Happy Halloween

Alli had a big time this year celebrating Halloween. On Monday she wore her Halloween headband to school to start the week of celebration.

At school, the class made scarecrows out of old pajamas.

On Thursday night her school had a fall festival. The director of the daycare said Alli had the cutest costume she had seen all night. Here is Alli with 3 of her teachers.

On Friday night Matt, Alli, and I walked around our neighborhood and watched the other little goblins....

Bath Time

Alli and Matt love bath time. It is their time to hang out and play together. Enjoy the video...

So sorry

We would like to apologize for taking SOOO long to update our blog. Lots has happened to us since I posted last. Alli turned 3 months old...then 4 months old, I (Kristi) celebrated my birthday, we went camping. Lots of fun things....

Alli has been going to daycare (we call it "school") during the day while Matt works and I go to class. Alli really loves her teachers there. She especially loves Ms. Sheika. According to everyone at school, Alli is Sheika's favorite. They do some fun things with the kids during the week. A few weeks ago it was "silly sock day". That particular day was the first cold morning we have had this year so Alli got to wear one of her new fall outfits. Her socks really speak the truth...

Another day at school they had pajama day. Check out Allison in her beautiful gown Mrs. Pam gave her. Doesn't she look fetching..... This month we went to visit Matt's family. Marta and I went to a big consignment sale and bought our girls some new fun clothes. While visiting, we got to see Matt's grandparents (Grand Bobbie and Pappy).

I had a great birthday. Matt cooked me a fabulous meal on the 10th and we went camping on the 11th and 12th. We were a bit worried because Allison had stopped sleeping through the night and we knew that when she woke up she would disturb everyone else. But, Alli started sleeping through the night again while we were camping. When she woke us at 6am Matt and I were thrilled!!

The reason we went camping was so we could help TJ with the Enduro (Dirt Bike race) that he was putting on. Alli loved all the dirt bikes. I thought she might be scared by all the noise, but she loved it. Of course, she was the hit of the Enduro.

Baptism

Allison was baptized on Sunday. It was a wonderful experience for us. We were so blessed to have so many friends and family members there to share in this sacrament. (Click the picture above to watch a video).


The dress Alli wore has a cool history. My mom (Lynn), brother (Britton), myself (Kristi), niece (Elle), and Alli all wore this dress to be baptized. Each of us has our name and date of birth sewn into the hem. Alli also wore a pearl necklace that Aunt Julie got her for the big day. She looked so beautiful and was well behaved through the whole thing.

We celebrated together with friends and family after church at my mom's house. Thank you to all who were able to celebrate with us in our special time.

Crass Weekend

Evan, Marta, and Kate came to visit us this weekend. It was great getting to hang out with them and let the girls play. Ok, so the girls didn't really play with each other, but Kate entertained us by pushing the laundry basket all over the house and Alli showed off her stomach to back roll. We had a very lazy Saturday complete with big breakfast and lots of Olympic watching. Thanks guys for making the trec to our house.

A week of Firsts

Alli has had one busy week! It started on Monday with Alli's first extended period without her Mama. Kristi decided it was time to start breaking Alli (and herself) into the concept of time apart. For the first test, Meme and Grandpa Larry came to town to hang out with the girl while Kristi spent some time getting reacquainted with the lab at school. After four hours of separation, Kristi had cried, Alli had not. In fact I (Matt) think I heard from my office upstairs Alli say, "This isn't so bad: lunch in a bottle and playtime with Jacque the Peacock!" See below Alli kicking Jacque's tail feathers in a staring contest.

The 2nd "first" came on Wednesday, and was witnessed by Granny Lynn. Much to the disbelief of her parents, Alli rolled over for the first time in post womb recorded history. We're convinced that Alli's been TiVoing the Olympic women's gymnastics and has decided to start practicing her tumbling early. She went on to perform a series of rolls that haled a cumulative "9.8" from the judges, both her parents haling witness. She took her bow (or at least smiled real big).

The 3rd "first" occurred this morning when Allison slept for 2 hours in her crib without being swaddled. One night we were moments away from breaking into a Babies R Us after hours for a clean swaddle. Kristi was most excited about this since she was afraid Alli would never be able to sleep without being in her "baby straight jacket." Alli was dreaming about her first catch and practicing her story to her friends. "Isaac I promise that fish was THIS big."

Biking

Matt and I haven't been doing much riding since about half way through my pregnancy when my doctor put an end to our biking (and the only exercise I was getting). A few weekends ago, we left Alli with my mom for a few hours and we rode 14 miles. It was great being together and being back on the bikes.

Our friends, Sarah and AJ let us borrow their bike trailer to test Alli out in it. Hopefully Santa will bring Alli one of her own. We had to rig it up to get her to fit in, but we all enjoyed it (at least until the very end).

In a couple of weeks, Matt and I are going to participate in a ride fundraiser that is being done here. The full ride is 100 miles, but we aren't attempting that! We hope to do the 14 mile "fun ride".

2 Month Check-up

Alli went today for her first "well-baby" check-up. Of course, the doctor thought she was practically perfect in every way (even if he didn't say so). The long awaited weight is....13 pounds. Her length is 22 3/4 inches and her noggin, 39 3/4 inches circumference. She had to get 3 shots as well. Alli took it like a champ (too bad the same can't be said for her parents).

Since I haven't posted in a while, I have several pictures that have been taken in the past few days.

Visitors

Over the past week we have had a ton of visitors. Grandaddy and Nonnie, Granny and Daddy T, MeMe and Grandpa, and Poppy and BooBoo all came to see us. We were glad to see all of them, but the best surprise was Monday when Jessica surprised us by coming in from Houston and dropping by for a visit. "Meader", it was great getting to see you and your mom. For those of you who don't know, Jessica (aka "Meader Meader") lived with Matt and me in our home in LaVergne. Jessica and I also worked together at the trucking company. She moved last summer after she got married. We miss her!!!

Play date

Today Alli and her friend Issac had a play date. Sarah and Issac came over and spent the morning with us. You may remember me talking about the childbirth class that Matt and I took? Well, Sarah and her husband AJ were the other couple in our class. Alli worked on learning to share her toys today as she and Issac tried out Alli's baby gym for the first time.

Notice above they are holding hands.

Colin and Christina's reception

Matt's friend Colin (a buddy from MTSU) got married this month in Wisconsin. We weren't able to go to the wedding, but we went Saturday to a party for the new couple in Franklin.

Allison was the hit of the party. She wore a white dress and took along her new purse. Alice Palacio sent Alli the purse in the mail this week. The card said "every lady needs a red purse". Alli even let me borrow it to carry my lipstick.

CSA

This summer Matt and I joined a CSA (community supported agriculture) which provides us with a half bushel of fresh, organic, fruits and vegetables every week. Today Alli and I went to pick up our "farm share" and it was great. We got the best watermelon I have ever tasted in it. We also got a cantaloupe. We look forward each week to seeing what goodies our share will contain.

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I fought tooth and nail against this blogging business, but I finally conceded and decided that it is a great way for friends and family to keep in touch. Now that we have Allison (who changes every day!!), I figure you guys will want to check in on us more often. Here goes...