Today I got to play Guitar Hero with my niece (6) and nephew (14). While Nathan was playing Brynne and I were dancing to the music. :) I am still learning but I can't go past easy. My nephew should join competitions or something because he is amazing. I don't understand how his brain works that fast! It makes me feel really old.

For her birthday we gave Allie a baby doll and the other day she was playing in the living room and I looked up to see her hugging and kissing the baby and putting her safely in her stroller. What a good little mommy.

Wow a whole year. What an amazing year. A year so full of love, fun, goofiness, patience, caring, understanding, and faith. She has made our love for each other stronger and we feel stronger in the Lord. The Lord has shown us a glimpse of His love for us by giving us Allie. She continues to amaze me by the amount of love I feel for her that grows on a daily basis. We are truly blessed.

Some updates! She is becoming more and more brave in standing. She has yet to walk but is letting go of things regularly. She is trying out alot of new signs but can't quite do them on her own yet, but I have a feeling she will just take off with them. She LOVES music, she has a toy that plays music and everyday she stands next to it, pushes the button, looks at me and shakes her little body. She started doing a little shimy shake when she gets excited. It's so cute! She laughs for no reason and she does this often. and sometimes to strangers in the store. and she got her first taste of cake today and loved it! She is her mother's daughter. Pictures to come of her very special day. Here are all the monthly pictures I have taken of her over the last year. Enjoy!

You know what sucks even worse then your baby being sick (which is pretty bad in itself), you being sick as well. You know whats even worse then that, your husband is even sicker then the two of you. We experienced this ALL weekend.

I thought I should post this super cute story even though it isn't mine! My sister's friend was giving her son (5) breakfast the other morning when he asked what book she was reading. She said it was a book that my sister had given her. He said does it have a character named Holly in it? She said no I don't have any books with a character named Holly. He said yes you do you read it all the time, her name is Holly Bibble. Mel had no clue what he was talking about. So he went to get the book and he brought her the Holy Bible. Cute huh. :)

All throughout my pregnancy I wasn't able to get my ring off. I was agonized at the thought of having to cut it off. Well it finally came off after a year! Granted I haven't been trying all that hard but I am super excited to finally have it off. I think I will have it sized now so that doesn't happen again. :)

Yesterday we celebrate Matt's 27th. It feels like such a treat to have dinner and a movie now. We had dinner at Todai downtown and then we saw The Invention of Lying. Both pretty good. :) Allie and I love you with all our hearts. Your the best husband and father EVER!

Here are a couple more videos. She just started doing the cutest little dance. It's the smallest little movement but worth the watch. Sometimes she moves her arms back and forth and today she started shaking her shoulder - only one. :) Check them out here and here.

Check out this video of Allie talking to Dada on the phone. It's so cute how she holds the phone to the back of her head instead of to her ear. She just started doing that a few days ago.

I was so busy planning her first birthday party I forgot to take her 11 month pictures so these are a few days late. She is learning and growing everyday it's hard to keep up! She now knows 10 signs (give or take) but her favorite sign is dog and our favorite sign is elephant. She started doing that sign after we went to the zoo for the first time and she got to see one up close. Of course when we went to the zoo both my friend and I forgot our memory cards, bummer. She now pulls her self up on anything, including toys laying in the middle of the living room but she has yet to let go of anything, on purpose anyways. My favorite thing that she started doing this month is actually puckering up and giving mom a kiss, oh and when she does the itsy bitsy spider, It's so cute! I know she is going to be a dancer too because anytime she hears music even background music on a show she starts bobbing up and down. :) This will be the last normal month pictures because the next one will be when she is 1 year! and in her cute little costume.

I had a hard time getting her to sit for these because she is such a busy body!

Remember this....Well this time it happened at my sisters while her friend was watching him. She said he finger painted with the poop, it was up his nose and in his hair. Gross! I am so scared he will do it at my house! I don't think I could handle it! Anyone have any ideas to keep his clothes/diaper on?

Allie was playing in my sisters living room and Heather and I were talking. I looked over at Allie and noticed she has something brown in her hand and was lifting it to her mouth. I realized it was cat poop! I dashed across the room with super mama speed and snatched it out of her hand before she ate it. I have never really liked cats but I am starting to side with Matt even more then I did before. :)

Our good friends Ben and Sarah are leaving for England for the next three years so Ben can finish up school. We are so excited for your journey. Good luck with everything! You have been amazing friends and I envy the people you are going to meet because they will get to spend time with you! My only request is that you at least consider coming back to Portland. I am sure one of the colleges would love to have you Ben! We will be praying for you and all of the exciting things the Lord has in store for you. We will miss you dearly.

My family has a new favorite game. Spoons! It's basically musical chairs played with spoons and cards. You have to be fast! We all experienced injuries over the trip but we had so much fun. Even my dad joined in on the fun. He was faster then us sometimes!

Here we are all shocked that my brothers girlfriend Tiffany ripped a spoon out of my grandmas hand. It was so funny.

Sometimes we had very close calls.

Heather and I were fighting over one spoon so hard I ended up on the ground. but finally I wrestled it out of her hand!

We were laughing so hard we were crying.

This will definitely be on the agenda next year.

While at the beach Brynne's (6) tooth was super loose. She was telling my brother about it and he was telling her about the old string on a door knob trick. Being the fearless little girl that she is she agreed to try it.

After having her step back all the way to the wall. Heather slammed the door and we heard her little excited voice say "It worked!"

For the next few days she had the cutest little lisp.

For Labor Day weekend my family all went to the beach. Something we haven't been able to do since my dad got sick. He was even able to join us! We had a blast but it went by way to quick. As most vacations do. We played lots of games (more on that later), Brynne lost a tooth (more on that later) and spent some fun time on the beach. Here are some fun pictures from the weekend.

September 7th was my big sisters 30th Birthday
Happy Birthday Amanda Hope!

Allie is double digits now! Everyday she is changing and learning so much. She knows a grand total of 5 signs! (Dog, All-Done, Ball, Fish and Flower) it's so exciting how fast she is learning them and has tried out a few others but hasn't quite gotten the hang of them. In the past month she has started really crawling around the room, I have to be quicker then she is sometimes. and a few weeks ago she started pulling herself up on furniture and is attempting to walk along the couch from mom to dad. We know it's only a matter of time before she off and running! Her favorite activity are climbing around on mom and dads bed and pulling out dads shoes. He can always tell when Allie has been in our room. She has the cutest little personality and we can't wait to see her grow into a beautiful person.

Allie loves books. I mean she will choose a book over a toy. She loves to take her book bin and dump it out and look through them all. She often sits silently on the floor looking at all the pictures. I see lots of trips to the library in our future. :)

My sister and I went away for the night (my first away from Allie, sniffle) and we had such a good time. She helped me get my mind off of missing Allie, until I saw a one year old in the movie we were watching and burst into tears. :) Granted it was an emotional movie but still. :) Here are a few shots from our trip.

We got to the hotel and we found out it was built in 1911. It was such a cool place with crown molding, hardwood floors and this funky old elevator. Heather LOVED this thing. Look how excited she is to be riding in it.

We had a great view of the main street (although we hope to get a view of the river next time) and the next morning we ate breakfast outside and we walked to all the shops.

The next day we went to some of the many orchards surrounding Hood River to pick our very own fruit. We started with pears, then moved onto apples. I love orchards, they are just so peaceful. I so want to live in Hood River.

These apples were the size of my head! Well maybe a little smaller. :)

Then one of the orchards was having a bbq so we had some pulled pork sandwiches. and then moved onto ice cream!

Thanks Heather for such a fun trip! I am so glad to have my sister for my best friend. Even though I missed my baby bad I still had a lot of fun pigging out and picking fruit with you!

Last week we went to Happy Valley park for a concert and picnic. We had great ribs (thanks Donna!), chicken, corn bread and amazing desserts. We stayed way too late and Allie fell asleep on the way home. We did some.....

Relaxin'

and Playin'

Allie is so attached to dad that when he is doing something she has to be apart of it. It's so cute.