December 26, 2008

Gilbert Day's Parade

We went to the Gilbert Day's Parade this year and invited Nick's family and my brother to go with us. Allie had a fun time running around with her cousins. Rick's (my mom's boyfriend) sister-in-law works for an Orthodontist and was passing out toothbrushes. I'm pretty sure this was the highlight of the parade for Allie. She also loved seeing all of the horses and marching bands.


Poor Chris kept
smelling something
foul. I'm pretty
sure it was all the
presents the horses
left behind.


Allie loves her cousin
Emma. She couldn't
put the toothbrush
down once Nick
unwrapped it for
her.


Nick was good at
keeping the girls
out of the street.
Allie is going to
brush those
teeth right out
of her head!

Nick wouldn't mind
cruising around
town in one of
these.

November 7, 2008

N*E*R*D

Well, I'm officially a nerd. I just bought my ticket for the midnight showing of Twilight at the Cine~Capri. For those of you not from AZ it is the largest theater in AZ and can hold 500 people, so the screen is HUGE. My friends and I are going and I'm pretty darn excited. No worries, we're not dressing up as vampires or werewolves. I've never been to a midnight showing before. The only time I came close was when I worked at Harkins and had to work during the midnight showing. I can guarantee you this will be way better. Fingers are crossed that the movie will at least be almost as good as the book, but we all know that the books are usually way better than the movie could ever be. I hope Hollywood doesn't mess with it too much. Nick is an amazing husband and told me to have a fun time while he watches Allie. I am so lucky to have Nick. He is a way better husband than I deserve. I'm so grateful for our marriage and how much it has grown in 3 1/2 years! I love you sweetie!

November 6, 2008

November Birthdays!

Last Sunday we celebrated November birthdays on the Davis side. Dallin turned 9 and Parker is turning 5 at the end of the month. My aunt Wendy made a really big and really good gluten-free cookie and decorated it with frosting, and my grandma made a gluten-free pumpkin pie. I have never liked pumpkin pie, but for some reason I'm really liking pumpkin flavoring lately so I had some. It was so good and even had a flaky crust. We're starting to perfect this gluten-free cooking thing! Allie had a blast playing with her cousins and at one point we found my 3 year old cousin and Allie in the bathroom. Cami said she went to the bathroom and then helped Allie go. Cami has just recently been potty-trained and Allie is in the process so who knows what really went on in there. Cami walked out with her pants buttoned, zipped, and all the way up but inside out. So cute! Her mom and I had a good laugh. Who knows if Allie actually went, but I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall. Happy Birthday Dallin and Parker!


And....blow!

What bunch of
fun kids! Is
Allie nervous
about those
candles??
(Click on it
to make it
bigger)
Apparently I
missed the
"Wear Green"
memo.
And the
"Wear Blue"
memo.
I love this kid!
Look at that
carefree grin.
Oh to be 5 again.
Caleb is one of
Allie's best
friends.

JDRF Race for the Cure

Last Saturday Nick, Allie, and I walked with 16 other members of my family in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Race for the Cure at Tempe Town Lake. My cousin Samantha was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when she was only 5. After she was diagnosed they tested her for other autoimmune diseases and diagnosed her with Celiac Disease, too. She is such an awesome kid! I remember when she was really little asking if things were gluten free before she ate it. She could also tell me that she was allowed to have 15 cheetos for a snack. At such a young age! She blew me away! She has the best attitude about it and it such a good example to me. I am always asking her about things to help me understand it better for school. This was our second year walking and it was sometimes overwhelming to see all the different shirts. Almost all of the teams make matching shirts and some were very moving. My mom and I being the bawl bags that we are got a little teary eyed reading a few. Especially the ones that read "In Loving Memory of". Samantha designed our shirts and they said, "Samantha's Mission Possible" on the front with a footprint under the lettering and "Target the Cure Juvenile Diabetes" on the back. There were over 26,000 walkers this year and it was decided that they needed to have two seperate walks on the same day next year. Our family agrees :) We had a fun time together on the walk and look forward to doing it next year! Thanks Samantha for inviting us and for having such a strong spirit! We love you!

My cousin's husband
works for GoDaddy
who is a major
sponsor so he and
his wife wore the
orange and white
GoDaddy shirts
with green hats.

These are Samantha's
parents. They are
amazing. They have
had to learn to be
mathematicians,
chemists, nurses, and
Samantha's emotional
rocks.


Samantha and Allie.
If Samantha is
around this is where
you will find Allie...
in her arms. Allie
adores her cousins.


This picture is pretty
dark, but I love
Brittany's face in it.
We had to keep
stopping and make
sure everyone was
together. There
were so many people!

Good 'ole Daddy
pulling that wagon
again. Most of the
time it had two kids
in it and Nick pulled
it the whole time.
Thanks honey!



Brittany and her
husband, Eric.
We had to stop
and refuel with
some trailmix
and water.

This picture cracks
me up because
Allie and Caleb
have the same
face and they look
like what we all
felt like at the end.




Those free
hotdogs and chips
at the end make
it all worth it!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

This Halloween Allie dressed up as, who else, but Cinderella! She has progressed from calling her "Lella" to "Dinawella". She was cracking Nick and I up while I was putting makeup on her. She loves putting it on with me in the bathroom, but usually I am telling her "no". I think she was way excited for me to actually be putting it on her! I told Nick that it was ok to use a TON of hairspray and put makeup on a 2 year old on Halloween :) Allie was dolled up with blush, lipstick, eye shadow, and glitter. Maybe a bit much I guess, but she loved it. Allie's first house was Nick's parents so they could see her costume and then we went to Mesa to trick-or-treat with my cousins. Allie had a blast. At first she had Nick push her in her stroller from house to house, but she finally got tired of that and walked. She wore her Cinderella high heel dress-up shoes for quite a while and then got tired of clunking them around and put on her frilly and comfy princess slippers. My cousins and Nick took turns taking her to the doors. At one door a rather large man answered and Allie just stared, pointed at him, and said, "Who's that?!" My cousin quickly said, "trick-or-treat" and pulled Allie away from the door. Thanks Samantha for being such a good sport! At one house there is a family that my mom's family has known for years and years and I think has the best Halloween idea! The dad decorates the house with pumpkins and lights and has fog machines running and strobe lights. You would think it was just like any other house. He has one lone Jack-O-Lantern sitting on a wall as you walk up to the door. Now, the man stands in the culda-sac right in front of his house and talks to the parents while the kids go up to the house. He gets the kids names from the parents and then as the kids walk by he talks into a microphone that has a speaker in the Jack-O-Lantern. The kids are shocked that the pumpkin knows their name!! When Allie walked by it said, "Thank you for coming trick-or-treaing at my house Allie. You are getting so big! I hope you come and see me next year too!" Allie is still talking about it! She keeps saying, "Mommy, a pumpkin know my name!" The younger cousins still don't know how it works so they look forward to the talking pumpkin every year. Nick said that we are definitely doing that at our house someday. I agree...it totally makes the kids Halloween...and if you're my cousins they talk about it all year! Allie has been sick the last two Halloweens so we were happy to finally take her trick-or-treating for the first time! (Here are your pictures finally Mom!)


A little blush to
get those rosey
Cinderella
cheeks...




and a little lipstick
to get those
Cinderella lips...


and you have one
proud little
Cinderella girl.
We bought the
blue eye shadow
and glitter on the
way to Mesa. Maybe
I went a little
overboard??
This Cinderella's
pumpkin turned
into an FJ! She
looks just as
suprised as
Cinderella did with
her carriage!
Her new way to
comfort herself
is to play with her
top lip or stroke
her ear lobes. We
can always tell
when she is shy,
nervous or tired.

Her first house
was Grandma
and Grandpa
Powells!


Is there someone
behind that door?




Thanks for the
candy Sasu!


Our trick-or-
treaters! They
all looked so good!
Our two beauty
pageant girls didn't
get candy but helped
a lot with the kids.

What a good daddy!
Her FJ was down
graded to this...
we're still working on
how to use the pedal
in that high rolling FJ.

Allie's 2 Year Check-up

I didn't plan very well when I made Allie's 2 year checkup appointment on Halloween. I remember thinking, "Oct. 31st...what do we have going that day?" Can you tell our lives are busy? It wasn't until a couple of days later when I was looking through my calendar and saw HALLOWEEN on the 31st that I realized it. I decided to keep it because I didn't know when we'd be able to reschedule with my school schedule. So poor Allie had to get 2 shots on Halloween. Nick and I were just happy she was actually not sick this year. Her last two Halloweens she was sick and we haven't been able to take her trick-or-treating. After getting her shots Allie and I butted heads all day because she refused to take a nap, but once we got her into her costume she finally got in a better mood...ok, maybe I did too. (My mom thinks I'm crazy when I say Allie and I fight because she is only 2, but let me tell you, that little girl has spunk!)
BEFORE:
























AFTER:


What a brave little girl she is! These pictures break my heart because you can see the little tears in her eyes. She only cried for a couple of seconds until I told her to show me her bandaids so I could take a picture. Poor little Allie!
Allie's 2 Year Stats:
Height: 34 1/4 in. (60%)
Weight: 28 lbs (65%)
Head Circumference: 19 1/2 in. (92%) She has almost always been in the 90% for this. No wonder we are always trying to shove her head through the little neck holes in the shirts!
**The rest of this post is purely for journaling purposes. I figure since I'm not doing a very good job keeping another journal I had better write things down here. These are Allie's stats for every routine checkup appointment. (Thankgoodness Gilbert Peds gives you a little half sheet of paper with the stats on them!)**
7 days old (10~23~06):
Height: 21 1/2 in.
Weight: 9 lbs
Head Circumference: 14 3/4 in.
2 months (12~18~06):
Height: 24 in. (95%)
Weight: 13 lbs 6 oz (95%)
Head Circumference: 16 1/4 in. (95%)
4 months (2~19~07):
Height: 26 1/2 in. (>97%)
Weight: 15 lbs 12 oz (90%)
Head Circumference: 17 in. (85%)
6 months (4~23~07):
Height: 26 1/2 in. (75%)
Weight: 18 lbs (80%)
Head Circumference: (92%)
9 months (7~20~07):
Height: 28 1/4 in. (75%)
Weight: 20 lbs 3 oz (75%)
Head Circumference: 18 1/4 in. (95%)
12 months (10~19~07):
Height: 30 1/2 in.
Weight: 21 lbs 10 oz
Head Circumference: 19 in.
15 months (1~18~08):
Height: 31 1/2 in.
Weight: 23 lbs 1 oz
Head Circumference: 18 3/4 in.
18 months (4~24~08):
Height: 33 in.
Weight: 24 lbs 14 oz.
Head Circumference: 19 1/4 in.
2 year (10~31~08):
Height: 34 1/4 in. (60%)
Weight: 28 lbs (65%)
Head Circumference: 19 1/2 in. (92%)

October 31, 2008

Greg and Ashley's Wedding

One of Nick's little brothers got married a couple weekends ago! I think everything turned out really nice. We all love his wife, Ashley, and are excited to have her in the family! Her dress was gorgeous and she looked so pretty. Allie loved dancing at the reception with her cousins or even by herself. I learned not to hold Allie while dancing the Electric Slide in high heels on concrete. I was pretty sore the next day. Sad, but true. They had their reception in someone's backyard and it was gorgeous. The wedding line was set up around a pool and at one point one poor lady fell in. Again...sad, but true. I heard someone yell, "Watch it! Get her!" and spun around just in time to see her go back first into the jacuzzi. Poor lady went completely under water and they had to fish her heels out once they got her out. Luckily she was a good sport about it. Poor thing. We all had the same thought though...if only there had been a camera set up...someone would have been $50,000 dollars richer. Congrats Greg and Ashley!! We are so happy for you two!

I really don't think
she ever runs out
of energy! This is
how she looked most
of the time at the
temple. She didn't
quite get the reverence
thing...

One of the ladies from
Nick's home ward told
us to go eat at the
luncheon and she would
push Allie. She looked
like this after about 5
pushes. Bless that
woman!

I thought we all
looked pretty sharp
in our pink and
brown!




Nick's little brother,
Mike, and his fiance,
Aarin, are getting
married next
November!



The little kids all
looked so cute in
their outfits. Emma
and Allie are buds
so they ran around
together.



She loved this little
cement bridge. I
just knew whe was
going to fall, but
suprisingly she
never did.



This is where you
could find Allie
most of the night
dancing alone...



dancing with me
or Nick...





or dancing with
whoever else she
could find. Thanks
Aunt Kim and Jayden
for dancing with Allie!

Allie loves Nick's
dad, Papa. He is
always packing
around the kids
and making them
laugh. We love
you Papa!