Heidi's First Bath

 Heidi finally got her first bath at home.  It was a rather rushed affair on a weeknight with her big sister watching on from the dinner table (where she was waiting until she finished her dinner!).  It is safe to say Heidi did not enjoy her first bath - hopefully it will just get better with time!

All snuggled up at the end in her lambie towel!

Home

 We've been home from the hospital now for just over 24 hours with the newest Curtis, Miss Heidi Jean.  We're making the most of every moment, especially with Grammy around to help entertain a certain 3-year-old!

 We have 5 girls in the house right now according to Allison...Mommy, Grammy, Allison, Baby Heidi and Allison's Baby.

 A doughnut treat for the princess!

 Now that I have Heidi in some of Allison's baby clothes she looks so much like Allison!

Sisters!

Little Niece with the Smooshable Cheeks

 This is my little niece, Lauren.  She is growing cuter and cuter every day.  She has to be one of the sweetest 4-month-old babies around.  Janelle & I figured we needed to squeeze in some more pictures before her cousin makes his or her big debut.  Unfortunately it was a rather low light day but we did the best we could considering!

 I had to include this one, Janelle mentioned Lauren's eyes reminded her of Allison - and I definitely thought so in this picture.  Seems like I have many a dazed out picture of Allison at this age and her eyes looked exactly like that!

Yup, those cheeks are definitely kissable!

Brought to You by the Letter 'E'....

'E' is for Elephant (we had one theme for this letter!)

 We made elephant ears!

 Allison made a paper plate elephant....

and wore her elephant dress....

 she decorated her letter E with dancing elephants, markers & a pen...

And she made her very own Elmer who is now living in her room with her!

Happy 2013

 We decided to start of 2013 the same way we did 2012 - with a trip to a local recreation area with snow (it is a tradition now!).  This year there was a lot of snow and the sledding areas were a bit crowded so we hiked in for a bit for some more space.  Allison loved having Mark pull her around and sledding with him.

 Our friends, the Wagners, joined us again this year.  Jodi & I were photographers and helped start the kids down the hill.  I actually only 'helped' once - and thankfully Nate was waiting watchfully at the bottom and caught Logan before he fell down a small drop that would not have been pleasant!

 Mark's hat was his Christmas present from Allison.  She picked it out herself and was very, very proud of it.

 My nephew Logan was able to join us, too.  He had been sledding the day before with his family and was quite the expert.  This little guy is pretty fun to be around!

All three of the kiddos ready to hike back out (not only did we have snow we had sunny weather - we all appreciated the extra dose of Vitamin D even if it was only on our faces!).

First Tea Party

 Allison received a real porcelain tea set for Christmas from Grammy.  We never managed to get it out in Alaska but shortly after we arrived home we headed over to Jack & Mel's for an evening.  Mark reminded me that few people love tea as much as Mel so we brought Allison's tea set along.  Mel did not disappoint!  She pulled out some grape juice and even allowed Allison to pour the 'tea' herself.  Allison thoroughly enjoyed her tea party with Miss Mel and we're glad she's getting a proper education on such things like tea and tea parties......

Now, what concerns us is Jack's idea of an education.....he pulled this lovely 'accessory' out of his closet and convinced Allison to wear it.  She is a true Beaver Believer folks, but she had no idea that sneaky Jack was giving her a duck hat!  This girl loves to dress up and accessorize regardless of the color - we'll keep working on that and keep a closer eye on Jack next time!

Little Fairy

 Last year for Christmas Allison was giving a pair of fairy wings.  Which broke almost immediately.  She happened to see them in the garbage one afternoon and was quite sad to see them go (they already had something else on them so there was no digging them out and rescuing them!).  Leading up to Christmas this year, if anyone asked what she wanted for Christmas she would always tell them 'Wings!' and then other random things.  So she was thrilled to get a new set of fairy wings from Nana, complete with other fairy accessories.  She has thoroughly enjoyed dancing around in her fairy costume - and her new wings have already outlasted her last ones by 700% - whew!

2012 Christmas Dresses

 Last winter my friend, Jodi, and I were very excited to find a great deal on Christmas dresses right after Christmas.  We got matching ones for our two girls.  Allison loved wearing her Christmas dress this year and thought it was pretty special that Bekah had a matching one!

 Of course we took had to get some pictures of the girls in their dresses.  We took them to a local park one day to get pictures - they were freezing!  Just in case you couldn't tell.  Allison refused to take her sweater off and clung to Bekah for dear life to keep her warm.  We sure do love having two special girls to dress up for the holidays!

Snowy Playdate

 Our trips to Alaska always feel too short.  Thankfully we managed to squeeze in one afternoon at my friend, Naomi's house.  Allison got to experience what real Alaskan kids do all day - they come in and out of the house - playing in the snow.  She followed Kaleb outside to play after lunch and had a great time traipsing around in the snow.  Kaleb was trying very hard to cut snow blocks and build a snow fort and Allison was doing her best to help him although I'm pretty sure she had no clue what she was doing.  Eventually she arrived at the back door chilled and ready to come in.  She was pretty excited to have had some time to play in the snow!

A White Christmas

Our Christmas morning did not turn out as expected.  After a very late (and fun!) party on Christmas Eve Allison slept in much longer than we expected.  Finally at 9:30 she was stirring enough that we got her up - but we were already late for breakfast in Anchorage so we let her find Baby Jesus in the manger then threw her in the car, gave her her stocking and took off.  We met up with my family for a traditional breakfast at Ihop.  Well, it is traditional for my family at least!   

 After breakfast we headed to my Aunt & Uncle's house and pretty much everyone (aside from my sleepy sister) decided to go have fun in the snow since it started dumping right as we left breakfast.  My Dad & Mark went on a snow biking adventure on fat tire bikes (I unfortunately don't have pictures of that!) and Mom, Allison & I headed up to a local school for sledding and swinging and a snowball fight.  The snow was wet and there was a lot of it.  We had a great time playing, especially since all the snow around my parents house was windblown & drifted up.

And Allison did get to open her presents.  Finally.  I don't have many pictures of the endeavor since she was afraid to get off my lap for fear of the dog.  But she loved all her presents, especially her Wonder Pets Beanie Babies & matching tu-tus for herself and her doll (named Allie).  She is wearing her tu-tu but wanted clothes on top of it - our girl is not accustomed to the Alaskan chill!

Puzzle Girl

 Grammy had a few Christmas puzzles that were just right for Allison while we were in Alaska & Allison got a puzzle for Christmas.  She loved putting them together, especially since she almost always had an audience to impress when working on them.....

 And apparently this time she got a little sassy about her expertise with Grammy!  Silly girl!