugh and smile all the time.

It has been so much fun watching her grow and develop. Shortly after turning 5 months, she became a pro at sitting. We are able to let her sit and play without being right beside her. And now if she does lose balance, which doesn't happen too often, she will roll as she falls so that she doesn't get hurt. Around 5 and a half months or so, she finally learned to roll from her back to her tummy. She had been able to roll from tummy to back since before 4 months, so it was exciting for her to finally get to where she could roll both ways.

This last Monday, she army crawled for the first time. She had been getting up on her hands or forearms and knees and rocking for awhile, and occasionally moving forward with her head down to the ground. But she never deliberately went after something before. On Monday she was at her babysitter's house, who has an 18 month old girl named Madison. Madison had a package of wipes that Allie really wanted. Madison did not want to share them, so she took some steps back from Allie. Allie then rolled a few times to end up at her feet. But Madison then went further away and Allie gave up on rolling. When Madison was done with the package, she dropped it on the ground a few feet from where Allie was. So Allie went for it and army crawled for the first time. Later that day, Nikki and Allie visited some friends. Allie's little friend Elizabeth was playing with a crinkly book that looks a lot like her own and decided that she wanted it, so again she army crawled a little forward to get it. She wasn't going far distances, but she had learned.

Through the rest of the week she worked on improving her army crawl and she can move pretty quickly if she wants to. Today was the first time that she really saw something more than 3 feet away and went for it. First it was the straps from her portable highchair hanging down, then the diaper bag, and then the tray to her portable highchair. So between rolling and crawling, she can get to just about whatever she wants. As Nikki's mom says, "there will be no peace for us for a long time."

Allie first learning to get on her knees

One of her favorite things to roll to (and now crawl to) - the cords to our laptops

Again, going after cords. This time she started several feet away and ended up with the cord around her leg. She was in heaven.

And here's a quick video clip of Allie going after her rubber ducky.

On Thursday night she finally starting saying a vowel-consonant combination. Daddy would always say, "ma, ma, ma, ma" to her to try and get her to say that first, and Mommy would always say, "da, da, da, da" to try and get her to say that first. So what was her choice? "aba, ba, ba, ba." Wouldn't you know it? She will do things her own way.

We have started giving Allie baby food. The first food was the typical rice cereal. We mixed it with breast milk so that she might like the taste better. At first she wasn't so sure, but she has come to like it (a little). We next attempted green beans. We didn't have any other food to try, or at least any other vegetable, so we mashed some of our canned green beans. Mommy and Daddy got a good laugh from the faces of disgust that she made. It was not a hit. So next we bought some sweet potatoes, which she has come to like best. We then tried carrots, but she is not so keen on them either. Oh, we should also mention that she loves to be in her portable highchair. She sits and plays with toys very well. It is great when mom is needing to make dinner or do something around the house. (Or update the blog, like she is now.)

Here are some pictures from her feeding experiences.

First feeding in the swing (before getting the portable highchair)

Another feeding in the swing

Before (1st time using highchair)

After (hard to see the mess since it is rice cereal)

Not a fan of carrots

Allie has gotten a little big for her baby bath tub, and since she is such a good sitter, we have started giving her baths in the big bath tub. She seemed a little nervous at first, but now has fun in it. She still hasn't learned just how fun splashing can be, but she likes playing with things in the water, like her little turtle and cups.

Allie has such a sweet and funny little personality. We wonder if she is going to be a shy girl. At home, she is smiley and laughs, but when we go somewhere else, like church or a friend's house, she is much more serious and smiles very little. She likes to take things in, it seems. She will just watch and look at people. As we have mentioned before, she has an odd sense of humor, too. She still laughs at random things, such as when we make weird noises - really weird noises. It's hard to remember what makes her laugh, because it is random. But something that she gets from her mamma's side of the family is laughing a lot more at night when she is tired (Alton girls, you know what I am talking about).

Something that may just be age-related, but may also be personality (likely a little bit of both?) is that she protests having toys taken away from her. It really makes her mad and/or sad when we take paper away from her, too. It may be too early to teach sharing, but we can only imagine what a task that will be when the time comes. Something else she has started learning is that her parents will pick things up when she drops them. When she has dropped all of her toys from the swing or her highchair, she will look to us to get them for her. And by the time we turn around, she has already dropped 5 again.

Allie is also very vocal. For those of you who have had a phone call with someone in the Gale residence recently, you have likely heard Allie talking in the background. Unless she is eating or sleeping, she is usually making noise. She is also quite a squealer. For the laughing she doesn't do during the daytime she makes up with squealing. Here is a clip of one of the sounds that makes us laugh most. It is of her gurgling her spit. You may need to turn up your volume.

She has also been teething for awhile. We are pretty sure she started around 3.5 months when she started drooling like crazy and loved having her gums rubbed. But alas, she does not have any pearly whites to show for it yet. But throughout the 2.5 months of teething, she has had different teething toys of choice: our fingers, her toes, her rubber ducky, and most recently - a scraper for non-stick pans that is made out of hard plastic and silicone. Anything to keep her happy.

Also for awhile, she would always raise her bum up in the air. Whether her shoulders were on the ground or on her boppy, it didn't matter. She also loves to do this when we are changing her diaper. We don't love it as much then as she does. But she is cute doing it. Here's a picture to end this post.