Football or Ballet...

TOUCHDOWN! It's a boy!!! We had every intention of waiting to find out until Christmas morning, but if you know Kyle you know it is nearly impossible for him to wait to open any kind of present. The doctor had a hard time finding the gender so he sent me back out into the waiting room to drink 3 more glasses of water and wait another 30 minutes. The baby was still being stubborn but eventually the doctor was able to get a clear view.
We are so excited!

Things to Remember

*This weekend I decided to attempt to teach Allie how to write her name. I was surprised when she was able to write this in just about 5 minutes of practicing. She even says the letters while she is writing.

*It snowed in Houston! Nothing like a Utah snowfall but it definitely brought the temperature down enough to warrant hot chocolate. I was able to bring out the winter clothes and bundle Allie up for a little trip outside. The funny part was that they let Kyle leave work at noon because of the snow...and the snow didn't even stick to the roads!

*Allie sat on Santa's lap (picture coming soon) at our ward's Christmas party! We are so proud of her because she is petrified of anything in costumes (mascots, Santa's, Easter Bunny's, etc). Santa was so nice and able to persuade her to sit on his lap. He asked if she was a good girl and she said yes. Then he asked what she wanted and she replied, "I want a Snow White movie please." She was so polite. He gave her a candy cane and a necklace for sitting on his lap. She talked about Santa the rest of the night and is now more excited than ever for him to come on Christmas.
~
*This little girl L-O-V-E-S music. She can sing along to a lot of the country songs on the radio...like Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and Lady A. The other day we showed her one of the music videos and after only a few times watching it she had some of the dance moves down as well.

Thankful for Bacon

I was tucking Allie into bed the night before Thanksgiving, and I was explaining what Thanksgiving Day was all about. I told her that I was thankful for her, for dad, for the baby, for Jesus and she replied that she was thankful for GG & Papa. I continued to tell her that I was thankful for food, our house, our cars, our health and she replied, "I'm thankful for bacon." Kids really do say the funniest things.
Thanksgiving morning I was watching Allie eat her scrambled eggs and I just had the most thankful heart that my daughter has never known hunger. What a horrible feeling that would be. I'm so grateful that we are able to provide for her needs.
~
I'm so grateful for all that my Father in Heaven has given me. We are so blessed.

Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo...that is the day Allie is set to be a

big sister!

We are so excited for this new addition. I am so surprised how much Allie understands. She loves to hug and kiss my stomach and tell the baby stories.

I'm 14 weeks right now and have felt great....I'm super lucky that way.

Here is our sweet little one!

Family Pics

Happy Halloween

Things to Remember

*I bought Allie these really cute tan boots. Never mind the fact we live in Houston. She calls them her "Prince Phillip boots." I guess she thinks they look like the boots Prince Phillip wears on Disney's Sleeping Beauty.

*Allie is such a girly girl. She loves lip gloss...which she calls Lick-ups. The other day she put some on and would pucker up to show me how pretty her lips were. I told her to give me a kiss and she wouldn't...she made me kiss her check so I wouldn't mess up her lick-ups. She also talks really funny because she won't put her lips together for fear she'll mess it up.

*Allie can sometimes be bossy, even to me. So I reminded her..."Allie, I'm the mommy." Well, days later I was asking her to do something and she looked at me and said, "Mom, I'm the Allie." Such a little stink!

*Like I said, Allie is a girly girl. She loves to watch me put on make-up. The other day she asked me if she could have dark eyes...which was her way of asking for mascara. So I helped her put some on and she was in heaven! She now calls it 'Bascara'.

*I can't remember what I was pointing at, but I asked her what color it was. She responded, "It's blue...like daddy's eyes." I thought it was so cute that she put the two together. When looking at pictures of herself she'll say, "I have brown eyes like you mom."

*Allie loves chocolate caramel apples...can you tell?

Allie's 3rd Birthday!

Our sweet little girl turned three yesterday. Oh how time flies!

Allie, we love you so much and hope you had a very special day!

Kyle took half the day off from work and surprised Allie with balloons and flowers. She was so excited! She had the biggest grin on her face!

I loved watching her face as she opened each present. She loved everything and kept saying "thank you!"
Funny Story: She opened one of the cards from her great grandparents and got a two dollar bill. She looked confused and when I asked her what it was she said, "it's a coupon." I laughed so hard. No wonder she goes straight for the coins in my purse and never touches the dollar bills...she thinks they are coupons. :)
After lunch we headed to the Houston Zoo. She was so excited to see all of the different animals. She absolutely loved petting the goats!

Then we headed to Olive Garden for dinner. She tried to hide behind my arm when they sang her Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday sweet girl, we love you so much!

An Aspiring Chef

I came home from my church meeting to a beautiful dinner made by Kyle. He made an amazing calzone from scratch. He stuffed it with tomato sauce, hamburger, fresh diced tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese. It was SO good!!

I love how he cut slits in the dough. He also buttered it after it was done cooking and sprinkled it with Parmesan. It didn't only taste good but it looked good. When he showed me the finished calzone I seriously didn't believe that he made it...I was truly confused where this meal came from. I even considered the possibility of him ordering it from Pizza Hut. I guess I have an aspiring chef in my home.

I don't know what I did to deserve such a wonderful husband!

Go Cougars!

We drove up to Dallas for the BYU vs. OU game. Kit (Kyle's brother) lives in Norman, Oklahoma and is a huge OU fan. Both Kit and Kyle got to go to the game at the new Dallas Cowboy stadium and they had so much fun. It was such a good game! GO COUGS!

Kyle's dad also came into town for the game. It was fun seeing him as well.

I love how the boys wore their BYU/OU gear the whole weekend.
Allie loved spending time with 'Grandpa Rebell'!

Me and Mindy (Shana's sister who lives in Dallas).

She makes THE BEST tortilla soup you've ever had! I'll post the recipe soon.

We had SO much fun spending time with our family and friends. Thanks Choates for letting us crash there.

Things to Remember

* "So anyway," is how Allie starts every story. I love it because she makes it sounds like she is picking up from where she left off. Most of her stories include dragons, tigers and dad.

~
* Allie climbed up on the computer chair and started moving the scrolling button on the mouse. This is what she said.

Allie: I need to check my knee-mails.
Mom: Oh, really?

A: Yeah, I'm talking to dad.

M: What does he say?

A: He says he loves me.

~
*On Olivia's birthday, Allie refused to sing 'Happy Birthday' because she wanted to sing Olivia her favorite song...the ABC song.
~

*Allie doesn't sit still or listen during family scripture study, but as soon as we are done reading she pops up and says, "So what happened?" Then we recap for her the story in little kid language and she loves it. She gets so into the story and always asks, "what happened next?" I love it!

~

*"That is a great idea!"....a common phrase from Allie.

~

*We bought Allie some blocks last Christmas and she plays with them several times a day. She has tons of other toys but always wants to play with the blocks. Her towers and castles are quite complex and take a while to build. They are always complete with places to put her animals. She loves to say "TA-DA!" when showing off her creations. So cute!

My Super Sweet Husband

On Sunday Kyle told me that he was going to make dinner and that I was not allowed in the kitchen. He spent a couple of minutes watching a YouTube video on how to make ravioli. I guess one of his guy co-workers mention how he made home-made ravioli and Kyle thought if he can do it, so can I. It wasn't until he started stuffing the ravioli that I had any idea of what he was making.

~

He kept saying things like "how much salt do you think this needs?" or "maybe I'll just use 2 cups of flour." I stared in amazement because I'm not one to usually deviate from a recipe (especially on the first time). I started getting nervous when he said "maybe I should have written down the recipe." And since I had no idea what he was making I couldn't help him. He started out by making a mound of flour on the counter and then made a hole in the center (kind of like when you make a hole in your mashed potatoes for the gravy). Then he added 2 eggs and some salt into the hole. With a fork he slowly stirred the eggs inside the bowl of flour. A little bit at a time he would push flour into the hole until it formed a nice dough. Impressive, huh?!

~

He then rolled it out and cut circles.

Here is the final product. It was really good ~ I was so impressed!
I'm going to have to make him cook more often :)

Things to Remember

*Her favorite show lately has been Hairspray. I put it on one Sunday for me and Allie watched the whole show. She dances all around and tries to sing the songs. The next morning Allie woke me up and first thing she asked me (in her surprise/excited face) "Mom, do you want to watch Hairspray?! Ok! Let's go!" She always runs to her room to put on a dress and her white church shoes which she calls her 'dancing shoes.'

~

*Allie has certain things that remind her of GG & Papa's. Caillou is one of them. If I mention Caillou, Allie will ask if we can go on an airplane to go to GG & Papa's house. When Allie see's the blue dress that we bought to match Olivia's white dress she asks to go see Olivia. The same thing happened when I mentioned Lagoon. She immediately asked to go see Papa Steve. It's hard for her to understand that we just can't go on an airplane and see them whenever we want. But I love that she misses them and has memories of them.

~

*Allie came up to me the other day with her super excited face on and said, "Mom, I have a surprise for you!"..."It's special!" So I get just as excited as she is and I tell her I want the surprise. Then Allie asks, "Do you want to go to GG's house?!" "Ok! Let's go!"

I love it when she uses this method to convince me to get her a fruit snack, watch a show, or go to the park. She makes me laugh!

~

*Allie LOVES to help me out around the house. She loves to help me fold laundry and I catch her in her room with all of her clothes out of the drawers trying to fold them all again. I also asked her to set the table the other day and I gave her the plates and utensils and she did a great job. She also loves to stand on a chair and help me cook, wash dishes and put away silverware. It is so cute to see how proud she is when she helps mom out.

{picking up her toys is another story!}

~
*After eating a bowl of cereal for breakfast, Allie asked for a yogurt as well. So I grabbed a yogurt and rinsed off her cereal spoon and handed her the yogurt. "Yuck, mom...not the cereal spoon. I need a new different spoon." I tried to convince her that I washed it off and that it was clean but she wouldn't have it. She definitely knows what she wants.

My Birthday

I'm officially 25 years old. I had the best day yesterday. My friend Annie took me to Chili's for lunch and then we came back to to the house to watch Sense & Sensibility. I believe it was the BBC version and it was amazing. Very well done. I opened my presents when Kyle got home from work. I got a darling purse from Darren & Debi, a cute bracelet and ring from Julie & Steve and I picked out a sweet new grill from my parents. Thanks guys!

~

Joe & Annie came back over to watch Allie while Kyle took me to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. It was so good!

Here is how Kyle wrapped my present.

PLEASE APPRECIATE HIS CREATIVITY :)

The outside is the paper bag from the store he bought my gift. Then he removed the handles from the bag and used it to tie off the top of the present.
Kyle got me 8 containers from the Container Store! I couldn't wait to fill them up. Inside them I put flour, wheat flour, brown sugar, sugar, powdered sugar, wheat, rye, and bisquick. When I came back to Houston after my trip to Utah I had bugs in my flour and bisquick...SICK...so I went out in search of some really good air-tight containers. I was in love when I found these. My kitchen doesn't have tons of cabinet space so I wanted something I could put on my counter and I love that these are stackable.
The Kitchen-Aid Mixer was my birthday present a couple of years ago...isn't my husband the best!
Kyle also spoiled me with several new shirts and pants before my trip to Utah. He's the best!
~
Family Night

Kyle took us to a local park for Family Night on Monday. It has a small fishing pond stocked with fish. Kyle was so excited to take Allie fishing. We didn't know what kind of fish were in the pond but we soon learned we didn't have the right bait. We'll go back soon and let Allie catch a fish.
Allie running through the water fountains ~ this was her favorite part of the night.

Some More...

I haven't gotten all of the picture Angie took but I copied these pictures from her blog. Sorry if the resolution is low.

Our 4th of July

We started off with breakfast served by our Bishopric at the church. Followed by swimming and then a nap for Allie. We had a BBQ with our friends and ended the night with fireworks in a nearby subdivision. Overall it was fun!

A Habit Broken

When Allie was 3 months old I took away her pacifier in hopes that she wouldn't be so dependent on it. Days later she discovered her two middle fingers and has sucked them ever since. That is until about a month ago. Yes, it is true...she no longer sucks her fingers. The trick? Take away her blankie. Once Allie got to be about 18 months old she didn't really suck her fingers unless she was tired, scared or holding her blankie. When she hit about two-years old the only time she sucked her fingers was if she saw or was holding her blankie. It was fascinating to watch her find her blankie and instantly put her fingers in her mouth. We are so glad this habit is gone.

This is a pretty rare picture. I just went through my pictures of Allie trying to find one of her sucking her fingers as a baby. I guess I never wanted to take a picture of that.

Sneak Peek & Summer Fest

So as you can see we did TONS while in Utah. In addition to everything below, we saw Night at the Museum 2 with Papa Steve and also Disney's Up with Rob, Angie & Olivia. We loved both of those movies. Allie and I got to see Sophie & her new little baby brother, Lincoln. We made a trip to Salt Lake to visit Grandma & Grandpa Nelson (Kyle's grandparents) and also to meet up with the Batemans, Tolmans and Faulks. Allie got to go swimming once with Uncle Steve & Aunt Jessi. On our trip we played tons of games, chilled in the backyard, watched movies, ate tons of Otterpops and played Rock Band. Good times. A big thanks to our family for making this such a memorable vacation! Love ya!

~

Sneak Peek

Angie (my very talented Sister-in-law) took some pictures of the girls. I'll be getting the other pictures soon.

~

Orem's Summerfest

We went to the carnival twice. The girls loved the firetruck. Since their Papa is the fire chief, they think all firetrucks are

'Papa's Firetrucks.'

{Allie, Papa, Olivia & "Papa's Firetruck"}

The second day we went with Papa Steve and Grandma Julie.
{Allie riding the carousel}
{Kyle & I at the parade}
{Kyle, Grandma Julie & Papa Steve watching the parade}

{Papa arranged for the girls to ride the firetruck in the parade. They definitely were the cutest kids in the parade. Thanks Kristy for riding along with them. The girls felt so special...and they should! Most kids don't get to do that. Thanks Papa!}

After the parade Allie went with Papa Steve to play games and look what she won...a goldfish! I asked her what she named him and she said "Fishy Revell." So cute! Tragically the poor fish died the next day.