Allie's first Christmas

August Gate had a Christmas Eve Service so we decided to stay in STL for Christmas morning. We were excited to actually spend Christmas morning as our little family of 3 in our place. This was actually the first time in our 5 Christmas' as a married couple to spend it at home. We had a quiet morning and really enjoyed every minute of Allie's first Christmas before heading to Southern Illinois to be with Noah's family later that night.

Allie opening her stocking.

Checking out her exersaucer

Not really sure what to think of this new contraption.

I think she likes it :)

After we all got to Noah's dads we realized that Allie and Nolan had on the exact same outfit (minus the bow) so we attempted to get a picture. However with a newly mobile one year old and a 2.5 month old this posses a bit of a challenge.

The Oldham Boys

Hanging out with Aunt Terrah
Chillin with Uncle Nick

Getting her stocking at Nana's house. Unfortunately she fell asleep again before opening any of her other presents so mommy had to open them for her.

Becoming Independent

Allie is beginning to show her independence. As we play she no longer is satisfied laying on her back and staring at me she wants to stand up and jibber jabber. She has become quite the talker lately and will carry on a conversation with anyone who will listen to her.

A few more pics from my little 12 week old :)

She is getting so big so fast I can't even believe it.

My little roll over queen

Allie has now become the roll over queen. It is so funny to watch her because she doesn't love being on her tummy and normally after 5 minutes or so she gets fussy and doesn't want to be on her tummy anymore. All of a sudden she realizes she can do something about it and she starts to lean to one side, eventually momentum will get on her side and she will roll over to her back. She is normally pretty proud of herself and will smile and laugh once she is on her back.




Just this morning I found her like this:


She had some how gotten herself on her side and her head is back supporting her so she doesn't roll over! My heart stopped when I saw her I seriously thought she broke her neck. Crazy girl!

2 Month Check up

We finally had Allie's 2 month check up after being sick and having gallbladder surgery it had been put on the back burner. When we went in to the doctor today Dr. H couldn't believe how big she was. She said she was just amazed at how much she had changed from 2 weeks. I have to agree she doesn't even look like the same baby! Well here are her stats:

Height: 25 inches in the 97%
Weight: 13 lbs in the 95%
Head: 15 inches in the 50%

Dr. Hollie was amazed that she was rolling over (which is now a daily event at our house) and said that she was showing major signs of teething! I said I didn't think they started teething this early. Dr. H said they don't and they normally don't roll over either. She commented that Allie is currently developmentally ahead in all areas. She told her that she better not cut any teeth before the new year and she better not be walking when we come in for our next appointment. I am so glad that my daughter is doing well and is healthy but slow down Allie Grace! I don't want you to grow up any faster than you have to.

Unfortunately I have temporarily misplaced my card reader so I will have to update this post later with the pic at the dr's. Sorry!

Santas Magical Kingdom

As most of you know I am married to Mr. Christmas. Noah loves Christmas time he can hardly wait till Thanksgiving to get out the Christmas decorations in fact the last two years we haven't even made it to thanksgiving. Now that we have a child we have really started thinking about what kind of Christmas traditions we want to have as a family. I had mentioned that I remembered going to look at lights with my Nonnie and PaPa when I was little and it was something I had really enjoyed and so we decided that we would make that a tradition. So Friday night once most of us were on the up hill from the sickness we decided to have a family date night. We went out to dinner (and I now remember why we don't normally go out on Friday night but rather during the week... the waits are HORRIBLE) and then drove to Eureka to Santa's Magic Kingdom.

As we pulled up to enter Allie was wide awake and getting fussy in her car seat because the traffic was so touch and go and even when you were moving you couldn't go more than 5mph. So go ahead and gasp but we decided to take her out of her seat and sit her in the front with me. This was totally the right choice.... she LOVED it! She was mesmerized by all the lights around her and truly enjoyed a whole lot more than I would of thought a 2 month old could enjoy Santa's Magic Kingdom. I can't wait for next year when I am sure she will be able to enjoy it 10 x more!

Here is my attempt at taking a few pics from inside the car...epic fail!

Allie totally mesmerized by all the christmas lights around her

Our little family outside at Kringle's Store

Allie belle and daddy

Thanks again daddy for taking us to see the lights! We had so much fun :)

Colds Suck! Especially in a 2 month old.

While Noah was waiting patiently at the hospital for me to finish having gallbladder surgery he started not feeling well and picked up a cold. So it was only a matter of time before that cold took over our whole house. By last Sunday I began not feeling well and neither did Allie. So unfortunately Allie's 9th week of life was consumed by the fact that both her and I had HORRIBLE colds. Sunday night we came home from church and she was so worn out that she went straight to bed and slept till about 2 am when she realized that she was stopped up and couldn't hardly breathe I think it scared her. Getting her back to sleep was nearly impossible and so my sleepless nights began. Monday I decided to make a huge pot of my mom's famous homeade chicken soup. I made enough to feed an army and well since we felt so crappy that is about all Noah and I ate for the next several days. By Thursday we had finished the entire thing! Monday night it was a battle and finally she fell asleep at 1 am after screaming everytime we put her down. Only to wake up at 3am, 4:30am, 6am, 7am and then finally slept from 7:30 to 10:30 am. Now I don't want you to think I wont let her cry and I rush in every time she makes a peep. No, in fact she has probably spent more time in her bed crying this week than in the other 8 weeks of her life combined. However, when your baby is sick they are so pitiful and you want to do whatever you can to make them feel better. Not to mention it freaked me out the fact that she wasn't breathing well so even when she was sleeping I still wasn't. She was pitiful when you would try to put her to sleep because she has come very accustomed to that passy when its bed time, the problem was she was so stopped up that she couldn't suck the passy and still breathe well. She would cry for the passy and then cry cause she couldn't breathe... a never ending cycle. I feel like we had tried everything. We tilted her mattress, used the aspirator 100 times a day, we squirted nasal saline up her nose several times a day and we used a humidifier. Tuesday night was a similar story sleep wise, but it was more a result of the horrible wind storm we had here in the lou. We experienced 35-40 mph winds Tuesday night and it was enough to keep me up until 4 am. Allie also had a hard time sleeping do to the fact that there is a HUGE window in her room and it was making crackling noises due to the force of the winds, I am talking loud crackling noises. I went to look up if there was tornadoes in the area because it was all so loud. I tried to escape but my room, her room, and the living room were all victims of this horrible noise...there was no escape. So here we are Wed morning both Allie and I are exhausted, sick, and starting to be a little grouchy... or maybe a lot grouchy! Wednesday I was able to go to the doc to get my stitches out from GB surgery and I found myself falling asleep in the waiting room. However, I think the Lord poured out his grace on me when Allie finally slept from 9pm to 6:30am Wednesday night. From then on things have started going up hill. I am feeling MUCH better, and Allie seems to be feeling better as well though I am still getting so much stuff out of her nose. Pray we get this congestion to a manageable place soon and we all have a better, more productive week this week because I am SO behind!

Its Christmas time in the city

My entire family came to STL for thanksgiving this year and this is the first time we have all been together since last Christmas. The one thing my mom always says she wants is family pictures so I decided to seize the opportunity and get some taken by the infamous KBK photography. We walked around beautiful Soulard and got some amazing shots. KB I appreciate you and your amazing gift more than words can describe. I am so blessed that you love pictures and taking pictures as much as I do! Thanks again.. you never cease to amaze me!

2 months old

On December 3rd Allie officially turned 2 months old! So naturally it was time for another photo shoot! That same day nana and I finished making her stocking so we decided she needed to use it as a prop this month. I wanted a pic of her in the stocking but she was WAY to big! My little baby is getting so big! She is 12.5 lbs and is so close to doubling her birth weight. She is all smiles this month and especially thinks her nana is SO funny. I need Nana here all the time during my photoshoots to get those big smiles out of her. She is really trying to talk and coo more and more often. If you keep asking her what else she has to say she just keeps going.

Alethia Grace 2 months old

hi mom... I see you have that camera again... I guess I will cooperate

Allie loves her activity gym and enjoys intentionally hitting mr. penquin and the alligator. She gets so excited!

Later that day we set out to do some Christmas shopping. I needed to look around Target for a few things so Nana took Allie. I later found them in the baby section "trying out toys". She got way over stimulated as Nana took her down the baby toy isles and showed her how things played music and lit up. This girl is a sucker for anything that plays music or has lights! Oh the wonderful world of toys will be our next adventure...

Allie- 8 weeks

I constantly feel like I am saying that I am so behind with this blog but the truth is I am always behind but don't want to just skip ahead to the present so I find myself constantly playing catch up. Here are a few pics from Allie's at 8 weeks.

I can not believe how big she is getting already. The time is totally flying by... I know what a cliche that is but seriously how is my baby already 8 weeks old?

Some major milestones this week are she actually likes tummy time, she can really hold her head up very well. She is sleeping great! We had a 9 hour stretch this week. She is smiling more and more and will actually laugh out loud now, it is SO cute. She is getting more active with her activity gym. She loves hitting the penguin and the zebra... she has a thing for black and white objects! Nana bought her a new toy giraffe which we have named george, he plays music and vibrates... she really loves george...thanks Nana. She is falling more in love with her hands, they are truly a comfort to her when she sucks on them. She has also found that thumb more and more... we will see which will win out the passy or the thumb? She also turned 2 months this week, but we will save that for another post :)