Goodnight, Sweetheart....

i love you
Good Morning!

Going to get Alli up in the morning is such a fun part of our day. She is so cute, cuddly, and playful. And she usually has some pretty awesome hair!

Smile For The Camera

Allison's hair is long enough on the top that I can put it in a little half pony tail. This was the first time I did it because usually she does not like having anything in her hair. But being the great Mom that I am I bribed her with candy and did her hair while she ate it. And then since she looked so dang cute we had to have a photo session! The whole looking in the mirror thing is somewhat cheesy but I love these pictures, especially the fourth one down. That photo very well could be my favorite picture of Allison so far, top three at least!

Allison loves everything that is soft! Here she is cuddling up to my robe. Notice the extra jammies on the floor, she carries jammies around and lays down on the floor with them. She loves blankets, soft jackets, sweatshirts and towels. Oh and she loves to feel the fabric of clothes when we shop. She is so funny. Do/did your kids love this too?

Blog Book :: Recipe Book

I am so excited about this! I made a book with all of our blog posts. I love how it turned out! It was time consuming to put it together but totally worth it. We love looking thought it; Allison especially loves to look through it and find mommy, daddy, and herself. It is a journal/scrapbook of our lives which is great because I don't think I have scrapbooked since I started this blog. While it is fun to look on the computer at our blog this book is something that we can keep forever. The internet and our blog probably won't just go away but it is reassuring that our family "journal" is in a tangible book. I plan to make a new one every couple of years or so and then enjoy looking at them for years to come.

Another book I made was a recipe book. My in-laws are fantastic chefs and they have loads of delicious recipes. All the girls in our family were always asking for recipes from their cookbook, which was a huge binder filled with recipes. I offered to put them all into a book. So for Christmas Mom and Dad decided to surprise the girls with their very own cookbooks with all of the recipes. It took a long time to type up all the recipes and add lots of fun family pictures but again it was worth it! Everyone loved it!

Christmas Eve. Christmas. New Years Eve. 2009

Oh wow, we had a great Christmas this year! The festivities started out with our little family relaxing all day on Christmas Eve. We stayed home and played and prepped and cooked. Dave put together a bike for Allison while she was napping. As he was putting it together I asked him, "So do you feel like a Dad?" and he replied, "Yeah, this is like a right of passage" :) We made our traditional Christmas Eve soup, this year we chose chicken tortilla soup and ate it with garlic bread and sparkling cider. While we were eating dinner Santa made an early stop at our house! We all got a little spoiled this year. Later in the evening we went over to my parents house to open our elf gifts. We all got cute new jammies! Then we went and slept at Dave's parents house. We got up bright and early to see if Santa had made it to the Phillips and sure enough he did! It is mad chaos opening gifts over there. Everyone tears open their gift all at the same time. So I have no idea what anyone else got...bummer. It is fun to watch though. Thank you everyone and Santa! We love everything. Allison favorite gift was a baby with a stroller! She loves that baby doll. After presents we ate delicious waffles and Allison proceeded to wash Grandma's windows and her new doll. She was soaking wet after but she was having the time of her life!
After a clothes change into Alli's dry elf p.j.'s we went over to the Spongberg's. Is Allison not the cutest little Christmas elf ever? She loved looking at all the pretty presents and was pretending to take pictures of everyone. Now where did she learn that....not from me of course ;) She was not too interested in actually opening the presents but we had a great time opening our presents and again we were too spoiled. Thank you!! Allison loves all her new books, clothes, and toys! We love our new clothes and toys too! That afternoon we had a smorgasbord and in the evening we went back to the Phillips for a Christmas dinner feast. It was yummy!!!
On New Years Eve we had a gathering at my mom and dad's. It is always so fun to be with our cousins and friends. We ate, talked, played games and rang in the new year! Yea! Allison was a champion and stayed up the WHOLE time. We are talking like 1am! Holy cow, she amazes me.
Quintin, Allison, Scarlett
Oh my, oh my! Allison got her first New Years Eve kiss from Quintin! It was so cute, he has a little crush on her. I can't blame him, she is a cutie pie! Our friends, Tyler and Aubree, are great parents, he is the sweetest little boy. Our kiddos play so well together. Happy New Year everyone! We hope that 2010 will be a year of growth, health and happiness for you and yours.