Thursday, November 26, 2009

Welcome, Thad!!

We welcomed Thaddaeus Thomas just over a week ago on Tuesday, Nov. 17--20 days before he was due! He is a handsome precious bundle, and we are enjoying getting to know him. Allie loves her baby brother and is a big helper with him. Thad spends most of his time eating or sleeping right now, but he also loves to look around at his little world and the people in it. We are so thankful that God has blessed us with two beautiful, healthy children.











Monday, October 26, 2009

Weddings, Gymnastics and Babies!

This past week has been a bit of a whirlwind. We spent last weekend in Mobile, Ala., and Escatawpa, Miss., for the wedding of one of my best friends. Janna Johnston is now Mrs. Savage! I had a great time with my three best friends--Janna, Megan and Gabrielle. Plus, we got to stay with my sister and her family and had a wonderful surprise visit from my grandmother! We cherish every chance we get to spend with her.

As promised, I took a few pictures of Allie in her leotard at gymnastics. She wasn't the most cooperative, but I got a few cute ones.

Saturday, October 24, the girls in our care group at church hosted a baby shower for Mr. Thad! That was so much fun; and Allie enjoyed helping to open presents and being the "Big Sister!"















Sunday, October 11, 2009

Growing

Well, after a seven-month hiatus from the blogging world, it's probably about time I get back to it!

As probably all of our "readers" know, we're excitedly anticipating the arrival of our second little one in the next couple months. Our due date has fluctuated between December 8, 9 and 10; but, as some of you may remember, Allie was 15 days early, so I'm trying to be prepared in case this one comes in November instead!

We are having a boy this time, and his name is Thaddaeus Thomas. We will call him Thad. He's already quite active, and we can't wait to meet him!

Another more recent development is that we're moving at the end of this month to a rental house in Wake Forest. It has three bedrooms and one bath and is a little cheaper than our two-bedroom duplex. We are very, very excited about having the extra room; especially with our new addition! The next few weeks will be quite busy with several activities in addition to our regular day-to-day life and the move.

We are looking forward to traveling south for the wedding of one of my best friends from college. We're excited about sharing with her in her special day as she begins her life with her soon-to-be husband! I'm a little concerned about fitting into my bridesmaid's dress and shoes with my ever-growing pregnant belly and swelling feet; but I know Janna will be a gorgeous bride who will take everyone's breath away!

In keeping with the theme of "growing," Allie is no longer a baby and has grown into a beautiful, VERY active, often precocious, always precious toddler. We had a safari themed birthday party for her, and she loved the animals who came as her special guests for the day. She and her friends got to meet a baby kangaroo, an African porcupine, a lemur AND an alligator!

She LOVES gymnastics and does very, very well with it. I'm planning to take some portraits of her in her little leotard at the gym soon and will post them when I do. I'm hoping to do them not this week, but the next; so we'll see how that goes.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures from Allie's birthday:

Allie's very first big girl twin-sized bed:

A rare picture of Allie and Mama together:

Meeting the baby kangaroo at his very first birthday party:

Silly girl:

Trying to feed the porcupine her bottle:

Posing with the "allie-gator":

Allie's monkey cake and all the little cupcakes for the kiddos:

Since I spent several hours icing the monkey cake, I'm just a little proud of it. Sure, it's not perfect; but at least it's obviously a monkey!

Monday, March 2, 2009

Ringing in the New Year!

So, here's part two in the "catch-up" blogs! 2009 has gone by way too quickly already. We've had a lot happen to us in these first couple of months. Here are a few pictures to catch you up with what we've been doing!

The first big event of the year was Allie's crib being turned into her first "big girl bed!" She fell out a couple of nights, but is an old pro now. She loves to hop up on her bed to read books. She is pretty good at staying in bed, too. Although, when she's ready to come out or go to the bathroom, she goes to the door and knocks!


Allie loves her baby doll that her cousin Jacob gave her for her birthday. She carries her around everywhere and takes care of her by feeding her, wiping her nose and covering her with a blanket (usually a wash cloth that she's snagged from the basket while we're folding laundry), taking her for rides in her stroller (also from cousin Jacob), giving her hugs and kisses and spanking her when she's been bad. Allie has become more and more interested in babies in the past few months and gets very excited whenever she sees one.


We've had two big snow days this year. We braved the cold to go out for a few minutes the first time (the second time, we stayed inside). Allie wasn't overly thrilled with the snow. I think she would have much rather been swinging! Here are a few pictures from that day:





Allie loves playing with her friend Ashlynn. They have so much fun whether they're playing inside or outside. Here's a cute picture of them sitting on Allie's bed sharing some books:


On Feb. 7, Allie woke up having a lot of difficulty breathing. We took her to an urgent care (it was a Saturday, so her pediatrician was not open). They sent us to the ER. Lots of medicine and tests, six breathing treatments and an overnight hospital stay later, she was much better and back to her normal self. But, it was quite scary for a little while. We got home from the hospital on Sunday, and she was perfect the rest of that day and all Monday until she woke up around 11 Monday night and started throwing up. That started a week of our entire family being sick with some nasty bug we probably picked up at the hospital. Needless to say, Allie was pretty worn down and not quite herself for about a week. Grammy and Pappy sent balloons and a pink teddy bear that she enjoyed playing with; in fact, she grabbed on to the bear right away, hugged it tight and fell asleep.




Thankfully, Allie was starting to get back to herself on Valentine's Day and was able to enjoy a special Valentine's cookie our dear friend, Ann, brought over along with some lasagna and cheese bread--yum!!


Allie got to enjoy more sweets at the end of the month when Nonna and Papa sent a King Cake so we could celebrate Mardi Gras! I think she liked it!







Sunday afternoon (March 1), we celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday with other fans at our cute little bookstore in downtown Wake Forest, Storyteller's Bookstore. The Cat in the Hat read stories to the kids, and Allie seemed to enjoy it.



Allie loves to wear Tony's hats. Here's a picture of her wearing one that she put on herself:


Allie is very particular about getting sticky things on her hands when she's eating or playing. Since Cheerio's Treats (similar recipe to Rice Krispie's treats) are quite sticky, here is how she ate hers:


Allie absolutely LOVES her little pink Bible her Aunt Jane bought her before she was born. She will sit through an entire worship service just thumbing through it; it's amazing! Last night when we checked on her before we went to bed, here's how we found her:

Going out in Style!

As you know, it's been a while since we updated the blog. So, I am posting a two-part blog. The first is a quick recap of the highlights of the end of October through December 2008. The second (which I'll post as soon as I can) will contain a few highlights of our year so far. Enjoy the pictures, and we'll try to do better this year with posting stuff as it happens instead of a few months after the fact!

Tony got his motorcycle in October. It's a 2008 Kawasaki Ninja 250, and he's really enjoyed riding it.



Allie dressed up as a pink leopard this year for Halloween. We went to the "Party on the Block" at our church where they had fun games, prizes and a Trunk "r" Treat! Plus, her Nonna and "Uncle" Geoff and "Aunt" Valerie got to join us!








We went on our first family hunting trip the first weekend in November. Allie was miserably sick with a fever from teething the whole time, but we still managed to have a good time. And, Tony killed his first deer!






At Allie's 15-month checkup on Dec. 4, she weighed 19 lbs., 13.4 oz. and was 29.5" long. Here are some of the pictures I took during Allie's 15-month portrait session.






We were blessed with free tickets to see the world famous Lippizaner Stallions. They were magnificent, and Allie LOVED watching them perform!



Tony and Allie stayed warm by running up and down a hill on a cold December night while we waited for a sleigh ride. (And, yes, Allie was wearing Tony's gloves!)


Allie was able to set our tree-topper on this year. Geaux Tigers!


We had a great time watching all the floats, horses, cars, fire trucks, Girl Scouts, Brownies, dancers, cheerleaders and bands in the Wake Forest Christmas parade on Dec. 20.


I did another portrait session with Allie right before Christmas. She did a great job as a precious little model!



Allie helped cut, decorate, bake and eat sugar and gingerbread cookies.


When we went to Slidell for Christmas, we got to see a lot of friends and family. It was so much fun for everyone to see how big Allie had gotten! We also got to ride horses, which was quite a treat. Plus, Allie got to ride by herself for the first time!!








Here's Allie's stocking. And, yes, it was as big as her; and, yes, it was full!


Tony and Allie tried out another kind of motorcycle.