Happy Birthday, "Uncle" Ben! 6/28/08

Aunt Ashley's boyfriend, Ben (or "Uncle" Ben as Ally will call him) celebrated a birthday today!Happy Birthday, Ben! We hope you have a great one!

Happy Birthday, Lori!

Today is Grandma T.'s birthday and we hope she has a GREAT day. We love you! Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you...

(P.S. This is my favorite picture of you, Lori!)

Welcome Jillian Kate! 6/27/2008

Little did Julie know when we were at Max and Erma's yesterday that she would be in labor less than 24 hours later, but Jillian was bound and determined to make her grand entrance into this world. AND...boy are we VERY glad to have her! She is just beautiful, with a full head of dark hair (as you can see from the pictures). Ally can't wait for many years of playing with her cousin Jillian.

Congrats Martin Family! We love you already, Jilly!

Let's Do Lunch

Today, Allyson, David and I had lunch with Maw-Maw, Aunt Tonya, Aunt Julie and Cousins Alyssa and Ryan at Max and Erma's. It was a fun lunch had by all! Here are a couple cute shots of Maw-Maw with her grandbabies...

It's time for your close up, Miss Allyson!

Being the budding photographer that I am (or I think I am), I decided it was time for a little photoshoot with Ally. She only lasted a few minutes, before letting me know just exactly what she thought about me and my camera, but I got a few cute shots. :-)

Ally's First Bottle

Well, Ally has been doing so well breastfeeding that we decided to give her a bottle for the first time. It was a little bottle, as mama is still a newbie at the whole pumping thing, but she did really well and it was a nice chance for David to spend some bonding time with Ally. We want to get her used to the bottle early on, so we have a fairly easy transition when I venture back to work (YUK!).

The Larson Family Comes to Visit!

Mommy and Daddy's friends, Jon and Stacey Larson came over for dinner tonight and brought their little cutie girl, Miss Emma. Emma is such a sweet girl and she had a ball staring and cooing at Ally all night. She is getting lots of practice for when her little sister, Ava, arrives in a few weeks! The Larsons brought Ally the cutest little outfit and we can't wait to try it on her. It was wonderful to see you guys! We should do this more often!

Daddy and his girl go SHOPPING!

Ok, I'll admit that I was trying to pull one over on you with the title of this post. I mean, let's be honest...we all know David isn't much for shopping, BUT, he and Ally did venture out for their first time alone together for a trip to...Lowes! It was a quick trip and then a fast stop over to Grandma and Grandpa T's house to borrow some sort of tool-like item, but they had a wonderful time together and most importantly, everyone is still alive (I promise David will appreciate the Cosby Show reference I just threw in there)!!!

Here's Ally all ready to go before the big trip...

Hurray for more visitors!

"Great aunt" Judy and Mindy and Claire Wise stopped by today to visit with Ally and me and Grandma C. It was great to meet Claire for the first time (she is such a doll!) and Judy brought homemade Pasta Fagioli for us to have for dinner...so YUM! Thanks for coming girls! It was a great visit!

Happy 1st Father's Day, David!!

Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Owens!

We took our first road trip to Waldo, OH for Mike Owens and Natalia Skeen's wedding! Mikey is one of David's younger cousins and he and Natalia were married on June in a very lovely wedding ceremony. The reception theme was "Under the Sea" and they had adorable centerpieces of beach sand and shells and yummy Salt Water Taffy treats as favors. The girls wore dresses in a Caribbean blue color and the flowers were orange and cream and completed the very tropical look. Ally did wonderfully, sleeping through the entire ceremony and quite a bit of the reception. We even stopped on the way home for some world famous, fried bologne sandwhiches from the G&R Tavern in Waldo...YUM!!! All in all it was a wonderful first road trip with Ally!

Congrats to Mike, Natalia and Claire on their big day...You are a beautiful family!

Mommy and Me

This is one of the first few pictures of just me and Ally that we have and I love it.

Allyson, my beautiful baby girl, We will have a lifetime of memories together and I can't wait to watch you grow and change! I love you more than I could have ever imagined!! Love, Mommy

Ally's New Love Affair??

So we broke down and gave Ally a pacifier. We both said we weren't going to, but when good ole Dr. Dan said it might be the best thing, we decided to give it a shot. She seems to be a child who needs something to suck on for comfort and rather than that be me (sorry to all who are offended by breast feeding references, but honestly, and in my nicest tone...get over it!), we opted for the paci. We didn't want to see her overeat and gain too much weight and well, we could use some sleep around here, so we're going with it. She doesn't seem to be all that interested in it, to be honest with you, so we will try it for awhile, but we won't be sad if it doesn't become her new best friend. At any rate, she does look super cute with it! :-)

I HATE Tummy TIME!!

We have been doing our best to get some "tummy time" in with Ally, but as you can see from the picture, she is not a huge fan, despite the cute surfboard mommy got her to play on. We will continue to try and we will keep you posted on our progress... :-)

Ally's Nursery

Well, I know this seems like a strange place to add pictures of the nursery, but I wasn't blogging before Ally was born, when we finished it and we are so proud of it, that I just had to show it off. We went with a Garden/Butterfly theme for Ally's room and used light pinks, greens and white. I LOVE the end result and think it is quite the special place for a little girl to grow up!
Ally would like to say a special thank you to Daddy and Grandpa T. for building the beautiful shelves surrounding the changing table. They turned out better than anyone imagined! And, we can't forget the ceiling lights they installed in the nursery and our office...SO GREAT!
Also, thanks to Grandpa C. for helping to paint the room such a beautiful color! You remain the trim champion, that's for sure!
The room was truely brought together by so many people and lots of love. A changing table and glider from Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw and a crib from Grandma and Grandpa C. complete the look! Thanks everyone...we love you!!!
Pictures coming soon...

Walk this way...

It was such a nice early summer day and Ally was not wanting to nap, so while Daddy was off at work, mommy and Grandma and Grandpa C. decided to take a little walk. Well, from the pictures you can see that this was obviously NOT on Ally's agenda for the day, because she wanted NO part of it. We made it down to the end of the court and halfway down the next block before we decided it was in everyone's best interest to turn around and go back home. We'll try again another day... :-)

Let us introduce you to Dr. Dan!

Today we made a visit to see Dr. Dan Heinmiller, Ally's pediatrician, and as you can see from the picture above, Ally was unimpressed. David and I, however, were very impressed! It was our first official visit with him and we were very happy with everything we experienced. Dr. Dan was a recommendation of Mindy, mommy to Ally's friends, Ella and Claire. (Mindy also teaches with Grandma Clark). He was very friendly and laid back and he was so sweet to Ally. He and David spent a few minutes chatting about baseball (turns out David played ball at GLHS around the same time as one of Dr. Dan's sons and he remembered David from those days) and real estate, before we all remembered why we were there in the first place. :-) The staff at Dr. Dan's office was equally friendly and very organized.

Dr. Dan said Ally looked wonderful and he was pleased with her weight (she was back to her birth weight after 9 days). He said she was a beautiful baby (duh!).

He did mention that the skin that connects her tongue to the bottom of her mouth was very tight and most likely would need to be clipped...a procedure he would do in his office at her next appointment. She would feel a very minimal amount of pain and there would be little bleeding. It is important that we have this done to prevent speech problems in the future. We feel confident that what Dr. Dan says is necessary...my cousin and my uncles had this procedure done when they were young, so I was at least familiar with the procedure beforehand. David is a little concerned that Ally will end up looking like she should be jamming with KISS, but I think Dr. Dan will take care not to clip anything too much. :-) So, we will schedule this procedure for next time...

All in all, it was a good first visit and we left Dr. Dan's office feeling confident in our choice in pediatricians and even more proud of our little bundle of joy...

Aunt Ashley Came Home!!!

Ashley came home from Cali to meet her new niece. We were all SO excited to have her home and I was overjoyed to get to introduce her to Ally. She stayed for a week and we had a wonderful visit. It was an emotional goodbye when it came time for her to leave, but she will be back in about a month for Ally's baptism. She will become Allyson's Godmother. We will be counting down the days until you come back Aunt Ash! We love you!

My Hero

I wanted to take a minute to make a very special blog about someone who was very much my hero through all of my pregnancy and especially during labor...my Bud...my David. David was wonderful during my pregnancy, he truely was and he made every effort with his very busy work schedule, to make it to all of the doctors appointments, he read (part of) the About-to-Be-a-Daddy book that I got him, he went to Babies R Us to register with me, etc, etc...but what really amazed me was how he responded during my labor. If it weren't for David, I really believe that Ally would have had to eventually be born via c-section. We didn't have the most stellar of nurses during the night/early morning and the one we got during my pushing was about as motivating as a park bench. She didn't give me any direction, little encouragement and was a bit grumpy, to be honest. But David...he held on to me and told me how great I was doing and told me what he could see happening and was just a true champ! Just looking into his eyes helped me keep going, because I could see how excited he was and knew something was happening. Thanks, Bud...you were AMAZING! I love you very much!

Lots of Love

More visitors from our first week home with Allyson...

Some of our visitors escaped the constant snaps of our camera, but we appreciated them coming to see us! We are very lucky to be so loved!

Little Baby Feet

Grandpa and Grandma Truitt came over shortly after we all got home from the hospital and Grandpa T. fell in love with Ally's little baby feet. I can't say I blame him, afterall, they are so tiny and cute and it's like you just want to gobble them up!

I'm the Big Brother!

Here are a few pics of Riley and Ally meeting for the first time. He has been really wonderful with her and for the most part, doesn't seem to even notice her. He has been a good big "brother".

Pictures from Ally's First Days in the Hospital

Is this not the most beautiful hospital baby photo ever????

After mommy pushed for hours, Daddy said I came out with "Erykah Badu Head", but my head is perfect now!

Here's daddy trying to catch a little nap while we stayed at the hospital. We were there almost 4 days, so we got fairly comfortable with our surroundings. :-)






Daddy and Ally in our hospital room







Some of my first visitors when I was in the hospital:

Grandma and Grandpa Clark were there for the whole thing...I think they were a little tired!



Aunt Laura and Uncle Johnny are so excited to meet Ally!

Great Aunt Pam showed up bright and early before she had to be to work to meet the cutest baby ever!

Aunt Julie is practicing...Cousin Jillian is on her way soon!

Uncle Brian is a pro when it comes to baby girls! :-)

Aunt Tonya brought my cousins, Ryan and Alyssa to meet me. I can't wait to play with them when I am a little older!

Great Aunt Francie, Cousin/Aunt Alecia and Cousin Evan drove all the way from Middletown and back, just to meet the new little bundle...

Some of mommy's work friends hopped on the shuttle and made a stop in to our room:

"Aunt" Kim must have had something important to say...

Kara
Christy

Amanda