Allison is growing up.

My baby girl is almost 1. Allison's birthday is coming up this week and I thought I would just take a moment to make a first year memory list.

--The 2008 Olympics in Beijing were going on when she was born and we thought it was neat that the number 8 is a sign of good luck in the Chinese culture. Allison had a lot of eights that accompanied her birth. She was born 8.18.2008 at 8:10am and weighed 8 lbs. 9 oz.
--The nurses told us that Allison held the record at St. Marks for the least amount of Jaundice in a baby. Already a champion!
--She never caught on to nursing yet I knew that was the healthiest stuff for her. So I pumped 4-6 times a day for five months so that she could have the best start to life.
--Ate rice cereal at four months and baby food at five months.
--She was such a good eater. She liked almost everything except green beans. But now she will eat them.
--Allison has slept so well since she was about a month old. At a month she would sleep about 5 hours and by three months she was sleeping 7-8. Currently she sleeps about 12 hours a night with 3-4 hours of napping in the day.
--She got her first tooth when she was four months old and now has ten teeth!
--Allison went on her first airplane ride when she was three months old. We flew to Aruba.
--For her first Halloween she was pumpkin. The cutest pumpkin ever!
--She crawled at eight months and is now starting to try to walk by herself. She will sometimes take two or three steps. She can stand by herself but gets nervous and usually lowers herself back down once she has realized what she is doing. She does love the applause she gets though.
--She can say six words. Dada, Mama, baby(bebe), ball(ba), hi, and yeah. She is working on saying Grandpa.
--Her two best friends are her lion and baby doll. It is so precious when she holds her baby she will pat its back like Mommy does. And with Mr. Lion she grabs it by the back of its neck and crawls around taking it everywhere with her.
--Allison is very good at making animal noises. She growls like a lion, barks like a dog, makes monkey sounds, sticks her tongue in and out like a snake, scrunches her nose up like a bunny rabbit.

We are so blessed to have this angel be here with us. She is the light of our lives and brings so much happiness to our home. I am a little sad about Allison turning one. I feel like it is letting her go just a tiny bit more. She will be my baby forever. I hope that she will always know how much she is loved and that she is one of the best things that will ever happened to us. Allison, I hope you have a Happy Birthday and a new wonderful year full of learning, growing, and lots of fun.
Mommy and Daddy love you with our whole hearts!

Grandpa Sanders 90th Birthday Party

On August 9, 2009 my Grandpa Sanders turned 90 years old. The day before his actual birthday our whole family had a birthday party in his honor. It was a pool party and a wonderful celebration. One of the best parts of the evening was when everyone gathered around to tell their favorite memories about the man many call Dad, Grandpa, and Great-Grandpa. Some of the memories mentioned included ice cream outings when we were baptized, playing cards, having sleepovers, playing with tennis balls in the basement, sacrifices made on behalf of their family, sealing a son and his bride, asking for a daughter's hand in marriage, family reunions, time spent together, and feeling incredibly loved. The great love that was shared between my Grandpa and Grandma was also talked about quite a bit. At the end of a long day at home with six kids Grandma would just hug her husband for a while when he came home and the stress of the day would appear to magically melt away. We know Grandma's spirit was with us that day and we all felt her love. They have always been a great example to follow. Their dedication to each other, family, friends, and the church is something we can always remember and strive to live up to. We have been blessed for having known them.

The 24th

We had a great 24th of July celebrating Utah's Pioneer Day. The day started out with Allison having a bath with her favorite friend, lion. He is SO loved and needed to be washed anyway. He barely survived his near drowning experience! Here he is exhausted and trying to recover :)

Next on the agenda was a trip to the aquarium with Grandma and Grandpa Spongberg. Everyone enjoyed it and they had a lot of wonderful animals. Allison loved to watch all the fish, jellyfish, rays, sea snakes, sharks, octopus, and well, everything. She would watch them and try to grab at them through the glass. They also have added a new section with South American animals. There were spiders, frogs, fish, an anaconda, and much more.

Maybe our favorite part was where you can touch the rays and some fish! This was very cool. They feel like rubber.

After the aquarium we all went up Big Cottonwood Canyon to roast hot dogs and hamburgers. This is one our families favorite activities. We love the cool air and the sound of the river. The food was delicious and the company was even better.

Allison with her Grandpa and Grandma Spongberg.

We ended the day with fireworks! It was so fun to see Allison enjoy fireworks for the first time (on the 4th of July we were in the mountains and didn't do fireworks). She really liked them!

We love sparklers!

Our neighbors had family in town from Dubai and India and in Dubai they do not allow fireworks to be done on the street so they came out and watched our fireworks from their front porch. After our little fireworks show Dave and I were going to walk up the street to see the big fireworks show put on by the city. We went over and invited them to come with us. So Ratka and her 3 1/2 yr old daughter Smita from Dubai and the grandfather from India came with us. We loved talking with them and the fireworks lit up the sky!

We sure made a lot of memories that day....

Spider Woman

Dave called me a couple weeks ago to inform me that I had given birth to Spider Woman. He then went on to describe what he was talking about and I was laughing so much. The trouble was she would stop whenever she saw him so he couldn't get it on video. But after some sneaking I was able to capture Spider Woman in action. She had a hard time gripping because she was wearing shoes but sure enough she is a climber. The next video was the same day right after this one. Allison is such a joy to be around and is always full of love and entertainment.

Milestone (in my opinion)...

This is the first time I have been able to put a bow in Allison's hair without a headband attached! She looked so cute and I was really excited!!

4th of July Camping

Our family has a tradition of going camping every summer. We love spending time together, slowing things down, and enjoying the beauty of the mountains. This year was no different except that we were trying to camp with a 10 month old and we were missing some relatives who couldn't make it. Dave, Alli, and I ended up being "day campers". We attempted to sleep up there with Allison in her port-a-crib in the tent but by 11pm she was still awake and crying. So we threw some essentials in the car and drove home to sleep and went back up in the morning. Allison and Giada are becoming great friends. Cousins are the best!

We went on lots of walks. We had this little stream right next to our campsite and then the main river was across the road.
Cory, Leah, and Bella are waiting patiently to catch a squirrrel.

It worked!

Here is some of us hanging out and talking.

Our little family!

Nine Months...

Enjoy!

Family Home Evening at the Park

One of the best things about Salt Lake City is Sugarhouse Park. On a whim I decided to take Allison there today. Then I thought why not make a Family Home Evening out of it. So my mom said she would meet us there on her way home from work and my dad came and brought KFC for a little picnic.

Allison and I got there early and walked all the way around the pond. There were lots of ducks, geese, small birds, and seagulls. The river was spilling over part of the sidewalk so I took my shoes off and walked through the water. We went back and forth through the river about five times. It felt good on my feet (Allison was in the stroller). Although Grandpa later put Alli's feet in the water and she did not like that. Too cold for her tender toes.

We ate our dinner and then walked up the river, not in the water, on the side of it. It is only a few inches deep and it is calm. The air felt cool by the water. There were other people walking in the water and kids and dogs splashing around.

We walked to the playground. There were lots of families with kids there. Grandma pushed Allison on the swing and we took her down the slide. We have so much fun watching her have so much fun.

It turned out to be a lovely evening full of fun, adventures, yummy food, good temperatures, and even better company.

*Change of subject...

Our little angel is so funny. This is how we find her almost every night when we go to check on her before we go to bed. She has turned 180 degrees and she gathers up her blanket to use as a pillow. I don't know about everyone else but we chuckle each time we see this. We cannot get enough of her!

Bees Game

Take me out to the ballgame, take me out to the crowd, buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks, I don't care if I ever get back cause it's root root root for the home team, if they don't win it's a shame, cause it's 1, 2, 3 strikes you're out at the old ballgame! Allison watching the game after eating her dinner but before we cleaned her up :)

a ball game, warm night, new Bees shirt, kisses, one cute baby, and fireworks = a good time!