Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve. We went to 5pm Mass, ate at Chili's and then came home to prepare for Santa and bed.

Preparing Santa's milk, cookie, and M&M's

Notice Rudolph on her jammies

"and the stockings were layed by the tree with care in hopes of St. Nicholas"

somebody must have been good............Santa has arrived............to be continued

and a drumroll please.....

The 3rd Birthday party pics are finally here (aka cake) for those who have been stalking! hehe
We had a wonderful weekend celebrating with her. Friday she chose to go swimming at the Y but due to an "accident" in the Program pool we couldn't go...she wasn't to bummed and chose bowling instead. She was a champion bowler. We bowled, ate dinner, and played arcade games. We came home and enjoyed Mommy's and Daddy's gifts.

OOOHHH, a new turtleneck!
Proudly sitting with her new toys/clothes/books. We then proceeded to try on everything and play the game and do the puzzle and read the book before bed. I think she loved it all!

A special birthday surprise from Daddy...now she can look just like Mommy :)

On Saturday Daddy won Dad of the Year Award and took Alison out of the house for me so I could get everything ready for the party...plus he also took her swimming :) Besides the fact that I had to make 2 cakes, yes the 1st one fell apart, it turned out great! and besides the fact that my stress level almost flew off the handle when I locked my keys in the car at the gas station while trying to pick up said 2nd cake mix :(
I had a wonderful time making it and decorating it. It feels very special to make her cake for her. I know I'm now Martha Stewart or a professional cake decorator, but she was happy with it and that is ALL that matters to this Momma!

Ta-Da..the finished product!

Very intently opening her cards, note her new #3 shirt :) Thanks Milissa!

Singing Happy Birthday to the Princess Birthday girl!

We love you Alison!

So Alison's birthday party fell on Papa Wagoner's Birthday. I LOVED this pic of them celebrating together. We had lit one candle on Alison's cake for Papa to blow out...here's to another wonderful year Dad!

We had a wonderful party...thank you to everyone for coming and sharing with Alison.

Happy 3rd Birthday Alison

Oh what a wonderful day, I became a Mommy three years ago today! It has a been a journey and a very fast one at that.
Alison, you are so full of energy and zest! You love to read, probably 15 books a day. You love milk! You love to play anything imaginary...princess, wedding, school, camping, kitchen, and grocery. You are taking the best naps you have ever taken, sleep all night long, LOVE your Ellie and Nana, and are becoming quite the cuddler at times (which Mommy loves)! You are becoming slow to wake up and just started transitioning to the 3's class at school which you seem to LOVE already!
Mommy and Daddy couldn't love you anymore...your smile, giggle, hugs, kisses, and facial expressions ALL melt our hearts! We love you!xxoxox

Just a little look back..........

About 20 hours old 12/19/2006 (Happy Birthday to Papa W.)
4 days old and on our way to the Dr. office
7 months old
Your first visit with Santa-probably days before your 1st Birthday

2 years old

and now 3 years old!

Happy Birthday Bug!

Annual Cookie Day

We had our annual Cookie Day on Saturday at my moms house. The grandkids, mom's, and grandma's were elbow deep in dough, cookies, sprinkles, and icing! What a fun time!!!!
We've got Izi, Gabi, and Alison....Great-Grandma Meme, Kitty, and Grandma Sheryl.....Courtney, and Meme....do you see the loads of fun on the table in front of us????!

Alison and Momma
Off we go to the neighbors house to deliver some of the goodies...Alison, Gabi, Izi, and cousin Madison.

Deck the Halls......

We have busily been decking our halls! Alison is really enjoying the season. She knows we celebrate Christmas b/c it is Jesus' birthday (who just happens to also share the day with Mimi). We started the Elf on the Shelf tradition and she eagerly looks for Jeffrey every morning. She is wonderful with the Advent Calendar but does prefer to do a couple days at a time :) We have visited Santa Claus two times already and she proudly says she wants Baby Achoo for Christmas. Oh Alison, what a joy you are :)

Mommy's Snowman tree in the loft

Our finished tree for 2009...yes, Alison currently thinks your ear must attach to shoulder for any photo-ops :)

Reach baby, reach

Very carefully placing those ornaments

Watch me Daddy!

Hi little elf Ali

Thanksgiving thankfulness

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week. We went to Wabash and really enjoyed time with family. Lots of relaxing and playing. I can't put into words how blessed I feel this year with our families, jobs, friends, and health. Some of our most thankful moments of the days......we are so very thankful for a wonderful Mimi and cousin Izi

we are so very thankful for our wonderful cousins and the game of Twister!!! and the fun times we get to have playing it together

we are thankful for smiles and giggles that melt our hearts

we are thankful for all these sweet little ladies, our lives wouldn't be complete without them

we are thankful that they can be silly too :)
we are thankful for our little family........I love you Chris and Alison so much my heart aches sometimes. I love you, honor you, cherish you, adore you and can't get enough of each of you!

And then to round out Thanksgiving weekend, Chris and I did have our meeting with Santa Claus today to see if Alison has behaved herself enough for gifts this year :)hehehe and then home we came to do something VERY big-girl and slightly teary-eyed for Momma.......drumroll please........

Yes, it is big girl bedtime.......she was really excited!!!

This is her pretending to sleep in her new bed...she is currently there, has been with no issues, let's hope it stays that way all night???? :)

Uneventfulness

Well the month has been pretty uneventful so far but we are all geared up for a festive Thanksgiving with the families. But we have kept ourselves busy in other ways....
-like drawing on our dry erase board

-and getting temporary tattoos from the grocery..yes this came from the grocery and we wore it proudly :)

-placing dress-up and making silly faces ALL at the same time!

Now the month had truly been uneventful until this past Saturday and then we headed to Carmel's Civic Square for their Christmas event. A gorgeous evening, reindeer, cookies, crafts, the lighting of the Christmas tree, and {gasp} Santa Claus!!!!!!!!!!! but here we are with a little snuggling with Momma

-a bonus of petting both a bunny and a skunk and {gasp} one of Santa's elves!!!!
-the reindeer and Alison was very focused on telling this elf what she wanted for Christmas so he could remind Santa

-the main man himself!!!!!! after 1 1/2 hour wait, but we didn't even notice :)

Halloween Festivities

We have definitely enjoyed our fair share of festivities over the past two weeks. So originally Ali wanted to be a fairy for Halloween. Well, mom got crafty and using DIY made her some, but after flipping through all my camera cards tonight, realized I have NO photos of them. Mom's not a crafty person but I would have to say, they turned out pretty cute. She did end up wearing them to a library Halloween night.
So we hit ZOOBOO on Thurs night. We had an awesome weather night. All the animals were out and active. She chose to be a princess this night.
Of course we decorated pumpkins, Alison didn't want to "cut into" hers so we opted for this Princess Pumpkin kit instead.

Mom, Dad, and Alison working hard at carving Mom and Dad's pumpkins with the added bonus of celebrating Lindsay's 30th!!! Happy Birthday to you :)

And we are off trick or treating and she chose to be a BSU cheerleader!!! Perfect for the chilly weather we had. Here she is asking Daddy if she can choose "2" pieces from the dish. :)

Here's Ali and Chris with Mom and Dad's pumpkin. Yes, Mom's is the basic one on the L. I enjoy carving pumpkins for about 30 min. but Chris is WAY advanced and did the awesome one on the R.
We also enjoyed a trip to the Pumpkin patch this year. We had a great fall season and Happy Halloween....now we are ALL on a sugar high from the candy and oddly enough, Alison tasted cotton candy for the first time....and didn't like it :( Crazy little child hunh?! What's not to love about pure sugar?!

Fyffe/Fleck Wedding Fun

Chris and I headed up North this weekend for an extra-special event....the wedding of our close friends Carla and John. We had the best time. The bride was beautiful, John was sweet as ever, the church was quaint, and the reception was a P-A-R-T-Y!!! Sweet Ali girl was in the safe hands of Meme and Papa and I'm pretty sure not one second went down that she wasn't spoiled :) Thanks again Mom and Dad for allowing us a getaway night! Thanks to Carla and John for such a fun time and we wish you the sweetest lifetime of love!
The 4 besties....bride, groom, bridesmaid, and usher! We love you guys!!

Me and Lindsay....you are the sweetest friend ever, I'm so blessed. Love ya!!!! yes, I have no idea who the guy in the background is nor do I know what gang sign he's making, ha! If Lindsay and I look a little sweaty and tired...that is b/c we BOOGIED down that night!!!

Me and the bride...Carla Jane. I hope the day/night was everything you'd dreamed it to be. We had an amazing time, thank you for including us.

Chris and I, we clean up nice, hunh?

Well since we were at a wedding we had to work on this relationship of a future pre-arranged marriage, ha! This is Robby and Lydia, just a week apart. Adorable!!!

Lindsay....here is your new tricycle and I don't think it could be any better do you?!