Officially a "big Girl"...

Two weeks after potty training, Allie decided to start climbing out of her crib.  (Honestly, I was surprised it  took her so long!)  Jon was watching her one night and he heard noise from her room, then the door opening and from the top of the stairs "Daddy, I have to go potty!"  This same scenario happened two times that night.  So the next morning, Allie and I took the crib apart and made it into a toddler  bed.
(my camera was on manual focus- I didn't know it...)

She was SO excited that night...

Until about 30 minutes into bedtime and then she didn't want anything to do with her bed!  Instead she insisted upon sleeping on her huge frog!  I made a pallet on the floor and that is where she has remained for the last 2 weeks!  I am hoping in the next week to get her in her bed-we will see!

And then 5 days into the sleeping on the floor we decided that it was time for the binkie fairy to come!  She was having a hard time settling down and getting to sleep so I thought "why go through this again in a couple of months- let's just get it all over with at once!"  Oh my...  what was I thinking!??? (I think my friend Allison did it right by taking it away when her little girl turned one- they forget quicker!)

Jon was doing the MS150 and my friend Diana came over with her  little girl Noa and Allie kept talking about giving her binkie to Baby Charlotte (our friend's little baby girl).

 So why not??  That night we got an envelope and labeled it to"baby Charlotte" then we put it in the mail.  I told her the Binkie fairy would bring her a dollhouse in the morning.  Check out her expression!  She was not too sure about all of this!

 The note left by the Binkie Fairy

Allie's present for being a big girl!

It has been a rough couple of weeks, but I think she has finally"forgotten" about the binkie!  So within  a 3 week time period Allie stopped wearing diapers (except at nap and bedtime and has had only 1 accident), gave up her beloved binkie, and got out of her crib!  She is officially a Big Girl now!  It makes me sad to think all of her baby things are gone, but I am so happy to see how fun she is as she grows up!

Spring fun!

Allie loves to go bike riding and when we get a chance we like to go to Memorial Park.  She also loves to have a picnic and in the second video she is wanting us to pray beforehand.  She gets a little bossy and is telling us to do "thank you God!"

We realized that there was a great place to pick strawberries out in Alvin and it was only 30 minutes away.  We called some friends and our parents and had a great time picking lots of strawberries!  It was about 90 degrees that day, but it was fun! We have picked blueberries for the last 2 years off of 290 and now we can add strawberries to our list.

 I found this great outfit  just in time!  She loves to pull out her red chair and sit in it for pictures!

 I love these two pictures!

 Look at all the rows of strawberries!

 Our friend Jeri Lyn and her 3 kids joined us

 Allie was eating the strawberries as fast as I was picking them!

Sausage.... Yummy!

That night we had our friends, Bonnie and Jim and their two girls over for dinner and of course; strawberry shortcake!

 Kennedy and Allie mashing strawberries.

 Allie realized that Kennedy had more ice cream!  Love the face!!!  HAHA

A very fun day with friends and food!

5 years and 3 days

April 1, 2006

 yes that is correct; we got married on April Fool's Day!  At least there is no excuse for not remembering the date! 

April 1, 2011 = 5 years of marriage!  Wow- we made it!  I won't lie, it has not been all marital bliss (and anyone who tells you the first 5 years of marriage is, is lying to you!), but we have gone through some huge things and are still together!  We have traveled to more places than I can count or remember  and have had some really fun times. It has also been hard but we have and are learning a lot of things and hopefully one day God will be able to use our struggles to help others!  I appreciate Jon's dedication to our family and to working hard to provide for us.  

We didn't do anything super spectacular on Friday, but we did have a very yummy dinner at Fogo De Chao (I-phone photo)!  And maybe a getaway later this month.  

And it took Allie 3 days to become potty trained!  (I started Thursday afternoon and by Saturday, she was going all by herself!!!

She had lots os accidents the first day and was super scared to go poo poo on the potty (thank you Allison for assuring me that we were not traumatizing her and Jon for distracting her outside!), but by the second day she was going to the potty all by herself and telling me afterwards!  She loves getting her Jelly beans and/or M&M's afterwards!

Helping Jon make marinade for steaks.  Love that little bottom!

Tuesday, on our way to MDO with panties on!  She was so excited to be a big girl!

Check out this picture...  OH MY!  :O) 

I picked her up early after MDO so she could nap at home since she did not go to bed until 10 on Monday night!!!  (Yikes!)  I think she is just so excited that she is a big girl that she can't sleep!  After hearing her making all kinds of noise and obviously not asleep- this is what I found upstairs!  She had taken everything off and everything out of her bed and was jumping up and down!  She does not like wearing a diaper AT ALL anymore!

She was saying "no nap" and trying to convince me that she knew best!  Needless to say, there was no nap that day!  But we did go out and buy stuff for her big girl bed which I have a feeling we will be using really soon!

I was totally amazed that Allie learned so quickly and it was so easy to potty train her!  We are not using pull-ups because that is still a diaper and I think it's easier for them to learn when they go commando for a couple of days and then panties. Jon even got her to squat yesterday because he took her to the park with no potty!! 

Best advice I got was "Don't give in the first couple of days,  she will  fight it but be stronger than her!" (thanks Allison!)  And it worked!