Merry Christmas

There is only one way to sum up this year's Christmas festivities......my cup runneth over......

Chris and I are so blessed to have such an awesome loving marriage, a beautiful sweet daughter, loving and generous families.....we can't even begin to list it all. We had a wonderful Christmas today. We had an intimate morning together as a family of 3 and then both sets of Grandparents came to enjoy lunch, games, and fellowship. Ali did wonderful considering all of the commotion. Santa came and visited last night, he even had room to enjoy some of our goodies. Here are some photos of the day......

Wow, Santa came and brought these fun new toys....

Thank you Aunt Becky and Uncle Mark for this new toy....as you can see, I think I'm gonna love it!!!!!
My wagon....Grandpa Bobby is working hard to get it together for me

One of the best parts of the day...Great Grandma Meme's homemade noodles..yummy!!

We hope that everybody had a very Merry Christmas. As the old song goes....So this is Christmas, we hope you had fun......

The 1st of our Christmas fun

So we headed home on Saturday morning after I got off of work and had a great lunch at Chris' parents house with some of the Bishop clan. We had a nice visit with everyone. That evening after I put Ali to bed we enjoyed some Christmas exchanging with Chris' parents. He got some cool hunting pants and I got some good smelly-smelly perfume from Victoria's Secret.

One Sunday we headed to church with them and then out to my parents house for the Wagoner Christmas. Which my family is super small so that only includes my brother and my cousin and her family. We had a fantastic time. My brothers middle child, Gabrielle, was just beside herself having to wait for the opening time. They were thrilled with their American Girl dolls. Ali did good. A little overwhelmed with all the action and of course, gift time coincided with naptime and snacktime so she wasn't the happiest camper anyway. She got some great new toys and Chris and I got framed family photos taken for my parents 40th wedding anniversary.

We attempted to stay with my parents for the night.....yes, I said attempted. I'm not sure what was up with little bug but she just couldn't settle in for the night so at 12:30 am we decided to just come home. Of course she was asleep 30 seconds into the drive and slept the whole way home and right on into this morning. Kids--crazy little creatures.
So I'll get to what you came for....a few pics:
Our pretty Christmas outfit



My brothers crazy kiddos (L-R): Gabrielle, Izabielle, and Danielle
The apple of my parents eyes---their 4 granddaughters
Well, the little one is bathed, fed, and in bed resting for the big Christmas day. Here she is fresh from the bath and getting Santa's plate of goodies ready:

Happy 1st Birthday Alison

So, we had Ali's party planned for Sunday afternoon but the snow storm postponed it until last night. We had a great time and she did excellent. Both sets of Grandparents, Great-Grandma, and two cousins all came to celebrate with us. She got lots of fun gifts and LOVED the cake. I don't know how much we loved the cake because she was up from 11:20 until almost 1am last night with a belly ache. Poor girl, not the best way to ring in your birthday. Here are some pics to enjoy.......
Her cake:

The cake the rest of us got to enjoy:
Opening gifts:
Enjoying the cake:

Of course a birthday wouldn't be complete if we didn't celebrate on the actual day, so tonight just Ali, Mommy, and Daddy had a party. She opened the rest of her birthday gifts from us and got to enjoy some chocolate covered Cheerios (no more cake for her!!) I know, I'm such a ba-humbugger aren't I??


I can't believe she is 1 years old. My how fast a year can go. It is hard to believe how small and helpless she was just a year ago. She has grown and developed so much. There has been no greater gift than the gift of Alison to Chris and I. We love you Bug-so so so so much. Thank you for blessing us with that gorgeous smile each and every day.

Getting in the Spirit

We got our tree up and decorated last week. With that and the snow, it definitely is starting to feel like the Holidays around our house. We went and had breakfast with Santa on Sat. morning. She did good, considering... We also "rode on Santa's sleigh" which was a horse drawn carriage. The festivities were very fun! As you can see, Ali is sitting on one of her Christmas presents :)


This is the only nativity I'm putting up this year, can you tell, it is the Fisher Price Christmas Story nativity. I'm sure my Fontanini nativity would not be safe from someone's little fingers :) It is a really cute set and we also have the Drummer Boy set. She seems to enjoy the little people.

My first pair of kicks

I got my first pair of shoes last Tuesday. I can't say that I like them very well, I would much rather be barefoot, but I'm adjusting. Mommy was excited, she can't believe that I'm almost walking. I actually took about 3 steps alone for the 1st time last Wed. My shoes are pink and a great chew toy if I don't say so myself.

Finally....a smile in the tub

Many of you may not have known that Ali was hating her baths. For about the last 2 months it was full on scream while getting clean. We don't really know why. We had gotten to the point of her sitting in the tub and "playing" while she got bathed and then the cry started when we washed her hair. We were happy with that, BUT last night....she discovered the joy of kicking and splashing. She was actually smiling and grinning and having fun! We were thrilled. We didn't even have tears with the hair rinse! Hopefully she'll keep this up.

Happy Thanksgiving 2007

We hope everybody got to spend a day with friends and family and enjoy life's blessings. We sure did. Momma worked on Wed. night and then slept part of today. Chris was busy cooking the turkey and then we sat down to feast around 5pm. We shared in the day with Chris' parents Bob and Sheryl, my parents Tom and Becki, and my grandma Beck. We had a great dinner and of course enjoyed sharing in Ali's 1st Thanksgiving. We are so thankful for the many wonderful things in our life....friends, family, health, happiness, and love!


Here's our little gobbler :) She is chowing down on grandma Fifi's homemade yeast rolls.
After dinner playtime with Papa Tom...he is sooo much fun. Actually I think Ali is eyeing that cheesecake.....Mommy let her have about 3 small bites of original...of course, she liked it :)

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words...

So, no major news to report on this past week. Ali's eye has been a little bit of an event. She got a scratched cornea which is what caused so much redness and light sensitivity. We went to the Dr. on Tuesday and again this morning (Friday). We did some more drops and now we are doing an ointment over the weekend. We go again on Tuesday to make sure all is well. He said it looks like the stent is causing some irritation and it might just need to come out already. Which, in the long run research says that a stent being in for one week vs. three months doesn't have that much of a difference in outcome. SO.......

But anyways, I know you are looking for the photo. This is what happens while Mama is at work......so cute!!!!!

Well, we made it through the day

Wow, what a day we've had. Miss Alison had her surgery today. For those who didn't know, she had to have her Left tear duct opened. She did great during surgery. She did have to be intubated and have an IV but all in all, it is a pretty simple quick surgery. They did have to stent her tear duct. It was just really narrow. So, the stent will help keep it open and we'll have that removed (in office) in about 3-6 months. She came home and slept for 4 hours. Which, if you know Ali, is completely off her norm. She was pretty sleepy and off kilter all day but just now before bed she was laughing, playing, and being mischevious. We tried to catch a pic with her eyes open, but the brightness was to much for her. But as you can slightly see, her eye is red and swollen BUT.....
She's never to under the weather to flash that sweet smile AND............

Have playtime with Daddy. WHEEEEEEE

Happy Halloween 2007

We wanted to wish everybody a Happy Halloween. We really enjoyed our evening.......

from our sweet little girl to our devilish daughter-- isn't she cute?!!!! We loved it.

We enjoyed watching the kids come to the door. We even had some visitors. This is our neighbor friend Jordan. She reminded us of the Christmas Story "I can't move my arms" Ha Ha and then this is our friend Mark. His mommy watches Ali once or twice a week. He LOVES Star Wars, so this was the perfect costume for him and of course, Daddy just couldn't resist trying it on. Here are some pics with Mommy and Daddy...Ali enjoyed playing with the candy. Of course none this year, maybe next :)

This is her best grrrrrrrrr face!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We actually got them done

Yes, I'm talking about our pumpkins. We thought it was going to be a long shot for us to get our pumpkins decorated this year with Miss Alison around, but we managed to do it. We are fully prepped for the big day tomorrow! Looking forward to sharing the outfit---it's flamin'!!!

Daddy and Alison cleaning out the goo------is she cheesin' or what?!Daddy hard at work on his pumpking. I decided to do a "light-bright" pumpking this year. You clean it out and then tap in pegs of assorted colors. Quick and easy. It turned out good but didn't show up in the pics well. I did a bat.Here is Chris' final product. A little blurry, but if you can't tell it is a vampire going after a women's neck---whooooooo!!!!!

ps.....Happy Birthday Lindsay

A little clarification

So, Momma was a little confused on the details of the Gap call. First we entered her photos and the deadline for that was yesterday. They ended the submission and you actually can't view them online now. So, no need to try and go see her pics. Now, a group of judges will narrow the field down to only 5 in her age group. IF we would make that group of finalist....they will notify us by next Wed. and then starting in Nov. the public gets to vote on those 5 finalist for an actual winner. So, if we don't post the EXCITING news that she made the finalist by end of next week, we didn't make it (which is okay b/c we will always think she is billboard picture perfect-ha).

Just for fun....

We were having just a hang around the house day and thought we'd snap some shots. She looked sooo cute in this little outfit, I just had to share. She is cruising around everything and can stand for a few seconds by herself. So amazing that she is almost a walker. She has started to make kissing sounds when you make them to her, sooo sweet! So, we have a little secret to share...we entered Ali in the Gap Casting Call to be the next face of Baby Gap. You can go to Gap.com and click on the casting call link and see the other entrants. If you enter my email you can see the photos we submitted of her (actually as of this minute, they aren't updated yet). Sometime in Nov. the public will vote to narrow down the field. Of course, we will keep everybody updated b/c we will need your votes. We did it just for fun and who knows??.......

Are you ready for some football??

We are.........Monday Night with the Colts!!!! GO COLTS!!!

Roll out the Red

That was this year's theme for Ball State Homecoming 2007. We had a beautiful day and really enjoyed ourselves. Our little cheerleader was great. A real trooper and already a dedicated tailgater. We got to spend quality time with Uncle Ryan and Papa Wagoner. To top off the day....a victory!!!!!