Wow, I am a LOSER!!!

Where do you even start when you haven't posted in 6 months??? Well, I know that I will not be able to remember everything or that anyone would want to see everything in one post. There probably isn't even anyone who still checks on this lonely little blog but I don't care. I like to look back on it so here it goes. Ryan's Grandma Mikesell passed away at the end of April the day before we left for St. George which was a blessing and sad at the same time. Ryan had to speak at the funeral and Justin got the privilege of being a pall bearer.

Justin graduated from preschool back in May and is now headed for Kindergarten and his mommy couldn't be more excited. He also played on a coach-pitch baseball team and LOVED it. He did so good for half of the team being 8 year olds he was one of the only kids on the team to get a hit 99 % of the time. (he struck out once) Ally is still a little monster but she is so cute that I just can't get too mad at her. She is talking so much now and I can understand most of it. I still think she is speaking another language sometimes though.

We have had a busy summer so far with lots of trips to Lagoon, a trip to Bear Lake, the Raptors game, Fish Farm, Rodeo and lots of trips swimming at grandma's house. Justin turned 5 on July 21st and we celebrated with the family at our house and then surprised him on a different day with a pajama party and breakfast at the church with all his friends.

We are busy planning our highly anticipated trip to Disneyland in Sept. and somehow I got roped into being in the PTA and in charge of T-Shirts which will be nice cuz I kind of have an inside source for shirts. I am really making a goal to try to update this at least once a month from now on but we will see. I am just too addicted to facebook for my own good and all my computer free time is usually spent there.

ATTENTION MOMS!!!

Hey all you mom's out there with daughters, my cute cousin Kellie is having a really cute giveaway on her website just in time for Valentines Day. Just go to her blog and leave a comment by 3:00 on Wednesday. GOOD LUCK!! http://chloereeseblog.blogspot.com/
If you have never bought anything from her before you should check out her website anyways. I love everything that I have ever got from her and I have a TON of stuff.

Christmas Time!!

Well, I know that I am a little behind as usual. I just wish I had a little behind. haha. I had so many pictures that I wanted to post so I decided to make a few collages instead. I got a memory mixer program for Christmas so this is all new and fun for me. The first one has pictures from mostly my moms house trying to take pictures for her Christmas cards which was a little bit of a nightmare trying to get all the kids to cooperate and there are also a few pictures of Justin and Ally from our house before church in their cute clothes my mom bought them.

Justin and Ally had the opportunity to see Santa 4 or 5 times this year and as you can see, Ally wasn't thrilled about any of them. The picture with her and Justin where she is screaming is from our ward party and I warned everyone that she would cry but I still wanted a picture. (Mean mom I know.) This is the first year that Santa has made his appearance at Ryan's parents house on X-mas eve but I hope he comes again next year when Ally might like him a little better. We went to my Aunt Pennie and Uncle Robert's house for their annual party first and then to Ryans parents second and had good food and company at both places. Our nephew Cason was sick and throwing up the whole night so that sucked but it was still a good time.

My mom also bought the grandkids matching pj's for christmas and they looked so cute waking up in them on Christmas morning. Justin woke up around 7:00 and yelled my name. When I went into his room he said "I wish it was morning so I could open my presents." Me being the mean mom that I am told him that it was not morning yet and he needed to go back to sleep for a little while even though I knew that wasn't going to happen. I was just as excited as him but I wanted Ally to get a little more sleep. After a half our or so of laying in bed with him we decided to go and wake up Ryan and Justin even layed in our bed until around 8:00 watching cartoons until he finally begged us to wake up Ally and we agreed. Justin was fun to watch open presents but is getting a little spoiled the older he gets and is never satisfied and always wants to open one more. He was most excited about his umbrella, Geotrax airport, Tonka street sweeper and cherry picker trucks and his Red Sox jersey that matches Ryans. Ally was most excited about all the wrapping paper and boxes and also enjoyed her new baby and sitting in her new chair. As you can see by the pictures, she was too distracted to look at the camera. After we opened presents at home we got dressed and headed over to Ryan's parents for breakfast and more presents. Justin got a bunch of stuff but the main present was the playskool dance cam that hooks to the t.v. so he can see himself dance. Ally also got a bunch but her main present was the leapfrog learning table that she absolutely loves. Ryan and I got a bunch of stuff too and MONEY!!! Thanks Bob and Teresa!
After we left Ryans parents, we came home so that Ally could take a nap and we put a bunch of their toys together and then headed up to my mom's to get SPOILED as usual. My mom has spoiled us since we were little and continues to do so. There were times as an adult that my stack of presents were taller than me. Ally loves her new Elmo live doll and Justins favorite was his robot that shoots disks out they also got more toys and TONS of clothes. Ryan and I also got tons of clothes as wells as tons of giftcards, and a folding table and chairs set. Thanks Mom. My mom also made these sweet pork tacos and they were YUMMY!!! Ryan got sick in the middle of the night and was throwing up and the next morning Justin also started throwing up. It was no fun taking care of those 2 and trying to keep Ally away from them. Justin threw up for 4 days straight and the majority of it was in my bed. After changing my sheets a few times he ended up laying on towells for a few days. Ryan's grandma, dad and my niece also got sick so the Gentry family party was rescheduled for this Friday. It's gonna be kinda weird going to a Christmas party so long after Christmas but it should be fun.

Ally's B-Day!! Better late than never right???

I have been debating lately whether to just quit blogging all together since I am so far behind but I would feel like a loser mom if I never posted Ally's B-Day so here it goes. Ally's birthday was on Mon. November 3rd. so we decided to have her party on Saturday the 1st at Ryan's mom and dad's church. She loved the freedom of being able to run around the gym the whole time.
We had pizza, cake and icecream. I got her cake from Sam's club and it had a cute little picture of her on it and was very yummy!!

She didn't really care too much for opening presents and just wanted to run around the whole time. When it was time for her cake I was surprised at how she dug right into it comparted to how cautious Justin was on his first birthday just barely touching it and then licking his fingers. Ally was picking it up and squeezing it and throwing it everywhere until my brother decided it would be funny to ask Ally where her head was and it took her a few minutes before she showed him and ended up with cake all over her hair and in her ears. Thanks Scott!! j/k it was fun to watch her enjoy herself so much. She got a lot of great presents and had fun playing with all her cousins. The older kids had a good time playing potato sack races and with some of Ally's new toys.
Ally celebrated her first birthday with only her bottom two teeth and was almost 22 pounds and 31 inches long. She still doesn't have a lot of hair but is also not the baldest 1 year old I have seen. I can actually pull her hair into pathetic little piggy tails. She is a mischevious little girl and is always getting into things she is not supposed to. I love her so much and can't imagine my life without her.

Finally!!

I know, I know, I am a blog loser. I have been told by many recently that I need to update more often but for some reason I have been totally out of the blogging world. I have so many pictures, stories and events that I feel I need to post that maybe I am a little overwhelmed and that is why I have chosen to take a break. However, I do feel the need to post my Halloween pictures and if I have time before Ally wakes up then her birthday ones also. Halloween was fun this year it was nice to not be 9 months pregnant like last year and it was such a nice day too!! Heather and Jim had their annual Halloween party on the 18th this year and the theme was Heroes and Villains. Ryan and I had a hard time coming up with ideas but we wanted to be something that Justin would know who we were so we ended up going as Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy from Spongebob and we even won the costume contest. It was a fun party other than the Red Sox were still in the playoffs and had a game that night so Ryan was a little distracted and spent a lot of the night upstairs watching the game but they had my moms Rock Band all set up with a projector and a sheet hanging on the wall so the screen was huge and they drew names for people to be in random bands. It was fun!! I know that my nose looks a little inappropriate but I promise its just a stuffed nylon!!

We had such a busy week the week of Halloween starting with my sister having her baby on Monday the 27th. Little Macie James weighing in at 6lbs. 11oz. is such a cutie pie and Ally kept giving her kisses on the head without anyone even telling her to. It was so cute!!

Tues. the 28th we went to Ryan's parents church for their trunk or treat with all the cousins and then on Wed. I took Justin to my mom's carnival at her ward and then that night we had our own trunk or treat which my mom came to and brought Erin my sisters other daughter. On Thursday, Justin had a preschool Halloween party and then Friday we carved pumpkins, went trick or treating, visited grandparents and aunts and uncles and finally made it back home to get a little sleep, wake up the next day and we had Ryan's dad take some pictures of us with his fancy new camera at Beus's pond and then we had Ally's B-day party that night which was fun but that will have to be a whole different post.

The Joys of Motherhood!!

So, the other night Ryan was at the church for a meeting and I decided that Ally probably needed to be changed and take a bath. While I was changing her I realized that there were a few other wet diapers on her dresser that had gathered during the day that I needed to take out so I left her naked cuz she LOVES to be naked and I asked Justin to watch her for 2 seconds while I ran down to throw her diapers out. When I came back up to her room Justin just casually mentions to me that Ally had just pooped on the floor. I grabbed her and ran her into the bathroom and in the tub while I was trying to clean all the poop off her and out of the tub (luckily she was standing so it wasn't smashed all over her) I just kept thinking of the poop on the floor in her room that I still had to clean up and that I couldn't leave her in the tub by herself and about how she had been having diarrhea the last few days from teething (yeah, she finally just cut her first two teeth within the last few weeks) I was hoping and praying that this was a solid poop so that I wouldn't throw up which I almost did anyway. I kept whining the whole time I was cleaning her off and Justin asked me if I was crying and I told him no but I was maybe going to throw up so he told me to make sure and throw up in the toilet. I think he was worried about having to clean up after me and Ally. Finally, I got Ally all cleaned and left her in the tub with about an inch of water and left Justin to watch her and make sure that she didn't pull herself up and slip and fall while I ventured into her room. Luckily all my praying and hoping paid off and I got it all up in one big turd and almost couldn't even tell where it had been. Whew!! Of course Ryan always misses out on all the fun things that happen. I did have 1 thought to run and grab my camera before I cleaned it up but then I realized that nobody would probably want to see a picture of that. Ally is 11 months old today!!! I should probably update about her a little since I am such a blog slacker and she has changed so much lately. She is a walking machine at home as long as she doesn't have shoes on she will take 10-15 steps by herself before she eventually falls or gets to where she is going but she still has to pull herself up to something. She loves to watch Elmo's World DVD's in the car and fortunately Justin doesn't mind them either. She is finally starting to get enough hair to pull into a ponytail on top of her head but it pretty much just sticks straight up. As I mentioned before she FINALLY has her 2 bottom teeth after months of torturing me. She has slept all night for the last 2 nights from 9 until 8:30 but I am so used to getting up with her that I am not planning on it lasting long. I can't believe that she is going to be 1 in a month it has gone by so fast. I am really struggling with birthday and x-mas presents for her so if anyone has any ideas please send them my way!!!!

PRESCHOOL TIME!!!!

Well I am way behind as usual and have to do a little catching up. Justin started preschool a couple weeks ago and is going to teacher Brenda's again. He was so excited to go back and there are a few kids from our ward in his class this year. Here are a few pics from his first day back.

At their back to school night Brenda gave all the kids brown paper sacks with their names on them for them to put things in that describe themselves so Justin decided to go with a train because he could play trains for hours, a baseball cuz he loves sports, a tool cuz he knows all about them and always wants to help and a phone cuz he LOVES to talk!! He had a fun day at preschool showing and telling the kids all about him and doing the Pledge of Allegiance again and making the cute visor that you see in the pictures above that has his name and says welcome back to school. He is totally enjoying school and I am also loving the break!! Its nice to have some one on one time with Ally without having to share her. I was planning on posting about his soccer that he started a few weeks ago also but I am tired and so that will have to wait.