Girly Weekend

Trisha and Mark went on a fun overnight date over the weekend and so we had Jenna and Paige over to our house. (The boys stayed the night with their other aunt and uncle.) We had so much fun here with it being just us gals. Jason hasn't been home at all this week and actually stayed the night at the hotel he was working at on Friday, so it really was just the girls.

I asked Jenna if she would like to plan and set up and surprise the little girls with a Princess Tea Party. She was very excited and so I gave her a list of things she would need for the party: table and tablecloth, plates, name cards, decorations and princess dress-ups and provided her with all of the above. She really did a great job and went all out to make it fun for Paige and Allary.


Here are the two little princesses busy coloring.


Jenna brought her whole nail-painting kit and so by the end of the evening, all the girls had very beautiful sparkly nails.


We had chocolate milk and treats and watched a movie.


Sweet girls.

Paige slept in a play pen and the next morning, while I was busy fixing pancakes for breakfast, Allary decided it looked like fun.


Saturday afternoon, we went to the zoo. With our family pass, it was free! We had a lot of fun. Jenna was a huge help as she had to push a stroller all over the zoo.




Do you like their hair-dos? I spent quite a bit of time that morning giving them all matching hair-dos.
Allary and I really enjoyed having them over. What sweet fun girls!

Okay, let's go!

"Hey Allary! Go get some pants and some shoes on and let's go pick up something for dinner!"
"Okay Mom!"
A few minutes later and, "Okay, Mom, I'm ready!"

I told her it's too cold for flip-flops, but with an outfit as great as this, who cares, right? And yes, we did go in the restaurant like this, wings and all. :)

Girls' Retreat

Last weekend, my mom and my sister and my two sisters-in-law and I got to have a fun girls' retreat. We stayed at a nice hotel for the weekend and got to eat out and go shopping, lots of shopping, and just visit and relax. It was fabulous. I look forward to these retreats because I forget what it's like to just be me as a person and not just me as a mom. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing I love and cherish more than being a mom, but a little break from the demands of a toddler can be extremely refreshing. Plus, I was glad to see Jason and Allary get a whole weekend together as well. I was so glad for the break and we had so much fun!

Just Havin' Some Fun

I needed to make some cookies for a pack meeting for Jason last week and I had the great idea to make little ghost cookies with Allary and frost them and have these wonderful cute cookies to bring. So, anyone who knows me well, knows I cannot bake. The first batch all mooshed together into unrecognizable shapes and I also burned the ones that may have somewhat resembled ghosts. Ugh. We ended up with less than ten usable cookies, which I did not bring to the pack meeting. I threw together a batch of plain old chocolate chip cookies right before we had to leave and still burned a batch of those.
This is Allary showing off her ghost cookies she frosted.


Before the cold front and the snow over the weekend, Allary and I took advantage of the nice weather and headed to the park last week.




We also went to the zoo. Pretty soon it will be too cold to be any fun.
This is Allary on the snake slide.

...in a dinosaur egg.
...riding an alligator.
...and sizing herself up to a gorilla.

She wanted to take a picture of me in front of the gorilla too. :)


Allary is just such a little sweetheart. I feel like the past few months have been difficult what with the potty training and all. I've had to really set my mind to just relax about it and lay off a bit and just hope that she will figure it out and get better with time. It's not worth it to be angry with her. Once I stopped stressing out about that, I remembered just how much I enjoy my little princess. She is just so sweet. I was talking to her the other day and telling her how much I appreciate what a good girl she is. I said, "Allary, I think you are the sweetest, most beautiful, wonderful little girl in the whole world. Thank you for being such a good girl." She wrapped her little arms around my neck and said, "Mommy, you are my best friend. Thank you for being such a good mommy. I love you." She is very strong-willed and independent and she is also very tender-hearted and sweet and loving. When I was feeling a little sick, I was laying on the couch and Allary came over and asked, very concerned, "Mommy, are you sad?" I said, "No sweetheart, Mommy's just feeling a little sick." She said, "Oh, don't worry, I will take care of you." I'm thinking, oh no, she's going to go get her doctor's kit, but instead she came back carrying my Diet Coke and covered me with her blanket. :)

Peaches!!!

The peach tree in the back yard gave us quite a few peaches. I decided to try my hand at canning and after receiving as much info as we could get from multiple sources, Jason and I spent a Saturday canning peaches. We ended up with 35 quart jars. We cheered every time we heard a lid pop and seal because that meant we had actually done it right.

Professional Photos

I took Allary to JCPenney's to have her picture taken last week. She absolutely refused to smile for the photographer, she is even biting her lip in a few shots to keep from smiling. But, we still got some really cute shots of a very serious little ballerina. :)

3 Years

I can't believe how fast time has moved the past 3 years!

This is Allary the day she was born. 9-25-05.
She was 5 lbs 10.5 oz 18.5 inches long, born at 1:46 pm.


1 week old.

3 months old.

6 months old.

9 months old.

Walking! 11 months old.

1 year old!

18 months old.

2 years old.

2 1/2 years old.
3 years old!!!

I asked her a few questions about her favorite things. These are her answers...

Color: purple
Animal: lion
Food: hot dogs
Treat: corn dogs, oh and shakes, but I really like corn dogs too
Game: Dora memory game
Thing to do: color
Movie: Little Mermaid and Peter Pan
Book: One Fish, Two Fish
Place to go: The jumping place
Song: I am a Child of God and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
TV show: Curious George
Princess: Cinderella
Thing to do with Daddy: water (the yard)
Thing to do with Mommy: color

I want to remember exactly how she is at every stage. She is so much fun and so sweet. I can't imagine life without her.