Twinkle, Twinkle...Ally Style

Please don't mind the messy hair and orange drool on her face...it was a special day and she was enjoying her treat! :-)

Boing, Boing, Boing!!!

Last night we took a trip over to Julie and Brian's house for a little cookout with them. We had such a fun night just hanging out, relaxing and playing some games (David and I apparently are NO GOOD at 80's trivia, but Brian rocked it out!). We had great food. Brian is a master at kabobs and Julie has a new signature dish in her potato casserole, if you ask me. :-) The highlight of Ally's night, though, was getting to jump on the trampoline with Jillian. She LOVED it and we had a really hard time getting her off of it when the rain started. We will definitely have to do that again soon. Jillian is such a pro at jumping already! It took ally a little bit to get used to it, but by the time it started to spinkle, she had really gotten the hang of it. She had the best time! Thanks to the Martins for hosting such a fun evening!

Rainbow Pirate

Early this morning I received an e-mail from the hubby that read, "Yarrrrrrrr! The rainbow pirate is lurking!" and this is the photo that accompanied the message:My husband loves pirates (or at least talking like a pirate) and I guess that's what Ally reminded him of this morning. Regardless, the picture made my day...she's so cute! Thanks, Bud, for the early morning giggle!

My Future Ski Bunny

On Saturday, I spent about 20 minutes getting Ally all bundled up, so I could take her out in the snow for approximately 5 minutes (nice). She had been asking to go outside for DAYS and even though we had just been to the doctor with her the day before, she was in a great mood and I figured 5 minutes of cold when she was bundled up like the kid from A Christmas Story, was not going to do her in any harm. We would spend a couple minutes walking around and looking at the snow and then we would collect some of the fresh snow and make snow ice cream (will post on that later). Ally LOVED being outside in the snow. She wasn't crazy about getting it on her face (she fell forward once and since the snow was almost up to her waist, she took a face full), but once I wiped her off, she was fine and spent most of her 5 minutes walking up and down the driveway, repeating "Snow White, Snow White" over and over again. Before we went inside, we scooped up a bowlful of snow and I shoveled our walkway (AGAIN! What is up with all this snow?) so David wouldn't have to when he got home from work. Ally cried when I said it was time to go in, but she was fine once I served up lunch. :-) We had a quick, but fun time in the snow.

**On a side note (and to explain the title), I think Ally looks like she should have skis and poles in her hand in these pictures I took...so cute! It makes me so excited about the possibility of teaching her to ski next year! We love to ski and have always said we will teach our kids to ski at a very early age (they learn better and faster when they are small). Fun Truitt Family ski outings in our future!!

Hope you are all staying warm!

One, Tuu, Tree, Boor

In case you were wondering about the title, that is "Ally Speak" for- one, two, three, four. Ally can count to TEN! Nineteen months old and she can count to ten...proud mama over here. :-) Some of the pronunciation may be a little off, but you can understand every number she is saying and she counts in order every time. Just wanted to brag a little, because she so darn cute when she does it! If I can catch her on video, I will post it here, but she is stubborn when she sees any kind of camera so I am not making promises. I'll try though!

Hi No!

As we were finishing gift opening tonight with my parents, it started to snow. Ally and Dylan were having the best time standing in the glass doorway watching the snow fall (and getting their grubby little hands all of over memaw and papaw's front door) together. Ally would yell, "Hi No!" and Dylan would just grin and clap his hands. So cute!!

An Italian Christmas

Stop #1 on Christmas day is to Grandma Lang's house. David's Grandma makes a HUGE and wonderfully yummy Italian meal every Christmas day...and it is all handmade. She makes her own sauce, meatballs AND pasta! We look forward to it for months, it is just that good. In addition to the food, though, we always look forward to seeing the family and the last couple years have brought several additions to our family, so it is fun to see the little ones all running around. Ally had so much fun playing with her cousins. We filled our bellies and are already looking forward to next year. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Morning

We had a wonderful Christmas morning. We didn't get back from Cincinnati last night until about 1:00am, but Santa was prepared this year and didn't need much help from us, so David and I were able to get to bed by around 1:30 or so. Ally actually slept until around 9:00, so we all woke fresh and ready to go. Look what Santa left for us!

Ally was very excited and ran right over to the tree, but stopped short when she saw her new table and chairs. She wanted to sit right down on her new "seat".

And then Daddy sat down in one of her seats and she thought that was pretty funny...
We finally convinced her to open some of her other gifts and she had a ball! She got so much stuff from Santa (a little too much stuff, but whatever)...
Then Daddy opened a few gifts...he got some books, a new hat, some clothes, some fancy playing cards, etc..
Then I opened a couple gifts...a very nice shelving system for the garage that I have been wanting, but have been told I don't need (I wonder if Santa was just trying to trick me into thinking I wasn't going to get it :-)) and the most amazing gift I have ever received under any tree...
This photo doesn't do it justice, but in this picture are my two Ally's...my daughter, Allyson and my grandmother who passed away four years ago. My Ally is named after my grandma and she was one of the most important people in my life. Our time with her was far too short, but at least now I have this amazing reminder of her. David has been planning for months for this gift and I was in total shock! A lady he works with is an artist and sketched this beautiful photo for me, so that I would have a picture of Ally and my grandma together. I think I sat and stared at this picture for ever, after I was done crying tears of joy that is. Thank you, David for the most amazing gift! I can not put into words how much it means to me. Here is a picture of Ally and me, after I had cried my eyes out for 15 minutes. :-)

After we finished all of our presents (including some that came all the way from Florida to us...thanks GG & GG-pa Clark!!), we let Ally have a sucker from her stocking. Then she preceeded to lose her mind, because she wasn't allowed to have another one. :-) After we calmed the meltdown, I fixed eggs and biscuits for breakfast and we relaxed and played with new toys before heading to our first of several Christmas stops for the day. What a fantastic morning! Merry Christmas, everyone!