New Year's Eve

We celebrated New Year's Eve with our small group from church. We went to the Halbergs house and the guys played Rock Band on the Wii while the girls watched and chit-chatted. The kids all played except for Allison who decided that she liked singing with the guys better than playing with the kids. Enjoy the pics.

Mimi and Grand-daddy

We were excited that Mimi and Grand-daddy and Sam (my dad, his wife, and my little brother) came for a visit this year right after Christmas. This was their first chance to meet Dylan and Grant (my nephew). We only get to see them once or twice a year so we try to pack in as much fun as possible when we see each other. They got here the Sunday after Christmas and we had brunch and opened presents from each other.

Meeting Dylan and Grant for the first time

Opening presents (Mimi is a buyer for Hallmark so we gets lots of Hallmark goodies like this cool snow globe)


We went to see the lights at the Capitol. Allison has a thing for closing her eyes in pictures now (on purpose) and Miles has a thing for not sitting still for pictures

I just thought this picture was cute - it wasn't posed. She just laid down exactly like that at the Capitol (and yes I am the kind of parent who lets her child roll around on the floor in public).


Playing with Sam during lunch at Whole Hog BBQ.

We had a great time one night at Playtime Pizza.

Mimi decided to throw a "practice" birthday party for Allison. Allison is really "into" anything birthday party related so she was all for it. So after our fun time at Playtime Pizza, we went home to have princess cupcakes and sing happy birthday.

Singing "Happy Birthday" Cha-Cha style

Allison loved her party and she loved her grandparents visiting. We had a great time and miss them already.

With Every End Is a New Beginning

I didn't like blogging on Xanga too much....so I'm back. With the addition of Dylan, my time to blog is even less so I will mainly just be posting pictures - I'm sure that's what most of you want to see anyways. So since I haven't blogged in over 2 months, I thought I would recap. Most of you already know that Dylan was born on Nov. 10 at 9:24 pm. He weighed in at 8 lbs, 7 oz. He is doing good now after somewhat of a rough start. I took him to the doctor at 3 weeks because he was just really fussy and spitting up a lot. So I just automatically thought it was reflux but the doctor did a stomach x-ray that came out abnormal. Dylan's upper intestine was full of air. So since then, we have been sent to Children's for multiple tests and eventually a biopsy and then on to a pediatric GI doctor, but from all that, they just concluded that his digestive system was immature and not coordinating properly. So gas and poop just get stuck and it takes a while for things to get moving, hence causing the fussiness. And on top of that, he has a bad case of reflux. But we are very thankful for that diagnosis, because it could have been so much worse. So we are now on 2 kinds of medicine for the reflux and it will just take some time for his digestive track to work like it is supposed to. But he is already so much better than he was. He has even been smiling for us in the last couple of weeks (He is now 9 weeks old). I was lucky enough to catch one on camera:

Allison has done wonderfully with him. She has not been jealous at all. She just excepted him as part of our family from the get go and loves on him and wants to hold him. She originally was a great big help but the help has slacked off a little (I guess the newness has worn off).

The dog however has had some jealousy issues. Here is where I found him the other day -

With the new year, I am going to try to blog more. I have several posts I would like to catch up on including Christmas, New Years, and Allison birthday...so stay tuned.

The End

I have decided to down-size - from 2 blogs to one. I don't think I will be disappointing many because I do not think many frequent my site. I am still blogging on my xanga site and there will still be post and pictures about Allison there. It was just too much trouble posting the same things twice. I have to simplify. So please visit me at www.xanga.com/kimmicle and update your links please. I really would appreciate a visit and if you feel lead, a comment would be nice too!

Spring!

Here are some pics Matt took at Wye Mountain last weekend. Allison was not her usual smiley self but he still managed to get some good pics. I really like the first one - it reminds me of Little House on the Prarie - the way her dress looks like it's blowing in the wind. The Clevelands are very excited about the arrival of spring and we look forward to playing outside with Allison!

And She's Off!

So once again, I have let everyone down by not posting in quite some time. Will you find it in your heart to forgive me? I (being Kim, the one who has been left to update this blog that was started by someone else.....ahmmm) have started a xanga page for myself - if you are at all interested, here's the link - www.xanga.com/kimmicle. I will still be updating this page with events and milestones of Allison's life but if you are interested in more frequent posts about random things, you might should check that page out. So on to Allison. It's sad to say but she is no longer a baby, but is now a toddler. Hard to believe, but true. She is using her two little legs as her main mode of transportation these days - walking. She took her first steps at the Lumpkins house about a month ago and then Thursday when we were at the hospital waiting for Miles (Allison's cousin) to be born, she just took off and hasn't stopped yet. I feel like it was the moment that I was most looking forward to for some reason. Everyone has told me that my life would change with this milestone but it hasn't yet (and it's okay with me if it doesn't). She walks everywhere she crawled. And it has actually been a little easier because she hasn't been so frustrated with herself because now she can get where she wants to go.

I don't have a recent video of Allison to post of her walking but this is one from the beginning of February when she first starting walking:



And for another important milestone...discovering toilet paper!

This is Allison's reading nook:

And this is Allison playing in the tupperware drawer:

I will try, try, try (really hard) to keep this updated more often. Please don't lose hope in me.

Recipe of the Year

Once upon a time, I made this recipe for my Bunco group. It was very yummilicious. Sorry for all of those who wanted the recipe months ago and are just now getting it - life gets in the way sometimes. But alas, here it is:

CHICKEN LASAGNA

½ c. margarine
½ c. flour
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. basil
4 chicken breasts, cooked and diced

3 c. chicken broth
2 c. cottage cheese
1 egg
10 oz. pkg. Frozen chopped spinach, drained

½ lb. Cooked, drained lasagna (almost 8 noodles)
1 lb. Mozzarella slices (I just used grated)
¼ c. grated parmesan


Melt butter in large saucepan. Blend in flour, salt, and basil. Stir chicken broth until mixture thickens and comes to a boil. Add chicken.
Mix cottage cheese with egg in separate bowl. Add spinach.
Place ½ c. of chicken mixture in 9 X 13 pan (sprayed with Pam), top with noodles, cottage cheese mixture then mozzarella. Continue for 2nd layer. End with last 1/3 of chicken. Top with mozzarella and sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.
Bake at 375 degrees for around 45 minutes.

Hope you enjoy!