A few pics from her official birthday!

So Alana's birthday was officially on Sunday, so we got to spend another day celebrating her birthday. The weather was awesome so she got to do her favorite thing--go to the park!

Happy SECOND Birthday, Alana!!!

Well, Alana is officially TWO! She's been acting like she is two for months now, so glad it is finally her official age! She had a great "elmo" birthday party and loved opening all her presents. She was a bit shy at first and I think the attention overwhelmed her a bit. Amazing how all her shyness went away as soon as she opened presents and had cookies & cupcakes! At two, Alana talks all the time, is super expressive, loves to read & color, is a great mom to her babies and has a serious love of Elmo! She keeps us on our toes everyday!
She also had her two-year check up today. She is officially 34.25 inches tall (50-75th percentile) and 25 pounds (25-50th percentile). She completely remembered the doctor's office and pretty much started freaking out as soon as we walked out of the waiting room. At least she recovered quickly from her shots....I am sure the promise of ice cream helped!

A few more "pre-2" photos

Only a few more days & we officially have a 2 year old. Alana is such a happy, wild girl. SO much personality! She has a very active imagination and loves to play going to the store. Of course she puts like 2 purses on her shoulder...just like mama.

I will have to get a video of Alana dancing so I can share her mad dancing skills. It is hilarious! I am about to sign her up for a "pre-ballet" class. We are going to check it out in a few weeks. I can't wait to put her in a little leotard!

ALMOST 2!!!

It is hard to believe that Alana is just a few days shy of her big 2nd birthday! If you ask her how old she is, she will tell you TWO! And, instead of holding up one hand with two fingers, she will hold up both hands with one finger each. Crafty gal she is. She is a complete chatter box and loves to tell us stories. In what should be a surprise to no one, she talks with her hands and laughs at her own jokes. I wonder where she gets that! These last two years have flown by and we have enjoyed every minute of her little life. Can't wait to see what the next year brings!!! Hopefully, the next few months will bring me actually catching up on her baby book, which I am now officially REALLY behind on.....

This weekend is her Elmo birthday party. She is pretty jazzed and, if her second party is anything like her first, she is going to LOVE opening presents and eating cake!!! More pics to come of the big event!

**photos courtesy of kevin marks! having some issues posting more than 1...so more to come later!

La-La-La Ladybug!

Alana chose her own costume this year and dressed up as a ladybug. I bought the costume about 2.5 months ago and it was 18 months. Needless to say, I think she is about out of 18 month clothes. I totally had to stretch out her tights just to get them to fit! She had a great halloween, but she was really just interested in putting on her costume and having trick or treaters come to our door. We went trick or treating for a bit, but she I think the cold turned her off. We hit up about 5 houses so Erik could score enough candy, then headed home. She danced and got pulled around the floor by daddy. A great night overall!!!!

Turning into SUCH a big girl!

I can't even believe how much of a big girl Alana is nowadays! She talks ALL THE TIME. Her language is getting more and more clear, and she has even been speaking in sentences, too. As in, "Mama, need a cook-cook." (That's cookie in Alana speak). I am amazed at how much she understands and talks. It seems like everyday she is saying something new. I have a feeling she will keep us on our toes for a LONG time to come!!!

I am still in shock that she seems more like a little kid than a baby nowadays. We recently got her a little table and chair set which she LOVES. Of course, it's Elmo! And Zoe! What could be better. She sits at it to color, read, or eat cook-cooks. We also removed some of the bins that were making me insane due to the clutter, and replaced them with a closed toybox and a little book shelf. She was so excited about all the changes to her toys she was running around like a mad woman (though that is fairly typical!).

Loving the outdoors!

Alana is a total outdoors girl. She would spend every minute outside if we let her. Though we never even thought about it when we bought our house--we are SO happy to have a park right across the street. She pretty much regulates and goes there multiple times a day. I am going to have to find her more classes or maybe 2 year old preschool to go to this winter, because I think she is going to go nuts being inside so much!!!! Here are some pics of her at the park this weekend.

As you can tell, she is pretty fearless. She loves to climb on everything and is super active, running all over. She gets SO excited to play with other kids and needs to pretty much give everybody a hug. I, of course, get a little anxious when the bigger kids bump her a bit--but she can pretty much handle herself. She is turning into SUCH a big girl!

barely letting Dad help: She LOVES to go down the slide backwards

putting on daddy's socks...

alana is pretty hilarious and is always doing some random thing! the other day, she decided she had to put erik's socks on and she was laughing non-stop. she definitely keeps us laughing!!!

Wedding in Denver

A few weeks ago we packed up and headed to my cousin Joey McGrew's wedding in Denver. We had a great time! Alana was quite a sport at the reception, staying up til all hours. She got a little cranky and needed her pacifier, but suddenly she got her second wind and was seriously dancing. It was so hilarious. She is quite a dance machine!!!! Now we just need to break her of her pacifier...that is going slowly.....

it was surprisingly cold that night...thankfully i broght her jean jacket!!!

Up to lots of stuff!

Lately our lives have slowed down a bit, but I have been totally slacking on the blog again! We went on vacation in July, and have been keeping pretty low-key since then. Alana is doing great! She is a playful girl and LOVES that play with dolls and has a new baby stroller she uses to push her babies all over the place. We put the babies to sleep, wrap them in blankets & walk them all over the place. She is always up to something new!!!

We've also had lots of visitors and are looking to catch up with more people!

Here she is with her twin babies, "baby" and "baby"
Playing with Uncle Kevin

This is her big cheesy smile...

Here she is pushing her babies around.

One of her fav words is "sit" which really sounds like "seat". Papa was the latest person to fall victim to being forced to sit somewhere random!

It's been too long!

Hard to believe it's been APRIL since my last post! Slacker on the blog, but busy on other stuff! Alana is doing great, though! She is growing like a weed and definitely turning into a little girl so quickly. She calls all other little kids "baby" and we are pretty sure she does not think she's a baby. She wants to do everything herself and is saying more and more words everyday. My personal favorite is "No way." This is her response to requests to eat, interest in the potty, going to take a bath, etc. Pretty sure she knows what she is saying because I have never heard her say "No way" to a cookie (or "cook cook" as she calls it). We are having a blast with her and love seeing her turn into a little person. She is a very happy girl, but still has her temper! We are working on no hitting and no biting. Ouch.

Monkey girl!

Alana has officially mastered climbing. She climbs on EVERYTHING. She can even climb up the chair to sit in her highchair. Here are some hilarious pictures of her flipping around on the couch. Keeping her hair under control is a full time job. As you can see....we often fail at that job!

Easter!

We had a LOVELY Easter! Grandma, Papa, Aunt Kristi, Aunt Jen & the boys came over for brunch. We went to church at St. James, but were a little late for the Easter egg hunt. Alana just wanted a few eggs, so it worked out anyway! She got some great stuff from the Easter Bunny, including a fabulous car from Grandma & Papa. Lucky girl!