Easter

I swear every holiday gets more and more fun as Allison get older. The excitement just rubs off on you, I think. Easter was a lot of fun for us this year.

On Saturday, we were invited to Papa and Brenda's house for an Easter hunt. Allison had a blast playing with her cousins and friend Lilly. Don't mind Allison's outfit - she dressed herself and thought she looked fancy!
Checking out her loot....

She was a very happy girl...

The group...

Little Hailee had a little too much sugar...

On Sunday, Allison woke up and the Easter bunny had left her a basket. We went to church and then afterwards had dinner with my family. She got to have ANOTHER Easter egg hunt after dinner at Uncle Kevin's house. That girl sure was spoiled this year. We tried to explain the true meaning of Easter, but it sure was difficult with all that sugar distracting her! We will work on that a little more next year...

Fun at the Park!

Allison and I have gone to the park a couple of times in the last few weeks - trying to enjoy the little sun we've been getting. Allison LOVES the park, and it is so much fun for me to watch her.

She is amazing on the swings (probably because she gets so much practice at Grandpa's house). I just have to give her a little push to get started and she can get herself so high it is almost scary.

She loves hanging on the bars and even learned a new trick (video in the last post). She is such a little monkey!

The tire swing is one of her favorite toys...

Allison's ability to make friends is amazing to me - this girl is not shy in the slightest... We love the park!

New Trick!

Craziness

Kevin had a birthday on April 9th. We had a family get together to celebrate...
Unfortunately I didn't take too many pictures of the birthday party, but we had a little bit of fun with the camera...

Joe (Chanel's brother) got in on the action as well....

And then Chanel had to top us all....

Allison being crazy is still adorable...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN!!

Out and About

The other day we were hanging out with our friends Logan & Laura and decided to go for a drive and hopefully find a spot for a picnic. We ran into a beautiful herd of elk (the only stinkin' animals we saw on the drive). We love going out in the woods where we are driving slow and don't have to wear our seat belts. Allison and I have LOTS of fun!

Daddy wouldn't let us take a NORMAL picture of him...

So then Allison had to copy it, too...

Bu the way, I LOVE Allison's haircut. She looks so grown up.

So, we finally got up to Lake Wynoochie where we were going to have a picnic and it decided to RAIN. Dang it! It had been off and on all day - we should have known better. Oh well, we still made do with what we had!

She's Getting So Big!

Aaaah, I'm finally caught up! Feels SO good. I can finally check this off of my to do list! As I was going over our pictures for the past few months, it really hit me how big my little girl is getting. Sometimes I wish she would just SLOW down so we don't have to deal with those teenage years. Allison has begun writing her name. It's so cute. Most of the time it doesn't look this nice - she likes to write it backwards sometimes. But I can't believe she is old enough to be figuring out letters - school is coming SO fast. Such a big girl!

She LOVES to put puzzles together. We do it on a regular basis. One night my mom and I went to WalMart and my mom got her this puzzle for $3.50. It's actually three puzzles that increase in difficulty, but then fit together when they're done. When we got home it was pretty late, but she insisted on doing the puzzle. Seriously - best $3.50 ever spent - she was so proud of herself.

One day she visited me at work for about 45 minutes before I took her to her dentist appointment. She was so well-behaved I was amazed. Just sat at my desk and drew so quietly.

Chris & I are so grateful every day for this little girl we've been blessed with. Sometimes it's hard to think we may not be blessed with another child, but I think we've both come to terms with it and are so happy to have been given Allison. She makes life so much fun and so entertaining. We have truly been blessed.

The BIG Haircut!

It was time! Allison and I had been wanting to cut her hair for some time. It was long and beautiful, but just no fun to brush. Allison would cry every time and I would try to be gentle, but there was no way. I guess I really shouldn't complain - she had the easiest hair to maintain - even if we didn't brush it, it still looked nice - just hung the way it was supposed to. But Allison and I were done with it. It was a continual fight with Chris who absolutely did not want us cutting her hair. Well, randomly one day he said he was okay if we got it cut - I mean, it was out of the blue! Thank goodness I had the next day off of work and we quickly had it done before he changed his mind! Of course, when we were finally about to do it, Allison decided to get scared and didn't want to do it. A little bribing goes a long way and we ended up getting it done. The first step - getting rid of this LONG pony tail. At this point I started to have a bit of a panic attack. I was thinking - oh my gosh, what have I done? Her hair was so beautiful, and I just chopped it off!

But after she was done, she was so happy. Look at all that hair we chopped off!

A few days later, we did a little photo shoot at home. I LOVE her haircut. At first I wasn't so sure because it's a bit choppy in the back and she looks so much OLDER now. But it has definitely grown on me and makes getting her ready for things so much easier. Don't mind the jammies in the pictures...

Doesn't she look old? Too stinkin' cute!

Swimming Lessons

We decided it was time to put Allison in swimming lessons. She absolutely loved it. It helped that she had three little friends doing the class with her. The first couple of lessons she had a really hard time getting her face wet - I don't think she liked the water in her eyes. We worked on it a little bit when she took a bath one night, and after a couple of lessons she caught on! You could tell she still didn't like it, but she did it anyway. My favorite part about watching her swim was the way she pointed her toes so delicately when she was kicking - that girl is a dancer at heart, I swear.

She did pretty well and passed the first level. We were going to start her in level 2, but decided we needed a little break from twice-a-week lessons. The last time they met, the kids got to dive off the diving board. Allison, of course, was a bit timid at first, but then wanted to jump over and over again.